I must be lucky in the RV world. I've had two. Both of them have been mostly flawless beyond normal maintenance.
I can picture myself without a house. I can't imagine not having an RV. If I could talk my wife into it, I'd sell the house tomorrow and go full-time.
The Blunder Bus: 1996 Tiffin Allegro Star. Old school. My son has it now and it's still pretty trouble-free.
The EndOver: 2007 Holiday Rambler Endeavor 40SFT. 1.5 years, 7000 miles. It has been awesome!
So let's recap my automotive luck this week
1. Trying to get the wife's 98 explorer up and running for the winter. The fuel pump went out and that's not hard right?
Nope, the quick disconnects will not disconnect. No worries I'll just buy a nylon line fix kit and be on my way. Nope, both need replaced. Ok no worries I'll just use the second line....and it's not the right size. Ford apparently decided to use 5/16th hard line and 3/8ths to hook to the pump so I jury rig something from parts I have and.......nope not gonna work.
So I go to several local parts stores and see if I can get something that goes from 5/16ths to 3/8. Find something that could work and take it home and.....not gonna work
Order a part off Amazon that says it's the right size, nope and I can't stretch the line enough to get it to work. So I cobble together something with plastic barbs that is just slightly too small for the 3/8ths side and it works......
Except that it's getting kinked when the tank goes in enough that the cobbled together adapter leaks.
No problem, I'll just get some fuel line and .....I have nothing that is fuel injection psi safe. Not really worth it to have a ticking time bomb underneath the car so I'll just run to town the next day and get some rubber line.
2. Since it's gonna snow and studs are legal I'll just swap them on to my truck. Gives me a chance to look at the front end a bit since I've got some noise, sounds like shock noise.
It's not shock noise, it's bearing-about-to-fall-apart noise. And of course the only one in stock around me is roughly 10 times as expensive as the one I can get ordered. I can wait a few days. My wife can drive her car.
3. But wait ....her Golf won't start. It has a n80 purge valve issue so I replace it and it starts fine.
Until it falls flat on its face and will only start on ether. So that's something I gotta spend time on.
4. So it's onto the ZX2 backup car. Starts fine but it has a PCV hose failing so it'll try to die on you. It's a fairly common zx2 problem and I got the part but no time to put it in before the wife has to use it for work.
But it's gonna snow and the winter tires are gone on it. Oh also it's a clutch and since I've apparently got a gout flair up randomly it's excruciating to drive it.
5. The generator I use to charge up my batteries when its not sunny and for my well pump decides to have an issue too, runs for a bit and falls flat on its face. I think it might have something to do with the low oil shutoff? Oil is fine but the generator is old and it's been pissy before.
So listen, I'm not the greatest mechanic in the world but goddamn 5 mechanical things in a week all at once? berkeley me....
I just received my first advertisement in the mail from a reverse mortgage company.
I actually left the Oregon DMV today without having successfully registered my truck because the clerk refused to recognize the "wsdot" part of the release signature ("[name] for wsdot") as the same entity as "transportation department of" in the owner field on a Washington title. Yes, the proper and official acronym for the Washington Department of Transportation is WSDOT ("Washington State DOT").
Now I've been given the task of finding someone at WSDOT willing to write me a letter on official letterhead stating that these are the same entity. I've got three ten-day trip permits to do it.
Doing some math, it looks like I'll actually be able to retire!
At 70.
Assuming, of course, I can maintain my current abysmal standard of living, as befits the kind of person who's going to have to work until he's 70.
Swears. Swears for the rest of my life.
I managed to push the latest Challenge donor onto the trailer without a winch.
My leg strength and buns of steel exceed the flex point of WRX sheet metal:
Before:
After:
Luckily I think that's able to be mostly sorted with a rubber mallet.
Nothing is "conveniently located" in the "heart of Downtown Toronto." I think the description you're looking for is "unfortunately stuck." Your coworking space would be less inconveniently located for me and everyone else who isn't also unfortunately stuck in the heart of downtown Toronto if it was in the ass end of nowhere someplace away from the city that took 2x as long to reach by far less stressful means.
Some days. Some days I just suck at my job. Today is one of those days. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.
In other news, I'm sick with a mild head cold for the 17th time this year. Sick season spans from October to June in the Queso house. We gots a long ways to go.
My daughters ballet class is in the same building as a polling location.
1: You can't wear any garb supporting any candidate. That's been a law for a long time. Act like an adult and zip up your jacket or go to the bathroom and turn the shirt inside out. (This has happened twice, once for each candidate, only one of them made an issue of it)
2: Different person, but I suspect that the irony of wearing a Gadsden snake on top of THAT particular flag was lost on him.
Edit to add: I was only there for an hour. God bless those poll workers.
Traffic lights that stop all through traffic - because a car came to the light, stopped for two seconds, and turned right. The car is gone, absent, vammosed, but it's too late. The dumb traffic control computer saw a car appear - never mind that it's gone now - and stops all traffic to let this mythical car cross. We all sit there, waiting for nothing.
The most annoying aspect of this is that all the sensor inputs to do this the right way are already present. It's just lazy programming that they don't have the program start a timer when a car arrives, and if it's still there after, oh, say, 10 seconds, THEN start the whole red light cycle. If it appears for four seconds and then vanishes, do nothing. They very likely can update the code in situ, but don't (see lazy, above). UGH!
Godzilla and election night do not mix.
in 2016 there was a storm that caused a power outage that finally killed my VCR with my Godzilla vs. Gigan tape inside. It's a stupid movie, I wasn't going to buy another copy until I got the Criterion Godzilla bluray collection a couple years ago.
tonight I'm watching the OG 1954 film (Nov. 3rd is the 70th anniversary) and the bluray disc is scratched in the middle. Hadn't taken the disc out until now.
Scotty Con Queso said:Some days. Some days I just suck at my job. Today is one of those days.
I had a small customer call me and said my name was given to him by a past coworker. He says to come in and let's talk about we together can sell some product and make some money.
I go in thinking it's a sales call to realize 10 minutes into it they want to come work for them......major tap dancing in my end.
You'll need to log in to post.
