Category Archives: Car

Stuff of the Day

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Update: So, yeah, my former plans for regularish updates of the site again . . . weren’t fruitful.  Lots of shit happening, major pain in the ass illness, busy-ness, procrastination, laziness, and so forth.   Anyway.  After work today, I went to The Wine Rack, and bought $32.19 in beer.  2 six-packs, and 4 individual bottles (of varying sizes) of beer, representing 6 different countries.  Most of it is for my dad for Father’s day.  Throwing in some Irish brew I have left from this last weekend, there’ll be 7 countries worth of beer for him.  Out of the stuff that I do get to sample . . . I have to say, I like the Xingu.  It’s a Brazilian black beer, somewhat similar to Shiner’s Bohemian Black.  It’s better than the Shiner, which says a ton for me.  It’s also more expensive.  About 50% more per six.

My car, on Sunday, developed a noise.  Sort of a buzz, or a rapid rattle, inside the car.  Outside the car, it’s clearly something metal rattling.  It’s got me concerned, as it’s started happening more and more.  Something is probably loose.  I hope it’s an easy fix.  But even if it is, it’s an unwelcome expense with sucky timing.  I’m trying to save up some blasted money for GenCon in August, dammit.  Of course, spending money on food out 3 times this week, then $30 on something I truly don’t need (but is extremely cool, a 50mw green laser pointer) and $32 on beer doesn’t help that situation any.  Or $25 going to the doctor yesterday morning for her to basically tell me “you look fine, take Tylenol and gargle with salt water” because my throat was starting to itch again, and Jade came down on Monday with what seems to be the same thing that had me horribly sick before and I feared I was still contagious.

I was supposed to take it in to Jimmie’s shop Friday morning.  But because I’ve got to get up stupid early for a work trip to Amarillo Friday morning, I had to reschedule.  To the following Thursday, the soonest they can get me in now, because they’re so busy.  Grr.  I really hope something on my car doesn’t explode or fall off before then.

Link of the Day: Combination CD and vinyl record – on one disc.

Spam of the Day: “Just broke your leg…”

Funny of the Day: Rather tempting, honestly.

Pic of the Day: Kitty looks . . . happy.

Video WTF of the Day: Klenginem

Stuff of the Day

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Update: Slightly better today – Rodney popped my back a little yesterday at work, and it helped a bit, but it’s fresh anew this morning.  He mentioned something about a pillow, and said that I might have “a little neck thing” and that that part on my inner shoulder blades is there neck issues would show up.

Still very happy about being able to open my car door from the inside.  Such a small thing, but so appreciated after being deprived of it for a week and a half.  Jimmy also got me a front license plate mount ordered.

Got paid today.  My financial status has changed from “broke” to merely “poor.”  Rent paid, electric paid, ordered more cat food, ordered a surprise for someone.

Link of the Day: “The Spy Who Accepted My Friend Request”

Spam of the Day: “As catwalk in refill. An a willpower.”

Funny of the Day: Craigslist Wanted ad

Pic of the Day: The truth about Godzilla

Quote of the Day: “There is a pervasive tendency to treat children as adults, and adults as children. The options of children are thus steadily expanded, while those of adults are progressively constricted. The result is unruly children and childish adults.” – Thomas Szasz

Yet More Car I$$ues

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So, the last time I got my oil changed, 3 1/2 weeks ago or so, the guys at the Advance Lube place told me they thought there might be a transmission leak. Ohhhkay. Not something I liked hearing, but better to hear it from someone who just put fluids in my car, and in enough time to see about getting it looked at and hopefully resolved. Monday a week ago, I called our mechanic (Jimmy Sarandrea, at World Class Automotive, an excellent, honest, straightforward mechanic with very good knowledge of domestic and asian import cars), and they were booked up fully for that week. Yesterday afternoon, my dad and I swung by his shop after work (I was giving my dad a ride, as he took his truck in to a body shop yesterday morning to get it fixed from where someone hit his parked truck in the parking garage a while back), and he said he could look at it if I brought it in this morning.

