December 14

8:43 I'm smart. I done soldering bolts on a battery terminals like i was thinking for months. Going over and over the procedure in my mind dozens of times but actually didn't have the time, guts and tools to do it. Last night again i was watching some guys doing all kinda stuff in minimalist shops at the other end of the world. Rebuilding batteries. One guy fixed the terminals by pouring red hot molten lead in a scaffolding done with a piece of sheet metal he cut with metal scissors on a live battery. Another one was using the graphite electrode from a AA battery tied to the other terminal using the battery itself as a power source.

But now the current battery is also leaking so i went to Walmart to buy this time the cheapest and replace it. But first i had to try to solder those.

Trouble at Walmart. Let's not talk about how many people with babies got in my way. Went to the batteries area in the farthest corner of the store and they were locked, like much of other stuff in a cage. Still too attractive because of the price. 59 bucks for a 65 amps regular battery though a bit oversized (physical).

But how to get it? I talked to a gal in a blue shirt and and she said something in a device. Went at the batteries, nobody was coming. I went and found another guy in a blue shirt. Amazing how clueless these young guys are. Making a great effort to say a few words. He mumbled something in a device. The third one asked me, did you hear the call on the interfon? Cause if you didn't nobody will hear it, but he himself did not call anyone. After asking 6 guys the same thing and more than a half hour, i went to CS and again they weren't paying attention to me and asked for the manager.

Ok here came the manager and she asked on the interfon "Who has the key to the battery cage?" and finally she figured it out. It was Joel, a red headed Hungarian acting like a Jew. He walked with me back in that corner, i asked him for a tape measure and he went and grabbed one and a woman and they both came and locked in a hurry, kinda like covering each other. After some negotiations and measurements i grabbed a battery and tried to put it in the cart but the guy wanted to take it to the front.

Could it be because i asked him earlier "why do you have them in cages, who would try and steal a 40 pounds battery?" but i insisted to put it in the cart but he walked with me all the way to the counter to make sure i will pay for it. I told him there are items smaller and more expensive in the store, but whatever. Why would people want to grab the heavy ones.

Payed (core charge was added) and went home. However at home i realized i took the wrong battery. I went back and returned the battery to customer service. She recognized me and asked for the guy with the key. Another guy came and i went and grabbed a more expensive one cause they didn't have most of the batteries they say they have on the site.

Went to Lowes and bought two bolts 3/8 1/16 (close to 10 mm 1.25) and came home.

Prepped the terminals with flux and sand paper (sanded first, then flux then sanded and flux again) so i made sure the lead had no oxide on it. Prepped the end of the bolts first removing the marks with sand paper, then heating them on the stove coil adding solder, soaking them in flux, sanding some more, repeating until the surface on the hex end was covered with shiny solder. Let it heat for a couple of minutes more and applied on the terminal. After two seconds, i poured some water to cool it. The terminal didn't have time to heat much. But as i said i saw last night videos with guys pouring molten lead on those and the plastic part of the battery did not melt. I guess it's nylon and nylon melts close to lead melting point. No it's propylene and it melts and 320F. But i don't believe i heated them above 150 F. For a couple of seconds.

So i used the bolt itself as a soldering tool, but "the tool" remained on the terminal.

Then i added a nut i and tried squeezing a couple of wrenches onto each other without applying torque on the terminal itself and i could tighten them to the maximum.

BTW Here is a picture with my new "camera".

I remember years ago i bought pocket cameras for under 100 with good results. Got some of them on flickr. The best was my 12 MP 70 dollars AGFA (a German brand made in China). Lacking some color depth but clear enough.

But those are gone now. Cell phone cameras eliminated the need for those and can't find them anymore. I mean, after so many years the best i found was a 110 dollars Cannon at Walmart.

So i bought this. a 53 dollars camera, no brand (Amazon's choice for the price though), that probably has inside the camera of a cheap cell phone. But i needed it so badly cause i can't use my cell phone anymore. Here is the fist picture i made with it. No flash cause i don't know yet how to turn it on.

The guy upstairs is again yelling violently, after i recorded him and uploaded he stopped but a trumpet car started and is idling for more than 15 minutes now. Yeah i know the negative is a bit off (learning curve, first one ever done) but all i can do right now is cut it with a saw and resolder it and i don't see the point.

How is this important. I once wrote, battery terminals as we know them are a 100 years old technology. They are only good for starting a car and charging the battery. New sensors and electronics and EPS on a car need DC not pulsating rectified DC. Battery is supposed to act as a giant capacitor to filter the peaks of the pulsating DC however for that you need soldered or tough metal on tough metal contact quality, not the old battery connectors on lead. No matter how big and strong and how much you tighten those, the lead being soft, the connection will loosen enough to create problems after only one trip, most important, lowering gas mileage by at least 10%, vibrations, trouble steering with EPS at high speed with EPS etc..

February 25

We went to Spirit Mountain casino, got drunk in the car which was parked next to hotel and walked to the convenience store to buy some Munchies. When i got there i realized i forgot a credit card in the car. Then i drank some more and fell asleep in the car, with engine started (it was cold). I woke up around midnight when we left. Unlike last time, all cars coming from opposite direction used high beams.

2:38 I slept all day yesterday and then about 3 hours in the parking lot and i'm not sleepy. I just posted images with Dresden, bombed to ruins. Could this had been the cause?

11:45 Last night we came home around 1. Angela was hoping of 3-4 hours of sleep but by 3 was obvious we could not sleep. I went outside, found 2 fresh dog droppings, one near the door, there was heavy smoke inside and outside the building. Angela finally agreed to move a filter to bedroom which cleared the air in about an hour. She went in and out of sleep dozens of times, sometimes for seconds only.

I was thinking. Was it better if we stayed home in smoke?  

At a couple of times somebody made a big noise letting water to flow in the bathtub. As i tried to record, the noise stopped just before i could press the record button. Also they guy upstairs awakened us at least a couple of times. As i was much more rested (slept all day yesterday, in smoke) did stay awake till the clock alarm went off at 5 AM. (slept all day yesterday). Then i slept till 10 no problems. She did not want to call in sick because her yearly review is close. This has happened one million times in 27 years since we leave here. Teams of coordinated people were always around us and tortured us and that is the reason we could not buy a house. They have a much tighter grip on us in an apartment building especially the way that are built in the US. Also people come and go at the other apartments and stories can be imagined.

2:23
Just went and picked another pair of dog poops, in a different place, but again from wind's direction. Three pairs in the last 24 hours, always in the most favorable position, that is from where the wind blows. Usually when i go and pick those, there's nobody around. Maybe because they evacuate the building(s) when they do smoke, dog poop, etc.. A year and half ago i had a confrontation with the "veteran"  that is the Hungarian actor who poses as a veteran around here (haven't seen him in a year or so). With a wife (could be Rosie O'Donnell) and daughter, the teenager who never ages (actually a woman in her 30s with a child's body). Together ("father and daughter" in this video. He said they come here near our door (by that time, they got real close) because it's the choosing of their dogs. "The dogs want to come here". It's a nice area with sprinklers where grass grows year around. I saw the sprinklers on two or three days ago, with temperatures near freezing. And when there's grass, there's worms who picked the dead grass leaves. And where there's worms, there's moles.

And today i started to suspect it's true. The dogs sense us as enemy here and they pick the best most favorable place to drop their weapons or hunting tools. It must be they pick the attitude of their owners when they pass by. If figured this because today and yesterday 6 different dogs chose the same place, three times. Could this be the reason their owners believe their dogs are magic.

