• Drain and clean the gas tank and lines
• Change the oil
• Change the coolant
• Install choke tubes
• Install PCV tube

Posted via email from brianhimes’s posterous

Posted via email from brianhimes’s posterous

Read the article from Spinner.

• Worked all day Saturday for Union Station Homeless Services. Erin joined me in the evening.
• Split Mother’s Day with the in-laws and my family.  
• Watched the Lakers take a nap when they should have been playing basketball against the Houston Rockets.
• Went on an adventure with my wife and sisters.  We started out in search of an award-winning cow (seen above), and ended our adventure with Boba Loca (I did not partake).
• Attempted to eat somewhere new, but after several failed attempts ended up at good old Foxy’s in Glendale.
• Rested after working 15 hours on Saturday.

After the game we headed over to Bob’s in Toluca Lake for dinner/desert.

Saturday
I was shocked when I turned on the TV to see the fires in Sylmar. And, since Sylmar isn’t too far away I was able to see the giant plume of smoke from my front porch.  It was a little scary, but no cause for concern for my home, just my lungs.

I spent my morning watching the fire coverage and debated whether Erin and I should brave the freeway to go visit my parents in Whittier, who were decently close to the Brea and Yorba Linda fires.  The newscasters all morning had been urging people to stay off the roads so I was afraid they would be packed. 

A little after noon we decided to brave the road and were quite please by the traffic.  We spent the afternoon and the rest of the evening with my parents and I changed the oil, transmission fliud, and fuel filter on my Focus with my Dad. 

Sunday
Was a nice day at church, even though I was miserable the entire time.  I’ve been struggling with a cough for a while and it’s turned into a full-fledged cold, or something.  So, I was in a daze the entire day.

After church we had a nice lunch at the preacher’s house and then I went home and took a long nap before it was time to go to small group.

After small group Erin and I came home and watched Four Weddings and a Funeral.  We had never seen it, and since my wife is a fan of all the Hugh Grant movies it was a must see.  The movie was entertaining enough and once it was over we went to bed.  I was exhausted.

We rolled our selves home and onto the couch where we watched Interview with a Vampire. It was an interesting movie.

Saturday
We’ll call Saturday the lost day. Not much was accomplished, although much was attempted. I tried to finish up Erin’s car, but it was slow going and I discovered a potential leak below the lower intake manifold. Once that was discovered, I stoped in my tracks and decided to give up for the day. I think I’m going to have to take the lower manifold back off and buy another gasket set for it. I’d rather be safe than sorry. I do not want to take this engine apart again. Although, I’m guessing I’ll have to, judging from how things have gone so far.

Sunday
Saturday night Erin and I were given the option of becoming the owners of one of her parents’ extra cars. We have been driving around their grey Oldsmobile while Erin’s car was out of service, but the time had come for them to get ride of both that car and their white Chrysler Town and Country. I guess they didn’t feel like paying insurance or registration on two extra cars any more. Understandable. So, if we wanted to have one of those two cars now was our chance. After very little deliberation, Erin and I chose to take the Town and Country.

The only hitch to these plans was that both the grey Olds and the Town and Country had been suffering from flat tires. It was an odd situation. Really, the Town and Country needed two new front tires, and the grey Olds needed multiple tires, but that’s more than you really needed to know.

So, Sunday, after I lead singing at church, Erin and I had some work to do. We had to prepare the grey Olds for donation, which included putting a new tire on the car (apparently it needs to have 4 good tires on it, for it to be acceptable), and, if we had time, we needed to put new tires on the Town and Country so we could drive it safely.

Erin found a great place to buy used tires in South Glendale so I took the tire off the grey Olds and we took our loose wheel there. When we arrived a little Hispanic woman greeted us and proceeded to take care of us. She was pretty incredible to watch. It was the fastest tire replacement I’d ever seen and it all happened in the course of one block of Metalica on KROQ. On our way back from there, we picked up the van and took it to Costco because it needed two new tires and we seemed to have the time to get it done.

While we waited for the van to be finished we ran back home and I put the tire back on the grey Olds. Once that was done, Erin took me back to Costco to pick up the van on her way to drop the car off at her parent’s house.

After the van was done, I raced back home to mow the lawn before the darkness of the evening set in, and before we had to rush off to our next appointment. I finished mowing in no time at all, and made it to the church in time to pick up some friends and head off to our small group meeting.

After small group we stopped by Souplantation for dinner and that was pretty much the end of our weekend. We stayed there past closing and got home with time to watch a little TV and fall asleep.

Here’s another picture from that same trip. We took the coastal route the entire way.