Well well well, my parking lot mechanic days are over (up until something breaks while I'm in a parking lot of course). I now am the official leasee of a car hole that happens to have some living space attached. When I looked at the place, all I cared about is the garage. There was something something about a living area and a bathroom and nice outdoor space blah blah blah. But look at all this room I got for activities!

And I'm not even tetris'd in there properly. This will primarily be Miata parking as well so it'll have even more space. There's even a back room for decent storage (although washer and dryer will have to fit in there and not be buried so I can use them).

I'm keeping my storage unit (now only ten minutes away across town) so I'm not too worried about space for storage anyways. I'll be just keeping all my regular use outdoor equipment here. My current plan is a small tool bench against the back left wall and a few hanging tool organizers in various places. I'm just planning for oil changes and regular maintenance but will likely build up to having an engine on a stand instead of any cars in there lol. I have enough room for two cars outside technically so I've got options. Looking forward to meeting the neighbor and I'll definitely be doing a bbq in my back patio asap!

No idea what to do with this garden nook area but I'd like to do something with it since it's mine to use.

Oh yeah and theres an inside too I guess but nobody really cares about that.

All about the most important room!

Brought the Miata over to the new place today since I needed it for uhh trucking duties:

And figured I would see how it fits in the garage since that will be the primary car in there. Turns out this car is way smaller than my Subaru so I have tons of space. With the door shut and the car backed all the way up, I have 6' from the nose of the car to the back wall. And so much room on the sides for my wall mounting endeavors. So time to get creative!

New garage light is awesome too. Just a cheap multi directional led with motion sensor and brightness settings. Currently set to the dimmest possible in that photo. And the motion sensor is perfect so that I get light as soon as I open up the door. Looking forward to playing with the peg board and mounting some tools.

Good thing they cut peg board though since this would maybe have had an issue fitting in/on the Miata.

Today I had ketchup thrown at me while biking, I helped out a motorcyclist that I watched high side it around a corner, and I completed a gnarly century ride with gratuitous elevation. Oh and I last minute slid in and took the weekly ride crown from @VincentMalamute

Sorry, not sorry!

This ride was definitely full of it's ups and downs (no pun intended). I had a pretty stress free first 45 miles or so. It was freezing cold followed by boiling hot and back to cold again. Plus it took 35 minutes to get my burrito at my lunch stop (but damn was that fish burrito 100% worth it). But overall great riding. With the refuel, I headed back out with the mild goal of doing another climb and maybe hitting 90 or so miles. Well at the top of the hill, the "incident" occured.

I was riding along minding my business when all of a sudden I'm hit by something and it's wet. I hear "GET OFF THE ROAD <n-word>" and laughing as a black previous gen Mazda 3 hatch speeds by. There's ketchup all over my side and my headlight on the bike. I REALLY hoped the dicks would get stuck in traffic ahead on the downhill so that I could give them back a rock. Or at least jot down the license plate for a bogus police report of some sort involving guns and drugs.

But alas I hit the next uphill and stopped to clean up instead. Kept the rock JUST in case luck came to help. After a short delay, I calmed down and continued on. Not 10 minutes later do I pass a motorcycle group coming the other way. As the last motorcyclist went to round the corner behind me I hear SCRAAAAAPE, turn around, and see the dude thrown over the handle bars into the road. Time to earn some karma, so I went back to assess and see how banged up the guy is. Thankfully he was just a bit shaken and probably bruised up. But he was walking and despite the look of a hoodie and sweat pants, he was actually wearing armor underneath so it was not a bloody mess. His friends were long gone so I helped him get the bike out of the street and talked to him for a bit to determine if he was actually hurt or not. I felt kinda bad leaving after a little bit as I later thought how adrenaline can hide all sorts of injury. But all things considered that dude was lucky and there was more than enough daylight and passing cars that I figured he'd be alright.

After that I knew I had to make this into an epic day. Granted it was already full of excitement but I made sure to complete the ride at a full century no matter what. I had to run a couple laps around the neighborhood at the end and it was fully dark when I rolled over 100. But it was totally worth it. It definitely was "A DAY". And now I'm gonna go gorge on some food and then pass out. Hope you all had less excitement in your Sunday!

Staying in an A frame house in Tahoe and just amazed by the front window in the living area. The light coming through is spectacular and it's just a marvel to look at. Today was a sleep in, finish watching Top Gun on Netflix (gotta get ready for the sequel), short hike, lunch at the beach, and then relaxing before an early dinner. So a proper vacation!

The Tesla is doing well too, no long drives today but it's perfect for just driving around town and getting stuck in town traffic. I did charge it while at the grocery store even though it was at ~75% charged just because the thing was there. The hike was stupid easy but man what great views!

Weather is perfect with highs around 60, full sun, and no winds. Last time we visited, shit was literally on fire in the distance, it was like 85-90 every day, and it was packed. I'm sure the weekend will be busier but I don't care, I could just not leave this house and be quite happy.