8:19 Finally figured my car had an AGM (absorbed glass mat) type battery. But after i installed the Exide battery i bought at Home Depot for 119 that is not AGM. How did i find out? After i read on a forum and saw on the older OEM battery it is written the word AGM. Also figured fabrication year. 2017.

For AGM, fiber glass sheets between the electrodes of each cell "wicks" the electrolyte around the plates "as needed". The electrolyte is not flowing around the battery but is being kept in those sheets. Advantages: it works in a "deep charge" mode, which means it supplies power all the way down to 20% charging capacity (like cell phones go to near 0%) instead of 50%, like the classical batteries. Sustain more charging cycles, up to 1300 as opposed to 500 the classical. Charge up to 5 times faster which also mean they draw more current from alternator during that time. Needed especially if your car has a start-stop mode, which means engine stops when car stops to a standstill and you still have the foot on the brake.

I was wondering, why the batteries i found on Amazon for my car were twice the price. However, they say that Exide Sprinter batteries (their "basic batteries") (one of the first brands in the world, that started as Tudor, more than 100 years ago) feature another new technology, LifeGrid (electrodes made of Calcium-Lead alloy), which also mean they are sealed (maintenance free) and last longer then classic flooded batteries.

And of course spent the rest of the time to figure if the battery i just put on is compatible since OEM is AGM. I found out that some cars can even have the computer reprogrammed if you do so. Not sure about Hyundai though. Mine is not start-stop, does not have extra electronics around. It will take longer for the battery to charge but the current will be smaller. I think i'll go with it.

I also figured that indeed newer vehicles do have a smart charging system. It has three stages. The lowest voltage you may see on your digital lighter plug in voltmeter should be 13 volts though (float stage), and not 12.5 as i was seeing at times with the old battery (though AGM, acid started to flow through the damaged by me terminal though they say AGM shouldn't leak if punctured or something and corroding the connector after only one trip). Battery was also 5 years old.

However, i still see a problem with the smart charging systems. When the alternator is not charging, or it's in the "float" phase, when battery fully charged, voltage at the fuel pump is the same as at the battery, or down to 13 volts, which is 10% lower than 14.5. So i now think it's better with non AGM batteries, if the battery charges slower, the voltage stay longer at 14.5 and the fuel pump sprays better for longer periods of times. Also sparks at spark plugs. There is only one single fix for this (for as long as we will still used these combustion engine dinosaurs). Voltage regulator at the fuel pump. And that is not easy to be done, for reasons of reliability ans safety of course. But i think you could design a safe fail one (it fails, a relay reroutes directly to alternator).

I would have never ever figured all these things if i didn't buy a cigarette lighter plug in phone charger with a digital voltmeter on it. Reason i bought it? I had to too many jump starts while in parking lots listening to radio in the car and wanted to see the voltage at the battery. The one i got was advertised as having an audible alarm at 12 volts but it didn't. So i did get more jump starts and then i bought a jump starter. And then i finally wised up and bought a new battery. Then i started to realize the car was running better when the voltage was 14.5 for longer periods of time. In the old car i also installed the same type of battery i bought at Home Depot, and after that, the voltage was staying 14.5 most of times but then i didn't know why (until today). Just before the accident of course. Could had have something to do with it? Me running the car better on a non AGM battery, exposing an ignored problem that just got worse by introducing those?

Exide

It doesn't have anything to do with X from Xenu and his eternal battery. It's simply because it has a lifetime of 5 years instead of 4. And a shelf life of 6. Talking about the Exide brand, the one i have in the truck.

Today Angela reported difficult starts. A while ago i fixed the battery's positive connector which clamp's ends where bumping into each other not allowing a real good tightening. So i filed a bit one of those ends and voila! Fixed it, wasn't moving around anymore after tightening. The negative seemed solid, i gave it a good tightening together with all the numerous nuts around the connector. Man this car has lots of nuts around battery's connectors. She said that miles are high (60k since) and many starts and she is ready for a battery replacement.

Last time i searched, to my surprise, the cheapest decent battery i found for 2013 Elantra was around 150 dollars, Exide for 155.  Today i did one more search on an idea, "where can i find exide batteries" and again to my surprise i found, (where?) at the nearest Home Depot, for 107. Decent price, i said to myself but Angela was going to sleep (she did "boxes" today, the toughest job at work, which involves lifting hundreds of boxes, all day, 16-25 pounds each). So i tried to do some searches while she was sleeping, the guy upstairs didn't let me, every time i started to search he started to squeak, at first waking Angela, then after i complained (not after she hit the wall several times) he let her sleep and came on the other side on top of my head so i stopped and slept myself.

Slightly bigger capacity, from 60 to 65. So after 8 i ran to Home Depot to get it. First, i forgot the mask in the car, (when are they going to stop with the stupid masks) and tried to take a mask from a stack at the entrance and they where clumped together and the others fell but i caught them in mid air and put them back, after touching a few, and then could not find the battery, "nobody in the store knew they sold batteries", "we used to sell them" said the man after i showed him the picture from their site saying "one available at Tigard store", then after i told him how i did the search he remembered "They keep moving them around" though i'm sure battery was in the same place for  years because if was full of dust, (just checked, shelf life is 6 years), i hope it's been for less, maybe since they opened the automotive department. Hence the price.

More adventures. At the checkstand big screen said they were charging 121, no explanation. Difference is the core price, got to take the old one back tomorrow. Usual drill in parking lot, guys popping out of nowhere in front of my car, stuff like that.

But on the road. Got at the intersection with exit/ramp street (forgot the name, nevermind, Carman LOL)  while waiting on red a guy on a Harley, more than 6 ft tall, blue eyes, stopped at my right (two lanes turning left) moving his bike's horns left right several time, finally took off, for some reason, i didn't feel safe driving next to him so i let him do the corner before i left, then he turned his head left, probably towards where i was supposed to be, and i thought i recognized a familiar face from the news of course. Then he took first right, i guess there's a motel and a gas station there.

Got back home, popped both the trunk where the battery was and the hood and looked for some tools in the pocket of the door (man this car hides stuff in that pocket because of its shape), could not find what i was looking for but when i got out i saw a guy on a bicycle getting away from my opened trunk.

Then i went inside, searched for tools, more stuff happened but when i went outside the first time a guy on a motorcycle started in that second to make a terrible noise in the parking lot. I guess it was after 9, then i saw him riding his bike around the block with a martyr figure on his face. He then stopped the bike and did it all again about 3 times in total, every time when i was getting back outside. Finally got all my tools together (most difficult part of any job done on moonlight in the parking lot). Replacing battery itself took about 2 minutes. Could loosen negative by hand only. So that was the problem. However, when i did a test drive towards Wilsonville and back, got 40 mpg (on dashboard, round trip), like never before. Car has a different attitude. Feels like after i first got it and replaced the 5 years old battery. One or two steps on driveability on a 1-10 scale. Most likely because of the EPS (Electric Power Steering) which of course is depending on batteries connectors.

Coming back from Wilsonville for the first time i accelerated to 75 on the 65 area, got this habit from the recent long drives, and of course i ran into a State Police Dodge parked on the right side. He did not follow me but a guy with white bright lights had a turn signal that was contrasting with those white bluish lights in such a way for a second it gave me the impression of Police car flashing. On the last half mile while descending (about 100 ft altitude diference) towards my home exit a guy slowed down unexpectedly without brake lights coming on while i was doing a "long freeway pass" and had to steer instantly to avoid him and these are only the important scenes i had to go through tonight to replace a car's battery.

September 21

(Ziua) egală cu noaptea. Echinocțiu, aequinoctium, equinox. De azi înainte zilele încep să fie mai scurte și nopțile mai lungi de 12 ore.

