Archives 2006

To Valvoline Instant Oil Change:

I have 3 vehicles that I have taken to this location for 2 or 3 years. My past 3 visits have been very unsatisfactory. 2 weeks ago I took my 93 van to the location. I spent 100 dollars for an oil change and replacement of the fuel filter. I discovered after the fact that the oil filter had not been changed. I took it back and pointed it out. They replaced the filter but the manager said nothing to me at all and offered no apology or explanation for the oversight.

Then this past Wednesday I took my 99 Tacoma for an oil change. I pull up to the facility at 5:05 (they are open until 5:30) There are no cars in the garage being serviced but the “manager” was out in the lot working on what I believe was his own personal vehicle. One of the other employees came over to me and said “My boss said we are closed” I asked why and the employee just repeated that they were closed and would be open tomorrow. It made no sense to me but I said “whatever” and decided to come back the next day.

So again today I pull up after work at a few minutes after 5. There is one truck in the one bay and none in the other bay. The same employee walks out to me and says they have a big job to do on the truck in the bay and they wouldn’t be able to get to me today. He said they only had 2 people. I was angry now and asked what the hell was going on. Yesterday they told me they were closed and today they tell me they can’t get to me even though they had a bay open and a half hour till closing time. The employee went back to the “manager” and then reluctantly waved me in. There were three employees working there, not two.

Since the oil filter was not replaced last time, I watched very carefully what actually was done this time. They drained the oil, changed the oil filter and added washer fluid and nothing else. They did not check tire pressure, they did not examine the air filter, they did not do 90% of the things that were listed on the service invoice.

The entire process took all of ten minutes and during that ten minutes they turned away three or four more customers that were interested in the service. Needless to say, my three vehicles will never be going to this location again unless the personnel are replaced. It’s ridiculous to be treated that way as a customer and I am sure many others have experienced similar results from the current staff at this location.

P.S. Even though they were so “busy” the employee had time to try to pitch me the Fuel Injector cleaning service… what a joke.

a bumper sticker on the back of a Toyota Highlander.

Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons…
for You are Crunchy & Good with Ketchup….

There was another 5k race this Saturday. Ali had been sick all week so there was no way she could run it but I decided I would go it solo. I have wanted to try running a race at my own pace to see how I could do. This race was in Ft Myers Beach during the Shrimp Festival. Parking for the event was a mess, they had a bunch of the road blocked off so we parked probably a mile away and walked. This race was tough, probably the toughest course to date because it went over and back across the Matanzas bridge, the highest point in Lee County. The bridge part hits right in the middle of the race so it is a real test, especially for Florida runners that never see hardly a slight incline. It was hot as well, by the time the race started at 9:30 it felt like it was into the 80’s already. I was excited to go all out and see how fast I could go but at the same time nervous about the pain I knew was to come.

The gun sounded and I took off pretty fast. I passed a bunch of runners that Ali and I normally wind up running with. The first mile was 7:37 and I was feeling it, I was already tired and I didn’t even hit the bridge yet. There was a different mindset running by myself. If someone passed me, I took it personally and tried to compensate, where as if I was with Ali I wouldn’t give it a second thought because I knew I was sticking by her. You pick out targets in front of you and work on picking them off, if you are really tired you work on just not losing ground. Then the bridge came. Boy it sucked, I dug in and plugged away up the hill. I passed numerous people who either started to walk or slowed down their pace greatly. Getting to the top was a relief but the knowledge that I had to come back over the hill was looming large. I was really working hard. I was too tired to monitor the GPS watch, I just had tunnel vision, I didn’t look at the crowd around the parade route, didn’t look at the scenery, I just looked ahead.

The second trip over the hill is where I found my target that would pull me into the finish. A short woman that I pegged as being in her forties. She was in front of me up to that point but I passed her on the 2nd trip over the hill, however she hung with me from the downhill on. Evidently a lot of people knew her as she got lots of cheers as we went by the spectators, calling out her name. I could tell she was only a few steps behind me but there was no way I wanted to get passed by a chick in the end. So I pushed hard, really hard. I was as tired as I can remember. At the 2 mile mark I grabbed a cup of water and choked down a few drops and threw the rest on my chin, I missed my face. The last half mile felt like forever, I was just focused on staying ahead of the footsteps I heard behind me. At the very end I passed a 20 something chick for good measure. You can see from this picture Ali took at the finish line how close they were. You can also see how damn tired I was.

