Huh? Since when did driving a Subaru become synonymous with being a hippie tree-hugger?

I finally got started tearing the Subaru apart today. Actually, I didn't tear anything apart--I just drained the coolant and engine oil. It took me a long time to drain the coolant, but only because I didn't want a big puddle on the garage floor. The radiator was almost completely devoid of any antifreeze--I probably only got about 10 ounces out of it. I unscrewed one of the coolant drain plugs from the engine block and drained it, but the other plug can only be removed if the engine is out of the car. I'm not sure if I needed to remove both plugs to get all of the coolant out, but I guess I'll find out when I remove the cylinder head--more than likely, I'll end up with a puddle on the floor anyway.

Tomorrow, I'll probably start removing all the accessories, like the alternator, a/c compressor, drive belts, timing cover, timing belt, etc. Taking everything apart should be pretty easy, but I'm not looking forward to putting it all back together. Since I'm going to replace the timing belt, I'll have to take the car to a mechanic to get the timing adjusted, because I don't have the tools to do it myself. After reading through my repair manual a little more thoroughly, I decided that the only other things I'm going to replace are the thermostat and the head bolts. And possibly one or both cylinder heads, depending on how they look once I get them out. With as badly as it's overheated in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if one or both of them are warped or even cracked. I think that's the part I'm dreading the most about this whole situation--I could end up doing all this work only to find out that I need to spend $600+ on new cylinder heads.

Two PETA people got pelted with milk cartons for ten minutes during an anti-milk protest at a Scotland school. Ah, sweet justice.

I've been avoiding even thinking about my car, let alone actually working on it. Finally, today I cleaned out a portion of my garage and pulled my car in so I can get started tearing the engine apart. I spent several hours moving stuff around and seeing how high I could stack things before they toppled over. I crammed everything from the main section of my garage into the other part of the garage and the shed, and there's still just two narrow paths between piles of junk on each side, just like there was before. But I've got a clean, dry floor to work on now, even though it's still cold as hell. I wish I had a way to heat the garage, but I don't want to spend a penny more than necessary to get my car running again.

I wish I'd discovered the blown head gasket before I put my transmission back in, because it would have been a simple matter of pulling the engine and pulling the cylinder heads off. But now, since I'd rather not undo all the work I did putting the car back together, I'm going to try removing the heads with the engine in the car. I'm thinking about replacing the oil pump, water pump, timing belt, and a few other odds and ends while I've got everything taken apart, because I'd rather not find out something else is wrong with the engine soon after I get it fixed again.

People really should learn to mind their own damned business. That link goes to a public forum article in the Salt Lake Tribune, in which the writer states that since gay men supposedly have a lower life expectancy than heterosexual men, "we would do well to regulate the dangerous and debasing behavior of gay and bisexual males for the good of society." I will never understand why people not only want to regulate the private lives of others, but they think they have a right to do so.

This guy really should be shot in the head. If he feels like he has a right to deprive others of their right to live as they choose, then I think somebody should have the responsibility to deprive him of his life as well.

Traci went to Provo with her mom today, and she's going to pick me up a Craftsman torque wrench while she's up there. I also ordered a hard plastic case for it last night, because they're only available online. Before, I could never justify spending $70 on a wrench, but with all the repairs I've made to my car and truck lately, I've borrowed my father-in-law's torque wrenches more than enough times to warrant buying my own. The range on this one is 10-75 ft-lbs, which is adequate for tightening the cylinder heads on the Subaru, which is what I need this torque wrench for the most. I've never needed less than 10 ft-lbs, and whenever I needed more than 75 ft-lbs, the tightening torque wasn't that important anyway.

Hahah...I'll bet you'll never guess what this reminds me of.

