Saturday, July 23, 2011

Reprieve From The Heat ?

 Today, was Friday, and we have been in the 90's all week. Thursday night into Friday morning was the pinnacle of hot and humid.  At 2 AM Friday morning, it was still 85 degrees Fahrenheit outside.  Anyway, this will be a short one.  I was working today, and brother Phil was dues to come to visit in late afternoon, so we agreed to meet up for dinner. 


  Just after 5 PM, I rec'd a text asking me if I was going to arrive at dinner before the rain came.  It really made me sit up and take notice of the sky.  A weather front was actualy moving in. Yipee!  As I was driving, I stuck my phone camera out the window and snapped off a few shots of the approaching front.  We had been promised thunderstorms all week, but none had ever appeared.  Could this be the one?   Well, with only one viewed lightning bolt, did not really live up to expectation.  Temperatures actually did drop, but  only by about 11 degrees.  Hey, don't get me wrong, it is a start, but i was hoping for a much greater change in temp.  We did get a little rain, but did not last very long.






Friday, July 22, 2011

That's Not The Way I would Have Done It Pt. 1

  Anyone in my family who has ever worked on a project with my father, and may have exercised an opinion on how said project should be done, will be very familiar with these words.  If your suggestion actually worked, or even as you were doing it with my fathers two bits thrown in, one final comment from him would almost always be, "That's Not The Way I Would Have Done It!"

 As part of growing up and becoming an adult, we had learned to not always allow dad to do all our projects for us.  But, being dad, he would always have to come over and "inspect" what we have done.  Just the way things always were.

  Enough history lesson.  I admit, I have lived in my apartment now for 48 yrs.  I know, I am showing my years.  It started when we moved in in June 1963.  As we first lived here, We had a roller type washing machine while had a roll away wringer attachment on it, to wring out all the water from clothes before they went outside to line dry.  Hey, that was top notch in its day.  Anyway, I digress.  In the intervening years, we have updated to modern washers and indoor clothes dryers.  And of course, Dad installed.  I admit, I was the youngest male child.  That meant that Michael was dad's helper through most all of the work around the house.  As he grew up, went to High School,and then to college, I started to become dad's understudy.  Just as it should be.  I became head gofer.  I know that is not the way to spell the rodents name, but I stand by my spelling because for us this meant Go for this, and go for that.  My point being, I was not the gofer for the basement work.

  Growing up, I admit, mom was the go to clothes washer and dryer person.  That was a chore dad avoided at all costs.  Excuses of color blindness, to not knowing what is colored clothes and which is not, to being bread winner, etc, you get the picture.  But, he did all the installations.  he put up the clothes pole in back yard to run clothes lines.  He could do that. 

 After mom passed away, I was still in dads foot prints. Aunt Mary took over doing laundry.  All we had to do was to get our dirty laundry to the basement a day early to "Soak."  Our family knows what I am talking about.  Our families pre-soaked overnight all our especially sweaty clothes.  Things were going as they always had.  A few years later, Aunt Mary now has been retired a few years, and the work load a little larger for her.  So, I took over doing our laundry.  Sorry, even though over the years, we ended up getting two washers and dryers in the basement, How convenient is that! I would not do my laundry at home.  I took my baskets to the laundramat.  I would pick up some lunch, and a book, and I would go an do our laundry.  Sometimes, I had someone to talk with, and sometimes, i just enjoyed the eye candy.  But, with multiple machines, I could do many loads at once.  For me that was the whole point.

  Aunt Mary would chastise me a bit got going elsewhere to do laundry when we have two sets of machines right here.  But, she is like dad in a way. Always wanting to lend a hand and eventually just takes over the chore in showing you how to use the equipment.  In my small rebellion, in wanting to be an ADULT, I refused and just went to the laundramat. 
  Skipping now to yesterday, Aunt Mary is in the hospital.  I was low on cash, so, I decided to do laundry at home, and no kibbitzing. Hey, these are just machines without coin slots, I think I can figure this out!  Anyway, reading the labels, just like at laundramats, I loaded soap in first, and according to the machines, you should start the filling process with water before adding clothes.  Was a step away from commercial machines.  Anyway, I complied.  Made my settings, hit go, and filled machines with clothes.  Nothing happened.







The above are photos of the two washers i had to deal with. Went over to second machine and did as directed, and once again, nothing happened.  Going back to first machine, only four dials, how could i not figure it out?  I heard a small buzzing sound, so I guessed maybe a solenoid was stuck.  I found the plug and unplugged and replugged it in.  Again, all I got was a buzz sound.  Doing troubleshooting in my head, I thought, Hmm, got a buzz, so must have electricity.  Looked and found that both machines were indeed plugged in.  Hmm, no water as yet, checked to see if hoses were connected. check!  Wait a minute, in tracing the hoses back I came to this set up.  I had never seen one of these before!



There is a paddle in between the hose connections.  And if you look closely, it actually says On and Off.  DING DING DING, Hold the phones people, we have a winnah!  I knew then what was wrong.  To allow water to flow, you need to set the paddle in between to ON.  As soon as I did that to each of the machines, water flowed!  Problem solved.

  I know, if I would have taken Aunt Mary's advice, and allowed her to show me years before, I would have known this, but some of dads stubborness is still in me.  Thinking about that set-up, I am aware that there is an electronic set up where you plug in your hoses to a water meter apparatus and if the apparatus senses that machines are not turned on and there  is water flow, it will automatically shut off water.  These are for units where people now have washers and dryers like on their main floor or second floor and not in traditional basements.  These prevent flooding and water damage to upper floors. Dad was a forward thinker.  His was not and electronic switch, and his arrangement was in the basement, but, he had installed ahead of its time, a water shut off. 

