So I did indeed call Sirius on Friday and told them I was ready to cancel my subscription after seeing the latest rate increase. The woman with an Indian accent wasted no time offering to renew my subscription minus the price increase. Well that came way too easily, it was obvious there was more savings available. I told her thanks but no thanks. I told her how the past few years I was on the fence if I wanted to renew at all since the only reason I have Sirius is for Howard Stern and he now only does three live shows a week and takes 2-3 months off a year on top of that.
Well this opened us up to the level 2 discount which is half price on the base subscription. I am pretty sure I could have pushed for more like a discount on the online streaming portion or the bullshit music royalty fees but I called it as good enough and told the woman I guess I’ll renew. Of course when next year rolls around the same song and dance will be repeated.
Originally the plan for Saturday morning was to run 10 miles at the normal club group run. Ali got a message from Michelle saying she was going to be running around her neighborhood instead with a friend of hers. She invited us to join them although she planned to only run 7 miles. Friday afternoon my knees were a little painful after running on the treadmill Thursday, the idea of putting in less miles made more sense to me.
So we met up with Michelle and her friend whom also happens to be named Michelle. We had a solid run, Michelle number two was obviously a good runner. Ali was struggling a bit because she was starting to feel the onset of illness. A couple times she scolded me because I dropped back to run with her, saying she doesn’t want me to slow down to run with her. I told her it was no big deal and ran most of the last couple miles with her a little behind the two Michelle’s.
When we were done it struck me that it was ironic that running 7 miles is now viewed as a compromise for me where as for the first 42 years of my life 6 miles was a bucket list item.
After a well deserved stop at Dunkin Donuts the rest of my Saturday was non-stop work save the 40 minute Kitchen Nightmare show I watched over lunch. Ali had busted ass on Friday getting a lot of the house work done which was nice. After I finished up what was left to do I headed outside to start on the long awaited Tacoma idle air control valve cleaning project. Through various internet research I had determined this was the reason I was experiencing warm start problems with the truck where the engine sputters and barely wants to keep running.
Before heading out I located the forum post I found earlier that had pictures of another person taking his IAC off. I reviewed the pictures to give me a bit of a visual road map.
The IAC is attached to the throttle body. To clean it you need to remove the throttle body before you can remove the IAC. Removing the throttle body wasn’t too bad. After removing the intake hose and the cables attached to the linkage you had four bolts to remove to get the throttle body off.
Once you slide the throttle body off I got better access to the two coolant hoses on the bottom and was able to slip them off, allowing the throttle body to be completely removed.
I then moved to the work bench in the garage. The IAC is attached to the throttle body with four brass screws. I read several warnings about the potential pitfall these screws presented, evidently they are very easy to strip. One recommendation I read to avoid this was to utilize an impact screwdriver, a tool I never used before.
An impact screwdriver is used in combination with a hammer. Basically you strike the end of it. The impact is transferred to sudden rotational energy which will break loose most frozen screws without damaging them.
Having never used the tool before it took some trial and error. I practiced on a wood screw that was in the peg board. I was quite pleased that the tool worked as advertised on the IAC screws. All four of them broke loose with absolutely no problem.
Once I got the valve off the throttle body it confirmed what I suspected. The valve was cruddy and covered in carbon deposits. These deposits cause the valve to stick, causing the bad idle when things are warm.
So I got busy with the carb cleaner, giving the IAC a thorough bath in addition to using a small brush to help remove the deposits. The ports are pretty small so it took some patience to get it cleaned up. While I was at it I cleaned out the throttle body, cleaning areas I was unable to reach with it attached to the engine.
I also removed the solenoid on the side of the IAC so I was able to rotate the valve to make sure it was both clean and rotated without obstruction. The solenoid was attached with two screws that had a rubber plug on top of them. When I reattached the solenoid I replaced the rubber plugs with some silicone caulk I had hanging around.
So all that was left to do was put everything back together. I also read on the internet that they highly recommend you replace the rubber gasket between the IAC and throttle body as part of the process to make sure there aren’t any vacuum leaks when it is put back together. I prepared for this as well, ordering not one, but two of these gaskets, just in case I messed one up somehow.
