my life, my thoughts, my world.

14 years ago, I found a litter of puppies in a trash pile on the other side of the planet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I kept one as my dog, and named him Midnight (the others also got good homes). Tonight, we had to put him down. Luckily, all of his people were here to say goodbye. My siblings, my parents, and my grandparents. We all loved him, and he loved us all back. He was the best dog ever; my family and I will miss him.

Midnight, 2006

Midnight, Christmas 2006

Midnight, 2007

Midnight with my Grandpa

After three full years of sitting in the garage, my Dad’s Galant lives. He took it apart right after I got home from Iraq the first time, in 2006, to change the timing belt. This was supposed to be a father-son project, but it just didn’t happen like that for various reasons. Now that I live at home again, it was time to get the car out of the garage. Sooner was better than later, since I’m pretty sure my Mom was ready to set fire to the garage.

Putting things back together was not nearly as difficult as I’d feared. A few things were annoying, but that’s to be expected when working on a Japanese vehicle. It fired up with the first turn of the key, and ran quite well for a vehicle that hadn’t had a drop of gas in the tank for years. Today, I flushed out the radiator and everything seems to be working well. Even the AC still works, which is all kinds of impressive. My truck won’t hold R134a for more than a month, the Galant held a seal for several years.

Finally running again.