Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Huffing Fumes

On Monday I took my car in for its usual spring service, and one of the tasks that the techs performed was to rotate my tires. Usually this is a good thing, but in my case it rotated the wobbly tire back to the front where I'd be able to feel it in the steering again.

Now I've had trouble trying to get this fixed before. I, and my mother before me, have taken the rims in to get straightened countless times, and each time they come back claiming they're straight as an arrow but wobbling just the same. I decided to get to the bottom of it myself, so with some minor assistance from Father I jacked up the car and spun the wheel to see what was up.

It was no surprise whatsoever to see the outside of the tire wobbling back and forth quite visibly. What was a surprise was seeing the rim itself spinning straight as an arrow. Apparently the tire itself is mis-shapen. So, new tires are clearly on the menu.

But that's a blog post for another day. You see, while I had the car up, father commented on the shoddy shape my hubcaps were in, with their peeling silver paint not even hiding half of the gray plastic underneath. I'd been intending to repaint them, but since the hubcaps are secured to the wheels by the lug nuts, it's quite inconvenient to remove them. (Though I am happy they're securely retained at all other times)

Today I decided that enough was enough, and I headed over to Canadian Tire and picked up some supplies: a fine grit scuff pad to clean/sand the hubcaps, some latex gloves to keep my manicure clean, and a can of Krylon Fusion Nickel Shimmer to do the deed.

As with any paint job, prep is everything, and I spent a good half hour or so wet sanding the grime and loose paint off the hubcaps with the scuff pad. In hindsight, a medium grit scuff pad probably would have been more effective.

The paint itself went on quite easily, in about 4 or 5 quick light coats on each hubcap. After painting the first hubcap I took a before and after shot, for your ogling pleasure.

The paint dries to the touch after 15 minutes, and "dries" after 1 hour, but only actually fully cures after 7 days. I'll probably leave the hubcaps hanging in the back yard until tomorrow before putting them back on. (Partly to let the paint cure, partly because I feel like having a little lunch and then a nap)

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Fresh Tunes

So one of the things I recently got for my birthday was a $30 iTunes gift cert. This is kind of awesome, because I haven't really bought any new music for quite a while, and I had been meaning to expand my collection a bit to bring in some fresh, new music.

Unfortunately, finding good music is easier said than done, and it's taken me quite a while to come up with some albums that I actually want to get.

I managed to stumble across a King Kooba album I didn't have, "Indian Summer", and I've been fairly pleased with the music contained within. I also managed to stumble across an Underworld album that had somehow eluded my previous collecting rampages, "A Hundred Days Off". As luck would have it, it contained one of my favourite songs, which is featured in the video embedded below.

I've still got $14 left to burn through, so the search continues...

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Another year down

Last exam over and done with, and hopefully done well. Nothing left to do now but hopefully find my way to California for the summer.

I checked my mark, and I not only got an A for Russian History, I actually tied for the highest mark in the entire class. Not too shabby.