Minor Win thread - Life is good!

Found the problem.

So you know how certain x.7l Chrysler trucks like to set O2 sensor faults when the power steering switches leak fluid, wicking into the PCM and then down into the oxygen sensor wires, contaminating the sensors?

It's like that, but washer fluid and a Ford body control module.

Washer fluid makes an absolute mess out of BCMs, their terminals, and the terminals in the relevant connector.

That will be a fun call for our service advisor to make.  "Your car won't shut off because you have a bad washer fluid pump.  And it took out a whole mess of other things."

Dryer repair guy has been putting the drum back on for over an hour. 

Why is this a win?

It's not me messing with the belt.

Soon as I realized the drum was going to need removed to replace the motor, I called someone in to handle it. Only had to learn that lesson the hard way once.

In reply to RevRico :

It was maybe a year or so ago that PW started having problems with the dryer. I'm not allowed to operate that equipment, just repair it. I saw the belt was toast, took it apart, priced a belt, thought about it for a minute, and gave her the good news.

You're getting a new dryer.

RevRico said:

Dryer repair guy has been putting the drum back on for over an hour. 

Why is this a win?

It's not me messing with the belt.

Soon as I realized the drum was going to need removed to replace the motor, I called someone in to handle it. Only had to learn that lesson the hard way once.

So much blood loss avoided.  What's inside those things that isn't lint or belt dust is razor sharp edges.

After more than a year, my wife found a new job. I swear between the posting of jobs that they were not really hiring anybody and those that told her she was overqualified she wasted a ton of time and energy. Plus, the hassle of everything she had to jump through just to get an interview with a real human. Amazingly, this one actually offered a competitive salary, full time, health insurance and paid time off. We're so grateful for the friend who told us about it.

After 31 days, I'm down 15 pounds. By volume, that's two gallons of fat. That includes a total lack of discipline over Thanksgiving and subsequent recovery from that little mistake.

And the roof leak repair seems to have held.

My long driveway is hard on end links. It was getting a little clunky in the front end, and I figured I'd best do  control arms while I had it up in the air. I had no idea just how bad they were, those ball joints were toast.

Two control arms, two sway bar end links, the right parts the first time, two days shipping, and $100 saved with Rock auto. My car drives like new

Too few jobs go this well

Got notice today from GM Financial that my truck is paid off. 

I didn't keep track of it so it was kind of a surprise. I hadn't financed since 2002 but on this one I dealt 150 miles out of state and didn't want to carry cash.

Win. Feels good.

Wrong thread. 

Peabody said:

In reply to Duke :

And how was it received? I guess they knew it was coming?

I thought when the lousy weather came and the track was closed it would be easier to go to work. It's not. 

Sorry, missed this before.

Yes, they knew it was coming.  I told them at review / bonus time last year (always around now) that I was leaving either on my work anniversary (Labor Day 2024) or, if the work load was still high, no later than the end of this year.

They were sad, but happy for me.  There are only 6 of us in the whole company; I've been a key player here for 17 years, and we're friends.  I was their first employee.  I've worked with 1 of my bosses at 2 previous employers, starting 35 years ago.  Lot of history.

He asked if I would come back per diem once in a while - there are certain occasional tasks that I created the process for, and frankly none of them have the knowledge base to jump into, because I handled them.

My other boss asked if I was planning to do side jobs, but I'm not.  If I was interested in that, I'd stay working for them.

Majorly productive day today on my day off...  helped our St. Vincent de Paul people to unload a few tons of food and portion it out for the local conferences for Christmas meals, had a pretty good interview for a job that I wouldn't mind having, took the dog to the vet, and got enough crap thrown away, moved to the shop, and rearranged to be able to get the wifemobile into the garage so that we can keep all the Mazdas together.

Yesterday the boss sent me a Teams request to swing by when I have a minute. He does that several times a day, but this time it was to let me know I was getting a year-end bonus worth about three weeks' pay and would see a ~7% raise starting at the turn of the year. Far be it from me to argue with that.

Today was the anniversary of my first appearance on this forsaken planet. I don't normally celebrate that, and frankly the day started out pretty rough. It's hard for me to let people show concern or kindness for my own dumb reasons. Today I managed to set that aside and let people be nice to me when they wanted to. It was more for them than for me. But I also leveraged it to my advantage and got some ice cream out of the deal. First time I've had any in probably two months, and it was fantastic.

I remain a master strategist. 

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Happy Birthday!

