VW Syncro

I've owned a 1991 VW Syncro since new (bought and serviced at the dealer from the beginning outside of a few repairs at a local VW van shop), and over its life it's been reliable and durable, until it's not. In short, it's great until it breaks, which isn't very often.

But this last week has been the worst of it's life with more stuff to come. And it makes people ask, "So, why do you still own and drive it?" Remember, it's my sole vehicle so I have to keep it in running condition or I don't have transportation short of renting.

It started Monday when I went to Seattle for the appointment with the spine specialist (just south of the University (of Washington) district. I drove to Bremerton to catch the ferry downtown, then drive through downtown to I-5 to the university district and the clinic.

While going up University street in downtown about two blocks from the on-ramp the throttle cable snapped and the accelerator when flat to the floor. All I had was idle, and then only granny gear to get me up the hill, across the intersection to a red zone parkng (only parking I found).

The cable snapped at the motor end, so there's nothing to do except make some phone calls, to the clinic, "I ain't coming.", to the VW dealer, "I'm on my way.", and to the towing company, "Here I am and here's where I want to go."

While waiting the cop (they ride bicycles downtown) to ask why I was illegally parked there. I explained the situation and showed him the broken accelerator cable. He said, "You have an hour, otherwise, I'll call for a tow truck." The tow trucks showed up with 10 minutes to spare.

We got it to the dealer, but they couldn't get the part until just before the mechanics quit for the day, so it will be fixed Tuesday. There's an Enterprise Rental outlet about a mile walk from the dealer, so off to get a car and drive home.

They called Tuesday afternoon to say it's ready to pick up Wednesday morning. I did the same with the rental I did Monday with the van, turned the car in, walked to the dealer to get the van, made a few stops, and then drove home.

Thursday I drove the emission testing place in Tacoma. Washington requires an emission test alternate years from 5 to 25 years of the vehicle, and the van being 24 years old, was due for its last emission test and then it's free of them for life.

While waiting in line the radiator fan began making a loud noise. It's an electric fan you can't turn off except pull the fuse, which I found and removed. That done, the van failed the test by 1% over the hydrocarbon level at idle. It passed all the other tests except one (reading 405 versus 400 for the pass/fail level).

Really. They wouldn't give a retest sinc it took them 3 tests to get that one reading, or sign off a waiver as ok. Yeah, third time wasn't a charm this week. You're required to have an authorized emission specialist examine and diagnose the problem and either do the repairs or sign a waiver everything works but it's too expensive to repair.

The State requires you spend at least $150 for the specialist to diagnose the problem. It's extra if they make any repairs, like a new $300+ catalytic converter, tuneup, etc., or nothing if they sign off as unrepairable.

Remember it's its last emission test. I have an appointment Tuesday for the emission specialist. In the meantime I've been searching for a radiator motor/fan assembly (dealer can't find one in their global inventory) to take the van in for repairs.

So the van has two appointments, one for the emssion specialist then to go for a retest and to either pass or get a waiver by the testing company, and one for the radiator when I find all the parts. Fortunately, the van doesn't need the fan for cooling as long as you're moving and don't stop for too long to overheat.

It has a good cooling system so the fan rarely comes on except when it's stopped, turned off or it's hot out. It also needs two new rear tires, so that's on the list at the same place as the specialist. But now I have to find a radiator fan (ordered a new motor), so that's on the list, stop by local shops.

Anyway, that's the tale of the van this week. Overall the Syncro cost less than most new cars with payments, insurance, gas, etc. The difference is payments versus parts and repairs. The insurance is probably less being 24 years old, so it's a trade-off and just a personal choice of what you want to drive.

Saving Grace

As much as I live on a very restricted diet and often consider food my enemy, I've come to also realize it's my saving grace. Really, food is a double-edge sword that can make me sick and keep me well. Yes, really.

The trick is that after reading an article in the Sunday newspaper (read four of them, Washington Post on-line, and the New York Time, Seattle Times and Tacoma News Tribune in print because I like sitting down with big print newspapes) I realized an extreme food sensitivity has advantages.

The author was writing about the loss of real flavor in food with the food industry using some many tricks to make packaged food taste good but often not real. I realized I rarely eat a packaged food product anymore because I can't.

That's because almost every food in packaged food, and restaurant food for that matter where I rarely eat anymore (about once a year), have foods or ingredients which at best will leave me mildly sick overnight and at worst moderately to seriously sick for days.

My diet consists mostly organic or natural foods, including meats (ham and turkey), vegetables, fruits, etc. and the rest are organic or natural packaged foods with few ingredients, like mayonaise, peanut butter, preserves/jam, etc.

In short I don't eat the foods the majority of people eat. I have a simple diet which I stay with along with occasional "food experiments", which are foods not on the list to see if they're still off the list or they're on the three strikes they're out list.

When I get a bad reaction to any food, I don't eat it for awhile, then try it, and if it still makes me sick, I wait longer and try it again. If it makes me sick a third time, then it's, yeah, three strikes you're out (off the list indefinitely if not permanently).

But sometimes food experiments are foods, such as meat, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, etc. which are on the off list (FODMAPS or other rules, eg. "Nothing green or leafy") which I know provoke a reaction, so it's more to reaffirm what I already know.

Anyway, the point of this is that while the list of foods I can eat can be written on a 4"x6" postit note and almost all other foods are my enemy, my diet is my saving grace protecting me from industrial packaged foods, fast foods (yes, those too), and 99% of snacks, candy bars, drinks etc.

My food sensitivities are what's keeping me alive but also saving me.

