Category Vehicle Maintenance

We had a rare, all gray weekend here in Naples thanks to tropical storm Debby.  I started my chore work in earnest Friday night and continued it bright and early Saturday.  Saturday morning it was overcast but not raining yet so it at least made the outside part of my work a little more tolerable.

The big shed had two sides of it that were looking very green and nasty, the western and northern sections, since they see the least amount of sun.  Cleaning the sheds was on my new to do list.

I had bought some fancy siding cleaning solution at Home Depot awhile ago, hoping it would make cleaning the sheds a lot easier.  According to the bottle you basically spray the stuff on, wait 5 minutes and spray it off.  Well I lost the mixture bottle attachment for my pressure washer years ago.  I saw a cheap hose end wand thing that had a little detergent attachment, it is primarily intended I suppose for stuff like washing cars.  Well I thought it would also work for my shed spraying.  I was wrong.

The container for the detergent was very small, I don’t think it even was 8 ounces.  I filled it with the stuff and started spraying.  There was no real control to meter the amount of detergent being applied.  As I sprayed I noticed the solution container was getting more and more clear but not emptying out. WTF?

I turned off the wand and removed the container.  I then turned the water back on.  I saw two streams of water spraying down into the container.  So all this shitty thing does is dilute whatever you put in there.  Great.

Well I knew this was worthless so I just pulled out the pressure washer.  I didn’t do the entire shed, instead opting to just address the two sides that were a mess, a bit of a half ass approach but it saved some time.  I then pulled the pressure washer around that side of the yard and cleaned a number of other things including the black fence posts, the two pressure treated stands and the borders around the orchard and pond.  It’s amazing how much better these things look when you blast the layer of black mildew off of them.

As I was in the middle of pressure washing I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.  I look over and see Nina, the friendly German Shepard walking around in my backyard, afraid to get close because of the noise of the washer.  I shut it off and called her over.  She did her cute submissive belly crawl over to me.  I realized I forgot to close the one front gate.

Well I was glad to at least have her in the backyard where she will at least be safe.  I grabbed her some treats and a bowl of water and then went back to washing.  She hung out in the yard with me for awhile before wandering back home.

The other day I had spotted what looked like a crazy deal on a Scooba on Craigs List, selling a functional unit for $75.  It got even better when I offered the seller $60 and she said that was fine, wow.  It included a new brush module, front wheel, charger and 3 invisible walls too.  My thought process was two fold.  The Scooba could serve as a back up for my 380 and if it did work 100% I could let Ali use it to maintain the mountains of tile in her place.  For $60 it’s hard to go wrong.

The only downside was the seller was in Cape Coral, a decent haul of close to an hour for me, oh well.

So I punched the GPS address in and was on my way.  I scratched my head when the address I pulled up in front of looked like an office building?  I assumed I was going to someone’s house.  I walk inside and see a dimly lit office with empty cubicles.  There is one woman in a back office with a confused look on her face, wondering who I was.

I gave her the name I was supposed to ask for, telling her I was there to pick up something via CL.  The woman took me to a side door that lead to a big warehouse area, filled with all sorts of items.  I have no idea what business this was affiliated with but I assume the Scooba was part of the stuff that was collected.  I don’t think this woman ever “owned” the robot, I think it was taken in as part of whatever business this was and she was simply trying to make a buck, explaining the low cost.

Well the woman brought over the box.  I quickly inspected it to make sure all of the stuff in the picture was in the box which it was.  I handed over the three $20 bills and was out of there.

Later when I got home I was pleased to discover the Scooba does indeed work just fine, the only thing it will need is a new battery to replace the original factory battery which only wants to run for 10-15 minutes.  This $60 Scooba actually appears to do a better job of sucking up the dirty water than my $400 unit.

I had hopes on Sunday morning of doing a training brick however I woke up to torrential rain, it was a mess.  Well I told Ali I would be picking up the dogs for a visit, despite the shitty weather.  They always enjoy time at the house.

My Sunday overall was pretty mundane.  I cleared up whatever chores were left to do.  Later I fired up the treadmill for the first time in eons to at least get some cardio time in.  I have the treadmill against the far wall of the office.  Before I started running I considered moving it more in front of the window in the office so I could see better.  I decided not to, thinking I would be able to see enough looking out at an angle.

Well that was a mistake.  I wound up spending a half hour looking at the Ron Jaworski picture on the wall in front of me.  The angle I had out the window was blocked by the pygmy palm so I couldn’t see anything.

I analyzed every aspect of the picture during the run, it was driving me mad.  I was glad when my three mile jaunt was over.  Next time I won’t be lazy , I’ll move the damn treadmill.

Later in the afternoon I felt quite tired so I laid down to take a nap.  The dogs were happy to nap alongside me. Imagine my surprise when I was awakened at 6:30 by Ali’s call saying she was on her way home from work.  I was out for at least a couple hours if not more.

I loaded up the dogs and took them back to Ali’s place.  Ali offered to make a healthy dinner of a salad and wrap, both of which we enjoyed while catching an episode of Master Chef on demand.

I have yet another automotive thing to fix, albeit a minor one.  Over the weekend I heard an unwelcome SNAP sound when I pulled on the interior door handle of the Tacoma.  This was the same door handle I had replaced once before, last year I think.  Well evidently aftermarket interior door handles aren’t very durable, the damn thing broke already.  I have a new $5 replacement on the way, hopefully it will last the rest of the year before the world ends.

Try to bear with me while I try to explain this dream I had last night.

I took my Tacoma to some garage to have the battery charging light problem looked at.  They looked at the truck for less than an hour and told me they didn’t know what the problem was.  When they handed me the bill for the hour of diagnostics it was an outrageous $640.

Not only was the bill outrageous, nobody could find my truck.  I went inside bitching about the bill and not being able to find my truck.  I went outside and saw some guy that worked there and asked him if he could find my truck.  He gave me an annoyed look and said he was busy looking for another vehicle, he would look for mine after he finds the first one.  What the F???

All of a sudden the dream fast forwards, I am now in some huge fancy office building in a big city.  I am accompanied by the guy that was looking for my truck, I have no idea what I am doing there.  I am escorted into this office that has two old men sitting in it.  I look back at the truck looker guy and ask him who these men were and why I was there?  He told me he brought me there so I could complain directly to the owner about the outrageous bill.  He pointed to the owner who was sitting with his head down.

