After Christmas, we headed out to Birmingham, AL, mostly because I hadn't been there and my wife refused to visit Paducah, KY.  Why Paducah?  Not really sure, but the city's own website highlights the bridge out of town, that should be telling enough. Hadn't been there either, not really sure why anybody wants to stay there, but I did find out, while watching NOVA, that Paducah has a large scale storage facility for nuclear waste, so it has that going for it.

Vulcan

The largest cast iron statue, Vulcan, resides in Birmingham.  The work itself can be found atop a hill in sturdy park that has the look of a WPA project -- The kind of public works the U.S. desperately needs but no longer undertakes. Unfortunately, the pedestal on which the sculpture rests was the victim of a late 1960's improvement where an elevator shaft was installed directly in front of the pedestal, obstructing the view of the original architecture and visually competing with the structure from nearly every angle. The impressive fountains were replaced by grass and the statue itself was actually painted dirt red.  A complete disaster for such an impressive work of art.  In the 2000's the statue was refurbed (as the picture shows) but the terrible elevator shaft remains; hopefully, somebody will get the sense to tear it down.

Returning from Birmingham, I was sent to San Francisco; actually, Sunnyvale, which is an edge city with who's primary resident is Google along with a smattering of other high-tech companies of all flavors.  While in Sunnyvale, I had lunch at a place called Barn Thai, who's decor was decidedly un-barn like, I think "barn" might not mean "barn" as in Pottery Barn, or maybe it does and the decor was just that bad. Despite the confusing name, the food was excellent.

As we were leaving lunch, I spotted this gem of a Chevy Astro van:





Not really sure why the owner was decorating his van as such.  The group I was with thought this was a soccer fan, but the appearance of several bicycles didn't seem to jive with that theory. I would have liked to get some better pictures, but all I had was my cell phone and we were running late by the time we left.

Car problems; or, lack thereof

Unlike the last time I returned from CA, when my car didn't make it home from the airport due to the water pump failing, this time, the ride home was uneventful.  I was very happy because the weather was unpleasant when I landed and I wasn't much in the mood to call for another tow.  Oddly enough, I did share a flight with another pair of basset hounds.  Different than the pair before, not sure what's going on here, maybe some elaborate basset hound migration scheme?  I'll have questions if I encounter another set of hounds on my next trip to SFO.

Over to the left is a picture from window of the snow covered Pittsburgh suburbs on my approach to PIT when returning home.  The prior week in Sunnyvale, temperatures remained in the low 60's, maybe in the 40's at night.  In the greater Pittsburgh area, the weather told a different story, with snow accumulation and temperatures rarely rising above the teens.

Here's the good news: I think I've reached steady-state with the mechanical condition of the Freestyle.  There's still problems with the car, but none interfering with the daily driverness of the car:

1. Rear lift supports not working
   More of an annoyance than what would expect.  I like taking the Freestyle for grocery shopping as the flat folding back seat is great for loading the bags.  To use the back gate, I need to balance the door on my back while loading/unloading.  I think I'll tackle this next.
2. Exhaust leak
   A small leak has blossomed into a more agricultural exhaust note.  The sound seems to be emanating from the far side of the catalytic converter, so I'll just need an resonator and muffler. I hope.  Working under a car tickles some deep-seated entrapment fears, I'll need to get other these to fix this problem.
3. Air conditioning system recharge
   The compressor failed, resulting in the accessory belt breaking regularly.  While no article has been written on the subject, I replaced the compressor and while I was at it, the rest of the A/C system.  The system hasn't been recharged, I task I felt could wait until the arrival of warmer weather.
4. Transmission not shifting smoothly
   The symptom I'm seeing is the transmission not wanting to shift into glide or sometimes not up-shifting, as much as that concept exists in a CVT.  I've found putting the car into neutral and letting is drift for a little will result in the return to correct behavior.  The weird thing: the RPMs  don't drop below 2000 when in neutral in this state, so we might not be seeing a transmission problem per se.
5. Airbag light
   This turned on a few months ago, I need do some continuity tests to chase down this problem, as I'm not sure if the sensor failed or if the wire to the sensor failed.
6. Traction control and ABS lights
   We have some dashboard lights for traction control and ABS.  I have the codes for these, it's   a matter of chasing them down and figuring out what's really wrong.
7. Suspension
   The Freestyle has the factory dampeners, at nearly 300K, well past their service life.  This mildly inteferes with the handling under regular driving conditions and when a bumpy road the ride becomes, well, let say spirited.

Over the next few months, I'll be knocking things off the list as I have the time, unless something else crops-up that takes the Freestyle off the road.