This is the blog page.
I've updated the music page to include some more artists and music as well as some links to youtube of some videos or playlists that I think are notable for each artist.
Bad news, my car got totaled a couple days ago. One of the kids next door was driving to work early in the morning and lost control of their vehicle and crashed into the side of my car. Huge bummer. Started working with their insurance company to see what they're going to do, but I feel like there is too much damage to make repairs. And now I have to start car shopping which I hate. Ugh.
I'm still alive!
Not much has been happening the last couple years. Just watching my daughter grow and turn into her own little person. I try and focus on being present with her and my wife every day to get as much enjoyment as I can out of every day.
As far as personal projects go, I have accomplished a couple. Recently we set up a fish tank for a betta fish. The first one that we had unfortunately didn't live long, less than a year. His name was Sushi. We did get him from a big box pet store so he may not have been too healthy in the first place. We did get another betta soon after from a local fish store. He's a plakat betta so he doesn't have the long flowy fins like you think of, but he still has interesting coloring. He was definitely an adolescent when we bought him because he was much smaller than Sushi was when we first got him. So hopefully he'll live a long healthy life.
Another recent project is to set up a neocaridina shrimp tank. I put a small fish tank in my office and stocked it with red shrimp. I started with 10 but unfortunately most have died off and now I only have two. I think my water hardness was too high and I discoverd it too late. I am now keeping that in check in hopes that the two that I do have left will be healthy. Now that I have the water hardness in check, I will probably stock the tank with more shrimp and try growing a colony again.
The last project worth mentioning is that I bought a new bike and built it up from the frame up. It is a long tail cargo bike that I've always wanted. I have wanted one so that I could pack it up with fun stuff for rides with me and my family. I will try and post some pictures of it later.
I have started a new bicycle rebuild project. This one is special to me because it is centered around a bike that I once had as a kid. That bike is a 1984 Huffy Stu Thomsen BMX bike.
One day I was focused on something, can't remember exactly what it was now, when I started thinking about the bike I had when I was a kid. All I could remember at that time was that it was a Huffy, it was red, and it was from the 80's. So I just started searching using a web search engine using various terms related to "red", "huffy", and "1980's".
When I came across a picture of the bike online a flood of memories came back. The feel of the white and black grips, the texture of the Comp III tires (mine were likely Chinese knockoffs), the nylon pads that most times didn't protect your knees from hitting the stem, the brakes that needed constant adjusting, and so much more.
I wasn't initially planning on trying to track down a copy of this bike to buy. I mean, it was a cheap Huffy from the 80s. There's no way I'd even fit on the bike. Then I started watching some videos of Stu Thomsen in his day riding BMX. From what I read about this guy, he's at least 6'2" and here is video of him tearing up a track on a tiny 20" BMX bike. Even though I'm not in the best shape and I'm old, I thought that if a tall guy like him can ride one for racing, I could ride one for fun around the block now and then.
So I began my search and at first was frustrated because it seemed harder than I thought it would be to buy a copy of this bike. I thought, "How hard could it be? These things were mass produced, super popular in the day, there has to be a ton of them out there that people are selling." I looked on eBay and found one that was for sale. However, they were asking several hundreds of dollars more than I was willing to pay. Frustrated, I started looking at other sites to just get some more information on the bike until another one popped up on eBay for sale. Who knows when (if?!) that would ever happen.
While looking for more info on the bike I came across a site called bmxmusem.com. Not only do they have tons of info on BMX bikes, they have a forum that is pretty active, and they also have a marketplace for users to buy, sell, and trade pretty much anything related to BMX bikes. When I first visited, there weren't any Stu Thomsen Huffys up for sale. But just a couple weeks later, there did happen to be one that someone that found one and was trying to sell it.
Now, I don't doubt that the person that was trying to sell this bike happened to come across it and probably paid $10 for it at a garage sale or something. But, it was somewhat inexpensive; certainly cheap enough that I wouldn't miss the money I spent on it. It was mostly intact. I thought it was worth it because it had the original grips which looked in decent shape. However, there was some rust on the frame (which hopefully won't be too deep), the chainguard was broken, the pads weren't salvagable. Those were some big issues, but everything else I'm confident I can fix.
