projects - just do em'

Arcade notes: about 90% finished shopping out this Demolition Man today. Last thing to do is a flipper adjustment. Literally replaced 20+ bulbs in this thing, fixed 2 messed up lamp sockets, a couple of new sling plastics and clear washer protectors in a few spots and some general cleanup and waxing. I had to remove a few ramps to get some hard to reach bulbs. All in all it looks really good when lit up, I couldn't believe that 20 bulbs were out!

Training notes: Going up to old camp tomorrow (egh.. actually today) at 8a.m. time to get some shut eye. We'll try to do it in 3-4 hours.

Spend some time with family after I get back.

boring week...

Training notes:

Nice weather, went for a fast solo 9 miler yesterday. It was good to be out on a nice day. Starting to drop weight again, which is good. Basketball season has started for us and we won our first game last week. Looks like we have a good roster this season so hopefully we'll make it to the playoffs and farther.

Home notes:
Termites suck, had to redo a rotted, eaten, infested window frame yesterday, I hope I got them all. House is a mess, time to clean clean clean.

Arcade notes:
Not much, just getting up the itch to redoing all the legs on all the machines. some $80 lighting rust remover ordered, some spare legs, and i still have to order new pinball feet. Going to be a big undertaking, but much needed for all my leg rusted games. Other than that everything pretty much works. I ditched my Marble Madness game so I'm +$500 and got a little much needed space back. Two cabs to go and I'll be able to lay all my pins again.

twice around

So a bit bummed about yesterday missing the AR mini training run. This morning, I checked my email and lo and behold there's a ride up Santiago Truck trail and the guys I normally ride with want to do it twice. So we did it. The first loop was kinda dry and hot, the luge was surprisingly in good shape with a few mud pits to get through, but all in all I had fun. The 2nd loop we met up with ODC.org group and that was fun as well. A very hard work out about 16 miles total, lots of climbing. I ran out of water, but luckily I did not get any dehydration headaches (which are the worst). I was pretty satisfied having had only an avg of 4 hours of sleep the last 2 nights. Downed two burgers when I got home - am a very happy guy right now.

Finished the whirlwind kickout hole protectors, this thing is almost done, I'm waiting to get a score display and plastic speaker panel off ebay to finish this thing off once and for all. I may do a diode/resistor mode to help clear up some of the very minor display glitches. But this thing's finally playable and working real well.

wasn't meant to be.

We were supposed to do mini AR training in San Diego today. It wasn't meant to be. Mauricio called me up last night and had to cancel because of some work issues, I was a bit bummed, but undeterred and I thought I 'd go solo or pick up a beginner that had posted wanting to get on a team. Last night I tried to get all my gear ready and brush up on UTM plotting. It was a nightmare, I just wasn't prepared and i got to bed at like 2:00 a.m. - Strike one. I was able to get a hold of a beginner guy and after some conversation thought i'd take him on and show him the ropes. Turns out, he wasn't in that great of shape and may have been out of his element, but we decided to go forward anyways. Strike 1.5, This morning, I got all my gear ready, beautiful day, but again was running slight late and pressed for for time, strike 2. I get near the 5 fwy and it is jammed pack parking lot. listening to the radio a truck had dumped it's load and it would have been another hour to get through it. strike 3. I called the guy I was supposed to team up with and had to cancel. There was no way to get to San Diego on time and prep. If it wasn't meant to be... I went home and took a nap and got rid of a nasty headache, the last 12 hours wasn't all that fun...

Woke up from a nap, and finished Dracula. Putting some proto-type plastics on, and a hole guard, kinda of a pain, but it worked out well. I've got some ideas on how to approach the whirlwind guards so i'm well on my way. Tomorrow is some time at the park with my son, and maybe some more pinball work.

Rain Rain Rain Sunny

Haven't ridden or excercised in about a week because of the rain. That's not a real excuse, but this AR training session in San Diego is this Saturday. I'll try and get a run in tonight. and maybe Thursday. I don't want to be doggin it.

Finally got to see some video footage of the Tsunami. As a surfer, I was thinking there was someway people could survive that, but looking at the amount of water, churn and debris - people were getting tossed. That was a huge amount of brown foamball at least the Thailand one was 20 feet high and coming in real fast, those poor folks on the beach never had a chance.

Finished LOTR ROFTK on PS2, nothing to do but play games when it's raining. Trying to sell some games to get space back, hopefully it goes well on this Marble Madness sale today.

Sunday Ride

Training notes:
So I and another outdoorsclub.org member decided to forego the group ride at 2:30 p.m. in an effort to avoid the rain. It was a good call. We got in 18 miles starting at cook's corner all the way up to old camp and back down to through the luge. It was a good hard ride and I'm glad we pushed it all the way to old camp. The stream/falls were going off and it was real scenic.

Other than that, not much else....

New Year's Day

New year's, pretty uneventful. My resolution is to take it easy this year. No house remodelling, no large scale purchases, no stress. I just want to train and race, and play with my arcade machines and pinballs, oh and a little bit of work wouldn't hurt either.

Training notes: Went for a 5 mile run with my 3 year old on his bike. What a trooper he is, he did the whole ride with only me pushing him on some steeper up hill parts. He fell once pretty hard. He uses dragging his toes as brakes (he hasn't figured out the foot brakes yet). This time his foot got caught under the training wheels, handlebars turned and he did a hard face plant. I expected him to get up with two missing front teeth and a bloody mouth or some road rash on his face, but that was not to be... He got his hands out in time and the visor of the helmet took the brunt. Little bit of crying, not tears, a hug and we were on our way again. I'm a firm believer in helmets for kids, it's a wonder all the riding I did as kid, I never cracked my skull open (knock on wood). Anyways, kaleo did the whole 5 miles, what tough kid.

Arcade notes: Wow, this Whirlwind has been a tough and expensive project... Bad/improperly installed opto on the drop target, 2 pop bumper rebuilds, all 3 flippers rebuild, diverter wiring fixed, a/b relay problem fixed which caused all the coils to fire incorrectly, new fan/blower installed, plastics relaced. This thing is actually playable now after some big $$$ and hours put in. Glad to have it in the collection. Terminator 2 and Arabian nights had the flashers all fixed, ironically both machines had connectors in the wrong spot, taking out quite a few bulbs, both are 100% operational now. PinBot resets have been fixed, re-capped the whole power board, new bridge rectifier and all is well again. It was a big source of frustration.

Anyways glad all my pins are working now. I like playing them, not really working on them. I'm still two cabinets too many, I need to make space, tough part is deciding which games have to go.