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What a Week
Well, a lot has happened. So I think I'm justified in saying that. Most of you know I've had a pretty rough year. This week... (well last 7 days, ne?) well... it started out ok. It kind of went downhill from there. It's ok now, though some things will take time.
I know usually I have a bad tendency to post a lot when nothing is going on, and then not post for a long time when there is plenty I could talk about. I would say that's probably because WHEN it's going on, I'm too busy dealing with the problem or problems to bother complaining about it on my LiveJournal. Anyway, so here is how the last seven days of my life have gone.
Wednesday, September 27: My Daughter turned 17. Nothing wrong with that. She's a great kid, and nothing is wrong with her at all. However, the day was not all brightness. I quit smoking. Saruman the White was sick... and by the end of the day, it was clear that it was not just some minor thing that he'd be over in a day or so. By the end of the day I was smoking my roommate's cigarettes for him as we worried over our little friend. We let him outside because whenever we were outside he would beg to come out with us, and then he decided to sit under the bush for a while and stay out when we went in. We let him, thinking it was best that he be wherever he was most comfortable. Then a storm popped up and he got soaked. I put a blanket over the bush to keep the rain off him, but he was already wet... and before long had mud all over him. Len and I brought him back in and set up a crate for him with a pillow and blankets. Later, Len decided that it would be better to try to clean him up as much as possible... so he gave him a warm bath, and we put him in clean dry blankets in the crate for the night, and made him as comfortable as we could.
Thursday, September 28: Saruman the White was much worse. Len took him to the emergency vet and had them put him to sleep. We were pretty torn up about this. Now, mind you, I lost my Frodo this year... however, he had been ill for quite some time, and I knew it was only a matter of time. Ever since he had come back from his mysterious disappearance, I had felt like I was on borrowed time with him, and each day was a gift... Frodo went peacefully in his sleep as evidenced by where he was and how he was positioned when we found him in the morning. (and the fact that he talked to me and purred at me the previous night before I went in to bed. Saruman... this was a totally different thing. He was young and healthy, and full of energy and fun. So this was totally unexpected. Unfortunately, we suspect that he was poisoned, and the vet concurs based on Saruman's symptoms. The suspicion is that this was not something someone did intentionally because they hated our cat. More, we think that someone hates the possums and raccoons in our neighborhood and has decided that poison was the best choice to get rid of them. What that person apparently did not know is that they are more likely to kill someone's trusting pet with this kind of poison feed, than they are to kill an actual wild animal. Also, I'm pretty sure they have no idea of the horrible death that they would be inflicting on any animal that is fed this stuff. If he could have been treated, Saruman would have suffered for Days, and possibly never recovered from this. He was Len's cat, and he had to make the choice. I think he made the right one, but it really tore both of us up. On my way to work, I bought another pack of smokes.
Friday, September 29: I received a call from my good friend![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
marynachaotica around noon. Her husband Gerry had passed away, so she's a widow at 45. Again, this was not unexpected. We've all known he was probably not going to last much longer as he's been ill for a long time, and had been having more serious problems this last year with small strokes, and heart attacks, as well as palsies and other problems associated with his 12 year battle with cancer. Even still... it sucks a lot, that I had to cancel my vacation out there this year, so Lexi and I did not get to see him one last time before he crossed over. On the brighter side of this, I smoked my last cigarette from the pack I bought the day before, and I have not had one since. Now nearly a week out, I'm finding it not so hard... I know that Gerry was proud of me when I quit while I was out there. During the first three crucial days that are said to be the hardest, whenever I was sorely tempted, I would say to myself "Help me Gerry," and the thought end the argument with myself. It would get me back into the essential mindset and I would no longer be tempted. Now I'm finding that I'm not arguing with myself about it much, and most of the time I don't think about it. But I will say to anyone who smokes and wants to quit, two things: 1) you will never quit as long as you are only 'trying to quit'. 2) you will never quit as long as you have not completely decided to quit... you have to be in the mindset that you don't want to smoke any more... no ifs ands or buts... you can't say, I want to quit, but I like the sensation, I miss the habit, I liked the flavor, I miss the social aspect... whatever, you have to be 100% in the mindset of quitting. and 3) most importantly once you quit you can NOT CHEAT... no bumming ONE smoke from someone and convincing yourself that it's ok because you aren't really smoking. One a week leads to 2 a week which leads to 1 a day... which leads to buying one pack, and at that point your a smoker. 4) If you smoke a pack a day, you now spend about $1800 a year on smokes.