So I pull out one of the new gaskets and immediately notice it is not even close to the right size/shape. Well that is annoying, I know I was very careful selecting it online when I ordered it. Well that is just great.
So I figure that I would just put the old gasket back on, as far as I could tell it seemed to be in decent shape. So I lay the gasket into the slotted outline for it in the throttle body however it doesn’t want to quite fit. I would press it into the slot on the bottom but then it would not quite line up at the top. If I lined it up at the top the bottom would fall out. WTF?
I f’d around with the gasket for a solid 15 minutes but regardless of what I did it would not seat itself correctly. I thought this was odd since the gasket has resided in that slot for the last 13 years or so. My only theory was when I pulled the gasket off I did not exercise much care in doing so, grabbing it by a corner and yanking since I thought I had brand new replacements. Perhaps the yank stretched the old gasket just enough that it no longer fit correctly.
Great. So I head inside to see if by some miracle I can secure a replacement gasket. A quick check online revealed it was a special order item from Autozone which would take a few days to get. I then called up both local Toyota dealerships in the hope they may stock the little rubber part. I struck out both times, they would have to order it as well.
I was frustrated. I called up Autozone and had them order the part. My order came out to $1.69. I was pissed my repair was derailed by a $2 part. I told Ali the truck would be out of commission for a few days, at least I have two other vehicles that could fill the transportation void, the party van and the SSR.
If you want to see all of the pictures I took during the IAC project you can go here. I also shot some video of the work and plan to utilize it to create the first YouTube 99 Tacoma IAC cleaning documentary.
After the Toyota work I turned my attention to the SSR. It was still dirty from it’s unintended drive in the rain two Fridays ago. I gave the truck a thorough bath both inside and out. I snapped a pic after I was done.
So now that it was clean I wanted to finally install the “bling” I bought a few weeks back. First I installed the chrome water pump pulley cover which is intended to cover up the only stand out ugly item in the engine compartment. The stock pulley has a large threaded end that gets rusty.
The recommended install procedure including brushing the threads to remove the rust and then coating the threads with Vaseline. Ali snickered when I came inside asking for vaseline to use on the SSR.
Installing the cover went ok although I was annoyed that some of the chrome flaked off on the big nut when I was tightening it with a pliers. I had the jaws wrapped up in tape but evidently not thick enough, a couple teeth poked few and must have caused the damage. Oh well the cover still looks decent.
Next I turned attention to my new license plate area chrome cover, the same one that Ali rolled her eyes at when I showed it to her. To be honest ever since Ali ‘s reaction I have felt less enthused about my rear bling but I was certainly going to install it regardless.
The cover comes with red plastic inserts that can be cut as needed to cover the 3 cut out logos on either side of the cover. I decided to make the Chevy logo and the R red and leave the SS uncovered. These inserts were secured with the same silicone I used on the IAC work.
Installing the cover was easy. After removing the factory black snap on license plate cover I simply removed the license plate and then reattached it behind the new cover, utilizing the 4 longer stainless steel screws it comes with.
I stood back and took a look at the end result. I think I liked it. Like I said I now had this seed of doubt in my head about it based on Ali’s initial reaction. It helped add another degree of uniqueness to the exterior of the truck in addition to the lowered stance and custom pin striping.
I had Ali come out so she could take a picture of the plate when it lights up when the car is in reverse. It will look cool at night although the coolness will only be in full effect when the truck is in reverse.
The last project I had for the day was to wash the party van, it was pretty grungy both inside and out. I swept up the copious amounts of dog hair that was spread around the interior and scrubbed the exterior so certain spots no longer had a light green hue from algae/mildew. With my dad, step mom, brother and their dogs coming down in a few weeks I figured it was good timing since the party van will be our primary mode of transportation with that many bodies.
In total my various vehicular labor kept me busy until after 5pm. Ali, who was feeling worse as the day went on had taken several naps during the day. She did come out later in the afternoon to work on two food projects. She made some hearty bread that was modeled after something we had at Sweet Tomatoes. She also made a soup that included strained juicing pulp, additional vegetables and pasta. We had both for dinner.