8:00 Cu doar câteva poze de calitate slabă nu pot să fiu sigur dacă tipul ăsta e Nelu Tătaru, las la decizia dvs.. 12:30 Toky Tiny Apartments. 1:07 This guy looks familiar.

1:53 With three buzzers in place, there is a new mole mound right between two of them. I think they adapted. In the last months i had only two of them and moles were gone. This morning i've been very tired by the smokes that came from the ground and i inhaled in the last few days and slept a lot. While i was sleeping i heard a washer in the building. When i woke up there was mold from the wet floor (leaking drier's exhaust in the basement). I tried and open a window and the door but now the play in the distance a profound base that shakes the dust from the building.

5:18 Just came from Walmart, it smells like mold and dog poo a bit but at least not like worms from moles' larder. Every time i pull that phone from my pocket there is at least one setting changed. Files i thought i uploaded weren't there. Ok. Got it. 5:00 Truck would not start consistently last couple of times, though voltage at the plug in digital meter was 14.2 during trips. I went to Walmart to buy a super cheap battery, cause i don't think i will use it more than 4 years or as long a super cheap battery is supposed to last.

So i went to batteries' area, which is the furthest corner from entrance. A 5 minutes walk among shelves and ballerinas.

At the batteries. First there was this guy thrown face down to the ground, arranging something on a shelf. So i passed, went into the wine area to check if they had a brand i bought at Fred Meyer, which is in another corner of the store. There, a couple of old guys, he on an electric car, were counting beer cans which were just across the wines, kinda in my way. I kept checking that, they were still counting beer cans, for more than 10 minutes.

So i went back to the batteries in the other corner, the man was now kneeling, a customer was checking something on a terminal next to batteries, i grabbed one that looked like mine, above a label that said 54, i went to the checkstands, but when i scanned it it showed 88. It was a MAX, i was supposed to get a VALUE. So i went back to the batteries, across the store, zig zagging through the team of ballet dancers from Gwen Stefani's stage team, and this time i looked on the phone. Battery for S10 pickup at walmart, Ever Start cca 600 bla bla.

Seemed half inch bigger than mine which i had in the cart, but i knew there was some more room in the tray. So i payed 68, 12 was the core, returned mine, after i waited 10 minutes for the guy in front of me to finish buying a 2500 dollars cashier's check, the man had to call someone on the phone, the woman counted the money twice, etc.. I returned my old Exide for 12 bucks, went at the truck and tried to put the battery back (wanted to save the planet for a trip, so i pulled the old battery, went in the store, bought the new one, left the core and tried to install the new one all there). Slightly bigger, made if fit in the tray in the end. However. The connectors' screws wouldn't go in the terminals by hand. First one on the positive was easier to tight with my 8 mm socket, but the negative one, in a tight space, would not go in. So i thought i crossed the thread, pulled the battery out to look and guess what. It didn't have threads all around in the terminals. I could make it in the soft lead terminal on the positive, started one in the negative, but could not finish the hard to reach negative. Even if i did i'm sure it wouldn't have lasted. So i grabbed the battery and went back in the store. At the checkstand, when i told him, he said there's nothing wrong with it and he threw the battery on a side to look better. I told him that battery was not sealed, acid might leak acid on the counter, he wouldn't believe me. He said there was nothing wrong with the threads. However he accepted my return.
I went back in the batteries' corner and looked more carefully though i had not glasses. Took some pictures. I could only find only one battery that had good threads and went with it to the checkstand. My size, a 55 Amps one. 68 with 12 the core. But i didn't have the core no more and went to customer's service to figure things out etc. where there was a long line now. 15 minutes after, she said: "i don't care if i give you 12 bucks".

Kafka would have had an orgasm if he witnessed what happened to me today at Walmart, like any time. The good part. I made my miles through the store and in the parking lot because i slept all morning and didn't have a chance to go in the park.

6:02 Angela's sleeping, the screaming Japanese kids came in the back to scream. Exactly after 6 PM when they close the office so i can't call to complain. 6:49 I went to eat about half hour ago and they went kinda quiet. But now one of them rolled towards my balcony and stopped ft away while a helicopter few above.

7:01 They came right in front of the balcony, pulling grass, diggin holes. Somebody is smoking, cigarette smoke made it here.

8:16 Just figured why do Japanese ninja, covered in Japan as hikikomori come disguised as Mexicans to secretly invade western US. Lebensraum.

How to Make a Good Car Better Again

… Check, check, yo, I know something you don't know
And I've got something to tell ya
You won't believe how many people straight doubted the flow
Most said that I was a failure…

(Nelly)

Not necessarily everybody doesn't know what i'm about to say but i'm convinced it'a a majority.

Have you ever noticed an oil smell when turning the heat on? That is from oily dust from engine compartment that made its way past the hood's seal and into the ventilation system and on the heater core.

Even on a new car. One single drop of oil left from an oil change on a rough surface composite material of a valve cover will spread due to fast and unpredictable flow of air under the hood everywhere.

Which means. Attracting dust. Oily dust will settle and glue on any surface, incoulding connectors. Tiny amount of oil will get inside the connectors. Engine oil has very harsh detergents that will corrode the surface of the contacts. If contacts are gold coated like most are they may be covered with a non-conductive layer that in time will cook and harden.

Battery connectors which take hundreds of amps when charging or starting, are secured with bolts and nuts on the terminals. But if oil gets on those, that will allow loosening of the nuts. Though it will charge and start, the battery won't be able to fulfill other functions, like smoothening of the rectified voltage from alternator. Voltage going to the sensors and actuators will fluctuate unpredictably. Together with problems at the connectors of the sensors and actuators themselves, the car computers will get erroneous readings and the actuators will actuate unpredictably.

All these problems won't be signalled by the car's computers because the software is not smart enough yet and probably will never be until the full advent of electric to detect small, abnormal fluctuations coming from sensors.

The good news are tomorrow we all will start driving electric all these problems can be fixed by any person that is not a mechanic.

First make sure you have towing on your insurance so you can tow your car to your mechanic if you screw anything. Just kidding.

First you should inspect all the painted surfaces under the hood. If you see dust, then it's time to perform the following procedures:

Wipe clean any oil residue left from last oil change around the oil cap or dipstick.

Use a large soft brush and dislodge dust from any visible surface. The dust will fly away at the first drive. Finish with a wet cloth. Do not forget the hood itself, under.

Disconnect both battery connectors starting with negative. If the connector's screws are parallel with battery's terminals, use a tool to hold the connector in place to prevent rotating and twisting the terminal which may damage the battery inside.

Disconnect all connectors that you may see. Start with easiest. Most have a small pad that when pressed with a finger will "unclick" or unlock the connector. Use caution and be gentle.

Use some contact cleaner spray that is plastic and rubber safe, ideally with a straw which will allow "focusing" the flow of the cleaner on the desired area. In a ventilated area (ideally outside far from other people) use a rag under as you spray cleaner outside and inside the connector a few seconds or until no more dirty cleaner comes out, including on any piece of wire that come out of a harness. Shake if possible and let dry. Some have soft rubber seals that may expand because of the solvents in the cleaner. Be patient and let those dry to get back to their original shape or you won't be able to plug the connectors back. If cleaner is too harsh and melts the plastic or rubber, it means you have the wrong cleaner. Test first. Don't forget most important, battery's connectors and terminals. If terminals have been damaged by acid, or have been on a shelf for a long time clean first with a wire brush or sand paper. Wipe clean with a paper towel wet with contact cleaner all contact surfaces.

