June 27

1:07 Just came inside after searching for the source of the dung smell. Didn't find anything. Today i intentionally left all windows open at 100 degrees to both dry any trace of water from the carpet (not that there was any left) and also "cook the smells" or let the heat deal with whatever bacteria left behind by washing. The result is it's 81 degrees inside at 1 AM while outside is 75.

I got gas at Grande Ronde (the cheapest) but when i got home i realized i forgot to put the cap on. I called them immediately to ask if i didn't pull the nozzle too, and they first said it doesn't matter, the nozzle are designed so they come apart when pulled hard, preventing someone to drag the hole pump, and when i asked him to look, he went out and then said "nothing out of the ordinary" and then i remembered i had the option to print a receipt which means i put the nozzle back. No receipt came out though.

Two distractions and me being tired (haven't been drinking in several hours) lead to forgetting to put the cap. Some guy dressed in leather on a motorcycle with no muffler started his bike exactly when my pump stopped. The guy on the other side at the other pump coughed loudly and then i looked down and i saw i was standing on a pile of absorbent material, the kind i hate most. Micro-porous calcined silica. So i took of my shoes and put them in a bag and drove barefoot. There is always one of those piles at one pump at that station but tonight i forgot to look. Yes Frank Farian and Boney M where on my mind too (i think it was him, not Jon Andreson i saw tonight at McDonalds),

Tonight i am happy that in Oregon they have attendants at gas stations, with me being distracted and until recently involuntarily high all the time, i would have certainly done it. Drag the nozzle.

In McMinville i caught up with the guy stuntman on the motorcycle, when he did something that made have lead to an accident. He suddenly slowed down while buttoning the screens on his left handle or horn of his motorcycle or whatever is called. But it was the other cars in front of him that slowed down too though not as much. 4 or 5. They always to this. They act in gangs. First one slows and you can't possibly blame him in case of accident, also because he's not going be there anymore. Good thing my low beam is adjusted a bit low and i saw him when he entered the spot, approaching fast into the light. I was telling Angela. Should have been a car, you could realize the distance by the space between lights that appears bigger as you approach it. Also it was the first time in years when i saw a motorcycle on that route at that hour. Then i got mad, i passed him on the right together with several other cars that were going under speed limit, and i sped up, more than usual, following a fast vehicle. He caught up with me half hour later, in the city, right in time for the cameras in down town Tualatin, when he approached from behind and going parallel with my car, but on the right, on the other side where the gas door is, for the show. I didn't like him being on my blind spot so i accelerated and he went on I5.

It's not like the old cars. The newer have some anti-siphoning device (a lid with a spring and the nozzle stays 99% closed and it doesn't smell much expect for the gas that you just poured and is still drying. Just remembered something, i drove by some guy dressed in black, athletic, walking on the right side of the road with something in a bag that could have been an analyzer or gas sampling device but can't remember if it was before or after fill-up.

BTW i want to share something. Since i have this habit of always reading the instant average mpg (average fuel consumption since last reset) i realized something. Tonight right until the stop light at the overpass here on I5 i had a reading of 48 mpg since last fill-up in Grande Ronde. But they were times when on the same route (road quality, elevation difference) i had 40. Most difference is given by tire pressure which i also read constantly. Tonight it was 39 psi at an average of 70 F, but when i did 40 mpg it was 35 psi at 50 F. 20% fuel consumption difference given by 4 psi difference tire pressure and rain.

And yes the cap was hanging next to gas opening and when he approached me on the radio they were playing Keep Me Hanging On with Kim Wilde.

8:08 Bobby

June 25

1:00 Washing the carpet yesterday was a success. Water came out dirtier than expected. I think. One of the two resolution i made in Reno. The other one, changing oil, was a disaster, due to filter being stuck. I poured the new oil with the old filter and then i went to Jiffy Lube and the unstuck the old filter and put the new one, after. As a result oil is brown already, etc.. Also a fire alarm was triggered in the next building by kids playing around and i finished everything in a hurry without double checking.

The "sole" of the wet vacuum is clear and you can see instantly which areas are dirty and which are not by the color of water aspired through it. In dirtier areas i did it over and over until water came clean. In areas "unwalked" water was cleaner but also kinda white, milk like color.

It's not that i don't dry vacuum. I did 3 times this year but i had two holes by the in wall heaters. Also walking upstairs may dislodge paint from the ceiling. 

