I’ve been researching for quite a bit; round town and the internet. I wanted the best setup for the best dollar. Who doesn’t? I went to three venues in search of a deal on wheels but to no avail. All three places wanted 300USD and up. That to me, is very ridiculous and outrageous. So what if my vehicle is newer? It only takes a few tweaks to make fit for my vehicle let alone, mass produce it! Reese needs to do something about this!

A remedy? Sure, there are always other routines to draw from and achieve the same results. So what I did was measure my rear support beams (frame). Trucks have two steel beams running parallel to each other from the front to the back, north to south. It was roughly 37.5in. with two bolt holes spaced approximately 4in. apart.

The kit I purchased, was designed for domestic and foreign vehicles. Namely the Tundra, the larger brother of my Tacoma. I went to Wal-Mart with the measurements, opened up one of the boxes, … hotdog! It will fit! I was so happy I cried for joy at 109.00USD!!! I purchased that, the wiring harness (6USD) and a starter hitch ball and mount (20USD). It came out to a total of 145USD after taxes. Can’t beat that with a stick! I saved 150USD!!! I’m so proud of myself… Yes!

The easiest way I found installing it was by first installing the first piece. Let’s just call it the starter piece.

After you have that loosely bolted on, you can than slide the last piece on and adjust the length accordingly.

After cooking up a storm and filling a swear jar full of nickels, you are finally done.

The reason you see the long bracket hanging like so is because this was designed for the Tundra and the Tundra required a brace that would connect from the bottom bracket to the frame of the truck. I did not use it because it won’t fit and its not required. The Tundra requires such a brace (in theory) because the whole hitch assembly is only held on with two bolts (the other two bolt attaches to the brace than to the frame). Besides, I see kits designed for the Tacoma (2006), do not require a brace nor is a brace provided!!!

Take into consideration that I could not use the bolts provided with the kit because the Tacoma comes with four nuts already welded to the four holes. I had to purchase that separately at the hardware store (8USD for hardened bolts and washers).

Here is a misc. shot of the hitch. Pay close attention. The brand is “Bully”

Toyota Tacoma Hitch Walmart Hitch Hitch Wiring

“We are best of friends; our love is beyond that the love of lovers; we are friends at heart.”

-L.Nguyen

Through shallows a heart reaching beyond cinder core. Glow in light leaves ashy trails of distant forever more. A friend such I no more no less, thinks thy like dandelion; a signature in lock of shadows of imprint in letters and notes of yesteryears. A bee like I has plucked and plundered, nested cove: found I a home within…a heart… her heart.

Look high above and dream a tale of tall tales. Winds from east and dust from West. A music box lie just atop of windows’ ledge. Beyond the edges sprinkled with ashy dust. Holes of worms’ scattered around the box show sign of age. A tune springs lively as it ajar. Thus too, my friendship wakens when called. Like a good music box I am, you’ll always hear a tune you yearn .

Nestled in bosom; a place I lie. Dormant and alone I’ve always been. Never asked nor ached for better. Know less this that lie beyond no bounds, a love that contours and shifts like the many shadows plastered upon the brilliant sky that my love for thy are like the sands found upon natures’ soles. Simple, lasting, and enduring. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just close to extraordinary.

I was trimming my hedges and I have a hedger attachment to make my life a little easier. If you haven’t noticed, the trimmers are pretty lengthy. To say its cumbersome is to say the least. If you live in gated communities with houses that are five feet apart from each other, you’ll know what I mean by mobility when it comes to mowing or working on the sides of your house.

Anywho, the trimmer is 65 inches long or around there. Its a little long when you add the hedger attachment to it. So I got to thinking, “Now wouldn’t it be nice if it were a little shorter”. So I did just that. I had to cut it down to the length I desired. It took some welding and grinding to get things to fit nicely. Two hours later and I am done! It looks good so far! A total of 39 inches with the hedger attachment attached. No handle for grip but its fairly light and easily maneuverable. I think my six yr old nephew can start using it from now on=) Who knows, I might shrink the lawn mower, edger and the likes so that he can start doing my chores!

I have to mention though that the shaft is hollow and inside it, is a flexible steel wire that spins the tool(s). The wire is covered by a heavy nylon shell and its separated from ever touching the shaft by rubber bushings that slide over the nylon shell. The only way I could cut that is with my trusty bolt cutter. I cut it as close as I could to the head and welded the rest on very carefully as not to interrupt the engineering of the components.