The other old guy spoke first, he had an ancient sounding voice with what sounded like a German accent.  He pointed to the other guy and said he was the owner of three garages and that he would hear my complaint now.

All of a sudden the owner stands up, revealing his face, he literally looked like a zombie, complete with a small trail of blood running out the corner of his mouth.  He asked me what garage of his I went to.

I was totally unnerved by the appearance of this old man, I stammered that I forgot the name of the garage but I tried to politely explain how they ripped me off.  The old man nodded his head but then collapsed back down into his chair.  He started grasping at his chest and breathing rapidly.  He whispered with his last breath to the other men “Get him(me) out of here……”  He then died as I stood there in disbelief.  End of dream.

 

 

 

 

So the battery/charging light on the Tacoma is still coming off and on.  It seems to be coming on more and more.  I noticed yesterday that when the light came on the fan speed on the truck accelerated noticeably.   The quick analysis would point to the alternator.  If I didn’t just replace the starter a couple weeks ago I would just go buy an alternator, but I can’t help but think that the starter replacement is connected to the problem.

So this weekend I want to get back under the truck and take a close look at the electrical connection to the starter as well as the cables coming off the battery.  If everything is tight and intact I guess I will pull the trigger on an alternator although I will wait until my credit card cycle flips in a day or two.

This weekend it feels like I have a very long list of things to do around the house.  This week I didn’t get a head start on any of it during the week.  I’ll bust on the chores hard and fast starting tonight.  When I go into “let’s get this shit done” mode, things start getting knocked off the list pretty quickly.

Maybe I will do a brick this weekend, maybe not,  I am feeling like I am at a pretty significant sleep deficit at this point.

So before the running club board meeting I drove over to the nearby Autozone to have them check my truck charging system.  I told the guy how my battery light was flashing on and off erratically as I was driving.

So he hooked up the diagnostic stuff to my battery and started the test.  He initially had a hard time getting a good connection on the positive terminal of the battery.  Eventually he got a solid connection and started the test.  According to what he saw, my battery, alternator and starter are all working just fine.  Hmmmm.

Well this was good and bad news. He said that perhaps the initial trouble he had getting a solid connection meant some of the black slimy stuff that is on the positive battery terminal was causing a momentary loss of connection.  Well I liked that simple prognosis.  I went back inside with him and spent $4 on a new battery install kit which included pads you put over the posts to prevent corrosion as well as a gel you apply to the terminals.

This morning I went outside, already dressed for work and quickly redid the terminals, cleaning them up well, applying the new pads and gel and making sure the connection was tight.  Imagine my joy when I saw the battery light flicker on for the first time a few miles into my drive to work. Damn it.

So my next idea is that perhaps the positive battery lead to the new starter is not as secure as I thought it was.  Maybe it is jostling around, causing the flashes although the truck never runs like it is having it’s electrical connections f’d with.  If that is nice and tight then I am out of ideas until I dig around on the internet.  Since at least so far, it appears to be more of an annoyance than anything I am not pushing the panic button.

So after the running club board meeting I once again headed over to South Street with a few of the board members.  They drink and eat dinner, I just drink, since I grabbed Subway before the meeting.  These guys make me laugh, hard.  Some of the stories I heard literally had me laughing to the point of tears.  I always learn something new.

I stayed way later than I originally intended, not getting home till damn close to midnight.  I had like 4 or 5 beers so I had to give myself adequate time to clear the fuzzies.  I supplemented the process with three cups of coffee before I left.

Last night after work I stopped by a local pizza establishment for dinner, something I would normally never do on a Tuesday night.  The reason I stopped was a young girls running group that Ali helps organize was holding a fundraiser there, 20% of your bill was donated to the organization.

When I arrived Ali was already stationed out in front of the place with a small table that had handouts about the organization.  She was basically letting anyone know whom went inside that if they mentioned the name of the group that it would benefit Girls on the Run.  Everyone seemed quite happy to oblige.

Although I certainly didn’t need a whole pizza, I bought one to contribute more to the cause.  I stood out front with Ali and ate a couple slices while standing around, it was good pizza.

As I munched away I managed to drop some pizza on my shirt which subsequently bounced off the the front of the tablecloth.  I have an uncanny ability to wear food.

As I hung out Ali mentioned something about the dogs, how she hoped they could hold it.  Evidently they were last  left out around 8 or 8:30 AM.  It was now after 6 and Ali was going to be there for awhile yet.  I told her I would stop at her place and walk them so I headed out.

Of course the dogs were surprised and excited to see me. They both were whimpering as I tried to get their collars and leashes attached.  We walked in a different direction than Ali normally takes them, out of the complex and down the street in front.  I had the pleasure of picking up 3 piles of doody during the walk. At one point I had synchronized dog shitting going on.

Both of the dogs just seem so damn excited to go on these walks.  Maybe it is because they no longer have free reign to the outside pool deck like they do at the house. They seem to be just thrilled the entire time we are strolling around.  We took a small detour during the walk to head down to the edge of a canal so the girls could check it out.  They seemed to find it quite interesting.

On my way to work this morning I saw a red light flicker on my dashboard of my Tacoma, the battery/electric system trouble  indicator.  It came on and went off several times.  My first thought was that maybe the belt that drives the alternator broke although if that was the case the light would stay on full time.

Instead the light went off and on several times during the commute, exactly what I don’t need.  When I got to work I popped the hood looking for any visual clues to what the problem is but found none.  I am thinking my next move will be go to either an Autozone or Advance Auto and let them throw their tester on the truck.  They can test the starter, alternator and battery in a few minutes.

So since I was taking the SSR to Siesta Key and I was also going to be playing volleyball on Saturday, I decided a high and very tight haircut would be beneficial.  Buzzed hair does not blow in the wind or collect much sand.  I believe I set a new head shaving speed record, completing the task in 7 minutes.

It went a bit faster than normal since I didn’t leave the top a bit longer like I normally do.  Instead I slapped on the 1/8″ guide and went nuts.  Some people like this look, more don’t.  For me, in my current state of mind, it works.

Friday night I was awakened several times by thunder, there were some strong storms blowing through.  When I got up at 4:45 the rain had stopped but it looked like only recently as the roads were soaked. I wasn’t all that thrilled with driving the SSR up 75 on wet, dirty roads but I knew it was going to be getting a bath regardless so it didn’t really matter.

