Shoulder Season Blues

Baby, it’s hot outside! Honestly, September is always my least favorite month in Santa Barbara. If you don’t live in this region you would never expect it, but it’s general the hottest month of the year here. Over Labor Day Weekend Jesse and I were out in 100 degree weather doing this:

When Jesse brought Hashie up to Oregon in July we found out the hard way that our “new” (1995) van leaked water in the front cab. Great. I was only headed to Idaho where the car would sit for weeks at a time while out bikepacking. Visions of a closed up vehicle, wet inside for over a week, and the resultant mold danced in my head. I did my internet research and approached the problem in two ways. First, I replaced the striker plates on the doors that the latch grabs onto, hoping to seal the doors more tightly to the gasket that looked healthy. And I also applied silicone around the windshield and and side windows. A quick test with a hose did not reveal a leak; hopefully I had solved the problem!

As described here, our bikepacking trip was cut short by Covid. On our final day of car camping near McCall, Idaho we finally got some rain and it didn’t take long to realize that the windshield was still leaking. Sigh. But hey, I got lucky on the long hot (still no working driver’s side window nor AC) drive back to Oregon for bike school, while driving through 30 miles of construction my windshield was struck with gravel and cracked – yay for comprehensive insurance, let’s get this thing replaced! Upon returning to Santa Barbara I got Hashie into our favorite glass dealer and was met with some unwanted news: there was rust under the windshield and replacing it was unlikely to fix our leak unless we fixed the rust. I decided to have the windshield technician break the window free, but leave it in place so that we could lift it in and out ourselves at home, while we tried to do this repair ourselves during a record breaking heatwave. It turned out to be messy work, but it went fairly quickly. Stripping the old stuff off was the worst part and then we proceeded to sand, apply rust eating compound, and primer.

We were happy with the work, and even got a “good job” from Juan at the windshield place. He put the new windshield in and we happily brought Hashie home. We got an unusual rain a few days later and…. it still leaked!!! Argh!! I got Hashie back into Juan and he ran some tests that did not show any air getting through the windshield, it’s possible the water is leaking in from another source, but Juan applied another thick layer of glue to the inside in case that helped.

When we bought Hashie they did not have a ceiling liner, it was just exposed foam on top of the headliner inside. Fixing this was a “someday” project, nothing that I was in a rush to deal with; however, to do the work on the windshield frame we had to pull a bunch of molding and the front half of the headliner. Once you have something partway done you might as well get after it, so replacing the headliner became the new project. Getting the large rear panel out was an adventure that included learning how to remove the hydraulic lifts for the rear door. How did anyone ever work on cars before You Tube videos?!?

I used a wire brush to scrub off the old material, while trying not to tear the aging fragile cardboard/fiberglass base. While the result it not perfect, I am happy enough with the result, as long as it holds.

I’m excited to have this task behind me, although I’m still not confident that the leak is solved. We did drive through some rain two weekends ago and I didn’t notice any water coming inside. I really hope we solved the problem! Now to learn how to change the oil on Hashie, and to fix the electric window that does not go down, and the AC… If I’m not working on a bike, I’m working on the van these days.

I need Hashbrown to be in good shape, because I am planning to drive back up to Oregon in a couple weeks. I was just selected as a new Board Member of the Oregon Timber Trail Alliance. In 2017 I was the first person to complete a self-supported ride of the newly released route across the entire state. I have maintained a close relationship to the route due to the fact that it goes through Oakridge, OR where I have worked the last two summers. I’m super excited to use my time and talents to help guide the organization. It is a working board (as opposed to advisory) so I’m sure it will keep me quite busy, but it is something I believe in. I’ll be squeezing in the Oregon run between my Physiology lectures at SBCC.

I’m also hoping to accomplish one more garden harvest before winter. During the heat wave I got in new beans, peas, and cucumbers. I’m not confident they will produce much before the days get too short, but it seems worth a shot and they have been growing fast. I also put in a bunch of new greens, which should over-winter just fine in Santa Barbara. We are also still harvesting chard, basil, bell peppers, and tomatoes from the spring planting. While September may be overly hot in Santa Barbara (111 degrees not far from the beach that weekend!!), I am grateful for our mild winters that allow for adapted, but continuous gardening.

Sometimes I feel like I don’t know who I am anymore. I used to lead a life very focused on one or two tasks at a time (eg. work as a professor and biking), but I have now embraced a life full of variety and with it, new challenges. Not working full time means a lot less money available to throw at problems, so instead I am learning to fix more things on my own: cars, bikes, growing food, etc… These are all things that my parents have always done and it feels positive to be learning these skills, even if at times it is also a bit overwhelming. Volunteering for a nonprofit at the level of a board member is another one of those new activities that will teach me a lot about myself.

During the super hot weekend the only cool place was directly on the beach. We went to the beach three days in a row and we never go to the beach! It was a great place to celebrate my friend’s birthday.

Bike riding has been happening, too. We just have to work around the hottest days a bit. I have a weekend adventure planned that should result in some beautiful photos, so look for those to come soon!