got out of a bind
previously i wrote about my suspension in the back of the focus making a clunk. i forgot, however, to update with the ultimate resolution to this clunking conundrum.
after eliminating various other sources of noise (the improperly-secured jack being a big culprit) i noticed the noise persisted, and it seemed to occur consistently every time the rear suspension moved up or down.
this led me back to thinking it was something with the suspension, so i started to investigate deeper. first up: removing the shock absorber on the passenger side rear (where i could hear the most noise coming from). as i began to remove it, i noticed immediately that there might be issues: it was really tough getting the bottom-end bolt out of the trailing arm.
at first i suspected that the shock mounting bushing was frozen onto the bolt, thereby applying a moment on the shock every time the suspension compressed, causing the shock body to slam against the shock piston cover. turns out i was half right.
the bolt and bushing were not frozen; but rather, the washer on the bolt, which was designed to help [the bushing] rotate freely on the bolt, was corrupted with rust to the point that it could not rotate. i cleaned up the bolt, washer, and bushing and applied anti-seize to all surfaces.
upon reinstalling the shock and torquing to specification, a test drive proved that the shock body was no longer making the clunking sound. i brought it home, re-checked the torque on all fasteners and cleaned up my tools.
the takeaway: salty winters change everything. it’s probably a good idea every spring to give everything a once-over and make sure if it’s designed to move: it still moves.
carrie’s site launch
so, my in-house project for the past week has been one that is near and dear.
for several months now, carrie has been writing about taxes on her blog, csusz.com. as far as design and layout are concerned, she has picked amongst the Wordpress themes that our web host has made available by default.
right before leaving for Seattle, we had a bit of a design meeting. i returned a few mockups to her and based upon her feedback, i completed the graphic design and then moved on to develop the Wordpress theme and do a bit of information architecture for SEO.
so one and all, feel free to check out carrie’s (beautifully redesigned 
) blog about taxes, accounting, and all that sort of stuff! and if you like the design and need that sort of work done, feel free, also, to look up my web development services at SQUAREDESIGN.
drunkish ramblings from the airport…
so, i’m sitting here in SeaTac, at the Africa Lounge enjoying a 20oz Mac & Jacks - African Amber Ale.
and i’m thinking.
thinking, generally, for me, can be good or bad. there is usually no gray area in between. this trip was quite a mixed blessing.
first off, i attended an excellent conference about the future of web technologies and culture. the pointers and insight it gave me were well worth the price of admission.
second, i had some business meetings with a friend that resulted in me getting a few new clients. that was absolutely positively worth the cost of the trip.
third, third is where it gets interesting. i got to see a lot of interesting stuff in Oregon that i hadn’t seen before. i would have really rather shared them with my wife. on the first night of my visit, i asked her for some discipline & license by saying: “i can either enjoy this trip, and all it has to offer, or i can mope around because you’re not with me and not have any fun.” it was a specious question, of course. but it plays into point 4:
fourth, i went to see our old house in Everett. now, i thought this would go one of two ways: a.) he (the new owner) would have razed the front yard that we worked so hard on planting, and i would have been devastated. and so would carrie, who did the bulk of the aforementioned hard work.
or, i would have confirmed that he (the new owner) left the front yard to flower for the full season, fully enjoying the careful planning that went into planting the specific plants chosen in the specific areas (again, my wife’s forethought for the above).
i can gladly say, that the later was true. in fact, he took an un-utilized area of the side yard and added another planter, which looks like it contains vegetables.
at this point, i came pretty close to losing my composure. something i haven’t really done… since the day we left the house to move back east.
after four, the points all blur into one sentiment.
fifth - i drove around in our old neighborhood, and our old old neighborhood. i observed what changed; a new strip mall here, a new building there, they finally finished this project, they finally painted that local store. and it suddenly dawned on me:
it doesn’t matter. none of it does. i don’t live here anymore. i don’t shop at those new/old stores, i don’t drive by these new/old places. i don’t have to keep a mental inventory of what goes on and what doesn’t.
it’s interesting to see projects completed (like the almost-completed highway project that we’ve been living with for the past several years). but i need to repeat: i don’t live here anymore.
this led to a lot of ambiguity and weirdness this past week. everything felt familiar. except — it shouldn’t. this is not my hometown. it should feel foreign. except, it felt more familiar than the town i live in currently — which i have never lived in for all my life, and has never felt like home to me.
my “home” in my mind at least, was still Everett, WA. and now it’s not. Manchester, NH, hasn’t ever felt like “home” to me. because it’s not. i’m not sure what does/will.
drive out to the Oregon coast
while i was in Portland, i took 1/2 a day to drive out to Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park. it was cloudy on the other side of the mountains, but i took many pictures, nonetheless. here’s a link to my oregon coast drive photoset on flickr, and a sampling is below.
this is cannon beach:
these are the “sea lion rocks” offshore of ecola state park:
this is one of my favorite pictures i’ve shot to date, crescent beach cove:
the rain and the sun
the rain
saturday night i stayed in portland, after a drive out to cannon beach and astoria (pictures to come, i promise!) while relaxing back at the hotel, my locally brewed organic IPA was interrupted by a roll of thunder. then it started raining.
it rained at a rate, the likes of which i’m not sure i’ve seen before; in the northeast, in the northwest. the only thing i can think of being comparable was being caught in a rain & hail storm in wisconsin when we were driving out to Seattle in ‘01.
my friend greg put an audio clip of the storm on his blog, it’s neat.
the sun
sunday, i drove back up to Seattle, via Bremerton for a dual-purpose on the peninsula. first, visiting my friend Charles at a SCCA Northwest Region Autocross event. it was cool - i got to watch the 2nd morning run, then i walked the course for the afternoon runs before departing.
my other reason for heading out on the peninsula was to enjoy lunch at Silver City Brewing in silverdale. enjoy, i surely did. it was departing Silver City when i started to notice that my forehead hurt. i forgot to bring a hat on this trip, and i guess the half-hour or so that it was actually sunny while i was at the autocross, was enough to fry me. it figures that the only time it was sunny on this trip, i got sunburned.
so if you’re in the greater seattle area today and you see a large, round, bright red orb floating at you - don’t worry. it’s just my head. say hi!
long day, big country
again, i’ve crossed the continental US. this time i didn’t do it in a pickup truck with 2 cats.
woke up around 5 EDT yesterday morning, drove down to logan for an 8:05 alaska flight. non-stop to seattle.
got to seattle around 11:30am PDT. picked up a car, had coffee with a former co-worker, and then drove to portland to attend the Web Visions conference.
this morning, i woke up around central time. not bad. early for the west coast, slept in late from the perspective of the east coast.
this morning i’ve determined what panels i’m attending and soon i gotta get downtown.
what the clunk?
so while driving around this past weekend, i detected a thunking in the back of my car. i currently have some sound deadening removed so i can keep an eye out for where a water leak is (i’ve found it, it’s where the taillight mounts. still crafting a solution for that. anyway). it got worse as we drove around on cruddy new england roads.
yesterday i investigated a bit more. turns out i’ve got at least 3 things rattling back there. my hatch rattles/squeaks. i’m not sure what i can do about that, given that it needs to open and whatnot.
the protective plastic casing on my shock rattles against the shock body. i think that one is only noticeable since i have all the sound deadening stuff removed. we’ll see if it gets better after i fix the leak/restore all that stuff. i also checked the torque on all my suspension components, and everything was tight.
the last and worst offender? the previous time i put my jack away underneath my spare tire, i didn’t tighten it down enough. 60 seconds, done.
now, if we could do something about these roads…