Project 52
Sep. 13th, 2017 12:20 pm![]() |
On Friday, as we left for work in the van, the check engine idiot light came on. We took it to Master Auto on the way in, swapping for our other working car. Except that I'm hoping for better luck, the thought has crossed my mind that perhaps we should store the spare car in their back parking lot. Anyway, they called after lunch to say that they think the warning light is being triggered by the lack of a vacuum in the fuel system and/or the sensor for that. It is a very sensitive sensor, so even if the air leak is tiny, it's enough to make the warning light up. It can also be caused by not tightening the fuel cap thoroughly. This particular problem is nothing to get excited about, the worst thing is that by having it lit up if something else triggers it, there is no way to know as it's already on. The best thing to do is get an OBD reader that allows reset of the warning, then we'll know if there's a new problem. We retrieved the van after work and then took it to Ionia on Saturday. Happily, no new problems have appeared.
We have decided not to fix the possessed heating/cooling system in the beige Park Avenue as that's a several hundred dollar repair. Both blowers have gone bad but winter is coming an a vehicle that no longer knows how to cool the air will not be an issue for a while. With some degree of luck we'll be able to dispose of that car before next summer.
Saturday morning we got up early as I had made an appointment with Big D Lock & Key to purchase and program electronic keys for the van. I purchased one through them, two more on Amazon, and they programmed all three for the cost of programming the one I purchased there. Big D is a strange place, it's a locksmith and has all the normal stuff you'd expect (lock sets, keys, safes) but also has a shelf display that made me wonder if an elderly relative asked if he or she could move the items at didn't sell at their yard sale inside. It worked to my benefit though, I now own a real Coach purse ($15.00!) and a 4-episode DVD of Dragnet ($1.00).
With our purchases in hand, we walked out the to car and headed toward Ionia. I wanted to stop at Portland or any other of the little communities on the way to run an Ingress mission or two, but
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Sunday morning
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The reunion was better attended than the previous two, perhaps because there was a rumor that this would be the last one. That's not exactly true; during the reunion we took a vote and decided that this would be the last potluck in the township hall. In the future we'll meet a restaurant at a location somewhat central to the attendees, probably in Mt Pleasant.
Anyway I had a good time catching up with everyone I spoke with (three hours is not long enough for an in-depth conversation with everyone) and we helped clean up the hall when our rental was over. Which was easy as there were no tiny children (mess-makers) and all we had to do was take home our leftovers, remove the table cloths, and stack the chairs. My mom caught a ride home with my cousin Barbie, so when we got back to the van it wasn't much past 3 pm and
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Monday was back to work followed by the first band practice of the new season for
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Scrapbook papers & elements from the kit Bohemian Breeze
For more information about the designers and their work, see
http://mrs-sweetpeach.dreamwidth.org/903338.html.
(no subject)
Sep. 6th, 2017 01:53 pm![]() |
When I left off last week in our automotive saga, we had retrieved the van from our mechanic's only to have it die less than two miles from the repair shop. We had called AAA and had it towed back and exchanged the van for our still misbehaving Park Avenue. The reason the car stalled was that whatever connector joins the fuel line to the engine failed. As it turned out, refusing to restart was a good thing as the breakage allowed gasoline to spray all over the engine and we very likely would have had an engine fire if the engine started. The fix was relatively easy (a new connector) and we had the car returned to us after work the next day. We took it to work in the morning, began the drive home after work and about half way home the van began to overheat. At this point we were about four miles from the repair shop and
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Anyway, we called in to Master Auto Friday morning where the head mechanic made a comment about our van being like trying to throw away a boomerang. He thinks they're done with it and back it comes. This time it was the radiator. Apparently the bottom was cracked; we now have a brand new radiator and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else goes wrong. We didn't get the van back until Tuesday, which meant I didn't have wheels from Friday through Monday. Fortunately the boss said I could work from home on Friday.
So I stayed home during the long weekend, while
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As you might guess, I was very happy to go to work after the van got out of the shop yesterday. It was very nice to be around people and not to be sitting on our couch. By the time the long weekend was over I was actually getting sick of crime TV. Although I do want to put in a plug for BD Wong's Something's Killing Me. So far it's been half (crime) mystery and half medical mystery and altogether fascinating.
Scrapbook papers & elements from the kit Bohemian Breeze
For more information about the designers and their work, see
http://mrs-sweetpeach.dreamwidth.org/903338.html.
Project 52
Aug. 30th, 2017 10:27 am![]() |
A week ago today we received the report from our mechanic's about the car we were contemplating buying. It needed a number of repairs, primarily among them a new axle, so we took that information to the dealer and negotiated a better price. So our new car is 2013 Town & Country minivan and we took it to work the very next day so that we could drop off the beige Park Avenue for a few repairs of its own. We exchanged cars at the mechanics the day after that, in no small part because the idea of that axle breaking while underway seemed like a great way to cause additional parts to fail. Well, that and the other car was supposedly all better. It got a brand new fuse box, which solved most of its problems. Only that turned out not to be the only issue, it has taken to feeling like it is going over rumble strips at unpredictable intervals (including on newly laid asphalt) and the heating/cooling system is now possessed. The driver's side blows cool air while the passenger side blows nothing other than air that feels like it came up from the depths of hell.
