Category: Just Saying …

Stacy’s car is “feeling much better now, thank you”. (Bonus points to anyone who can figure out the show with that quote.) New spark plug wires were the fix. When replacing them, the one for #3 did show a bit of discoloration in the wire insulation. Or it could have been just a dirt spot.

In any case, the new wires resulted in a much smoother running engine. A test drive confirmed that: much more ‘oomph’ (an automotive technical term) on acceleration. So I am calling that a fix.

And I got my laptop to talk to the laser printer via the Netgear wireless print adapter. It required installation of the printer drive while connected via USB cable, then running the Netgear wireless installation program.

The next computing step is to get some more memory for the eMachines box that is running Windows Server 2008 and ColdFusion 8. I stole the memory from it for another computer a while back, and never got around to getting some more. The folks at Crucial memory (www.crucial.com) have a 1GB PC3200 module for $43, which is a pretty good price.

On tomorrow’s list is some yardwork – weeding and mowing. But tonight is “Burn Notice”, so off to the DVR to watch that.

Today’s project was Stacy’s car. It’s a 98 Camry, and running a bit rough. The diagnostic code indicated bad sparking in #2 & #3 cylinders, at least that’s what the Toyota shop said with their interpretation. They wanted to replace the spark plugs and fuel injectors, for about $700. I figured I could check it out a bit cheaper than that.

So I picked up her car in SLC after my job interview yesterday (went well, no offer yet, unsure of my response at the moment). I grabbed some new sparkies and some Seafoam brand fuel injector cleaner (good stuff, by the way). Replaced the sparkies, which were easy to get to. They looked a bit worn, but no gunk on them. Put the can of cleaner in the gas tank (it was about 1/2 full), and drove it home. Ran a bit rough at idle, but freeway speeds were OK, although not much ‘oomph’ as would be expected. But I got it home OK. By the time I got home (about an hour drive, which would be the commute for that job, which is a consideration), it was running a bit better, but still idled a bit roughly, and the ‘check engine’ light was still complaining.

Today I cleaned off the battery terminals (lots of fuzzy gunk on there, probably not related to the problem, but still needed to be done). Listened to the fuel injectors with the magic engine stethoscope and they were clicking normally, so those are working OK. Then wandered to the local Autozone to borrow their diagnostic code reader. The code translated to misfires in #3, which could be bad spark plug wires, so grabbed a set of those ($45) to put in tomorrow.

The current theory is gunked-up fuel injectors, maybe failing spark plug wires. I’ll also give the new spark plugs another check. If that doesn’t fix things, it will be off to the local repair shop. But a $70 investment in new plugs and wires, plus a couple of cans of fuel injector cleaner could be the fix. We shall see.

Last week was interesting. Dr appt on Monday, and then an ‘a-fib’ episode for the rest of the day (after visiting the doctor, go figure). That lasted longer than usual (six hours), which must have messed up my digestion, which was Tuesday’s problem. (Don’t you hate it when you can’t decide if you should sit or kneel at the porcelain alter?). So I took things easy on Tuesday/Wednesday after that digestive episode, using Rice Chex and water to keep things settled down and get back to normal.

I was feeling better by Thursday, so Pam and I took a drive up to Midway (UT) to see my two sisters who were staying in my older brother’s other house. It’s an historical house belonging to his wife’s grandfather (I think). They have restored it quite nicely; a two-story cottage with period furnishings (mostly) plus a few modern conveniences (like bathrooms inside the house, rather than outside). It’s in a nice area of Midway, which is near Heber City (along US highway 40). It was a nice drive (about an hour) from our house to there, and we had a nice visit.

We watched all the grandkids on Saturday afternoon for a while. They had way too much fun with some large moving boxes. I cut a door and window in the sides, and they got some crayons and markers to decorate their ‘house’. All five of them had fun doing that for quite some time. It was a nice day (in the 80s F with a light breeze), so it was fun to watch them play in their cardboard houses.

We also had a water softener put in last week. The water hardness around here is about “16 grains”, which makes the dishes a bit spotty (when the dishwasher works; it has a problem at the moment, but the builder is very responsive in getting things fixed).

Although our retirement finances are comfortable, I am inclined to find another job just to keep me from turning into a full-time couch potato. I have a second interview this afternoon for a job that looks interesting, although it would be about a 50-minute commute. Not sure how that would work during winter and snowy roads, but the snow pack is usually under six inches and they keep the roads pretty clear. The commute is freeways and main roads, so could be manageable.