I crossed the line in 25:12, right around an 8 minute mile pace. Considering the course, I was happy with the result. I would assume with a flat course I could be comfortably into the 24’s. After I took off my ankle timing device I found a patch of grass and just laid down on my back. Ali was worried something was wrong and I assured her I just was tired. I pushed myself to just about the limit of my cardiocascular ability. My time was actually good enough to get 4th in my age group, only 20 seconds off of 3rd. It was a challenge to run the race solo at my pace, it’s something I am ok with only exploring now and then. I’m ok being Ali’s pace setter most races.

On the walk up before the race we stopped at a 7-11 because I had to pee like mad. I grab the knob and it’s locked and some guy mumbles something. He’s was in there a long time so I assumed he was taking a dump, great…. The guy comes out, he has long black hair, a baseball cap, sunglasses and is talking on his cell phone. I hurry into the bathroom, hold my breath as long as I can and relieved myself. This was significant because this same guy showed up again as I was running back over the bridge the second time, he was one of the morons that was walking out in the middle of the race route instead of using the sidewalk. Then after the race, walking back to the car, I see the same 7-11 shitter riding in the passenger seat of a truck pulling a parade float. Why it was intended for me to see this guy 3 times in a few hours is beyond me.

Even though I was wiped after the race, when we got home I still plowed into my to do list. In the space of a few hours I had watered the landscape, worked on the van, pulled off the pool cover, cleaned it and cleaned the junk out of the pool, filled the bird feeders and a handful of other things. Saturday night we watched Chronicles of Narnia. It was a marginal quality copy where someone sets up a camera in a theater. However the movie, while lengthy, was very good. Ali and I both enjoyed it.

Sunday I was feeling the aches and pains of running hills when you aren’t used to it. My calves and shins were both killing me. We ran out to do a few errands and we tied up the to do list. One of the to do’s was to have Ali buzz my hair again in prep for my latest skin removal procedure.

Monday was the appointment at 11:30. Before the appointment I ran more errands like going back to the Quik Lube place to point out that they didn’t change my oil filter (which they then did), a stop at the Ford dealership to order a couple van parts and then Pinch a Penny for pool supplies. I had more time to kill so I spent in browsing through Best Buy where after looking at the nice 20 inch lcd monitors that I desire, settled on getting a new set of headphones that don’t hurt my head like my current set. I explained it as a “surgery present” to Ali.

The procedure went fine. Before we started I told the doc that I can’t even really see any more discoloration at the spot and maybe he got it all when he scraped it. He said the pathologist said it was suspicious and in a case like that the safest bet is to remove a small region outside the suspect area. (yea and then he also gets to bill me an obscene amount of money) So he numbs the area and says he will be back in 5 minutes. 15-20 minutes later he comes back and starts to cut. It hurts so he injects more numbing stuff. The procedure took maybe 20 minutes total. Since the area was in the hairline, they couldn’t get traditional bandages to stick, so the nurse put a gauze pad on the area and then slapped what looked like a cross between a hairnet and headband around my head to keep it in place. It looked ridiculous. Once I got out to the van I looked in the mirror and adjusted the headgear to make it look as inconspicuous as possible, which was fruitless. When I went home the women at the drive thru paused and gave me a funny look when she saw my choice of head fashion. I told Ali I was going to to put a hat on when I got home to hold it in place but I decided to leave the headband on so Ali could see how dumb I looked. As the day went on the incision started to hurt a bit which was controlled by popping a couple Advil.

