Ok. Today was cold but otherwise it was sunny and no rain. A good day to change the brakes on the van. However, I cannot for the life of me find instructions or torque specifications for a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan! The Haynes manual doesn’t come out until February 2007. This has almost frustrated me into letting the shop do the job for the estimated $260 which they said will last 6 months then need to be done again. I can do the job for between $75 and $150.
Category: Daily Life
Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.
Inspired by Cathy and Tommy
A writer writes…always.
A blogger blogs…always.
…even when we do not feel like it.
Jeep Covered
With much grunting and muttered curses, I got the top back on the Jeep. It was shrunken from lack of use and severely dry rotted so in some places the zippers tore right off. It is by no means water tight but holds enough heat and will keep enough weather off of us that I think we can use it to get to the Smokeys and back. In the worse case I hit cruising speed and the top shreds. I put Noah in someone else’s car and drive the Jeep by myself.
One Cold Jeep
So an eon ago the top blew off the Jeep. Mind you, it’s the same top I’ve had on the Jeep since I bought it November of 2004. And, yes, it is held together by bare threads and duct tape. The zipper on the drivers window is shot so the window is held in with wireties. Now, when I say it blew off, I mean the metal strip that is attached to the windshield had a structural failure and half the screws came out at once leaving some bent and torn metal.
This morning I managed to repair the metal and now I’m off to get new sheet metal screws and lock tight. I know. I should redrill and tap but I don’t own a tap set and don’t have the commodity of time to redrill right now. The body shop would eat me alive on a job like this.
The remaining wildcard will be the top. Has is dry rotted to the point of being completely useless? I don’t have time to ebay one and spending the small fortune that a local 4WD shop wants for an OEM top isn’t in the budget right now. Last time I asked at the salvage yards they laughed said, "ebay."
Pacman them resources!
Apparently our websites have been eating enourmous resources on the shared server that does our hosting. The end result is we were flagged to "go away" or buy a dedicated server. It could be the live plugin that I enjoyed so much or it could be my experiments with this website or a combination of both. The idea of jumping from $20 per month to $100 per month to host a bunch of websites that don’t a dime really disconcerned me so, bye bye, live plugin. And that image manipulation stuff has to get gone too.
Kids bounce
Evan just slyly sneaked halfway up the stairs (wood, no carpet), smiled big and laughed at himself. Then as I said, "you are making me nervous" he rotated and in slow motion fell to his side and rolled down the stairs like a log. There is no more helpless feeling than watching your child have an accident that you can’t stop. I think he is ok. Where was Hiro!
Difficulty writing
I am having a hard time writing about my life right now. I have noticed a sharp decline in readers also according to the stats. I have several reasons for backing off on my writing. 1) I am interviewing. I cannot imagine a net savvy company not seeking out a prospective employee’s blog. 2) I am facing some large challenges. I want desperately to write about them but that may have to wait a while and be presented in a retrospective. 3) My time has been sucked away from me to deal with 1 and 2.
Look out!
I’m getting back on top!
And my body crushed under the weight of the world
I am so stressed that every muscle in my body aches. I want to go back to bed but today is Monday and Monday’s are hard.
We had chinese Friday night. Yum! My fortune cookie read, "You will find your solution where you least expect it." That gave me such a ray of hope!
I like hats!
Cathy said, "No!" to this hat.
Thanks for the referral!
I had the pleasure of diagnosing and replacing a bad powersupply in someone’s computer today. I like getting machines working again. Satisfying feeling.
From the mouths of babes
As I get out of the bath.
Cathy: "Would you [take your naked body over to your computer] turn off your camera so that I [can take my dressed, albeit gowned body and] empty the dryer?"
Great Pictures!
You must see these pictures that Uncle Dean and Aunt Jeni took of the children! Nice work guys! Btw, their cat has his own blog.
I’m blind – and in trouble
When I lost my glasses I was actually being given a vision test. Turns out, for most of the day, they were resting gently on some beautiful, rolling landscape…er, cleavage.
Does your spouse ever make your eye twitch?
I love my wife more than anything. She is special! She fantastic! She is beautiful! She is my soul mate. All that aside, she still occasionally makes me feel like Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus.
Me, trying to portion dinner: "Honey, are you a little hungry or a lot hungry?"
Wife, as I mouth the answer: "Medium."
Me: Twitch. Twitch.
I love my wife!