The drive up to Siesta Key went fine, the SSR is very smooth and fast on the highway, I averaged 80+ for most of the ride.  I opted to keep the top up until I hit the Dunkin Donuts in Siesta Key.

I found a good spot to park next to an island, the other side of which was occupied by a Camaro 2SS/RS, obviously looking to minimize asshole exposure as I was.

As I walked towards the beach, I saw the surrounding park area had huge lakes of standing water.  Wow, it seems like it really rained there as well last night.

Well when I got up to the beach it was a flurry of sights and sounds.  The event organizers were desperately trying to “fix” the beach.  The standing water was not isolated to the park area.  Many parts of the wide and hard beach were under water as well, including many spots where nets for the tournament were located.  It looked like an awful mess.

Well the tournament organizers had engaged various pieces of power equipment in an attempt to combat the soggy sand.  They had 3 or 4 ATV’s pulling graters around.  They also had a gas post hole digger and fire hose.   They would dig a deep hole and insert the one end of the hose in it,d dragging the other end far off the courts to relocate water.

I was impressed with their efforts but I knew there was no way we were starting on time, it was a huge undertaking.

They had clip boards out with assigned net numbers.  Tabby and I were assigned to court 37.

I decided to walk over there and take a look.  I laughed out loud when I saw our court. It was one huge lake.  There was no way they were going to be able to get it ready in time.

I texted Tabby and told him our court was underwater.  He arrived shortly afterwards.  He had driven over the night before and stayed in a hotel.  He confirmed that it absolutely poured all night long.

By this time I already had been mulling about for over an hour, watching the clean up activities taking place.  Little did I know I would be waiting much, much longer.

As we waited, Tabby went up to grab some of the complimentary water.  As he reached for a third water pouch (he was grabbing one for me too) he got reprimanded by one of the event staff, saying he shouldn’t take too many waters at a time.  WTF??

It was symbolic of how shitty this tour has become.

This tour, which I still refer to as the Bud Light Tour, even though Bud Light hasn’t been an actual sponsor for eons, used to really offer some decent value for the money when I first moved down here to Florida.  Not only did they give out free water without water police watching, they gave out free beer!  In addition the prizes they handed out were quite nice, nice enough to make you motivated to win even more than you normally would be. This tour also used to go  above and beyond with their tournament t-shirts, offering colored shirts with unique designs for each and every tourney.  They did all of this with an entry free that was somewhere around $50 a team.

Well fast forward to present day.  They have raised the entry fee almost 50% to $70 a team PLUS this tour now requires you to be a USA Volleyball member which costs an additional $20.  Instead of offering more for your money, they offer significantly less.  The only free thing you get is water and rationed water at that.  The t-shirt is now an ultra-low cost, low quality white variety with the same artwork for every tournament.  Oh and the prizes now suck as well, low quality crap that falls apart in a few months.  The only decent item given out is a volleyball if you win first place and how many volleyballs do you need?

About two and a half hours after I arrived the organizers got on the stage and made an announcement.  They said of the 40 nets they had set up, almost half of them are unplayable, despite their efforts.  They gave the players two options.  The non-open divisions could convert to a fours format instead of doubles, requiring less nets, or you could ask for a credit good towards a future tournament.

Well the crowd groaned at the announcement.  A huge portion of the players opted to bag it and take the credit.  Tabby and I probably would have done the same except he already had a hotel room booked and paid for Saturday night, he had nothing else to do.  I had nothing on the schedule until Saturday night so I said I would be down with playing fours as well, a format I haven’t played in forever.

The organizers said the teams that were interested in fours should team up and report in.  Well Tabby and I didn’t know anyone else playing in the A division so we just gave them our names and said we would play with whomever.  Well there happened to be another team that checked in right before us in the same boat so they became our new partners, Nick and Josh.

So when the brackets were finally established, which took quite a long time, it turned out we had a total of 4 teams of A 4’s.  We would be playing on one net.

By the time the first game got started it was after 11 am, ridiculously late, but at least we were playing and on a court that was in relatively good shape at that.

Both Nick and Josh were younger guys, I don’t know if either of them had their 25th birthday yet.  They brought with them three young cute girls as well.  I never got a firm handle on who was paired up with who.

Josh said that Nick and he played a whole bunch of indoor volleyball before but they only started playing beach ball last year.  Of course I noticed right away that Nick was wearing a Tough Mudder headband.  Evidently Josh and he not only did the Tough Mudder, they are basically mud race junkies.  He said on average they do two a month, wow.

In addition to their mud racing, Nick is a triathlete, sporting an Ironman tattoo after he completed the Louisville event.  It was cool being able to exchange stories with him about both mudder life and tri’s.

On the court we did pretty well.  All of us were sort of thrown off balance by playing 4’s, especially when you have never played with or met half of your team members.  We kept things basic, doing a full rotation where everyone plays every position, not a great formula for success but we went with it.

Despite not playing for almost exactly a year I felt pretty comfortable out on the court which kind of surprised me.  Playing fours does take some of the pressure off since you have more bodies covering the same area normally covered by only two.

We wound up losing our first game by a couple points (rally to 28), but it didn’t really bother me.  After all that lead up to us actually getting out on the court, I was happy to just be playing.

The girls that Nick and Josh brought did a nice job of being our official team cheerleaders, cheering loudly and offering encouragement throughout the game.

During the first game I had a foot collision with a guy on the other team at the net.  I was rushing in to hit a low set and he was planted there to block.  My toes smashed into the side of his foot.  It hurt, but I didn’t pay much attention to it at all.

Well after the game I happened to glance down at my left foot and saw this. It looked like I was beating on three of my toes with a hammer.  My second toe was the worst as blood was seeping around the toenail. It was gross.

I was surprised that I was able to play more or less unencumbered despite the mangled toes.  Evidently those three toes serve little functionality when it comes to playing beach volleyball.

As we watched the other two teams on our net it became apparent that there were no weak teams playing, I am pretty sure that everyone that agreed to play 4’s signed up for A doubles, not BB.

One of the teams had one of the dreaded father/young son phenom combos on it.  The dad was a real strong player, evidently he plays AA skill level or higher normally.  His kid whom I can’t believe was more than 12, was a great player with setting skills that far eclipse mine.  Playing 4’s was actually perfect for him as he could be the full time setter with little penalty to the rest of the team.

