It's taken me a while to get back into the 'blogging' thing, as I've gone so long without it, but repetition eventually becomes habit, and I'm slowly but surely getting back into it.

What I'd like to do now, is transcribe my memories from the past few months, telling you all the story of how I got here; The east bay of San Francisco. So let's go back in time about 5 months and start there. . .

Joseph and I, accompanied by 2 other climbing-bum buddies, Thomas & Matt, left Smith Rock in the high desert town of Terrabonne, Oregon, for the beaches & forests of Northern California, and some potential climbing at the Lost Rocks, found at the mouth of the Klammath River. We set ourselves up in the town of Arcata, and began our Cali lives when disaster struck in the form of a slung rod in my engine.

For those of you who don't know much about internal combustion engines (which includes former me in this flashback), the cylinder rod is the 'arm' of the piston, which moves up and down from compression created by the ignited fuel/air mixture, spinning the crankshaft, thusly propelling the vehicle. When the rod 'slings', it warps under the pressure and heat, and eventually will throw itself through the engine block, if continued to run. Basically, at that point, the engine is screwed.

This was a major setback, seeing as I spent just about all of my summer doing strenuous labor work to get the van, which was suppose to be my mobile home for the next leg of the climbing/living journey. Needless to say, a wide array of emotions were running loose in my noggin after the mechanics at Redwood Automotive told me my engine was toasted. The main questions I was faced with, at that point were 'Do I sell the van and try to get another vehicle?' or 'Do I try to fix it?'. Engine replacement IS NOT a simple, cheap, nor quick process, so I was leaning towards selling, until the answers started falling into my lap. . .

Frist, a running 89 GMC van was thrown at my feet for the unheard of price of $150. SOLD! Next issue. . . Find an engine lift to borrow/rent. With the help of craigsist, this issue was solved in a matter of minutes. Final worry, find someone who was willing to let a novice mechanic use their driveway to try and figure out how to do an engine swap. Once again, craigslist pulled through! So, on November 23rd, using Josephs AAA card, I had the van towed to Eureka, California to see if I could, in fact, do an engine swap. . .















The initial add on craigslist stated that I would only need a week, at most. BIG UNDERESTIMATE!!! It took a full week to get everything dismantled and ready to pull the engine, (including a van-made thanksgiving dinner break, which consisted of falafels, stuffing, hummus & applesauce) then another month to put the new engine in, and figure out the modifications that come with popping a fuel injected '89 engine into my previously carbureted '81 van. Issues involved included electrical re-directing, Fuel intake fabrications, as well as shaving out holes on the intake manifold with a chainsaw file, but after all the unexpected fabrications, the van, now dubbed 'Frankenstein', left it's oil-ridden spot on the driveway, and completed a successful testdrive around town.
Durring the testdrive is when I encountered another instance of Murphy's Law. Silly me forgot to close/turn-off my laptop (which was serving as a jukebox at this point), as well as neglected to move the pot of water from that mornings oatmeal off of the stove. Needless to say, my macbook got doused with lukewarm water while I was celebrating the rebirth of my van. Boo & Yay at the same time!!!

So, after the completion of the van, I retreated back to Arcata to try and find work, which was not as easy as one would assume. Arcata has so much to offer in the form of visual and extracurricular stimuli, but little in the work field. Good thing there was plenty to keep my broke mentality occupied.




Humbly homeless, I sought after anything that would fill my mind and stomach, and after a few weeks of community service for homeless violations, another opportunity landed in my lap. This time, from a friend who was needing someone to watch a house and a dog so they could go climb in France for a month.

Needless to say, but said anyway, I took them up on the offer.

Now, Mr. Moot and I lazily, watch after a 3 bedroom house in the Richmond Hills of San Fran, happily running around the fields, climbing the rocks, and making the occasional dollar from a job that could prove to be worth the wait.




I've also taken this opportunity to clean-up a bit, no matter how unconventional the method, as well as invest a bit of funds into my musical future. Don't worry, the guitar only cost $100, and that's a steal of a deal for a 12 string acoustic!


So, that's what's been going on. I hope this post answers any question you may have, as well as serve as the renaissance of my blogging. Shots of Beautiful San Fran to follow, assuming the weather eases up. Till then, CHEERS!!!

Hello everybody! I'm back and more psyched than ever to post blogs, so over the next few weeks, there's gonna be plenty of shots to be seen. Why, here's one now!


That one was taken at the Arcata Marsh, about 1 month ago. I'm going to go ahead and apologize for the poor quality of some of these shots, but 3 months without a computer to upload photo's onto, means all the shots have to stay on the camera, resulting in low quality files so I could continue taking pictures without filling my memory card up to quickly.

So, with that said, here's some of the photo's you've been missing out on. . .






Now, you may be thinking 'Oh good, he finally got his computer fixed', but that, unfortunately, is not the case. I managed to talk the people at the apple store into giving me a deal on the diagnosis so I wouldn't have to leave my laptop in Northern California, but that really just means that I gave them money to tell me that my computer was broken, which I already knew. That's fine though, I'm a huge fan of throwing money away. You should SEE some of the places I throw money away at. . . gas stations, auto parts stores, climbing gyms. . . There's so many way's to spend money these days, if only making it was as easy.

Anyway, since I don't have the $800 to get my display fixed yet, I just invested $30 into an adaptor so I could use another monitor, and now here I am happily uploading photo's while listening to a long list of music I've been missing ever so much.


