Category: Car Stuff

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Driver Side Rear Signal Repair

Dear Dad,

I fixed the broken left rear blinker on my CR-V.

It failed a few weeks back and when I went to the auto parts store, the tech who was going to swap it out had me test it when he removed the tail light fixture, and it appeared to work again.

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) it failed intermittently as I drove to and from our gathering, so I drove back to the auto parts store, where the cashier was able to sell me the bulbs, but they didn’t have any techs around to replace it for me, so he suggested checking online for a how-to video, which I found on YouTube.

This afternoon I followed the instructions from the video, even though it didn’t actually cover the bulb replacement itself, but I was able to figure it out and it’s all fixed.

Just wanted to let you know. 🙂

Miss you and love you.

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Ack

  • I’m backing out of my garage and then an Uber/Lyft driver stops right behind me, turning on his blinkers.  I walked over where he could see me, pointed at my car, he rolled the window down and said, “Are you pulling out?”  WTAF?
  • Minutes later, driving to work and realizing that I forgot my phone.  Drove back to get it.  Groundhog’s Day.
  • Driving on the freeway and it must be ‘Don’t Use Blinkers Day’ or something, worse than usual.
  • Dropping off an outgoing shipment to the mailroom, asked a ‘simple question’ that I can’t simply answer, for something that the questioner should open a call for.
  • Order lunch for pickup, and they’re so busy I wait an additional 15 minutes after I get to the restaurant for my order.
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Echo Auto

2 days in, and I find that it’s a bit distracting during a home-work commute of less than 20 minutes.

It is nice that while plugged in I can have it play local radio stations from I Heart Radio.  But it pauses when doing navigation, with vocal cues for turns and exits.

I can see it being more useful during longer trips.

We’ll see.

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Cleaning Up

My Dad rarely, if ever, asked for help with anything around the house.  I usually ended up helping him bring groceries up the stairs, or laundry, or bringing down garbage and recyclables from the kitchen or bathrooms.

Sometimes he’d make it halfway up the stairs with a sack of rice before I knew what he was doing.  I’d bring it up the rest of the way.

When he moved back home in 2016, the basement and garage was filled with the moving boxes from his place up in Washington state.  I kept asking if we could reorganize or clear a lot of the boxes so one or both of us could park inside the garage.  He kept insisting that he’d get to it, eventually, and while he did empty a few boxes and dumped stuff, the garage was never cleared.

So I did that this weekend, dumping and rearranging the boxes so I could park my car back inside the garage.

The best part?

The boxes are situated so I can go through a few every weekend, and do more dumping.  They were not so arranged before my reshuffle.  I just need to back my car out and have plenty of room to sort through the rest of the boxes.

And then I can start on the basement.  Again.

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Wasted Day

I woke up this morning to some very familiar feelings of nausea.

Food poisoning.

I immediately went back to bed.

I woke up about 4 hours later to email work that I’d be out before I went straight back to bed.

Another 3 hours later, I got up and  took a shower since I was sweating a lot while I was sleeping.  I made some tea, but only drank half of it and went back to bed.

I woke up again about 4 hours later and made some toast and finished my tea.  Back to bed.

Got up again 2 hours later and seem to have shaken off most of the effects, though I do have a bit of a headache.

I tossed the foods that I ate the night before, though I suspect it was the milk, which expires tomorrow, but it had a faint odd smell, but tasted okay with cereal.  Never again.

Currently eating dry toast and tea.

As a result of this, I got a ticket on my car for street cleaning violation, and 3 packages (game stuff, camera accessory, Kickstarter reward) that I was expecting at work have been delivered, but I’ll wait until Monday to get them.

Wasted day.  Though in my semi-sleepy state I had the TV on to the Giants game, though I missed Bumgarner breaking his hand, and there’s a James Bond marathon on MGMHD channel.

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Most Exciting Thing of 2018 (so far)

I was going to Lucky’s Supermarket for some lint traps, and as I pulled into parking lot, I spotted one of my dream cars.

I actually said “OH MY GOD” a few times as I parked my car.

I excitedly got out of the car, forgetting to grab a reusable grocery bag, and even forgetting to lock my car, as I walked, transfixed as the Wienermobile was within walking distance to me.

I kept my geeky enthusiasm in check as I walked up to the little table next to the car, with a family talking to the lady who was at the table, handing out stickers and Wienermobile whistles.

She asked if I had ever seen the Wienermobile before, I told her “never this close,” and she went on to give me the rundown on this particular model, the 2016 version, which has already traveled over 300K miles up and down the West coast and as far as Idaho and down to Texas.

As I tried to take a selfie with it, the lady offered to take a picture for me, since it’s such a big car.

She then gave me a sticker and a whistle, and I went on my way to get lint traps.

Best day of 2018, so far.

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What a day

Started with a leg cramp.

Continued with a ‘dead’ car battery.

Then got a charge on my credit card from Amazon for an item that I forgot was pre-ordered months ago, yet I still tried to dispute it.

At least a birthday lunch for a co-worker was good.

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Tire stuff

As I was leaving work Tuesday, I started backing up my car in the garage, and immediately felt something was wrong.

Behold!

I went to the garage’s ticket booth, and told the guy that I had a flat.  He said that I should call AAA myself, which I did, and after 15 minutes on hold, I got through to a person.  She dispatched a technician, who had no problem finding the garage, and my car on the 3rd floor, after another 20 minutes.  Another 20 minutes later, and I was on my way with my spare tire in place.

Once I got home, I took a look at the tire, and found a screw in it.  Arrgh.

This morning I decided to get the tire fixed, but when I brought it to one local garage, they said that they wouldn’t be able to fix it, because of the location, and that I would need to go to a tire specialist.  Luckily there was one nearby, where I had my tires changed out for new ones a few years back.

Upon arrival and inspection, the guys at this shop determined that the screw was too close to the sidewall for a repair, so I had to get a replacement tire, which they ordered and would be available around 2:00 pm.

I decided to take a mental health day at that point.

I took my car back after 2:00 pm, and after giving them the 45 minutes that they said that they’d need to work on it, I returned.  They then told me that they found 2 nails in my right rear tire, which they were able to patch, and it would take a while longer for the car to get ready.

I paid for the tire and patch, and went home, wondering if someone deliberately placed those nails/screws under my tires.  I’m hoping not.