Back to Work Day .... was snow ... now it's Friday ... and more snow

Not a bad week ... a little snow on Monday/Tuesday ... then today a little More ...
No improvement in Winnipeg Drivers .... the white lobotomy is in full force.

Only real trouble is ... today it's cold again and getting down to -22c tonight ... stiff North wind that blows a big stinking drift across my driveway .... and OMMAG jr... buggered off to work without shovelling.

Weathernetwork !

And what a pleasant surprise to wake up to a snow storm ..... eh?

Wet gooie stuff that froze into a hard crust in the morning.....

Sheesh!

And to think ... all those snowriders out there who've been pining for snow .... couldn't have happened BEFORE the weekend .... could it?

A typical Winnipeg dufus on the first day it snowed in over a month.... between the ones who can't get it going to the ones who can't figure out how to stop ... or steer ..... this is why I drive SUVs and full size pickups ......

OMMAG

No Shit Sherlock !

Toyota electronics not defective!

After a year and a half and nearly forty BILLION$ in unjustified fines levied against auto maker Toyota the US government has finally admitted that there was no problem in the vehicles outside of people who use them and a few funky accelerator pedals.

The Transportation Department, which was assisted by engineers with NASA, said its 10-month study of Toyota vehicles concluded there was no electronic cause of unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. The study, which was launched at the request of Congress, responded to consumer complaints that flawed electronics could be the culprit behind Toyota’s spate of recalls...

Nevertheless.... The chief bureaucrat at the transport department ... political appointee ... Ray LaHood intends to continue 'studying' the use of electronics in cars and looks forward to creating more unnecessary regulation ....

A preliminary part of the study, released last August, failed to find any electronic flaws based on a review of event data recorders, or vehicle black boxes.

Despite its findings, LaHood said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was considering new regulations to improve safety. They include requiring brake override systems on all vehicles, standardizing keyless ignition systems and requiring event data recorders, or vehicle black boxes, on all new vehicles.

Transportation officials said they would also consider conducting more research on electronic control systems and review the placement and design of accelerator and brake pedals.

My question is .... Will Toyota be getting that 50 Billion$ back? And ... NASA? ... freekin highest paid research scientists in the world NASA ... trouble shooting cars for Washington?

As an aside ... if you care to read the article by AP you may notice a "slight" tendency to spin the report into a praising of the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress at the time of instigation .....

Nope .... this is rather a case that should clearly spell out how incompetent and wasteful meddling politicians and government hacks always prove to be.

And besides .... isn't NASA's mandate from Obama supposed to be finding ways to make muslims feel good about their accomplishments?

Happy Motoring!

OMMAG

Yellowstone Park

September 10th, 2010..... Pretty Heh?

That's about 6000' elevation ...

They shut down the East Gate to the park in the morning because of 2" or less of snow on the high passes.

I was in a lineup of cars from Utah.. Colorado...Wyoming... Alberta...Minnisota... BC and Quebec.... places where we get snow and ice driving 6 months a year!

On the other hand there were folks from Florida and Georgia and Louisiana....


Consensus in the line was .... let the Canadians go and the Americans would be happy to follow.

Mrs. OMMAG was reluctant to have me demonstrate donuts in the pull off areas where the plows had pushed the slush.....

Cheers!

OMMAG

Back From The Road .....

Awesome .... 3500 miles over 9 days with plenty of sights taken in by Mrs. OMMAG and me.

I'll get some more photos and stuff put up shortly.

Cheers!

OMMAG

More Days On The Road..............

Sunday ........






Monday...





Tuesday ....

Wednesday ....






CYA Later..........


OMMAG

The Road to Rapid City

Day two of the OMMAG's road trip........... the Saturday Drive West.

Out of Fargo in the morning after a good night's sleep we head west on I94 for a while till we get to the Valley City exit... There we pick up the Cheyene River national scenic byway running south.
It's a rolling winding drive showing nice countryside that takes you to the Fort Ransom state park and historical area. We take off to the west at #46 before we get to the park to connect with hwy.281 that runs past the wind farms near Edgley ND and on into SD toward I90.
We take off west on #14 headed to the Misouri river crossing at Pierre SD then on towards Buffalo Gap ... there was a "fresh oil" warning on at Midland so we beetled off to the south on #63 through some beautiful rolling prairie until we hit I90.