Mountain Bike lessons

Each time I ride the Bridgestone MB-4 bike again, after a 15-year hiatus, I learn more about how to ride, again, and more about myself 15 years older. In short, I'm not as good as I was then, something I learned this week on my second ride.

I rode 6.5 miles round trip to town and back, a 3.5 mile route there with a variety of hills, from short and steep to long and low, and a the same 3 mile route home I took the first time. I learned my balance problems from my then pinched Sciatic nerve in 2012 haven't fully gone away.

I noticed it's hard to do something while riding I took for granted years ago, like looking back over my shoulder for cars (here it's the law that bikes are vehicles and required to follow the law as one, meaning ride with traffic and not on sidewalks unless necessary, something lost on many riders).

Anyway, while in town after crossing a major intersection (road has wide bike lane), I tried to look back for traffic before my turn ahead to see if any cars were signalling to turn too, I turned into the curb, and as expected, the front tire stopped and I tumbled onto the sidewalk.

I learned years ago never to try to break your fall with your arms or hands, it's a good way to break bones, especially your wrists. I learned to roll with the fall. I was wearing my backpack I use for walking for the stuff I carry which helped cushion the fall, but I took some skin off my right elbow and knee.

Nothing hurt, except a few sore muscles later that day, but it was the lesson I forgot about mountain bikes, you ride, you fall. I'm two for two now. Two rides, two falls. Both falls just being older and still reacquanting myself with the bike.

Anyway, that's the lesson so far. I still not very good, don't have the muscles for riding - have runner, walker and hiker's muscles than biker's muscles, and they remind me later. But it's good cross training and fitness, but something to do in moderation as it leaves a lot of sore and hurt muscles for now.

What I look forward to is riding this fall when the weather is cooler and not always sunny, even maybe rainy. The bikes fat off-road tires do ok in that weather as I used to ride on the closed roads they allow bikes in Mt. Rainier NP. But I'll need some lights so cars see me.

Bridgestone MB-4

In the early 1990's I  bought this Bridgestone MB-4 bicycle. I rode it for about 5 years, mostly in Mt. Rainier NP where they allow bikes, which are the paved and dirt roads (Westside Road) and the Carbon River trail to Ipsut Campground (just the main trail and no tributary trails).

After that I realized I don't have the leg muscles for riding bicycles, mostly have walker/runner legs muscles (slow twitch instead of fast twitch muscles), so I parked it and rode every now and then over the years but mostly it collected dust and flat tires.

This weekend I got it out, cleaned it, pumped up the tires and rode 3 miles to Starbucks in town and back, about half downhill and half uphill, from 240 ft elevation where I live to about 100 ft and back up to about 300 ft elevation (reverse ride home).

I won't aruge the big fat off-road tires and the quick turning makes it harder to ride on pavement, but I got myself there and back with only one tumble in soft gravel (wait, gravel isn't soft) with the result of a skinned knee from not getting my foot out of the toe clips fast enough.

The bike will be used more often now that I know I can ride to town and back to add to the walking or days I want a late afternoon or early evening ride. There's a bike/walk trail along the highway I can take beside the rural roads (many with wide shoulders for bikes).

The bike looks and works great since it's been little used in the past 15 years. Sorry I can't say as much about the body and legs. They're 15 years older and worse for wear.

A Mole

I live on the third floor of an apartment building with a gorgeous view from a 44" deck. I've also had between 12 and 16 planters of various sizes over the years. It started with one planter after my brother passed away to grow a Bristle Cone Pine for him.

Over time the number of planters grew and shrank as the weather took some plants each year and I decided to add or subtract them. I've always occasionally had birds visit the planters, after which sometimes I would put bird seed in the planters.

This summer I started feeding the birds but then lessened it over time as the summer changed into fall and then winter. I part it was due to the fact the larger birds, mainly Jays, started showing up and effectively trashing the planters.

I've also had squirrels (this is an area which was a forest and is surrounded by small forests between housing and commercial areas, meaning, no shortage of squirrels and chipmunks). They love digging for nuts they buried or thought they buried, where I sometimes find peanut shells in the dirt.

But this winter a small creature started showing up in the wee hours to get into the planters and dig in the dirt. At first I thought it was a rat of some sort, and after getting a trap to find it was always empty every morning, I discovered it was a mole.

We have some moles in the area between the building I live and the one just north, but I've never seen moles, but a juvenile one found my deck and the planters, and it came almost every night to dig in the planters.

I started putting aluminum foil over the planters without plants and slowly reducing the number of planters for the mole, but it always seem to find one to dig in and spread the dirt around the deck. After the birds and squirrels, I was cleaning the deck twice a week so I could walk on it without stepping in dirt.

The deck if 6' wide by 44' long which I put outdoor carpet over the rough marine finish (hard on the bare feet), so vacuuming the deck is tedious. So after consulting garden people as the various local home improvement stores, there was three choices to deal with the mole.

A trap, either trapping or killing it, wouldn't fit the planters. Repellent, which is for yards, would ruin the carpet and wood deck. And that left the last option, poison.

This was something I didn't want, but the mole was clearly coming to the deck almost every night and there was no way to stop it without removing all the planters, something I don't want to do right now because I don't have a place to put them, and likely it would return if I brought them back.

So I checked the one planter he always dug in and cleaned to put the pellets per the instructions where it would find them, and sure enough the next morning all the signs showed the mole ate all the pellets, and I haven't seen it since.

I regret having to do this and I know many home owners consider moles a pest not worth a second thought to kill, but it just seems unfair, for the mole who was only surviving and me who had no alternative to deter it.

Somewhere though a mole died without really realizing what it had done but find some good and tasty food, which was laced with a poison. He didn't deserve it.