Kaimusailing

When I say I cooked shrimp ramen, don’t sidle away side eyeing me. It is a good recipe, not the simple boiled noodles with a flavor packet.
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First I prepped a red onion, small dice, and 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced. A ¼ lb of gouda cheese is thinly sliced. The frozen shrimp had been precooked, peeled, and deveined, after soaking in a pint of cold water the tails were removed and the shrimp set aside. A package of ramen noodles is boiled in the same pot and set aside. In the same pot a half stick of butter is melted and the onion is sauteed on very low heat for 5-10 minutes. The garlic goes in next and 4 tbsp of flour is dusted over the mix.
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Still under very low heat the mix is continually worked with a square ended spatula. Pepper, paprika, parsley flakes, and nutmeg are dusted on the mix. After about 3 minutes half and half is added, total of a pint, but only about a quarter cup added at a time. The mix has to bubble and thicken before adding more liquid. The square ended spatula makes it easy to prevent sauce burning to the bottom of the pot. ¼ cup of sherry is added as well as a couple tbsp of tomato paste. The reserved ramen noodles are added.
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When the mix is bubbling again and thickening, the gouda is added. Now it takes a while to smooth the mix out and get the gouda melted. Taste and adjust the spicing. Finally the shrimp is added and the heat is turned off. After about 5 more minutes the concoction is ready to eat. It is rich, creamy, tasty, perfect for a lunch.
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The Check Engine Light problem that we thought might be the vehicle speed sensor failing was fixed by replacing the speed sensor. There are two on the transmission, one for the input shaft and one for the output shaft. The output shaft sensor is responsible for speed data, and if it fails the speedometer doesn’t work, nor cruise control, plus the car goes into LIMP mode, won’t shift above 3rd gear. I had that sensor on hand and waited all weekend for the input shaft sensor to arrive.
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After picking up the sensor at the post office I asked Geoff if he wanted to work on the car, he said yes at 1 PM. It was 11 AM so I decided to take a stab at it. It is a very easy task, remove the air cleaner box, two small bolts and a ring clamp and you just wriggle the box out of the engine bay. The sensors are held onto the transmission with small bolts. I could only get the output sensor changed, the input sensor bolt was too difficult to access. I put it all back together and voila, car runs normally.
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Geoff was home at 1 PM and I could sense he was somewhat upset that he wouldn’t get to work on the transmission sensors. There was still the one that I hadn’t been able to change, and he seemed eager to change it, but I said I don’t think that will be necessary. There is another problem to deal with. The driver’s power window would jam on the way up, then come down a bit and park about halfway down. To close it you had to hold the window from the top, help it up while activating the up switch, and steer with your knees.
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I had watched a video on YouTube and I thought the removal of the door’s inner panel was not too difficult and if we could do that there must be some way of correcting the wayward window.
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Geoff started removing screws and things and amazingly, even though he had never seen the YouTube video, he was proceeding right along, step by step. Then we stopped. I knew there were a couple of phillips headed screws to take out but I couldn’t remember where they were. They were well hidden. Geoff said let’s go inside and watch the video.
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When Geoff played the video we watched and then ran outside when we knew where the hidden screws were. Curiously, 3 small nuts that held the outside mirror were loose, so I tightened them. Geoff pulled the plastic shield that was contact cemented to the door to expose the inner workings. There was a bolt loose that held the lower end of one of the window channels. We held the window in its proper place and tightened the bolt. It was better but still jammed on the way up. Geoff took a can of lubricant with a long tube and sprayed the lubricant on the window channels. The window now ran up and down perfectly. We put it all back together using some of Geoff’s double sticky tape to hold the plastic shield.
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There was another problem, an exhaust pinhole, but we couldn’t find it. We were happy with our mechanical conquests and agreed to meet at Southern River Walk where I would buy Geoff and his wife Karen adult beverages.
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Unfortunately I was wearing my old bright orange tee shirt and it was St Paddy’s day. Everyone was wearing green at the bar. I tried to conceal my shirt, it was under a black pullover with a small bit of orange showing at my throat.
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An old friend who hadn’t seen me in a long time came over staring at my shirt, don’t hate me I said.
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When I started the car I had the check engine light come on and two new trouble codes from the OBDII connector. P1077 and P0139, one referring to the intake runners and the other to the O2 sensors on the catalytic converter. I texted to Cornelia Marie, CRV stands for Constant Repair Vehicle.
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The next day, after some thought, I disconnected the battery to clear the trouble codes. I took a ride around town to see if they came on again. Maybe they will. The intake runner problem is a particularly difficult remedy. The beautiful intake manifold has to be removed along with the metal beam in front of it. Lots of 10mm bolts. Then a rotary valve mechanism has to be pulled out of the manifold and cleaned or replaced. I was not going to do any of that unless I really had to. I checked the vacuum hoses, which there are many. The other 02 problem would probably clear by using Cataclean, a fuel additive that costs about $26. I can’t put that in the tank until it gets down to ¼. Otherwise the car is running great, so far.
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I needed to come up with my next food adventure as well as replenish my supply of breakfast ingredients. I really liked the gouda cheese so I went to Walmart and got that. I already had celery and carrot that would go bad if I didn’t use it, so I got a big red onion to make mirepoix, and I decided to make Cream of Chicken Mushroom Florentine soup. Get spinach, half and half, chicken of course, more Irish butter. No trouble lights on the way back.
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I had a laundry day and later made the soup. It turned out great. First I boiled boneless skinless chicken thighs in a pint of water with a tablespoon of Better Than Bouillon, roast chicken flavor. While it was cooking I prepped celery, carrot, and onion. I set them aside and removed the chicken from the broth, then reserved the broth in paper bowls that I saved from our trip to Ormond Beach. Unfortunately the bowls became soggy and droopy and started dripping chicken broth. I was simultaneously sopping up broth, trying to reserve the broth from a leaky bowl into another one, maybe I could stem the tide, melting Irish butter for a roux, dumping the mirepoix into the butter, dusting the mixture with flour, going back again and again, scraping the bottom of the pot to prevent burnt roux, dicing chicken, slicing mushrooms, and prepping 3 cloves of garlic. Some of the broth was added to the mix and the roux began to thicken. A bag of spinach was tossed in, filling the pot completely, the garlic, thinly sliced went in. The chicken was finally diced and the mixture in the pot was now really thick, a quart of half and half went in. Keep mixing. Taste and season with ground pepper. Keep mixing and scraping. It was basically done, just needed more time. But it was time to head to the gas station restaurant for adult beverages with Geoff and Karen.
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When I came back I microwaved a healthy portion of the soup. Very good. I put 4 portions of about 3 cups each into the fridge. Very nutritious.
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I began working on the dinghy sail. It is extremely easy to fabricate. I used a 7X9 tarp from Harbor Freight to provide the polytarp material. The luff and foot use the edge of the tarp, so no cutting there. The leech and head meet at a point near the top edge of the tarp. Double sticky tape is stuck along the leech and head, backing removed, and the leech and head are folded over so that the tape forms a double layer of tarp along the edges of the sail. Next I will be installing grommets along the luff, one grommet at the peak of the sprit, and a grommet at the clew. The mast and sprit are 8 foot closet poles from Lowe’s.
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The image is from the D4 dinghy plans showing the sprit rig.