If any of you are asking yourselves why I haven't been doing that for the past 3 months, it's because another monitor needs power, and power isn't exactly something I have an abundance of, not while living in a van on the streets of Arcata, at least. But that whole 'homeless' issue is well behind me now, as I've gotten my tickets paid (in trashed cigarette butts) and moved onto San Francisco, where Moot and I happily watch after a lonely house and a 13-year-old hound dog by the name of 'Rudy', so the owner can take a much needed vacation to the sandstone-ridden fields of France. No need to ask questions, because more pictures and stories are to follow. . . About F-in' time!

Oh, if anyone's looking for a good recipe for the evening, check out my friends cooking blog @ http://sharethefoodlove.blogspot.com.

Cheers everyone! Things are going, again. . .

Hey! A Picture!!! Not mine, though.


Motivation to go storm chasing with a camera provided by http://www.extremeinstability.com/

March, 7th 2011

Hello blog. It's been a long time since I've spoken with you, and for that, I apologize. Please don't take it personal, life has just been feeding me one lemon after another, and there's no since in mentioning just how sour it's all become until I can follow it with news of the much anticipated sweetener delivery.

As you may know, my computer is fried. Well, the display is fried, and that's gonna cost an arm and a leg to replace, and I haven't come across any donors, yet. Fair enough. Life goes on. I've just kind of made it a point not to post any photo's until I have my laptop back. Silly, I know, but that's the way it's gonna be. I'm still taking shots, but those shot's are going to be for my eye's only until I'm whole again...

So, that's why there's no photo's. They're being taken, as life is still going on, but I really just can't be bothered with them until all my computing needs are done on my time, as opposed to the libraries. With that said, I'm going to try to paint you a picture of life as I know it, up here in the State of Jefferson...

Arcata is a small town with a big heart. I haven't had any money for about 2 months now, but everything I need always seems to be provided for, i.e. food, water & stimulation in the form of intellectual companionship, which can be found in just about every individual walking the streets, forest or beach. The people out here really understand what it means to be a human being, restoring my faith in the type of people America is known to produce.

Currently, I'm awaiting word on wether or not I have to hang around Arcata to appear in Homeless Court on the 18th to plea 'guilty' to the 2 charges brought against me for sleeping in my van. Reasoning for Homeless Court is so that I don't have to dish out the $155 the city wants for each violation, instead, serve the community, which I have been doing for the past month and a half anyway! With any luck, I can get the community services I have already provided to count towards the service they want in exchange for not paying $300+.

The issue of time is pressed on by the offer of a house-sitting job in San Francisco, that begins on the 20th of the month. With me trying to fill previously agreed obligations, and the city of Arcata, trying to let me know it's time to move on, I think some sort of agreement can be reached between the city officials and myself.

Running out of time online, but I figured I'd let everyone know the current situation. With any luck, I'll be posting photo's again, soon enough, from a homely refuge in the Bay city...

$783 (after tax) to fix laptop. Yee-Haw! Hopefully some work comes knocking on my door soon, so I can post some of these shots of Beautiful Northern California. . . At least the van runs. Come on Universe, I'm giving you all my energy, so please send me an answer to my problems. . .

Ok, I haven't posted in quite sometime, I know this, but I have a very good excuse. My computer's fried! Yay! Got the van running just in time to spill water all over my laptop, now I have to dish out a whole lot of money I don't have to hopefully get it working again! So that's what's new. I'm back in Arcata with a van ready for action, just have to make some money now for gas and computer fees. Hopefully I'll have my laptop back soon and be posting pictures again, but until then, Moot and I are just glad the van runs!

As assumed, the process of 'swapping motors' didn't turn out to be as simple as swapping motors. Having to use the original transmission (not a bad thing, just unexpected) was the first surprise I ran into, as the new one has another gear, requiring me to pull the entire steering column to go with it. Seeing as the original tranny works and fits, that was an easy decision. Next issue, there was no way to swap all the electrical, as the fuse boxes were different plug types, so the hope of having a fuel injected engine was now in limbo in accordance with my knowledge of electrical conversions, which is absolutely none. Solution, swap the fuel injected intake manifold for my carborated intake manifold. Easy as, right? Not when the 4 of the 12 bolts are driven into the block at a different angle, which brings us to the next diversion; fabrication! After a few hours shaving away the steel with a chainsaw file, I successfully got all 12 bolts securely torqued to GM specification.

At this point all I have to do is install the distributor without messing up the firing order, then stab the motor and transmission into the van and begin hooking everything up, which will be a nice change, because I can do a majority of that from inside the van as opposed to outside in the steady downfall.

And that's what's new!

So here's the progress thus far. Bad motor out, with the other on schedule to be in tomorrow, then I'll be left with the nonsense that is 'rewiring' my '81 previously carborated van for the '89 fuel injected motor I'm putting in. Fingers crossed that once I transfer the 'brain' into my van, everything should work out just perfectly. . .

Last night, I came across an offer I couldn't refuse...


And she purrs like a kitten!




Engine swap time...

Lately, when not searching for jobs, showers, parking places, tools, food and a chevy 350 5.7L engine that runs, I've been playing around with photoshop, actually using it for what it's meant to be used for; graphics! Here's my first project (from an online tutorial)...

I took these pictures....



And made this!


Photoshop is fun!

I've got a surprise for you guys tomorrow. I bought something. . .