What is old will be new again
The next several days are going to have a lot of “newness” in them. It appears that April is the month where big shit happens. Last year in April we built the chicken coop and run and redid all of the flooring in the house. This year April is going to contain a new set of kitchen appliances and potentially a new Tacoma.
I received a surprise call yesterday from the Toyota dealer in Delray, saying the truck I have a deposit on showed up a full week early. He asked me when I wanted to pick it up. I told him tentatively I may be able to pick it up on Thursday since I was already going to be off for appliance delivery.
Of course that all depends on what time of day the appliances show up, if they show up at all. Although my online order status still shows a delivery date of April 21st, it also shows it as “Being processed” which it has shown since the order was placed Sunday. The lack of change in that status has me concerned. They are supposed to call the day before to give a four hour delivery window so if I don’t hear anything by mid-day I will call in and speak to a human about it. The idea of scoring new appliances AND a new truck on the same day is pretty crazy.
On the old truck front I got my 99 Tacoma back yesterday, picking it up on the way home last night. When I got in the truck I saw an empty Diet Coke can in the cupholder which I gave to the manager with a look of stink eye. I also had the pleasant smell of cigarette smoke lingering in the cab. The truck drove fine on the way home with the temperature needle staying dead middle as it should.
When I got home I looked under the hood at their handy work. It looks like they topped off my fluids which I guess is nice. They must have overfilled the power steering fluid a bit as the top of the casing was wet. I also thought the $1500 I paid for the work would have included removal of the stickers on the new top and lower radiator hoses. I guess that is an extra charge. Despite these minor annoyances I was glad the Tacoma was back in action and ready for a thorough cleaning to prepare it for sale.
I am hoping having the pump and timing belt freshly done will be a strong selling point for the truck as it was the only major obstacle from the truck logging it’s next 100,000 miles. When I priced 99 Tacomas on Craigslist I was surprised just how much money they are pulling. I saw multiple trucks with more miles and less equipment listed at 5K or more. I originally thought I would be happy with getting 4k for it. Now it looks like that should be the bottom of the range I should expect.
Since I had all this new stuff potentially going on I went ahead and took Friday off as well, giving me schedule flexibility if I need it. Even if I get it all done Thursday, then I have Friday to play with my new toys. It will be like Christmas in spring.
Last night I did some more prep work related to the race I am supposed to be timing on Saturday. I also received a new 23″ monitor I ordered to use on the security dvr for races. After I unpacked it a thought popped into my head. Cindy has dual monitors on her computer, an older 27 inch monitor and a 23 inch Acer that looked nearly identical to what I just bought. Having the two mis-matched monitors on her desk was a bit clumsy. The 27 incher is a few years old and as a result was physically much bigger than the slim bezel models today.
I asked Cindy what she would think of matching 23 inch monitors instead. She liked the idea. Not only will matching monitors be more visually appealing, it also would allow her to regain a substantial amount of desk space. After I finished swapping out the monitors Cindy went on a desk organization mission. The end result is definitely an improvement.
Tomorrow I will have a bunch of prep to do to clear out the kitchen for the new appliances. Getting the old fridge out is going to be a large challenge. If I remember correctly to get it into the house we had to pull the front door off 11-12 years ago.