I  bought the vacuum at Best Buy i think 2 years ago with 180 dollars. I compared the price with the cost of a steam vacuuming. First couple of times it was awkward especially having to constantly feel the reservoir with water heated at 140 degrees. But yesterday i just poured hot water from the sink. I also insisted a lot without pressing the spray button, with vacuuming only, and as a result, the carpet was dry in a few hours, maybe faster than with steam. I think this type of vacuum is vital for American homes.

But it's hard work. 3 or 4 hours of hard labor for about 500 sqft. Also i did it with bare feet and i think my body absorbed some detergent through the skin of my feet and felt kinda sick for the rest of the day.

June 24

5:26 Laptop powered off by itself while on charger with 94% battery while editing last paragraph which i kept on yesterday's post. Awake since 2:40 AM with 6 hours of sleep. Last night i ran into some news about CCR. Not this CCR. I had no idea they sold more albums than Beatles in 69-71 or before breakup, but remembered the first waiter at Stix restaurant, who looked like their drummer, though without beard or mustache. Talking and moving very slowly possibly with an ascites belly.

In 97 at my Les Schwab job there was a guy looking in his early 30s named Jason who started to jump for joy every time they were playing Looking out my back door on then Portland Oldies on a boombox in the shop who looked like Fogerty himself though he would have been 52 at that time. The guy on the Harley with goggles at Castella gas station? Born on the Bayou? Also in Hungary Csaba Ötvös  is the husband of Csilla Ötvös.

7:19 Keep thinking. Can't remember exactly but i think yesterday after all that driving i could have gotten confused and tried to extra tighten the filter instead of unscrewing it. Especially because of vertical position of the filter and doing it blindly with the car not raised. After i tried a lot with a 6 inch ratchet i grabbed the torque wrench and i it was then when they started the alarm.

7:48 Minutes after i mentioned CCR. (Constitutional Court of Romania).

9:02 Went back to Jiffy Lube where i've been last night and got to speak to the guy who did the filter last night though he seemed younger. Huge noise from the carwash and a dog barking on the other side of the fence prevented a meaningful conversation but basically what he said was he has to remove the valve cover to see and that would be hours of labor at 120/an hour. In the meantime i went to Fred Meyer to buy some Crystal Geyzer spring water and there in the parking lot i opened the oil cap and looked and i saw what i thought it was a bubble in the oil. No drive or turn i make is unexploited, meet with again barrel like objects on the freeway and a van that said Xeno or Xenx clear, which are Scientology terms.

9:21 There was also a guy at Jiffy Lube who reminded me of David Copperfield.

12:06 I've been thinking. I tried to unscrew the filter the right way. Somebody else overtigthened it.

June 23

6:53 Yesterday for the first time i saw a group of men that seem not be actors but real local people. They were so different than what i saw until today. However they were well integrated in the show.

Got at Canyonville after about 9 hours on the road, 8 driving, @500 miles from Reno. Needless to say. I was really tired. We went inside and put together 30 dollars in rewards and points and bought some burgers at the Stix restaurant. First one make waiter came who again seemed real. He took the order but in about 10 minutes he came with a younger woman saying he is going to lunch brake saying she is replacing him. While waiting there i showed Angela what Styx means in Greek Mythology and put the phone on the table, after. When she finally brought the food i realized i didn't have my partials so i ran to the car. On my way there i realized i don't have the phone. An utility truck made some noise while arriving and a number of what i thought they were real local men passed talking aloud. Went inside, ate and Angela got me 5 bucks to play which shortly became 41. Soon i realized i don't have the phone. Ran back at the restaurant, at the car, could not find it. At the car, a white Cadillac with big speakers parked next to it which is unusual etc.. Went for the third or fourth time with Angela and found the phone on the driver's seat. This time and SUV with 4 people in it was making again a big noise. They left as we did and met with them at first crosswalk but insisted they will pass first. I didn't want to see next to them, like having a party with someone.

Soon after i went in the car, moved it close and fell asleep. I slept until Angela came and said she again won 300 dollars playing at a 10c machine which she thought it was 1c. When i started the car, i saw a blue flash in front of the car at the left side. Saw again a warning on dashboard. This time it was left low beam.

I tried to remove the bulb which was difficult, when a guy came at the next car and asked if i needed help. I told him about the bulb. Slightly drunk, he told me to go to the truck stop across the freeway. "They got bulbs" he said.