Saturday, September 30: Nothing bad happened on this day that I can think of. I think I pretty much sat on my ass and felt sorry for myself all day. It's ok.. I deserved it. Everyone needs a little boohoo time once in a while. I think I spent most of the time watching Rurouni Kenshin episodes and reading Manga. Basically avoiding the world, that way nothing else bad could happen hahhaa... (also to reduce the temptation of smoking, which was very successful)
Sunday, October 1: The great brake project begins... I put it off until about uh... 2 pm I think... went over to Autozone and bought the front pads, thinking that since the front brakes give you 90% of your stopping power, I ought to try to do those this week, and then maybe next week I could afford the pads for the rear and get them done. I had a little trepidation, because I haven't done my own brakes in several years. I know how to do it, but different cars are different. My old Corolla was extremely simple... there were 4 cotter pins you pulled out and the whole assembly fell apart. You push the cylinder back in with a C-clamp, pop the new pads in, put the assembly back together and put the cotter pins back in. Both brakes done in an hour. This was NOT to be the case with the Eclipse... oh no...
First... the front wheels would NOT COME OFF... no amount of pounding kicking beating jerking, nothing would pull those wheels off... both sides.. spent an hour just trying to get the tires to come off so I could get to the brake assemblies. So I put all the lugs back on, popped the jack in the car and drove back to Autozone thinking one of those guys ought to be able to tell me if there was some special thing I needed to know about to get the tires off the Eclipse. (I went in and told them. "Ok.. let me preface this question with the statement that I DO know how to change a tire... but I CANNOT get the tires off this car. What am I doing wrong here?") Well it turns out the tires wouldn't come off because the outer tie rod ends were so torn up that they had gotten hot and expanded too much so the wheel was STUCK... forcing them off might break the ends off, and I had to be able to drive that car on Monday. UGH... ok.. so I take the front pads back in. I get the rear pads thinking.. well I'll change those, and just hope the front end holds out a little longer till I can get enough money to fix them one side at a time. (incidentally, upon inspection I could see that the rotors on the front were not as bad as I thought, though they weren't in good shape they weren't devastated like the rear ones, and from what I could see at least the outside pad was still ok.)
Working on the back brakes failed to make matters better. It took an HOUR of pounding to get the bolts broke loose on the back left... the caliper I discovered is specifically designed so that you can NOT take one bolt out and pivot the caliper on the other... it's designed so that if you try to do that it only has room to move about half an inch. Not far enough to take the pads out, push the piston back in and replace the pads. So I had to take both bolts out and remove the whole assembly. The rear rotor and caliper were both badly rusted. It was pretty clear that I've been driving this car basically with no rear brakes since I got it 6 months ago. I figured I'd replace the pads for now, and maybe all the messing around and WD40 would get them working. They had to be working at least a little, since the emergency brake depends on the caliper too, and it worked, though not as tightly as it should have. I figure that I'll save up and replace the rotor later (doesn't cost much, but I'd have to borrow a sledge hammer to knock it off. I don't have enough brute strength to do it with a smaller hammer or prybar.) and maybe if the caliper works a little, it will wear off some of that rust anyway.
So I got the assembly off, and after a great deal of prying, got the old pads out... but the caliper is designed in a way that makes it almost impossible to push the piston back in... very difficult to get a C-Clamp or wide grip vice grip... there is no place for the outside of the clamp to get a purchase. Then the piston wouldn't go back in anyway... Well I learned later that this particular model has to be pressed AND TURNED at the same time... Bleh... it's designed to require a special tool... though people do it without, with the caliper completely off it was almost impossible to try to do this... not to mention that it was clear by now that this brake was non functional to begin with... so I decide.. Ok.. I'll put the old pads back in.. and just put it back together. I'd already had a quote of $80 to change the pads on it, and was just trying to save some money, but I could swing that. Not so simple. The caliper wouldn't go back on either. The old pads wouldn't go back in at first, then I got them in after much frustration, and the caliper wouldn't go on with them in... no amount of brute force would make them.
Now it's 5 pm and threatening to rain... I have GOT to get this car back together so I can work tomorrow... so I get this bright idea. Uh... by this time btw, I could only get ONE pad back in. The other one would not go, some piece of rusty junk or something had come loose and was keeping the other pad from going in... well the caliper doesn't work right anyway, so it hardly matters right? So I put the pad I CAN get in into the caliper, plunge the brakes until the cylinder comes out and closes on it. Now mind you, the caliper is OFF the car right now. Once I chose to do this, there was no going back, but I had to get this car back together to drive, and I had no rear brakes when I started, so it hardly mattered. The idea was to close the caliper against something to maintain brake line pressure. Then Len helped me wire it to the inner frame of the car away from the wheel. Talk about (insert derogative here) rigged!! Took it for a short test drive... well all that noise that I had before was gone. Apparently it was all coming from that brake anyway. So I though... great.. at least that problem is solved temporarily moment. I can go to work in the morning. I'll just have to be extra careful now that I KNOW that I have no rear brakes... not like I wasn't already taking it pretty easy given the problems... I had two functional brakes and a standard transmission to slow down with.