This morning I took off the headband to reveal my latest frankenstein scar, it’s lovely. I had an appointment with the orthodontist. I am on my last set of trays for my upper teeth., great right? Wrong, my upper teeth aren’t straight yet. From straight on they look ok but when you look from the side you can see the 2 teeth that I have been most conscious of my entire life, still are at angles that don’t match up with the rest of my teeth. When I pointed this out to the ortho, at first he acted like they were ok and the flaw was minor. However I persisted that those 2 teeth were the entire focus of the 2 and a half years of crap I have been going through and I wanted them straight. The doc first suggested that he could dimple the tray to put pressure on the tooth. I told him that we tried that before and it doesn’t really do much. Then he offered they could design the retainer to put pressure on the tooth. I told him that was what they told Ali and the one tooth she has issues with isn’t moving with the retainer. Then he said he could get more trays from Invisalign but that procedure would add another 2 months of down time when nothing is happening. So I think what is going to happen is the next time I go in they will be slapping metal brackets up top. I will have a metal mouth for a couple months but at least there will be complete control of the teeth that way. I just want this ordeal to be over with. Invisalign is ok for minor tooth fixing, I would not recommend it if you need major work done.

Does anyone know why gas is priced at whatever and 9/10? Why is it priced per gallon to a value that you can’t actually pay? If I walk in and say I want to buy one gallon of gas, how do I give the clerk 9/10 of a penny? Is it just another scheme by the gas companies to pocket that 1/10th of a penny? I guess when you add up the billions of gallons of gasoline that are consumed it adds up to a fortune. It pisses me off.

This morning I dropped off Buttons at the vet for her dental cleaning. A side effect of the diabetes is her teeth are rotting out. Everytime we take her in for a cleaning another couple teeth get pulled out. Soon she will be gumming her food. I also have to pick this months supply of dog heartworm and flea/tick medicine. I also stop by regularly to get the special diabetic cat food. Add in the annual check ups, bird food, dog food, dog toys and other vet trips we spend a small fortune on our animals each year. I refuse to run a summary report in Quicken because it will shake me up.

I’m also pissed off at the place I get my oil changed at. With the starter problems on the van, I spent a decent amount of time looking under the hood. While doing so I noticed that the oil filter was not changed at the oil change I just had done the week prior. I also noticed that it is dripping oil, I suspect they didn’t tighten the oil drain plug correctly either. I will be stopping by there Monday to address the situation.

Tomorrow is another race. I may run it solo because Ali doesn’t want to run right after getting over her illness. I tweaked my knee squatting at the gym early in the week so I am a bit hesitant about running although it feels ok right now.

On Monday I have more stuff cut out of my head. This spot is up in the hairline, about an inch above where the first spot was. This isn’t fun. I am wondering if I will have a permanent hole in my hair.

It seems that Kirby had a lot of bad things going on besides the sexual harrassment charges. I heard stories that he was a perennial wife beater, adulterer and also had sexual assault charges brought against him. Maybe he wasn’t such a nice guy.

The Stern show on Sirius has been great and as a bonus, I started listening to Bubba the Love Sponge in the afternoons, he is funny as hell too. There is an old guy on there named Ned that does some of the funniest phony phone calls I ever heard.

I am glad that American Idol is soon down to the final 12, 3 nights a week is just too much. There are quite a few strong singers this year, should make for a good show.

Ali has been sick as a dog for the last 4 or 5 days. She stayed home from work the past 2 days. The medicine she is on is making it next to impossible for her to sleep. I feel bad for her.

The party van is back in the driveway, the starter was bad as I suspected. 300 bucks and it is back in business.

The weather down here has been absolutely beautiful recently. Blue skies, lower 70’s and low humidity. I commented to Ali that this is exactly the reason I wanted to move here.

I leave for Vegas in a little more than a month. I am going with Keener for like 4 days. It should be an awesome time.

On Sunday I had to chase a snake off the lanai. It was a black racer snake which is non-poisonous but it had quite the temper. It repeatedly struck at the pool brush I was coralling it with. I can’t wait till the pool cage is back up.

Don Knotts, Kirby Puckett and Dana Reeve all have checked out. Don was expected but I was really taken back by Kirby dying and although I knew Dana Reeve had lung cancer, I had no idea she was in bad shape. After taking care of Chris for all those years it certainly seems less than fair to have slapped her with a terminal disease just when she had a shot to rebuild her life. Just another one of those things that challenges someone to explain how it was “God’s plan”.