Today I went on a nice and short 50 mile bike ride. While that's not even a metric century, I did that with almost 7000 feet of elevation pain gain. I'm a wee bit tired but at least it was an excellent day!

And naturally a nice meal to celebrate the summit. I have been making it a habit to eat a nice full meal somewhere towards the end of a ride. It's funny that it never ends up actually being post-ride but nonetheless it hit the spot.

The last 4 miles of the climb were absolute misery but at least the downhill was awesome! I was averaging sub 3mph for like the last 2 miles due to the final gain of nearly 2000 feet.

I'm not surprised going down the hill was faster than going up. But 90 minutes versus 9 minutes is nuts! The downhill was a bit hairy but at least I didn't have any cars chasing me down through the switchbacks. I had a big dumb grin the whole way down since I definitely earned it!

I pushed myself to complete an epic hike today that took nearly the entire day and all of my effort. 6000 feet of elevation gain. The miles don't even matter nearly as much as that figure. On top of that, the final climb was a rock scramble which was steep and loose. I had to go shale skiing most of the way back down and ride rock slides every once in a while. But oh man was it all worth it.

And on the final descent, A SNEK

Perfect weather with full sun and temps below 70 all but the final bottom areas. And even then it was probably at most 74. Considering tomorrow that same area will have a high of 86, I consider myself lucky. I went through 3L of water plus 0.75L of water with Liquid IV in it. Lunch was a tuna sandwich, protein bar, nuts, and an apple. Now I need to rest my feet and prepare for next weekend!

What is next weekend? Hiking Mt Langley in the Sierras to knock my first 14er off my bucket list. Camping at 4000ft on Thursday and 9000ft on Friday to acclimate. Some mild hiking at altitude Friday to prepare as well. Saturday will be the big day with 5000 feet of climb on a 23 mile hike. Some parallels to today's hike for sure!

New clutch is in. Transmission is in. Only took all damn day just to get the trans into place. My arms are beat, feels like ive been lifting weights all morning, because I basically have been. I dont have a trans jack so it was a bit of a sufferfest. If spending the $150 at harbor freight would have made this easier, it was totally worth it. But I got it done! I had to take a snack/sanity break in the middle of it but it is done. Now from here to the end is just making sure I dont skip any steps. Might get to turn the key tonight. But I wont rush it just for that. Lunch time and then time for the damn axles and continuing the grind. No pics but just wanted to come up for air. Full review of this adventure coming soon!

Theres a reason this costs a few grand in labor. But hey, if it works out thats like a free mountain bike right?

Heres lunch!

I am not dead! So that means it's gone well right? Today's ride was very fun and also very tiring. And then it was quite painful. But hey that means it was a great success.

So why do I have an ice pack taped to my side along with a bit of a grimace? Well full send that's why! If only it was that impressive or exciting though. Instead it was a bit of tiredness, dehydration, and overconfidence that led to a slow speed tip over into a nice hard rock. So I was going down a hill about a mile from the car and came across a sudden dry creek into an uphill around a blind corner. And right in the middle was a big ol rock. Overconfidence after conquering the 4000 feet of climbing over the last 30 miles decided that no way am I walking over the rock nor am I going to stop to think about line choice. FULL SEND OR NO SEND. Well the rock had a different idea and stopped me in my tracks tossing me sideways into one of it's friends. Wind knocked out of me, pain dulled only by adrenaline, and confidence ruined! I rode the rest of the way back to the car, drove home a bit beat, popped some ibuprofen, had a shower, made some lunch, and ice packed it up to watch some top gear scandi flick.

The bike was absolutely brilliant. I don't even recall coming down the massive rock going the other way because the bike champed it like it was smooth single track. Every bit of rough trail just encouraged harder riding, more jumping, and riskier line choices. This thing goes downhill like is totally unaware of the lack of rear suspension. And the idiot riding will go up any hill no matter how unskilled he is. The 15-20% grades are a bit sketchy with too much air in the tires and I haven't really found anything the bike can't do yet without enough willpower. So at least it was a fun day even if the rest of the weekend is probably going to suck.

I don't think I've broken anything, breathing doesn't hurt, and I'm not bruised so I'm probably not going to need a hospital. Just pain meds and ice. So lesson learned, don't let the bike egg me on that much.

The upside of the pain in my side is that I don't really feel the riding soreness much anymore. Because this was definitely a trek! Be safe for the weekend Oppo, don't go hurting yourself like me.

Launch is go. I repeat, launch is go. I started my ride at going on 1600 but I'm going nonetheless. I have shortened the route to account for the late start. But at this rate I'm camping tonight no matter what happens. I have made it about 9 miles so far on pavement and the bike feels great. Heavy but great and manageable. Hills are harder but they are doable. Now begins the dirt until the sun sets. And then some more under lights until I give in and setup camp. Adventure time.