I was a pallbearer at Traci's grandma's funeral today. She died on Friday, though everybody had been expecting it for the past couple of weeks now. I thought it was somewhat strange that I was asked to be one of the pallbearers, but it was all grandsons and grandsons-in-law who did it, so I didn't feel that out of place. I didn't know Traci's grandma very well--we only visited her once a month, if even that often--but she was a genuinely decent and admirable person, even if she was a little set in her ways. =)

My family isn't really big on funerals--we didn't have one for my dad or my grandma--so it was just a little surreal being there today. Nobody was overly-wrought with emotion, which probably made it even more surreal. In fact, there was a fair amount of smiling and joking going on afterwards, which I suppose is what I would want if I were ever to have a funeral. No crying or weeping, just remembering.

We've finally gotten some snow this winter. This is the first time Michael has ever gotten to play in it, and he loves it. Last year, he was just beginning to stand up on his own when we started getting snow, and by the time he was walking, it was all gone. I really wish my car wasn't shitty, or else I'd be out driving in this stuff rather than sitting here writing about it.

After all that god damned work I put into my car, it's now destined to sit in the driveway for another several weeks while I take it all apart and put it back together. I found out why it was leaking coolant, why it wouldn't start easily, why it idles really rough, and why it blows white smoke now--either a head gasket is blown, or one of the heads is cracked. It's not surprising, with all the overheating problems I had this summer, but it sure picked a hell of a time to manifest itself.

Since head gaskets are relatively cheap, I'll start by replacing those, and if I find that either of the heads are bad, I'll probably replace them as well, but that'll cost a shitload more. I'm hoping I won't have to pull the engine to remove the heads, but I haven't even thought about looking at my repair manual yet--I'm not too eager to get my hands dirty so soon after replacing the clutch.

I finished up the Subaru today, and everything appears to be working just fine. I figured out the reason that it wouldn't start yesterday--there was a vacuum line for the fuel system that became disconnected when I was putting the transmission back in. The clutch seems to be working just fine, though it grabs just a little bit, but hopefully that will go away after the disk wears in a little bit. I still need to refill the coolant (which doesn't seem to be leaking anymore), refill the transmission, check the oil, and adjust the free-play on the clutch pedal, all of which I should be able to get done on my lunchbreak tomorrow. I didn't get it done today because my wife would rather have xmas lights on the house than have her car back tonight. I'm so damned proud of myself that I was able to fix this without screwing my car up. It's amazing what you can accomplish due to a lack of money. Now I'm fearless when it comes to repairing my vehicles on my own--if you can pull a transmission and replace it without any help, you can probably do anything on a car.

Update: Pictures are now online.

I'm about 98% finished with my car. I've got everything put back together except the exhaust, for which I need two bolts that connect the end of the main pipe to the muffler flange. I'm so fucking lazy, I haven't gone anywhere except Checker to find the exhaust bolts, but anybody else should have them in stock since they're pretty common. I think I'm going to boycott Checker, for the same reason I no longer shop at CJ's Do It Center--they may have a bigger store than anyone else around here, but their selection is no better, if not just plain worse.

I tried starting the Subaru without the exhaust, but each time the engine finally caught, it died. I just couldn't keep it running. For the few seconds that it did run, it was extremely loud--much louder than I'd expected. Hopefully tomorrow, when it's warmer outside and the exhaust is connected, it'll start up just fine. I think I'll charge the battery before I give it another go as well, since it was having a hard time turning the engine over.

Utah lawmakers are using their political positions to promote their religious beliefs. Big surprise.

I decided that, after working with the same company for more than five years, I'd finally attend a company christmas party. I never went before because, well, I'm antisocial. We drove up Thursday evening and spent the night at Jaysen's--that way I could be at work early the next morning without having to wake up 2½ hours beforehand. The party started around 6:00 last night, and it was a good time. We went on a hayride, ate dinner, and saw T Minus 5 perform (they were surprisingly good). I'm normally not into a cappella, even though I was in choir all throughout high school and college (my first year of college was paid for by a music scholarship). Anyhow, after the party, we were going to spend the night at Jaysen's again in order to avoid driving home so late, but I really wanted to sleep in my own bed. I talked Traci into heading home, and we didn't leave until 11:00 p.m., which meant we got home well after midnight.

