What to do with the Blazer?
Worst case scenario should I go fuggin nuts.
Damn. I missed a day of posting. Oh well. I’m back and beating my average. =)
So the Blazer has been for sale for a few days now. Gotten at least a call or two a day on it. I don’t want to turn this into a complain-fest. But I REALLY hate selling stuff. Half the people that have came and looked at it so far act shocked that it has issues. And the other half have been, “TOTALLY AWESOME“, then never hear from them again. Okay. I get it. I mean, I’m the same way. Always looking for the deal of the year. I can’t hold it against anybody.
So the reality is what do I do with this machine. I’ve been driving it to work this week and it hasn’t had any problem getting me the three blocks back and forth. But I’ll be honest. If I want to go across town, I take the Toronado. Ha ha! If I could figure out the bogging down thing, I wouldn’t hesitate to keep it. But before I can get that far… I’m going to have to throw some money at it. So I’ve been tossing it around in my head and can’t really decide what I want to do.
So here’s some options, regardless of your automotive knowledge what do you think makes the most sense. Feel free to offer other options than the ones listed. I am choosing to list them from “cheapest” to “fully financially committed”.
1) Keep it for sale at $800 until it sells.
2) Keep it for sale, but lower the price until I at least get what I paid for it.
3) Keep it for sale, but keep trying to fix it in the meantime.
4) Not for sale. Invest in the proper tools to figure out what’s wrong. Possibly (but rarely) ever use tools again.
5) Not for sale. Start replacing parts that might be bad (could be cheap, or end up being VERY expensive)
6) Not for sale. Take it to a shop and have them find out what’s wrong and then try to fix it myself.
7) Not for sale. Take it to a shop and tell them to fix it.
So there ya go. I suppose this is a decision I should have made BEFORE I bought the thing, hehe, but I’m interested to see what folks think. Now, I’m looking for candid opinions here. I welcome those who would tell me how crazy I am for wanting to keep it, or those who think it has tons of potential. It’d take a chunk of change, but hell I could drop a Chevy 350 in there if I really wanted to. And that would solve my engine problems for SURE.
It moves… but not quite fixed.
Its new home.
Well, Biebs and I may have killed a few brain cells in the process from all the fumes… but we managed to drop the gas tank and rewire the fuel pump CORRECTLY. Note to anyone who’s looking to attempt any gas tank removals on these vehicles. Removing the bumper makes the job 100x easier!
So once we got the tank down and could get a good look at the wiring it was clear there was some real Frankenstein stuff going on. I pulled the tape off one of the connections and the wires were literally just connected by a thread. Hmm… that can’t carry much juice I wouldn’t think.
I hate wiring.
When the previous owner (whom I’ll refer to from here on as “Captain Genius”) put the new fuel pump in, he decided that there’s no need for these fancy schmancy “connectors”. So he just spliced into the existing wiring. This adequate, but you gotta at least give it a good college try. Some of this wiring was so weird that I don’t even know what a person was thinking. There was wiring run underneath the weather stripping for the tail gate, which basically kinked it around a sharp piece of metal. And the funny part is that there was an access hole drilled under the carpet like six inches away from where they tucked the wires. And some of the wire was spliced two or three different times within a yard of each other! It was ugly.
It's not that hard.
So we got it put back together and fired it up tonight. It runs a lot better, but there’s still some gremlins in this thing. It still sputters when you really get on the gas, but it’s much more driveable now than it was. It will get up and go if you were driving normally, but if you wanted to mash on it and pass somebody, good luck. I still think it’s something electrical, so a few more things to try before I decided it’s worth it to get tags and insurance! haha!
07.22.08Trying to adjust.
It goes without saying that there’s been a lot of change in my life lately. And I wouldn’t change anything about it. Married life is great, the job is great, all is well. If anything, I’m just having a little difficulty adjusting to my schedule.
I’ve always had trouble getting up in the morning, but lately it seems like everything is rushed in the mornings. A lot of that has to do with I’ve gone from going in at 11:00 at my old job, to going in at 9:00 here. So I get up at the same time I used to, but have a lot less time in the mornings. I’m considering getting up a couple hours earlier everyday, but that puts me at less than 6 hours of sleep, and I’m not sure how my body will handle that in the long term, and I don’t really want to go to bed any EARLIER than I do now!
