What's going on update

The last couple of weeks have been busy and crazy. Work has been busy with a project that is coming to an end. I finally got word on how an API from our CRM works so that I can actually use it. Then there was the weather. The last ten days have been cold and either rain, ice or snow or a combination of all three. The temperatures were the lowest I have seen since moving to Texas in 2005. I left Nebraska in January of 2005 and it was below zero. I arrived in Georgetown and it was 50-ish degrees. I honestly never would have thought the temperature would get as low as it did. Plus all of the snow and ice. There was snow on the ground for seven days. I was fortunate enough that I did not lose power or water for any amount of time. I am super thankful for that. This whole mess has made realize how unprepared we as a society are for natural disasters. I am going to prepare a little bit in the coming months. I'm not going full on "prepper", but I am going to get some basic things to have on hand. On a different note, I received the front rigid collar parts from Japan before the bad weather hit. I'm going to wait to buy more parts to see if there is anything that pops up from this bad weather that needs repairs.

Taken from my office window at 2:15 AM, Monday February 15th, 2021. It may be the phone camera, but it felt like there was a lot of light outside for it being the middle of the night. It is what caused me to wake up. My room was bright from the snow.

Taken from my office window at 2:15 AM, Monday February 15th, 2021. 

A snowdrift outside my front door. I think there was an average of 4 inches of snow that fell in the area.

A field near my house that is frozen. I snapped this pic after taking Gaby to school

Icicles on the pergola in my backyard. This was the start of the freezing 

Spoon Rigid Collars from RHD Japan for the front of my Lexus RC F

Getting ready for some car maintenance

My 2015 Lexus RC F is approaching the 60,000 mile service. I still have a couple thousand miles, but I decided to get ready ahead of time. I purchased the differential fluid when I did the oil change over Christmas. I have been purchasing ignition coils periodically one at a time to have them ready. Although, it seems I do not need to change them when I change the spark plugs unless the coil is bad. They are there for just in case now. Late last week, I purchased an air filter to replace the K&N filter I have. It's been in there since I purchased the car. I have "refreshed" it twice, but I feel it's time to replace it altogether. Along with the air filter I purchased spark plugs too. Odds and ends are the gaskets for the differential plugs and a new battery bar I purchased from Figs Engineering. There's a transfer pump I picked up from Amazon, but I then saw it at my local Harbor Freight for half the price. I saw that when I picked up a half inch Allen key socket set and socket swivels for changing the spark plugs. Oh well on the price difference. There's a few other parts I plan to pick up before I need to change everything. I need socket extensions and I plan to pick up some more titanium nuts and bolts to replace pieces in the engine bay. I may purchase the RR Racing carbon fiber intake package along with their AOS (air oil separator). I'll see how things go here in the next few weeks.

I worked on my car

Over the weekend I decided to install the final Tom's brace I have had sitting around for the last three years. I knew it was going to be more than a simple install, so I never wanted to do it. With having a decent garage and believing I can actually do it, I went ahead with the install. I had purchased a drill bit that makes holes. If I remember correctly, the size for that was almost two inches in diameter. I pulled up the Chilton's manual, which is still not the best of help since some of the illustrations are vague and the instructions are basically "Remove fasteners on LH side of car". The biggest pain in the ass was that I had to remove the rear seat bottom and two pieces on each side in order to remove a panel fastener in the trunk. All in all, it was not the hardest thing, just a pain to figure out what needs to be removed. Once the panels were out, the brace went in quickly and the holes drilled into the panels look decent too. I need to do a little clean up to remove some of the padding that is showing. I'm happy with the install and it was maybe two hours from start to finish.

More Car Parts

A goal for this year for me is to get my car in a place that I have wanted since I purchased it. It won't happen overnight, but slowly, one day at a time. To start this process for the year I purchased a set of rear Spoon Rigid Collars. I had seen them on a few websites such as eBay and even Amazon. I decided to purchase them from RHD Japan. The process was straight forward and they gave me updates so I did not feel as though I made a bad decision. If I remember correctly, it took about three weeks to receive the part from Japan. I feel that is decent time. I will order the front set as well in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to putting these on my car.

More Titanium

Yesterday in the mail I received the Yperion titanium lug nuts I ordered back in April of last year. They were worth the wait. I have some Raceseng I purchased a few months back as a contingency to me not getting the Yperion. My reasoning was that I got the brake caliper pins and brake pad shims, but no lug nuts. Anyway, the Raceseng lug nuts look cool and are lighter than the standard steel lug nuts. Well, the Yperion are just as cool to me and seem half the weight of the Raceseng lug nuts. I'm torn as to which set to use first. I am happy I have both and I plan to keep and use both. 

The new brake rotors, caliper pins, brake pad shims and now putting the better wheels and lug nuts will make the car so much more response. The new brake rotors already help with less mass to turn the wheels. The car is completely different to drive and I love it.

The Yperion lug nut is on the left and the Raceseng is on the right.

Snow Day

Yesterday it snowed in Georgetown, Texas. It has snowed before, it's not like this is anything new. What is new is that it snowed from about 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM and left almost three inches of snow on the ground. The school district closed schools for Monday and the roads were bad from what Gaby's mom told me. She attempted to come pick up Gaby, but said it was too icy for her. I was not going to attempt to drive in my car, so it stayed in the garage where it should be in shitty weather like this. It was nice to watch it snow again and Gaby enjoyed seeing it and playing in it. Hopefully it all melts away today. 