Our second game was against that team. Once again the game was pretty tight but again we came out on the losing end.  Personally I was still playing well so the eventual game outcome didn’t concern me all that much.  Both Tabby and I agreed that it was too bad we weren’t playing doubles because we would have probably done pretty damn well.

So our last match in pool play was against another good team that happened to lose their first two games by a narrow margin as well. (every game during pool play was close, no blowouts)  We tried mixing things up this game, making Tabby the designated setter since he was the best setter by far out of the four of us.  He said he didn’t mind setting full time.

He did a nice job of setting but we wound up losing yet another close game, mostly on the back of unforced errors, including a number if missed serves. (which I had none of all day)  There was a funny moment in that game where the tall, big hitter on the other team, whom was drilling balls all game, hit another rocket right at me.

I crouched down to dig it but the ball was coming so fast it got there before my arms were extended.  I wound up catching the ball dodgeball style instead, it looked funny.

So we weren’t sure if we were going to be involved in the playoffs or not, with a single, 4 team pool sometimes they let all the teams participate in playoffs.  Nick and Josh asked if we wanted to get out on the court for a bit while it was figured out to play doubles, like we were supposed to.

In a way it seemed like a way to prove which team was the reason we were 0-3 in pool play.  Well I think we got the answer.  Tabby and I were ahead 15-9 by the time we had to stop for playoffs to begin.

So we found out we did indeed get to play in the playoffs, albeit against the father and son team whom was undefeated.

We saved our best game of the day for last.  We really made some nice plays and I was really hitting well when I had the opportunity.  My arm felt very lively.

The playoff game, which was to 21, was tied 19-19.  I was so hoping to get a chance to crush a couple balls to give us the win.  Instead, the last two plays didn’t involve me at all and we wound up going down for the fourth time of the day, 21-19.

Oh well, despite the goose egg,  I walked away from the day feeling really no remorse.  Considering the circumstances I played really well.  If I play well and we still lose, then it bothers me much less.  If I stink up the joint and lose I take it much harder.  And that isn’t to say anyone on out team stunk up the joint.  It was just very evenly matched, good competition all afternoon long.

I had some time before I had to head for home to go to the Tarpons game so I stayed to ref the next match which turned out to be the first blow out of the day with the old guys dominating the big lunk team, 21-5.

I set up my Flip cam and stubby tripod to tape the pool play matches.  It’s a far cry from the good old days of Ali footage that included panning, zooming and cutting out the time in between action but you can see generally what is going on.  I have the first two games posted here and here.  I will get the third one posted later this week.  Even if you get bored with the volleyball, listening to the girls commentary and the occasional rear end walking by helps make up for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVXEiGypwyQ

Some new winning volleyball tips from this weekend have been added here.

I packed up my stuff, thanked Tabby and limped out to the SSR, my bloody toes were starting to hurt.  I texted Ali and told her we should still be a go for the Tarpons game.

The drive home I think I actually made better time than the drive up.  I nestled in with a convoy of vehicles that were cruising around 85 mph.  I made it back from Siesta Key in about 90 minutes.

On the drive home I had an unwelcome visitor to the SSR dashboard, the check engine light.  Geezus Cripes, I thought to myself, can’t I get a f’ing break with the automotive issues!!??  I am hoping the light is related to a loose gas cap since I filled up that morning for the trip.  I haven’t had time yet to throw my code reader on the truck.  It drove fine otherwise.

So I got home, threw the stuff that was in the truck on the garage floor and headed right to the shower to clean up.  Looking in the mirror revealed that the spray on, 70 SPF sunblock appeared to work.  My scalp, which was exposed all day didn’t even look pink thanks to me spraying the gunk generously on my head.  Washing my bloody toes was a bit painful.  They sure looked broken but I was able to wiggle them so maybe they were intact after all.

By this time it was right around 6, the game started at 7:30.  I jumped right back in the van and headed over to Ali’s place. She was nice enough to drive us to the game in the Camry, I was beat.  I told her I would be happy to pay the $5 parking fee this time, not wanting to do more walking than was necessary.

I had not bought tickets ahead of time so we were walking towards the ticket booth.  As we did we were stopped by a guy asking if we needed tickets.  Skeptical, I said yes, we didn’t have any yet.  He said that he is one of the sponsors of the Tarpons and he had a bunch of tickets he was just giving away.  He showed me the tickets and then gave me a business card of his  for the legal service he provides.  He just asked that we visit the web site on the back to which I said “sure, no problem”.  I was still a bit skeptical this was legit but when the two tickets got us in the door my skepticism faded.  Wow, we actually got free tickets, sweet.

Well I wanted a beer and some food before anything else.  We stopped at an Italian stand near our section.  For some reason I thought they sold Papa John’s mini pizzas there.  The woman behind the counter said they do not but the single slices they sold were really nice and big.  Ok, give us two slices.

What we were handed almost seemed like a joke.  The slices looked like shit.  They were small and looked to have almost every speck of moisture baked out of them.  Ali’s also looked a bit mangled.  In retrospect I should have been more of a prick about it and asked for slices that didn’t look like red cardboard but I was hungry, thirsty and just wanted to sit down and relax.

So we walked into the breezeway of the stadium.  I had my slice of shitty pizza in one hand and my beer in the other.  I needed a third hand to pull out my free tickets.  Since I was lacking the necessary appendage I decided to balance the plate on one arm while reaching in my pocket for the tickets.  Well in short order the pizza became unbalanced and dropped on to the black, disgusting cement by my feet.  In my attempt to prevent the drop I also spilled a good portion of my beer as well.

Well without hesitation, I swooped down and picked up the pizza and slapped it back on the plate.  My instant analysis was the rock hard pizza landed crust side down, limiting the ability for microrganisms and bacteria to penetrate it.  Plus I grabbed the pizza well within the 5 second rule parameters.  Ali of course was grossed out beyond belief and offered to walk back and ask if they would swap out pizza slices.  I told her to not bother, I was fine.

So once we sat down and I did a quick visual spot check on the bottom of the pizza, I ate the entire thing, washing it down with what remained of my Bud Light.  Yea typing this out makes me realize just how gross that actually was. As far as I know the floor of arenas are typically not cleaned, ever.  At least to this point, I have had no side effects from the dirty slice.

