Daylight Savings Tantrums

 
It's a given that I love DST as much as I love getting my teeth drilled on without Novocain, so I won't dwell too much on what I'm enduring. Breakfast at 8. Lunch at 1. Dinner at 7. So it goes until my body adapts to everything being on Arizona Time. Or has Arizona entered the Pacific Time Zone? Does it really matter?

There's the task of turning the clocks ahead one hour, only to notice six watches are also three days behind. Ugh!

***

As of Thursday I have the Maverick DOHA 1/20 scale "basher" above to ease the pain of falling ahead an hour. It can go up to 16mph in a straight line, and it turns the dirt portion of my backyard into a miniature version of Glamis. It's way too much fun until the battery depletes in 15 minutes, but when I trim the max speed to about 10mph I squeeze about 25 minutes out of it before the LED light bar flashes its warning it's about to die.

It also requires routine maintenance, which thrills me. After every use I use a paint brush to scrub the dirt off its parts, give it a thorough inspection, then use Phillips 1 and 0 screwdrivers to tighten down chassis components as needed. In a few days The Porch Gods will deliver a 5mm hex driver. That will allow me to remove the wheels, which makes cleaning the chassis far easier and less time consuming.

***

The Axial SCX30 Ford Bronco may not arrive until Tuesday, but I've assembled a few of its Injora upgrades. Swamp Claw tires are mounted on vented five spoke wheels. A new motor is mounted to an aluminum transmission that's attached to an aluminum skid plate. The shocks are partially filled with 30W oil, and once installed I'll adjust the spring lengths with the adjustable collars as needed. Not shown is the servo, which controls the steering.

I'll likely do the upgrades in stages with the tires and servo first. The rest can happen as time passes.

***

$5.49. $5.79. Didn't look. $5.99. Those were the listed prices of 91 octane at the neighborhood Chevon station every day since Thursday. Vons and other retailers have adjusted their prices accordingly. But I'm not complaining too loudly since I don't live in LA's South Gate.