Monday, October 2: OH MY GOD!! That damn caliper banged and rattled against the frame the whole freaking day. I could not believe the noise... it didn't bang and clang around like that when I test drove it.. I must not have hit even the tiniest bump when I went up and down the street. Now... I wasn't any more worried about braking power mind you... just the noise was awful and also I knew it couldn't be anything but the most TEMPORARY fix. So I called Muffler Brothers. I remind anyone who has not dealt with these guys, they are the best, and they do way more than just Mufflers. So I talked to Jon at MB, and explained the problem, explained what I did, (told him he was not allowed to laugh at what I did with the caliper because it was an emergency fix because I could NOT afford to miss a day of work... he didn't laugh, and told me what he thought would be best to do.. a) bring the car in and let him get a look at what was going on with both front and rear, make an assessment. b) He said it sounded like I was correct in assuming that I'd need new calipers and that in this case I'd be better off getting the parts myself from Autozone and just bringing them in, since his would be more costly for me. (this is one of the reasons these guys are so great. Most mechanics would never let you bring in your own parts and just charge you the labor.)
So Monday night I broke down and asked my dad if he could help. He'd already said no once, but I was desperate... He knows I haven't been paid yet for my destroyed car, or anything else. There is no question that I will get money for the accident, though there is some question as to whether I will EVER get the the government to pay me what I ACTUALLY lost because of their driver's error. But since most of what I've paid out of pocket is already paid, all that has to be paid out of the settlement is my doctor and lawyer bills. Whatever is left will go to me. The question is how much. But anyway, since he had said no, I asked him then if he'd consider lending me Mom's car for a few weeks while I saved enough to have ALL the repairs done at once, rather than let me keep driving a car that was sooo unsafe. He has loaned me his truck before when my car has been in the shop, so I thought maybe that since they were going to go to their winter home in just a couple of weeks leaving her car behind, that maybe there was a chance they would allow it. Oh boy... was I ever wrong. Apparently there is a big difference between borrowing my dads truck (which he doesn't have any more btw) and borrowing my mom's car. (see, when Dad had the Truck and Mom had the car, they drove Mom's car whenever they went somewhere together. but now the truck has been traded for a van, and they take the van wherever they go... that's why the car gets left behind.) I pointed out that he always complains when I wait until it's an emergency before I ask for help... but then when I ask before it is, I get yelled at for not paying them back. I reminded him that every time I have tried to pay them back money they have loaned me they won't take it, so the complaint that I never pay them back is really unfair. Anyway, so he agreed to lend me $500, and I said that if he wouldn't take it back in person, then I would mail a cashier's check so he won't have any choice but take it this time.
Now I had to find a car to drive while mine was in the shop, because I could NOT drive it like that with the caliper banging and slamming against the frame, and Dad was not going to let me have the Camry even for a couple of days. Thank you,evilpenguini and her hubby for loaning me his car. You saved my life once again. So I ended my day playing musical cars, getting my substitute, and dropping off the Eclipse. Then I went home, got on Autozone's website and priced all the parts I knew I was going to need. I might not need all of them that day, but I had the prices for all of them anyway, and printed out my list. Fortunately, the entire list of parts would fit in the budget even with core charges, and still leave room for the labor... and I'd get the core charges back.
(Let me just say here, that my dad is not an asshole, ok... He's a great dad and I love him very much. My parents are the best parents I could ever have. But Dad has some health problems and one of the medications he has to take pretty regularly also makes him pretty crotchety at times. So I just have to take that with a grain of salt. It's only the last couple of years that he's been particularly difficult, and I know that it's because of the medication. Mom has even been known to call this particular med his "mean pills". I try really hard to please him because frankly he is my hero, and is the measure by which I measure all other men. Few measure up.)
Tuesday, October 3: Well first of all, let me say that I got my first halfway decent night of sleep in probably a week... not perfect but certainly better than lately... whew... First, I worked my shift. Dad dropped the money off to me at work. I told him he could just write a check and I could take it to the bank, but he insisted on going and cashing the check and giving me cash. I don't know why he does that... but it's just one of his quirks.
Anyway, driving an Escort is very different from driving an Eclipse, hahaha.. .but I've driven that car pretty extensively over the years as it belonged tophoenixfyre1 before it belonged to the evilpenguini family, and whenever phoenixfyre1 and I did anything we took her car which was better than mine, but I drove because I like driving better than she does anyway. But it's different... in the Eclips, I'm probably 12 inches from the ground seat and all. There is barely room for my fingers under the seat, and the seat has a pretty deep bucket, so it's not very thick ... I"m almost sitting on the floor of the car and the car is very low to the ground too. The Escort of course is built much differently, so it was different driving it after not driving it for so long. One thing I'll say is that the Eclipse is really not set up for hacking pizza... I cannot get my orders in through the driver door... I have to put them in one side and walk around to the other. The cockpit is just not set up well for reaching through. Have to get them out the same way. With the Escort, I can go straight in bag and all, set the bag on the passenger seat as I get in on the driver side and away I go.