Kirby was knocked out of baseball early because of a freak eye problem. The Twins host their spring training here so we get more info about them than normal. Kirby was a god, even with the sexual harrassment charges. Damn, the guy was only 44….

This weekend was another race. Last weekend was the first time Ali didn’t lower her time and Friday night she was starting to feel sick so things weren’t looking very promising. Ali started participating in the local run club from an operations standpoint. She introduced me to the key club members before the race. One of the individuals I talked to was the guy that runs the club website. One of the issues is getting race results online quickly. I talked to the guy about how it is being done and talked about some options. It was a normal 5 or 10 minute talk. Afterward I said something to Ali about how she stood me in front of the guy but didn’t introduce us, she said I was a grown man and could have introduced myself, to which I responded “Eh it’s not a big deal..”

I felt good in the run, I was trying to pull Ali along throughout. Once again before the race we were talking to a guy that sized me up and asked if I ran around 20 minute 5k’s. Once again I explained I run with Ali as her pacer and right now we are around 28’s. One of these races I will go all out on my own and see what I pull down. Ali was really struggling to keep up, but she did. We wound up with a 28:02, a few ticks better than our Festival of Light time. She was totally spent. As I was filling out my time card after the race, the web hosting guy came up to me and said something that I couldn’t quite make out. He was all sweaty from the run and panting, but then I heard the word “Asshole..” All of a sudden it kicks in that this guy is pissed off at me. I ask him what the problem is and he tells me he heard what I said, he heard what I said. My mind starts racing, what did I say? This guy was furious. “I heard you say it was no big deal!” WTF? He ranted and ranted saying how I thought what he was doing was no big deal, that I somehow was flippant about what he was doing, that I was somehow dismissing him as an amateur since I host websites myself. I quickly tried to explain to him that he was totally off base and misunderstood what I was talking about. I told him there was no way I would say anything like that and that it made no sense. Towards the end Ali saw what was going on and came over. I told her what was going on and she tried to reinforce my position. The guy said that if we needed something from him we need to go through the club president he didn’t want to deal with me. Well after 2 or 3 apologies by me for HIS misunderstanding I just walked away, feeling like we just staged a Three’s Company episode, It was a loud spectacle that tons of people witnessed, what a nice way to get introduced to the Runner’s club. Later we told the other club officials about what went down. Ironically, they seemed less than surprised, I think this guy has a reputation as a loose cannon. After the fact, the more I thought about it, the angrier I got that he made such an assumption, it was ridiculous. Normally when I am in a confrontational situation like that I replay it, wondering if I should have handled differently. I think I went the right way, trying to stay civil about it. Although there was a good portion of me that felt like I should have instantly fired off on the guy for assuming I was an asshole without finding out the details. Stupid shit.

After the race we went to my Mom’s so I could throw in the part I got for the party van. I ripped apart the steering column and installed a new starter switch. I reassembled it and turned the key with much anxiety, CLICK! Argh…. Ok well I already decided my next step if the part didn’t work was a trip to the shop so I called AAA for a tow to the local garage whom I called. I called at 10:30, they said someone would be there within the hour, they showed at 12:30. The towing guy was a bit unprofessional, he asked me what was wrong, where it was to be towed to and he was off. AAA told me the guy would need my AAA card and a picture ID. He asked for nothing and after we dropped the van off at the garage he just took off, no paperwork , no nuthin. The garage which was open when I called, was now closed so I just left a long detailed note with the keys and threw it in one of the exhaust holes in the garage doors. In a way I am glad to have it looked at by a mechanic to make sure it is fixed once and for all.