Plug the connectors back one by one. Finish with battery connectors. If you can't use a torque wrench use the following rule: Tight the nut first by hand and then by wrench to the point of resistance, and then while holding the connector with another tool, like an adjustable, to prevent from rotating and twisting the terminal, in one move gently tight until it stops firm, usually less  than one more quart of a turn.

If you didn't damage anything (which could only happened by gross negligence or possible by bad mechanic's work done previously), the car will then start and run as new again, without vibrations, full power and mpg.

Use a 15 dollars LED voltage indicator that doubles as a phone charger plugged in the cigarettes lighter plug. It will tell you in real time many interesting things about battery and car's electrical system.

Invest in a torque wrench from NAPA, Autozone, etc.. Every once in while torque the nuts on the wheels to specs or right under 90. Loosen and torque them one by one (not more than one at the time with the car on wheels) to make sure they weren't overtorqued previously, using a by two sequence or "star pattern" Do not torque the nuts one after another cause this may warp the wheel or rotor.

This may increase driveability at high speed. Also check periodically tire inflation, again with important effects on driveability at high speed and mpg. Tire pressure varies with temperature so it should be done on a cloudy day with a temperature that is average for the season, after the car and tires have cooled from the most recent drive. Sun on one side of the car will heat the tires and will give you false (higher) reading on that side.

Did you know they have serious jump starters at Amazon, under 40 dollars which is way less than a jump start by towing and buying one is way less embarrassing than searching for a jump start at 2 AM at the casino parking lot? Got one that when fully charged (on a phone charger) could start the car several times, even with battery completely drained or old or even damaged (like it was in my case).

Last of the Hyundai

April 2018. We bid on a car at Copart. Like IAA, it's a place where insurance companies sell the totaled cars after they pay their customers the market value. They usually specify the areas where the car was damaged. This one has been listed as  "minor scratches and damages". We saw the car prior at the auction lot, together with one hundred others. Did not realize the car was actually in an accident, partially fixed and put back in auction and sold again at a higher price. I paid a total of 45 hundred dollars, including Copart fees.

When i went and picked it at the auction site, the car was driveable, but was making a weird noise at the engine. The mud cover on the right front was damaged, the fender was not holding in place, battery was almost dead and 5 years old. Serpentine belt was bent by a foreign object that gut between belt and pulleys at the time of the accident. When i got home i found in the trunk the broken windshield washer reservoir and the right headlight. Car was painted on the right side, with the right door and fender damaged. It was unclear if the right door airbag was still functional, though no dashboard light was on.

They were some sort of crystals on the windshield and hood, maybe from car being driven behind a de-icer that did not go away after a year or something, impairing visibility. Nr.1 and 2 cylinders had spark plug loose (0 torque) and there was oil in the cylinders and on the threads and inside the spark plug wheels. The shoulder at the bottom of the spark plug wheels  where the washers of the spark plugs seal sit was damaged and it was impossible to seal the spark plug when torquing it. Exhaust was leaking by the spark plugs in the engine compartment. Hood was bent (never fixed) and was not touching the seal with exhaust coming through the air intake grill in the cabin. There was oil in the the cylinders and on the spark plug threads.

3 years of struggle followed, with me working at the cars for hours, several days a week.

First went to Beaverton Hyundai and bought a battery and had it installed. Bought there a serpentine belt and installed it. Bought on Amazon a 6 mm diameter camera (about 20 bucks) to look inside the cylinders where i did not see piston slap damage but oil.

I tried to wipe the spark plug threads with balls of cotton soaked in alcohol, but they were not holding.

 
Designed and build in a machine shop a tool to resurface the shoulders of the spark plug holes. Finally torqued the spark plugs. Ordered a mud cover for right front on ebay and installed it. Ordered a windshield washer reservoir and installed it. Straightened the hood by stepping on it while hood semi-open, several times over the years. Did not realize the plastic grill was still leaking in several places by design, until about a week before the accident. Over 3 years i drove the car from 35 k to almost 100, while breathing exhaust inside the cabin, though less and less.

Did not realize the battery connectors could not be tightened enough, and were constantly getting loose, again by design, with battery never fully charging, until i bought a plug in USB charger with a digital voltmeter and because of needing jump starts several times after exhausting the battery with radio and fan in parking lots i also bought a 40 dollars 10000 mah li-ion smart jump starter on Amazon.

There was foam in the oil indicating sticky valves and squishy lifters. Tried to use some valve cleaner for the noise and injector cleaner additive inside the tank. As that wasn't working, i tried to clean the throttle body when i saw the inside of the composite intake manifold, which was installed in front of the compartment, or the left side of the engine, which was oily.

I tried and used a 3/8 piece of vinyl tube connected to a vacuum cleaner and pulled from the intake ounces of oil. It was  then when i realized that oil from the PCV was condensing inside the cold manifold that was installed in front of the engine compartment and pooling at the bottom of the intake which was installed upside down, by design, with the bottom bellow the runners, unlike any car i seen before. From there, oil was trickling up the runners, burning on valves and making them sticky, especially at number one cylinder. More oil was getting inside the cylinder, lubricating the piston rings unevenly, contaminating spark plugs, etc..

I pulled the injectors and tried to clean them applying voltage and some solvent from a spray can. Can had twice the pressure of the fuel and blew the injectors microfilters. I had to buy new injectors from dealer, for 400 bucks.

Over the years, i designed and installed several versions of catch cans on the PCV circuit, trying to minimize the amount of oil that gets in the intake which i was vacuuming "regularly" with a device i designed myself, made of a piece of tubing and a mat pump. With the last version of the catch can i could not vacuum oil from the intake anymore, there was none left.

A few months ago i bought an Exide battery and installed it and the noise was gone for a few hours. That was until the nuts at the connectors got loose again. Weeks before the accident i degreased the connectors together with the 8 bolts and nuts that were around the battery connectors and sealed the nuts on top with some adhesive. The voltage on the plug in charger with digital voltmeter was finally showing 14.3 volts while driving, 14.1 while idling. In the day of the accident, the noise was almost gone.

The noise was coming from the nr.1 cylinder or the furthest on the fuel rail, where fuel had not enough pressure because of low voltage at the fuel pump and injector was dripping,  causing uneven washing of the cylinder, with probably some slap while the engine cold, and not enough fuel washing the oil condensed on runner and trickling on valve, which was not getting washed enough because of low voltage at the fuel pump, making the valve stick and the lifer squish oil which was foamy. One cylinder working less than others meant vibration at the engine which meant poor driveability at high speed.

When i did rear brakes, a couple of years ago, i saw the indicators for pad wearing were bent and acting like springs, pushing the pads on the rotor, diminishing mileage.

Over the years, the car was doing an average of 35 mpg on the freeway and @20 in stop and go traffic. The car was quite comfortable to drive, due to soft suspension and many options, including working AC, bluetooth and satellite radio (which we did not subscribe for). In the days prior to the accident it was in its best shape ever, with smooth running engine, good driveability and almost no noise.

On August 19 Angela told me on the phone she had a flat. On the same tire there was another, several months ago when i got it fixed at Les Schwab in Lake Oswego. When she got home, i found low pressure in right rear, enough to trigger the sensor, put the tire in the tub full of water and didn't see any bubbles. I took the tire, for precaution, at the same Les Schwab shop in Lake Oswego.

There i spoke to a guy who resembled the current Finance Minister of Romania. Of course i didn't realize right away. Inside there was this Hungarian opera singer who acted like Phil Wick, Les Schwab's CEO after the death of Les Schwab.