The soup didn’t turn out that well, the pasta didn’t take as long to cook as Ali expected and wound up turning to mush, making the overall consistency of the soup not very desirable. The overall taste wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the type of thing I would go looking for. I always feel bad not always giving ringing endorsements to Ali’s cooking, especially in a case like this when I know she put a lot of effort into the process. However I don’t think I would be doing anyone a favor by being dishonest about it either.
The bread Ali made was another story, that turned out really well. You would think it was prepared in a real bakery. We both had more than one serving.
I was walking around like an old man Saturday night. Sometime during the various projects I must have pulled something in my back, right below my left shoulder blade. I would get a sharp pain if I moved the wrong way and even if I breathed deeply. I still can feel it a bit today but it the edge has worn off somewhat.
We watched Hangover 2 Saturday night, my most recent Netflix queue item. I had been warned it wasn’t all that great and those warnings rang true. It was more or less an instant replay of the first movie, only with less funny moments. Maybe it felt less funny just because we had seen much of it before but I think it was more that it just wasn’t as well done. Neither Ali or I were impressed. I’d give it a pretty stinky B- rating.
Sunday morning I started it like I normally like to start them, with a DD run in the party van with the dogs in tow. Well when I got to the second traffic light, about 2 miles from our house I hit a sudden red that necessitated me hitting the brakes hard. After the initial sudden stopping surge the brake pedal unexpectedly gave way and headed towards the floor. Thank goodness nobody was in front of me, I stopped a good 20 feet out into the intersection.
Well I instantly knew this was a problem and by the time I hit the next light I decided it was lunacy to try to drive with the van like this, my stopping power was almost non-existent. I turned around and headed back home, knowing there had to be major leak in the brake system. I also briefly pondered how lucky I was that the brakes didn’t fail at highway speeds in a situation where I had to stop. It could have been very, very ugly.
So after I limped back home, I opened the hood and looked at the fluid level in the brake reservoir, it still had plenty of fluid in it. I then slid myself under the rear of the van and saw a stream of brake fluid dripping down. It appeared that one of the metal brake lines in the back had ruptured, wonderful.
Well obviously this had to be fixed, replacing metal brake lines was definitely outside the boundaries of what I was equipped to fix myself. I went inside and told Ali who was still in bed of the problem. I asked her if she could follow me in the Camry to Tire Choice, the place that did the van front brake work a few months back. My thought was Ali could provide me with a rear safety cushion and I would make sure I had plenty of stopping distance in front of me.
The drive to the garage was very slow and steady. I got lucky in that I hit mostly green lights. When I did need to stop I used the engine to assist by manually down shifting to burn off speed. I managed to complete the roughly 15 miles without rear ending another vehicle and felt lucky to do. The brakes were so weak.
After explaining what was wrong I handed over the keys and told the woman to call me when they had an estimate. In my head I figured it might cost a couple hundred bucks. Well when I got the call saying the estimate was $700 I swallowed hard. The woman explained that all of brake lines in the back were a mess and badly rusted which I already knew. I anticipated them all getting replaced in my prior mental estimate.
In my mental estimate I thought you could simply order rear brake lines for a 1996 Chevy van. Well that is not the case. She said the lines have to be custom fabricated to fit which is why the vast majority of that $700 is labor. Well it was a problem that had to be addressed, you don’t just cross your fingers and hope that old brake lines won’t explode. I told her to go ahead with the work.
I was at least pleased that I got the van back the same day without an appointment going in and that the woman honored a 10% discount that I thought I had a coupon for but later found I didn’t.
Over the weekend I noticed a new bag laying on the counters. We literally have dozens of bags/purses in the house so the fact that it was sitting on the counter wasn’t interesting. The lululemon branding was what caught my interest. I asked Ali about the bag of course since I had never seen it before. She said she bought it at the store with the gift card I gave her for Christmas.
Well the gift card was only for $50. I am far too lululemon savvy to think that the gift card covered the price of the bag, especially after she told me she bought a pair of running pants with the card as well the day before.
