I Am Allergic To Leprechaun Gold / Thank You Monro

  This is a harder Blog to write than most.  As this one was happening, it has metamorphosed many times.  In the Grand Scheme of things, this will ultimately be about a great Customer Service Kudos that I had rec'd.   I will start to where i was going with the title of this one.

 As most of you know, I have been unemployed now for almost two years.  The few jobs I had been offered, were one I had not even applied for.  They were contacting me saying how well my resume matched with what they were looking for.  We were a perfect match!  One of the ones I was referring to here, was from a company that wanted me to go to all the businesses around Erie, and get them to sign up for the company I would represent, where the business accepts credit cards.  Use their service instead of the banks and they would get a smaller service charge.  Sounds sweet right?  Wrong!  Just on a whim, I was getting my car serviced, and I knew the  counter people, and I asked them about this set up.  They all laughed at me and said yeah, Right, we get at least 6 of those offers each week.  Hmm, Does not sound like it would be a profitable deal for me either.

 Another one who had contacted me, was a company that also said that my resume was exactly what they were looking for.  I was to go to companies such as the one I had left, and get them to compare health insurance plans from the the big boys and compare to what company XYZ could do for them whom I represented.  I responded to this one and asked how could i be such a perfect match when i do not have any sort of license to sell any sort of insurance as they are claiming?  I did get a response.  Not what I had expected, but they related that they would help me find the proper schooling to become an agent.  I had pointed out in my resume that I had no such license.

  Well, I had gotten off track here, so I will start to bring it around.  My unemployment ran out, and I have been doing what I can to keep going.  It has come to the point in the last few months that i had turned in most of my 401 k money to keep paying the bills.  Last two months, I had dipped further into my horde of  gold coins.  Back in the day, when I had a great job, I had a good savings account, and I bought a few gold coins.  It started out as Christmas gifts for my niece. She was into Panda Bears, and I found once in a coin shop that China had 24k gold coins with Panda on their faces. This was back in the day when Gold was in the $ 370./oz. range.  I had purchased some 10th of an oz, and sometimes maybe a 1/4 oz sized coin for her each Christmas.  I started to like them as well, and got a few for my self. And before you say, did I name them; "My Precious," no, I did not.  I kept them in a safety deposit box.  I had not been to that box in like 15 years.

 Well, with my current economic situation, I had dipped into my horde. Last month, I sold two items.  One was a 10 gram Credit Suisse 24k gold bar.

  The next item also sold last month to pay bills was my gold necklace that I had owned for more than 20 years.  For just these two items, I had rec'd $ 682.52  WOW, I was in heaven. I was flush with money once again. This was when gold was at $ 1560/oz. After paying bills, I still had some money.  That is when the curse set in.  Within a few days, that is when the wheel broke off my car.  Refer to older post.  I had given it no further thought about it.

  Comes this month, on the 15th, to be exact, I traded in a 1/10 oz Panda coin, and a 20 Franc French Gold coin.  Gold had continued to go up.  For these two coins, the Panda is smaller than a dime, and the franc coins is just wider than a nickle.  BTW: The franc coin was only 18k.  These brought me $ 485. Again, I paid bills and was ahead a little.

  Well, once again, within a few days, The car broke down.  I was on my way for routine maintenance on the car, and I was driving thru Wesleyville in the outskirts of Erie to go to Monro muffler Shop to get oil change, and tire balance.  Right in the middle of town, the engine shuts off.  I am moving, but dash lights come on, and steering becomes hard.  Thankfully, I did not panic, and was able to steer to side of road.  I called Monro, and told them what had happened and I would be late.  they understood, and were sorry that they did not have a towing service.  So, for the second time in two months, a wrecker was called for a tow.  Here is an interesting fact. Vehicles with all-wheel drive should not be lifted and towed.  Could ruin the drive trane. They should be loaded onto a flatbed.  The curse of all of this was, I was only 4/10ths of a mile from Monro when I broke down. From the side of the road while I was awaiting the tow truck, I could see the sign for Monro's.

Alas, flatbed towers are not as readily available as the normal wreckers.  So, I had to wait just over an hour and 15 minutes.  Great Job for McMillan Towing.  They were the ones contacted thru AAA for the towing job, and they did call to let me know where they were, and that they were on the way.  Hooked me up and gave me a ride to Monro.  driver was very friendly and a great help. While I had to time to sit and think while waiting to be picked up is when I had come to think of the Gold as Cursed.  It must be Leprechaun Gold, and when it came out into the sunlight the leprechaun could see where his stolen gold was at and could curse the owner.  Both times I sold it, The car needed expensive repairs.