Towards the end of my shift, I talked to. Jon over at MB had gone over the car and told me what absolutely HAD TO BE DONE right now to get the car back to reasonable safety for me to drive. Both rear calipers were cooked so I needed them, the rear rotors were also completely cooked... already had the pads so I didn't need those. The calipers were what would cost the most. The rotors were only about $40... I can remember a time when rotors were SUPER expensive... now it costs about as much to buy new ones as it used to cost to have the old ones turned. Anyway, the idea was to get the rear fixed and then we would work on the front end a bit at a time as I could afford it.
Since it was slow at work, I ran across the street to Autozone to get the parts, but just as I was getting to the counter Jon called me back and told me not to buy my parts yet... he wanted to look at something else first, and would call me right back. So I went back to work. Jon called me back and said that the tie rod ends were just SO bad that he felt that they really couldn't wait... if one broke it could be very dangerous... If you don't now, your tie rods are basically what holds your steering system to your wheels. If they break, you can't steer... not even to hold the car steady; Worse, the wheels can turn whichever way the road pushes them until you get the car stopped. Imagine having a tie rod end break at 35 miles an hour going around a curve. That's damned dangerous. So he gave me a new list. Now I would have to have both real calipers, all four rotors, front pads, outer tie rod ends. The CV joints were the only thing he thought were still good enough to last a little while. He said that given the way I handle my car, (a compliment btw, they know that when I'm driving an old man of a car, I treat it like an old man... I'm very gentle, and don't jerk it around corners or gun the engine etc.) that he thought they would probably last me at least into winter. I should have my settlement by then for sure. The government (unlike private citizens who destroy someone's car) has 6 months do decide whether they feel like paying a claim or arguing about it... the Lawyer aimed for what he considers a fair claim that they won't argue about. We don't want to have to go to court to get my money... so it should be 6 months or less.
After work, I went back over to Autozone. Well they didn't have all my parts... so I had to go to the Airway store and get most of them... but hte Airway store didn't have one of the rotors... took them 45 minutes to get the whole order in and assembled.. then I had to race back to my local store, pick up the last rotor and then hurry to MB in order to drop off my parts before they closed. They were closed, but I'd called at five till to tell them I was on my way, so they waited for me.
After that I went home ate sugar free ice cream, and watched the Last Samurai. (Note: I have been on a Rurouni Kenshin kick lately which takes place starting in the year Meiji 11 which is 1878 I think... and that made me want to watch the Last Samurai which takes place in I think Meiji 9 which is 1876 if I remember the dates correctly) It's an awesome movie.
Today: Well today was fine... was snoozing (i.e. the alarm had gone off, but I was still hitting the snooze and hadn't got up yet. I don't have to get up when the alarm goes off... I can snooze until my phone alarm goes off, and then I have to get up) when my phone rang. It was Jon at MB... he asks "Do you where the bolts are that you took out of that caliper?" I'm like "uh... let me think..." another call comes in, so he puts me on hold while I think about this.. I know I have them.. because I put them away so I wouldn't lose them since I knew I would need them. Well by the time he came back I remembered that I'd put them in the case with my Craftsman wrenches. I was afraid they'd get lost in the regular toolbox. So before work, I ran those two bolts up there. I assumed that they were just getting started on it when they called. I drove the borrowed car all day while the Eclipse was in surgery. I called about 3 to see if it was still going to be ready. Jon said "oh yeah, it's done. I thought you were just going to pick it up after work so I didn't think I'd need to call. That caliper I needed the bolts for was the last thing we had to do to it." So that was good. He gave me the total of the labor. A little more than he'd thought when he first quoted it, but not so much that it caused a problem. Still within the budget.
I stopped by on a delivery and paid him, that way if I stayed late at work, I could still pick the car up later. Turned out that I got off work on time after all.. well only half an hour late, but I almost always work half an hour late... I consider my off time to be 5pm every day even though I'm only scheduled until 4:30... that's fine with me most of the time. So I went back up to MB and picked up my cores, took them back to Autozone, got my money. Went to the bank, deposited what I had left less what I wanted to put in my tank. I also kept a few dollars to buy a hamburger. I didn't want to deal with cooking, since I knew I needed to play musical cars again tonight. Got home about 6... got my bath, clean clothes, headed up to theevilpenguini family residence to pick up her hubby. I drove the Eclipse since either way we'd have to go back to the same place before we could part ways, and I wanted to get a feel for all the work that had been done.