Today I completed my first 100 mile ride ever! This has ascended me from the ranks of the pure mortals into a CYCLIST. The funny thing to me is though that this ride was relatively flat on a beautiful cool day with little wind except for a nice tail wind most of the way back. I've done wayyy harder rides in the ~60 mile range due to doubling the elevation gain and adding a good 30-40F to the temperatures. But passing the century mark is still a solid test of endurance and an even better test of cycling insanity. Road biking is definitely not for everybody and is quite honestly boring at times. At least in comparison to mountain biking for me, road biking without crazy hills seems kinda silly.

Also, those tacos and fries at mile marker 63 truly hit the damn spot! Completing the last 40 miles powered by carnitas, shrimp, fish, and all the fixings just felt great. I am incredibly tired and a bit hungry again now a few hours later but as to be expected after a day like this.

This is literally the only other photo I took, a random shot of the campus at UC Santa Barbara. I was a bit focused on not dying the whole time so I didn't do my usual take in the scenery and get some photos. Overall an awesome experience. Idk if those tacos would be as good without the sense of accomplishment in getting there but I think I've gotta go back again soon regardless.

Also, this video that YouTube suggested to me made me chuckle and is the inspiration for this post:

@Mr-Ontop

I made it worse!

@functionoverfashion I'd share a couple feet of this last dump out here if I could! Mammoth is at over 100 inches so far for the season with 50 of it being in December. Heading up Thursday night for a few days on the hill. The funny part is it will probably be warmer on the hill here. That's always the depressing part with NE skiing is the frigid, bone chilling conditions and clouds on top of the conditions. It does make a "good" day become 100/10 though when it happens. I still think my favorite runs ever have been in Vermont on a truly good day. While objectively worse, it was the excitement and wonder that made it better.

@HammerheadFistpunch said in Im not crying YOURE crying!:

@RallyDarkstrike Yeah I think the magic spot is 40ish minutes. To be fair, I do usually watch them all the way through.

Sheeit here I was thinking 40 minutes was twice as long as I ever want to watch on YouTube haha. I find the sweet spot to be 20 minutes, maybe 25-30 if there's really a ton of content. But I love 10-15 minute videos even more usually. It's a good way to cut the fluff and be something unique. When it's shorter than 10 it might as well be on tiktok. Longer than 30, it better be a high budget short film. I can't stand vlogs and just people talking for 30+ minutes.

Documentary style with drone shots and an epic adventure story is fine to exceed 30 min. I want it to be streaming service quality at that point at least.

@CarsOfFortLangley said in Happy Sunday:

@Wrong-Wheel-Drive ngl, I sent him down a tiny hill and noticed there was a jump on it after I let him go.

He would have been ok (he missed it) but that would have been amusing

builds character! My mom always kibashed the idea of making jumps. Meanwhile my dad would actively help build them larger. No wonder I like doing dangerous things.

@farscythe said in Thread where we root against the Netherlands! (Updated: Socceroos elimination post):

@Krusty-Walnut im rooting against everyone

wheres my tactical nuclear strike button

You need 25 kills first

@CarsOfFortLangley I am sad (although probably thankful for being less injured) that I didnt have hills growing up in NJ. It definitely snowed a few times every winter, enough to sled on for sure. But the only hills were manmade drainage ditches and I didnt have any in walking distance from home. I remember the few sledding adventures my parents drove to, definitely encountered minor injuries every time haha. Just building jumps and ending up crunching an ankle or something. Fond memories of snow play with family though, kid will definitely remember these times!

@nickhasanexocet said in The Miata Is Dead.:

My AAA only tows like 5 miles and Hagerty couldn't find my location and their agents were completely useless. On either end of my car was 50 miles of desert with no cell service.

My insurance provided towing (USAA) has a similar low number for the towing range (11 miles). But what I didnt know for the longest time is that it is actually "to the nearest garage + 11 miles". Meaning that if I am stranded 200 miles from a garage, I will still be towed there for free. It is just that if I dont want the garage they pick out, I can only go 11 miles further without having to pay for it. I have used this to get towed ~21 miles for free before since the closest garage was ~11 miles away. I would imagine AAA policy is similar.

@nickhasanexocet I have a NB2 motor with rod knock you can have for free if you come get it in Ventura County, CA!

@Highlander said in Sunrise at 12 degrees:

Life is not fair, I should move to California.

I have seen leading 4's in the temperatures a couple times a week, it means its very cold overnight when that happens. Going to a bike park in December and not needing a fat bike (nor a jacket) is pretty neat. Having to drive 6 hours to go skiing is not so neat though! And seeing this on zillow in my neighborhood isnt so neat either (not even nice houses for many of these):

I find it very hard to get used to daily highs below freezing. I love it when it gets "cold" but a high just above freezing is preferred at least. I actually find it annoying how the highs are always at least in the 60s here and yet people still complain about the cold. It hitting 39 before the sun comes up doesnt mean that its cold if its still 65 at noon!

@MM54 Thats the day before my birthday (including the right year) fun fact! Man those Mitsus are such a bad deal, at over $20k in today's money. The Camry is probably the best deal of the bunch and would be my choice for a new car. Although the lightly used '88 Civic is probably a better deal.