Tag: WRUP

Hello, My Name is WRUP

Good morning everyone and welcome to another weekend. This time it's Easter and April is indeed living up to it's adage of showers preparing to bring the May flowers. This is great because CA is dry AF and we'll take every little bit we can get. Hopefully this also means there's snow piling up in the high country because the snow pack is only like a third of normal last time I saw. So bring the rain, I say.

The only down side to this is that I had planned on starting the front end rebuild on my truck this weekend. I drive an '01 Dodge Dakota RT and it's a got a 360 V8 so the front end is a little heavier than the vehicle is really built for. A few months back I noticed my front tires really wearing improperly and it was starting to pull pretty hard to the right. After I took a look I noticed that the lower control arm bushings were needing some care and that the boots on the lower ball joints were looking cracked and worn. I started acquiring parts beginning with upper and lower ball joints. If those fail your wheels will essentially fall off, so that's no bueno. Then I figured I may as well do front shocks if I'm going to have things apart already and I started looking at good polyurethane control arm bushings but held off for the time being. After some time I noticed that the right side lower control arm itself actually had a couple of places that were completely worn though where the bushings had failed and the metal shell was contacting metal to metal. This explained the hard right pull and some of the tire wear. So ultimately I just decided to buy lower control arms for both sides. They come with bushings and ball joints installed, so I'll have a couple of extra ball joints since I had already picked up a set, but that's okay. Then I decided that I may as well also pick up some new outer tie rod ends because they're probably taking extra wear with the control arms clunking around. I am not going to get upper control arm bushings yet. I may come to regret this decision but I've dumped something like $800 into the parts plus two new tires already. Speaking of tires, the current ones have been on for nine years and I'll be rotating the still good rear tires to the front and putting the new ones on the back. My truck is two wheel drive so it won't be hurting a transfer case and the deeper tread always goes on the back when you're doing two tires. That helps avoid over steer from the front end having higher traction. I'll keep an eye on the wear after replacing front end parts and if it all looks good then I'll match the two new tires with two more in a few weeks. After that I'll have get a new radiator because I found a hairline crack in the current one and with summer coming I just don't need to blow it up and be forced to get a new one at a potentially inconvenient time. Anyway, new control arms, bushings, upper and lower ball joints, shocks and tie rod ends plus two new tires for now. Once aligned that ought to make it drive a ton better. This rain has to stop first though because I don't have a covered space outside to work with, and frankly it's pretty miserable to work on cars in the rain anyway. Can't keep your hands warm. Read more

Some WRUP In Your Cup

Welcome everyone, to a new weekend and a lovely spring morning. Yesterday it was 85 degrees and boy is ever too early in the year for that. But don't worry, by Monday here it'll be in the low 40s and rainy -perhaps snowing. I shouldn't complain. By the middle of June I'll be wishing the days were only 85. So I guess I'm just a middle aged dude talking about the weather on the internet while I drink coffee. Let's change that. Read more

And It’s WRUP April Fools Kinda

Good morning everyone and welcome to April. Yesterday was the first and there were no shortage of joke headlines to be had. But before we get to that, hopefully everyone's doing well this early weekend. I, myself, have begun spring time outdoor cleanup and fire clearance. Doing so has been both productive and frustrating as my walk behind field trimmer took very little maintenance to get up and running, yet after a couple hours of work decided it was no longer interested in starting. The riding mower took a little more as I needed to change the rear tires, but was running shortly afterwards. Unfortunately I also found a fuel leak and needed to change fuel lines and filter. Then it was running badly thanks to a bad breather tube so that too had to be replaced. Now I actually think the starter is bad because it will barely turn the engine over, even with a good whack, which is a legit way to un-stick a stuck starter. So hopefully this weekend I'll be able to cannibalize a starter from another riding mower that has a bad rear end and we'll be back to riding and mowing. But in between working out bugs a lot of work has also been done so at least there's that. Read more

A Nice Cup of [WRUP]

Saturday is upon us. All upon us. This morning is frustrating for me. I awoke several times during the night with the dog whining and pacing around. I more or less figured there were raccoons out or something but when I got up this morning I soon understood what was up. Someone around here has a big black lab mix and he comes around and plays with my dog from time to time. Unfortunately I've also caught him stealing the cushions from the deck furniture in the past. So what it looks like is that he paid us a visit last night and not only stole the last cushion from a deck chair but also took laundry off the line and chewed it up and destroyed a rolling chair that sits on the deck. I walked down my mountain bike trail and found a towel or two, a bed sheet and the seat cushion from the deck chair torn to shreds. I would even suspect a bear or something if it wasn't for the cushion. This same dog has, in the past, stolen outdoor dog beds and chewed them up in my driveway. I've caught him doing it. I'm sure of my suspect. The problem aside from the property destruction is that he won't come near me when I do catch him in the act so that I can check his collar for a phone number to call. Calling animal control is also more or less pointless unless I manage to catch and hold him. But I also don't want him to go to doggy jail for being a dog. Then again I don't want him hit by a car either. He usually comes from the road suggesting his home some distance away and not a neighbor just a few acres from us. Conundrums eh? Read more

Gonna WRUP This Up

Hey everyone, good morning as I sit here before 7:00am for some reason to write a WRUP. It looks like my area is expecting some much needed rain today which is fantastic because we're still in this drought in CA and the two major storms we've had all winter haven't done it. This won't either but it'll feel good to wash the atmosphere down a bit. Man I'm boring today. Just a middle aged dude talking about the weather to a bunch of people on the internet. Read more

Stuff and Things for WRUP

Good early morning everyone and welcome to the third month in our year of the WRUP 2022. I don't know about you but I have more less fallen ass deep into the tarnished Elden Ring hole... you know what I mean. I'm playing a lot. I don't know how it's even possible but I have over 70 hours in the game already. If I'm not working, I'm farming runes or finding bell bearings or farming runes and new gear from some wandering knight or just exploring the beautiful world. I love it so far. I say 'so far' like 70 hours isn't enough to really know. Anyways, let's looks at the WRUPses.

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