The MGA With An Attitude
MGA Guru Is GOING MOBILE - (October 1 - October 15, 2019)
Tuesday October 1, 2019:
Fielding tech questions on master cylinder brake check valve, engine hesitation, catastrrophoc oil loss, brake booster installation.
Wednesday October 2, 2019:
Tech questions on replacement ID tag with UK registraton of an MGA, wheel and tire sizes, eratic fuel gauge. Late evening, received a PDF copy of the CMGC newsletter for October. That's enough to get started posting the newsletter on the club web site, but missing the high resolution pictures.
Thursday October 3, 2019:
Uploading pages to CMGC web site for the October newsletter. Mostly finished, but still missing the Hi-res pictures. Requesting the publisher copy of the newsletter, the copy that was sent to the printer (but not copied to Webmaster).
Friday October 4, 2019:
Publisher copy of the CMGC newsletter received this morning. Not long to extract the high-res pictures to be uploded to the web site. Job done, newsletter complete and on the club web site.
Saturday October 5, 2019:
Follow up to information in the latest CMGC newsetter, much of the day was spent adding a few pages to the CMGC web site for new books in the club lending library, and updating new details for upcoming driving events. Needing to make data backup for my local hard drive, began by deleting the prior backup from my thumb drive (time consuming process).
Sunday October 6, 2019:
All day copying data from hard drive to thumb drive for backup. PITA slow. Should get another portable hard drive, but I have already toasted two of those (seems they don't travel well in the car). Also composing a two page memo for the upcoming CMGC Board and staff meeting to be sure we don't overlook some things needing consideration.
Monday October 7, 2019:
 Another day doing data backup, hard drive to thumb drive, and not finished yet. Can't believe how slow the thumb drive is.
You may have noticed not much car and club activities for the past week. Well here's why. We have been hanging around the Chicago area for the past week so I could attend the CMGC Board and staff meeting on the first Monday of the month, something I haven't had a chance to do much in the past five years of constant travel. But we have been criss-crossing northern Illinois and attending a lot of local club activities for the past four months (all summer long).
Had some discussion at the staff meeting about lack of support for the club web site (or lack of support for the Webmaster), and how the web site is used (or not used) in conjunction with the newsletter. Also oversized monthly newsletter causing red ink (and rising membership dues), odd pricing structure for membership dues depending on print copy or electronic copy of the newsletter (member's choice), and who is subsidizing whom. This is a recent problem, as in past years every member got the print copy of the newsletter (now trying to transition to electronic newsletter to cut the printing and mailing cost). Also a bit of discussion about the club project car (MGA this time) for which they may bail out and sell it before end of the fiscal year accounting.
Tuesday-Wednesday October 8-9, 2019:
Finally figured our why the hard drive backup was going so slow. In the Windows directory there is a folder named WinSxS. This contains files used in Windows updates, but it keeps accumulating junk that never gets deleted. This one folder was up to 68-GB of data and seems to be growing exponentially, like doubling in size every two months. It has grown to about 1/3 of all data on my hard drive. Learning to delete some of the unused files, managed to throw out 11-GB so far, but needs more "housekeeping". Did finally finish the backup, but not looking forward to next time.
Thursday-Friday October 10-11, 2019:
Fielding a bunch of tech questions, but otherwise mostly killing time for a couple more days. See tomorrow.
Saturday October 12, 2019:
A bit of mission today as the CMGC was helping out at Free Car Safety Clinic For Seniors in Lisle, IL. We had at least six CMGC members (and a few other folks) doing safety inspections on 60 cars today. Seems like a good cause, as we have been doing this a couple times annually since spring of 2013. Nothing to do directly with MGs, except we take several of our MGs there for the seniors to enjoy (along with a few Model A Fords that show up for the same reason). Got started about 8 AM, finished half past twelve. There was one Corvette pulled over by the cops for speeding around the parking lot.
Safety check includes all of the fluids under the bonnet, battery, belts and hoses, add some washer fluid if needed. Also functional check of all exterior lights, wipers, tire tread and pressure adjustment. Inside we check function of dash indicator lights and condition of seat belts.
We commonly find a couple of cars with very low oil in the engine, some with very low brake fluid, and maybe every 5th car with license plate lamps out. Occasionally we may find abnormal tire wear implying an alignment problem. Rinse and repeat, 60 times over.
Late afternoon and evening spent on email and tech stuff. Nothing else happening here, so late night we were off to northern Indiana for a start in the right direction for this weeks plans.
Sunday October 13, 2019:
Sitting in Hobart, IN, catching up photos and notes from yesterday's car care clinic. Not a lot else happening, but late evening we expect to head east to Fort Wayne (or there about).
Monday October 14, 2019:
Kind of a screwy interim day. While gassing up the car I found my debit card disabled, so made the phone call. Someone tried to use my card number somewhere in Florida, caught by the bank on the first strike, so disabled the card number. Not much surprised, as it seems to happen almost once a year, and we seldom get much information, just a PITA inconvenience. So we paid cash for gas, then started looking for a Bank branch to get a temporary card I can use, and get a new card in process. Starting in Fort Wayne, Indiana mid afternoon, heading east the nearest facility would be Columbus, Ohio, a bit out of our way, and would be closed before we could get there. So forget that for now, and continue east right cross Ohio.
Tuesday October 15, 2019:
Driving a few stops early morning around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area to find a bank that was not an ATM only, not recently sold to another banking chain, and was indeed a financial center. Ordered up replacement debit card, to be sent to my home address, and also pick up a temporary card that I could used for 30 days. Having done this a few times by now, kind of getting the hang of it but still a PITA wasting a few hours. Then continue east.
We landed in York, PA this evening for a repeat visit to our friends "tinkering with cars in the alley every Tuesday night" (mostly vintage British cars).
The guys were doing a bit of tweaking with a bug eye Sprite, but when they got it off the hoist I took the opportunity to change oil in the MGA differential and gearbox. All around very good evening with friends. Picked up contact information for another shop, somewhere in or near Harrisburg, PA, I think, supposed to be some kind of race shop but also works on vintage cars. Something to check on soon.
When we were here a year ago someone had purchased a very cheap beater Morris Minor as a gift for our host. He hadn't done much with it for several months, so in June a few of the guys attacked the car with a vengeance, like it was on the tightest shoe string budget. They tipped it on its side, cleaned up a lot of rust, filled numerous holes with angel hair and gave the car a home brewed decent external repaint, all in a few months time. In late September it went to the "MGs On The Rocks" British car show and actually won a trophy (good going guys). Now our host drives the Morris to work and parks it at the Volkswagen dealer where the young service techs can ask "Is that a Beetle"?
|