Tired and groggy, I drove my car to Jimmy’s shop this morning, dropped it off there, and got a ride to work from my dad. By 9:30, I had news: there was a minor leak from one of the transmission seals. Not a big deal, in itself . . . but, I also found out that the entire steering rack needs to be replaced, as there was a significant steering fluid leak and the steering rack had issues. So, looking at at least $600 . . . and then after clearing a short-term loan from my dad to be able to go ahead and get stuff done, I find out that it’s also going to need new tie rod ends, and an alignment. Yay. 🙁

Getting it done, I need a reliable, functional vehicle, but it’s going to make me poor for about the next month. It’s going to take what I have in savings (which was already mostly money I had earmarked for repaying my dad for the last round of repairs on this Acura), most of the money from my check this Friday after I pay rent, and a significant chunk of my paycheck on the 16th to pay for all this. Oy.

Stuff of the Day

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Update: I’ll be honest, I’m not particularly inspired to write/post right now.  This is pretty much just for Ivy.

Weekend was pretty good.  Spent it with my Kara, we entertained ourselves inexpensively, ate very well (perhaps too well, I need to not be poor again soon so I can afford to get back on my diet), had a lot of fun and many good snuggle times.  Weather most of the weekend was dreary.  I really kinda wanted to see about playing with/test driving some cars Saturday (though Kara really didn’t seem too keen on that idea), but the weather wasn’t cooperative for that.

Entirely too broke right now.  I had to borrow money from a friend until this upcoming payday on Friday so I could afford food to make sure I’d have something other than hamburger and ramen (not the end of the world, I’ve been worse off) and be confident of having enough gas my dad’s van I’m currently driving to be able to get to and from work this week.  Heard from Littlefield Automotive earlier, $350 to get my car from them.  Then haul it to Lubbock this Friday afternoon, and see what the Saab place there says it’ll cost to get things all fixed up.  I’m worried about what they’ll say.  I hope it’s a reasonable figure at all.  Even if I end up in (further) debt to my dad for a year or more, I’d really like my car back in proper working order.  I miss it.  I do like it.  I’d really rather not have to buy something else on the cheap right now.

Link of the Day: Students for an Orwellian Society

Spam of the Day: “Colo Cleanse Plus”

Funny of the Day: Burned by a pharaoh!

Pic of the Day: Irresistable geekette earrings

Quote of the Day: “Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.” – Douglas Pagels

Stuff of the Day

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Update: Car news is sounding sucky thus far, and expensive.  TWICE module in my Saab is basically destroyed by corrosion.  Ugh.  He’s tried to find remanufactured ones for it, to no avail, and a new one has to be gotten from a Saab dealership, and is over $700 in cost (I forget the exact number, but I think it was closer to $800).  It also has to be programmed by a Saab dealership.  I’ve found a site called LostSaabKeys.com that says for $595 they can try to read the info off my old module, and if they can, and if the data isn’t corrupted, they can program me a new TWICE module and send it back to me.  Ronnie Littlefield thinks my TWICE module is too far gone to be able for anyone’s system to communicate with it at all, and advises me to just stop wasting money with him and get it towed to the Saab dealership in Lubbock and have them fix it all.

At this point, it’s more a question to me now of, what’s the sane cutoff point of money to throw at this car?

Link of the Day: “Where I Write” – pictures of SciFi Authors and where they write. (Thanks James)

Spam of the Day: “Look at cars they drive”

Funny of the Day: “That’s sexual harrassment, Lion-O.”

