Toast-erriffic!
Last night around 10:15pm I noticed it felt pretty warm in the house, so I checked to see if we just had turned the AC off for the night or what. Unfortunately the fan was still blowing, but it wasn’t cold. A quick check outside proved the AC unit wasn’t running in the back yard.
Figured we’d make it through the nights so decided to call the landlord in the morning. So today he said he’d try to get somebody over here but it was a pretty busy day for AC guys. I figured that was true and we aren’t any more important than anyone else on the list, so we left the dog with plenty of water and headed off to work. Forecasted high of only 106 today.
Got home at 5:30pm or so and the landlord and the AC guy were there waiting for me. Apparently the landlord didn’t bring the right keys or something to get into the house. They didn’t have to wait long though, and I was able to let them in. First thing the AC guy did… was check the breaker. WHY THE HELL DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT! It never even occurred to me for some reason. But he flips that on, lo and behold the AC fires right up. He hooks some gauges up just to make sure it’s operating correctly and it appears to be. Guess it’s just been running so much lately with the 100+ temperatures that it started drawing enough current to keep up and the breaker tripped.
So quite humbled I thanked both men and they headed to their vehicles. Soon after I heard a knock again at the door. It was the AC guy. He needed a jumpstart because his van battery was dead. I CAN DO THAT! So somewhat redeeming my pride I jumpstarted him and he was on his way.
In the end, its all good. AC is working and recovering. I’d previously tweeted that we’d save a bunch of money by not running the AC while it was broke. Of course Andrea was probably right when she said we’re going to spend all the money we saved getting the house back down to 85! No kidding! It’s toast-erriffic in here!
Problems logging in
Not sure what’s causing it. Must have been a WordPress update, but the past few days I haven’t been able to login unless I go directly to buthard.wordpress.com. I’m trying a few things and should have it sorted out soon!
The Bonus in Basketball
Worst rule – bar none. Nothing like taking the last two minutes of a ballgame and stretching it to a good 15 to 20 minutes. I understand why it’s there. You don’t want one team fouling intentionally and indefinitely to keep the other team from scoring, but there’s got to be a better way.
Proposition 1: Hockey style penalty box. After 5 team fouls in a half, the next personal foul results in the offending player visiting the penalty box. This would give the opposing team a “power play” where they have a numbers advantage until the offending player has served their time.
Proposition 2: Running Clock. I’m tired of this bullcrap where teams will foul intentionally, hoping the opposing player will miss their free throws and get the ball back. This is chickenshit. If you can’t beat the other team straight up in the time allotted YOU DON’T DESERVE TO WIN! (shocker). Once you have reached the bonus all current rules remain in place, the other team still shoots free throws and you can still get the ball back, but that whole time they’re shooting free throws, the clock keeps running. That’s what you get for pulling a bitch move.
Proposition 3: No bonus. Infact you eliminate free throws all together. This is my favorite and most convoluted. If you foul an offensive player in the act of shooting, play is stopped. The offensive player is then allowed to take an unguarded shot from the spot of the foul. If you foul somebody going in for a layup, then they get a free shot right there from underneath the basket. If you foul an offensive player before the shot. Play is stopped, and the offensive team puts the ball back in play at the spot of the foul.
Let’s face it, all the bonus accomplishes is to let a team that has under-performed until the end of the game have an opportunity to win. I know we’re supposed to live in a world where giving it your best is supposed to be good enough, and hell, I should probably just be glad that they still allow one team to win in the game of basketball. But there has to be a better, more honest way to play the game.
12.29.10There Goes the Neighborhood
Ugh… well we got our new neighbors this week. I knew this would happen here eventually. We’d been lucky so far that the folks that have lived behind us were 1) a quiet single guy, 2) elderly woman, and 3) single college student.
Now make that 4) Two hoodlum roommates.
The way our place is situated our house is what you see from the street. But behind our house, literally in the back yard is another small house with a little two car garage. There’s one driveway that runs from the street out front of our house, to the alley in the back. It’s not ideal, but it works for now. I guess I had kinda gotten used to a single person always living there (I’m pretty sure it’s a one bedroom house), so there was always one car there. Made maneuvering around pretty doable. Now there’s two cars back there, which sure they are entitled… but it makes getting in and out of our half of the garage a pain in the ass now.
The worst part is that ever since they moved in, people have been coming and going all the freakin’ time. There were two high school aged kids that were sitting in the driveway, waiting for the new neighbors to get home for (no exaggeration) 4 hours. There’s not too many things kids that age will wait that long for, and I’m pretty sure none of them are legal.
Maybe I’m a grumpy old fart now. But I just don’t feel like putting up with it. This really isn’t a great time for a move, but since we aren’t locked in to a lease here, I’m really going to start looking around. Ugh. I can’t wait until we’re ready to buy a house.
11.22.10This Sucks
Well, here I am. Finally have a night after work where there’s not something going on no running around, or things that have to be done. And… I’m bored.
Damn!
I don’t know if it is lack of things to do, or lack of motivation to get started? I’d play some Guild Wars or Minecraft right now, but I don’t really want to set aside enough time to actually accomplish anything. Like my free time is SO </sarcasam> valuable that I can’t spend to much of it doing one thing, that now I’ve sat around and done Nothing. I’m racking my brain trying to think of all the stuff I was wishing I had time to do. Then talking myself out of doing it.