The Romanian guy called me inside the shop which didn't happen in a long time, i went reluctantly after he called me a couple of times and showed me a tire similar to mine that had a damaged rim for about 1/6 length of the whole rim. He told me if it was from a previous installation which was in the same shop and asked me if wanted a new tire, i asked him if he had Michelin, the brand that was originally on car when i got it, he said no, if he can get it by tomorrow, he said we should talk in the morning, he had the number on my record, he then put the tire back on the wheel, inflated it and the wheel in the trunk. He insisted to put it there himself. This car doesn't come with a spare, though it has the space for it in the trunk. I found one at the junkyard, from a Ford that fitted. Though spare was new, the car was not driving the same as with the original wheel, especially at high speeds on the freeway. In the same evening i re-ordered a couple of tires similar to those in front which i changed more than a year ago, similar to the original ones. They were scheduled to arrive Monday, however they came Saturday morning or the day after the accident.

Friday evening i drove to Ilany, after both of us changed our mind, first Angela, then me, not to go that evening. 40 miles one way, had some difficulty driving, the car was drifting a bit, they were lots of drivers with weird LPN like KGB harassing us, as usually in the last few years. So i had to go with the speed limit.

In that day when she came from work she said she saw a light on the dashboard, it was the light showing something wrong with the airbags.

At midnight 20/21 i was coming back doing 60 in a 60 area on cruise control (which is kinda slow i recon). I was in the middle lane, because i was close to the interstate bridge where i don't want to drive on side lanes. Suddenly i noticed i was surrounded by a group of cars, left, right and behind. I saw in the mirror the lights from behind approaching at high speed, probably 20 over the speed limit. I could not change lanes, though the cars left and especially right might have slowed down in that moment, living me alone. Thing is i can't remember, because it all happened very fast. All i know is in my mind i had few options except to tell Angela to brace for impact and probably i accelerated in the last few seconds, reducing the difference in speed between the vehicles. For one second i thought he gave up then he accelerated too and i felt the impact. I was pushed forward at higher speed while all the other cars in the group fell behind. When i realized i still had control of the car i looked, the right lane was free, i veered right, stopped on the shoulder and tried to see his LPN. However when he passed he was surrounded by the other cars. All i could see was the tail of a huge white Ford pickup with the letters 4x4 on the tail. I took a picture of the car which was pretty damaged but still driveable (in the end, after talking to the cops who called a towing company who didn't want to go that far, calling our own towing that wasn't calling back, i drove the 22 miles from there to home, on right lane, and i had to pull over at least one time because of a truck that was coming again threatening from the rear).

The Washington State police came within 5 minutes. The cop looked bored and interested in a car that zoomed at high speed. He left the front lights on onto my car and i could not see his face. He said i should not drive the car back home cause it could not take another hit like that, which in the end almost happened. However, i do remember he looked like this guy.

He then agreed to drive before me (while another Police SUV came from behind, following me) and pilot me to a safe place. He exited the freeway than choose a street with poor illumination, near a property called G&G in the Minnehaha neighborhood of Vancouver, Washington, 2 miles away from Columbia river and Oregon.

There he asked me to write on a form called SUSPECT/WITNESS statement what happened and sign it. Then he asked me this question. What happened right after the impact? Because only those who survived such impact know what happens. The speed of your vehicle increases and that of the vehicles who hit you decreases. I think it was a test question. However, he did not write on the report "hit and run" which could have triggered a call for potential witnesses in the media.

Then he called their contracted towing company which came but refused to tow us "because of the distance". So i called the insurance, but the menus where such designed i had to file the claim first which meant an almost one hour conversation with the insurance claims rep. The cop left, the towing left and we were all alone on the dark street. I had to pee in a bottle i had in the thank that was crushed by the accident. The towing was not coming, i tried to call insurance again, got lost in menus and then i decided to drive back home. As i got on the freeway at around 2 AM, towing called saying they are within 10 minutes distance.

to be continued

Obey Your Master

Title. It's a verse from a Metallica song i heard tonight on the radio. Repeated indefinitely, could not believe my ears. Heard the song before most likely. It was a time i wasn't paying attention to this kinda music, it was only after i bought my guitar that i "discover it".

I was  listening on the radio in the parking lot at Ilani when i saw the indicator of my charger showing 12 V. It was then when i got worried and started the engine. The indicator would have normally gone to 14 for a couple of minutes and then, as the battery was charged enough, would go down to 12.7 or something. Smart charging system. Talking about smart charging system. Will i ever live to see a car other than electric with an indicator showing percentage of charging of the battery, like the smartphones have.

Tonight the indicator stayed at 14 volts for half hour or the whole time the motor was idling basically telling the voltage of the alternator, as the battery was partially out of circuit or not charging.

After i put in the new Exide battery i checked the connectors a few times and since they stayed tightened i gave up checking on those. 

Also during last couple of trips i didn't have any tools in the cars, including those for installing a spare wheel. I just forgot as i used those tools to fix the brakes on the truck.

So i didn't go to check on those cause it was useless. I stayed in the car and continued to listen to music and drink and they started a whole show around my car. One guy went and bent to tightened his shoes laces next to exhaust. I declared several times before. This car because it has a high efficiency engine that runs at a higher temperature than others puts out some small but detectable amounts of ammonia.

Other two cars came (room was made by others) and they started their own shows. Too tired to write about.

Finally i stopped the engine and went inside thinking to get some food. However it was after 11:30 and they just closed all fast food places. And then Angela decided it was time to leave.

On the interstate bridge i was adjusting the cruise control for "welcome to Oregon" speed (which is 50 because of narrow lanes and little shoulder + 10 tolerated by Police, whatever, they don't enforce it these days anymore) (it turns to 55 in a couple of miles), when i saw with my own eyes the speedometer going up real fast (never thought this car can accelerate like this) to 70 and beyond all by itself, when i hit the brakes and that process stopped. The car has a "drive by wire" throttle which means the throttle is controlled by computer and doesn't have any mechanical cable hooked to acceleration pedal.

Got home and there was a party on the alley waiting for me of course to check the battery which i did and the positive connector was moving around and the nut was 1/8 turns loose. Like the wheel of the big white SUV that stopped next to me while i was there with the engine running that was turned 1/8 turns to the left, meaning of course i'm a commie.

This is proof that these guys can do whatever they want with me around here. I only saw this at Ilani, where i thought i had these kinda problems before. Yesterday at Indian Head i was listening to the radio for hours and battery didn't get discharged.

CO2 Explained

Peaking at 8 billion tons, 80% carbon, 6.4 Gt (Giga tons or billion tons) of carbons in 2010

Peaking at 35 billion barrels that is 5 billion tons/year, 85% carbon, 78% burnt, 3.7 Gt tons in 2010. 75% is burnt in motor vehicles.
Aprox 10 Gt in 2010. It verifies.

"Carbon dioxide concentrations have shown several cycles of variation from about 180 parts per million during the deep glaciations of the Holocene and Pleistocene to 280 parts per million during the interglacial periods. Following the start of the Industrial Revolution, atmospheric CO2 concentration increased to over 400 parts per million and continues to increase, causing the phenomenon of global warming."

"As of 2010 it constitutes about 0.041% by volume of the atmosphere, (equal to 410 ppm) which corresponds to approximately 3200 billion metric tons of CO2, containing approximately 870 billion metric tons of carbon." (870 Gt)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_atmosphere

Approx. 1/3 of the existing carbon dioxide in atmosphere is due to human activity in the last 100 years with an average of less than 5 Gt carbon/year meaning less than 500 Gt. It verifies. 100 years is a an extremely short period on geological scale.

