Spring has returned to Terre Haute, and that can mean only one thing: an insatiable longing to go outside and have fun. Preferably with friends. Ideally with some sort of mechanized device.

Certain things about me surprise those whom I’ve know for significant amounts of time. My Minnesota friends (and my parents) were truely shocked that I joined a fraternity. My Rose-Hulman friends are always surprised to find out that I’m an Electrical Engineering major, as opposed to CS (the usual first guess) or CPE. Everybody is surprised when I tell them that I know how to ride a motorcycle. I feel that one must diversify to truely enjoy life.

For the second day in a row, the mercury climbed into the 70’s in Terre Haute. Of course, that means two things: Shorts and a car wash. Happily, I indulged in both.

After seeing We were soldiers this evening, I realized just how desensitized to gore I am. The only really gruesome scene in the movie was when a soldier’s charred skin slid off of his legs as he screamed in agony. There were other blood, violent scenes, but no others that really got to me. That said, I would never want to be in a situation to see such events firsthand.

Today I found the perfect way to get rid of old textbooks: Sell them on eBay’s Half.com. Compared to the wolves by the bookstore, Half.com is a goldmine. I already sold one of my books at the price I bought it for. Now that’s a deal!

It got pleasantly warm today in the Haute: about 63 degrees Farenheit. Spring is right around the corner.

I had a phone interview with Lexmark today. I think that it went well, but we’ll see if anything comes of it.

I added a neat feature over at BonnevilleClub, wherein members can attach photos to their Bonneville Registry entry. I think the feature is neat because it is a direct upload into a MySQL database. It’s easy to view the images, too. For example, here’s my car.

Seems that today was summarized with a bunch of "quickies," Slashdot-style.

Yesterday, I was at my friend Eric’s house. He had just received several new mods for his Grand Prix GTP, including a 3.25" supercharger pulley, 1.9:1 rockers, and a high-flow downpipe and cat. It seemed like a good time to install the downpipe/cat, so we commenced doing so. Postings on ClubGP indicated that it would take less than two hours to complete.

Originally, I think the plan was for Eric to be under the car, with me fetching sockets, wrenches, and such. One thing led to another, and eventually I found myself in Eric’s place, ripping off the old DP and putting the new one on. Not that I minded: I had a fun time doing it. The installation proceeded without any major setbacks, minus a run to Red Rooster and the Pontiac dealer for new bolts and gaskets. Once done, we fired it up for a test run. Remarkably, there were no exhaust leaks! The car seemed to breathe easier, too. It’s remarkable how fast that GTP can get up to speed on the freeway, a feat that I was able to experience from the driver’s seat. I’d never driven a FWD car with that much power, which made the experience that much more exhilarating. Fun times!

Ever since I got my Bonneville, it’s been plagued by a vibration in the steering wheel at speeds over 65 m.p.h. Running at over 75 m.p.h. was a jarring experience. When the right-front wheel bearing went bad, I thought that perhaps the new one would vanquish the vibration. It was not to be: though the wheel was much quieter, the vibration remained. I thought that the wheels were out of balance, so I had all four dynamically balanced. Did it fix the problem? Unfortunately, no. About the same time, I noticed that one of the front wheel studs was partially broken. I suspected this as the source of the vibration, but did not have (what I thought to be) the correct tools to replace it. And so it stayed.

Today I decided to attack the problem once more. I thought that perhaps one of the wheels was out of round and that rotating the tires would move the vibration, or perhaps even eliminate it. Seeing that Tires Plus had a special for rotations and oil changes, I committed myself. As luck would have it, they stripped one of the wheel studs (!) on the same hub that had the broken stud (They swore they had the clutch set at 80 ft-lbs. Riiiight….). Because of their air wrench faux pas, they offered to replace both faulty wheel studs free of charge. I authorized the work, and soon the work was completed. After checking that each wheel had five lug nuts, that the locking lug key was still present, and that the engine had oil in it, I proceeded to drive briskly along the freeway, northbound.

Let me tell you, it was bliss. Cruising along with traffic at 83 m.p.h., with a buttery-smooth ride, is utopic. I was finally rid of the nasty, steering-wheel jarring, teeth-chattering movement I had parleyed with so long. Doing something so simple and having such a wonderful result is pure ecstasy.