  Finally at Monro's and over an hour late, they still made time for my car.  it had to manually pushed into the work bay, and i never saw any complaints from the workers.  They started in on mine while working around the ones that were scheduled in already at their appointed times.  Good thing a have a learned habit that seems to run in my family, I almost always have a book with me when I know I may have some butt time sitting.  After quite a few chapters, the manager asked me to come out into the bays where my car was.  That is not a good sign.  I got there, and I saw that my valve cover had been removed from the top of the motor block.  They said that there were almost positive what the problem was from the moment I called and said what had happened and why I was going to be late for my scheduled appointment.   It was the Timing Belt. It definitely was broke, and that it is a major expense.  Chuck ( the manager ) said that he would highly recommend that he also replace the water pump, because when like the timing belt goes, almost always the water pump goes like within a month.  As long as they need to do almost a 60% rebuild on the motor to do the timing belt, it is far easier to do the water pump at the same time.  I agreed and he gave me a quote.

  I intake a big breath at the estimate.  He said was a ball park and would, get a better one once we went back inside the office.  Original estimate was for about $ 1700.  OUCH.  He found the part prices, and labor, and fiddled here and there, and gave me a revised estimate of just over $ 1500.  He said that since is doing the water pump at the same time he was able to do me a bit better.  Still it is quite high, but did cut off 200 bucks. Thank God for friends and Credit Cards. I asked how long this all may take, and was told that it is normally a two whole day job for all that we had there.  Since it was already about 5 Pm I figured I would not get it back until Saturday sometime.  he asked how I was going to get home, I had said I originally was going to wait on it, but I guess I will have to call some one.  he told me to just sit and wait, and as soon as he could free up one of his guys, they would give me a ride home.

 As we were chatting there, I was kidding around saying that I guess I will be having quite a few TV dinners for the next few days.  You always would go grocery shopping before you car goes in for repair for a few days and since I expected to be driving home today, I will scrounge for the next few days.  The driver dropped me off at home and I circled the wagons to wait out the repairs.

  This all started on Wednesday.  I am trying to break from my father.  I had the original appointment set for 2 PM, and I was going to be there at 1:30. If any of you knew my father, he was perpetually late for appointments. I guess I am cursed to be my fathers son.  Even with the best intentions, and leaving early, I still managed to be over an hour late. Once there was a free spot from customers, I was offered a ride home and I got home just after 6 PM.

 Come Thursday afternoon, I hear a loud knocking downstairs at the front door to Aunt Mary's.  That is unusual because almost all the delivery people just ring her doorbell. I was sitting in the computer room and I looked out because a knock is so unusual.  I see parked out front a blue Honda CR-V  That looks familiar.  I look back at the tire cover.  It is dry rotted on top. WAIT A MINUTE!  That is my car. How could that be?  It is only 2:30 in the afternoon on Thursday, the day after I dropped my car off. It was fixed! WOW.  I did not expect this to happen until late Friday afternoon/evening or Saturday morning.  They came to pick me up. WOW

 As the final bill was being prepared, Chuck, the manager said that he does not like having to leave people without their cars and have to eat TV dinners, so he, himself, came in two hours early before the shop was to open, and he started on my car because he could work without interruptions. And, after he had done his work, another tech had stepped in and done his part, and they got it fixed as quickly as they could. On a job that is scheduled to take nearly two full days, they had the job completed in less than 24 hours. JOB WELL DONE MONRO.  I Thank The company, the manager, Chuck Simpson, and the techs, R Miller, and D Churchill

  They really live up to their Logo .

    One last entry here, my Blog would never be complete without a photo of the work being done.  here is the top of my engine with valve cover removed.  the first photo has a black belt shown at bottom of the photo.  That is the timing belt. and the second photo  is showing how tightly the engine fits into the compartment and the spaces they had to work in.

Picture Worth 1000 Words

It has been said that a picture is worth a 1000 words.  Today, I will not write much, but will just let the 

setting sun say all that it wants to.

 setting sun say all that it wants to.

Hmm, could have been an epic amount of words here, but would rather let the photos say it all.

How Apropos

 How fitting it was this morning whereas the Gospel this morning so reflected what happened this morning.  Just before 8 AM this morning, we had a torrential downpour of Biblical proportions.  When driving down to church this morning for Mass, it was like the parting of the Red Seas.  The rain had come down so hard and fast in such a short span of time, the whole road was covered from curb to curb. 

  The last street, from 10th St. to 9th was so flooded, water was over the curbs.  As some of you may remember, At Holy Family, from the street curb there is a sidewalk, and then another curb at the grass.  The water was up and over that curb as well.  I normally park on Fulton St, and we go up the side steps to the church.  Driving down the street, and as I mentioned, there were no markers as to where the street was, I kind of forded the waters to drive down.  The water was coming up higher than the windshield on the sides of the car and I was only driving like 5 MPH. 

  I decided there was no use walking on water to get to church, so I pulled around front of the school, and pulled into the lot to get out of most of the water.  We kinda waded to the steps of the church and climbed in. Comes to be, that the Gospel today was where Jesus walked on the water.  I have to admit, I would have been like Peter, and had my doubts as I was walking on/in the waters this morning.  We made it safe and sound, albeit a tad wet.  Church was very warm today, but we made it, and after Mass and prayers, the waters receded.  Well, maybe not a miracle, but, water finally had time to flow away.  It is threatening again to rain, but hopefully not as bad as the first on.

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.

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.

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.

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.