Random posting

[MyNeonSaysHi]

Not working on cars is probably helping your back out immensely.

Wow, only 7 days next month? Due to health? So sorry to hear that Gramps.

2024 is going to be a wild year all around. I just feel it. Curious what unfolds with a lot of things.

[Midnight_Rider]

Wow, only 7 days next month? Due to health? So sorry to hear that Gramps.

Not health. One of my employer's clients didn't renew their contract so my hours have been cut. Technically, I'm scheduled for eight days but I am taking the 30th off for a root canal.

[INVUJerry]

Not working on cars is probably helping your back out immensely.

2024 is going to be a wild year all around. I just feel it. Curious what unfolds with a lot of things.

That, and the Gabapentin. I'm thinking I might talk my doctor into upping my dose, it works well, the numbness has gone down, the pain is way down. I just want to see if it can be "better".

I plan on being entirely unhinged in 2024. I started off by making this video lol. If anyone sees this in 2024, Happy New Year!

Also, we got T-Mobile for our home internet recently. They keep throttling it at random times. I might spring for the Verizon home internet one. Either way, it's nice to have gone from 25Mb/3Mb to 200Mb/40Mb. That being said, my IP was blocked when I tried to post here at first lol.

https://youtu.be/xHuFObeM03Q?si=FQbltdsGhvmlxdg2

[Pizzacrust]

Have a happy new year everyone!

[Neon4Life]

Happy new year everyone.

[thomas_w]

Yes, happy New Year everyone!

[Midnight_Rider]

Ditto.

[Midnight_Rider]

Took my mother's 2005 300 to the dealership today to have the EGR valve replaced (multiple CELs) and my tech discovered that mice had been nesting around the coil pack. What a mess- they chewed the coverings on some of the wires and left a lot of sunflower seed shells. My SRT is parked right next to her car in the garage but no evidence of critters in my car (thank God).

[thomas_w]

Glad your car was not attacked. I had some critters chew through some of the evap tubing twice on the neon.

[Midnight_Rider]

Glad your car was not attacked.

Not that I have noticed but springtime will be the definite reveal if there is any damage.

[occasional demons]

https://tomcatbrand.com/en-us/shop/repe ... 68301.html



I spray this in my lawnmower engine to keep them from nesting under the engine ducting. I also spray it around the doors, etc to deter them from entering the shed. Home Depot sells it, along with Lowes

It doesn't seem to leave any residue, so spraying it under the hood shouldn't hurt anything.

Also leaving the hood open will discourage them from hiding under there.

[Midnight_Rider]

I have been leaving the hood of the SRT up during winter for years but haven't been doing that with the 300. When I had my condo, I didn't turn off the garage light- ever... but don't want to run up the electric bill here.

[INVUJerry]

I have been leaving the hood of the SRT up during winter for years but haven't been doing that with the 300. When I had my condo, I didn't turn off the garage light- ever... but don't want to run up the electric bill here.

If you run a 60W equivalent LED bulb in there, it draws about 13W from the wall. Running 24/7 that'll pull about 9.5 Kw/h a month. I think mine are $.08 a KW during the winter. So, less than a dollar to do that. Probably would be worth it. I'd also lay out some sticky traps along the walls just in case. Since we live across from a farm, every fall we get mice in the garage and in the house. I always have to lay out traps, bait, and try to seal up holes.

I got my new camera working Saturday, but the only lenses I have that work on it are my 50mm lenses, which don't focus up close very well. I wanted to take a video for some stuff, but the camera doesn't have the same type of auto focusing that my mirrorless camera does, so I ended up getting rather frustrated about it. I might have to look into getting a remote shutter button for it.

[Midnight_Rider]

I have been leaving the hood of the SRT up during winter for years but haven't been doing that with the 300. When I had my condo, I didn't turn off the garage light- ever... but don't want to run up the electric bill here.

If you run a 60W equivalent LED bulb in there, it draws about 13W from the wall. Running 24/7 that'll pull about 9.5 Kw/h a month. I think mine are $.08 a KW during the winter. So, less than a dollar to do that. Probably would be worth it. I'd also lay out some sticky traps along the walls just in case. Since we live across from a farm, every fall we get mice in the garage and in the house. I always have to lay out traps, bait, and try to seal up holes.

I already have sticky strips at either side of the garage door (where the tracks meet the floor), under the water heater (the HVAC company had cut a hole for the A/C plumbing that was too large which allowed critters to get into the garage from the crawl space (I put steel wool in the opening around their plumbing) and in the attic. I had found mice (both dead and alive) in storage for my mother's bird seed (which was right next to the D/S front wheel of the 300), this I had replaced with a steel ash can (normally used for charcoal briquettes) so I doubt that we will have future infestations. I think that the mice had already been on the top of the 300's engine before I moved in April of 2022 but we were unaware of it. We also had the crawlspace encapsulated last fall.

We already have LED tube lights hanging from the garage ceiling- I'll ask my mother her permission to leave them on all of the time (since she is footing the electric bill).