It's interstate driving heading west into Rapid city and past the badland spires to the south and the interminable billboards advertizing the world's lamest tourist trap at Wall ... that being Wall Drugs.

So .... we get into RC about 5pm... and discover a town that is in some kind of traffic management crisis. Also .... we find out that there are a couple of big events going on and NOT ONE room to found on the Labor Day weekend!

After some phone calls with the help of the front desk clerk Rachel at the Quality Inn we get a lead on some possible openings back at Wall or Phillip .... an hour later ...after booking a room for the next few days at the Q Inn we find ourselves back at Wall. We find a room at a local motel in town. A quick check for bugs gives us a passible roof over our heads for the night and a few stories to relate later.


And so ends the saturday adventure....
Stay tuned.

OMMAG

New Wheels and A Lift for The Jeep

I'm really pleased with the way this turned out.

New Ultra Sport Wheels, new Cooper all terrain tires and a 2" lift for my Jeep.


It all started back in the spring when I was cleaning the old wagon after that particularly messy winter of 08/09.

Among the things that I was concerned about was the condition of the shocks ... some steering and suspension bushings ... the wheels and the tires.

The old Rancho shocks were losing their bushings. The front suspension was getting loose.

The original 15" aluminum wheels which were part powder coated and part milled with clear coat were getting corroded from salt finding it's way into chips and scratches and were leaking air around the rim beads. The white powdery crust that formed on the aluminum is truly hideous. And finally, the tires were getting near the end of life, hardening and losing their once excellent grip in the wet and snow.

Since I had always thought the Grand Cherokee would look better with a bigger set of boots on... it seemed like the right time to look into the upgrades and began looking around for parts and such.

What I settled on after doing some web searching and talking to a few local wheel and tire guys along with one pretty decent Jeep expert :

• Ultra Rogue 16x8 aluminum wheels
• Cooper ATR 255/70R 16 tires ... a tire I have some experience with and find to be just the ticket for our Manitoba Winters.
• Also needed were a modest suspension lift ... I settled on a 2" combination from Skyjacker with spacers over the stock rear springs and new front springs, a new set of shocks to accomodate the altered movement and miscellaneous bits and pieces like new track bar mounts.

The process was a bit frustrating at first with a few hiccups along the way as I learned what to do and what not to do when undertaking a process like this.

Maybe I'll make the process of making the mods a blog subject for another day....

For now ... I'm really liking the outcome.

OMMAG

Wednesday Just Because

Did you know that Norton has been resurrected? Well I didn't .... Of course there have been rumors and snippets of tech talk along with other stuff that sounded more like wishful thinking than real news.

But it turns out to be more than hot air ..... they have bikes!

OMMAG

Brand New....

Since the fates decided to take my old truck.....


5.4l-4wd-trailer towing group, rides like and has an interior like a limo.

Power drivers seat, satelite radio, blue tooth, USB jack, ipod jack, 3 power plugs, cup holders everywhere, and ready to pound out a Winnipeg winter.





OMMAG

It's Always Something

Just as I get a few old projects taken care of and some other nuisance type things repaired or otherwise sorted out.... what happens?

Well of course something else breaks or some new pile of crap manifests itself just to keep me from getting too smug or maybe even just having a few days of enjoying a tiny little sense of accomplishment.

Not for me to have all things in order and clear sailing ahead! No way Jose.......

So what fresh challenge has manifested itself in what could have been a brief respite from things that suck up time and money and psychic energy?

Only that ultimate karmic smack in the kisser ..... the dead automobile. (Truck in this case)

Great effin timing there Mrs. K!! You are a bitch........ over the course of just a few hours a vehicle that was showing no signs of distresss or malignant tendency... a vehicle that by all indications was strong and secure within it's own metalic hide ... went from Mr. Dependable and with me for the long haul ... to a white smoke belching pile of inconvenience and expense.

Just before lunch the F150 was running as strong as the day I brought him home. Then at 5pm after spending the day resting in the driveway he balks at starting and then farts a cloud of white smoke accompanied by a mechanical death rattle. EXPLETIVE!

