Addendum, 19 May 26: So far, so good. Onward --- What a nightmare this morning has been -- typical Horse Year drama, just like a real horse -- they're fine, until they're triggered by something, and then 2000 lbs of prey animal's barrelling around and over your fence, onus on you to figure out why. But when (if?) you do... can be dealt with, and will willingly be led by the bridle back inside your pen, gate shutting behind them, like nothing happened Didn't think it could be worse... then realised, will have to do this all again, tomorrow Them's the Cliff Notes version, no sense going into something that'll put me in a foul mood again... but quite a PITA. Bodywork-wise... did get in some good sesh (tho had to delay one session at the last moment... one example of the seethingly-frustrating, perfect-storm nonsense borne of this day). But that client did well on the table, so hoping tmw will be more of same. Question for fellow 5G owners percolated into the melon, trying not to red-mist at the absurdity: has anyone else had the same exp with their windscreen washer aim on the driver's side? More and more, seems rather dumb Toyota engineers would willingly aim the washer spray right into the fat bulbous cover over the cantilever mechanism for the passenger wiper (good ol' Lamborghini rake). Did I get two passenger washers rather than a proper driver's one? That would make more sense... except 5Gs are only made in Japan, not here or in Mexico. If this is how far gone Toyota's JDM assembly QA methods have become chasing volume, holy shite (given they've lost billions paying out warranty for casting sand in the 3.5L turbo Tundra V6 tho... workers installing the wrong washer nozzles suddenly seem plausible). Will look up prices for said nozzle, and if the right price, will pick one up and install -- probably record this process, just to see if that worst scenario actually happened. Can't see that being the real deal, as not having washer spray in say MI or FL where salt spray and bugs can easily obscure vision in seconds, would expose the company to legal risk. But if everyone's driver-side washers are spraying into that cover... doesn't say much for the attention-to-detail Toyota paid everything else around the drivetrain (door seal newly replaced after the wreck, is also not sealing, mostly due to how the seal was stored on the shelf, causing a whooshing noise w\ no way to fix it, other than to buy another door seal, and install it myself)
Thu 21 May 26: Yep -- had to go again at 0630 on the f***ing wake-up, to the same place I'd spent all morning with my mother, w/o breakfast, to stamp out the embers from the fire she'd created day before yesterday Not like I'm turning away clients to deal with this crap, right? Anyhow... came out okay in the ed, and got the problem solved -- f***ing finally So you'll forgive me if these posts are now more every other day as rule more than exception. Not that anyone follows, but do want to treat those that actually do, with some respect --- Rain were threatening... but not the sh*tshow on the road, the past two days had been. It's enough just trying to get a healthy breakfast on this space station in the middle of the Pacific... but then to raise my parent at the same time? You're welcome for being spared the red-mist nonsense I'd spew here, adhering to a schedule It did mist a bit... but if doesn't leave the road wet, not a problem at least for me. Actually may help the wind not kick up all this dust coating the 5G mornings again -- seems like either pounding rain or winds kicking up dust and spores and walnut-like kukui nuts off trees, to dent your brand-new hood and roof, are the dystopia we've created, rolling f***ing coal and running container ships on HFO since post-sailing days Growing up, we never had to worry about half the things that cost us money in '26... Since been discussing it... were experimenting at bit more with the 'cracked/pulled throttle' method to running the 5G most efficiently, with a great litmus test of 25 mph gusting wind in our faces, heading north to Kahului for breakfast. Parked behind a family in a 4-cylinder rental Mustang (older driver probably the dad, not pushing the throttle average-4-cyl-Mustang-driver-like , since he probably took a gander at the fuel prices and thought yeah nah. So crawled up thru 40 mph quite slowly -- where in $4.09-per-bathwater days, everything ICE would be zooming past already. A smart person in a Wrangler 4xe (well, not that smart ) had parked behind me, and didn't characteristically zoom around as would expect tourists from the mainland to meet stereotype. Backed off to ~2.5 car lengths... and toodled along at 45, until being passed by a Honda Pilot, whereupon Dad's dadness had to match speed -- so pulled away for a second. Kept the throttle in that twilight between feeling acceleration and seeing the gauge read out of Power throttle angle, alternating about once a second, in a 25 mph headwind -- and lo, despite feeling as if I'd not made any headwind (sorry) into speeding up... looked down to see I were now at 58 mph -- same distance behind the 'Stang fam. That were impressive -- it means that way of high-frequency but lo-amplitude pulse-glide, was actually moving me forward deceptively quickly. Had to back out into regen, to slow myself down... but since concentration were on spacing from the 'Stang most of all, never got dangerous -- keep your f***ing eyes on the road, like the aviation saying: 'when in doubt, fly the f***ing plane'. Not obsess with gauge graphics. Kept about 51 - 58 mph on this northerly sortie -- and when getting out at Target to get my day's Starbie's drink... 57.1 mpg, a record for that direction, regardless of weather. Normally, even granny-driving the 5G... it's more like hi-30s / lo-40s. The cracked throttle method, and its increased torque / efficiency / maybe both, is here to stay, I guess -- northward's the usually the lowest-mpg stretch of the day, since I'm also warming the ICE from a night's sitting. Off to process a client, see you in a couple of days
