Outing with friends

I went to breakfast at Cafe Terracotta with our friends Amy and Ralph. Mandy says she loves their bacon! Then we took a very nice walk from downtown Littleton, went on a nice big loop along both sides of the Platte River. We covered 5 miles!

Stranded at the Museum

Crud. I drove Otamay and Jim in Kristan's car (thinking it needed some exercise - something I've been doing every few weeks for the past few years), to breakfast, and then parked it here at the museum for our walk. This morning, it worked perfectly, until we got in it to come home. Turn the key, it cranks, but nothing fires. With half a tank of gas, I'm thinking either the plugs aren't firing, or the injection system isn't getting pressure, but nothing looks out of whack under the hood. Speaking of whacking, I tried tapping under the fuel tank, to wake up a possibly balky fuel pump, but no joy. And of course I've got no experience troubleshooting this car. All my connector wiggling was unsuccessful. AAA says we'll be waiting 120 minutes for a tow home. Boo. — at Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Update: The AAA guy arrived after only an hour. After hearing my quick description of the problem, it took him 20 seconds to get the car running. He said "try to start it" and slapped the bottom of the fuel tank, whereupon it burst into life. So, I'm guessing a sticky fuel pump or clogged filter. I had tapped all around the bottom of the fuel tank with a piece of PVC pipe, but didn't really know where to hit. He knew exactly where to hit, and how hard. We left it at the car repair place to be looked at. Even if it works now, it will surely fail again later.

Update: The car service place couldn't reproduce the problem. They're thinking a little 44K fuel injector cleaner (a solvent) and a new tank of gas might be the best solution. They said it will help clean the fuel pump, which may have accumulated some varnish from old gas. 

Getting through life

My sister Otamay has been visiting, and she has been so very welcome. She got here Jan 17th, the day before the memorial for Kristan, and planned to stay for three weeks. She was going to leave tomorrow, but with a horrendous rainstorm forecast for the Calif coast, she's now staying until Tuesday. I took the entire week off with her at first, then have been working half-days the past two weeks, and we've been doing some fun and some not-so-fun activities, trying to balance things out a little. We had a great time last weekend, with activities including staying two nights in a dog-friendly cabin on the outskirts of Estes Park, tasty meals out, hiking in the snow in Rocky Mountain National Park, Sunday breakfast at the famous Stanley Hotel, and a tour of Celestial Seasonings in Boulder, on the way home. I'll be sad to see her go.

Mandy in the snow

My sister and I are on the last leg of our weekend getaway trip, that took us to a lovely cabin in Estes Park, and hiking around Bear and Nymph Lakes, in Rocky Mountain National Park. Now we're heading home, and stopped for a "Tea Tour". Even Mandy loved our visit here. — with Mandy Hushing and Otamay Hushing at Celestial Seasonings.