Well, I tell you what, I realise that the steering is now the way it is SUPPOSED to be, but I was so used to it being sloppy, that now it seems TOO touchy, so it will be a few days getting used to that. Also will have to get used to not HAVING to downshift to try to save the brakes. Now I can put my foot on the brake and there is no squealing, squalling, protesting, scraping, rubbing... the car slows down and stops. hahahaha! No downshifting required to help it slow down faster. But it will take some time to get used to it. So we made the exchange at MB and I came home. Watched the last of my movie (erm... go figure I got sleepy right at the beginning of the last battle scene... so I paused it and went to bed last night. Finished watching it today.) And that's how my week has gone. Oh... having taken care of everything else, I paid my Verizon bill so I will continue to have a phone for another month! hahaha.
Get paid Friday, will take care of the mortgage... which I have been working back towards the first of the month for a couple of months now.. I had been just squeaking it in before the late date for the last few months since the accident, so even though this car problem became an emergency, it's only because I just haven't been back to hacking pizza for long enough to exact any sort of safety buffer or emergency fund. I imagine I won't start rebuilding my savings for some months yet, but I'm getting there... if the car will just hold out a few more months things should be all right. I AM going to try to pull together a few hundred dollars and pick up one of these little Honda Civics that I occasionally catch on autotrader for $500 or $600.. that way I will have an emergency backup car again. This is the first time in years that I have not had a backup vehicle, and I do not like it... that I do not.
Oh... one other thing. I considering starting a fund to help raise awareness of the dangers of poisoned bait to neighborhood pets. So as a part of that, I'm going to set up a paypal account for that, and will probably start with a button here, and ask that anyone else interested in helping, post one on their websites. Will probably be a few days before I have time to fool with that... the desire is to gain enough money just to pay for ink and paper so I can put some informational flyers in vets offices and so on, as well as some specific information about what happened to Saruman. If at some point I find that I have more coming in than I need to pay for that expense, then the remainder will either be donated to an animal charity, of which we have so very very few here in this area, or else it if there is enough, then I will donate ear mark it to pay for shots and a spay or neuter of an abandoned pet that someone wants to take in like the case with Saruman who was dumped on our doorstep on Christmas morning. I'll post when that's finished of course.
Now... on with your regularly scheduled boredom. ^_^ I'm off to bed.
I know usually I have a bad tendency to post a lot when nothing is going on, and then not post for a long time when there is plenty I could talk about. I would say that's probably because WHEN it's going on, I'm too busy dealing with the problem or problems to bother complaining about it on my LiveJournal. Anyway, so here is how the last seven days of my life have gone.
Wednesday, September 27: My Daughter turned 17. Nothing wrong with that. She's a great kid, and nothing is wrong with her at all. However, the day was not all brightness. I quit smoking. Saruman the White was sick... and by the end of the day, it was clear that it was not just some minor thing that he'd be over in a day or so. By the end of the day I was smoking my roommate's cigarettes for him as we worried over our little friend. We let him outside because whenever we were outside he would beg to come out with us, and then he decided to sit under the bush for a while and stay out when we went in. We let him, thinking it was best that he be wherever he was most comfortable. Then a storm popped up and he got soaked. I put a blanket over the bush to keep the rain off him, but he was already wet... and before long had mud all over him. Len and I brought him back in and set up a crate for him with a pillow and blankets. Later, Len decided that it would be better to try to clean him up as much as possible... so he gave him a warm bath, and we put him in clean dry blankets in the crate for the night, and made him as comfortable as we could.
Thursday, September 28: Saruman the White was much worse. Len took him to the emergency vet and had them put him to sleep. We were pretty torn up about this. Now, mind you, I lost my Frodo this year... however, he had been ill for quite some time, and I knew it was only a matter of time. Ever since he had come back from his mysterious disappearance, I had felt like I was on borrowed time with him, and each day was a gift... Frodo went peacefully in his sleep as evidenced by where he was and how he was positioned when we found him in the morning. (and the fact that he talked to me and purred at me the previous night before I went in to bed. Saruman... this was a totally different thing. He was young and healthy, and full of energy and fun. So this was totally unexpected. Unfortunately, we suspect that he was poisoned, and the vet concurs based on Saruman's symptoms. The suspicion is that this was not something someone did intentionally because they hated our cat. More, we think that someone hates the possums and raccoons in our neighborhood and has decided that poison was the best choice to get rid of them. What that person apparently did not know is that they are more likely to kill someone's trusting pet with this kind of poison feed, than they are to kill an actual wild animal. Also, I'm pretty sure they have no idea of the horrible death that they would be inflicting on any animal that is fed this stuff. If he could have been treated, Saruman would have suffered for Days, and possibly never recovered from this. He was Len's cat, and he had to make the choice. I think he made the right one, but it really tore both of us up. On my way to work, I bought another pack of smokes.
