Headlight Lens Restoration

Awful, crappy yellow looking headlight lenses on the 12-year old Acura.   Turns out you can't buy new lenses; the headlight assembly and lenses are an integral unit.  Aftermarket replacements start around $160 a pair for basic units, and of course you can pay as much as you want for halogen, projectors, etc.

Additionally, to replace the headlamps on this car you have to remove the bumper -- at the rate I work, this would be a several hour job.

So after some research, and several "headlight restoration" videos, I decided to try restoring the existing lenses.  Basic process is sanding, using progressively finer grits, ending with rubbing or polishing compound.

Rather than buy all the materials separately, I bought a 3M restoration kit, claiming to contain all necessary materials, for about $15.  It took about 2 hours total, from masking to final washdown.

Here are the headlights before I started:

During rough sanding (300 - 600 grit):

After rough sanding -- an opaque, frosted look:

Finished -- after rubbing compound.  Not clear, still has a milky translucency.  But got rid of most of the nasty yellow oxidation, and it's a definite improvement.  Probably could have gotten them more clear with another hour of elbow grease and some polishing compound. 

Battling Hyatt

I've been a Hyatt member since the 80's. I got a free room, so back in March we went to the Andaz in Napa, a high-end Hyatt property typically like $400 a night.  

 Horrible experience; the people in the next room had a drunken fight, the cops came, etc.  I wouldn't have minded so much but the family was with me.  Fortunately daughter snoozed soundly through the whole thing, bless her heart.

Anyway the next morning I spoke to the manager, he was sympathetic and said they would comp me some points so we could try again, etc.

By mid-April I hadn't heard back so I emailed him.  Never got a response.  So I just drafted a 2-page paper letter to Hyatt, complete with cc's and attachments.  Let's see what happens now.

Notes:

• Even very expensive hotels still get scumbags and sociopaths.
• Corporations hide their physical/snail-mail addresses, directing you to "response forms" and limiting your comments to a few dozen characters.  As it was I couldn't find an address for Hyatt Corporate Management; I had to send my letter to the Points Program in Omaha.
• Keep records.
• What do I expect, going to Napa, where all entertainment revolves around getting drunk?  Bad choice.

Postscript 8/12/14 -- Hyatt HQ got back to me with a gracious apology and a load of points, so thanks to them.

Greek Festival!

When I heard the radio spot for the Greek festival at the Greek church in the Oakland Hills this weekend, I immediately knew what we'd be doing on Saturday.

The Cathedral of the Ascension is a fairly impressive structure in a nice neighborhood, next to the equally imposing Mormon temple, and the posh manicured grounds of a private school.  It is high in the Oakland hills with sweeping views of the Bay.

The grounds are a complete compound.  The center of course is the cathedral, very impressive inside with a vaulted and gilded (or some sort of metallic application) dome.  Along with the church they have elaborate facilities: kitchens, dining halls, ancillary chapels, a well-equipped playground...well-organized for hosting large crowds and putting on events.

I'm happy to report an excellent time.  Much delicious food -- lambs-on-spits, gyros, souvlaki, spanakopita, pastries....the event was very well organized and managed.  In contrast with your average hippie fiasco event at Golden Gate Park, the Greeks are responsible and know what they're doing.  The food stalls were clean, well-run and the food was great.  Ample seating, tables with sun-shades.  No overflowing trash cans, no riff-raff.  Lots of cheerful respectable older guys in Sansa-belts, probably running prosperous plumbing supply houses or wholesale stone and tile shops.

It was nice to see the kids dance groups -- heartening to see kids engaged in something besides playing video games or texting.

Overall an atmosphere of prosperity, respectability, and bourgeois gemutlichkeit.  Then we descended from the hills to confront tattoos, trash, pit bulls, schizophrenics, surly fixie-riders, etc., etc. 

It was interesting to me to see such an evidently prosperous Greek-affiliated facility.  And there are several of these big Greek churches around the Bay area.  I mean, I haven't really been aware of any Greek community here of any size.  There are of course large communities of Chinese here, and Koreans, and Russians -- I even know where to find the Bay Area Afghan community -- but I don't know many Greeks, I don't know of any "Greek Town," or where to go to find all the Greek shops and restaurants.  But they are evidently here, and in numbers large enough to support these churches -- a large stealth community of well-off Hellenics, who knew?