Another patch job.

 The new engine mount I ordered arrived nice and quickly but as per my usual luck was the wrong part. My fault as I should have checked deeper into the listing despite it being indicated for my car. So now since I'm short of time before I do a bit of a road trip I bodged the old one into a hopefully serviceable condition by cutting a chunk of old tyre to wedge into place and add a bit of stiffness, it has a reverse taper on both ends which may help hold it in place.

The other broken mount was expensive so I just patched it back into half decency with an old exhaust mount donut that I'd found on the road a few years ago.

While I had the crossmember off I bashed the tow loop back fairly straight and made a rough weld to close the cracks, of course I started by welding the rod to the crossmember shown here, the Yanks are spot on when they call them stick welders.

Job finished for now, perhaps Cubby is about finished too, parts are not easy to source for this unusual model, and I seem to be needing a few things now.

Understandable but ouch.

My budget can't extend to store bought haircuts so I continue to look like a Wilson McCoy drawn thug in a Phantom comic.
In Daraga, Philippines I did get a couple of store bought buzz cuts though but they were only 40 Peso ($1) in a lovely air conditioned barbershop, plainer places offer lower prices but P40 was low enough not to alarm Jimmy.
I bought my current set of home clippers at least a decade ago for $10 and they're still going as well as when new, the trick is to put a few drops of oil on the blades every time you use them. The replacement unused set I bought at the same time when they were on special now look very old in its packaging.

Studious well shaved Jimmy.

Olivia caught me driving up Castle Hill, carefully dodging fitness fanatics getting practice for a premature heart attack.
I'm showing off my $17 (delivered) specs that I buy from China, thus avoiding feeling like a shark had bitten me.

Two views of Olivia.

A not so good windblown shot of Olivia from Castle Hill in Townsville, with Magnetic Island in the background,

 and a good shot of Olivia but with a not so exciting background.

Stunned.

Whilst sitting down waiting for shops in Townsville to open on Monday I noticed this flowerpot was lacking cigarette butts, how civilised yet rare, but it was in a non-smoking shopping centre, Castletown.

Eggs.

No surprise to me on Easter Saturday to see all Coles eggs had sold out except for a few double price free range ones, I didn't need any badly enough to abandon my principles.

Like a tiger.

I gave the mower a test run after flushing the oil a bit, so in homage to the Tigers who handed out a football lesson to the Cowboys last Saturday night (as per usual) I gave the lawn grass some stripes.

The mower is running again.

I was wrong about the oil though, it did have water in it, but only a minor setback.
When I removed the carburettor float bowl to dump water I decided to pretty it up a bit with some paint, I like pretty colours.

Nearly gone.

Traffic started moving again late afternoon on Monday.

Log Bridge Creek at the bridge on Tuesday morning, not even ankle depth.

We have a road again.

I could be lucky.

Now that the water had receded a little I braved water full of dog do-do to push the mower to where it should have been on Saturday. I unscrewed the spark plug an of course water gushed out, then to my surprise I undid the oil drain and pure oil came out, so I quickly tightened it and checked the dipstick, wow no water ingress! yippee, that should make life much easier.
I'll leave things to dry out a bit now and hope the battery can hold a charge.

Here's a shock photo, Jimmy cleaning but Olivia thought the bonnet was a bit grotty.
The water was down to only a bit over my knees, so because I don't own any shorts made in the hideous current fashion for near ankle length I was able to do a bit while keeping my shorts dry.

It's Albay not Albal.

Olivia gave me a cap from Philippines but it had a bit of a typo, unusual for the very literate Philippines but I suppose it happens, so I gave it a touch-up with a bit of nail polish.

A real D'OH! moment.

I was never expecting more than a couple of hundred mm of flooding so casual Jimmy completely forgot about the mower, big whoopsie and another job needed to get it running again, on a positive note it was due for an oil change anyway.

Flood time post cyclone Ita.

As usual we have a post cyclone flood, this is as high as I thought we were going to get, Jimmy was wrong as per usual.

It kept rising despite the rain stopping at about 08:00, this was taken at about 16:30 when I was pleased I wimped out and moved Cubby to higher ground.