I got the bike delivered and it was pretty much in the shape that the seller said it would be in. Ahead of time, I had ordered new tubes and tires which arrived a day or two before the bike. I got it assembled without any issues and I took it around the block for a spin. In hindsight, probably not the best thing to do but I just wanted to see how it handled and if it would even be worth putting any more money into it to get it safe and reliable. The spokes made a lot of noise on that ride, and considering how corroded they look, they'll need to be replaced. I think they're zinc coated and may be worth polishing up and replating if necessary. Or I could just buy some new stainless steel spokes, not sure yet. The brakes definitely need work. They stopped me, but not very well. Also, they were sticky and were rubbing on the back rim. Looking more closely at the back brakes, one was overly worn because of the rubbing and the other wasn't even the same brand/model. Looked like someone just found one in their junk pile and put it on. The finish on the brake arms and levers is really faded. These used to be blak but now they're a brown/bronze color. There's a weird clicking noise comming from the rear hub, hopefully it just needs some new bearings, but it may be more.
I'll treat this restoration in a few phases. I'd say the first phase is pretty much complete; get a bike and make sure its in good enough condition for this project. The second phase will be to repair and clean up what I can. With the baby and work, there's not a lot of time I can spend on the project but I'll find short moments here and there where I can do some repairs. The priority will be to treat the rust on the frame just temporarily so no more damage occurs from rust. I will do this once I get it completely disassembled so I can sand down key areas to good bare metal and cover it with some primer. Once disassembled, treat the rust, clean and rebuild front wheel and hub, clean and rebuild headset, clean and rebuild the brakes, clean and rebuild the rear wheel and hub, clean and rebuild the crankset and pedals. I'll pretty much do everything I can to get a rideable but not necessarily pretty bike. That will be left in the third phase. In that phase I'll go after the cosmetic stuff that couldn't just be cleaned up. Polish the front and rear hubs and spokes, repaint he rims, repaint the seat post, repaint the fork and frame. Polish the reflectors. I'll also need to see if I can find anyone that can recreate the decals on the bike. Looking at other copies of the bike, some of them seem to be placed at random, but others are common on each one that I've seen. I'm debating whether or not I'll embed them in the paint between the color coat and the clear coat or just spray and clear the frame and then put the decals on later. In any case, I'll need to carefully document the size, position, color, graphics, and anyting else that I can to send to someone to have them reproduced.
So, that's all for now. I'll post more updates on the progress as I go along.
Wow, having a kid is tough. I haven't had much time to pay attention to this project. This is still alive, but just on a bit of a pause as I focus my attention on raising my little one. Hopefully as she gets a little bit older, I'll have more time to focus on this site.
There were times I would wonder how my parents did what they did when I was a kid. As an adult, and before I had my own kid, I had wondered how they were able to take care of us during the day and still have the energy to work, garden, sew, clean, build, cook, take a walk, a swim, a bike ride, and so on. But, now that I am taking care of my newborn with my wife, this is probably the most exhausted I've ever been. I think part of it is that when she gets older, it'll be a little bit easier to take care of her. Especially once I'm able to get back to some regular sleep.
Maybe I'm still being naive and the exhaustion will still be there, just for different reasons. Maybe I'll still feel too tired to do anything. But also, maybe I'll find the extra something deep down in me that'll keep me going like I'm finding now.
Started work again this week and being only on day two I can tell that this is going to be rough. However, I can tell I'm starting to find a groove as I integrate work into my daily routine while still helping with the baby.
I've also been working on learning more more about webpage development and programming. Currently I'm learning more about PHP and how it can interface with the HTML on this site and a database. The goal is to eventually create a posting system backed by a database that I can use to manage these blog posts instead of just having a running list of posts on an HTML page. Slowly but surely I'm learning bit by bit how to set something like that up that I think will work for me.
Raising a child is the most difficult thing I've done so far in my life. Recovering from broken bones, quitting smoking, going through therapy - nothing compared to raising a child. How did mom and dad do it back when we were kids?
We have a lot of modern amenities; we can order diapers and formula online and have it delivered to us within days. We have lots of credible resources that can be accessed online to give tips on how to care for a child. We have a robot vacuum that can vacuum the floors for us. I have the luxury of working from home unlike my father who had to commute back and forth from work every day. However, dad was about 20 years younger than I am now when he had his fist child and about 10 years younger that I am when he had me and my little sister. I wonder if anything would be easier if I were younger.
By far the worst part of it is the lack of sleep. Oh, how I wish for 6 hours of continuous sleep. Waking every 2 - 3 hours is exhausting. After complaining to a friend I met through work who had a son a few months ago that I felt exhausted, he said, "...that's permanent". I suspected this was true, but good to know for sure.
Despite everything, I'm sure things will work out. We have a lot of good resources to help us and things have been going well so far despite all of the challenges we've had.