Land Rover: Re-wired

By any estimation, the people that did the restoration on my Land Rover did a half-assed job. Fortunately my guide through this jungle is a bad-ass mechanic (specializing in vintage vehicles) who has been finding and fixing shit for the last six months. His latest report:

“Finding all kinds of wiring issues to sort out! All lighting wiring. I only caught them because the right front parking light was inop. Then I realized the left front turn signal wasn’t working, either. It was a very well hidden mess, too. Cleverly tucked away where it couldn’t be seen.”

“I pretty much rewired the whole nose of the truck, what a mess that was. I pulled the steering wheel and instrument cluster for a few hours of recreational cursing, but it ended well. Glow plug light, high beam indicator, “Luces” indicator. Everything works with the exception of two indicator lights: one that says “starter” (I can’t fathom why you would need a light to tell you the starter is engaged) and the generator light. I couldn’t find any wiring or the bulb holder for the generator light, so I left well enough alone.”

“Also re-sealed the valve cover, hopefully that does it. I’m going to drive it home tonight, and if the valve cover gasket holds we might… be there. I will do an oil change tomorrow.”

We might be there. :)

Land Rover: 08.02.18

More photos taken at a job site where Mr. Wolf was working. And he continues to find and fix stuff:

“Unfortunately the valve cover re-torque did not stop the oil leak, so I’m trying to source a new gasket quickly. Right front parking light isn’t working, and it’s not the bulb, I’ll trace that out. High beam indicator not working, no big deal. Electric fan temp sensor relocation worked nicely, she stays right in the middle of the gauge now.”

The Last of the True White People

“The ‘last of the true white people,’ as they called themselves, they realized they were never going to get America back, and all they could hope for was to make it really unpleasant for everyone else to live there.”

From Albert Brooks’ novel 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America. Published in 2011.

Teaching Chinese


One morning I noticed a gentleman sitting on the other side of the coffee shop flipping through a big stack of 3×5 cards. It was obvious he was using them as flash cards so I took a peek and saw what I assumed were Chinese characters (pictographs?) I introduced myself and asked about the cards.

The man’s name is Landis Duffett and he teaches languages at one of the local high schools. Beginning this fall he will teach a couple of sections of Chinese and he’s using the cards to get ready.

A couple of days ago we chatted for a bit about how he got interested in teaching Chinese; how the language differs from others (Spanish, French, Germans, etc); and the growing influence of China in all areas. The video runs just over six minutes.

Google Calendar “Go to Date”

One of the reasons I dragged my feet on moving to the new Google Calendar was I’d have to give up the Jump to Date feature that was part of Labs in the old calendar. I’ve been putting all my important stuff in Google Calendar since I started using it. I frequently want to jump back five or ten years. Could not find a way to do that with the new UI… until today. Somebody on a forum just casually tossed out, “Just press the G key if you want to go to a specific date.” Well, shit. I mean… thank you very much.

PS: I have yet to encounter anyone who uses Google Calendar as extensively as I do. I rely on it more than Gmail or any other online tool.