Friday, September 29: I received a call from my good friend
marynachaotica around noon. Her husband Gerry had passed away, so she's a widow at 45. Again, this was not unexpected. We've all known he was probably not going to last much longer as he's been ill for a long time, and had been having more serious problems this last year with small strokes, and heart attacks, as well as palsies and other problems associated with his 12 year battle with cancer. Even still... it sucks a lot, that I had to cancel my vacation out there this year, so Lexi and I did not get to see him one last time before he crossed over. On the brighter side of this, I smoked my last cigarette from the pack I bought the day before, and I have not had one since. Now nearly a week out, I'm finding it not so hard... I know that Gerry was proud of me when I quit while I was out there. During the first three crucial days that are said to be the hardest, whenever I was sorely tempted, I would say to myself "Help me Gerry," and the thought end the argument with myself. It would get me back into the essential mindset and I would no longer be tempted. Now I'm finding that I'm not arguing with myself about it much, and most of the time I don't think about it. But I will say to anyone who smokes and wants to quit, two things: 1) you will never quit as long as you are only 'trying to quit'. 2) you will never quit as long as you have not completely decided to quit... you have to be in the mindset that you don't want to smoke any more... no ifs ands or buts... you can't say, I want to quit, but I like the sensation, I miss the habit, I liked the flavor, I miss the social aspect... whatever, you have to be 100% in the mindset of quitting. and 3) most importantly once you quit you can NOT CHEAT... no bumming ONE smoke from someone and convincing yourself that it's ok because you aren't really smoking. One a week leads to 2 a week which leads to 1 a day... which leads to buying one pack, and at that point your a smoker. 4) If you smoke a pack a day, you now spend about $1800 a year on smokes.Saturday, September 30: Nothing bad happened on this day that I can think of. I think I pretty much sat on my ass and felt sorry for myself all day. It's ok.. I deserved it. Everyone needs a little boohoo time once in a while. I think I spent most of the time watching Rurouni Kenshin episodes and reading Manga. Basically avoiding the world, that way nothing else bad could happen hahhaa... (also to reduce the temptation of smoking, which was very successful)
Sunday, October 1: The great brake project begins... I put it off until about uh... 2 pm I think... went over to Autozone and bought the front pads, thinking that since the front brakes give you 90% of your stopping power, I ought to try to do those this week, and then maybe next week I could afford the pads for the rear and get them done. I had a little trepidation, because I haven't done my own brakes in several years. I know how to do it, but different cars are different. My old Corolla was extremely simple... there were 4 cotter pins you pulled out and the whole assembly fell apart. You push the cylinder back in with a C-clamp, pop the new pads in, put the assembly back together and put the cotter pins back in. Both brakes done in an hour. This was NOT to be the case with the Eclipse... oh no...
First... the front wheels would NOT COME OFF... no amount of pounding kicking beating jerking, nothing would pull those wheels off... both sides.. spent an hour just trying to get the tires to come off so I could get to the brake assemblies. So I put all the lugs back on, popped the jack in the car and drove back to Autozone thinking one of those guys ought to be able to tell me if there was some special thing I needed to know about to get the tires off the Eclipse. (I went in and told them. "Ok.. let me preface this question with the statement that I DO know how to change a tire... but I CANNOT get the tires off this car. What am I doing wrong here?") Well it turns out the tires wouldn't come off because the outer tie rod ends were so torn up that they had gotten hot and expanded too much so the wheel was STUCK... forcing them off might break the ends off, and I had to be able to drive that car on Monday. UGH... ok.. so I take the front pads back in. I get the rear pads thinking.. well I'll change those, and just hope the front end holds out a little longer till I can get enough money to fix them one side at a time. (incidentally, upon inspection I could see that the rotors on the front were not as bad as I thought, though they weren't in good shape they weren't devastated like the rear ones, and from what I could see at least the outside pad was still ok.)
Working on the back brakes failed to make matters better. It took an HOUR of pounding to get the bolts broke loose on the back left... the caliper I discovered is specifically designed so that you can NOT take one bolt out and pivot the caliper on the other... it's designed so that if you try to do that it only has room to move about half an inch. Not far enough to take the pads out, push the piston back in and replace the pads. So I had to take both bolts out and remove the whole assembly. The rear rotor and caliper were both badly rusted. It was pretty clear that I've been driving this car basically with no rear brakes since I got it 6 months ago. I figured I'd replace the pads for now, and maybe all the messing around and WD40 would get them working. They had to be working at least a little, since the emergency brake depends on the caliper too, and it worked, though not as tightly as it should have. I figure that I'll save up and replace the rotor later (doesn't cost much, but I'd have to borrow a sledge hammer to knock it off. I don't have enough brute strength to do it with a smaller hammer or prybar.) and maybe if the caliper works a little, it will wear off some of that rust anyway.