So, to jump ahead in this story, the Town & Country was returned to us last night after a whole series of repairs, one of which was not on the inspection as it couldn't be seen until the whatever was disassembled. So we once again exchanged cars and drove off in the minivan toward the grocery store. Around four miles later it stalled as we were puttering up Main Street in Royal Oak. Fortunately
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Oh, and that Subaru Forester
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Scheduled for the weekend were two events, an Ingress XM Anomaly on Saturday and a Mission Day on Sunday, both in Ann Arbor. I'm still not entirely certain what an Anomaly is, but I went and helped my team (the Resistance) gain victory. In practical terms, this meant I went where I was told and did whatever action was requested (generally, keeping portals charged and helping them stay blue). We were instructed to bring as many Level 8 bursters and resonators as we could get our hands on (preferably 600 of each). Friday night after work
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On Sunday we played a dozen missions; there were supposed to be sixteen available but there was a problem with one of them and it didn't come online during Mission Day. In my case it would not have mattered as I was barely able to complete the 12 we did. I was moving at a snail's pace by the end and alternately being delighted that I wasn't having to consume pain pills the way I did during the Detroit Mission Day and concerned about the state of my knees and lamenting how slow I had to move just to keep going forward. We had dinner in Ann Arbor at Hop Cat, where I learned why their crack fries are called crack fries (they must be made with crack as they are that yummy and addictive), then it was home for more laundry and getting ready for work on Monday.
Not much work got done by me on Monday even though I was there all day. I was so exhausted from all that walking (I did another 5.5 miles on Sunday) that it was a very sleep apnea-y day -- I'd type a few words, fall asleep, rinse, repeat. We drove straight home after work, where I brushed my teeth and fell into bed. My blood sugar was awful when I woke up the next morning (149) but I suppose that's what happens when I eat a ton of pizza for lunch then skip both dinner
and my evening dose of metformin. I did, however, manage to stay awake all day at work on Tuesday and got caught up on what I'd been trying to do on Monday.
Scrapbook papers & elements from the kit Bohemian Breeze
For more information about the designers and their work, see
http://mrs-sweetpeach.dreamwidth.org/903338.html.
Project 52
Aug. 23rd, 2017 11:57 am![]() |
We went to the zoo for a walk Wednesday night after work as it is August and the zoo is open late on Wednesdays this month. We saw one of
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We were supposed to go up north to see
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I have no idea what we did on Saturday other than research used cars, go out for dinner and play Ingress while we were out. Oh, and arrange to have lunch with our god-daughter Amanda and her husband the following day.
We expected to get up earlier than we did come Sunday, which cut short time for playing Ingress before our meet-up at the restaurant. We played one set of portals on our way there, discussed where we wanted to play after lunch, and arrived at the Mexican place before they did. Which was good as we were starting to run late. The food was excellent and I want to return for more. I want to recommend the place if you're ever in the area only I can't remember the name of the place nor where exactly it is located. I know it was nearish St. Basil (an Ingress portal) and that it is only five minutes or so from Sam & Amanda's house but that doesn't help identify it.
After lunch we went to check out their house and meet their dogs, one is a spaniel-pitbull mix that the softest coat I've known on a short-hair dog. That dog would be great to cuddle up with on the couch on a cold night. The other dog is a black lab-pitbull mix and *loves* water. And is very high energy and wants to play nonstop. Good thing his brother doesn't mind playing with him.
What I forgot to mention was that when we returned to our car after lunch the windows would neither go up nor down. The radio cut out for a while too, but in this weather the windows are far more important as the A/C in the car stopped work over a year ago. We sweltered on the way home and did not stop to play more Ingress as we didn't know if the windows & radio were the only things malfunctioning. I was sad but we got home safely and made it to and from work on Monday. My brother, Rob, the mechanic, suggested that the problem was within one of the control modules and that a possible fix was to disconnect and then reconnect the battery. Rather like a rebooting a computer I suppose. We tried that but it did not correct the problem. Meanwhile, I found a car I wanted to check out at the used car dealer near our home so we did that after work. We arrived as they were closing up shop for the night, but they let us take it out for a quick test drive. We had one reservation (it felt like the ABS breaking system was triggering when it drove down a bumpy residential street at 30 mph) but felt it was worth having our mechanic give it a look. So that's what's going on today.
Last night was more laundry and
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Scrapbook papers & elements from the kit Bohemian Breeze
For more information about the designers and their work, see
http://mrs-sweetpeach.dreamwidth.org/903338.html.