The game itself was sort of a joke.  It was the final regular season game.  The Tarpons were still undefeated and the team they played from Western Pa, was winless.  Not only were they winless, they had some awful looking purple uniforms.

It didn’t take long to see why the Phantoms were winless.  On the first play from scrimmage the Tarpons sacked them for a safety.  Then on the kickoff, the Tarpons ran it all the way back for a touchdown.  It was like that the entire game, I believe the final score was something like 91-16.

Despite the lopsided contest on the field I generally had a good time just hanging out.  I had a couple more beers and went back and got Ali and myself another slice of pizza from the other end of the arena.  The quality was much improved and I didn’t even drop it this time.

We didn’t do any seat jumping this time around.  Our free seats were good enough and to be honest, the place is small enough that there really are no bad seats anyway.

We left a little after 10pm with a little less than 10 minutes to go in the game.  The game was already well beyond over at this point anyway.  The Tarpons begin the playoffs in a couple weeks.  I may try to go to the game if I can.

So when we got back to Ali’s place we made arrangements for me to come back the next morning to pick up the dogs.  Ali was going to go to work on Sunday and I planned to mostly work on the truck during the day so I figured the dogs could hang with me.

After a much needed good night’s sleep I jumped in the van and got the dogs.  After completing any remaining house chores I started on the long awaited and somewhat dreaded, starter project.

When the Tacoma starter died in 2007 I remember contemplating doing the job myself.  After looking at the tight working space and not doing any research on the internet about it, I decided to just pony up the money and pay someone else to do it at that time.

Well my financial situation is a lot different in 2012.  Wherever I have an opportunity to shave money off my expenses I need to do it.  Doing this job myself would save me roughly 250 bucks.  After looking into the procedure pretty thoroughly I determined I should be able to pull the job off with the addition of a couple tools, a long ass socket extension and a swivel socket, both of which I bought at Sears earlier in the week.

The job had it’s peaks and valleys as I expected.  The biggest f up was when I mistakenly thought the bolts that hold the solenoid cap on the starter were the bolts that held the starter to the motor.  I spent a good 20 minutes carefully removing them unnecessarily.  Eventually I found the correct bolts and was quite glad I had my swivel socket and extension, doing the job without them would have been close to impossible.

Once I got the old starter out I tried sliding the solenoid cap off of it to see if I could look at the internal contacts that were most likely the problem.  Once I got the solenoid cap loose I couldn’t see the contacts and I also couldn’t push it back together.  I said f it and left it that way since I was going to just be giving the old starter to Autozone for the core charge.

The girls were excited to go on yet another ride in the van to go get the new starter.

I was a bit bummed that the closest Autozone to me did not have a starter in stock.  The guy said they sold the last one the day before.  He called the next closest store and verified that they had one, which they did.  For my trouble he told the other store to give me a 10% discount on the part, sweet.

I walked out of the second store having only dropped $92 for the new starter, which included a set of body fastening connectors, a nice deal.

Reinstalling the new starter was a bit of a challenge.  The first challenge was getting the starter into place.  To do so required bringing the starter up from the bottom of the vehicle in an upright position and then carefully rotating it in just the right way so it would go back into it’s mounting position.

After that I had to get the two bolts back in that hold it in place.  I had an issue with the top bolt.  It almost felt like the top hole in the starter wasn’t threaded properly.  I started encountering a lot of resistance while cranking it earlier than I should have.  I turned on that sucker hard and was only able to get the bolt close to but not quite snug.  Although the starter feels plenty secure I think I am either going to use a nut for a washer or get a shorter bolt so it is attached as it should be.  I don’t like half assing a repair if I am going to spend the time to do it.

Speaking of half assing, I managed to break the outlet off the back of the air box when I was removing the tube that runs between it and the throttle body.  For now my solution is duct tape but I am hoping to find a used box cheap somewhere in the future.

Replacing the starter was INCREDIBLY dirty work.  The Tacoma slowly leaks various fluids at this point in it’s life so the area I was working with was a greasy, oily mess.  By the time I was done my hands and forearms were pure black.

So anyway, eventually I got it done, stuff hooked back up and was able to do the big test, turning the key.  I held my breath and then exhaled when the truck turned over and started normally on the first try, success.

I got done just in time.  About 15 minutes after I got the last tool put away it started to downpour.

I videoed the starter repair as my automotive repair videos typically garner a decent sized YouTube following.

I was dead tired after a day turning wrenches under the truck in the hot driveway.  I asked Ali if instead of me getting back in the van and driving the dogs to her place, if she would mind driving out to the house to pick them up.  I sweetened the deal by offering to provide pizza for dinner.

I could tell she wasn’t thrilled by the idea but she agreed to come out, she knew I was beat up from volleyball before throwing the truck repair on top of things.

So by the time she got out there I already had burgers for the dogs made and cooling on a plate.  I made their supper and then used the burgers as a garnish, a combo both of them found quite tasty.  After the pizza came out of the oven Ali and I ate it while catching the season premiere of Master Chef.

When she was ready to go both of the dogs were looking quite comfortable.  Ali asked if I wanted the dogs to sleep over and I could just drop them off Monday morning on the way to work.  I said of course I was fine with it if Ali was.  Ali likes having the dogs with her at night.

So it was decided, it was officially a dog sleepover night.  Sadie snored happily next to me.  It was nice to wake up to the two black and furry faces.

I dropped them off this morning as planned.

I am pretty gimpy today between my smashed toes and normal muscle/knee soreness that accompanies rare volleyball action.  None of the pains feel like they are the type that will last beyond a few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after doing my research into what I would need to be successful in replacing the starter on my Tacoma, a 14 MM swivel socket seemed pretty important.  I decided after work to do something I haven’t done in at least a half decade, set foot inside the walls of the local Sears.

I do the vast majority of my item shopping online and the vast majority of that via Amazon since I get free two day shipping thanks to my Amazon Prime account and the points I accrue on my Amazon Visa card.  Going to an actual store just happens very infrequently unless that store is a Home Depot or Lowes.

Well Sears is famous for it’s Craftsman tool line.  I figured I would be able to find what I needed in their huge tool department.  I did indeed and then some.  In addition to the 14mm swivel socket I picked up a three pack of universal swivel sockets one for 1/4″, 3/8″ and 1/2″ drives which will give me some flexibility (no pun intended) going forward.  I also grabbed a 20 inch extension since it was advised that using a long extension will allow you to remove the one starter bolt from the front of the engine bay.

