FJ Cruiser: Disassembly...

A couple days ago I finished the work I needed to do under the FJ's headliner, and I've now got a lot of it put back together.  The interior panels are still removed in the rear of the FJ, as I still have more to do back there – but the front of it is all back together now.  Debbie is greatly relieved :)

At her urging, just before buttoning the FJ back up I took some photos.  I also made a little video giving a tour of the disassembled beast:

The rear deck is my workbench...

Note the side "curtain" airbag (the big horizontal white thing that looks like a hose), and the "detonator" for it (the silver cylinder just above the airbag itself)...

Passenger side, rear - side curtain airbag again...

Rear door, which for some reason particularly concerned Debbie.  Note the rubber boot from hell on the lower right side of door; it took an hour or so to route the antenna wire through that...

Once all the plastic was off, I was amazed at the sheer quantity of wiring in the car.  I'd think the car makers would be working hard on using networking to simplify this...

The cables lying about were formerly above the headliner (and now are once again!)...

Passenger side.  Note the wooden block for the CB bracket to be mounted to.  The side airbag detonator is visible just above the headrest.  Those things worried me - they look like bombs!

Exploding Toilet...

Very funny story, at least allegedly true, about an exploding toilet on a cargo flight.  An excerpt:

He turns and looks at the toilet. But it has, for all practical purposes, disappeared. Where it once rested he now finds what can best be described only as a vision. In place of the commode roars a fluorescent blue waterfall — a huge, heaving cascade of toilet fluid thrust waist-high into the air and splashing into all four corners of the lavatory. Pouring from the top of this volcano, like smoke out of a factory chimney, is a rapidly spreading pall of what looks like steam.

Read the whole thing here...

Two Sleeps Each Night?

This is a very strange notion: that before the widespread use of artificial light at night (think light bulb), people normally went to sleep shortly after sundown, woke up in the middle of the night, stayed awake for an hour or two, then went back to sleep again until the sun came up.  With the advent of artificial light, we started staying up until much later, and then sleeping just once, all the way through the night.  Then you have to wonder what effect this modern single sleep is having on us.

My readers who know me well will know that I normally go to sleep shortly after sundown; I've been doing this for a long time.  Something I've noticed the past few years is that I often wake up around midnight or one in the morning, and I get up typically around 3 or 4 am.  Now I'm wondering if I should get up and do something for an hour or two, then go back to bed.  I think I may try this a time or two, and see how it feels...