"Murphy was an optimist!"
Beautiful Sunday Morning December 4, 2011 10:26 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Transportation, TravelThe weather is great. I so wish I could be working on the playhouse, the real house, and the yard but instead I’m at Firestone getting new tires on the van and programming on a client’s website.
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Megabus expands to Chattanooga and Atlanta from Knoxville October 26, 2011 9:41 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Transportation, TravelWoohoo! Can you say weekend jaunt to the aquarium!
The bus system, which started five years ago and books passengers using an online ticket-selling system, will begin making twice-daily trips from Knoxville to Chattanooga and Atlanta on Nov. 16. The company said customers can begin booking travel Tuesday at www.megabus.com.
My daughter has taken the Megabus to New York City. It’s cost effective and works great. I will definitely be planning a family weekend in Atlanta and Chattanooga soon.
See also: The Megabus has Arrived in Knoxville!.
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Evening Project July 31, 2011 7:59 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Transportation, TravelFriday evening was an important project. I replaced the brake calipers and master cylinder on one of our cars. Video for that didn’t go so well.
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What does a teenage girl do to a car? March 28, 2011 10:56 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Of Being Dad, Sarah, Transportation, TravelOr maybe the question should be "what doesn’t a teenage girl do to a car?" Because the answer would be "maintenance."
Today the inside of the Jeep was drenched. I look at the Neon parked in the driveway and recognize that I have not inspected it in quite some time. My simple instruction to the teenage driver was "Make sure it has oil and tell me when any problems arise." I once drove it an eon ago to find that the speedometer worked…sometimes. So this teenage driver was guessing how fast she was going. How she avoided tickets was beyond me. With a little research, I learned it was a common problem among the Dodge Neon’s and the fix was to remove the instrument panel and resolder the connections. She claims to have had no problems with the speedometer after that but the fact she never told me about it in the first place should have been a clue about how future problems would be addressed (er, ignored).
First thing I noticed this morning? No oil! 2nd? Check engine light. The inside of the car is filthy. The trunk/boot is full of what appears to be half Goodwill, a quarter stuff sent home from the grandparents, and 1/4 teen’s stuff. A positive! The tires look great. A negative. The transmission slips (you’d think she’d mention that one). Oh, and the windshield wipers are worthless. But it did perform well on the Interstate.
I suppose if I were a better father, she and I would have spent many a weekend together performing maintenance on the car. Teen driver 2 approaches so I’ll have a chance to do better.
Update 29-March: Changed the oil today. Discovered the transmission had no fluid whatsoever. Not even sure how the car was moving.
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My Family Needs a Bus March 2, 2011 8:30 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Family, TransportationVolkswagen is bringing back the microbus!
It’s powered by an electric motor and uses an iPad to control the entertainment system, climate control and other functions. Volkswagen said the Bulli can go up to 186.4 miles on a single battery charge. That’s far, considering that the Nissan Leaf is rated at 73 miles on a charge by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Bulli can go up to 87 miles per hour.
[Source, MSNBC, Hippies rejoice! VW unveils new version of microbus]
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This should happen in every traffic jam February 19, 2011 10:38 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Humor, Of Interest, Transportation, Travel, VideoWhen the roads slow to a crawl..DANCE!
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18 hours of ice January 13, 2011 1:15 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cathy, Daily Life, Evan, Family, Of Being Dad, Sarah, Transportation, TravelSo in the past 18 hours:
- My wife couldn’t get off our street due to ice
- Our friend managed to get onto our cove returning our son 11pmish but couldn’t get out
- My neighbor had to use 4 wheel drive to escape the ice
- The postman slid into a neighbor’s yard
- My father-in-law had difficulty leaving the street
- My 17 year old daughter slid her car into our retaining wall and had to climb out the passenger side
- My 17 year old daughter took our van to pick the 5 year old up from school
Waiting with bated breath to hear that the 5 year old makes it home safely and that the van survives.
Oh, and btw, secondary roads in Knoxville are still precarious. This is why schools get canceled.
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I am the gas fairy, goo goo g’joob January 9, 2011 11:09 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Cathy, Daily Life, Family, Transportation, TravelWhen I notice the van running low on petrol (gasoline), I attempt to secretly refill the tank so that Cathy is frequently surprised with a full tank of gas. Yesterday she found herself stranded at the mall because the van refused to start. She claims she was out in the cold for an hour and a half. I arrived and after some futzing with the van the engine roared albeit roughly and with a warning light. Eventually we found our way to Autozone whose computer reported that the MAF/MAP sensor was overloaded. Great, sensor replacement time. Wait a minute! Hadn’t seen this before? Oh… yes. I walked out the door to the van, removed the gas cap, and replaced the gas cap, the warning light faded away, and the engine ran smooth. See, in modern vehicles, the fuel system is often pressurized so if the gas cap is not sealed well, like it’s crooked, then the engine has problems getting fuel.
n.b. The gas fairy does indeed sound like a walrus.
Tl;dr The van wouldn’t start leaving Cathy was stuck in the cold for an hour and a half because I put the gas cap on crooked.
