Earth, Wind, and Fire.

It has ended up being a very eventful week. As most around this area have held witness to, a severe wind storm resulting from Hurricane Ike passed through the area on Sunday. It cause major power outages throughout the area. Schools in most areas have been out since Monday. My work has been down for the past two days, and is now limping along on generators to get a few core services on power. I heard Monday morning that 90% of Duke energy's customers were down.

Here are a few pics of the damage that I've been cleaning up. I've spent a lot of time behind a chainsaw.




Luckily we suffered little property damage, but others were not so lucky. I've seen a few trees that fell into houses, but did not have my camera on me at the time. There are numerous lines down due to fallen trees, which is the cause of our power outages.

Before the storms I bore witness to a house fire. I saw smoke coming from a house on the highway and turned around. Another person ended up beating me and called 911. After the fire trucks got there I was pretty much stuck as they shut the entire highway down. Here is the resulting aftermath:






Hopefully my next post will contain less destruction(other than the deCONstruction of the Engine of course).

A hollow feeling inside.

Well, Finally am making some noticeable progress on the Eclipse. The Engine is practically out. I must say, it took some reverse engineering of the DSM origami voodoo that they used to assemble it, but I'm finally to the point where the real work can happen. I think I'll be rebuilding the entire engine and finish it as well, clean up the engine bay and make it look like it does not have almost 200,000 miles on it. Engine will remain stock on this one. The body and chassis is in good shape, so nothing will be happening there except for minor repairs.

Here is before the engine came out.


And after

It's time to start assessing damage and looking at ordering new gaskets/valves/etc.


As normal here are some off-topic random photos. Only in Indiana will you find something like this:


And this is just plain awesome.


And this is just too funny...

Updates in general

Well, a lot has happened since the last post, which is why I haven't posted anything. The Eclipse finally died... :( Water pump seized, which destroyed the timing belt, which in turn trashed the valves. Now I have no compression at all on any of the 4 cylinders. In the mean time I've had to purchase another vehicle, this time a bit bigger. I went with a '06 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. 4.7l v8 with power everything and most importantly, a tow hitch. I even ended up towing the dead car with it!


The Eclipse is now sitting in a garage with the engine just about ready to be removed. I'm attempting to rebuild it and get it back into running order. What a learning project that is! I'll try to post some pics when I get a chance.


And a completely random photo, and perhaps one of the most funny devices I have ever seen.

News!

I said I'd be getting new boots, and I did. They are Joe Rocket boots and i must say I quite like them. They are waterproof and very warm.




And here is my constant battle against bugs. I end up cleaning my helmet at least 2 times a day with how much I ride. Ive gone through several different methods, but i find plan water and a microfiber cloth is the most convenient and does not ruin the finish after repeated cleanings.


And finally i got a few shots of some wildlife.




And the mandatory flora.

Fire in the sky

I got out for the 4th of July weekend and snapped some shots of the fireworks. some of them turned out quite well :)











And my personal favorite:



I also had a chance to swap out the rear on the bike. It has been a while since I've done this but thanks to a chainsaw, a mitre box, windex, some elbow grease, and Youtube I eventually got it figured out.


Old vs new:


Installed and cleaned:



And back on the road again!




I've got new riding pants (Kevlar reinforced jeans) and a new pair of real street boots on the way. So look for updates after they arrive.

On the Road Again!

Well, I finally got out for a while and put a fair amount of miles on the bike this season. I once again hit Highway 66 and 62 in Southern Indiana, if you ride I highly suggest you check these out. Here are the pictures:

Here is the gas station I stop at each time I head this way. Funny thing is it's one of the only non-prepay pumps I know about.


Why I love this road:




A pic of the bike.


Of course my friend the rain had to visit for a while. It caught me on my way down and I didn't have anywhere to stop, but on the way back I had the chance to take shelter. Nothing to do but play with the camera until things cleared up.


Well, nothing other than to enjoy a refreshing Cola!


Um... yeah I'm alright. I don't need my "innards tickled"...


Yes, a new rear is being shipped as i took this picture. It worried me when the rain started coming down.


I also got to ride with a friend in town for a while. This is his new bike.


And in the final hours of the multi-day journey I was treated to a rainbow!




I also ended up experimenting with some of the faster shutter modes and got these pictures of some very fast little creatures.

New Beginnings.

A new chapter has opened in my life and my leave of absence from this site has been broken. I'll not go into much detail, but I will give you some pictures with a lot of detail! I did some macros shots of flowers in California. All of these were taken on my new Fuji S700. It's a great camera for the price...

















One of my Favorites:






Interesting shape for a flower:


Looks like little lobster claws:




Very colorful:




These two are from the San Diego Zoo:




This one is actually from Kentucky, not California. I love the depth provided by this image:


And here are images from a memorial canoe run. It was the first time I had been on the river in a year.