Finally left. Driving at 3-4 seconds behind the last of a line of vehicles. After a few minutes i asked Angela to pass me that decaf she took from the Casino. In that moment i think i raised my foot from gas pedal for half second to grab the coffee (don't like to accelerate when i do things in the car) and i saw a rabbit coming from left, where the bulb was missing (still plenty of light from the other one) and passing in big leaps in front of the car. Should i have not slowed down, by accident, i would have hit it at 65 mph. Don't know what could have happened, but certainly would have been a mess in front of my car. But if you hit it with a wheel, i think you could skid and loose control. Thinking at the symbolisms, rabbit, truck stop, phone lost and then found, etc..

12:20 Mount Shasta. Oregon

12:40 Back home. Predominant smell is mold, second, sewage. Left an UV light on the living all night. Woke up and came at the laptop. Squeaking brought in mineral sulfur smell. TV on. Wondering if he's been here the whole time. Thinking of the hundreds of weird potentially dangerous interactions on my way here. Most happened when i was approaching a semi about to pass it. From behind that truck a car or another truck, waiting there, was changing lanes and started to pass, right when i was about to do the same. Must have been hundreds of them. One guy with a trailer with two gigantic barrel like objects, could have been 10 ft in diameter, came all the way from near Reno to here. I saw it passing from the parking lot at Burger King in Canyounville. I saw some faces. They were either old Americans or Japanese, the kind with duck face and mustache.

12:51 It all started with a postcard with an offer for cheap rooms at Peppermill hotel. 30 dollars a night for a queen, from Monday to Friday they said. I called last week to make reservations but on the phone she said that if i wanted "guaranteed nonsmokers" was going to be 60. Plus tax, resort charges and surcharges. They gave as a room next to elevators, ice machine and service room (which means noises early in the morning) with dusty AC ducts and the total cost was 230 for two nights. Room was ok, bigger than our apartment, everything was clean, but there was a dust smell coming from the AC and no windows to open. This is what i saw when i looked through that grill. I think this is unacceptable, even from a guy like me who lives in a dumpster. I looked through some videos and it looks like the ducts have been cleaned but i believe the design is fatally flawed and in a few years or so you will have the same dusty ducts. In this video even after cleaning the ducts they don't look like something you want to breath air from.

1:36 On 6:20 2022 after 3 PM i luckily found this gas station called Cisco. Was not supposed to run out of gas and the mileage calculated after fill up was 34 mpg, the worst i ever done on freeways only. For comparison when i came back, at the last fill up was 38 (6 liter per 100 km). I think the big difference is due to tire pressure that is driven by heat. At night in Southern Oregon i had 36 psi in front tires, and in California and Nevada at 100 degrees Faren-heit i had 40.

There at Cisco on 80 i put in 12 gallons, the most ever. Unlike Oregon, in California all stations are self service. I put the card in and got no option for credit card. The card then was stuck in the machine. I tried all options including cancel in the keypad. Went inside and this guy came, pressed the Cancel button and took the card. He told me to start pumping and took the card inside bla bla i wrote this before. No i didn't  watch CNN or any TV news in decades. Except when Angela has the TV on in the bedroom which BTW broke (got a vertical band on the screen) and i pass by. Of course i wouldn't have known if i didn't see his face today in the news.

2:54 Bengal, a place where Swastika still has its original meaning. Sweet.

5:25 I was trying to change the oil. Got Mobile 1 full synthetic at Walmart. Pulled it all out with a pump. Could not remove the filter though (when i put it in the tool caved and jumped one flute though i did not apply neither the recommended torque or full 3/4 of a turn after meeting resistance). Some kids came and triggered a fire alarm in the next building. I just put the new oil in with the the old filter. I went to a place nearby and they helped me with the filter and the bulb. (Removed the filter which was above the top level of the oil in the pan and put the new one in with a good tool which is at the same price i bought my piece of junk).

They also didn't want to charge me for the bulb or for replacing the filter.
While driving out of the complex the firefighters came in. Couldn't help but notice how smooth the engine was running with the new oil in.

To me, oil change was always traumatizing, that's why i try to do it by myself. However the tool caved in after only one use when it worked. Or two cause first time i tightened the filter put in by some shop and was leaking, then i successfully removed that filter and put in a new one.

Went to put some borax in some new mole holes. Big time mold smell coming from basement. While i was plugging those holes a kid was talking what i thought it was obscenities.

Next building seem deserted to me but sometimes people appear at the balconies or like tonight for a show. Every time i come home after a long and potentially dangerous drive they are putting up a fiesta.

8:04 Angela is at WinCo and i choke here with BBQ smoke, however i will not close the windows cause then i'm going to choke with mold and sewage.