Pic of the Day: Spock’s Ship “Jellyfish” done in Legos

Quote of the Day: “I’m assuming it’s either ginger, or condom flower. I’m hoping for ginger.” – Kara

Stuff of the Day: Lake Drive Edition

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Update: This update is late.  A week and a day late, in fact.  I originally intended to post it last Thursday afternoon, after I had started having a fucking terrible day about 2 minutes after I stepped out of the door of my apartment in the morning to head to work.  Last week, things were really busy at work, quite hectic, as we were preparing for the software launch of our new version at work to our sister company (the Home Health Therapy company).  This week has been really busy too, and today is the first time I’ve had spare time enough at work this week to actually write something.  I have this spare time, because this morning, James “pulled the plug” and pushed the release back another 2 weeks.  This probably makes for a better product on launch, and a more prepared, relaxed launch . . . but it kind of bites, because I thought my weekend was mostly figured out: I was working.  For however long it took to get everything done.  Yay Overtime pay.  Now, I’ve got an entirely open weekend, with no money (not -technically- true, I’ve got like $8 left in checking after rent), and no transportation.

No transpo?  Yeah, getting back to the terrible fucking Thursday last week . . . It rained Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  Lots and lots of rain.  Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

[singlepic id=37 w=320 h=240 float=center]

That’s the sort of open field that dips down a little across from my apartment complex, and behind a host of businesses right along on the Loop 250 service road.  It stretches from this paved alley behind them that runs from Midkiff to my apartment complex, up to Caldera.  It was basically a humongous pond, or a shallow lake.  Unfortunately, so was a good stretch of Caldera.  I stepped out of my apartment that morning, greeted by this continuing rain, water all over the parking lot, in a rush to try to make it to work and Not end up a couple of minutes late.  I hopped into my trusty (so I thought) car, and drove across the parking lot, and saw Caldera underwater.  Hmm.

Keep in mind, this was right at pretty much 8:00 a.m., I hadn’t had been awake very long yet, and what little caffeine I had in me thus far had not kicked in yet.  I’m not fond of mornings at the best of times, unless I approach them from the “still awake from being up all night” angle.  This is the only defense I can make for the terrible decisions I made.

I decided I’d try to make it across a bit of Caldera to Crista Lane on my way to work.  This was a bad decision.  The water was really quite a bit deeper than I thought it was initially.  This is something I discovered as I was trying to begin my turn towards Crista Lane on Caldera, as my car’s engine sputtered and died.  Then, being sleepy and stupid and panicked, I tried to restart it.  Only afterwards, reading on the web, did I realize just how terrible of a thing that potentially is.

A City of Midland Transportation Services truck happened to come driving by (though the water – that truck has ground clearance of about up to my windows) right as I was getting stuck.  They radioed for for someone to come get me out.  A couple of police cars, an ambulance, and a fire truck all showed up, with a wrecker supposedly on the way.  Two firemen got out of their truck, put on waders, and pushed my car out of the water up onto Crista Lane – so the tow truck ended up being unnecessary.  Later that morning, Corey pointed out a bit on the CBS7 web site about a water rescue being reported in Midland “near Loop 250 and Midkiff.”  That was probably the host of vehicles with various sorts of flashing lights that showed up for me.

While I was waiting, in the water, I took a couple of pictures.  This one, when, hrm, I felt something wet on my ankle:

[singlepic id=38 w=320 h=240 float=center]

Water was coming up from under the car, through whatever various holes or crevices or whatnot, and filling my floorboards.  It got to being a couple of inches in each of them.  Not fun at all.

Here’s a view from my car while I was stuck in the effing water:

[singlepic id=39 w=320 h=240 float=center]

Tried to do what things I could Thursday afternoon after work, Friday after work, and then Saturday, to get my car driving.  No luck.  Sunday, Kara and Matt came over, and we pushed my car back to my apartment complex, parked right downstairs.  It doesn’t start, and the electrical system is haywire.  I reached out to my dad for help, having no other real alternatives.  Finally got my car towed on a car carrier to Littlefield Automotive Wednesday during lunch.  Haven’t heard anything from them yet, going to call in a bit and see what, if any news, they’ve got for me yet.