World of Warcraft is now creeping into my dreams. Last night I had a dream I was flying around on a gryphon. As I was cruising along I saw an enemy on the ground whom didn’t see me and he had one of his two swords drawn. I dropped down into a power dive from behind and as I buzzed by him I snatched the sword out of his hand and flew away. As I did I turned back and laughed at him. He started chasing me and as he did he pulled out his other sword and in one quick motion threw it at me chinese star style. I see it coming and I dodge it and then as gravity starts pulling the sword towards the water below, I dive again and snag it out of the air. Now I had both of his swords. I turn back towards him, holding both of his swords above my head while laughing and taunting him. I look at the swords and realize they are epic quality. I give the guy the double bird and then fly away. The rest of my dream gets blurry but it is basically me flying to another area of the world to escape retribution for my act of thievery. Yea it’s a bit scary that WoW is now in my sleep pattern, but damn during the dream it was exciting.

When we left yesterday morning I noticed that the wires on our utility pole looked all f’d up. It looked like most of them were down but since we had to get to work I couldn’t do an in depth investigation. However when I got home I looked closer. It looked like all the wires but one were ripped/snapped. I have no clue how this would have happened unless a vehicle hit the pole in the street and stretched the wires. A quick check inside revealed we had no telephone or cable. Oh my we are unplugged! Being unplugged is an uncomfortable feeling when you are so accustomed to going through your email or reading up on the latest news while you are chowing down on dinner. Not to mention that no internet means no WoW, oh the horror of it all. Luckily we have the satellite dish which allowed us to still catch American Idol. It’s good to have a disaster recovery plan. 🙂

This week I tried to get tickets to a Red Sox spring training game. I was unsuccessful in doing so, I could not find 2 seats together. Even though my love of baseball has transformed into a mild like over the years, I was ready to go check out another game. It is funny how your interests change over the years. Baseball used to be my life. It was all I cared about, I knew every player, it was going to be my career. I remember sitting in the 700 level of the Vet with a stopwatch. I timed how long it took for the pitch to leave the pitcher’s hand till it hit the catcher’s glove. I used this information to help gauge my own progress as a pitcher, to see if I could throw as hard as them. I read books on how to get better, I trained in the offseason, I worked with a guy that actually pitched in the majors. I was so into it. It seems like that was a 100 years ago.

On Saturday we had another 5k in Labelle. Labelle is in the middle of the state. Driving to it was a visual transformation from the perfectly landscaped, lush tropical vegatation and cookie cutter condo filled area of Naples to what looked like rural Pennsylania. You hardly would know you were in Florida except for an occasional cabbage palm here and there. There are no gated communities in Labelle. The run was part of the annual Swamp Cabbage festival, yes Swamp Cabbage Festival. The starting point of the race was right by the “Labelle Marina” which to us looked more like an old boat graveyard. It was filled with boats covered in green organic matter. Ironically, a lot of these ancient looking things had For Sale signs on them. They only had 2 port o potties for 300 racers so instead of waiting in a 25 person line I just took a leak out of view.

The race itself was tough. Even though the temps were on the cool side in the 60’s, it was very humid. The start of the race had a gradual hill and then you were running into a headwind for a good distance. Even though Ali kept a strong pace through this early section, she spent a lot of energy and it slowed us down a bit later. The first half of the run was down what almost seemed to be a road to nowhere with nothing on either side but dense wild vegetation. Early on I saw a familiar old guy ahead of us, he is really old, probably closer to 80 than 70. We beat him in the race last week. I really wanted to step on the gas and pass him but Ali was really struggling so we didn’t make up any ground.

The last part of the race was on the parade route which by now had filled with swamp cabbage supporters whom cheered on the race participants. There was a small raised drawbridge we had to cross towards the end. We finished strong but for the first time did not beat our prior race time, finishing in 28:22 (28:05 last week). Ali had hopes of finishing in the top 3 this time. Based on last year’s entries, she had a legitimate shot to do it. Unfortunately the race had many more entries this year and Ali wound up 5th in her age group still a great finish. More impressive, out of over 80 plus female entries, Ali finished 17th.

After the race we walked by the various swamp cabbage festivities. I never knew there were so many swamp cabbage items. I read the parade drew 30,000 people. Labelle was a very unique place to have a race, somehow sheltered from the crushing wave of people flocking to the state. I’ll definitely run it next year.