I did not include all the photos step-by-step but you’ll understand the concept of what it took to complete such a wonderful feat. It only took a little of ingenuity and lots of patience. I’m going to rebuild this motor later on. Its very old I admit, about 6 yrs old 31CC Ryobi weed eater. I will take apart this motor and probably make a scooter for my nephew to play with. I’ll cap the speed to 3 mph for safety.

short Ryobi trimmer : Ryobi weed eater : 31CC Ryobi motor

What a list. I am doing a little upgrade to my current system: AMD 2.4ghz socket 754. The OEM CPU fan is a little noisy and raises my room temperature by 7-8 degrees F. I was a little annoyed by its loud fan noise. It was like a wind tunnel but except in my room! I wanted a new silent fan so went with the Thermaltake CL-P0220 100mm. I didn’t need a GPU fan but I wanted one anyways because it looked so snazzy so I went with the ZALMAN VF900.

The install went quite well. It took me about 4 hours to install and configure everything. The GPU did not clear a transistor so I had to use a dremel to remedy that quickly! The SATA drive was a breeze to install but a little loud. Louder than my IDE drives. Its okay though because I purchased it for speed and performance.

To install the SATA drive, I had to remove my primary IDE drive and set my second IDE drive that I had as [slave] to [master]. Once I had that hooked up, I had to boot from a Nortons Ghost cd and restore my backup to the new drive. The backup file was 10gigs. With IDE, to restore was 11minutes. With SATA, the restore was only 5.5minutes. I could only imagine if I was restoring from SATA to SATA. It would be blazing fast mind you!!!

Anyhow, temperatures dropped from the CPU about 10degrees Celsius. Plus, its much, much quieter- fans running at 1700rpm vs. the stock 5500rpm. I don’t know about the GPU improvements but I know its working! The ATI 1600 video cards don’t come with temperature sensing. Sucks but O well.

I’m so exhausted… I broke ground on Sunday afternoon past drift noon, far beyond lunch. I dug a trench stretching more than eighty feet in length. It was a shallow grave for CPVC piping; not to code but I really did not care. The trench stretched and meandered from thickets to underground concrete, O my! It was very hard work! I was so tired after 4 hours of picking and [bitching]. The reason it took so long was because of the bushes being so thick. Squeezing through from what I can tell, a mismatched ally way made by the house wall and bush giving a meager 8 inches wide walk way- did I say that I was torn up too? Yeah…, I was definitely receiving a [hurt’n] by the thickets. It made trenching so difficult I had to take a few breaks or else I would scream!

I water the plants by hand and for the past three years or so, I’ve been miserable with a bucket of water. No more I say! I laid the pipes and various fittings down neatly. Cut, brazed and glued- I did it all! I had 3 water bibs strategically placed for efficiency. The first one: placed by the two French doors in front of my home; second: placed right by the pool pump and filter which is also located near the back door; third: placed in the back of my home. The logic is that I need water access to water my plants upfront (the ones elevated and that can not be reached by the sprinklers), clean my pool and filter, and water plants in the back.

Needless to say, I’m tired and beat. I have glue all over, nicks and bruises here and there, and a swear jar full of quarters! I would like to get some help but that will be many years down the road until the little ones grow old enough to render any use. Right now, all they do is eat and sleep, poop, and drive me crazy! I bet I would be done sooner too. It took three days to complete. I’m very happy with the results. I had to poor concrete around the bibs for a more solid footing. The pipes I ran were CPVC but at every bib, there was copper for added dexterity. Twisting and bending with CPVC is fine but when you have them under the ground for quite a few years, they become brittle and will eventually snap cleanly in two if tension is applied in a vertical movement or occasional shakings.

I was going over a friend’s house to do some PC upgrades. It was a new motherboard + processor, 530watt psu, and a 512mb pciE_x16 video card. During the long drive, I had the urge to call my friend. We have not spoken to each other for awhile. I didn’t give up on her. So I contemplated for a wee bit to see if I should give her a call. I did. Every tone was a heart ache for I assumed she wouldn’t pick up and that I would have to leave a message. Finally on the third tone, she picked up. I was relieved for I had no clue what to say if I had left a message.

She hadn’t picked up for two whole weeks- mind you, I was a nuisance but I didn’t mind. Her friendship meant a lot more than my embarrassment. I guess I was ready to make a fool of myself to admit all wrongs whether I was right or she was wrong- it didn’t matter. When we talked, it was like something new; I didn’t know what to say nor how to put things. I was in the rough and I knew it. I hadn’t the slightest idea of how I would react when she said “Hey” but its the norm.

