Happy Thanksgiving

I hope today finds your table full of food and a house full of family and friends. I've decided to cook this year so I have started the small turkey and have everything else ready to cook in a few hours after the turkey is near completion. It looks like an early afternoon meal in front of the tv watching NFL football. I can remember doing that 50 some years ago while my sister and I had the chickenpox. Three games back to back today as is the tradition on this holiday. Yesterday afternoon Heidi once again checked for warm weather but turned right around and headed inside.

Sadie and Stella thought it was warm enough for me to do the final inspection on my car. I pulled out my small LED camping flashlight so I could look through grills, from above the engine down through the wheel wells and from underneath ... looking one final time for where those two parts the insurance company thought I needed replaced. When I left you yesterday I was going make a final decision to either find them and install them, or okay the final job and take the Z4 out for a test drive.

Stella likes to take a nap after her lunch, so it was the perfect time to pull the car down off the ramps. It's not as easy as it sounds because of how low the front bumper is to the ground. The bumper would get caught on the ramps if I drove the car straight off of them, plus the left and right side lower front fender liners would get caught.

So backing the car down the ramps slow with the door open, I could hear when I should stop and then jack up the car so I could slide the ramps out from under the front bumper. It felt good to back out into the driveway and take a short 12 mile test drive. I wanted to see if that front grill moved at all or was loose after that drive. I stopped at a gas station so I could check all of that out after 6 miles. Everything was tighter than a drum.

So on the way back home it was time to do a high speed run and hit that same bridge with the rough junction within view of my house. At the end of that September drive this bridge junction is where the dragging plastic left fender liner broke and went flying out the back of my car from underneath. With the grille dragging the ground at the time, that explosion was also taken a large piece out of my belly pan cover. I saw yesterday why and how those parts got caught at the junction.

At the top of the driveway everything checked out. The lower grille was really tight and did not move in any way. That 3M tape I put on the top of the grille and bumper worked as advertised. All of the panels I installed under the car were still intact with everything else looking normal. It was time you reverse the parking spots back to the original setup.

Early this morning as I opened a new package of Starbucks coffee, I looked back through my blog on this day or same time period in past year. Some years I blogged on this holiday, others I didn't. A lot of the photos looked the same as today's do and the weather wasn't much different than I have experienced the past week. I guess things change very little here year after year.

Sadie wasn't going to let me get away without a morning walk. With mid 30's and overcast skies we headed out with Heidi in bed buried deep in her sleeping bag. She is the smartest of all of us.

It was different for the hounds though. Unlike other mornings they were on the far right of the field just above the left corner of my burn pile. They were not moving. Had deer really been that close to the house last night or are the raccoons back this winter? Maybe a possum was roaming the field last night while we slept?

I kept walking letting both of them do what they wanted.

They spent more time than normal searching along the edge of the field that is directly behind my house. I kept walking only to hear them running past me giving me barely enough time to get their photo.

When Sadie has her tailed curled and wagging ... the scent is fresh and strong. It was like she might take off running any second. Stella was a few steps inside the thorny brush. I found out during all of these walks over the years that basset hounds are not nearly as curious as bloodhounds. They are more interested in exercise instead of search and identify or eating.

I knew neither hound was going to go anywhere this morning so I kept walking the path and decided I would take the ATV path back to them on the way home and then walk the way we came.

I was right ... they were not interested in leaving.

I was almost to the point of making the final turn of the walk when Sadie snuck up behind me running as fast as she could.

We both turned onto the ATV path and headed back to Stella since she had not moved more than 5' while I walked the back edge of the field.

I have a feeling the deer like this ATV path that follows the back of the field from the woods to the north, across the field to where they go down into the gully. This morning I found the ATV path full of fresh deer tracks and closer together.

That must be the reason for neither bloodhound wanting to do much walking.

Trying to get both of them to head home, following the way we came.

It was a long slow process to get home. I was close to just letting them stay outside for as long as they wanted but I am still leery of letting Stella do that since she disappeared a month or so ago.

