BrawnyJava

Like the title says, my 07 pathfinder feels unstable at 70 mph. Just bouncy and weird, but its hard to describe. I daily drive it, and something recently just started feeling different. It has 90k miles and all I've ever done is fluids, brakes and a radiator. The suspension is original.

My question is: Is there anything a shadetree mechanic can diagnose and fix, or is this a job for professionals? I have good a mechanic that I trust. But he's not cheap, and I'm really cheap. Advice appreciated.

I was driving my 07 pathfinder at 60 mph at constant speed, and it dropped out of gear. I took my foot of the pedal and it shifted back properly. Literally the same sound and feel as when you yank a manual transmission out of fifth while it's under load. Is there anything I can check or maintain? I did the trans fluid at 60k miles when I got it, and it was all black and it didn't shift well till I changed it.

I saw a flock of very high flying birds. Much too far away to photograph, and they were difficult to make out through my binoculars. They had white bodies, and possibly black trailing edges on the wings. They weren't migrating, not in formation. Just individuals flying around seemingly aimlessly.

The only thing I can think of is a white pelican. But why would dozens of pelicans be circling Denver for hours at very high altitude? Pelicans are uncommon here in the summer, as we have very few lakes.

I have a 1999 Raleigh M7000. According to this, it came with 20 x 2.25" IRC Backcountry tires. I recently replaced the tires, and the guy at my local bike store sold me 26x2.3 Pisgah tires, and told me they'd work just fine (my fault for not checking myself).

I was testing them out and I thought to myself "wow that sounds like an air leak in the front ti..." and the sidewall collapsed and launched me over the bars.

Can anyone point me to a resource to find a tire? I'd like to sell this bike, but I need to know that its safe to ride.

Amazon has this tire, but I would like a MTB tire: h

I've been CC'ing my 938 for a while. It gets really dirty, and therefore has to be cleaned a lot. The problem is that it sucks to clean. The non-captive spring is really, really stiff. Stuffing it back in place is literally a pain, because I sadly have delicate programmer hands not used to handling pointy things. I usually swab the barrel by jamming my finger in the breech to hold the slide open. That also hurts.

Is there a tool to make this easier? I don't want to use a pliers or anything because I'm afraid I'll damage it.

I got a new pressure canner recently. I made a batch of chicken soup in quarts, and a batch of beef chili in quarts. And then one batch that was a mix of cans of chicken soup and cans of chili (because I prepped too much).

I cooked them 90 mins at 13 PSI (extension office checked it for 5,000 feet which is where i live).

The results were terrible. The chicken soup smelled terrible (even the next AM, not rotting in an unsealed can). Horrible overcooked carrot taste and smell, dull orange broth and the chicken was gross. It was totally inedible. The chili tasted okay, but the beef had a texture like sand. Not inedible, but not good at all.

And I'm no slouch cook. I made my own chi

I have dog that I would like to confine to our laundry room which leads to the garage. She's a jumper, and destructive. Unfortunately, she hurts herself when in a crate.

My laundry room has a 30 inch door frame/opening, but I really don't want to put an actual door in there. I cannot do a pocket door either (which was my first plan).

Ideally, I'd like to find a 48" or taller lightweight metal baby gate and just be able to hang it in the opening to keep her in there. Store the gate in the garage, hang it up when we leave. But I can't find a gate that tall.

Does anyone have any ideas? What could I repurpose to fit this opening? Ideally it would be removable, and light enough for

The EEOC recently sued a WI based factory for firing employees who cannot speak english.

http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/6-9-14.cfm

There are a number of issues here. Communication is important for safety in a plastic factory. Should the EEOC mandate that employers absorb additional costs in having to deal with a multilingal workforce? National origin is explicitly protected, but this case doesn't involve national origin.