[INVUJerry]

I have been leaving the hood of the SRT up during winter for years but haven't been doing that with the 300. When I had my condo, I didn't turn off the garage light- ever... but don't want to run up the electric bill here.

If you run a 60W equivalent LED bulb in there, it draws about 13W from the wall. Running 24/7 that'll pull about 9.5 Kw/h a month. I think mine are $.08 a KW during the winter. So, less than a dollar to do that. Probably would be worth it. I'd also lay out some sticky traps along the walls just in case. Since we live across from a farm, every fall we get mice in the garage and in the house. I always have to lay out traps, bait, and try to seal up holes.

I already have sticky strips at either side of the garage door (where the tracks meet the floor), under the water heater (the HVAC company had cut a hole for the A/C plumbing that was too large which allowed critters to get into the garage from the crawl space (I put steel wool in the opening around their plumbing) and in the attic. I had found mice (both dead and alive) in storage for my mother's bird seed (which was right next to the D/S front wheel of the 300), this I had replaced with a steel ash can (normally used for charcoal briquettes) so I doubt that we will have future infestations. I think that the mice had already been on the top of the 300's engine before I moved in April of 2022 but we were unaware of it. We also had the crawlspace encapsulated last fall.

We already have LED tube lights hanging from the garage ceiling- I'll ask my mother her permission to leave them on all of the time (since she is footing the electric bill).

If she's wary of that, then maybe just a drop light with a 60-100w LED bulb in there to scare some critters off, just in case.

[Midnight_Rider]

Yeah, I have been looking into that as well.

[INVUJerry]

Been messing aroudn with my new to me Canon 5D Mark II camera and some lenses I picked up off of Facebook Marketplace. I did a "porch pickup" which I've never done before. The lady left them in a bag for me, and I left cash for her. At first I thought it was going to be a scam, or that I was going to be jumped until I saw the neighborhood was rather nice, so it worked out in the end. I ended up with a Sigma 28-80mm lens, and a "Quantaray" 19-35mm lens. Turns out the Quantaray is a rebranded Tamron lens (Quantaray was a Ritz camera brand), so it's high quality, with a cheaper name attached. The only complaint I have, is that the Quantaray lens absolutely BLOWS when it's attached to my other adapter and to my mirrorless camera. But when it's attached to the "native" mount, it's really killer. My friend is going to be giving me an older Nikon D2X camera, and I'll probably get one of these lenses for that since they're so cheap, and Nikon used lenses sell for really cheap (most of the time).

So these photos were shot with my new camera, and a lens I've had for a while, a canon 50mm F1.8 lens. I'm attaching the photos as URL links to my imgur account because I don't want the forum to look all wonky and I forgot to set the re-size thing when I edited them a little in photoshop.

https://i.imgur.com/4sqZUbu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Gw89gGW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/BgxVV77.jpg

These were shot with my new wide angle lens, a cheap Quantaray 19-35mm F3.5-5.6(?) lens.

https://i.imgur.com/0Oa3Ehj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hSNasbR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XKPc28g.jpg

And a little old point and shoot action lol

https://i.imgur.com/gF3vi3Z.jpg

I also put together a video from stuff I filmed back in October about fixing my exhaust, and did an update using the new camera.

https://youtu.be/u9ATbF9vlrA?si=Fv3zr590WNCvlKtt

[INVUJerry]

So I'm not sure what's going on, but the homepage is having an issue. I bypassed it for now, but I can't go through the home page to get to the forum.

[Midnight_Rider]

Jason PM'd me a few days ago about his tweaking the software- if this issue keeps happening, you might want to PM him.

[INVUJerry]

I sent him a text this morning...and noticed I missed him wishing me a happy new year . Although I have 200+ unread texts in my phone so I guess it's normal for me haha.

[INVUJerry]

He got it fixed up, all good to go now.

Made a video reviewing a camera, IDK if I'll do this again, or at least not agonize over music selection so much. I will say, I used my new camera the unboxing and a little bit outside, and I was able to do "color grading" with premiere pro, and it was able to get almost a movie quality look.

I really enjoyed that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA0WCuK51Jg

[04rebel]

A later Happy New year to all!
Yes, It's me after a very long absence.
Could not log in or could post for a very long time.....something about being blocked again.
My son is a full fledged railroad engineer for short line freight locally, bought a house this summer, is engaged to marry and is driving the '11 Journey after I put much maint. into it.
The now FIANCE's Neon {LUNA} was given to her mother as of a year ago, and is doing well.
I now have my '10 Buick Lucerne and a '14 Journey 3.6AWD. The wife is now driving a '13 Journey 3.6AWD rt with lots of "creature comforts".

Just thought I'd "check in and see how all were doing and IF this will go thru and post in the forum.

[Midnight_Rider]

You made it!

[04rebel]

You made it!