Two weeks of calling. There were many moments passed that I would flip the phone and speed dial 10 but find myself closing it right afterwards. I wrote many e-mails- all replying to the same letter, drafts, all of them drafts. Each letter I would hover the mice over [send] but stop myself and saved it as [draft]. I’m a fool, embarrassing myself in front of a mirror- all alone. Pity. She is my friend. A friend I have not lost hope in. A month has passed.

There is tension that is between us. From her to I but not from I to her. I’m resolute. I honestly don’t know where our friendship shall sail because I’m onboard but she might be hesitant. I’m happy that she picked up and it was soothing to hear her voice. I missed her quirky jokes and funny giggle. That too, comforts me. Now that I know (an assumption) we can still talk, I don’t think its up to me anymore whether we continue or fall behind. She has me if she but to ask. I’m foolish and misunderstood. One of many flaws I bare. I hate to lose a friend like her since I have so very few to begin with.

What I ordered:

*POWER SUPPLY ANTEC TPII-550ATX RTL
*CPU FAN|BIG TYPHOON CL-P0114 TT RT
*VGA SPHRE|X1600 PRO 512M
*Wacom 6×8 Tablet
*Misc. cooling fans

Its feeling like a little kid again that makes it all worthwhile. I had it shipped 2days express for an extra fee but I have a preferred membership and the order is rushed anyways, so it was a waste of money for the shipping. Anyhow, I’m very happy with my new gizmos and toys. The fan is so normongous! I just love it! It’s very quiet- quieter than the stock pentiumIV fan and heat sink combo.

I work a lot in photoshop and the likes, and so I purchased the wacom tablet for easier manipulation with my photos. I don’t know what use it would be but I’ll find out. For some reason, I think it was a waste too! It takes a little getting use to but I’ll manage!

Okay, I finally trapped the little rascal whose been running around my whole neighborhood causing such havoc under people’s homes! I heard one neighbor had holes running from one side of the house to the next! I’m sure it was this armadillo! I did the whole community good by catching this critter! Well, okay… the trapper caught it but I want some credit too- I checked the trap everyday if that counts for anything!

This critter doesn’t look as mean as the possum I caught the other day! I’m just glad its done with! I was worried of future infestations that I went around my yard trimming all the hedges at least 8 inches from the foundation/wall of my house. I’ll need to do it to the side where the trap resides on because I left it for last. I have to admit, my bushes look way cleaner than usual not to mention all the bugs that were in the thickets when they were full!

I’ve left a few photos. It’s pretty interesting how the trapper set it up. You can see that there are two boards running from my neighbor’s house and mine. The board purposively directs the critter into the trap so that it would be easy to catch. They would follow the boards and step right into the trap! Its ironic but if I was caught, I would lose my apatite: this critter didn’t because the bait was licked clean!

I work on the garden a lot and my Coronar pruners constantly loosen during use. I got fed up with it and decided that I shall weld the nut to the bolt. The design is to use a nut with plastic inlaid within to stop the nut from unraveling from the bolt. It works quite well but when you combine that design to something that moves on an axis constantly hundreds and thousands of times, its not going to hold its own.

It was quite easy to do actually. My welder looks brand new since I’ve used it less than a few dozen times. I always store it in it’s original box. I was thinking of purchasing the gas conversion kit for it but decided I do not use it enough to warrant such a purchase. It’s a Lincoln brand; a brand trusted by NASCAR!

coronar pruners : loosening nut : welding

I have two long rows of hedge on the sides of my house and my neighbor knocked on my house the other morning telling me of surprising news: I have a possum digging underneath my house! I didn’t notice such because I’m usually not paying attention until the hedges need tending. I was a little freaked out so I called a local trapper. He caught it and release somewhere far, far away.

I would have caught it myself but I don’t want to buy the trap and having to keep it too. I caught a cat in an attic once using the same style trap the trapper used. I had rented that trap but I don’t know where to rent one around my town. Plus, it was inexpensive to call the trapper out.

My friend walks up to me and says, “lets eat it”! Knowing that he’s only joking=) Its a feisty little critter I would say the least. To say its docile would be an understatement! This thing packs a punch with lots of sharp, sharp razor teeth. I wouldn’t want to get bitten by it.

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