Investigating.

I had to inspect Cubby's internals ASAP in case some treatment was required, happily the link chain appears fine, also the timing belt appears fairly recent so I'll leave that for a bit.
My manual indicates this engine has solid lifters and shims so to no surprise every single one was too tight, with no real clearance, Jimmy was disappointed as finding shim kits on-line seems to border on impossible.
With a heavy heart I tried a bit later with a thinner feeler and it slipped in easily, scratches head. Turned engine back over to the first set again and tight as buggery, hmm, wait a while and the feeler slips in easily. Oho they must be using hydraulic tappets with a standard shim, OK Jimmy lets put it back together and move on.
The Aussie market ones must have used hydraulic tappets to avoid complaints.
There was a bit of black carbon crud about the top end but I don't think I'll lose sleep over it.

Jupiter and Venus

Not great pics but I snapped these near Bowen on Sunday morning when I pulled up and had a quick hand held attempt with the Nikon P510. Not really worthy of posting but one of the joys of that trip was having cameras that get results without having to do much thinking, just let the camera do that, thinking is something that takes time. Venus is the crescent shaped blob. If I had more time I would have changed the exposure and used a tripod.
The other pics I've posted from the trip were with the new Sony RX100 which although expensive is quite a pocket sized marvel.

The new toy.

A bit more colour would be nice. Jimmy shall name it 'Cubby' partly for the green colour and partly for the storage pockets that abound.
As to the green link, Broccoli is green and those who know of James Bond 007 may grasp it.

Tilt train.

I stopped at the roadside near Bowen and grabbed some of the pretty countryside as well as the 'City of Cairns' tilt train that I knew was coming. Its cousin the 'City of Townsville' was damaged fairly decently when it fell over a few years ago, and I suppose with railways losing money and the state finances being empty they can't be bothered fixing or replacing it.

A last pic of Artie.

The sky looked good in the morning, the bright blob is Venus, the blob on the left is Jupiter, in between them is the star Aldebaran, and off to the far right is likely Rigel.

It was hand held so anything watchable is a win.

They must have seen me coming.

This about all I ever get to see on road trips now, stopped for road works.
20 years of neglect has resulted in a massive catch up.
For anyone planning on travelling on the Bruce highway soon, be warned there's about 200 km of wall to wall lollypop people between Gin Gin and Mt Larcom, and beyond.

Nothing ever goes to plan.

I've been slow of late because I've been in the mood for a new toy to play with, it was time to pension off Artie and find another, but as per usual disaster struck, the breather hose shown in the centre right of this shot came adrift and oil was sprayed throughout the engine bay, luckily though I had checked it reasonably early before the oil had all vacated its rightful home.

I found a bit of wire and surprisingly as bad as it looks, it held.
Real disaster struck later when I hit a pothole large enough that gravel pieces the size of Uluru would be required for filling. Always tough to diagnose on a road trip but I think it may have destroyed an engine mount, and as a result possibly the inner drive shaft joints.
The end result being quite pleased to move on with my life, I had vowed to take Artie to the wrecker whenever an incident happened so was actually not unhappy with the trade in deal despite the damage not amounting to much.

Trimmed at last.

Sorry I've been ultra slow of late, and I'll be slow a few days yet.

Anyway Ergon finally came and trimmed the nuisance tree on the footpath outside our place that grows into their powerlines, they sent out mail months (forgotten how many) ago saying they were coming shortly to inspect.

I wish they'd prune it at ground level.

The grey sky is what we've had all month, groan.

Slow lately.

Constant grey sky has ruined my sense of adventure, I'd love to see some blue again, we get enough gloom in the wet season but it's supposed to be dry season now.

Anyway here's a nothing shot of the expensive drink machine in its habitat. Library is to the left of shot, the rooms beside it are training ones, with the closest claiming to be a computer room, naturally it's devoid of any computers as that may entice crime.
The chains that dangle are done to guide rain in a fancy manner to ground.

They're sharp too.

More colour for Jimmy and Grace, nice to see something not black or grey.

Painful.

This sore on my ear is a right pain, I wish it'd hurry up and heal, dunno what caused it I don't recall an injury.

The hair in there is yet another curse of ageing, you finally get rid of the stuff on your head then it takes revenge by growing in cubby holes everywhere else. I have to run the clippers in there whenever I mow the head.

Pity the light wasn't great.

Still a trace of the grey weather we've had of late this morning.

Relax.

A morning stroll can be nice.

Big Meccano

I've posted this previously but here's another angle.

Irksome

I went for a wander about Tyto again this morning (I think I should do it far more often), and this machine bothered me, it's a reflection of our development. Water has become the main drawcard and it's priced the same as drinks that actually cost money to produce, we're a sick society to fall into this trap when there's all the water you can drink flowing out of taps that's effectively free.

Of course I'm way out of touch and can't see why they're more than $1 but as a pensioner plenty of things are out of our reach.