Keystone State Thread

Cicada Killer

 

yup

 

Put new blades on both saws Saturday and needed the Stihl on the way to the cabin as a tree was down across the road up New blade = awesome! Cut a lot of wood, put up a new small rack and moved an old stack to that. Finished moving the brush pile and, finally, burned the mountain of picker bushes that I have been pulling and stacking in the fire pit. Then a nice fire with wood that was "on the edge" of going bad. Awesome dinner from that fire, more cutting and stacking and then a pleasant fire-side chill.
Perfect day but very tired today......totally worth it.

 

Full chisel skip tooth or bust. I don't do that low kickback garbage chain.

 

I wish they’d kill the lanternflies…

I whacked a few cicadas while driving on Route 309 in Quakertown earlier this summer; The sound they make on impact had me looking for damage to my truck the next time I stopped. One of them left a disgusting orange streak on my windshield that wipers could not get rid of and I had to take it through the car wash!

 

My dad splattered a couple cicadas with his Yukon this past June…

 

Childhood memories! Was cruising through Doylestown yesterday and I saw this parked outside a garage…




Why is it significant? My aunt and uncle had the exact same van from 1994 to 2004! I spent a decent portion of my childhood riding in that van!




My aunt and uncle had a 1994 model, and a quick run of the license plate through Carfax revealed this one is a 1995, but this is seriously the same van my aunt and uncle had! 1994 and 1995 Chrysler minivans were virtually identical!




My uncle purposely ordered their 1994 Grand Caravan SE without power windows because he’d had issues with power windows on a previous vehicle; Their van had A/C, cruise, tilt, cassette, etc, but it had crank windows!

Seriously though, this van brings back some very fond childhood memories for me

 

Carfax report showed this van has about 180K miles, which is low considering that it’s a 26-year old minivan; My aunt and uncle’s had about the same mileage when they got rid of it in 2004! This 1995 model has power windows unlike my aunt and uncle’s van, and also has rear A/C, which their van also didn’t have…

My aunt and uncle have lived in typically mild Northern California for about forty years and were on a budget at the time, so they saved money by not getting rear A/C in their van; After their first trip to see family in Texas, they very quickly regretted this!

 

Same exterior color, interior color, and trim level as my aunt’s mom-mobile!

 

I want to buy a 9/11 magnet for the tailgate of my truck on Amazon, but none of them will be delivered before September 15th…

 

I pay extra money for Prime and get this nonsense?

 

Many millennials conceived in one of those giant hunks of junk, a soccer moms delight.

 

Hey, respect the van!

Several friends and family members had Chrysler minivans and I can tell you all them had two things in common; They all had decent factory sound systems and incredibly comfortable seats! Plus, happy childhood memories far outweigh spotty build quality!

 

I remember seeing them and dodge neons that looked to be the most broken down vehicles on the side of the road. You could count one damn near for every mile marker. There’s a reason Chrysler went bankrupt. That mini van almost saved them until people realized how shitty they actually were

 

@6 gearT444E

I don’t know where the hell I was conceived and I’m not sure I want to know, but…

I was born at El Camino Hospital in Milpitas, California…

My dad drove my mom and me home from the hospital in his 1983 Toyota Celica GT…

That’s right, I was born in a hospital that shares its name with Chevy’a iconic pickup-car, and the first vehicle I ever rode in after coming into this world was a Toyota!

 

My friends and relatives didn’t have any problems beyond normal wear and routine maintenance; My aunt and uncle bought a new 1986 Plymouth Voyager LE after my aunt got pregnant with the first of two kids. This was the year before a V6 became available, and their van had the 2.6L Mitsubishi engine. The van was bought new at a dealer in Alabama and spent the first year of its life in the Atlanta suburbs before my aunt and uncle moved to Maryland in 1987 or so. They had kid #2 in October 1988 and and lived in Maryland until 1994; They stayed in the DC Metro area but moved to Northern Virginia. That 1986 Voyager was their family vehicle from 1986 until they bought a new Voyager in 1997, with well over 100K miles on the clock. That van had a few annoying little problems as it aged, but it was never what I would classify as unreliable…

 

@6 gearT444E

• By the early 1990s, the shocks that hold the rear liftgate had given out and they took to carrying a wooden fence post around in the van to prop the liftgate up when loading and unloading.
• In 1994 or 1995, when we were still living in Pennsylvania the first time, they came up to visit us the first time. The A/C in the ‘86 Voyager gave out in the most epic way possible right before they were supposed to drive home; The compressor actually seized up and prevented the serpentine belt from spinning, thus keeping the van from starting. My other uncle was visiting as well; They bought a non-A/C serpentine belt from either the local dealer or some auto store, and my other uncle bypassed the compressor so the van would start; This was the middle of summer, and getting the A/C fixed before driving home to the DC suburbs was out of the question, so they had to drive home in the summer with no A/C. The A/C compressor was replaced, and they got another 2 or 3 years out of it before trading it for a 1997 Voyager.
• Despite the two issues I mentioned, the van was their family vehicle for over a decade and was very good to them; DC and the portions of Maryland and Virginia that make up its suburbs have very strict emissions testing, and that little red van never failed an emissions test!