Snowstorm Scavenger Hunt

Snowstorm Scavenger Hunt

Rules

• Points are awarded for any of the above that are spotted or experienced
• Repeat spotting or experiences count, and gaming the system is allowed
• The winner is decided by the team that accumulates the most points 
• Ties will be broken by leg wrestling match between the smallest member of each team

1 Point Each

• Hot chocolate
• Check weather twice in 10 minutes
• Dog/Cat refuses to go outside
• Smell of woodsmoke
• Unusual silence
• Nighttime glow
• Someone asks if tomorrow is a snow day 
• More hats are worn than are strictly necessary.

2 Points Each

• Snowman
• Snowball fight
• Spiked Hot Chocolate
• Do something you have been putting off instead of going outside
• Sledding
• Snow angel
• Mom calls, not to see if your ok, but really to see if you're ok.
• Cute pet footprints in yard

3 Points Each

• You're drunk
• Out of bread
• Out of milk
• Christmas carols after December, since it is finally white and snowing.
• Shovel snow
• Snow plow fills your driveway entrance just after you finish clearing it
• "Most fun day sledding ever." 
• Identify footprints in snow of animals other than domestic
• Dude(tte) grilling outside
• Snowboot stays put, but the owner kept going 

5 Points Each

• You are both drunk
• Snow is deeper than the top of your boots
• Someone shoveling in shorts and a t-shirt
• The sound of a leaf blower
• Spend time with your kids since it's snowing (vs. time with your screen, otherwise)
• Throw out your back
• Car battery that was fine last week is dead now
• Yellow snow
• Get hurt sledding 
• Out of beer already
• Snow storm has been given a name
• Someone slides/spins a car on purpose
• Snow down back of pants
• Footprints in snow lead to the perpetrator
• Run the snowblower/snow plow over the same spot more than twice in an hour
• Family photo in snow to commemorate the event 

10 Points Each

• Legible, 4+ letter word written in yellow substance
• Snow plow refuses to plow your street, calls for backup
• Cannot make out object 100 ft/33 M from window due to low visibility from blowing snow
• Snowball with a rock in it
• Newspaper jammed in snowblower
• Snow sculpture resembling genitals 
• Slip on ice and fall on your ass
• Some part of you is numb enough to operate on
• The roads are closed, yet the bar is full
• Interstate Highway is closed
• Sleep somewhere warmer than your bed
• Child's first snow experience
• It doesn't matter how deep it is, snow removal is the duty of only one spouse
• You find your headache isn't carbon monoxide poisoning: it's your family.
• Snow plow on a garbage truck
• Buses won't start due to cold
• Someone uses tire chains on their car
• Child decides to store as much snow as possible in the freezer
• Someone skis or snowshoes down the street
• All your cold weather gear is soaked, but you need to go out again
• Enjoy warmth form a heat source that does not have a thermostat
• Telecommunications utility outage
• Smores made or chestnuts roasted using fire

20 Points Each

• Geo Metro or Suzuki Swift, occupied by two or more teenagers, making good headway on unplowed/icey roads.
• Jeep or other off-road design vehicle in the ditch
• Marks in the snow from where your pets genitals are dragging
• Snow deeper than the top of pets head.
• At the time you finish clearing the driveway, you turn back and see that you can't tell that you did at the point where.
• Frost bite
• Someone rides a bike down an unplowed street
• Snow accumulates so quickly that kids are unable to return home and must stay at neighbors
• There's an igloo or quinzhee
• Pipe freezes
• Sled or person on skis towed by a car or truck
• Pay teenagers to shovel your property
• Governor declares state of emergency 
• A second snowstorm of equal magnitude predicted within 24 hours of the first.
• Walk to the store to get supplies or more booze
• Unable to make it to a hospital and without a midwife, someone gives birth at home or in a car.
• Snow is so deep now you'll probably just wait until spring.
• Find supercooled liquid that turns to solid at the slightest touch
• Break any accumulation, accumulation rate, wind speed, wind chill, or temperature record.
• U.S. Postal Service does not deliver
• Order a snowblower online to avoid the agony of shoveling ever again
• You're running out of places to put the snow
• Plow hits a car or a mailbox
• Warm alcoholic drinks are consumed
• Snow accumulation exceeds maximum predictions by accepted authorities by more than 6"
• Basic utility outage (water, gas, electric)

50 Points Each

• Avalanche
• Announcement is made that storm was predicted by religious, spiritual, or mystic figure, or that it is the result of climate change.
• Cars cannot be moved from their parking spots
• Someone knocks on your door searching for bread and milk
• The door is blocked by snow
• Plow hits fire hydrant
• Forget to turn off the car after warming it up, find it melted off completely and out of gas.
• Harley Davidson goes by on unplowed road
• A tree or building collapses due to snow load
• Ticket for not shoveling sidewalk 
• "Storm of the decade/century/millennium!"
• Snowplow driver compliments you on your shoveling job.
• Someone goes down the street on a snowmobile
• School or work cancelled for 2 or more days in advance
• President declares state of emergency
• Use of vacuum cleaner, or other device which was not designed or intended to move snow, to move snow
• The network news crew is spotted
• Spike in birthrate is noted by demographers 9 months after the end of the storm (teams must be prepared demand a recount to use this).
• HOA or Zoning Department letter saying your snow is not compliant and must be removed
• Snow being trucked out of the city and dumped elsewhere
• Someone decides to change career or life to avoid living in areas where it snows
• Snow accumulates on snow that is more than 8 months old 
• Old person does not remember it ever being this bad
• Hospital, Police, or Fire organization announce they are unable to cope
• Snow disaster exceeds one week in duration

NoVa Roller Derby, December 5, 2015, Super NoVas vs Capital Offenders

NoVa Roller Derby Super NOVAs vs DCRG Capital Offenders

December 5, 2015, Dulles Sportplex.
 

