I'm going to be driving to East Tennessee at the end of the week. Looks like it's about a 13 hour drive. My car is getting pretty old, but running fine, except the blinker doesn't blink at the moment. As, I suppose, with any older car the fluids often need topping off. At the moment I'm having the most concerns with the coolant. About a month ago I had to refill it a bit sooner than I expected. I topped off the power steering, and checked the oil as well. The oil was way high. I had just had it changed a couple weeks before that. I was thinking that it wasn't burning/losing oil. If I had checked it after 5000 mi like I usually do I might have thought it wasn't losing oil, as having checked it last week I can tell that the level is going down. Good thing I checked it after 2000 or so miles. I guess it's OK to overfill it. I wonder if they filled it high intentionally because they know she's got some miles on her. In which case that would be rather considerate.
I remember that when I topped off the coolant I wasn't sure that I had filled it too the max level, but I figured it is good enough for now. I also remember thinking that I might think it had gotten worse if it alarms again earlier than expected, but I brushed it off. Well, sure enough, it alarmed last week just before my long trip. I refilled it, but even given my recalling the earlier circumstances I remained a bit worried. I checked for puddles underneath the car and found a large one on Friday (but it may have been there before I parked there). I checked the level and it was down, but at a time when the engine was cold (I had filled it when it was warm). This morning I checked underneath where it had been parked and didn't see much. It had been raining but it had dried some and I think I could still tell. There might have been a small patch, but nothing for certain. I then checked the level just after I got to work, and it is lower than I had left it but nothing dramatic. So, I guess it hasn't sprung a major leak. I also was concerned that it might be getting into the engine, but the oil looks fine, not sludgy. I don't think it's to the point where I wanna put oatmeal into the coolant system to plug any small leaks, but I've started thinking about it. They must have some coolant additive for this kind of problem. I guess I should buy another bottle of coolant for the trip...
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
New Sign on the GCP
The sign, located just west of the Queens-Nassau county border on the westbound side of the Grand Central Parkway is wrong. It indicates that the distance from there to the Queens Blvd exit is 4 miles, but it is more like 7 miles. It also indicates that the distance from there to the Laguardia Airport exit is 8 miles, but it is more like 11 miles. This is one of those new signs they are putting up that give readouts of how long it is taking to get to these exits, the readouts are not active last I checked. If they moved the sign 3 miles west it would be correct.
About these new signs. How do they measure this time? Do they use the easy pass transponder to track people? What if someone exits the road and then gets back on it? Is this taken into account?
About these new signs. How do they measure this time? Do they use the easy pass transponder to track people? What if someone exits the road and then gets back on it? Is this taken into account?
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Wednesday Evening's Fare
I had a tuna salad sandwich last night. The tuna salad was composed of Mayo, chopped onions, a chopped jalapeno that had turned mostly orange, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, and a good squirt of of sirrach. I put it on toasted beefsteak soft rye from the refrigerator. As often happens with refrigerated bread, which can reduce the moisture content, the rye toast was borderline burnt. I put some baby arugula on top of the tuna salad. I cut the sandwich in half on a very slight bias with the shorter of the two Cutco knives I have. This was bumble bee chunky white albacore in oil I believe. The tuna salad wasn't bad. The jalapeno had somewhat of a kick to it, it was a little light on mayo, but the flavor of the tuna was good so I'm not sure if that's a bad thing. In hindsight, I should've put a little dijon mustard into the mix, perhaps. The toast was pretty burnt, but not so much as to rip the roof of my mouth up too much, so that's a plus. I do like nice color on my toast, but not so much that it falls to pieces when any sort of pressure is applied.
An hour or two previous to the sandwich I had some salsa made with the larger sized can of Del Monte Tomato sauce. I had the idea to make salsa from this tomato sauce over the weekend. I normally get the smaller can, and eat the contents out of the can with chiles mixed in, but this can is a bit large for that, so I was wondering what I could do with it. The purchase of the larger can was on the spur of the moment, it was a bit of a stretch. I was sitting on the couch when the idea came to me. A smooth salsa can be one of my favorite types, and this sauce is smooth. It's a plain, basic tomato sauce, kind of like thick tomato juice. Has quite a bit of salt. I had some jalapenos, a half of an onion in the fridge, some garlic (from Key Food, i.e. - not the greatest, but recently bought)...and I had some Doritos, which I'm a big fan of with salsa. Anyway, I regretted the lack of cilantro but I made the salsa anyway. I tried it with Doritos, it was ok, but not as good as Tostitos, a bit too thin, and still not very spicy. I figured I'd put it in the fridge for the flavors to meld as I wasn't very hungry. Instead of putting it in a plastic container, like the ones you get for a large hot and sour soup or 2 lbs. of potato salad, I just left it in the dish I made it in and put aluminum foil on it.
Last night, when I went to check it out, I took the foil off and I noticed it was partially frozen, which is fine, I have a microwave. I don't like salsa too cold anyway, so the microwave thing could really work out. So, I put it in the microwave and warmed it up. Funny thing is that after it was warmed up and stirred around it still stayed pretty thick. I also mixed a healthy portion (1/4 tablespoon?) of the African Bird Chile powder that I purchased at the Dual Specialty store a couple months ago into it. I had a good portion of it with Doritos, though there's still some left. It was better than it was over the weekend (last night was Wednesday), still don't understand exactly why it got so much thicker. Do onions and jalapenos have pectin?
My beer of choice last night was Magic Hat #9, the usual.
I had a haagen daz almond crunch coffee ice cream pop between the salsa and the sandwich, but after I had finished the six pack.
An hour or two previous to the sandwich I had some salsa made with the larger sized can of Del Monte Tomato sauce. I had the idea to make salsa from this tomato sauce over the weekend. I normally get the smaller can, and eat the contents out of the can with chiles mixed in, but this can is a bit large for that, so I was wondering what I could do with it. The purchase of the larger can was on the spur of the moment, it was a bit of a stretch. I was sitting on the couch when the idea came to me. A smooth salsa can be one of my favorite types, and this sauce is smooth. It's a plain, basic tomato sauce, kind of like thick tomato juice. Has quite a bit of salt. I had some jalapenos, a half of an onion in the fridge, some garlic (from Key Food, i.e. - not the greatest, but recently bought)...and I had some Doritos, which I'm a big fan of with salsa. Anyway, I regretted the lack of cilantro but I made the salsa anyway. I tried it with Doritos, it was ok, but not as good as Tostitos, a bit too thin, and still not very spicy. I figured I'd put it in the fridge for the flavors to meld as I wasn't very hungry. Instead of putting it in a plastic container, like the ones you get for a large hot and sour soup or 2 lbs. of potato salad, I just left it in the dish I made it in and put aluminum foil on it.
Last night, when I went to check it out, I took the foil off and I noticed it was partially frozen, which is fine, I have a microwave. I don't like salsa too cold anyway, so the microwave thing could really work out. So, I put it in the microwave and warmed it up. Funny thing is that after it was warmed up and stirred around it still stayed pretty thick. I also mixed a healthy portion (1/4 tablespoon?) of the African Bird Chile powder that I purchased at the Dual Specialty store a couple months ago into it. I had a good portion of it with Doritos, though there's still some left. It was better than it was over the weekend (last night was Wednesday), still don't understand exactly why it got so much thicker. Do onions and jalapenos have pectin?
My beer of choice last night was Magic Hat #9, the usual.
I had a haagen daz almond crunch coffee ice cream pop between the salsa and the sandwich, but after I had finished the six pack.
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