Here are some pictures of the progression of snow through the day.

 

Small Garage Update

Over the New Year weekend I put up two more Prime Lights I purchased from Obsessed Garage. I already had four, four bulb LED light fixtures, but when the garage door was down, the front (back?) of the garage was dim. Now with the added two fixtures, it is well lit up. This upgrade will be the last one for awhile as I focus on other aspects in my life. I still have plans to add flooring to the garage and put in more electrical outlets. These upgrades will probably be later towards the end of the year. Another upgrade will be to get a shed for the backyard to move a lot of the items in the garage to the shed to make space and clean up the area.

Music I Like

I know my taste in music is not what everyone else cares for. Numerous people of told me they do not want to listen to my music while riding in my car. I accommodate and change it. Now that I stream from my phone to the car stereo I have a more variety, but it's still what I want to hear. EDM is a genre I really like. Happy Hardcore is the sub-genre that I mainly like. Usually at 140+ BPM, it's a fast and upbeat electronic music. Repetitive in some ways. This music is what I listen to when I want to get work done. It helps me get into the "flow" and I get a lot of work done without realizing the time. Sometimes I feel I'm too old for this music, but I don't care. It's what I like. I have been listening to this for almost 20 years and I do not plan on stopping. This music makes me happy and that is what counts. Here's a few that I have listened to lately. All of these songs may not be true Happy Hardcore, but I found them through that type of music.

Allison Grey Change remix by Chris Unknown and Ganar. This song resonates with me quite a bit.

The Justice Hardcore Collective Ft. Roxie - Like A Prayer (Original Mix)

Scott Brown - Fall Into Your Arms (Original Mix)

Scott Brown - The Stranger (Original Mix)

Marie Louise, JDM - Love Everlasting

Little Kandi Raver 2012 - S3RL feat Sara

Scott Brown - Who's Runnin'

Which is a mix from this song by Three 6 Mafia

Someday (Styles & Breeze Remix) - Impact and Resist

This mix is what got me hooked. Clubland X-Treme Hardcore 3 CD 1 - Darren Styles Mix. Over an hour of music.

All Night Long - Sy & Unknown Remix - I love the record scratching on this song

I say I love you - Darren Styles and Francis Hill (Happy Hardcore version). Another song that resonates with me.

Rampant DJs featuring JT - Alabama (Sy & Unknown Remix)

Sy & Unknown Featuring JT - Love Song

The last song for now. Something I wish someone would understand.

I'm Sorry - Re-con & Demand

Remembering Maddie

December 10th 2009 my dog Maddie went to the rainbow bridge to wait for me. That day was sad. She was with me for eleven years and I loved her greatly. She was always there to greet me when I came home and she slept beside me every night. I do miss her and I do not think another dog will come close to replacing what she was for me. I will see Maddie when I die, I know this. We will be together again. 

Rainbow Bridge Poem

This is my favorite picture of Maddie. It was from one of our trips back to Nebraska in 2007 or 2008. I loved Maddie with all of my heart.

The last picture I have of Maddie. This was on December 10th, 2009. I took this in the morning before work. I could tell she was not feeling well. She passed away later in the day. My heart was broke.

New Brakes

It's been a few weeks since my last post. I made a promise to someone and I do not break promises, even if they do. Because of what happened, I have been feeling down and I just stayed away from posting. This morning I am feeling just a smidge better and I wanted to share my new brakes I put on my car.

I bought the brake package from Figs Engineering for my Lexus RC F back in May. They have been sitting in my garage collecting dust. I was hoping to get the lug nuts I ordered from Yperion Titanium by then, but that didn't happen. I did receive the caliper pins and brake pad shims. After a friend of my had to have his brakes changed a Nissan Altima and it cost him $1200+, I decided to change mine myself. I bought the Chilton Manual online, which is not as helpful as you would think. Also, the purchasing process is not great either. Once I submitted my information, I got an error message and I was unable to login, but I had access for that time. It was odd and frustrating. I was eventually able to login and use the site, but it is super janky. The design is straight out of 2005.

Anyway, I managed to change the rotors and brake pads. I attempted one brake line, but the clip holding it on would not slide off and I was not going to force it. I left it and figured I can replace them another time when I have someone to help me. I had to beat the rotors off with a hammer, which was not what I wanted. Once I got the first one off, the rest went quick. I did this the night before Thanksgiving and then Thanksgiving morning, I bedded in the brakes. The only thing I had to do after was readjust the parking brake. I was very happy with what I did and the brakes look awesome on the car. The scissor lift I purchased was used and I honestly feel it paid for itself with this brake change. In just being able to have all four wheels off the ground at the same time and not having to pay someone else to change the brakes. It made this process so much easier.

On a side note, I passed a Microsoft certification exam on database fundamentals yesterday. I won't say it was easy, but the amount of studying I did was overkill. There were only two or three questions on the test that I did not know off the top of my head.

Below are pictures of Gaby and myself. There's a few when her and I were invited by my friend Kim to be in the Thanksgiving parade in Austin in 2013. I am proud of my daughter and I love her. There is another person I love, but if they won't be there for me, why should I be there for them?