Nutcracker Puppy

If you press the secret button, he does this.

In Memory of Leaves

It was a long autumn that I missed completely, only getting to experience it teetering on the doorstep or sprawled on the couch. Will have to try again next year.

Need more Crass Bypass Gas: Iron Duke EGR Valve Swap

Or

The ChevOldsmobuiac's EGR valve finally died in a way that surprised me.

The majority of the A-body oldsmobile cutlass cieras on the road are demotivated by 4-cylinder Iron Duke engines.  The upshot is that the engine is shared with many other GM vehicles, including the S-10, Fiero, and of course, the Grumman LLV that your postman probably dreads driving at work every day, so there is a lot of information available about the care, feeding, and repair of the powerplant, even though there are many production line tweaks that can make swapping major components (heads chief among them) difficult if researched first.

The Haynes manual notes that the EGR Valves tend get carboned up and sieze. Part of my regular maintenance has been depressing the diaphram to ensure that the valve could actuate.
 
A few months ago, the Check Engine light started coming on after the engine warmed up (it seemed like after 15-30 minutes of operation... I could almost pick the intersection after a week of commuting), after the light went on, the engine would noticeably ping/rattle under moderate acceleration. While I initially suspected another faulty ECM module, reading the codes yielded a consistent bad EGR valve code (Code 44 also for lean exhaust).

Low and behold, with the engine at idle, the valve was fully closed, as could be felt on the back of the diaphram with engine air filter off.

Of note, the EGR valve on this car is completely mechanical: it is connected directly to the intake manifold and it is regulated by a pinhole orifice on the EGR valve body. It slowly opens and closes as engine vacuum changes: under idle, moderate accelleration, and coast, it is open. Under heavy load, it closes.


Detailed photos of the new valve:
The diaphram appears to be a silicone membrane.

Pinhole that regulates gas flow to the intake manifold.

Serial Number.

Exhaust goes into the round orifice and out the square one.

Closed position.

Open position. When you open the valve, the cover the vacuum nipple, it should stay open. Otherwise, there's a leak in the diaphragm.

The box it came in. Recognize the part number?

pnd

Old EGR valve exposed under the air filter snorkel. I should have covered the TBI, but I was on crutches with I did this operation, and wasn't interested in making a lot of trips.

Old EGR Valve. Interesting: Old part number does not match the new one. Hope this works.

Carboned up old valve.

I'm totally guilty of smearing a bit of antisieze on the port the last time I took off the EGR valve, because it was corroded on pretty well.

 Vacuum test the new valve one more time. It's kind fun, after all.

Side by comparison. Note: Hecho en Chine. I feel a little bad for whoever made the new valve, since they will probably never see any car that it is designed for. Then again, maybe I should feel happy for them, since all the cars they will see were made in this century.

Bottoms looks pretty similiar. Gasket is stuck on the old valve.

The swap was pretty trivial. It took about 10 minutes with a couple of different 13 mm wrenches to reach under the diaphram and navigate all the hardware on the top of the engine. I highly recommend a deep-offset 12 point, 13-mm wrench for this job. A flex head ratcheting gear wrench might also work, but I didn't have one to test. For completely visible bolts, they were awfully obscured.  With plain wrenches, you might have to disconnect the throttle cables to get enough swing to get the bolts out. This is not a good party for your socket set.

While you're at it, I suggest replacing the now very rusty bolts with new ones and putting a dab of antisieze on them. What possesses car makers to put iron bolts in aluminium parts is beyond me, and is certainly a sign that large portions of our engineering population failed basic chemistry.

In the end, the engine appears to be a lot happier. For a long time there's been a lingering burble/valve rattle sound that I now realize must of been pinging due to lean mixture. That sound is now completely gone. This engine does not have a ping detector, so this might be worth looking at if you have mysterious pinging. The EGR valve had to be very dead for the computer to turn on the check engine light.

Another note is that this probably means that you can't put a plate over the EGR valve on fuel injected engines without remapping the ECU to accept and adjust the mixture. I'm not sure how exactly the car knows the exhaust gas is missing from the mixture, but I'll be it has to do with a combination of manifold pressure and the position of the idle air control valve. Long story short: unless you know how to remap an ECU, getting a blockoff plate will not help you on the TBI engines. Since my EGR was failed in the closed position, it was functionally the same as a block off, and the computer remained unhappy and drivability was compromised by excess pinging.