Cars
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Hunting Parts for a Kujira Crown
After owning a 1971 MS60 for a few years now, I can tell you one thing: It’s been pretty damn near impossible to find spare parts for it. After spending countless hours trying to find parts overseas on the internet (because there were almost none advertised in Thailand even last year) that I could afford to have shipped here, we lucked out. Parts sellers started advertising in Thai forums. So to start with, I’ve ended up with a shipment sold as a set: My car is not missing any of these parts, but these are in better condition(the guy who sold me the car aptly described it as “faded glory”).…
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Sure formula
Yesterday I slaved out in the hot sun, carefully detailing our black car. After that, I watered the garden heavily because it looked dry. Today I woke to the sound of heavy raindrops hitting banana leaves. This is only the second time it’s rained in four months. The first time happened after I washed both cars. — I am a level 3 shaman with powerful rain juju.
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Great Grandmother’s House in Surin
Justin Yoshida’s location@11:00am,1/3 http://m.google.com/u/m/BiQc8d
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About 3 hours to Chiang Mai
Justin Yoshida’s location@2:26pm,12/26 Huai Rai, Den Chai, Phrae http://m.google.com/u/m/AL6Y8s Everybody warned us about the long, windy mountain roads on the way to Chiang Mai, but they aren’t bad at all. I guess it’s because there isn’t a hill in sight standing on the tallest building in Maha Sarakham (my uni’s admin building). I’m moblogging this and eating with Mina right now, and we are in the windiest roads of the whole trip. The scenery in these mountains looks a lot like Japan, except for the abundant banana trees. I’d rather be sliding around these corners in my old Silvia with speakers blaring ADF instead of bouncing around in a university…
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Car update
The Crown is running better than it ever has before. The problem wasn’t the alternator. It was missing six little spring-loaded push pins that bridge the tops of the spark plugs with the coil packs. Having this fixed after trying to figure it out for two years is indescribably liberating. The other car is still in the shop, awaiting new boots for the right side A-arm. Today is the king’s birthday, so everything is closed; repairs will continue tomorrow.
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Two batteries, two alternators, one radiator
We’ve been having a run of bad car luck as of late. A couple weeks ago, a cop from Khon Kaen backed into our parked Cefiro and broke off the front license plate holder. Nam saw it happen from the pediatrician’s clinic across the street where she had taken Max for a booster shot. She took it to my pal Ot’s shop and got it replaced (on the cop’s dime, of course). The very next day, I lightly clipped a scooter that was running the wrong way down the street and crossed in front of me as I was waiting to turn out. The young female rider must have known…
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The Accidental Motorcycle Thief
The other day, I wanted to go for a quick lunch at the canteen (cafeteria), so I asked one of the students interning for the Japanese course if I could borrow her scooter. She gave me the key and told me where it was parked, along with a description. She said the license plate number was 85, and that it was a 100cc Honda Wave, with a manual transmission, in gray. I found the 100cc manual Honda Wave almost immediately, but noticed that the license plate was actually 58 and that it was blue with gray accents. I chalked it up to the student remembering it wrong, or me hearing it…
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Gymkhana at L’Autodrome
With over 16 million views, I’m obviously one of the last car nuts to see this, but it’s admittedly awesome: The first rule of drifting is: DRIFTING KILLS (TIRES*) I was laughing at his shifter until I realized it was the side brake lever (he’s using paddle shifters). *VERY QUICKLY
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sunny rain
A couple weeks ago I was engaged in the never-ending battle to figure out why my Crown hates running cold so much (Next step: Replace coil pack and plug cables, plus various tweaking with components expensive to replace but cheap to check/clean). I took her out on the Sarakham bypass that’s close to our house and runs for a couple unimpeded kilos in a straight line. It was a glorious sunny day, dry and hot, and I was running with all four windows open. As I started up the bypass, it suddenly started raining, though there was hardly a cloud in the sky (weather like this always reminds me of…
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Daddy needs money for a new clutch
Luckily, a rush editing job came in and daddy is going to do an all-nighter. Mommy took the kids to grandma’s house and our house is quiet and lonely. Max’s new fish and newer freshwater crab are playing tag, but more about that later when I have more time. Daddy is doing a job related to the Rockefeller Foundation, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the ROC (“yeah, number one clique here”), yo.
