The CAP Job

Tonight after work I stuck around with my cohorts Scott the Canuck and Luis a little late to perform a CAP job on Scott's dvd player.

Now this is not ordinary DVD player, but a really sweet model with a big hard drive inside to record video. Recently it went KAPUT. It would no longer boot up, rendering it useless. It's display showed only the taunting phrase "Please Wait".

So Scott and I made a run to Radio Shack to buy some replacement capacitors and some various and sundry soldering related items.

After work we started the CAP job...the job of desoldering some bad capacitors (you can see the two bad ones with split open tops in the pics below) on the dvd's circuit board and soldering in the new replacement capacitors (new light blue ones in the pics below). It was our hope that this would resolve the dreaded "Please Wait" phrase and put this beauty back in service.

Luis and I worked the soldering iron and used a little vacuum operated tool to remove the old solder. Scott did his best to fetch us snacks and drinks, dab our foreheads with a cool rag and stay the hell out of our way!

We then fitted the new, more robust capacitors and soldered those into place.

Finally, we reassembled everything and faced the moment of truth. Would the DVD player finally work again, allowing Scott to record and copy content illegally as he so desired?

The answer...HELL YES!! We plugged in the power and after about 30 agonizing seconds the DVD player booted back to life! Yeah, you can take your $130 repair fee and stick it Panasonic! $4 worth of capacitors at Radio Shack and a little patience did the trick!

Trouser mending with Button Boy

Hi there boys n girls. This is your friend Button Boy! Tonight I am going to show you how to mend a pair of trousers by replacing a missing button.

Lots of people might think you perform such an activity using old fashioned thread and a hard to control needle. "NO WAY!" says Button Boy. I prefer the high tech method of trouser repair.

Enter the BUTTONEER!!! Handcrafted from space age plastics and surgical steel, this miracle of modern engineering makes quick work of the tiresome job of trouser repair.

Load one of the sturdy and resilient fastener clips into the rugged BUTTONEER feed mechanism. Slip your button onto the two RAZOR SHARP Buttoneer fabric piercing protuberances and push them through the fabric in the desired location. Note how easily these razor sharp protuberances glide through the fabric. Are you thinking hot knife carving through butter? I sure am!

Take a gander at the pics below and marvel at the beauty of the BUTTONEER! Button Boy gives the BUTTONEER a Big Thumbs Up!

From the Great Plains to the Southeast

Here's one of the BIG reasons I left Nebraska for Florida.....

Further sprucing of the Alfa Romeo 164L

Today I spent a couple hours in the garage/driveway fiddling further with the Alfa Romeo 164L. Friday I received the remaining fuel injectors I had sent off a while ago to be reconditioned. So I spent a little while again disassembling the chromed intake runners and fuel rail and replaced the remaining old injectors in the car with the newly reconditioned ones. Now ALL 6 of the injectors are reconditioned, fully flow tested ones. The car starts, idles and runs beautifully :)

I also finished putting one of my XM/Sirius satellite receivers in the car. The radio in this car is of course rather old and somewhat antiquated, being a 1991 model car. So I am using a cassette tape player adapter to pipe the satellite receiver signal through the car's sound system. It sounds gd good too, I have to say!

A little nip out to Ormond Beach

I went for a nice motorcycle ride this morning with some riding chums. We headed out about 8:15 for Ormond Beach, with a stop at the Osteen Diner for breakfast.

Andrew (Ducati Monster), Marco (Moto Guzzi Griso), Rob (Kawasaki Vulcan), Rob (Suzuki Bandit) and I (Mighty Guzzi Breva) had a good ride, though it started off fairly cold in the mid 40's. Eventually it warmed up to around 60 or so. We stopped at the Ducati dealer in Ormond Beach, as well as J&P Cycles and the Harley Davidson dealer there. After that we stopped at the Moto Guzzi/Aprilia/Vespa dealer down the road. I test rode a really neat bike with an automatic transmission called an Aprilia Mana. Very nice!

On the way back, Marco got stopped by the fuzz for going 70 in a 50 zone. However, Marco is an attorney and he works with the police so he carries a badge in his wallet. I don't know if that made the difference, but all he got was a cheerful warning and a Merry Christmas from the officer :)

By the way, the big oil slick in one of the pics below was not from our bikes. I think maybe there was a Harley parked there before we arrived :) Heh, just kidding!

Two years with the Breva

Today marks 2 years since I bought my 2006 Moto Guzzi Breva 1100. She passed 29,100 miles the other day. The Breva has been a GREAT bike, taking me to California and back and many other places across this great country with nary a whimper.

Gator Bound!!

Myself and two of my good buddies, Paul "Slacker" Miller from Ohio and Mike "Stal" Caniglia from Nebraska are going to the Gator Bowl on New Years Day!

The Nebraska Cornhuskers (8-4) will be squaring off against the Clemson Tigers (7-5) in Jacksonville, FL.

GO HUSKERS(?)