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The Megabus has Arrived in Knoxville! November 17, 2010 11:14 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Transportation, TravelWe recently took 5 of our 7 member family to Washington DC for the Rally to Restore Sanity. The round trip plan tickets were roughly $250 per person bringing just the airline cost to $1200. Had we brought the two older boys, the cost would have been $1700.
Knoxville now has a new travel service. Megabus! Tickets are on sale now and service starts December 15th. I just ran the cost of a trip identical to our flight to DC and it came to $27 for 7 people. That’s not $27 per person per way. That’s $27 round trip for the entire family! $7 from Knoxville to DC and $20 from DC to Knoxville. That’s a savings of $1670! The trip time doubles from 5 hours to 10 hours each direction but you don’t have to get naked, irradiated or groped to ride the bus. Plus the double-decker bus has free wifi for the entire trip! You could work or play the entire 10 hours.
Megabus.com is the first, low-cost, express bus service to offer city-to-city travel for as low as $1 via the Internet. Since launching in April 2006, megabus.com has served more than 4 million passengers throughout 28 major cities in the Midwest and Northeast.
Our luxury double deckers offer free wi-fi, panoramic windows and a green alternative way to travel. Meticulously maintained with professional drivers at the wheel, when you travel with us, you will be riding in comfort and confidence. We provide low-cost and reliable bus services serving 28 cities from two hubs at New York and Chicago. We offer the highest level of comfort and safety and look forward to serving you!
Imagine the possibilities! Date night in DC. Out of town Tweet up in DC (can your virtual friends stand you IRL for 20 hours?). Holiday shopping in New York City (adds 5 hours each way…30 hour round trip). Business meetings on the bus that culminate in a night on the town in DC. Oh, I’m excited!
See more at Knoxnews.com.
UPDATE: Look for more of these services in a town near you. Here’s Chinatown Bus covering the Northeast and New Century Travel which may just be a marketing site or affiliate of Chinatown Bus.
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Jeep Top- $572, Being Told to Wait Until Summer- Priceless November 6, 2010 11:51 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Transportation, TravelIt’s 38°F/3.3°C right now. Conversion by OnlineConversion.com.
My 1995 Jeep Wrangler, purchased November 1994, has the original spice softtop on it. Well, what remains of that top. Some of it is held together with duct tape. The driver’s side window has the zipper completely ripped out and is held half closed with zip ties. I keep expecting to be driving down the road and have the top just disintegrate around me.
Why haven’t I replaced this horrible top yet? It’s not procrastination. There are some areas of my life that I may appear to be a spendthrift, but there are others that I’m just cheap (usually revolving around myself) and frankly, despite appearances, the 15 year old top still serves its purpose.
Yesterday I gave in and decided to see if I could pay someone to replace the top. He explained the replacement top would be $572 plus $150 labor to install it. The labor will require 2 hours of work by 2 people and an ambient temperature of 72°F/22.2°C. I wonder if a junk yard has a Jeep with a hard top sitting around somewhere…
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Oh, so that’s what I’ve been doing wrong September 17, 2010 9:33 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Transportation, TravelIt took me nearly 2 years to get a freeze plug installed back in the engine and two weeks to change the brake calipers. Now I understand I should have dismantled the whole Jeep!
Props to Cathy for finding this on Makezine.
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Vroom Vrrroom August 16, 2010 10:50 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, House, Of Being Dad, Transportation, Travel
Wahoo! The Jeep is working again. See. I do my own brakes. The job is an hour or two tops. But this time I misplaced my Haynes manual, and forgetting that Autozone has repair manuals online for free, I grabbed some torque settings off a forum and ran with them. Buuut I grabbed the number 41 and decided the brake caliper bolts should be 41 foot-pounds but nooooo 41 newton-meters is what the forum was referencing. And 41 ft-lb is much more torque than the 30 ft-lbs that I should have been using. So at about 35 ft-lbs the bolt turned to butter and snapped. Ahhh! Brought me back to my freshman engineering classes at the University of Tennessee. We had this cool machine that would stretch metal bars until they thinned in the middle and snapped. Somehow we were supposed to associate numbers with the snapping but mostly I stared in awe at the great coolness. Anyhow, this is how the Jeep has looked for much of the past week:
My daughter is very pleased that I will no longer be commandeering her car! I’m sure it would have been Karate Kid uncool to have mom dropping the senior off at high school holding cars keys and a parking pass.
Update: Ride into client’s office went well today. The Jeep even stopped without having to run it into anything! I did catch a check engine light for a bit on the Interstate but after stopping at Starbucks the Jeep seems happier.
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Jeep Unburied January 16, 2010 7:22 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Transportation, Travel5 children, 5 schools, 1 car. Working from home certainly lends to making our lives function well. This week I find our schedule so unmanageable that we must have a second vehicle working. Knoxville public transportation fails to deliver a reasonable solution. This means getting the Jeep or the motorcycle roadworthy. Glancing down the driveway I’m embarrassed to see the Jeep with boards and pvc pipe piled on the roof, kites and other toys stacked on the hood, rusting bicycles lean against the bumper, a bent ladder waiting to be recycled rests against its side, and the whole mess is half covered in a blue tarp. What an eye sore!