Since Ali was feeling sick I just lightly jabbed her about it, pointing out that we already have 345 bags in the house, why in the world would she need a lululemon bag? Of course there is no logical explanation , she equates it to my SSR “bling” which is maybe 3 or 4 items, compared to the dozens of lulu branded clothing items and accessories that reside in our house that join an already immense supply of Nike, Reebok, and Under Armour items. Of course this is always a no-win discussion but it still irks me that Ali has this sneaky secret shopper inside of her.
So this year we did not do a Super Bowl party, something we did for the last 4 or 5 years. It never really came up for discussion for some reason. With Ali not feeling well I guess it sort of worked out well timing wise.
For our SB meal we had vegetarian pigs in a blanket which I don’t mind in the least. Our food was filled out with some Baked Lays and garlic bagel bites. Eating the less than nutritionally stellar food combined with an entire exercise-free day immediately lead to the gluttonous feeling that makes me very uncomfortable.
So I flipped on the 73 inch tv and surround sound and took in the game. Let’s get the game discussion out of the way since I didn’t have any real rooting interest although I did find myself pulling for the Patriots for some reason. The game was a good one for sure were both teams missed some opportunities to dramatically change the outcome.
When Bradshaw mistakenly scored the TD when the Patriots didn’t even try to tackle him with time running out I thought Tom Brady might have a miracle left in him. In their prior series the Pats lost a golden opportunity to seal the game when Wes Welker dropped what would have been a huge pass play which eventually lead to a punt instead of a score.
Well Brady ran out of miracles and for the second time in 4 years and the Giants beat him in the end, knocking down a last second hail mary in the end zone. It was fitting end to a very up and down season. For a large part of it the Giants were a mess, at one point sitting with a 7-7 record. It was only fitting that this year, which seemed to be the year of inconsistency that a team that at points was really bad, wound up winning it at the end. Oh well.
So let’s talk about the other part of SB experience, the commercials and the half time show. I had seen a few of the commercials online before the broadcast. For some reason they decided to make them available ahead of time.
I thought for the most part the commercials, especially early on when you expect the big hitters to really knock it out of the park, were weak. I could not believe the very first Bud Light Platinum commercial. It was as bland as bland could be. Bud Light normally does a good job with their spots. With a few exceptions, I thought most of the spots were just boring or dumb.
Of course I liked most dog themed commercials as expected but I think my favorite of all was the Jerry Seinfeld Audi commercial, the online extended version is even better. There were a few others that were creative/good but for the most part they were weak.
GoDaddy really needs to get a clue. Do they think that people don’t realize that the T&A tease to go to their website for “more” has long been revealed as a huge letdown? Their ads suck. Coke? Enough with the polar bears please. Like I said there were a bunch more have nots than haves in my commercial scoreboard.
So the Madonna half time show had a lot of hype going in, after all it is Madonna, even if it is a 53 year old version of her. After watching it and exchanging several confused looks and commentary with Ali we both agreed we were underwhelmed.
The portable stage and lighting effects were top notch, crazy good. All of the props and supporting dancers in the performance were really cool. How about that guy doing crazy stuff on that suspended wire? However I though Madonna herself looked like she was performing in a haze, her energy level felt low for some reason. She looked to me like a 50 something year old woman trying to give a Lady Gaga type performance, it just didn’t work for me.
One thing obviously has had a lot of work is Madonna’s face. There was not a wrinkle to be found on her 5 decade + old face courtesy of botox and whatever weird stuff she has had done. I wasn’t nuts about her hair style either.
Of course the fact that she lip synched the entire performance annoyed me, just like it does Elton John. I know lip synching is very common at the Super Bowl, it doesn’t make me like it any more. Sing for real please.
When I looked online I saw my opinion of the half time show was not echoed much. For the most part my Facebook circle of 40 something’s thought the show was good. I guess I just watched a different performance than they did.
While she was gone the equipment for my SSR upgrade came. Once Ali got back I headed right out in the SSR to Best Buy, I wanted to buy some high grade wire connector for the install. While I was out I got a call from my Dad with an updated status. He was stopping for the day just inside the Florida border. He and my step mom have been making the trip south pretty slowly but they should finally arrive later this afternoon.