We had a landscaper come over last night to discuss what to do with the back yard (currently a weed patch). We’ll probably keep it pretty simple: mostly grass with a small garden area for vegetables, and a few trees. Sprinkler system, of course; around here you get a separate landscape water source during the growing season between May and October. It will be different living in a somewhat colder climate. But the house is very comfortable, and since it is new, well-insulated.

Another Monday. Got to make some plans for today, I guess. A visit to a new doctor today to arrange for the monthly blood tests to make sure my INR level is OK with my current dosing of Coumadin (a blood thinner).

Significant event this weekend. I was able to empty and rearrange enough boxes that both cars are now in the garage. It’s a huge garage, though, so there are still many boxes to unpack. I did get the four 24-inch cabinets put together, so now there is a good place for the garage stuff.

Got the lawn mowed Friday, so it looks good. The weeds in the back yard may need a bit of trimming this week, although I did spray some Roundup on some of them. We need to put together a rough plan for getting a lawn and some trees in the back yard.

The town here has an anti-weed ordinance, so all property owners need to keep their weeds cut down. There are a lot of empty lots in this subdivision, and the town code enforcement guy was driving around the neighborhood this week. The lots here are owned by several builders; there’s about 10 empty lots around my house owned by the same builder. The builder had a guy with a tractor mower out here Friday cutting down the weeds in those empty lots. He was a lot faster than me with a string trimmer. So all the weeds around my house were cut down, which made the local bird population happy, as they can now get to the insects much easier.

Our 4th was fun; we had the whole family over on the 3rd for dinner, and set off a few fireworks. Then over to the Jensen’s for the 4th, with a traditional meal of BBQ steak, beans, potato salad, garlic bread, and watermelon. Quite good.

It gets dark later here than at our CA house, around 930-10pm it was dark enough to set off our collection of fireworks. The two youngest grandchildren (Dane is 3, Lucas is 18 months) were a bit reticent about all the noise, so I took them into the house and watched from an open window in the front room. That worked out good, since the mosquitoes were a bit aggressive. We got done a bit before 11pm.

We had the gang over for dinner yesterday, and watched the Wimbleton via DVR delay. Quite a good game, even though I am not a big sports fan.

The weekend is almost over. Monday coming up. Back to the …. wait a minute! I am retired ! That’s really weird.

Saturday was sort of lazy. We caught the last part of the “Syracuse Days” parade, which has the typical small-town atmosphere. Local businesses, local farmers, horses, children dance academies, school bands and such. It was a nice day, again, with temps in the low 80’s, a bit cooler than normal. Compared to the 100+ in Sacramento (106 there today), I think we got out of town just in time.

We then borrowed the Jensen truck and wandered off to Lowe’s with a 10% off coupon in hand. Did some major damage; a ceiling fan for the scrapbook room, and some pre-built cabinets for the garage. Along with a couple of shelves for some basement storage. The garage cabinets are 24″ wide and that white-covered particle board. We were going to get the 48″ wide ones, but then discovered that each package weighed almost 200 lbs! So decided on the lighter 95-lb 24″ cabinets. We also got a couple of wicker chairs with cushions for the patio.

All of that fit into the back of the Ford Ranger nicely, although I did have to make an extra trip into Lowe’s for some wasp spray, since there was a small wasp nest in a corner of the truck tailgate. Then back home, where the Jensen gang came over. Jared helped unload the cabinet boxes, and the grandkids did their normal squeals of excitement whenever they see “Poppa” (that’s me) and “Grandma”.

All stayed for dinner; we did some steak BBQ with garlic bread and a simple salad. We visited for a while before the Jensen’s went off to watch the fireworks.

Sunday was the usual; leisurely morning, church in the afternoon, and a nice salad with marinated chicken. Then relaxing with the computers and TV.

On tap this week: putting together garage cabinets and bookshelves. And perhaps emptying some more boxes. That’s always fun, because, even though we tried labeling things as we packed them, there are still exciting discoveries when we open a box (“So that’s where that went!”)

Today’s chore was to finish the weeding in the back yard, and I was able to get that finished. The back yard is now weed-free, or at least weed-short. Since the surrounding lots in my little subdivision are not sold yet, my lot is surrounded by weeds. But at least I know the size of the yard (roughly), so I can start planning what is going to go where. Not planning on fencing the yard yet; I’ll wait for new neighbors to help with the cost. And I like the openness of the area without fencing.