  There are times when I had wanted to B@%@%-slap dad, and yesterday was one of them.  I would have told him "That is not the way I would have done it, but, it is done, and I begrudgingly admit, it does work.  I just had to figure it out for myself.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Limping In, Comedy Of Errors

  Sheesh, what a week.  As you know, my car dropped a tire on Saturday.  Garage calls Monday with estimate, and I ok, the work and it is to be done on Tuesday.  Tuesday morning, I get a call, and they say that they cannot find the keys, did I give them to the driver of the tow truck. I replied, YES, I DID give to the tow truck driver.   Calls were now placed to AAA and then also to the towing company.  Towing company has no idea who drove on weekend.

  So, I waited for call backs.  Late Tuesday evening,  I get a call from garage.  They know where the keys are. Someone had viewed the video security tapes going all the way back to Saturday.  They saw tow truck driver, open the overnight delivery slot, and a shaft of sunlight came in. he left and after a short while, came back and opened the slot again.  To make this shorter, I will say that although we still have not heard back from the tow truck company, we can say for sure that the keys for my car were at garage.

 Forwarding along in the security video tapes, they can see my keys on the front desk thru most of the day on Monday.  There, they are gone!  Looking closely at the tapes, they see a man pay for his car, reach down, and pick up mine off the desk, and depart the building.  Hello Houston! We have the man on tape. Not only that, they know who it is.  They call him all day on Tuesday, but he never calls back.

 After I made arrangements to get a ride there on Wednesday morning, we now have a set of keys for my car once again on the premises.  I decide, I am going to spend the day there until car is finished and so that my remaining set of keys will not go on a walk about .  Just after 11:30 AM, the key snatcher finally calls back and says that he was wondering where these keys came from.  Just after they had fixed his car, they pulled it out of the bay in the garage and parked it in front of the office, and they left HIS keys in the ignition. He must have seen his keys in ignition and just pocketed mine.  He said he would come in later to drop off mine.  Well, by 12:45, I ended up having both side lower ball joints replaced, not just the one, and also the drive shaft from original left side. I paid and was free to go.

 This does not exactly end the story.  I rec'd a call just after 2 PM saying that the keys were finally dropped off, and I let them know I would come back later to pick them up.  Finally, I am reunited with both sets of my keys.

  On a side note, we have all seen those cars on the side of the road which have lost a wheel.  Have you ever wondered how they move your damaged car around the lots when it is not raised up on a tow truck?  Well, you are in luck.  I have a short and, sorry, small in viewing size a video of them moving my car out of the parking lot.  They used a floor jack, and raised the wounded side up, took off my tire, and set it back down on a wheel dolly.  Next, you get a bunch of the mechanics to go out and push the car in. Photo below may not be the clearest, but if you squint and look at drivers side front tire, you will see the front end sitting on a dolly. Video is of them pushing my car over to repair bay.




Saturday, July 16, 2011

Shrek Jumped My Car



  This just has not been my day.  I was going to take a friend for a ride early Sat afternoon.  No sooner had I picked her up, and we turned the corner when all of a sudden, it sounds like I have been hit by a boulder. Car came to a screeching halt.  The car feels a little funny.  It has a peculiar lean to it.  I set emergency brake, turn off vehicle, and goes out to try and figure out what had happened.  Hmm, as I climbed out, this is what I found.


  Not a good sign!  The wheel was supposed to be straight.  Not a good Sign.  I Think maybe Shrek threw a boulder at me and caught me this time.  As you will note in the next photo, I was not traveling fast. I was only at about 5 MPH.  You can see the whole length of the drag mark on the concrete pavement.



  I know, sucks to be me.  Hey, on the good side, I was not on the highway doing 60 when it happened.  Thank God for small favors. Pulls out wallet and cell and calls AAA.  Gave info where I was, and how to get there, and after answering all the questions, I was informed it will take an hour if not longer because they will need a flatbed.  Good thing it happened about 30 yards away from friends house.  Oh, had I mentioned was a hot bright day out?  Was about 85 and no shadows.  Must be why I did not espy Shrek. 

 Looking at my phone, I see that I had called AAA at 1:01 PM.  At 1:59 PM, I checked the call log on my phone, LOL, I rec'd a call saying the flatbed will be there within 20 minutes.  True to their word, they did arrive within the 20 minutes.  The view below is of a longer view seeing the front.



  Next photo will show front end being jacked up with a neighbors floor jack, and then with the front of the car up in the air, it was winched up onto the flatbed using a floor jack as my front wheel.





  Lastly, Is a close up view of the damages.  The straight bar in lower right corner is my drive shaft, and you can see where ball joint is busted, and the taunt line is an overstretched brake line.  I have not had an estimate as yet.  That, may be another Blog.






   In closing, I have to THANK GOD, I was doing less than 10 MPH and not at highway speeds when this let loose.  A 5 MPG crash is easier to survive than a 60 MPH one.  And remember, no use getting very upset over it, I walked away to drive another day.  Sure, it dents the wallet and savings as well, but that is an easier obstacle to overcome than physical injury.  So, Hope you find some humor is the SHREK reference to my last Blog in this.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Shadows of Shrek

 Lately in Erie, I seem to have been stalked by Shrek.  I espy his shadow, and pull out my camera, but by the time I turn around, he is gone.  he is very careful about being seen by people.  I will give you a few examples below here.  To date, I have seen his shadow from behind me but  always when I am in my car.  How strange! Maybe it is not me who is being stalked, but instead it may be the car.  I may have to invest in one of those cameras like in police cars where not only do they take video facing forward, but also taking video from behind.  Anyway, I promised a few photos of what I have captured.