Last night I unburied the Jeep. The odds that this vehicle will run again without major repairs is slim. But I shall try. In my mind, I have committed to converting this Jeep to an EV if I cannot get it running. I find thinking about Sarah driving to school for her senior year in a vehicle that doesn’t require gas someone amusing. For now, the Jeep is uncovered and the driveway looks a little better. Hopefully, I can find a key to the Jeep today and tomorrow I can try to jump start it.
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TN Continues to Make Dumb Laws March 10, 2009 7:45 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Politics, Regional Politics (SE), Touchy Subjects, Transportation, TravelMichael Silence notes that Sen. Jim Tracy is trying to pass legislation that would make it illegal to read or send text messages while driving. These nanny state laws treat symptoms and not problems. My comment on No Silence Here:
We don’t need a nanny state! We need better education. IF we would teach people how to use T-9 then they could text without looking at the phone! er, I mean if we taught people the importance of not texting behind the wheel. You know..give a man a fish..well if he were eating fish while driving that would probably be bad too. Maybe we need a law to ban eating fish behind the wheel. Yes! Definitely. And fishing licenses. When the police pull cars over they should check for fishing licenses because he might be planning on catching a fish to eat while driving and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen. That’s important. Important enough that we need to set up road blocks and check everyone’s fishing licenses!! But then people might send text messages warning about the road blocks. No, we outlawed text messaging behind the wheel so that would never happen of course neither would the eating fish behind the wheel because we outlawed that too so why do we need the road blocks? You know, the radio stations will pick up on these quickly. We should outlaw radios in the cars. Wait a minute, wasn’t there a time when legislatures feared car radios would cause too many accidents and deaths. What happened to outlawing radios? Wait another minute. At least 2 people died in his district while text messaging behind the wheel. I wonder how many died tuning their radio?
Things we need to outlaw to keep people alive:
spiders, aids, diving, earthquakes, buildings, sports, suicide (wait, that’s already illegal), alcohol, lightning, steps, cold, heat, cancer, tall places, bees, surgery, and sharks.
http://i28.tinypic.com/5v0v1d.jpg
The problem with these types of laws is that it does nothing to prevent the happening but only punishes if and when it is caught. To educate people to pull over, have a passenger do the texting, or just plain ignore the phone is a better use to time and tax dollars than more laws:
Republican Sen. Mae Beavers of Mt. Juliet opposed the bill because of provisions in the current law.
"I really don’t see the need for the bill," she said. "I’ve said time after time, I don’t think we can legislate against stupidity."
Furthermore, driving is a skill and not everyone has the same abilities. That is not a statement to justify one person texting behind the wheel while another doesn’t but to point out the people who are crossing the center line while texting may just as well be doing the same thing while reading a billboard, talking to a passenger, tuning the radio, or daydreaming. We have all done stupid things while driving. I bet everyone at one point has turned the wrong way down a one way street. I did in Memphis as a teenager. It scared me silly to see 3 lanes of lunch hour traffic barreling down on me. A law preventing me from going the wrong way on a one way street would have done nothing to prevent me from making that silly mistake..wait a minute..it is against the law to drive the wrong way on a one way street….oh.
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Infants Playing in the Street March 9, 2009 2:49 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Transportation, TravelNubbin Ridge is an old farm road turned into a two lane speedway. I recently had the pleasure of being told stories by a man who grew up in the area of baling hay on the Stooksbury farm which owned much of the land near Wallace Road (forgive me if I got the family name wrong). He spoke of the rolling land and forests that are long gone. Sprawl and shortsighted urban planning has turned Nubbin Ridge into a shortcut for locals avoiding congestion on Northshore Drive and Westland Drive. Nubbin Ridge still has those fun dips that if you want to gamble that there’s no cars or animals on the other side, and you hit the hill fast enough, it tickles your stomach like a roller coaster. Here’s the rub. It’s not a farm anymore. Most of the land has been partialed out and turned to residential neighborhoods. Children walk these roads, and ride their bikes because our urban planners have failed to connect the neighborhoods with sidewalks or greenway trails.
Today I crested a hill and my heart fell into my stomach. 50 yards ahead of me I saw a dog on the double yellow line. But no! It was not a dog; the living creature was an infant, a tiny infant who looked like she’d just learned to waddle on two legs. She moved from the double yellow, dead center of the road, to smack dab in the middle of the left lane and stood still. She was not in my lane but in the lane of oncoming traffic just this side of one of those tickle hills. In the distance I saw a car approaching. I stopped the van, turned on the flashers, and walked to the child trying not to scare her. I put my arms out, she opened her arms, and jumped into mine. As I carried her toward her home, the oncoming car zingged past my van without slowing down. A car in my lane approached and without hesitating to wonder why my van blocked its lane, zipped around my stationary vehicle. After handing the child to its mother I started back to my car. Two more vehicles rapidly approached showing no sign of slowing so I just put up my hand and stepped into the road forcing them to stop (and hopefully but doubtfully think), got in the van, and made a mental note to drive much slower on Nubbin Ridge from now on.
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