ADM? Import smimport

Couple weeks ago I had to replace the brake rotors on my F-350.  To do this you have to remove the entire front hub.   I figured since I was into the front hub I might as well clean up and re-grease my bearings.  So as I am pulling apart the wheel bearings and cleaning them I look at the markings.  I always like to know what brand of bearings I have in my vehicle if I can.
Imagine my surprise when in my Ford F-350 truck, the epitome of American Domestic Market, has a bearing made in Japan.

Proof once again, if you buy domestic or import it will not be 100% of either.

On Hiatus

Yes, I have been gone for some time from the blogger world.  I am hoping to remedy that problem, but for right now let's just cover last weeks pleasure.
My large truck and I took a trip up to the Tetons for a week.  Traveling with us, one trailer and three boy scouts in a convoy with 12 other boy scouts and 4 other adults.  This was the troops summer camp.  Ok, so you think I am crazy, spending a week with 19 teenage boy scouts (4 more came up later) in bear country.
Even though I anticipated it to be difficult and painful, it was actually a pleasure.  Although I am glad to be back to work so I can relax a little.
We were up at 6 in the morning, to bed at 11 at night.  Spent the entire time doing service projects for the camp and keeping track of the scouts.  I thought it was a blast.

Driving experience

I have been stating lately that, by watching the drivers, the word Prius must be Japanese for Prick.  Yes, it is my feelings that a good population of Toyota Prius drivers seem to drive like pricks.  They seem to have this "holier than thou" attitude.  This is not only true here in Salt Lake Valley, as my sister in law from the Bay area of California agreed with my observation.  Yesterday I saw this bumper sticker on Prius that only upped the ante, this one obviously has evolved to a new level of prick, here is that bumper sticker.  Brings "holier than thou" to a new level.

Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against being fuel efficient, or economically minded but do you have to be such a self righteous prick about it?

It's ALIVE

To update those regarding the last post, Free Wheeler Pizza now has been revived.  Yes by no small effort of Herb Doom himself he has brought life back.  A fact I was able to exploit yesterday and once again enjoyed a BBQ Pizza like no other.

Thank you Herb for your efforts, may we be able to keep this alive for many years to come.  Long live the Garlic Roll

The day the Pizza died

Today I lost a long time friend.  Not a person, but this has been a stable in my family's life for 33 years.  Today the doors of the last Free Wheeler Pizza in Salt Lake City closed, probably forever.  My brother, Max from It's the Journey started working for this pizza place in 1978 (sorry to age you Max).  Over the years all three of my siblings worked there, and myself for 13 years.  Even after I left Free Wheeler, Max continued to do some small work for them.  The fact is that with the exception of about 1 year in the 80s Free Wheeler has employed at least one of my siblings, and Mrs Gearhead, for 33 years.  So when I say I lost a friend, Free Wheeler pizza is a long time family friend to us.
What makes this Pizza place so special?  The friendships gained there.  Yes, I would say the pizza is great, it is a sourdough crust with a nice spicy sauce.  The ingredients they offered were many and good quality, topped generously, but that was what made the customers enjoy Free Wheeler Pizza. However some of the best times of my life can be found in the 13 years I worked there.  Some of my most famous lines that I quote come from somebody who worked there.  I still hold some dear friendships that were gained.  The saddest part for me though, is the loss for my good friend Herb Doom who has put everything he could find in his life into Free Wheeler Pizza for over 20 years (again sorry to age you Herb.)  He has fought tooth and nail for those years to keep a legacy alive and serve to employ people who have character and life in them yet find they don't want to fit into the mainstream of life.  Free Wheeler has employed many types of people, college students, lifetime students, budding musicians, and those who either got fed up with corporate crap, or wished to completely avoid corporate crap.  Thank you Herb Doom for your years of service to Free Wheeler Pizza and for trying your hardest to keep such a legacy alive.

You will be missed Free Wheeler Pizza.

Political facebook shakeup

On facebook today I saw two different political responses to the earthquake in DC.  The irony made me laugh

"That was no earthquake, Obama's approval rating just hit rock bottom."

"There was a 5.8 earthquake in Washington this morning. Obama wanted a 3.4, but the republicans wanted a 5.8, so he compromised."

Staying green in brown

Today on my way to work I saw something new, there was this lady who was patrolling the neighborhood garbage cans in Salt Lake City proper.  She was on a Segway like three wheeled type scooter checking the brown garbage cans that are used for green trash (i.e. leaves, branches, grass clipping, tree trimmings, etc.)
  I guess she was making sure there was only green trash in these cans, so if you have one of the brown "green" garbage cans keep in mind, the tree trimming cops are checking them.
As for the T3 Motion scooter, I have been seeing those recently pop up around Salt Lake, apparently not only are the Salt Lake garbage patrol using them, so are the "metermaids" and the U of U "parking nazis."  I read a little comment made by "Dvice" about them here that I thought was funny.  I guess Segways are intimidating, although I think it's more that they are intimidating to the operators than the criminals.  And here I thought it was a step up to go from TWO wheels to THREE.