So I got the assembly off, and after a great deal of prying, got the old pads out... but the caliper is designed in a way that makes it almost impossible to push the piston back in... very difficult to get a C-Clamp or wide grip vice grip... there is no place for the outside of the clamp to get a purchase. Then the piston wouldn't go back in anyway... Well I learned later that this particular model has to be pressed AND TURNED at the same time... Bleh... it's designed to require a special tool... though people do it without, with the caliper completely off it was almost impossible to try to do this... not to mention that it was clear by now that this brake was non functional to begin with... so I decide.. Ok.. I'll put the old pads back in.. and just put it back together. I'd already had a quote of $80 to change the pads on it, and was just trying to save some money, but I could swing that. Not so simple. The caliper wouldn't go back on either. The old pads wouldn't go back in at first, then I got them in after much frustration, and the caliper wouldn't go on with them in... no amount of brute force would make them.
Now it's 5 pm and threatening to rain... I have GOT to get this car back together so I can work tomorrow... so I get this bright idea. Uh... by this time btw, I could only get ONE pad back in. The other one would not go, some piece of rusty junk or something had come loose and was keeping the other pad from going in... well the caliper doesn't work right anyway, so it hardly matters right? So I put the pad I CAN get in into the caliper, plunge the brakes until the cylinder comes out and closes on it. Now mind you, the caliper is OFF the car right now. Once I chose to do this, there was no going back, but I had to get this car back together to drive, and I had no rear brakes when I started, so it hardly mattered. The idea was to close the caliper against something to maintain brake line pressure. Then Len helped me wire it to the inner frame of the car away from the wheel. Talk about (insert derogative here) rigged!! Took it for a short test drive... well all that noise that I had before was gone. Apparently it was all coming from that brake anyway. So I though... great.. at least that problem is solved temporarily moment. I can go to work in the morning. I'll just have to be extra careful now that I KNOW that I have no rear brakes... not like I wasn't already taking it pretty easy given the problems... I had two functional brakes and a standard transmission to slow down with.
Monday, October 2: OH MY GOD!! That damn caliper banged and rattled against the frame the whole freaking day. I could not believe the noise... it didn't bang and clang around like that when I test drove it.. I must not have hit even the tiniest bump when I went up and down the street. Now... I wasn't any more worried about braking power mind you... just the noise was awful and also I knew it couldn't be anything but the most TEMPORARY fix. So I called Muffler Brothers. I remind anyone who has not dealt with these guys, they are the best, and they do way more than just Mufflers. So I talked to Jon at MB, and explained the problem, explained what I did, (told him he was not allowed to laugh at what I did with the caliper because it was an emergency fix because I could NOT afford to miss a day of work... he didn't laugh, and told me what he thought would be best to do.. a) bring the car in and let him get a look at what was going on with both front and rear, make an assessment. b) He said it sounded like I was correct in assuming that I'd need new calipers and that in this case I'd be better off getting the parts myself from Autozone and just bringing them in, since his would be more costly for me. (this is one of the reasons these guys are so great. Most mechanics would never let you bring in your own parts and just charge you the labor.)
So Monday night I broke down and asked my dad if he could help. He'd already said no once, but I was desperate... He knows I haven't been paid yet for my destroyed car, or anything else. There is no question that I will get money for the accident, though there is some question as to whether I will EVER get the the government to pay me what I ACTUALLY lost because of their driver's error. But since most of what I've paid out of pocket is already paid, all that has to be paid out of the settlement is my doctor and lawyer bills. Whatever is left will go to me. The question is how much. But anyway, since he had said no, I asked him then if he'd consider lending me Mom's car for a few weeks while I saved enough to have ALL the repairs done at once, rather than let me keep driving a car that was sooo unsafe. He has loaned me his truck before when my car has been in the shop, so I thought maybe that since they were going to go to their winter home in just a couple of weeks leaving her car behind, that maybe there was a chance they would allow it. Oh boy... was I ever wrong. Apparently there is a big difference between borrowing my dads truck (which he doesn't have any more btw) and borrowing my mom's car. (see, when Dad had the Truck and Mom had the car, they drove Mom's car whenever they went somewhere together. but now the truck has been traded for a van, and they take the van wherever they go... that's why the car gets left behind.) I pointed out that he always complains when I wait until it's an emergency before I ask for help... but then when I ask before it is, I get yelled at for not paying them back. I reminded him that every time I have tried to pay them back money they have loaned me they won't take it, so the complaint that I never pay them back is really unfair. Anyway, so he agreed to lend me $500, and I said that if he wouldn't take it back in person, then I would mail a cashier's check so he won't have any choice but take it this time.