I took a few extra moments to look in wonder at the rest of tool section.  Man I could have some fun in here…

After Sears I had to make another stop at Sam’s Club to both dump some cheap gas in the thirsty party van and pick up a few items in the store.  One of those items was fish oil tablets that are used in the dog’s dinner prep.  Ali was out of them so I told her I would drop them off.

Of course the girls were happy for my unexpected visit.  Before I left I helped Ali take them on a walk around the lake, albeit a hot and sweaty one since I had my work clothes on which included a dark colored long sleeve shirt.

When I got home I quickly made a wrap for dinner and then got busy on some chores.  I wanted to clean Tuki’s cage and get the indoor plants watered.  While I was watering the plants I had a DOH moment.  Two of the pots are rather large with a hole in the bottom and a base underneath.  What I do is put one in the sink, drench it, let it drain and then drench it again.

Well for some reason I didn’t let the one plant drain very long before putting it back in it’s base and back on top of the kitchen cabinets.  I placed the other big pot in the sink and started watering it.  Well I heard a sound like water running behind me.

I spin around and see a stream of water running down the front of the cabinet doors and pooling on top of the fridge.  DAMN IT!  So I quickly grab some rags and throw them on top of the fridge and then grab the heavy, still leaking pot and lift it back to the sink, spilling more water as I did so.  I was pissed. I have pulled this stupid move before and each time I do I wonder how I manage to do it.  I utilized several big towels until I had all the water cleaned up.

I got a nice surprise in the mail when the electric bill arrived.  Last month my $120 bill was the lowest ever.  I fully expected May’s bill to be more, after all it was hotter in May.  A big smile crossed my face when I pulled the bill out and saw $110! Wow.  I was really, really surprised but I’m not complaining.

I saw one of my FB buddies post a little while back how he has managed to have almost every one of his monthly expenses billed to his credit card, which he pays off monthly.  The advantage to this is not only convenience but also accumulating CC rewards points.

Well I need to do the same thing.  I have a number of things that I pay via an EFT from my bank.  I do it that way just because it has been done that way forever.  Well when I add it up, I am missing out on a ton of potential Amazon spiff points by this practice.

Last week I started billing my home owners insurance to the card and yesterday I added my cell phone bill to the list.  I will be looking at every monthly bill I receive and if possible move them to automatic CC billing.  Damn I wish I could slap my mortgage payment on the card.

There is one drawback to this strategy, you lose a bit of control.  If for some reason there is a dispute about a bill you lose some leverage as the company/utility has been authorized to pull whatever funds they deem proper from your CC.  Of course I can still dispute charges and even take action on a charge via my CC company if things get ugly I suppose.  My dad, who is all about fighting the evil empire, refuses to give a credit card number to any business that bills on a regular basis.

So tomorrow I will be pulling out early in the SSR for Siesta Key to play in a volleyball tournament with Tabby.  Last year I played in the same tournament and we won the BB skill level.  Tabby asked if I minded playing the next level up, A, this time around.

I told him that was fine with me although his expectations should not be very high since the last time I literally touched a volleyball was June 2011 when I played the Rumble with Charlie.  Yea, me and volleyball just don’t seem to cross paths much anymore.

Jeremy has predicted that Tabby and I will unable to muster more than two wins in A ball.  He may be right but I hope to prove him wrong obviously.

The Florida Tarpons who are still undefeated, play their final regular season game Saturday night.  I told Ali that if I get home in time I’d like to go to the game and asked her if she wanted to come.  She said she would.  We’ll have to see how long my day on the beach goes.

My Sunday is going to be packed.  On top of doing whatever I have to do at the house I plan to rip into the Tacoma starter replacement project in earnest.

So when I got home last night I put my battery back into the Tacoma and turned the key.  It didn’t start.  However after several more turns of the key the truck fired up normally.  Well I have seen this before, the starter is f’d up, great.

I checked my records, I recalled having the starter on the Tacoma replaced once before.  In fact it was one of the first things that went bad after my 5 year extended warranty on the truck I bought expired.  It was replaced in 2007 for about $360.  Well my money situation was a lot different in 2007, throwing another $300-$400 for another starter isn’t something I take lightly anymore.

So I turned to my personal mechanic, the internet, to research how painful the repair process is.  One thing that jumped out at me immediately is replacing the entire starter is actually not necessary in the vast majority of the cases.  The problem is almost always the copper contacts inside the starter get corroded and/or worn. Fixing a problem starter can be as simple as opening up the starter and replacing a $10 pair of contacts.  However most garages will never do that. For them it is easier and faster to throw a rebuilt starter in there.  It’s faster and gives them more opportunity to mark up the price of the part.

So now I started looking at info on how the actual starter is removed on my truck.  I found several forum posts that talked about my model truck specifically and a few videos that covered similar models.  It seems like as in many automotive repair jobs, having the right tools makes a huge difference in the difficulty you will encounter.  The problem is I am not sure I have the right tools.

Some guys mentioned a 2 foot socket extension and swivel sockets.  Well I have an 18 inch extension and wobble sockets, hopefully they fit the bill.  I have no doubt there will be a point in the process I will curse myself for not just paying a garage to do it but I also know when I do finally get it, pride will follow for doing it myself and saving a couple hundred bucks in the process.  Of course my plan is to video the repair process.

Now I could probably still drive the Tacoma in it’s current state and be ok for a little while, just requiring a few extra turns of the key to get it started.  There are some risks though.  I may just not be able to get it started at all or worse, the starter gets stuck in the on position.  If that happens the starter can quickly overheat and even start a fire unless you can quickly pop the hood and  pull the negative battery lead.  The last thing I need right now is to send my Tacoma up in flames. I have already had one vehicle burn up in my lifetime, it isn’t a fun experience.

So for the past couple days I have been enlisting the 15 mpg party van as my daily driver.  Since I won’t have time to address the starter before the weekend I will more than likely wind up taking the SSR up to Siesta Keys.

There are good and bad things about taking my baby to the vball tournament.  Obviously any long road trip in the R is fun, especially if I drop the top.   On the downside, long trips up 75 means the truck will get a bug facial.  I also am not thrilled with parking the truck in the parking lot by the beach which will have every spot occupied by the time I leave, which raises the “asshole slamming a door into the truck” probability.  Then there is throwing my sweaty, dirty, sandy body inside for the trip back although I do have waterproof seat covers to ease that pain.

