The Car
I have my car and can drive it, but it still has a few problems.
Luckily it never was the head gasket, it ended up being the upper intake manifold and shitty seals.
Now I just have to figure out what other vacuum lines are weak and get them replaced and hope that also fixes the non-automatically downshifting transmission.
Posted in Boring by Arkayn .
Blew the head gasket
Looks like there were more problems than I though, it blew the head gasket and now it is a $1200 repair.
Posted in Boring by Arkayn .
More car problems
My car was starting to overheat, going up to 230 degrees and then dropping down to 185.
Turns out that is never was going up that high, the temp sending unit was sending bad signals to the computer.
I still need to replace that last tire and then I will finally be on new tread all the way around.
Posted in Boring by Arkayn .
Quick update
I am back to working 5 days a week and getting close to 40 hours as well.
I have managed to get the swamp cooler to work fairly well now and it keeps it about 18 degrees cooler than the outside air.
I just ordered a wool cloak so I will be able to keep warm during winter SCA activities.
Posted in Boring by Arkayn .
New Window A/C unit
I tried to run with my 5000 BTU unit in the bedroom window, but it had 2 problems.
1: It blew the cold air at the ceiling
2: It could not keep up with this no insulation and 100+ temp days.
I now am running a 6300 BTU window unit and it is doing a much better job.
Still gets up to 83 in the bedroom, but I can live with that.
The swamp cooler is just plain laboring and I think I will still have to get some new pads for it and some cleaning solution.
Posted in Boring by Arkayn .
Updates
I have purchased a new 23” monitor for the gamine machine and once an adaptor arrives I am going to try using the 22” on the iMac.
I purchased new pads for the swamp cooler and found out that they are pretty much worthless, they do not hold enough water to cool the air as it comes into the place.
I ended up putting my old pad back in as it still works just fine.
Posted in Boring, Computers by Arkayn .
Bad week: Addendum
I just went out to go to the store and my old tire on the driver side had finally given up the ghost and was flat.
There goes another $45 or so.
Posted in Boring by Arkayn .
Bad week
This week has not been good at all, I drove back from the Highlands war just fine, got up Monday morning and attempted to start the car. it just clicked, checked the cables and noticed little puffs of smoke coming from the battery.
Result= New battery for $84
Getting the old battery was not all that easy either, the clamp was free spinning so I had to chip out the portion that the clamp held. I then removed the tray and when I put the new battery in I just installed 2 of the bolts instead of the the usual 3.
Tuesday we had to deal with the field manager, he managed to distract the kitchen manager enough that I had to watch the buffet and try to put the truck away at the same time. I spent the entire day being behind.
Wednesday and Thursday were not all that bad, just regular days of prep for me.
Friday I came in at my regular time and found that out normal prep cook misread the schedule and was not there. I got to fill in for him, put away the truck and cut meat. That mad for a 9 hour day instead of the 5 I was supposed to be doing.
Now I just plan on relaxing and getting the camping stuff put away now. And laundry.
Posted in Boring, Work by Arkayn .
Brakes
I bought new brake pads last night and installed them this morning.
The 2 biggest problems were getting the caliper bolts loose and getting the caliper off.
I used the jack handle to get enough leverage to loosen the bolts and then used it again to push the piston back enough to get the caliper loose.
Installing them was simple after that.
of course I will eventually have to do the rotors as well.
Posted in Boring by Arkayn .