Thanks to our lovely shortage of daylight I had no time to investigate further and thanks to the need for other vehicles to get in and out of the driveway I had to back him out and park him on the street. Come to think of it .... the whole damned day was a series of irritating events.

The day in retrospect seemed to be leading up to something ... from the stop at the Co-op gas station where the nit wit bitch of a clerk refused (Twice) to serve me because she seemed to think my truck was still getting filled out at the pump to the OTHER genius who couldn't figure out that the two lotto tickets I handed her were BOTH winners, then had a brain fart trying to figure out what to do about the money. ( Look it's simple you process the tickets and hand me the cash ... then you take care of the payment for the gas ... and no I do NOT want any frickin CAR WASH today. EXPLETIVE!

Follow that up with the usual Saturday morning drivers who can't get themselves to function at anywhere near a normal level of competence or awareness .... then the usual BS from the McDiarmid hardware store ( Never have anything I Need when I need it) so off to the Big Orange Box to have a little twerp tell my he don't work in THAT department ... only to show up a few minutes latter to see what I wanted...then proceed to totally f'up rolling 16 feet flexible edging off the display spool. ( Is 10am too early to be baked?... not for some peoples kids it seems).
But what the heck? It's Saturday and I have better things to do than to stew about the inevitable idiots who populate our society. And so ... I finish repairing and adjusting my garge door opener.

I get a whole pile of crap sorted out and ready for the trash and I get some time to figure out the details on my current project in the basement. And that is when Karma took it out on my dutiful friend F150.


And now ... a dilemma .... Buy new truck? ... fix old truck?... hmmmm maybe do both.

And if I do go truck shopping..... do I get another 1/2 ton? Or move up to the 3/4 ton?

Those new F150s are really nice ....but down the road I'd like to have the Super Duty Diesel to pull a 5th wheel.

Buy now? Wait? Upgrade? Stick with the same old?

OMMAG

How Do You Spell Relief?

LadyBag

German Company Invents Pocket Toilet for Women

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,646603,00.html

Weekend Adrenaline

If this doesn't play well for you use the LINK to YouTube .

Awesome ride for the armchair race fan ! 6 1/2 minutes around the Nurburgring !

This car is a prototype using an engine developed by cloning and grafting parts from the Suzuki Hyabusa 1300cc motorcycle engine into a V8 configuration. The motor is built into a prototype race car and you may be able to buy a street legal version sometime!!!!!

You can buy an engine NOW and use it in a conversion or kit car.
See ... Radical Extreme Sports Cars ... h/t to Paul Crowe at The Kneeslider!

OMMAG

The Wish List !

Enzo Ferrari
Had one of these made just for him!
This is the only exact replica in existence I think.

I want It!

Contrast The Paucity of Information ....

Update Again....... And Again

As of Saturday February 23'd we have the Winnipeg Free Press asking the Question:
Who is responsible.....? Of course the writer Gabrielle Giroday focuses on the bickering between the Public Insurer TAX Collection Agency ... MPI and the municipalities of East and West St.Paul ..... who are viewed by MPI as deep pockets just waiting to by emptied!

And OF COURSE no thought is given to the fact that the DRIVER of the vehicle should be considered responsible.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Has it struck anyone the contrast that exists between the coverage given to what amounts to nothing more than a traffic incident involving the relative of a minor celebrity and the nearly complete lack of attention in the MSM on the issue of Human Rights Commission's bureaucratic jack boots stomping all over OUR Nation's rights to free expression???

Where's the priorities of these simps?
====================================================================

Offered Here:
Elderly Man Dies OR HERE

In comparison to: The Overblown Celebrity mongering going on in the case of Lisa Klassen.

Good News! Lisa Klassen Update - We are happy to hear that Lisa is no longer in a life threatening situation.
Also - CTV newsflash ..... Lisa Klassen is Victim of Flying Car .... yes her vehicle grew wings and FLEW of the bridge! C'mon CTV you forget to say it was an SUV too!


Now back to the un-hyped tragedy of the unrelated to a minor celebrity 83 year old ....Joseph La Spina:

No overblown hype about celebrity connections? Nope .... there are none.
No follow up stories on the family's pain and suffering? Nope .... mere unknown plebes.
No blaring headlines about Flying Vehicles Going Out of Control? Nope ...just a car.