I’ve been really severely stressed most of this week and last weekend.  Stressed about my car, about everything going on at work right now in crunch time (well, until this morning anyway), stressed about money being entirely too tight until my next payday.  Having a non-functional vehicle, and that adding unknown added costs to repair it (or possibly end up getting a cheap used vehicle if repair on it is too costly to be considered feasible) and having to work something out with my dad, probably on a payment plan basis, just added heaps of stress for me.  Some of that is why I haven’t posted a damn thing on this site until today.  It was just something that so seriously wasn’t anything of a priority for me.

So, yeah, that’s a bit to catch things up.  All I really feel like writing about it for now anyway.  Linkage commences:

Link of the Day: SDCC 2009 Hot Cosplay Chicks

Spam of the Day: “Time For a New Copier?” – from, of course, Copier King

Funny of the Day: “Try and spell shield that“

Pic of the Day: Interesting Top

Quote of the Day: “(760): I wish they had nachos that got you drunk” – another gem from TFLN

Stuff of the Day

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Update: Blah.  Not lots to say here.  Work was work.  I chatted for a decent amount of time and talked on the phone for a while with womenfolks (well, just one on the phone).  Watched the 2nd and 3rd episodes of the Torchwood: Children of Earth miniseries.  Had dinner.  That’s about it.  So happy that this week is coming to an end, looking forward to my date tomorrow night.

Got paid today.  Money from that paycheck has vaporized alarmingly quickly.  Cable, Verizon, Airfare to Indy for GenCon.  Yeah, that hurt.  $346 was the best I could score, even with The Priceline Negotiator working his dubious magic (not as magical as I had been led to believe).  Having to borrow some money from my Dad for 4 weeks so I can be sure I don’t starve and so forth.  Bounce Energy STILL has my account screwed up.  Called, left two different voicemails to people there (Though I don’t know if one of the extensions actually is anyone or not), filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and even griped on Twitter.  Someone at Bounce responded on Twitter and I emailed them about it, going with cut ‘n paste from my BBB complaint.  😉  I’ve got to budget for paying Bounce still this month, once I can find out what I actually owe them, and probably replace another wheel on my car (please god/universe/karma/luck/whatever, just be the wheel and not require the tire to be replaced now as well).

Link of the Day: Key/Keyring Combo

Spam of the Day: ” Are you looking for the Fountain of Youth?”

Funny of the Day: Lit-er-al?

Pic of the Day: Super Trooper

Quote of the Day: “Life is like a road trip. Sometimes, the road is smooth, the scenery is beautiful, and the weather crisp; other times, you break down with a flat across the road from a hillbilly with 3 teeth, playing a banjo and looking at you like a dented can of Spam out of the dollar bin at the local Piggly Wiggly.” – Kara

Venting. Because I Need More Air Loss Today.

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So, after I bought my Saab, after getting screwed over by the inspection company (if you ever talk to Rob at ASR, tell him to burn in hell, give me my money back, and then report his ass to the FTC), when I had it checked out at the Saab dealership in Fort Wayne, IN for some problems that cropped up, one of the things I was told was that 2 of the wheels (both Passenger side) were “slightly bent.”  It wasn’t bad, I’d probably be ok for a year to a year and a half or so.  That was . . . concerning, but I’ve dealt with it.  One of many little background niggling worries that I’d, eventually, deal with.  Part of my recent plans have been to get the wheels checked out locally (probably by Midland Frame and Wheel, as I was very pleased with them on the rear brake job, and they come highly recommended by a mechanic I trust, and they seem competent), and see what options I’d have for repairing or replacing the wheels.  Hopefully, repair would be viable.  I kinda like the stock Saab wheels.  I’ve looked into some stuff online for them, though, and repair (remanufacture), or replacement would be . . . costly.  Probably at least around $125 a wheel, possibly more.  Eeesh.  Then a full new set of Good (not super, but Good – probably Falkens or maybe Pirellis) tires.  This would happen in, hopefully, 2-3 months down the road, or possibly sooner if I got a sizable bonus from the software deployment at work.  Well, plans changed there, having a bonus at all is questionable, and when I might ever get a raise here so I can afford all of this necessary stuff is mystery as well.

