Leinninger.com

From the field...

For What It's Worth...

June 6th, 2016:
Thoughts and Regrets Regarding Storing Cars

The registration tag on my 1989 Firebird expired in 2000. That’s not to say that I haven’t driven it since then… I have, but only to relocate it. That stock 305 cubic inch engine generated only 170hp… nearly bested by my 1998 4 cylinder Subaru (165hp and a whole lot lighter). Well, I guess that explains why I wasn’t driving it much. To further complicate things, I bought my 1999 Camaro in 2001… and there was really no competition. I still love my ’89, but haven’t driven it much.
Firebird Uncovered

To be honest, the same goes for my Camaro. Both have been resting in my backyard workshop. I did my best to prep them for long term storage: battery tenders, fresh oil, fuel stabilizer, fresh antifreeze, etc. I even placed a moisture absorbing container of desiccant in each of them. Car covers protected their paint. I did some things wrong and knew better. I left them both on the ground, surely (temporarily) flat-spotting their tires. I accidentally left the passenger window cracked in my Camaro, leading to mildew on much of the interior leather… and apparently a few mice visited occaionally. I didn’t start them up every month to let the engines run. About 2 weeks ago, I figured that it was time to clean out my shop before the newest addition to our family arrives. Then I figured I should take it a step further and actually reorganize and insulate my shop… and that meant moving my long neglected f-bodies around. Uncovering them, I was impressed that they’ve held up so well despite my neglect. A trip (or 2) to the auto parts store and I was prepared to swap a battery (the Optima in my Camaro survived), change the oil and filter, flush the coolant, replace the trans fluid (in the Firebird… Camaro has a manual), replace the fuel filters in both cars and replace the fuel in the Firebird. Oil, coolant and trans fluid in my Firebird all went smoothly. The battery was dead, so I couldn’t fire it up… which was good because I needed to drain the fuel and change the fuel filter. All was going well until I got to the second fitting on the fuel filter: I twisted the solid fuel line. Dammit. Here ends the story for now. I will get parts to repair the line tomorrow and will likely start my Firebird for the first time in 6-ish years. Hopefully the next update will be less exciting, if that’s possible. Update 1: Firebird Update 2: Camaro

- Duane

April 25th, 2016:
Retro Computer Restoration

I’ve been spending a lot of time restoring some old computers. Why? Because I can! It’s kind of like restoring an old car, except it’s cheap and I actually use them instead of dusting them off with a diaper. Each has received a few upgrades or modernizations. Stay tuned to my youtube channel for some details coming soon.

- Duane

March 30th, 2016:
Baby!

IMG_1743While not news to most, I though I should finally update my blog and note that we’re expecting a daughter in late June! We’re both thrilled and terrified, thank you very much… Her room is almost together (painted and carpeted… furniture assembly in progress). Our house layout has changed a bit (moved the exercise equipment from the nursery to the den, and den furniture into the living room, and living room furniture into the basement bar). We have a short list of names, but will make that final decision when we meet her.

- Duane

May 8th, 2015:
Pets! Page Updated

I finally updated the pets page! Charlie and Charlize are now featured.

- Duane

May 1st, 2015:
I miss blogs, dammit.

I had an old blog and was pretty good at updating it. It used my personal framework instead of a mainstream, feature-packed system like WordPress. It was modular and linked to friends’ blogs. They were all pretty good at updating their blogs too.

What happened?

One explanation is simple: we don’t have time any more. We’re old. We have families to spend time with. There are more complicated hobbies to maintain. We write (good) code all day long and don’t need that special fix that we used to crave.

Another explanation? WordPress is less fun. It’s not my personal code sandbox. I don’t take pride in the feature set… I just download another plug-in and enable it. I don’t have friends providing feedback on what’s working vs. what could be better… and when they do, I don’t take it personally.

Does this post mean I’ll try harder to make blog posts? Maybe… but with the summer (and race season) starting soon, I make no promises…

- Duane

Devtroit