I made a mistake in a previous post about the contribution of motor vehicles to production of carbon dioxide when i said it was 1%. In reality as seen above that number is 28% of which only 5.6% is usefull, rest of it being wasted. 22.5% of the carbon we put in the atmosphere is for no reason at all. By switching to electric, if that fuel was burnt in plants producing electricity at 45% efficiency, that waste could be reduced by 25% or 7% of total carbon emissions.

But cars with combustion engine waste twice of that amount by turning roughly half of that energy use into heat while braking because they do not use regenerative braking as electric and hybrids do so they waste twice as more energy. So the final percentage is about double or 14%.

About half of this amount of carbon emission reduction is obtained by using hybrid cars because they use regenerative braking but those are very complicated technologically and pose the cumulated maintenance problems from both classic combustion and electric. Electric cars are very easy to maintain because there's no oil change, brake replacement and other occasional repairs.

Another way to significantly reduce carbon emissions is using frontal washers and the newer heat pump driers. Doing laundry uses a good percentage of household consumption, maybe 20%. Front load washers use less energy per use and per using less heated water. Heat pump driers use up to 50% of the energy and do not need vents and they dry cleaner (air is on closed circuit, and is not pulled from walls when windows are closed).

A heat pump drier basically has a heat pump similar to a window AC that works as a dehumidifier wile recycling air and energy.

They will eventually get cheaper in time but they already could pay for themselves in a couple of years or so (average cost for electricity for drying in an american house is 250 dollars a year for 1.4 MWh of electricity used for drying and a heat pump drier costs right now about 300 dollars more).

"Heat pump dryers can, therefore, use up to 50% less energy required by either condensation or conventional electric dryers."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clothes_dryer#Heat_pump_dryers

Cars like Hyundai, Prius, more newer others have huge dashboards because of their very inclined windshield per cause of aerodynamic shape with more than one square meter or 10 sqft of dashboard.

What makes you turn your AC on in your car at 75 degrees outside? At 75 degrees you only need the AC when it's sunny and your dashboard sizzles because of it. One square meter of dashboard probably generates up to 1 kW of heat inside your car, or half of your household average use.

By example car roofs are insulated towards interior and some are reflective with color white most. But on sunny days your dashboard produces maybe an average 1 HP (750 watts) of heat inside the car that you are cooling of course with one HP of mechanical power from engine operating at 20% efficiency, or 5% of your car's average power. (Isn't that kinda stupid).

What if you installed solar panels on your dashboard? You could probably operate an electric AC only when needed that is only when it's sunny outside and you'll get of course less heat in your car from Sun cause some of visible and infrared light reaching dashboard through your windshield is turned into electricity in that solar panel.

For example a 5000 BTU window AC uses about 400 watts to cool an average room. But a car is much smaller, you could use half of that or the energy necessary for a small refrigerator.

But you could also probably charge your battery in the parking lot. 10 hours of charging at 1 kW (roof + hood + dashboard) could mean one hour or more of driving at 10 kW. Or you could simply unfold a solar panel from your trunk, cover your car with it and have your battery charged 10-20% or something by your lunch break. (It takes 9 hours to charge a 90 kWh battery 10 percent with a 1000 watt solar panel 3 by 2 meter. Like the Lunar rovers.

https://www.google.com/search?q=solar+panels+charge+battery

Same with your house. AC is fighting mostly the heat generated by the roof and walls, (not air's temperature), which goes into the range of many kW in a hot sunny day. Wouldn't be nice if you would have part of your house' roof and walls covered with solar panels which will charge your car's battery. No need for expensive electronics to connect your solar panels to the grid or generate AC. Instead you could charge a battery during day time and exchange it with that in your car that can be modular, something like a drawer (or some electronics operating with less than 100% that could transfer overnight energy from that battery to your car's). Those solar panels will also absorb much infrared energy and you'll need less if any AC working at your house. Etc.

February 17

12:53 Still chasing the flickering voltage. Drilled a hole in the battery's terminal and put a screw. Always wanted to to this. Ever wondered. Why didn't they do it a long time ago. Why the battery terminals are round and not square (rectangular, cubic, whatever) with a hole in the middle so you can tighten them decently with a flat connector?

If this doesn't fix it, i was thinking, maybe the chassis connection to negative, cause every time i tighten the connector, i move that thick cable a bit around. In a hard to reach place, only one 5 mm screw and they didn't even remove the paint.

I always see better when i take pictures and watch them on the computer, now i see i haven't put a washer on the left side. Just figured why they made the clamp at an angle, so you don't bump with your tool on the fuse box when you want to replace battery, which is a very bad idea.

When i got the car from the auction, had to replace the left headlight. Fond an aftermarket one (nowadays with my searching exprience on car parts i could probably find an OEM one at the same price). Trouble is at this car the inner parking ligths are combied with turn signals, the OEM has a two way bulb, and the one i bought is only one. So i have on the right two parking lights left and right of headlights and on the left only one with the inner missing. Tonight i tried to do some external wiring to bring volgate to the inner parking light however. The OEM socket i tried to put in there that can hold a two way bulb is not compatible with non OEM headlight, doesn't work at all. So i realized should add two external wires and possibly the ground also. So i just downgraded the right one, with some electrical tape on one terminal of the bulb, so now i don't have inner parking light anymore, only outer and it's symmetrical.

Also re-tighten the nuts on ball joints with my new tools (extra long set, 6 pieces, metric, with 44 bucks on Amazon). These three projects took me way more than it should have because of smoke. Smoke inside, from a hole right on the other side of the "wall" where my computer is. Smoke outside, all the time. People moving around me making it look like something else. Basically i was wasted all the time, kept "loosing tools", forgetting what i wanted to do, things like that. People always getting away when i step out, and planes and noisy cars jut before i leave, so it looks like i'm hiding when they come.

7:10 First i could read the article. Then Financial Times asked for a subscription. Mainly the article has been quoting some experts from Ukraine, questioning the constitutionality of dissolving the Parliament, months before scheduled elections. More on that from Euronews

9:01 I tried to move the desk further away from "the wall" where smoke is coming from under and when i plugged in the computer in a different outlet the power supply flashed the fuse at me. Yes i spilled a glass with some wine from last night on it when moving but it did not reach the computer or keyboard or anything. Angela's W10 computer is very slow though much newer. I was running a version of Linux on mine which was 13 years old.

9:33 Did i just commented about snap elections? After pulling the lead off the power supply too, i went back outside and blew with the reverted vacuum the dust that it was full. But this time they were ready with a couple of kids that i know here at the window where Angela's computer is.

10:04 Ok i dusted for the last time that piece of equipment and soldered a piece of thin copper wire on top of fuse and it blew on my again. That thing is done. I will never ever again buy any device with a fan in it (that accumulates dust that is).

7:20 Posting from Chromebook 4 with the old keyboard hooked to it. Tomorrow i'll get some sort of hub that will also connect the mouse and the old monitor (USBC to HDMI). One thing i noticed, it's faster than my old computer, with no lag on typing.

I knew there was going to be  some trouble when i went in the bedroom this morning after Angela left. Since Angela can't tolerate the noise and airflow from a filter, even at lowest level, it was smelling like dirty socks. Marijuana, i figured. So i called her when she got there and she seemed ok, but i didn't tell her about the smell, cause i told her one million times and she doesn't believe me.