Dawn on Monday morning and the flood level is finally just starting to drop. I've moaned for years about the Herbert river needing a cleanout of its mouth, now my sense of humour has vapourised, this sort of flooding is like a blocked drain, it drops way too slowly and it's time we took back control of our environment, a homeowner would clear a blocked drain, so why can't an authority clear out a blocked river? it's really a cheaper option than the money they want to spend raising the highway.

This looked like a nice picture so I'm posting it.

 

Our front stairs near the peak level, we actually become prisoners when it floods. 

 Somewhere up there Cubby should be sitting high and dry.

Bulletin taking a photo for tomorrow's paper.

When I drove to higher ground the bow wave from this car caused me the most angst.
They should consider moving the fishing rod holders too before they get pinched, 30 years ago the law forbid them being mounted protruding forward of bullbars etc. It was pretty well a usual knee jerk reaction rule due to them ripping people apart when struck, but at least it makes some sense.

Olivia working too hard again.

Smiling Olivia greeted Jimmy's homecoming, but a sensible taking advantage of flood water to clean a broom was actually part of her scrubbing process. More guilt for Jim.

We still have a roof.

No real damage for us this time. The roof sheets replaced after Yasi are quite visible.

More flood pics.

 I had just had a nice little chat with the police in this car, I was surprised to see them but they were from Townsville and didn't know Fairford road was a don't bother with them area.

Make that two covered stands tipped over.

One of the advantages of a small sensor.

Despite focusing on the end of the pretty umbrella I carried with me on my walk home, the background is still clear enough to be usable.
A narrow depth of field is an inherent flaw of large sensor cameras that peer marketing has currently overturned into a desirable feature.

Fairford Rd

It has a street sign but it's a shame many GPS maps as well as the town information map keep it a secret despite many houses having it for an address.
The kangaroo sign is real, far too many get whacked on Fairford Rd.

Wildlife doing their best.

Maybe Jesus had eight legs too.

I think animals call a truce in an emergency.

I think this insect was frightened of this monster human but had nowhere to go.

That hand rail sure is popular.

Higher ground.

Taking the coward's escape I drove Cubby to higher ground, maybe it's a good idea, maybe it was just a panic move.

Victims of Ita.

The Crushers had a lovely new covered grandstand blown over, I'd say an easy fix unless a taxpayer funded organisation gets involved.

Ita must have also caused a failure of this trayback's brake light too.
The water level is now almost too high for me to drive Cubby to higher ground.

Dawn breaks after a night with Ita.

Still a bit windy but that water level will rise.

Domino effect.

The weather was cloudy and dry enough to play with Cubby, today I replaced the front crankshaft seal, or oil pump seal, as I suspected it was weeping a tiny bit, in hindsight I'll have to inspect a half-moon seal on the head as that may be more an issue, at least the crank seal was hardened from old age so I'm glad I replaced it.

During the course of the job I noticed two of Cubby's engine mounts are kaput, at least are fairly easy to replace though the RH one in the lower photo may be a rather difficult one to obtain, I sense the aftermarket makers have an incorrect listing.

A big change.

Folk who know cluttered Jimmy will see that much change is happening now that lovely Olivia is with me.

Hornibrook highway revisited.

While I was down south waiting for the time to pick up lovely Olivia I made a nostalgic visit to the old Hornibrook Highway, in my younger days the bridge here was used to visit the refreshingly relaxing Redcliffe where my grandparents lived, now Redcliffe is serviced by two new bridges built 30 years apart.

The Hornibrook highway was a ~2.7 km bridge built in the depression years as a toll bridge and I have memories of it having rather a roller coaster bumpy ride. When the first replacement was built in the late 1970s the old bridge was closed, supposedly to refurbish for further use but that never happened due I suspect to its condition as it soon fell into ruin.

Nowadays nearly all of the old bridge has been removed, leaving just a bit of structure on the Redcliffe end, and the archway visible in this photo on the southern end.

What does make a pleasant change is a new structure built off the side of the old bridge for people to fish from, and even includes fish cleaning tables shown here, this makes a huge change from the usual placing of no-fishing signs posted wherever a potential fishing site is spotted. Actually the last fish I ever caught was from this bridge in about 1979, shortly after it was closed. I haven't fished since then and don't intend to any more, preferring to take photos and write tales about them as a pastime.