Mini Cooper - how to fix broken car latch

if you are in the middle of the nation where there are no mini dealers, maybe you shouldn't have a mini, but if you know the right people--well then it is ok.
i thought i had broken the latch on the driver's side.  i foolishly tried to open lock and latch at same time and heard a terrible ratcheting sound.  i could open door by reaching my hand outside and pulling the latch, but not by the inside latch.   the fix! well, i drove to california (not just for this, but for an extended visit) and my engineer son-in-law volunteered to have a look see.

after removing the door, (many visits to internet) he discovered (internet also) that many minis have this problem.  the latch is not broken, but the cable has stretched.

following are pictures of his fix.

1. cutter and inside clicker part of mechanical pencil

2. cut piece

3. cutting piece to length to use a shim

4. cutting grove with hacksaw

5. shim in place on cable

now all that needs to be done is to put door in place.

getting armrest off was a bit of hassle - slightly different that the one shown on line.

YEAH!!!!!!!

around riverside

this summer i have been water walking in jennifer and keith's community pool.  i try to go early in the morning before there are a lot of people.  some mornings the air is cool, but after a few laps it is just fine.

now that jennifer is in school i watch leslie in the morning.  it is still too hot to go in the afternoon even though the kids are now in school.  i have been talking leslie for stroller rides around the neighborhood for her entertainment and my exercise.

grandbaby's weekend

four generations: 2-kaye, 4-leslie, 3-keith, 1-ellen




almost all the grandparents. grandfather & grandmother helbley; grandfather & step-grandmother lawson; and of course, leslie




dedication pastors with leslie & parents
la sierra church, california, september 5, 2009.

trying to get the roots right

there are versions of my attempt to get the bottom part of the picture correct. it looks better on here than it does in life. does it need a little bird in a nest, or squirrel or something a little cutesy? i started out trying to making in light and airy, but it turned out rather gloomy, rather like a old russian novel.
i think the roots in this one look a little awkward and not attached to the tree although the photograph is rather like this. sometimes it is hard to believe real life.


the background of trees and grass has lots of color but lacks vitality.

connections

I am in California for a while as nanny for my first grandchild. She is a cutie, but a great occupier of time as most babies are.

Therefor, I am learning new routes, new driving rules (motorcycles, for example, can drive in the space between lanes), new stores, and new faces.

My daughter does a lot of shopping at Food-4-Less, which I immediately figured out was part of Kroger (cans labeled Kroger!). I tried my scan tag which said King Soopers and it worked. I have now used the card in Colorado and California in the following Kroger stores: King Soopers, City Market, and Food-4-Less. I have seen Ralphs in California, but have not been inside...yet!

Libraries across the country must have very tight connections. When I got a new card in Belle, they would only let me check out two books. When I got a new card in Riverside, they would only let me check out 2 books!. They are centuries apart in technologies. The 2 book rule must go back to the dark ages.

In some ways our country is way too homogenized, probably impossible to stop considering tv, movies, social networking sites, and ease of travel. Every semi-large place has a McDonald's or two, Olive Garden, Starbucks, Target, Pizza Hut, etc. What I really like is to eat and shop at places that are really rooted in their place (like the Tattered Cover, McGuckin's Hardware, The Green Bean, The Wild Rose, and MONA{Museum of Nebraska Art}).

Even with all the connectedness, this sameness in our culture, there is not a greater understanding of the essential likeness of all of us.

end of spring, beginning of summer

bonfire in back yeard







leslie marie

contrary to what most school children believe, summer does not begin on the day school is dismissed for summer vacation. confusing, i know, but summer usually starts around june 21 or 22 on the summer solstice.

all the holidays in belle are mostly appropriated by sis's relatives and friends, so we thought we would have a summer solstice party. granted it is fairly close to the fourth, but it was the best candidate for a get together in the month of june. we decided to have a burning of old financial papers party in the back yard, so the party started at 8:30 and went till all the papers were turned to ash. it went well, with some people bringing a box or two. it is either burn the papers or shred them and the cheap shredders only take one or two sheets at a time.

after the solstice, a raced out to california to be with my daughter who was having a baby. the drive through south dakota, wyoming, and western colorado was great. utah and nevada ....well, not much to say. the worst though was the drive from las vegas to los angelos , especially since it was a sunday night. lots of dead and resting cars along the way to go with the slow and go traffic.

leslie marie was born on monday evening, june 30. since she was tiny, she has to be in the hospital till she gains a little weight, but she is working on that mightily. mom gets to come home earlier.

that is all the good news, and the really great news. the bad news is i had to put dennis my buddy cat asleep, and the other bad news .... i think there is something wrong with the brake on the front right of my mini. urgg.

you can't go home

top - port isaac, cornwall
middle - gloucester, england
bottom - edinburgh, scotland

in the early seventies, i was in edinburgh. i remember it being charming, sweet, and green. i remember going through the old part of town and taking a tour through holyrood castle (which was especially meaningful as i had just finished reading Mary, Queen of Scots, by Frazier).

this time it seem noisy, dirty, and uncharming. there may have been extenuating circumstances for this impression. one, all the streets downtown were torn apart and there was a lot of accompanying noise. two, we didn't visit the castle or the old part of town. three, we were rushed and did not have time to really spend time poking around in the little nooks and crannies. we stayed next to the zoo and did not even have time to visit.

i remember going back to the street i spent my high school years living on to find the house were i had lived. half of the houses on the block had been torn down including my old home. now i am fearful of going back to boulder and boulder county for all the changes i will find. the small funky town is no more.

if you live in a place the changes are gradual enough (even the startling changes) so you are not shocked. you grow into the new stuff. guess i will not be doing a schmidt trip!

on the other hand the visit to gloucester cathedral was wonderful. i had seen pictures in art books and have watched the Harry Potter movies that used the cathedral as background. but real life is always more. the fan ceilings of the hall was wonderful. i originally put it on my itinerary to cross off one of the items on my bucket list--to hear an organ in a gothic church. i scoured the guide books to find a church that had evensong and gloucester happened to be on our way to port isaac. i didn't quite hear a pipe organ--they were singing baroque music hence were accompanied by a small electric organ in a box. BUT....it turns out that the cathedral is famous for its singers. people come from all over to go to school in town so they can sing in the choir. all males, ages ranging from quite young to older. we were able to sit in the quire and the accoustics were all that i had expected. i was supprised that their were not more people there to listen (only about 10).

port isaac also turned out to be a pleasant experience. even though i had seen it on tv and in the movie Saving Grace, it was my first visit. it was a little touristy, but not spoiled like rye.

sometimes expectations can be totally crushed, sometimes altered as in the case of the organ (i didn't hear a pipe organ, but the singing was a great replacement), and sometimes it turns out just right. i would guess that if i were to go back to port isaac in a few years i would experience the same sense of dissapointment i felt when i visited edinburgh.