I might just go grab my next N64 game and start the next re-review.
Days too short
Well not only is the sun going down earlier… it just seems so much harder to get something done after work. I went to the store, watched some Big Bang Theory, tinkered with an old radio, and really don’t feel like I made much progress on any of them.
Now it’s midnight and I should have gone to bed a long time ago! Me needs a weekend! Or better yet a vacation!
The Blazer has a name!
“Lazarus.” It’s almost even spelled like Blazer. So after a hot day under the car port and with Andrea’s help, we got the Blazer going again. The fuel pump we sent back as bad, probably wasn’t bad after all. I ordered a new sending unit that comes with new wiring for the pump inside the tank. So after dropping the gas tank for the 4th time, and swapping out the units… vroom! Fired right up! Runs just like it did for the two weeks before it died last time. It’s a relieving feeling.
Andrea doing some of the grunt work.
So after all this… I think we’re selling it. No way will we ever get for it what we have put into it financially, I’m prepared for that. But after fighting us every step of the way, I’ll be honest, I really don’t even like it any more. It’s like somebody who you just get off on the wrong foot with, and after that first impression, it’s just too hard to give them a second chance. I mean, heck. The ENTIRE fuel system is brand new now on this thing, but I just don’t trust it. For somebody else, it could go another 100,000 miles, I dunno. And we originally settled on Lazarus because it was cheap and available. We really wanted a pickup truck in the first place anyway.
So I think I’m going to ask $900 and see what we get. We’ll lose some money on the deal, but we learned a lot. I’d never dropped a gas tank before. Fairly good at it now. Never tore this deep into an engine before, and will be a little less timid to do it in the future. So it’s not a total loss. Or maybe that’s just what I’m telling myself. Haha!
06.23.100 MPG
Draining the gas tank to drop it for the THIRD time.
Blazer Update
Well, I’ve gotten to the point where I can’t progress any further on the Blazer without spending some money. Now that the weather is nice and Andrea and I have been talking about camping a lot this summer, we decided that we need to get it running ASAP. Especially since we’re already paying for insurance on it (which isn’t much, but still).
So I finally think I’ve got the fuel pump wiring straightened out and working like it’s supposed to. I decided to tear into the engine and inspect the fuel injector and fuel lines for any leaks and see if anything under the intake could be causing problems.
Upper intake manifold removed. You can see the injector in the middle and the fuel lines on the right. Do you notice anything odd? Look closely...
WTF!? A HOSE CLAMP to stop a leak? Just when I thought it couldn't get more rednecked!
I was amazed. To think that someone would go through all the trouble to remove the upper intake manifold and put it all back together and not spend the $50 on the new lines to just fix it. You can see the bright silver finish from leaking gas washing the wall clean and a puddle of gas and gunk down by the bolt at the bottom. “Well there’s your problem!”
So with new parts in hand we set out the replace the leaky fuel lines and the injector.
Old injector vs. New one. Pricey little bastard ($270). The old one's lines were so brittle they stayed in the position they were installed.
Yup... it's old.
Yup... it's new.
These are the nozzles that spray the fuel. Not the best technology today, but it works.
Old fuel line from inside the intake. This is the one that had small cracks leaking fuel inside the engine.
Those fuel lines were the hardest part of the job. They were obviously installed in the truck before the engine was put in at the factory. There wasn’t a whole lot of room and ended up having to get some smaller tools to get the job done. But after a bit of swearing, we got ’em out.
Ready to install!
With all the stuff out of there, cleaned all the gunk out of the intake. Didn't worry about making it spotless... not like anyone is going to see it.
My favorite part. Looking at all the new stuff perfectly in place.
Andrea got her hands (and face apparently) dirty with this job too! I love having a wife that's interested in this stuff!
As we were putting everything back together it started getting dark.
Before I tried to start it up, I told Andrea that I was nervous. That either it was going to do the same thing it was doing before, or it wasn’t going to start at all. Turn the key…. and it cranks over but wouldn’t start. I could get it running with some starting fluid, but it dies once all the fluid is burned up. It’s just not getting any fuel.
So I’m thinking we’re gonna need a fuel pump too. I don’t regret spending the money on these parts as the both were shot, but it sure would have been nice if that were it. Future updates to come. I’m definitely in too deep now to turn away.
04.8.10More wiring woes (Not the Blazer)!
Would you like that toasted?
Tuesday nights Andrea bowls league, which means I usually get some Guild Wars time in. So there I am trudging through the Ring of Fire in Hard Mode (geek), when Andrea calls. I just figure she’s calling to update me on her awesome bowling results for the night. Turns out she needs a ride home because it’s 10PM and her headlights won’t come on on the Mustang. SUPER!
So not much we can do in the bowling alley parking lot in the dark, so we just left her car there and picked it up in the morning. By the time I’d gotten home from work yesterday, my awesome wife ALREADY had her dash halfway apart and found the problem. Someone had repaired one of the wires at the light switch at one point with one of those crimp connectors and it had burnt itself to a crisp to the point that the wire just fell out. Ever since I got a soldering iron, I can’t stand those crimp connectors.
So Andrea did all the grunt work herself. I just did the soldering and she got it all back together. Had a brief scare when we tested our work and the lights still didn’t come on, but found that the power lead had came out of the harness. Snapped that back in and viola! And easy fix. Well at least my part was!
Best of all… Cost to fix: $0.00