Yes it feels good to be able to reacquaint with the good folks here, even though I don't have direct dealings with NEONS anymore.
I have stuck with the Dodge brand with having 3 Journeys, but still really miss not having a LWB Dodge/Chrysler minivan. I miss the cargo capability and the wife is finding out and missing the people carrying ability of the vans that we had had for better than 25 years.
I told my friend who I get my cars thru that I'm willing to sell or "horse trade" the '14 sxt to get a similar year minivan.
He had been moving a number of Journeys for the past couple years and now is finding the vans to be quite in demand around here. Probably for the same reasons I miss my old '04 so badly!

And NO, I still don't have a garage to park a "special" {like your srt} during the winter months.
Also on a side note about WINTER....
We did NOT get ANY SNOW like Buffalo and it's suburbs got from the LE storm that made so many national media venues for our Buffalo Bills.
We got the wind and the COLD temps....was 3* Wednesday morning! Our Christmas day was 57* and partly sunny, which I enjoyed greatly!

[MyNeonSaysHi]

i am in KC area. Chiefs will have a tough time with beating the Bills in football especially being in Buffalo. Should be a good game.

[04rebel]

i am in KC area. Chiefs will have a tough time with beating the Bills in football especially being in Buffalo. Should be a good game.

I figured you'd probably be a "Chiefs" fan by your location. The Chiefs are good {but not as good as previous seasons}, and FANS will have a GREAT GAME to watch with these 2 teams. Biggest problem for both teams is for players to catch and hold onto the ball, as both teams have struggled with that area. Be assured I WILL be watching the game from the comfort of my nice warm home and recliner !

[MyNeonSaysHi]

Not really a football fan honestly. A lot of my co-workers just talk about football all the time. So I can't really get away from it. I watched like a couple plays and kept an eye on the score. Surprised the Chiefs won in Buffalo. Now they got to face the Ravens it looks like.

[INVUJerry]

Hey 04, glad to see you back! Lots of people still make it to Carlisle even without having a neon anymore, heck I did a few years! You’re always welcome back. I had a 2016 base model Grand Caravan for a while and loved it. I really badly want to fix my GC, I just get paralysis thinking about starting it in a way.

We got about 5-6” of snow here. Really not too bad, except that some snow drifts across the road where farms are. It almost took me out on Saturday. I’d gotten off the highway and was going about 45, rounding a corner and it went from dry pavement to 4” of packed snow. I started to drift across the road even after I’d let off the gas, luckily when I got down to about 30, it started to catch and let me steer back into my lane. Scared me pretty good because there was traffic about 1/4 mile up!

Oh, and a buddy of mine gave me an older Nikon D2X. This was rather high end about 20 years ago lol. I had to modify my dads vintage lenses to make them work but honestly, I was never going to sell them, and I don’t care about resale value on them, so it was fine to do. Here’s some pics.

https://i.imgur.com/IZpMrl9.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/4Z0I4xw.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/Jf1ZOGA.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/lvqRmJX.jpeg

The neon down the road from my house. This was after it had been plowed a bunch.

https://i.imgur.com/GAw8eF0.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/TKfvOXX.jpeg

And a random photo taken behind Walmart. It feels so lonely here.

https://i.imgur.com/fPTCQbE.jpeg

[04rebel]

Not really a football fan honestly. A lot of my co-workers just talk about football all the time. So I can't really get away from it. I watched like a couple plays and kept an eye on the score. Surprised the Chiefs won in Buffalo. Now they got to face the Ravens it looks like.

Well, congrats to your Chiefs and your fan friends. Buffalo beat themselves with play calling and greedy big gain attempts!
All season, I've said take the 7 - 10 yard plays and keep moving the chains to a score. BUT NO they want to pass for 50 - 60 yards and be incomplete or intercepted!

[04rebel]

Hey 04, glad to see you back! Lots of people still make it to Carlisle even without having a neon anymore, heck I did a few years! You’re always welcome back. I had a 2016 base model Grand Caravan for a while and loved it. I really badly want to fix my GC, I just get paralysis thinking about starting it in a way.

We got about 5-6” of snow here. Really not too bad, except that some snow drifts across the road where farms are. It almost took me out on Saturday. I’d gotten off the highway and was going about 45, rounding a corner and it went from dry pavement to 4” of packed snow. I started to drift across the road even after I’d let off the gas, luckily when I got down to about 30, it started to catch and let me steer back into my lane. Scared me pretty good because there was traffic about 1/4 mile up!

Oh, and a buddy of mine gave me an older Nikon D2X. This was rather high end about 20 years ago lol. I had to modify my dads vintage lenses to make them work but honestly, I was never going to sell them, and I don’t care about resale value on them, so it was fine to do. Here’s some pics.

You got more snow than we got. The lake effect that got Buffalo and the Stadium area missed us completely. BUT the wind and COLD got me, I had just gotten 70 gal. of diesel fuel {transported in my '14 journey} @ 2.999, and in little over a week have consumed close to 50 gal. of it. on top of our wood stove/fireplace going 24/7

Otherwise we've had a VERY MILD winter here, I don't go up near Buffalo very often and can choose when to go based on weather, So no scares for me so far this season {and hopefully NONE AT ALL}. Glad to hear you got it back on track in time!