Then, in a burst of energy, I decided to mow the front yard. A bit of weed whacking around the edges, and I fired up the new lawnmower for the second time. Got it all done, but I was a bit winded afterwards. Since my previous house had such a small yard, and it came with a cheap weekly ‘mow and blow’ service, my desk-bound body is not in that terrific shape (although I claim that ’round is a shape’). The new place gives me a bit of opportunity for a bit more exercise with yardwork, although I did opt for a propelled lawnmower. So no pushing, but I still have to walk.

The afternoon was spent with some updating of Jason’s music site (http://www.manimatronicrecords.com ) with the missing music links. Not sure why those links wandered off, but they are now working. There’s some minor updating needed for his ‘tribute’ site (http://www.jasonhellewell.com ) that is now higher up on the list. Jason was an accomplished self-taught electronic musician; we think that some of his compositions are quite amazing. It is, of course, sad that he decided to end his struggle with being bipolar. Whenever I hear some good electronic music, I think that he could have done so much more if he was still around.

This evening we went to a more upscale burger place (not really fancy, but good). The sky was a bit threatening, with dark clouds gathering. It looked like a good thunderstorm was brewing…and that was the result. A very hard downpour, with lightening flashes and thunder booming, lasting 10-15 minutes on the way home. The nice part about that was that it washed off all the bugs off the car from yesterday’s trip by Pam and Joelle (granddaughter) to Antelope Island. On the causeway home, they ran into a rain of insects (small bugs, not sure what kind), which attached themselves to the front of the car. But driving through the rain got rid of most of them.

When we got home, we had left a few windows open. The wind had driven in some rain, but a quick work with the carpet cleaner vacuum thing picked up the dampness in the carpet.

…back in the saddle….for today, anyway.

Today’s project was more weed-whacking in the back yard. Although the front yard is landscaped (well, a lawn and sprinklers, with a concrete edged area around the house with a few weeds), the back yard has never been improved since the builder levelled the lot. The result is a goodly pile of weeds.

Some of the weeds are quite impressive. There’s a few 4 foot tall prickly plants with purple flowers, some foxtails, and other varieties of unknown (to me) names. Many are 2-3 feet tall.

Over last week and this week, I have taken my new weed whacking machine out there, along with long pants, work boots, ear plugs, safety glasses, and a hat. All of those are necessary items; there is the occasional flying weed parts whizzing by my ears.

Today I got another 1/3 of the weeds cut down. There’s one more patch left, about 1/4 of the back yard. That’s a job for another day.

This afternoon, an approaching thunderstorm brought a lot of wind – 20mph, with gusts up to 45mph (according to someones’ weather station a few miles away). A lot of dust blowing from the deserts on the other side of the Salt Lake. It was windy and dusty enough that I had to use the safety glasses when I wandered outside. The advantage of the wind was that all the weeds that I have cut down have wandered off to places unknown.

The weed-eating was my big task of the day. I spent a bit of time on-line looking at the mail, and working on updating my late son’s music site. There were some missing music file links on the pages that he built (and I slightly modified and moved the hosting after his death). I still have to upload the changes. But sitting in the basement was nice; there is a large finished family room down here. I’ve got the recliner and the older 46″ LCD screen down here along with one of the DirecTV DVR’s), so it’s quite comfortable.

We’re basically moved into the new house. All the furniture is here; the replacement mattress came yesterday. We got a new one when we moved in, but it was a bit firm for me. I’ve been waking up (early; which is not what I expected when I retired) with stiffness in my upper back. So we traded for the softest mattress, which was delivered yesterday. I woke up this morning with less back stiffness, so maybe it will be a better mattress for me.

I’ve gotten all the computers hooked up here. The desktop computer and a small Windows 2008 server are set up in the corner of the basement in the area that has been roughed in for a kitchenette area. The wireless network connects to our two laptops, and a wireless Canon MP 620 printer/scanner that’s upstairs in Pam’s scrapbook room (one of the bedrooms upstairs). There’s a small laser printer on the desk downstairs that is connected to the desktop computer, but I have a wireless box for it that needs to be installed.

We’ve got one of the grandkids to spend the night (Joelle; age 9). That’s fun for them, and not too hard if you only have one of them. She had a dance recital two nights ago; there were about 20-25 different classes of varying ages (dancing, cheer leading, and tumbling), so the program was about two hour. But a fun time was had by all.

Tomorrow’s plan? Finishing up the weeding. Although there is a new thunderstorm due tomorrow (today’s was just wind in our area). It’s been an unusually wet June for this area, as for others. But I like the cooler weather. And the basement will be nice when it gets warmer outside.