Friday, November 13, 2015

So.  Looked up online about my non-functioning speedometer and odometer.  I was quite surprised to find the information that I did.  Seems that the years 2003 to 2006 of my car's model had problems with an apparatus called a stepper motor.  Never heard o fit.  Makes the mechanical function of the gauge work. 6 dollar part.  Seriously.  I got on ebay, found the right ones for my car and ordered the entire set including de-soldering gun and a soldering gun for 22 bucks.  You have to take the instrument panel out, take it apart and then you have to unsolder these stepper motors and then solder in a new one.

I spent a considerable amount of money on my car this week, I am not likely to spend a lot more in auto shops unless absolutely necessary.  I'm attempting to find out what bushings, exactly, they were referring to for the rear in having the rear wheels angled because they are bad. Not having any luck so far.  Alls I heard was it was a "big job".  Likely going to have to remove a wheel and look under there to find for myself what they were talking about.  I have found some subframe bushings and a tutorial on how to install them, but I'm not sure if that is what they were referring to.  Just going to keep searching that out - I won't have time for that this weekend anyway.

I called tonight to confirm they are still going to give me that dog - it's a LOOOOONG drive and I'm not interested in driving that far to find changed minds.  Yes, she said, call in the morning before you leave, though, we are not sure when we are going to be home.  She works until 2:30 in the afternoon, he is on call for work.  Meaning he will be home all day - unless - he is called in.  So the time could change to 2:30 to get the dog. Meaning a late day by the time I would get back - but - i have determined tomorrow is dog day. However long it takes.

It's a full 3 hour drive there - further than even Fort Worth.  The drive won't bother me as long as I bring a dog home!  Psyched about this, hope it works out.  I'm one of those don't count your chickens people - you don't have it until you - have it.  Been there done that too many times, learned my lesson. I can get my hopes up but keep a bit of "chill" about it until I see the dog, get the dog in my car and leave the premises.

According to landlady, Valerie has stopped all the negative talk about me at work.  Any talk about me whatsoever.  Which is good, because I rarely bring it up now and it's a short lived conversation.  I think about this situation - infrequently now - but when I do - I go back to all the crap.  There is absolutely nothing in me that would ever want to go back to that situation. Nothing at all.

Well it's not that late - almost 9 - but I am going to bed.  Try to get a good night's sleep.  Had another tire replaced on my car today - making all 4 of them either new or very close to new. It was starting to vibrate. I had put a used tire on it because of the angled tire situation, but, come to find out it's not really eating tires up that fast and I can have them flipped on the rim once they get to the point they can't go anymore without ruining them.  It will occupy my searching to find out what bushings are bad and buy some new ones and try to find out how hard it's going to be to install them.















Hmm, maybe figured out the paragraph issue.

Got back from a run today and the salesman starts shaking his head at me.
Huh? What? What's going on?  Why are you shaking your head at me?

The semi, it's got to go on the semi.  WHAT has to go on the semi? What the
freak are you talking about?  He knew what kind of HELL he was going to be
getting me into, apparently he was trying to apologize for it in advance.  Take a
load of pipe into a very restrictive, small residential neighborhood.  Always just
LOVE those.  Usually means backing out, and usually including extremely tight
turns and trying to not run over people's lawns as they tend to get pissed that
truck tires just left HUGE grooves in their front yard.  No, I don't do that but
other drivers do.  If I can't get into a place without damaging whateever? That's
where I stop and make phone calls. I ain't doing it, we're done, they're going to
have to come to where I'm at to get their materials or they aren't getting them.

It is a pink with purple and blue and orange moon when that happens.

This particular situation including blind-side backing around a turn and tyring to
get the trailer nailed between two posts less than 11 feet apart.  I got it though, just
took a while to navigate through everything.  And then the other delivery today.
I am talking to the contractor and he gives me an address.  Okayyyy.  Get "there".
GPS takes me to - a one lane road, surrounded and covered with trees, no place to turn
around and wondering - where - is this place.  The contractor comes up behind me and
calls me - he apparently has my number in his phone - Ben, please back up to this drive
way behind you.  Ummm, is this truck going to fit in there?  Oh yes, no problem.

Contractors ALWAYS say that whether it's true or not.  Turning into the driveway
I see that at the end? Is a very sharp turn.  Through a gate.  What is with the gates
today?  I had to angle the thing through there and I am not kidding, there was less
than an inch on either side of the trailer.  Mud, truck spinning tires - we're having
fun today.

Anyway, took the car in this morning.  I made my decision, time to fix it.  Yesterday
was the heater core, today was the front end and supposed to be the angled tires on the
rear.  Well, the dude calls me after dropping it off this morning and named off numerous
things wrong with the front end.  Yes, I thought, I know all of this, saw it last time I had
the wheels off.  Rear? Turns out there are bushings back there and they have to be
replaced and - he says - it's a "big" job.  Okay.  Well, he didn't want to deal with that
today, said he had to have time to find the bushings and then he would get back with
me with a price. I had the entire front end fixed at a cost of $460.  Between yesterday
and today, that pretty much wiped out the money I had started saving for a car.

