Labor day adventures.

So this weekend we did a lot of cleaning. Got the house about ½ way done. That means ½ still waits, but we are picking at it. Also we got to do some shooting, and a little work on the Aveo.



So we went out and shot our new rifle, and revolver. Legendary shooting trip. The new rifle needs some oil, likes to jamb time to time. So I think a cleaning and oiling of the chamber will fix that. But once it starts firing it is a good little gun. The wife shot the hell out of it, really likes the way it shoots and sits. I too like it, easy to fire, holds about 16 rounds, tube fed.

I shot the hell out of our new little handgun. Heritage Western Rough Rider, cheap and gets mixed reviews. I love it. The sights are fixed and you have to aim slightly to the right to get the sights dead on. But who needs sights? I was shooting from the hip, and I was shooting off weeds at the stalk. Those little revolvers are so on, it isn’t funny.



The three highlights included my mom’s boyfriend. I took a break action 12 gauge, and fired a slug out, then gave him a slug to fire out. I didn’t tell him how hard the 3” double packed slug was going to kick. He shot it and grabbed his shoulder, hilarious. The second highlight was him telling me to shoot this log with my 12 gauge when he threw it in the air. First toss he threw it straight up above him. I decided not to shoot and looked down to see him getting the hell out of the way. And lastly I was shooting my revolver at dragon flies in my mom’s pond. I was hitting around them, and then boom, got one with a .22 round drove it in the ground. Mom’s boyfriends reaction was priceless “Holys*t you just shot a dragon fly out of the air!”.

Like I said the little gun in on. If I can shot a dragon fly out of the air with a Heritage Rough Rider you know it is on. I had no problems with about 100 rounds or .22 I shot out of it. I went up to the .22 full metal jacket mags, only shot one chamber of them, 5/6 were fine. All shot, but one the shell wedged in the chamber and I had to use pliers to get it out. I put another round and the chamber is a little tight, perhaps there is a bur I need to get with a brush when I clean it. Otherwise we have a year warranty if a good bore cleaning doesn’t fix it I’ll send the mag cylinder back. But 1/106 rounds had a problem, that could of very well just been due to the fact the cylinders hadn’t been broke in.



Shooting was fun, and then we came home.



The Aveo was due for its 3000 mile oil change. So I changed the oil. Easy to do on the car, everything is right where you can get to it. Only problem I had was the cat was hot, so I used pliers to tighten the filter, which is never a good idea, I scratched up the filter pretty good, but in 3000 miles it is going to be junk anyway. The new oil is 5-30, clearer than honey. The old oil was about the color of honey. Cleanest oil I’ve ever changed. I had to do the rest of the maintenance to keep the warranty intact. Checked the belts, the fluids, air filter, this was a pretty basic maintenance round. The book for the car has a chart right inside, what to check, with a box for date, mechanic’s initials, and notes. So that’s my record log of vehicle maintenance. But took out clean oil, and put in cleaner oil.



Then with the extra free time I’ve been doing homework this weekend. Finding odds from probabilities, then converting those into expected values, taking the expected values and apply them to controlled probabilities sets to find some (f/e) thing, which I found out if you just find the second probability or last probability in the control set that’s you answer. No idea how, or why, just it’s always correct. Also writing an essay which a is a plan to develop a longitudinal study to find the changes in sexual behaviors from adolescence to adulthood for psych.

Busy but fun weekend, except for homework.

I have all my papers I’ve written over the past four years saved . . . I think the lowest grade on one has a been a B so far. . . do you think I should post them as “references” on my blog?

Bye VW, hello Aveo.

So what ever happened to the VW? We traded it in. A prime time to do so.

But why get rid of a VW golf? I hate VW s. The German engineers are asses. The way certain things are mounted and placed is a joke. But away from that it ran like crap. For the first two months after we bought it, it ran great.

Then the tranny started shifting hard, then late. Then I found out the transmission is a “sealed unit”. Not so, if you need to change transmission fluid on a VW search my blog, it’s there. The great thing about VW tranny fluid, is that it is about $25-30 a liter.



Then the fuel pump went out, a $400 fix, then the starter, a $300 fix, and then the strut mounts, a $80 fix. Did I mention VW parts are expensive? Not including labor, which I graciously volunteered.

After the tranny fluid change it shifted a bit better. But then it started running hot. Something got crossed in the wires/bad fan, and the fuse kept blowing for the electric fan.

I replaced the fuse and usually it would blow in 5-10 minutes. I never wanted to hunt down the cause. So it ran a little hot. Then the “thermo housing,” the hose junction on the side of the block, started to leak. Well it had been leaking since we got the car, but started to get more noticeable where I had to add water twice a week, versus once every two weeks.

The radio lights stopped working from us running the heater to cool the car down, melted the wires inside the dash. The engine began to run weak as well. When it ran great it took about 5 minutes to get to 70, so weaker performance was very noticeable.

So we started car shopping, and we found a Chevy Aveo we liked. The day we went to look at it something under the dash went up in the VW, so I pulled fuses until the smoke stopped. We went the dealer and they offered us $1500 for it. Sold. I just had my fingers crossed when they test drove it.



We got the Aveo. Ok I know it is a Daewoo, that doesn’t surprise me. But it has a Chevy warranty, 4 year bumper to bumper, and 5 year engine/drive train. Good warranty, but you have to “afford” the maintenance to keep the warranty valid. Good thing my wife is sleeping with a mechanic.





But I like the Aveo. It is tiny, four door, and fun to drive. The car has a tight turning radius, super quiet, and feels huge inside. It is peppy with its little 4 cyl, but has exhaust manifold turbo, I found the air pump and hear the whistle. It’s pretty easy to do maintenance on, everything is easily accessible. There are some guards in the way, but not as bad as the VW.





One of my favorite things is the mileage. We get almost 40mpg on the highway, about 30-35 in town, with no air on. But the air will turn the small car into a meat locker.