How much sleep does everybody get at night? I’m getting about 7 hours a night right now, and feel like I’m sleeping too much of the day away. Does anybody get less than 6 hours and wish they could get more? Everybody’s going to be different, of course. I just don’t want to waste anymore time snoozing away time I’ll never get back!
Strike One
Got my rejection letter from the FSA yesterday. Apparently the interview DID go better for someone else, ha ha!
Still kind of excited had a good phone interview the other day for a tech job down around Wichita. Gotta harass ’em until I get a live interview. It’d be right up my alley and quite a bit more money, so I’m hopeful for that.
Also have a phone interview with a radio station in Great Bend tomorrow at 9:00 am. Don’t really want to just make a side move, but I am getting desparate to get out of here!
I’m also exploring to options of finding a better job in the Manhattan area. Andrea got a new job here Saturday that pays a bit better and has better benefits. We’ll just look at all the opportunity we have an try to pick the best.
Keep prayin’!
Stressin’
I don’t usually worry about much…but I’ve been getting kinda stressed out lately. Seems like there’s a lot to do, not a lot of time, and a whole bunch of uncertianty. Between the wedding plans, looking for a job, and wondering where we’re gonna be living in 2 1/2 months, it’s wearin’ on me.
I keep sayin’ whatever happens will happen. Trying to have faith that God will open the doors. I at least take solace in the fact that by July 1st all those questions will be answered. Spare a few prayers if ya got ’em.
04.11.08Experiment Update: Part I
Mailing using ZIP code only…
I guess I don’t have enough compassion.
What’s up with everybody going nuts around the Olympic Torch? So far London had 25 folks arrested, and in Paris they actually had to put out the torch because people are going nuts about the Olympics being in China this year.
From the little (very little) I’ve read about this it has something to do with monks, yaks, Tibet, and China being a-holes. But I’ll be honest, when it boils down to it. I really don’t care. I don’t care enough to read up on the situation, and I certianly don’t care enough to show up at the nearest torch relay and get belligerent. I just find it odd with all the injustice in the world, this sets people off.
First of all, what is this about? Is it about the Olympics? Or is it about Tibet? I’m inclined to think it’s about Tibet, and the torch run thing is just a convenient photo op. I mean, who really cares about the Olympics anyway? It’s just one of those things that gets plastered all over the news and TV so you feel like you have to be interested.
But then again, who really cares about Tibet? Who sits around and says, “That torch is coming through here headed for China, I’m going to stop it! That’ll sure help out those Tibetans!”
So China’s gonna go, “OH HEY, see all those violent people being violent in peaceful events? They’re right, we’re totally handling this the wrong way. GG Tibet.” When’s the last time China gave two —-s about what anybody else thought?
There’s a fine line, I think, between compassion and contempt. Maybe I really don’t care about the plight of the Tibetan people. Or maybe I think me going out and being a d-bag isn’t going to do any good.
What happened to Stuart Smalley?
I was joking with a friend at work yesterday about how she needs to work on her self esteem and that she should watch some Stuart Smalley. You know the motivational speaker guy from SNL back in the day? Well I scowered to the best of my ability. And it looks as if there isn’t a SINGLE “Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley” clip on the internet ANYWHERE. I was just shocked that my searches turned up nothing. I know that it’s not the most popular Saturday Night Live character, but you’d think it’d be popular enough to warrant at least one clip buried somewhere on the ‘net.
The question is what’s up? It’s all a little mysterious isn’t it? In the several searches I did. I did uncover tidbits of what might be going on.
The Stewart Smalley character was played by Al Franken back in the day, right? Well now Al’s running for the US Senate and is known for being quite liberal. And apparently Bill O’Reilly has gone to referring to Al Franken as “Stuart Smalley” in his broadcasts in effort to be clever as conservative talk show hosts do. So my logic tells me that either Al Franken’s campaign cronies or an independent group of Al Franken supporters has been scowering the internet to get all the clips removed for whatever reason (other than that pesky copywright reason).
It was just all so weird I had to post about it.
Laugh Out Loud!
Ha ha! “Proof” that all those studies that tell us what’s good for us and what’s going to kill us are B.S. But if they’re B.S. then this one is B.S. too! GAAHH! It’s a paradox!
Drink wine, eat junk food, live longer? It works for mice
07.14.06Time for a test run.
No wisdom, no rant, no enlightened thought…I am just seeing if I do this right. Oh wait, I do have a question. How do I know who makes a post? I don’t see any names. Is that a silly question?