I did not know what was wrong with the rear, but these people know what they are doing.
So, I am going to look up bushings myself and see if I can find a video or otherwise
detailing what one has to do to replace them. .I'm not going to spend bucoo bucks on
bushings.  I wanted the front done by a shop to have it done right and the fact that they
have to do an alignement afterwards. I just can't justify taking this car to a shop for everything.
It's not worth that much money, but it is worth keeping it running if it's going to last a bit
longer.  I have driven it 103,000 miles without any major problems. The man at the shop today
informed me that car would last at least 100,000 more miles and probably a lot more.  Huh?
Yup.  I had one myself.  It had 300,000 miles on it before I got rid of it and it was still running!

I have seen them listed online with over 200,000 miles, but unless I was REALLY desperate,
I would never buy a car with that much mileage on it.  Dunno, just going to hope that this money
spent was worth it.

Dog.  I brought it up today. She already demanded, I found out, that husband get rid of that "dog"
on Thursday.  Yes, get the dog!  Okay.  I will, lol.  So, unless the owner of the dog changes her
mind, I'm driving to Fort Worth area on Saturday to get it.  She doesn't want to be there.  She
said she works 7 days a week when the subject came up.  Okay, well I can show up when you are
there. NO, she says, I don't WANT to be there.  Okay, I said this yesterday about this situation-
she loves the dog, she doesn't want to get rid of it, just life happens.

Whatever the case, the dog is mine unless something happens to stop it.  But as for me, I am planning on leaving out of here early Saturday morning and getting the dog.  It would be very cool if I could get company truck and get those fence panels while I am there.  But, the dog is the first and foremost. Those panels are only $10 a piece. They would need to be cut to size, sanded and treated but for the price? Very much worth it.

Well that's it. Not really, but that's all for now, lol.  I'm still wondering how this divorce is going to go.  I really don't want a fight.  There is nothing to fight about, not legitimately.  Still, people get things into their brains and pursue such things regardless of it's legitimacy or lack of chance of ever becoming reality, or not.
_______________________________________________

Now Thursday - started that one yesterday.

Do I feel the need to justify myself? Not really.  If someone asks me with a perplexed look on their face and wondering how "it ever got there" I will give some kind of reply.  My answers are on this blog. The question: how did it get this way with you and Val?  Heard it again tonight.

Anyway, tomorrow is Friday - the 13th btw - which means nothing to me, I give no credence to a "bad" or "unlucky" day simply because of a number assessed to a day of the week.  We don't need to be living our lives in unecessary fear.  I don't even know what, if anything, I will have at work tomorrow because I have been busy all day long.  The temporary driver called in this morning to tell the warehouse manager that he is out of gas and doesn't have any money. The warehouse manager - is unlike ANYONE you have EVER met in your ENTIRE life.  I GUARANTEE it.

Anyway, the driver didn't actually "ask" the warehouse manager for a ride to work and so? He wasn't offered one.  In that manager's mind, he should have asked and then and ONLY then, he would have sent someone to pick him up.  ROFL.  This place both cracks me up and irritates me to no end at the same time.

In MY mind, this new dude is smoking over a pack a day of cigarettes, every day. I have little sympathy. Make provision for your vices but not for the method that pays for those vices and everything else in your life? I am very tired of the way these younger generations think.  Entitlement, it is "owed" to me, I should get it regardless.  No humility, very little respect, utter bullshit. Are we somehow, in this nation, getting what we deserve?

I dunno. But one thing I did learn today? Stepper motors.  Never heard of them.  Was looking up speedomters for my car on ebay and it was the first thing that came up.  I started reading about them and then watched a video on Youtube on how to replace them. I found out that my version of a car between the years of 2004 and 2006 had problems with them and would cause speedomoter, gas and tach reading to be off and then, eventually quit. I ordered a full set of replacement stepper motors today with the - unsolder tool - and the soldering tool - for a total price of - $22. I watched the video.  The dude doing it obviously had done it many, many times over.  But still.

I pulled out the rugs in my car today and washed them in the washing machine - now that the heater core leak is fixed, wanted to clean them.  Hot water, spread solution over the entire surface of both rugs and what happened?  They are completely clean!  Considering what was on that that was amazing!  What wasn't so nice is the dryer.  It left all kinds of sand and junk in there.  Going to have to scrub the entire thing out.

But my thoughts today were on getting that Dane. I have always loved dogs.  My family had them when I was a child and I have had them almost my entire adult life.  There will be challenges with this dog if I end up getting him - which I want him if the owner actually lets him go - but he is an outdoor dog.  Great Danes? Love the outdoors but WANT to be INDOORS with their owners!  That is the human's decision, NOT the dog's!  There will be quite the adjustment period, for this dog will be sleeping in my room at night, not outside.  Danes are wimps when it comes to cold, too, I can't imagine leaving a Dane outside all night long in freezing cold temps. I understand there are people that think that is okay and I don't judge them.  At least give them a place to stay dry and out of the biting winds.

But that's definitely not me and I reinforced the idea tonight: I'm going to get him on Saturday.  I'm not going to just drive 2 plus hours one way and bring him home and have them looking at me like, what? What is THAT?
Well THAT is what I have been talking about! And now? Here he is!  lol
Anyway, another person from not far from that area has now offered me a blue Dane.  Striking color.  I haven't had one but I would definitely be all for getting one.  Nope, not getting 2 dogs, just if the first one falls through, I might have something to fall back on. .




















 Sunday - early 20 minutes until departure time.  I don't much care for delivery on Sundays for it takes a while to get security to the ...