Soon after, the lead, Steve Eaton (coincidence with the name of the company) who does the scheduling, kinda jumped the turns and put Angela to do again too soon after last time the physically hardest job (boxes, or inverters) which involves unpacking, packing and lifting 20 pounds items for hundreds of times a day. She told him that she could only do it for 4 hours today, and then she was under the impression he went to HR and the supervisor (paranoia due to all kinda smokes we inhaled yesterday, it took me a long time to understand the mechanism, but that won't probably prevent me for quitting again a job at first trouble when under influence, if i could get one right now) who doesn't get involved too much, let Steve do most of his jobs, and he knew and escalated. So it turns on us. Angela got mad and went to the supervisor and complained about everything she could remember, including the fact she works there for 6 years and gets one dollar more than the temps. In the end she told him she can't lift that much (62 years old) because of back pain, hernia surgery (because she had to have too more surgeries after open heart to have 4 forgotten wires removed), and she said she will talk to the doctor when she goes for the appointment on March 1st (that was scheduled since last year) and the supervisor said, let us know. But now it's not like yesterday. That combined with the computer breaking down will slow me down me a little. I was even thinking today. To what good it serves all i do. Cause if people believe me, the market will start to go down and i will get in all sorts of problems. Cause i live in their simulation, but one or more levels deeper than everybody else. Though i can make some decisions, they have enough leverage on me to stop me if they wanted and now they want it.

One thing that gets both of us mad is the car. In pretty bad shape, misfiring (better said, severe engine imbalance and noises when we got it), we were happy when during the weekend, i would re-tighten the battery connectors before living and like magic the car would start to work so fine you wouldn't even hear the engine, and with mileages constantly above 40 on freeways. So i figured, probably low voltage at the fuel pump which leads to dripping of injectors, not washing the valves that become sticky (due to oil coming from intake from condensation of PCV gases). 

I said it many times before, during the 70s they figured a way to recirculate blow by gasses that pressurize the engine back in the intake, but with a side effect. Blow by gasses contain oil mist that condensates in the intake, a problem that becomes much more serious with the newer design with intakes underneath the engine head and in front of the engine where they get cooled.

I myself never quite understood for a long time why some gas sellers advertise their gas as engine cleaning. But this is the reasons. In gasoline injected cars injectors are upstream valves and the gas sprayed by those clean the valves, especially if it has good additives in. But the injectors themselves are sometimes affected by the oil from blow by, especially if the voltage at the fuel pump is not alternator voltage (14.5 for this car) but battery voltage (@12.5), which sometimes happens when the contact at the battery connectors is not perfect and battery is near full. One of the last things i've done at the other car was removing the paint under the ground (chassis) connector and saw that made a difference. At the old car though i had a catch can that would reduce the amount of oil that condensates in the intake, by "catching" it in a can. I was actually getting ready to install one on this car also (got the can from Amazon) but i didn't, because the car was running so fine after each re-tightening of the negative connector. The problem of dirty valve is much more serious at GDI (Gasoline Direct Injected) where the injectors are inside the cylinder, thus downstream valves.

But last night after i finished drilling the hole and tightened the connector again (with again 14.5 volts at the lighter plug measured with a digital charger) i remembered about the chassis connector. So i removed the adhesive i put on top of the screw (mostly to see that it doesn't get loose), took it apart (which involved removing the battery, the computer), cleaning those etc.. They were 4 ground connectors, and when i removed the (self tapping screws) i brought at the surface dirt from the other side, so i had to clean everything and torque those again. Can't tell how i felt every time i was using the little spray bottle with alcohol and young boys where dispatched to pass near me. But i remember when one of the passed and went to the grass area, where the moles are, i felt smoke, and went and took pictures of what appeared to be holes in the ground made with special shoes.

9:00 Found and ordered on ebay a ball joint from the car, OEM with... 15 dollars, however the shipping was 17. Box damaged (like many shipments with parts lately) and i think the main upper nut was missing. Two others where though enough to realize they are they type "toplock" that is the diameter of the thread is smaller at the top of the nut, to prevent from un-tightening. Those nuts are not to be reused of course and had to remove and reinstall some of those several times when i did struts and shafts.

Also got the box with 6 extra long wrenches, and i used one of them to tighten the same nuts on the car. If freshly tightened, the car is driving perfectly, so that was the problem. Got to order some of those, was thinking returning the ball joint, however, i will probably pay for the shipping and loose some more money, cause the part itself is only 15 dollars.

Had to remove some of those nuts several times when i did struts and shafts.

9:32 Today when i went outside at the car i saw again this guy. Dressed very poorly, looking of Ukrainian origin, with possible Ukrainian name, a Romanian orthodox bishop from the county where i am in Romania which borders with Ukraine, he went to the mail boxes and then searching something in some cardboard boxes and then he left (maybe he got those delivered, i didn't see). For a moment i was tempted to go and see what he was doing there.

Was thinking earlier of Angela's job. I remembered mines. Always with actors. In 1998 at Quadramed the supervisor manager was Andy Carson. Cameron Diaz, his secretary. Receptionist was one of those women from SNL. After that, at AVX, Axle Rose. Always living with fear  terror of loosing a job and everything, not caring to much who hour colleagues were (not that i knew) or Angela's are right now. I think i identified at least 3 of them until now. One left. One is the Japanese actress who acted as Pamela in Dallas movie, also as Transportation Secretary. The other one a Hungarian actor, forgot his name.  Him maybe? A bit of smoke through walls at home would make us happy, a bit more, mad. They were times when i thought Steve was this guy.

10:50 Angela now remembers she also told the supervisor (don't know the name, i know the previous one looked like Brad Pitt and Steve was doing the scheduling that is assigning daily tasks for all team members during all three in the past 6 years, none of them did much) that she was never trained to do the easy jobs, and Steve (with latest example, today) assigns to others tasks that she already done the day before. What she didn't tell was Steve was/is assigning easiness tasks for himself, with lots of overtimes and high pay of course.

Angela's main competitors there are relatives (the two "Chinese" sisters, girlfriend and boyfriend etc..

December 31

4:20 One of the first pictures done with my new Kodak camera. f/3 0.038 4.9 mm ISO 400 WB Sunny. What do you know, it's a real (pocket) camera!

12:06 Here is the project i've been dreaming at for months and is the result of more than two years of thinking. It started when i bought the plug in USB adapter with digital voltmeter for the car. It was then when i started to understand how things work electrically.

The initial reason i bought it was to be able to play music in the parking lot without having to search for a jump start (later i bought a jump starter the size of a book for 40 dollars which is very good and only after that i realized the battery was too old and bought a new battery just before that accident in August 2021).

Then i saw. It's not a 12 volts system as many people say. It's a 14.5 volts system. This is what the digital voltmeter shows all the time while the engine is running, at both cars i used it on. 12.5 is the voltage before starting the car. Similar to this one but now i regret mine it doesn't have two decimals. BTW it shows 14.8 in the pictures which on a car means battery doesn't get charged. It has to be 14.5 or less.

Most people think batteries are only good for starting  the engine. But they also act in a way similar to a capacitor for filtering the pulsating DC that's coming out of the alternator diodes which again is 14.5 and not 12.5 as most people would think and for that is required very good contacts. If  you don't have a smooth voltage, all your electric systems and most importantly fuel pomp will not work properly.

Second, i noticed that when i freshly tighten the battery's connector the voltage goes down like 0.1, which means better contact and charging the battery. I also noticed, less vibration at the engine, improved driveability by several points on a scale of 1 to 10 but most importantly, improved mileage by at least 10%. But the contacts wouldn't stay long that way. The connectors are spring like devices and the terminal is soft lead, and after a while that usually was one trip the lead would give in and the contact force would settle to a value that is not sufficient.

And me could not settle for less mpg since i knew it can get better by one simple thing. For two years i tried different methods of securing those contacts, including drilling horizontal, vertical holes and threading in the lead terminas, with the same results.

