Minor Win thread - Life is good!

Duke said:

DD#2 left her 2006 Impala at our house for a couple weeks while she packs and moves.

It's still smooth, quiet, straight, and comfortable.  Not nearly as clean as it was, but it will serve for at least another 5 years.

Actually, I spoke too soon.  The temperature blender motor sounds like the wrath of Bob coming from under the (probably) passenger side of the dash.

How tough is that to fix?  Is it a teardown?

Duke said:

Duke said:

DD#2 left her 2006 Impala at our house for a couple weeks while she packs and moves.

It's still smooth, quiet, straight, and comfortable.  Not nearly as clean as it was, but it will serve for at least another 5 years.

Actually, I spoke too soon.  The temperature blender motor sounds like the wrath of Bob coming from under the (probably) passenger side of the dash.

How tough is that to fix?  Is it a teardown?

 

That's not too bad. It's the mode door that is a full removal of the dashboard

Yeah, looks like it's in through the glove box. It's definitely the temperature actuator. The fresh/recirc is fine, and so is the mode actuator.

Is Delco the brand of choice?

Thanks. 

You know, I didn't really want to sell my drum set, but my right wrist is berked, space is tight, and I could use the funds... that said, local sale was successful and was fast and I got full asking price. It's not all bad. 

Down 4lbs in 2 weeks. First week I cut back on eating. This week I've been running a few miles at night after the kids are in bed. Such an improvement on my mental health.

Further proof that that donkey diet does work. What's the donkey diet? Keep your ass out of the fridge. 

Got a "cost of living" adjustment at work plus the normal raise and a few other things that kicked in this week. Not sure what I am going to do with it but I am going to find something eventually. 

Most importantly my technicians got it as well. Which means they will stay and I don't have to train anybody new.

In reply to wearymicrobe :

Not really but kind of related, I have had an 18 year old in the shop half days for the last two weeks.  I'm hiring him, going to send him through apprenticeship training.  He's cheerful, seems smart  and is even house trained.

It's been a while since I built a mechanic, and lord knows nobody already trained and decent is looking for a job these days.  I figure I have one more in me.

Finally emptied 2 containers worth of used oil I've been putting off for months, which means I can drain oil from both Datsun engines and keep that rolling. Whoo!

So this happened today, my baby graduated high school and is on her way.

Streetwise, good on you, there are a lot of good housebroken 18 y/o's out there in need of a bit of guidance who will turn into great employees

Despite the heat we got out in the attic and got rid of a wheelie bin or two worth of junk, and organized some of the rest.

It was just a few hours, but it was a start. And short shifts are what we need, or else it gets overwhelming.

I'm unloading a bunch of random car parts I have no use for via a well-known auction site.  First win: an aftermarket cruise control kit I bought through CL as part of a whole mess of Jeep parts in order to get a gerry can and two brackets.  Paid $180 for the whole pile a year or so ago.  The cruise control setup fetched $275 last week.

Second win: Among the car parts is a weirdo bicycle bottom bracket I bought at a garage sale as part of, well, a box of random car parts I have no use for.  I think the entire haul cost me about $8.  The bottom bracket just fetched $163.50.

Third win: funds from both of those sales are going to Hungary Bill's Ukrainian relief effort.

Fourth win: I have a summer cold.  Oh, wait...

I belong to a club that has an excellent facility and hosts it's own events. I was a member when I was a teen in the 70's and many of the same members are still there today. The guy who looks after the property, the track manager, is retired and that property is his life. He cuts, grooms, sets up courses and basically runs the show there, and has been doing so for many years. Every time I see him I offer my time and assistance, which he usually turns down. Knowing how stubborn Bob is, and how his age is slowing him down I just started taking my own equipment there with me when I go riding, quietly cleaning up the areas that need it, and not saying anything. In my mind, in an ideal world, when I retire I would become the track manager that takes over for Bob. Last winter I approached the club pres, told him I was no longer working full time, and offered to go through the woods and clean up the significant deadfall, which they OK'd, and it took me 6 days.  Last week they called asking if I'd be interested in helping reconstruct a bridge on the property in preparation for the next hare scramble. I went over last night to go over the project with them and they asked if I would also be interested in keeping the woods up, and grooming the trails on an ongoing basis. Of course I accepted and I'm starting tomorrow. 