Well they did stay true to form in the matter of blaming the Vehicle for striking the victim.
Some facts not reported here:
- The Man was walking on a sidewalk when it happened
- One driver stopped to allow him to pass before proceeding into the entrance that the man was passing
- A Second Driver rear ended the stopped vehicle forcing it into the man and breaking his neck.
The man is Now Dead because at least ONE of these drivers is incompetent.
No mention in the media of anything but vehicles being the cause!

Notice the PAUCITY of substance in the reporting?

OMMAG

Europe Proposes Sports Car Ban!!??

Ok It's late and I'm tired but when I stumbled across an article from Daily Tech My brain just went into some kind of buzzing sort of alarm state ......

THIS IS TOO MUCH!(link)

With about a hundred million freekin little econobox sedans being thrashed around Europe by people who seem hellbent on making tiny clutches suffer and burn in hell for the sins of their owners... these same folks who seem as a whole to be determined to make the same vehicles that are usually capable of 30 to 40 mpg use more gas than a freeekin Dodge Hemi truck ..... these same hordes of tempermental full time road ragers who are paying 7 bucks a gallon for the privilege of dumping the waste from leaded fuel into the atmosphere of Europe's cities and country side!!!

These people are proposing to BAN SPORTS CARS!!!?????

Give ME a Break ALREADY..........

OMMAG

Cross Border Shopping - For Cars and Trucks

THIS most interesting article from the Financial Post tells us that Canadian Car dealers are hurting because their customers can go to the US and buy the same vehicle for significantly less.

They make much of exchange rates being at the root of the problem but the truth lies in the intransigence and greed of the Canadian manufacturing / importing / wholesaling and retailing networks and their associations.

There is no reason on God's green earth why for example a Ford f15o that goes for under $36,000 US should be listed at over $50,000 in Canada!

Somebody is getting screwed and it does not have to be you.

Canadian laws allow you to go south and buy a vehicle at a better price??

I highly recommend that you do it.

OMMAG

Who Gives These People a Drivers Licence?

08:30 Wednesday April 11, 2007
Eastbound Bishop Grandin Blvd @ St. Mary's Rd.

I Witnessed this morning while waiting in traffic at a stop light an exhibition of brainless motor vehicle operation that boggles the mind and raises the blood pressure.
While waiting in a left turn lane I glanced in my mirror and happened to catch a sight that seemed slightly odd. An approaching vehicle was being driven by someone who apparently had a hands free mode of operation.

On my second take of the approaching apparition it became clear that the driver of a Honda Odyssey was holding a lively conversation on her cell phone while ingesting a drink. Left hand firmly grasping the cellphone and right hand clutching the coffee cup. Our adventuress was managing to steer the vehicle with elbows.

As the traffic was held at the light I was entertained by further displays of dexterity whereby the coffee container was set aside to allow a deep search of a purse which was on the adjacent seat. After a minute or so of rummaging a cylinder was brought into view and a routine of makeup application was performed. I did not have to wonder long about what would happen when the light changed because it did and our intrepid performer drove off with lipstick in hand and still being applied and cellphone pressed to ear.
She never stopped talking the entire time.

Now I don't know what this persons driving record is like and I don't know what kind of thinking goes on in the head of a person that allows them to justify this kind of behaviour to themselves.
BUT, I do know that if any kind of emergency occurred that would force this twit to be in control of her vehicle, there is very little chance that she would! I also know that no matter what you think you don't have anything to talk about that is THAT urgent!
I also know that my insurance rates are pushed up at least in part because of witless airheads like this woman.


This rolling cliche of the failings of female drivers is a threat to every other person on the road and I encourage her to change her ways.

Some other examples of witless behaviour that I've witnessed:
- Application of makeup, eyeshadow etc. while driving vehicle in motion
- Use of eyelash curling device while driving vehicle in motion
- Balancing a novel on the steering wheel and reading while driving vehicle in motion
- Knitting while driving vehicle in motion
- Reaching for an object on the floor while driving, head obscured below the dash resulted in rear end collision ( this woman drove straight into the back of my car and later claimed she did not)





OMMAG