Someone at work recommended the movie, The Man. They told me it was hilarious, so much so that her ribs hurt from laughing. So I downloaded the movie and watched it this weekend. What the hell, I must have seen the unfunny version. The movie was a C- at best. I laughed hard exactly twice at 2 flatulence scenes. Otherwise it was just dumb, thankfully it was short as well, not even an hour and a half. I will never understand why Samuel Jackson is cast in all of these movies…he isn’t that good.

The Olympics wrapped up last night and I caught some of the closing ceremonies. Even though I only caught sparse bits of it, I still was sad to see it close. Contrary to what Bryant Gumble thinks, the winter olympics are interesting if for no other reason than they are only held every 4 years. It is interesting to see athletes that dedicate their lives to sports that otherwise never see the light of day on tv. I was glad that Bode Miller wiffed on medals, he is the poster child for the cocky, ignorant American. I imagined how many of these athletes must have felt as the games closed. They spent the last 4 years or more anticipating this great event and now it’s over. I can understand some of the stories of post olympic depression for athletes. It has to be tough.

The party van left us stranded yesterday. We took it to my mom’s to drop off her taxes. Mom wasn’t even home, we just wanted to get out of the house for a bit. So we dropped off the paperwork and Ali hopped in the driver’s seat. I wanted her to drive home to get more practice driving the van since she will be taking it to Orlando in April. I was going to chill in the back and watch TV. She turns the key and CLICK. The same click I battled with a few weeks ago. She tries several times, click, click, click. I tell her I would do it, she must be doing something wrong, CLICK. Son of a bitch. Since I replaced the lock cylinder it has been working 100%, I was sure I fixed it. So I go inside and grab some of the sparse tools of my mom’s and popped and reinstalled the lock cylinder a dozen times, I messed with the battery connections, I crawled underneath and looked around. I f’d around with the thing for at least an hour, each turn of the key adding on to my mounting frustration.I just couldn’t believe the problem was back. I am the sort that normally has a good mind for troubleshooting. If plan A fails, then there is plan B, then plan C etc… Well I was out of letters. Ali called my mom at work and she ran home quick so we could drop her back off at work, drive home, pickup the truck and drive back to mom’s work to give her the car back. On the way back we swung by the dead van again and I tried to hook jumper cables up just for the hell of it. That did nothing either. So the van is still there in my mom’s driveway. On the way home we swung by the auto parts store and I ordered the other ignition switch component I was going to order when this first happened, hoping it will be the answer. Unfortunately I probably won’t be able to get back to my mom’s till Saturday to try it out. If this effort fails then I will more than likely need to get the van towed somewhere to have it looked at. If this part doesn’t fix it, the next thing I would suspect is the starter motor itself which is beyond the scope of what I would tackle myself. I was so damn frustrated during the drive home. What was supposed to be a quick hour and a half trip turned out to be an all afternoon frustration filled event, the joys of used vehicle ownership.

I woke up in such a shitty mood this morning. ….

On Wednesday after work Ali and I hit another distance personal best, covering 5.25 miles, less than a mile off a 10k. It was tough and afterward I ate everything in sight. I feel tired in a totally different kind of way when we do the distance training runs. Tomorrow we have another 5k race in LaBelle.

I just love the latest mess W has gotten himself into with the UAE group buying US ports. It is great to see a bi-partisan lynch mob coming after him. Even if the takeover is 100% completely legit, Bush should have realized how this would appear to the US public. His staunch support of the move just further cements his role as one of the most ignorant presidents of all time. Freedom, terror, 911, 911, God Bless America. Kudos.

I was ok with who got axed last night on AI except for the one good looking chick. She wasn’t a fantastic singer but she was better than some and not nearly annoying as that girl from New York (Brenna?) with minimal talent and maximum attitude. I can’t wait till she is gone.

I finally got the Tivo to record some hot Winter Olympic curling action. For a sport that in reality is as captivating as emptying the dishwasher, I watch it with great interest. The furious sweeping, the hilarious release approach of the stone is all very fun for me to watch. If you stop laughing long enough you realize that the precision these guys exhibit really is pretty amazing.

Our tax refund has grown even larger thanks to tax breaks for hurricane victims. We are getting back enough now to really help soften the blow once the new pool cage goes up.