Right now it drives so nice i regret a lot i didn't do it earlier. But couldn't have, it required lots of thinking to get at this point. Soldered bolts on top of connector and on car's chassis to double the car's original connectors.

It's copper connectors enlarged to 10 mm holes (3/8 whatever) sandwiched between two serrated nuts tightened against each other on the 3/8 bolts with two wrenches (for avoiding apply rotating momentum on the soldered bolts). In the right it's a similar bolt soldered on car's chassis.

Battery is a (not so) cheap 100 dollars Walmart one because i didn't know how the soldering of the bolts on top of terminal will end. They have cheaper ones (59) but not in the store i go to.

It involved filing the outer hex surface of the bolt until removing the stamped 3D marks, filing some more using flux on the file or sandpaper to keep the oxygen out of the metal surface, using clean flux on a paper towel to remove the flux with filings, heating the bolt set on a side on a red hot stove's coil and applying solder, filing some more while hot by holding the bolt using long nose pliers on sand paper covered with flux sitting on a flat surface, wiping against a paper towel again soaked with flux again sitting on a flat surface, repeating until the entire hex surface of the bolt is covered with shiny solder, adding some more solder to make a small round melted drop, heating some more and applying.

Prepping the target area in the same way, with flux on a piece of coarse sandpaper, cleaning the filings with flux on a piece of paper towel, applying the heated bolt with long nose pliers and cooling immediately with water from a glass.

In the second picture you can see shiny slightly irregular protruding solder at the joint, under the bolt's hex end that is darkened by the heating with flux.

15-30 minutes project for a bolt if you have the tools and everything ready. But it's worth it. You can save 10% of gas money. Drive better, have better acceleration, save engine's life by eliminating vibration.

Materials. Connectors. A 3/8 drill bit to enlarge those. 3 bolts 3/8 by 1/16 one inch long from Lowes or Home Depot. 6 serrated nuts. Electronics solder. Flux. One medium size file and a few pieces of coarse (80) sandpaper. A few paper towels. A plastic glass for water.

The idea came to me after i saw the marine type batteries (for starting boats engines) that have both bolts and terminals. But i couldn't use one of those because they have the terminals the other way (plus on the right). But now that i searched for those to put a link i think i found one that could have worked.

Already thinking on how to improve it. One version would be soldering copper bands or wires directly to terminals and chassis (with no bolts) with a big soldering iron that i can heat on the stove again with keeping in place the original system just in case. Have to do it fast and cool the terminals within one second of starting soldering. On the plus i will need a short copper band with a hole at one end and solder it directly on the terminal.

And here is a crop of the original picture yes done with my new camera.

2:26 One of the reasons they won't give us a yearly report on budget spending is because the fiscal year like the water year starts on October 1st. My bad (that doesn't mean they couldn't, even itemize a bit).

I once wrote a post containing comparisons of charts for spending budget for several years. 5 years later, the spendings budget grew by more than 20%, deficit (borrowing, red) now is 1.37 trillion or 21% of the same budget.

There are two things i don't understand. Where it fits the recent "anti shot down" 1.7 bill (trill whatever).

Is it on top of the budget, part of, increase of deficit for next fiscal year, whatever. Same with the infrastructure bill of which i don't see nothing going on yet. Still digging but i doubt i will find it.

Got it. Temporary continuing resolutions, omnibus spending bill. As for the infrastructure bill, i don't know yet.

3:00 Figured that one also. 1.2 T for 8 years, melting somewhere in the annual budgets or in parallel, it doesn't matter, seems insignificant over the 7 T yearly budgets in both cases.

An average of roughly 3 billion per year per state. California is spending that amount a each year for high speed rail projects. Yeah i believe Oregon could build a much needed freeway to the beaches.

4:31 It looks like they never thought of that. There are other priorities.

5:08 There was a large amount of microwave radiation on the top level at the new parking at Chinook, between 10 to 20, and i moved the car in  the other parking lot. Didn't look until i felt it though i heard the meter that beeps above 1 because i didn't believe it was much bigger than that. Much more than near the tower at Grocery Outlet.

The meter fully charged works for about 24 hours, i tried to measure something in the other room and i saw it shut down with 11% battery left (sometimes it shots at 20, i don't know why). The USB plug was half way pulled from the charger and not working, though yesterday it charged  the meter completely. In the same time i started to feel something in the known places like i was recently exposed (within the last hour). And that did not come from our apartment.

6:06 Cute weregirls for the New Year celebrations on the streets of Romania. 

7:23 The pain was quite intense, lasted for about 2 hours and now it's going away. Minutes earlier i said i wanted to go check at the car to see of the last nuts i added didn't get loose, like the first ones, they weren't however they waited for me outside with a scene, all they have to do is figure what i'm going to do next and wait for me in that point in space and time with something.

8:10 Iar văd o gură strâmbă și un nas pe partea de roșu a drapelului în mijloc, alta jos pe galben roșu, care pare să înghită soarbă stelele, un Z întors pe galben, etc.. Nu vă mai jucați cu drapelul României!

În Tratatul de la Amsterdam, 1997, implementat în 1999, toate țările care erau membre UE au devenit automat și membre Schengen iar lista a fost inclusă într-un protocol parte din Tratat. În 2007 sau după aderarea României la UE în Protocolul de mai sus al Tratatului, care a devenit Protocolul 19 al Tratatului UE a fost adăugat în listă și numele României și a celorlalte două țări, Bulgaria și Croația.

9:20 Maria Bateria, o altfel de știre de anul nou. În legătură cu ce postez de mai multe zile despre bateria de mașină.

11:45 15 minute până la anul nou în Oregon. Am căutat sursa imaginii de mai sus și am văzut că este o imagine de stoc (site-uri unde fotografii își pun imagini la vânzare, nu știu de ce pentru că un drapel de țară este proprietatea statului respectiv). Toate imaginile cu steaguri care sunt în mod evident fotografii și nu photoshop sunt ok, cu excepția a încă două. În asta în care soarele bate din spate dintre nori dar steagul apare iluminat din partea opusă sau dinspre cameră, apare pe roșu jos ceva ca o tipă foarte tânără ce execută un dans sexy. Pe cealaltă, unde steagul este încrețit la partea albastră, pe galben apare o imagine greu de descris în cuvinte. Un șarpe care intră într-o peșteră?

2:26 There's hope for me in 2023. It's been maybe 20 years since i stopped hearing high frequencies with the right ear. How do i know. I check both ears by gently rubbing the same two dry fingers from right hand next to each of them. Yes i checked with frustration from time to time for all these years thinking on how my body betrayed me who i like listening to music so much. After a month of not using the cell phone today i started hearing those again. Not totally equal yet. It happened overnight cause a couple of days ago i still didn't hear them. Also pain in the fingers that i got so used to started to fade away. Balance problems are much smaller, almost gone.

Will my pancreas and colon heal as well?

Lucky to have right now an old cable modem with two Ethernet ports (and wi-fi) but i need one more port (i guess i could silence the wi-fi from its page, but not sure). Found a cable modem with no wi-fi on Amazon but it only has one Ethernet port (for a wi-fi router of course). Because people stopped using Ethernet long time ago.

So i guess i'll have to use one of these for the three devices i am moving on Ethernet and completely get rid of wi-fi with 60 dollars plus the cables and two adapters (another 50, the new TV has a port). Also stopped using the microwave except for absolutely necessary situations (5 meters distance for several minutes like a frozen dinner is still not enough, i can heat a burrito or a hot dog in a pan with a bit of water i guess). Maybe looking for a microwave with no stupid glass door (completely metal).

2:50 It never rains in Southern California.