This morning, an auspicious, lovely start to my day, I head downstairs, and notice, hmm, that’s funny . . . that (front passenger) tire looks low.  No, actually, it looks bloody flat. I hobble the car to work (thankfully it’s a very short drive), go tell James I’ve got a flat and am going to the tire place (Discount Tire, also, thankfully, very close by).  I hobble it there, park it right in front, apparently smack in the way of practically everything.  They were really busy.  I spent probably 10+ minutes waiting just to get talked to.  Told it’ll be 45 minutes or so before they can look at it and give me an assessment.  I call James, get a ride back to work.  Get a call a bit later.  Verdict?  Wheel is badly bent, they’re doubtful a new tire on it will even stay inflated.  ~$190 for a new wheel and tire.  Oh, and also, the rear passenger wheel is pretty badly bent.  It should really be replaced too.  Except I can’t right now.  I simply don’t have the money.  MAYBE I can swing getting another wheel (hopefully I won’t need another tire with it too) next paycheck.  The timing on this sucks ass.

So, went and picked up my car – $190.64 total – during the process of writing this post.  I’m past being angry now, and am just sort of weary and demoralized.  All by 10:15 a.m. today!  AWESOME!

Stuff of the Day

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Update: I had a very good weekend.  Fun times, enoyable time spent with people I like.  Couple of annoyances, like having a headlight on my car go out Friday night, and having to replace it Saturday ($17.51 for the bulb, which isn’t bad, just an unexpected expense with shitty timing), and how freaking HOT it was Friday and Saturday.  Stressing out over money – I’m on stupidly tight funds until July 10th.

Saw The Proposal on Friday night.  It was cute, funny, pretty good.  Despite the whole “chick flick” stigma, it was a solidly enjoyable movie.  I was previously misinformed, however, as to the amount and extent of Sandra Bullock’s nudity in the film – definitely could have used more of that, IMO.  😉

Additionally, saw The Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen yesterday afternoon on/as part of Kara’s Birthday celebration.  It was OK.  Some of the Bayhem-isms on the film annoyed me.  The spinning camera around Shia and Megan in one scene was really, really irritating.  It downright made Kara queasy.  The massive, excessive overutilization of Shakycam also bugs the crap out of me.  It’s not limited to this film, or Michael Bay, it seems to be used in practically everything now for action.  Such a horrible blight on the film industry.  That needs to either die entirely, or be relegated to very limited, “special” usage when it’ll actually accentuate a scene and give it more impact due to its rarity.

T2 is worth seeing.  Especially on a matinee if you can.  Does it have flaws, problems?  Oh hell yes.  It also has giant robots fighting, and a few very funny moments (Sam’s mom at college was great).

Link of the Day: Interesting and unusual car paint jobs

Spam of the Day: “Best oil for pork motor” – Seriously, I don’t make any of this stuff up.

Funny of the Day: I’m tempted to try this one, but I am skeptical of the results I’d get.

Pic of the Day: Too soon?

Quote of the Day: “(972): they say celebs die in threes. leave it to billy mays to throw in one extra COMPLETELY FREE!” – Someone from TFLN.

Stuff of the Day

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Update of the Day: So, it’s been a frustrating weekend by net.  One good, positive thing yesterday, but multiple other disappointments.  Trying not to get too down/discouraged.  Things happen, ya know?  Hey, at least I’ve gotten some progress time in on WoW leveling . . .

Link of the Day: Portugal: Proof that Drug Decriminalization works?

Spam of the Day: “Best prices, best pilules”

Funny of the Day: Tears of Lasers.

Pic Vid of the Day: Shoe Magic with NPH

Quote of the Day: “It sounds like the Cirque du Soleil being chewed up by their own chainsaws.” – Jeremy Clarkson