The truck needs a bath anyway so I will probably just take it on the road trip.

Yesterday I discovered an awesome site, justbeamit.com.  Everyone knows it can be a pain in the ass sometimes to send files to other people, especially larger ones that don’t play nicely with email.  Well this site makes it incredibly easy.  It requires no account at all, no money and no hassle.  You simply select the file you want to send to the other person, copy the URL that is provided to you to the other person, and you are done.  Try it out, it’s very handy.

Yesterday I was reading about a planned mission to Mars by an organization called Mars One.  In a nutshell, their goal is to have human beings living on the surface of Mars by 2023.  Reading through the site was fascinating to me.  They seem to have a very clear plan laid out of how they are going to get there.

One of the big things that this plan has that most other proposed Mars missions do not is this would be a one way trip.  The people that would embark on this journey would be committing to living the rest of their lives on Mars.  This game plan makes the reality curve of this project much more doable.

Take some time and read about how it is all supposed to go down, it’s amazing stuff.  I would seriously throw my name in there, I can’t imagine a better way to play out the twilight days of my life, realizing a dream I had since my earliest days.

Unfortunately since a 10 year training program is part of the deal that would put me squarely into my mid 50’s before I would even leave terra firma.  Even so, when they start taking volunteers in 2013 (if the world doesn’t end first) my name is going on the list, seriously.

Just think of the perks.  You only have to deal with a few people, there is always something to do and just imagine how many pull ups I could do in low Mars gravity.

So I left work early yesterday to meet the guy that was repairing my tv.  I was amazed at how polite this kid was, something I just am not used to.  I helped him lift the tv onto the floor so he could get access to the back of it.  In total he may have spent a half hour swapping out the DLP chip.  I was glad to hear that the replacement chips are engineered for better heat tolerance which is what evidently kills the original chips.

Once he was done with the swap we lifted the tv back into place and fired it up, no more dots, sweet.  I thanked Chris for his good work and sent him on his way after paying the $200 bill.

After he left I dug into an unplanned project.

My $200 Craigslist sofa and love seat has served me well since Ali moved out.  However there was one thing that has annoyed me.  The one recliner in the sofa has a cut across the foot rest.  The mechanism for the foot rest seems a little screwed up too.  When it is extended it has an obvious tilt to the left.

This wouldn’t be a huge deal except that  it just happens to be the recliner that sees the most use since it is next to the end table where I will eat while watching tv.  It annoyed me.

Well the other day I lifted up the love seat to look underneath.  I wanted to see how they were connected.  I was surprised to find that apparently all that held them together were 4 screws that attach to a metal frame underneath.  It seemed to me that in theory, I would simply be able to pull out these screws and then swap the right recliner on the love seat with the right recliner on the sofa.

Well for once, my theory proved to be correct the first time.  In about 15 minutes I had the two pieces swapped out with very minimal effort.  I enjoyed my straight, rip free seating position while I watched Hatfield & McCoy’s episode 2 last night.

I also completed mowing and weed whacking the property last night as planned.  The skies looked like they could open up at anytime but thankfully it held off.

I had one more another spur of the moment mini-project.  You may recall that I said that I wasn’t thrilled with the dip in the long edge of the new castle stone border I placed around the pool.  I decided to address it.  I pulled up about 5 or 6 stones and adjusted the fill underneath them so the dip more or less disappeared.  It looks better now.

I came out to my truck this morning to what appeared to be a bad battery.  It didn’t even click when I hit the key.  I quickly pulled the battery out and threw it in the van, surprised a battery that was a little more than a year old would be dead.  Well, it wasn’t.

When I took it to Wal-mart to get it replaced under warranty they threw a tester on the battery.  It came back as totally fine.  Well that is good and bad news. The good news is I don’t have to buy a battery the bad news is something else could be wrong.

I am hoping the lack of starting is due to a loose connection or corrosion on the terminals.  I am hoping that tonight after thoroughly cleaning both the truck will return to life.  I am not looking for another bill right now.

 

 

So I called up Best Buy on Friday to find out how to go about getting my 73″ inch Mitsubishi TV fixed under the $400, four year extended warranty I bought with the TV in 2008.  I explained the problem and then gave the woman on the phone the contract number.

After punching it in she says, I’m sorry, your warranty expired on May 6th.  I was immediately confused.  I explained to the woman that when I bought the tv I was told the warranty is tacked on to the factory one year warranty, giving me five years of coverage.  She explained that is not the case, the extended warranty overlaps the first year of factory coverage, her explanation being that it covers items the factory warranty does not.

Well of course I was quite annoyed being that I am 25 days outside of that 4 year period and that the warranty was misrepresented to me up front.  I expressed this to the phone rep multiple times and asked repeatedly for Best Buy to do something for me to remediate the problem.  She apologized and said there was nothing she could do.  Her only advice was I could go to the local store and talk to the manager there to see if I could get anywhere.  Well that is the last thing I felt like doing.

You see I already knew that I had the back up plan of getting the repair done by Mitsubishi at a reduced rate.  If I was looking at a $1000 repair I might have been more tenacious in my fight. So I hung up, called Mitsubishi and made arrangements to have the tv fixed for a flat rate of $200, including parts and labor, not a bad deal for a tv that is 3 years out of factory warranty.

So on Saturday I got busy around the house in the morning, hoping to knock out most of the housework before picking up the dogs, whom were doing a sleepover Saturday night.  The reason I wanted to get stuff done was to clear the slate to finish up the castle stone border around the pool landscape area.

I planned to pick up the remaining 25 stones I needed from Lowe’s since that is where I got the first 75 from.  I was annoyed that they just happened to be sold out of 12″ sand colored castle stones on Saturday afternoon.

So I hopped back in the truck and went over to Home Depot, luckily they had them and they were the exact same price.

As the dogs sat outside in the shade with me, I worked on getting the remaining stones in place.  Overall I think they look ok although there is a height change between the two side halves of the border that I am not thrilled with.  At least that is a job I should not have to revisit anytime again in my lifetime.  Once cool weather returns I will rip up the border around the pond and do the same thing.  All the pics from the project are here.