My win of the day: Beef-flavored Apoquel.  The mutt has some sort of nasty allergy to the world which causes itching which causes infections which causes him to stink and be miserable.  The Apoquel works great, but this dog will eat absolutely anything except a pill.  We've tried everything to get him to inadvertently swallow a pill and nothing works.  Before you type that, yes.  We've tried that and it doesn't work.  The only thing that works is for my wife to shove the pill down his throat.  I am unable to do it.  And sometimes, even that doesn't work as we'll find a few pills under the couch cushions when we clean.  This means that we don't do a good job of getting him his pill every day which means the infections return.

Enter the newest invention.  I opened the bottle to let Dozer take a sniff of them to see what he'd do.  Instead of turning away from it like he does with other pills, he tried to stick his tongue in the bottle.  He will take these pills right out of my hand like a treat.  In fact, when he was taking his dose last night, his face brushed some of the crumbs from the half-pill on the floor and he licked them up!  This is an absolute game changer.

January, alimony ends and last mortgage payment is made.  That's about a $2500 per month shift.

I'm looking forward to that.

And yes, worth every dime of it.

Finished my 2nd 100 mile trail race last weekend in middle Tennessee. Last year I did a different one and tore my Achilles 75% at mile 61. I finished, but it took 46 hours (!!!). 
I finished this one in 30 hours and while I did end up doing something to my foot/ankle, it was a solid effort that I'm proud of. 
I'm probably medically retiring from 100mile races and will stay around 50m from now on. 

In reply to wae :

Thank you.

Also, the idea of you and your dog being addressed as Bill/Dozer makes me smile a little.

Streetwiseguy said:

January, alimony ends and last mortgage payment is made.  That's about a $2500 per month shift.

I'm looking forward to that.

And yes, worth every dime of it.

Is there a prize awarded for this thread? You're definitely in the running!

Spent a while trying trying to get a rope plug to seam in my truck tire, eventually gave up and just put the spare on. Well after ignoring it for a while it seems to have sealed itself up. Only downside is I don't have an excuse to replace the awful Chinese tires my truck came with

In reply to gixxeropa :

We had that happen on our van. Fairly new tires and the tire shop said their plug was still leaking. After a few days I hadn't decided what to do yet when I noticed it stopped leaking. Yay!

Nice easy day today. Mrs Monohue goes a little Christmas crazy - not that she goes overboard, but she stresses over things more than she should - and we managed to pick up a tree the easy way without any drama whatsoever. Daddy Weekender had a good enough selection at good enough prices.

In other minor wins, the Ragged Old Truck managed to turn over juuuuust barely long enough and fast enough to fill the float bowl and come to life, despite having sat unloved for months. Good enough for Christmas tree duty. Following that errand, I got on the roof before the rain comes back and found a few more suspicious nails to replace and dope over. This old place really needs a roof and I'm just trying to hold that off for a year or two. I gave it a solid soaking with the hose afterward and didn't see any evidence of leaking, so we're calling it good for now.

The wife's VW Golf has been acting weird since we got it back from warranty work at the dealership a couple of weeks ago. Tonight it threw an error message for low battery when we were coming home from the grocery store. The battery is new as of June this year so I'm thinking that the alternator is on the way out. I started to hook up the charger and found both battery terminals were loose. The goobers at the dealership never tightened the terminals. It was an easy fix.

We had some leftover heavy cream and just enough sour cream for me to be able to make mashed potatoes that absolutely rocked my berkeleying world.

I got the Element a while ago for Kid1 to learn how to drive on. It's been good overall. He's been driving it with his friends in prep for doing his road test early next year. I haven't been in it in a few weeks.

Today I was going to get it inspected, since it's due in January and noticed the check engine light was on. P2422, Evap Purge Valve Stuck or something. Well, shoot. I guess that's not going to happen until I get that fixed... No, WAIT!

It's a 2005. So if I wait to get it inspected next month, it'll no longer have to pass emissions and I can take my time fixing the issue. WIN!

Woke up this morning (an hour early... Thanks, The Bat! -_- ) and realized that the furnace wasn't heating properly (again... we'd had a tech out last weekend). So I called up the HVAC company, and to my surprise they had an appointment slot with the higher-level tech that we needed starting just an hour from when I called. The tech showed up about halfway through the appointment window, and eventually determined that the core problem was simply a clogged water drain hose from the flue so all that needed to be done (seemingly- *fingers crossed*) was to un-clog the hose. I'd been expecting a much more costly fix (I figured the inducer was going out), so an essentially zero-cost fix- especially since this was considered an unresolved issue from the earlier visit so the usual service appointment fee should be waived- was a very pleasant surprise.

And I now have one more thing to check that I can easily fix myself the next time the furnace misbehaves...

AW has been sending me ads for houses with pole barns. While I don't really want to move, I appreciate that she wants me to have the shop space I want.