8:24 Trouble. I checked the oil jug and the aluminum seal on top if missing. When that alarm ran i hurried and opened the jug and broke the seal with my thumb but made a hole in it, did not remove it like in the picture. (This is the first time when i see  an oil jug. Actually it is not recommended to brake it like this cause you may create pieces. with a seal like this so it was a surprise to me). It was still there when i put the lid back on. No way it went inside the engine or break completely, it was strongly attached to the top and the proof is the glued part is still there. If such a big seal would go in there in one piece probably won't even pass through the valve cover hole and i would have seen it also.

Let the almost empty jug in the door and ran at Jiffy Lube to do something about the stuck filter while Angela was moving around the apartment. Someone must have gotten hold of it and break it all and take it when she went in the bedroom or bathroom. They were many people around, mostly kids, with the alarm and stuff.

After, i took some pictures with the borescope camera under the valve cover. So far no sign of anything (thinking they might want to insert it there pretending it was me). One thing that could happen is if pieces of the aluminum seal get in there could break apart in the moving parts like valve stems and cams and get stuck in the oil... ducts (like they said about Hyundai in one of their big recalls) where debris from manufacturing clogged those and prevented oil from moving causing in same cases catastrophic failure with seizing of the engine. Or simply move around and cover one the ducts. If this happens at high speed, it may result in accident.

Invitation to Reno with cheap hotel room, gasoline missing, brake light bulb, low beam bulb, rabbit crossing the freeway at 3 AM, 1000 crazy drivers, phone lost and found, fire alarm triggered by kids and now this. It can't be happening like this.

June 22

9:30 Highlight of the day. I will not be today at Rolling Hills in Tualatin, to witness the blowing of the parking lot and mowing of the lawn with 200 mph blowers and 100 dB mowers. Lowlight. I got awakened by a bathroom fan after almost 6 hours of sleep (or what i like to believe) and then kept that way by desperate housekeepers left and right though there are 2 and a half hours till check in hours in what i thought was a soundproof room. I was wrong when i said that the hotel is new. Just read in Wikipedia. 1971. Wondering if they ever cleaned the AC ducts. However that is not the biggest problem here. When i went to restroom today i noticed this picture on the wall next to the throne. Ironic isn't it.

Considering i checked in at an automated kiosk.

In the first night after we checked into the rooms Angela won like 300 dollars which made us worry free and in the mood to play.

Yesterday at Atlantis. After the shock with the transformer at Eldorado, i was in a bad mood. Had some brandy but that didn't help. Went to Atlantis (wanted to do the tour of casinos), Eldorado was my choice, wanted to have a Cuba Libre in there like i did last year, but got pissed off instead by the "line of sight" game, which means everywhere i sat, immediately one came and sat so i can see her/him while playing, so after some misadventures got at Atlants. By far bigger than Eldorado and smaller than Peppermil, it was full of smoke. The big buffet was attracting people and there were many kids and even babies in the casino that at times made me (like Peppermill last night) choke with smoke. Forgot the decaf soluble at home and bought some caffeinated at Grocery Outlet (they didn't have decaf). For one more time out of 100 i got the confirmation that i'm not supposed to drink caffeinated coffee.

Or maybe it was something else. I was playing my 20 dollars at a poker game and it wasn't that bad (i was holding on) when a Japanese woman with a N95 type of mask sat next to me (one free place in between where she put her handbag). (Got to interact in total with up to 100 Japanese people, everywhere). I started to feel more and more tired, had some pain in the legs and finally decided to go in the car to take a nap.

Got outside, two planes took of going at a 30 degrees angle with big noise at the airport nearby. I was walking on a street thinking it was a parking lot but luckily didn't get hit by any car. Finally got on a sidewalk but at first stop light when i pressed the button, i saw there was this black woman with two kids ft behind me. A Police SUV waiting at the light. I crossed and met with another black woman with kids and another Police car. Made it to the car. Stinking badly like dog poop. Started the AC, tried to take a nap in the stinking car but couldn't. Up until 9 PM i was "crashed". That is i wanted to sleep badly. Went back to Peppermill, Angela went to the floor and me in the room, but was afraid to sleep because i knew i was sure i will wake up with severe apnea because of all that smoke. Finally after 9 got better but Angela got pissed from me being sick and unreasonable probably from sitting again next to a Japanese woman with mask and a big bag. Went to GSR and back to Peppermill. All evening i could not decide if it was me stinking like dog poop and sewage or the casinos, in areas where there was not thick smoke. Finally convinced Angela to go to the room to get some sleep before we leave tomorrow (check out time at 12 or one hour from now). The worst experience so far with road trips and casinos an probably my last time here. No matter how many postcards with cheap hotel offers they will send to me.