2010: Not much changing
Nothing special to report here, the year started out pretty much the same way as usual. A fresh belly full of oil, this time fairly early in the spring.
With the lack of mileage put on the car in recent years, some of the engine and transmission seals have begun weeping somewhat. It usually gets better after some weeks of driving, but here I had no choice but to idle it for a while to get things up to temperature before parking it once more.
The water pump is still weeping... not enough to leave any drop on the floor, but you can smell it after a long hot drive. Will I finally get to swap it out this year? HA! Not likely. :-)
Would be nice to at least wipe down the motor now and again, though. It's just a bit harder to find the time with all the work and family commitments, plus not doing any more car shows for a while.
Like a nice security blanket, it's nice to commute with a familiar car that you enjoy driving so much.
Unlike some other years, this time the car was fully on the road for its late May birthday!
No one can ever accuse me of treating it like a garage queen (other than avoiding rain)... here we see it loaded up for band practice and some recording sessions.
One tradition I have overlooked in many years was an early season day-long drive... anywhere... just as a way to get reacquainted with the car. A decade ago it was a drive around the perimeter of the town, usually lasting a whole morning and afternoon, but now I can content myself with driving through the countryside.
One remnant of the 2008 accident is that the headlight motors have finally started to get weak, occasionally being slow to deploy or retract, often followed by some distant grinding noise. The first attempt at switching out the driver's side failed miserably, when I realized it was very tight access to the motor housing (visible under the cone-shaped knob on the lower left). Even removing the bezel didn't help!
I only got as far as replacing the side marker bulb, before retreating to nurse my scraped and cut arms. Typical 1980s General Motors design.
Waiting for an opportunity to tackle the lights once more, the season got away from me. By Fall, I was scrambling to put some more mileage on the car, to make sure any old fuel was used up.
And before I knew it, it was time to pack things up for 2010.