Putting all my food out on the counters this morning to get organized for cooking this large meal, I realized I must have had a senior moment shopping yesterday ... I forgot the pies I was going to buy. Can you have a Thanksgiving meal without pumpkin pie? I might have to drive to the local Walmart to pick them up. I would go with Marie Callender's pies.

While reading blog posts from years past during this time period I saw I was still trying to decide what to do for a diet, just like now. It not really a diet but what my meal plans would be on a regular basis. Not menus but just what type of food to eat on a regular basis.

I also saw I was questioning whether to blog or not to blog. And of course last year I had traded my blue FJ for the black cherry FJ, only to trade that one 45 days later in early December for the back Mini Cooper S Countryman. It's good I am back to the combination I've had the longest and like ... the Z4 and the blue FJ. I have had no urges to make car trades since getting the blue FJ this past July.

Also looking through photos from this time years ago ... all the hounds look the same, about the same weight. Heidi's skin looks good compared to two years ago and had not changed much since she started to improve last February.

Thanks for stopping by to read the blog and to make comments. Hope your holiday is a good one.

Time is flying here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana, I've got to get back to the kitchen.

Happy Thanksgiving

Heidi checked out the early morning weather and decided it wasn't for her. But with fresh deer tracks where their hoofs were just a few hours old, the bloodhounds spent plenty of time collecting all the information they could.

Heidi Makes An Appearance

With yesterday's temperature close to 50°, Heidi not only made an appearance outside but did a lap around the house after her lunch. By the time she reached the carport it was time to go back inside as she was shivering. She had a surprise later though ... during a break from working in my car I took her outside so I could cut her toenails. I cut them back further than I ever had, until I saw a lot of quick instead of just a little. She was rewarded with some dog treats immediately after that.

I think I can call the car repair a success. Like I thought might happen, I had a few 'hiccups' along the way but I didn't think they would last as long as they did. If you don't mind I'll tell you about how the repair went mixed in with the photos from this mornings walk. These next two pictures were from yesterday after lunch ... it wasn't close to that warm this morning.

With tight spaces I decided to put the new grille in first. That would give me more room to work with it, plus the large lower left cover would close off all of my space to slide my hands up in there. Within minutes of starting my first 'hiccup' showed up and it took me almost an hour to get it fixed. The grille fit perfectly but the notorious problem is after years or previous repairs, the 16 small pins on the bumper are all gone so there is nothing to clip the bumper to the grille to make it stable.

The small holes you see on the bottom of the black grille go around the whole grille matching up with pins that are no longer there. They are very small pins, held on by speed nuts and a very poor design idea. So I had to stop, go inside and head for the Z4 forum where I could post my problem and get some help.

I have an idea I will do later when it's warmer this spring to bring up that lower bumper to cover the bottom of the grille and those holes.

Within minutes of posting my question on the forum I had my answer, use either epoxy (too cold) or 3M Trim Tape. I wasn't that enthused about driving 12 miles away to the local Autozone so I tried the NAPA store a mile a way and they had just what I needed. I cut small pieces of the 3M tape and was able to place them under these 4 extended slats connecting them to the top of the the bumper.

I was hoping and figured later on after screwing the belly pan cover to those three holes on the bottom of the grille would be the final touch of making the grille tight and stable, so when I am breaking the speed limit I don't have black plastic parts blowing out the back from under the car.

Yet with the grill installed it blocked off some space making it easy to slide in that large lower left cover. Luckily with some quick thinking and analyzing, I pushed a corner past the block and it slid into the position I needed to screw it into place. I need to get back under there today and take the label off.

The easiest part to install was the largest part with 9 different screws. Yet I am not moving fast on this job. By the time I got to this piece I was 4 hours into the job including the time it took for me to drive to town for the 3M tape. That 4 hours also included the time I took to cut Heidi's toenails. I wanted to take my time on this and get it right the first time without breaking any new plastic parts, losing screws or having the car fall on me ... even thought it's on ramps, rear tires chalked, in gear with the emergency brake on.

I have to admit as I slide under the car to screw in the 3 screws the farthest away, it did make me think about that car falling on me when I had only a few inches of space above my chest.