 Bob is 89, and a legend in Canadian motocross.

My wife and I survived Covid, unscathed.   My wife has some health issues, plus we're both not young.  The older you get, the tougher to recover.  All is good, Life Is Good!

edit:  We had the shots, plus boosters.  I think that may have helped.

Had 2 wins recently. 

First is that a neighbor rented a dumpster and said 'throw whatever you want in there' so I was able to get rid of a few larger items I didn't need anymore (large rug, old doors).

Second is that my annual review went well and they gave me a 14% raise. It feels good to be valued for the work you do, this reinforces that I actually do know a thing or two. And now by boss is putting me in for a promotion to the next level in my department, so that would be an additional raise sometime in the next 6 months.

You can, in fact, remove the water pump from a newer Ford 3.7 without having to remove the inner chain guides, which requires removing the cam sprockets and secondary chains.

Found a way to spend some of that raise and bonus. Girl I know in the Ducati club is upgrading to a 1299 superlegerra and I am snaping this up for 11K.

Full termi exhaust, full paint protection, flashed by the dealership to the exhaust, clutch cover, new tires, comfort seat, Ohlins off the Corse model in the rear. Has levers, and tail delete like they all do as well. 

This is a long weekend and today is the holiday Monday.  Mrs. P works 3 days a week, 4 hrs a day in a local commercial greenhouse. She went in today,  as a matter of course, and was presented by her boss with a crisp new $100 bill. I know you know that this is the busiest time of year, thank you for coming in today.

So she bought us a fine Indian dinner, and a few German Wheat beers to enjoy after. Thanks Walter

Last weekend's Competion Licensing School when really well.  All five students had a great time, learned a lot and graduated with provisional licenses. My recently trained new instructor did an awesome job.  My back spasms that were so bad on Friday that I spent a couple hours laying on the floor on a heating pad subsided enough that I was able to do everything I needs to do over the weekend.  My Mitata spent over four hours on the track being driven by myself a student and one of the other instructors without needing anything other than gas and my new in helmet radio setup worked excellent.  I could talk with race control, start finish and the corner stations with the Miata running wide open without any issues.

The owner of the company I work for has known for a while that I was not happy with the current situation regarding my employment. Rather than let the maintenance manager continue to run me into the ground, he created a new position on the management team and offered it to me. I'm working with new employees on training, and seeing if I can improve retention, as well as the usual safety stuff I was already doing. The position came with a title (Employee Wellness Manager), a blank job description, a cut in hours (reduced to forty/wk), and a raise in pay, effective immediately.  This is my third week, and I'm having more fun than I have had in a long time.

In reply to Recon1342 :

Dude! That's more than a berkeleying minor win. Congratulations!

CAinCA said:

In reply to Recon1342 :

Dude! That's more than a berkeleying minor win. Congratulations!

Thank you.

Not really mine to brag about, but since I think only The Dancer and possibly the non-profit's music director- who provides the musical accompaniment for most of the outreach sessions she runs- put in more hours working for her non-profit and I put together the media packages she had to submit for it, I don't think it's totally out of line. This last week it was officially announced (The Dancer had known for a bit earlier but it hadn't been made public) that the non-profit dance company she founded and has run for the last 9 years was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Not only was it one of if not the largest single grant the non-profit has ever received, ours was one of only about a dozen awarded to dance companies- and most if not all of the others who received grants were MUCH larger organizations,  including many nationally-renowned dance companies (though the amount of the grant we got would be pocket change to these companies, it was enough to push us into having things for next year funded already). She had applied for the grant not really expecting to get it, and the grant application was pretty extensive and time-consuming, but getting it was a huge win.

EastsideWife is running out to the taco truck at our nearby gas station for dinner.  Double bonus of they really taste good, and I don't have to make dinner tonight.

What was a minor rant has ended in a minor win. 

I was fighting with a camera solution for an upcoming project Ive been working on. The mounting just was not working. Swmbo has solved it with a couple pieces of plexiglass and PVC. What could have cost hundreds in rigging will cost about $15 bucks. 

Closed on one home sale a couple of weeks ago and accepted a cash offer on the second house today!  Hopefully it goes through OK.  Now I just gotta get a place here in VA...