This morning, I started working on my car again. My bearing puller had arrived yesterday, and when I tried to use it today, the damn thing didn't work. The part of the jaws that are supposed to fit behind the bearing to grab it and pull it out were too thick to fit behind my pilot bearing. That piece of shit is going back to the place I ordered it from, and I'm sure they're going to give me a lot of hassle about returning it, but if it doesn't work on all cars, there should be a fucking disclaimer on their website. I feel stupid now, though, because all it took to remove the pilot bearing was to remove the entire flywheel, then pound the bearing out with a hammer and a piece of 1" bar stock. A week ago, I really didn't want to remove the flywheel at all, but it wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be. After removing the old pilot bearing, I reinstalled the flywheel, pounded the new pilot bearing in, installed the new clutch and pressure plate, and mostly installed the transmission. It's about an inch away from mating back up to the engine, but I think the transmission shaft is hanging up on the pilot bearing or something, because it just won't go in all the way. I played around with it for about an hour before giving up for the day, because it was dark outside, and I was tired and hungry. I worked on it for about 6 hours today without a break, and I'll probably do the same tomorrow. If I get the transmission bolted up, the rest should go a lot more quickly, since the transmission is the hardest part.

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned how it seemed like Barber Brothers Subaru ran a pretty tight ship, but I was wrong. It took them two fucking weeks to ship me the part that I needed, even though when I ordered it I was told it would be a few days.

I called them yesterday to find out what the hold-up was, and the woman that I talked to said that the part had just arrived from the warehouse on Monday, and that it would ship Tuesday. I couldn't even comprehend why it just sat there for an entire day, let alone why it took so long to get from the warehouse to the dealership. Damn jackasses.

I ended up having to order a pilot bearing puller, since apparently not a single one exists in Carbon County. As soon as I get that, I should have my car put back together within a few days. The only problem now is that when I lifted the front of the engine to allow the transmission to pull out backwards, something sprung a minor coolant leak. I'm desperately hoping that it's just a radiator hose or a seal somewhere, but I suspect that it'll be something much more complicated and expensive to replace. I'm not even gonna try to fix it until I get the car back on the road again.

If you ever wanted to know how many 2-liter bottles full of water it takes to stop a Federal Hydra-Shok 9mm round, the answer is four. Mike, Ty, and I went shooting on Saturday, and I really wanted to recover a bullet that had been shot, so I lined up some 2-liter bottles and fired Ty's gun at them. I only lined up four bottles, which was barely enough to stop the bullet. It's probably not a good method to properly measure penetration, expansion, and fragmentation, but it's just sorta fun to see what a little water will do to a 9mm round. It didn't mushroom as much as I thought it would, but it looked pretty cool. Next time, I'll try my Winchester FMJs, but I doubt they'll look as interesting as a JHP.

Ty and I brought our shotguns, but I forgot to bring my box of clay pigeons. Luckily, Ty had a bunch of old CDs in his car, so we shot them instead. A CD-R is really cool to shoot, because when the disc shatters, the media flakes into hundreds of little metallic pieces that float down slowly to the ground. They're a lot harder to throw than clay pigeons, and even harder to hit.

We found out a month and a half ago that number two is on the way. Due date is July 5, 2003. We won't find out until the end of February whether it's a boy or a girl, though Traci's first doctor's appointment is next week, and we'll get to hear the heartbeat then.

Traci has had morning sickness pretty bad this time, which is no different from when she was pregnant with Michael. At least we know what to expect, now. Between now and next summer, we're going to try saving as much money as possible, because even with decent health insurance, our medical bills with Michael almost killed us. I'm hoping this one is a boy, too, since that will save us from having to buy entirely new clothes this time around. But if it's a girl, at least Traci will be happy, since that's what she's always wanted.