Gimme Me A Brake

Gimme Me A Brake was Originally Posted on June 8, 2009 by lavarock

Awhile back I determined that I needed to replace the back shoes on the truck. With my part time job in town, I found it inconvenient to get to the auto parts store. As you may know, I was also busy with the irrigation project too. So anyway, I finally get there during my lunch period and step up to the counter. The guy is on the phone and the clock keeps ticking. Finally he asks to help me. I tell him I need shoes for my rear braks and he starts tapping on the computer. “There are 2 different shoes. Which do you have?” he asks. I don’t know and his suggestion is for me to buy both sizes and return the ones that I don’t use.

So I carry them around in the back, waiting on some free time to install them. Meanwhile, I find that a brake cylindar is leaking. The cylindar has a small piston in it and whe nyou step on the pedal, fluid flows to he piston and expands it. This causes the pads to stretch out and contact the inside of the brake drum and the friction slows you down. With brake fluid leaking in there, the shoes get damp and won’t work well. Also, if you lose lots of fluid, your brakes won’t work at all.

So off I go again to the auto parts store. I walk in and the guy starts his tapping on the keyboard again. “What size shoes do you have?” he asks. I tell him I have not yet installed them, why? It seems that there are 3 sizes of cylinders…

Just having someone locally swap out the shoes costs at least $250, although I can do that part myself for about $40. The cylinders and shoes would probably cost me $30 to have replaced, yet the parts would cost me less than $100 total. See why I’d prefer t odo it myself? Total time would be a couple hours, lifting the car, swapping the parts out and cleaning up.

I know what you are thinking. “Sure you can do it yourself, but it is taking you forever and each day you take your life in your hands. Why not just pay someone to do it.”

That is pretty much what happened with the coffee trees and the planting. I just ran out of time to do it myself. I have lots of projects and this is just one of them. Still, I don’t have lots of extra money to keep the local economy running. Every time I pass a certain place on the way to work, I see some guys working on cars outside their house. It appears that they are fixing them for sale. I began noticing them when they started working on a Camaro, because I’m a Camaro fanatic. I’m tempted to stop and ask them if they would like t odo the work. perhaps it would only cost me 1/2 as much.

On another topic, Halemaumau Crater appears to be active! This is the crater where an explosion a while back tossed a large boulder up into the air and is causing volcanic smog to cover the state. This is the same crater where you USED to be able to drive up next to and walk to the edge to look in. Not anymore!

I think the last time there was activity in this crater, Mark Twain was here on island (around the turn of the century).

During the day, the webcam shows smoke and steam; however, now at night (Hawaii time is 6 hours earlier than Eastern) you can actually see the glowing. At least at this very moment I see glow. I may have to travel over there to see it live. It has been years since I was close to live lava.

To see the current smoke and/or glow, go to: http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/cam3/

Around noon Monday they will come and inspect my irigation system. I will be very happy t oget this part of the project signed off.

The other day I walked down each row and noted the contion of all plants that are not doing well. Some trees were drying out before planting and some have transplant shock. Still the tall trees are doing well, but some of the small ones have issues. I’m also looking at the chart to see if I have any issues with the drip lines being kinked. That would show up as a bunch of trees in a line being dry or dying.

For those geeks reading this, I am using Excel with 41 rows or so of 41 trees each row. I still need to number the rows outside and perhaps make some mark down each row. If I lose track of my count, I have to walk back down the row and count again. I’ll probably start out with the little orange flags I have and use a magic marker on it to place the numbers.

I have been contacted to help set up 2 websites. Both people are dragging their feet and I could have had both websites running already just in the past two days. Perhaps both of the people have gotten cold feet. It can’t be due to price because I was not charging them much at all. Oh well!

I have a friend who used to work atthe same Kentucky radio station as I did. Randy called me the other day and told me some people he knows are coming to the Big Island and can I find them a cheap room? I did some research, but then he never called back!

And so it goes…