Saturday night I finished up season 2 of Boardwalk Empire. It was a surprising ending, it seems like half of the original cast is dead.  Season 2 definitely had more action and was better than season one.

While I was driving my SSR over the weekend I had noticed I was getting a clicking noise when I pushed in the clutch.  Well on an on ramp when I was stomping on it hard after shifting from 2nd to 3rd instead of a click, I heard a snap and something metal falling off.  I looked down in the foot well and saw a large spring that looks like it snapped.  Well the clicking noise was gone but the odd thing was everything still felt normal with the clutch.  I have not yet determined where the spring goes to, something else to fix. Yay.

The party van has a problem as well with the HVAC fan.  If you turn the fan speed to high it sounds like it is going to come through the dash, vibrating terribly.  If I keep the fan on the first two speed settings it seems ok.  So until I get inspired to look further into that repair I keep the fan dial turned to the left and just max out the secondary fan that blows cool air out the ceiling vents in the rear.

I had a nice Sunday with the girls.  After doing a bike/swim brick at the water park I was outside with them quite a bit.  They had dog smiles for most of the weekend.  They were especially big when I made them burgers for lunch on Sunday.

The reason I had them overnight was because Ali was doing the Naples Tri on Sunday morning.  She had a good showing, knocking somewhere around 10 minutes off her time from last year.  She was exhausted afterward.  I didn’t wind up bringing the girls back until dinner time.

 

So I was back and forth if I wanted to get up to do the club run Saturday morning.  My legs and rear end were still both quite sore from my leg work on Wednesday at the gym.  Well my exercise guilt won out and I drug myself out of bed to go to the run.

There was a big crowd at the club run this week, possibly the biggest I have seen to date.  Ali, Christy and Michelle were there as well.  I once again paired up with Matt and despite my legs feeling shitty, he drug me along to what I believe was my best time for the 7 mile route which surprised me.

I asked Ali if she minded if I picked up the dogs on the way home so they could spend the day out at the house, she said it was fine.  I had a productive day at home getting everything I wanted done, done.  For most of my time outside the dogs hung out there with me, laying in various shady spots.  It felt damn close to summertime hot out there.

After I got done I jumped in the pool and gave Sadie her first splashy splash session in a long time, she loved it of course.

I also gave the Tacoma a bath for the first in many months.  The truck does not get cleaned very often anymore since the exterior finish is a mess at this point from a decade plus in the Florida elements.  Even so, it did look a little better when I was finished.

I went an extra step and finally got around to using the headlight renewal stuff I bought months back.  The headlights on the Tacoma had that dull glaze that is so common.  After about 15 minutes of work I had both headlights looking significantly better.

On the way to drop the dogs off we made a pit stop at Pet Supermarket to get them some food.  In addition I couldn’t help myself, I had to buy the stuffed tick dog toy I walked by.  Ali laughed when I showed it to her.

When I dropped the dogs off it was right around 5:30. Ali said she bought the stuff to make some pesto pasta thing, so  she asked if I wanted to stick around for dinner.  I didn’t have anything planned for my Saturday night beside some Diablo 3 sessions so I said sure.  Ali said it was the first “dinner” she has actually prepared since living there. It was quite good.

After eating dinner I didn’t stick around too long.  I have been conscious of how much time Ali and I have been spending together thus far since we split up and although it is still quite comfortable for me to just hang out with her I don’t think it helps either of us do much moving forward.  So even though I would have been fine to hang around and watch some stuff on her DVR and hang with the dogs, I headed home.

Sunday morning I once again had another exercise session, this time doing a biking/swimming brick.  My average bike pace was a 1/2 mile faster than the week prior.   I increased the distance of my swimming from 1200 to 1600 meters.  I was happy with both of those results.

Once again I took the SSR and once again I was happy I did.

After I finished my swimming I hung out at the water park for a little bit, reading one of my magazines.  I peppered in people watching as well.

When I got home I was feeling really sleepy.  After I got done paying the bills I succumbed and laid down for a 2 hour + nap.

Sunday evening I made a lackluster attempt at the normal mode of this month’s Bar-barian challenge. I then threw in my current Netflix dvd rental, I Am Number Four.  I don’t recall what triggered me to put this in my queue but I had no big expectations for the flick.

Well it turned out to be something I really liked, hell I’d give it a solid A.  It has several elements that appeal to me, aliens, super hero powers, good looking women and a revenge storyline.  Rent it, you won’t be sorry.

As I am sure you have heard, Howard Stern, whom I have been a big fan of for over 20 years, and the only reason I endure shitty Sirius/XM radio,has joined America’s Got Talent as a new judge this season.

When the show first came out a few years ago I checked it out since it was getting big ratings.  I didn’t get it, I found the show INCREDIBLY annoying and overproduced.  After watching three or four episodes I never went back.

Well since Howard is now a judge I thought it had to be better, surely by now they got smart and made the show less annoying.  I set the show up for a season pass on my Tivo.  Well I barely made it through the two episodes so far, it is just awful, let me see if I can explain why.

The way they piece the show together is dreadful.  They do so many cut away shots between the judges, the host, the act and the audience you hardly ever get to just watch an act and make your own assessment.  Most of the acts they only show some brief highlights wedged in between the endless cut aways.  They have so many music beds playing on top of the judge comments and even the acts themselves that they could open up a hotel with them. They will also apply a video filter to certain aspects of the show to give it an epic, movie look which seems totally out of place.

I hoped that having Howard on the show would help negate all of this but his commentary was  butchered up and fragmented by the idiots in the editing room.  I found that he added very little to my enjoyment of the show.  I will suffer through a couple more episodes but I have a feeling even with Stern on, AGT it will be short lived in my season pass list.  I have too many potential good things to watch to waste my time watching that piece of shit.

It feels like it is produced for the absolutely dumbest segment of the American tv audience.

This past weekend has probably been my roughest emotionally since Ali moved out.  Why this would occur 6 weeks after her move out date is beyond me. I just felt sad, like I was mourning everything that had become routine and familiar over the past 15 years.    It seemed like everything I saw as I walked around the house triggered a “that was when Ali and I did this or that” response.  I just couldn’t get my mind out of that mode.

I know that wallowing in sorrow doesn’t do any good.  I just need to keep trying to reach outward and forward instead of retracting inward.   Isolating myself would be a very easy course of action after all.

I really miss the dogs.