Plans and execution

There's a really nice feeling about days off whether I have plans or not; it feels like anything is possible and despite the fact I'll not be travelling away anywhere (too far anyway) it feels nice to have the ability to make plans or not and my main plan was to not make plans. Of course, life still needs to roll on so I've had to do a few things that, due to leading a rather complex and busy life, have escaped notice until now and so, I planned - yes, I know I said I'd not do that - to tick a couple things off early in my couple weeks off work and yesterday was the day.

I had a huge sleep in all the way through to 6am at which time I went for a run and then, showered, breakfasted and around 8am headed out in my four wheel drive to take it to my mechanic.

Back a while I broke Big Dog's anti-roll bar (Big Dog is my four wheel drive) and had my mechanic fix it; fixing it was easy but levelling the rear suspension was not so. My vehicle has a kinetic dynamic suspension system (KDSS) which uses hydraulics to level out the vehicle (left to right) when off-roading. This complicated system works really well but levelling it after the repair was fiddly as it has to be levelled when in the air but put down on the ground to check the level. The valves need to be opened to bleed out, the level applied, and the system closed back up and the vehicle dropped to see how it settles out. That all happened last time but I was unhappy with the result (even though my mechanic did it three times that day to get it right) as it was 16mm (0.629921 of an inch) leaned to the right on the rear.

I know, it's not much but I didn't like it so I took it back in and he did the job again and now it's 2mm (0.0787402 of an inch) and I'm happy with that. Yeah it's pedantic of me I guess, but it's my nature to do things right and it was annoying me to see the vehicle from behind with that slight lean. Now I'm happy with it.

I had a coffee while waiting for my vehicle, image above, and when I picked it up headed off to my tyre guy...it was time for a wheel balance, rotation and alignment which I do every 5,000km; $125 well spent as it keeps my tyres in good condition and wearing evenly.

I then picked up my girl from home and we went to the supermarket for food shopping which I wasn't looking forward to; so many people pushing those trolleys (shopping carts) at a snails pace, stopping in the middle of the aisle, meandering along on no fixed trajectory and being generally annoying...not something I have the patience for usually and less so at Christmas time. Still, I managed not to slay anyone and the shopping got done.

That was the end of the plan and I have to say it was all executed with relative ease and with a satisfactory result. From here, I've got no plans other than to relax and possibly make a few day-trips maybe to the Yorke Peninsula a couple hours away or some such place. Maybe not though.