Of course there had to be another problem before I stopped. It was getting colder, it was getting close to 5pm and it was starting to get dark. My small LED camping flash light was a life saver to complete this job. I get to the last screw ... on the inside of the grille are slip on speed nuts. Everything has gone great the previous 8 screws but not the last one. The nut acts as if it is stripped, will not take my screw after many attempts and I don't have another speed nut that size. So I searched through my junk drawer inside and found a screw a little thicker and longer ... the nut accepted that one and I was able to finish the job.

The bottom of the car looks close to the ground but the interesting thing are the front wheels are up on ramps.

During this time I am working I have 3 parts ordered based on the insurance estimate, all BMW OEM parts that I cannot find where they go. I looked at every inch around the engine and frame but saw nothing where these parts slid into place and were bolted down. One part looked like it was inside my trunk and that area was later confirmed by the BMW dealer but nowhere to place the cover.

This air duct lower left is suppose to help air flow around the radiator. I called the BMW dealership this morning asking where this part went. Based on his service manual he told me it connected 'near' the radiator. I looked all over that area yesterday and saw nothing. Luckily last week I took pictures of that area with my iPhone so I can see again today there is nothing that shows me this part can be mounted anywhere.

He did say I would not need that part installed until the spring when it gets warmer, IF the part is missing. Nothing was damaged anywhere near the radiator and it's a good size space in that area. With the belly pan cover installed I cannot see into that area right now to double check it.

Weather Underground was telling me it was 25° when we started our walk ... the carport thermometer was showing 32° ... my face, hands and feet let like 5° by the time we finished our walk.

Stella took off again this morning. Sadie chased her down finally and did the 'herding' of her for me this morning.

Back to the car story ...

After I got all of the screws installed I stuck a couple of my fingers inside the holes of that grille and tried my hardest to get it to move in any way shape or form. It didn't budge. The 3M trim tape worked fantastic but I will find out after our high speed test run this afternoon.

My curiosity is always running full-time in my brain so I will probably not wait for 55° on Friday but later today, take off those three screws in front of the grille/pan cover and maybe two on the sides of the pan cover so I can look up into that space again to see where the two 'mystery' parts go.

The insurance adjuster did not crawl under the car during his inspection but held his new iPhone 8 under the car to take all of his photos. That makes me wonder how the two parts ended up on the estimate to replace if they were not damaged. If they are missing then my car should have overheated last summer in 90° temps.

Sadie was wondering if I was ever going to get started on the walk this morning.

There goes Stella ... on her own schedule.

Still something has Stella's interest and when she has this pose she is usually only seconds away of sprinting after something.

How far will she go?

In a panic I yelled her named and she stopped to look back at me.

Sadie saw what was happening and took off after her in a full out sprint.

As I make that first turn in our walk ... no Stella !!!

Called her name ... no Stella ... then I find her about 10' away from me in the woods and heavy brush.

At least she came out when I called her ... slowly.

By this time Sadie ran over to her, touched noses and decided she would escort Stella the rest of the walk.

By this time I am freezing ... my face feels like it's January.

Maybe Stella was feeling cold because she started walking on the path home and never deviated.

One last look to see what she hears off into the distance. Remember they can hear 4x better than the human ear. So it mystifies me when I say something and they ignore me.   LOL

Sadie is going to inspect the yard all the way to the door, one inch at a time.

Looking back through some pre-work pictures I took last week, I am going to leave on the white  labels just like they did on their original parts. The car turns 15 years old this January with a few miles over 67,000. I only drive it on good weather days but have been caught one time in an unexpected thunderstorm.

I am tempted to buy an online service manual for this car. They seem to ranged between $15-$19 with some sites wanting an annual renewal fee. Between that and help from other Z4 owners on the forums you can do quite a bit of any maintenance or repairs yourself. It is said that as long as you change the oil, this engine will last 200,000 miles or longer. With me driving only 1500 - 1700 miles per year it looks like I will not live to see the day it turns 200,000 miles.

Well it's 11:36am, it's cold even with he heat on and Sadie is giving me her stare telling me it's time for lunch even after eating breakfast 4 hours ago.

If I don't see you again until after the holidays ... have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Freezing and sunny today in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.