Now I had to find a car to drive while mine was in the shop, because I could NOT drive it like that with the caliper banging and slamming against the frame, and Dad was not going to let me have the Camry even for a couple of days. Thank you,
evilpenguini and her hubby for loaning me his car. You saved my life once again. So I ended my day playing musical cars, getting my substitute, and dropping off the Eclipse. Then I went home, got on Autozone's website and priced all the parts I knew I was going to need. I might not need all of them that day, but I had the prices for all of them anyway, and printed out my list. Fortunately, the entire list of parts would fit in the budget even with core charges, and still leave room for the labor... and I'd get the core charges back.(Let me just say here, that my dad is not an asshole, ok... He's a great dad and I love him very much. My parents are the best parents I could ever have. But Dad has some health problems and one of the medications he has to take pretty regularly also makes him pretty crotchety at times. So I just have to take that with a grain of salt. It's only the last couple of years that he's been particularly difficult, and I know that it's because of the medication. Mom has even been known to call this particular med his "mean pills". I try really hard to please him because frankly he is my hero, and is the measure by which I measure all other men. Few measure up.)
Tuesday, October 3: Well first of all, let me say that I got my first halfway decent night of sleep in probably a week... not perfect but certainly better than lately... whew... First, I worked my shift. Dad dropped the money off to me at work. I told him he could just write a check and I could take it to the bank, but he insisted on going and cashing the check and giving me cash. I don't know why he does that... but it's just one of his quirks.
Anyway, driving an Escort is very different from driving an Eclipse, hahaha.. .but I've driven that car pretty extensively over the years as it belonged to
phoenixfyre1 before it belonged to the evilpenguini family, and whenever phoenixfyre1 and I did anything we took her car which was better than mine, but I drove because I like driving better than she does anyway. But it's different... in the Eclips, I'm probably 12 inches from the ground seat and all. There is barely room for my fingers under the seat, and the seat has a pretty deep bucket, so it's not very thick ... I"m almost sitting on the floor of the car and the car is very low to the ground too. The Escort of course is built much differently, so it was different driving it after not driving it for so long. One thing I'll say is that the Eclipse is really not set up for hacking pizza... I cannot get my orders in through the driver door... I have to put them in one side and walk around to the other. The cockpit is just not set up well for reaching through. Have to get them out the same way. With the Escort, I can go straight in bag and all, set the bag on the passenger seat as I get in on the driver side and away I go.Towards the end of my shift, I talked to. Jon over at MB had gone over the car and told me what absolutely HAD TO BE DONE right now to get the car back to reasonable safety for me to drive. Both rear calipers were cooked so I needed them, the rear rotors were also completely cooked... already had the pads so I didn't need those. The calipers were what would cost the most. The rotors were only about $40... I can remember a time when rotors were SUPER expensive... now it costs about as much to buy new ones as it used to cost to have the old ones turned. Anyway, the idea was to get the rear fixed and then we would work on the front end a bit at a time as I could afford it.
Since it was slow at work, I ran across the street to Autozone to get the parts, but just as I was getting to the counter Jon called me back and told me not to buy my parts yet... he wanted to look at something else first, and would call me right back. So I went back to work. Jon called me back and said that the tie rod ends were just SO bad that he felt that they really couldn't wait... if one broke it could be very dangerous... If you don't now, your tie rods are basically what holds your steering system to your wheels. If they break, you can't steer... not even to hold the car steady; Worse, the wheels can turn whichever way the road pushes them until you get the car stopped. Imagine having a tie rod end break at 35 miles an hour going around a curve. That's damned dangerous. So he gave me a new list. Now I would have to have both real calipers, all four rotors, front pads, outer tie rod ends. The CV joints were the only thing he thought were still good enough to last a little while. He said that given the way I handle my car, (a compliment btw, they know that when I'm driving an old man of a car, I treat it like an old man... I'm very gentle, and don't jerk it around corners or gun the engine etc.) that he thought they would probably last me at least into winter. I should have my settlement by then for sure. The government (unlike private citizens who destroy someone's car) has 6 months do decide whether they feel like paying a claim or arguing about it... the Lawyer aimed for what he considers a fair claim that they won't argue about. We don't want to have to go to court to get my money... so it should be 6 months or less.
After work, I went back over to Autozone. Well they didn't have all my parts... so I had to go to the Airway store and get most of them... but hte Airway store didn't have one of the rotors... took them 45 minutes to get the whole order in and assembled.. then I had to race back to my local store, pick up the last rotor and then hurry to MB in order to drop off my parts before they closed. They were closed, but I'd called at five till to tell them I was on my way, so they waited for me.
After that I went home ate sugar free ice cream, and watched the Last Samurai. (Note: I have been on a Rurouni Kenshin kick lately which takes place starting in the year Meiji 11 which is 1878 I think... and that made me want to watch the Last Samurai which takes place in I think Meiji 9 which is 1876 if I remember the dates correctly) It's an awesome movie.
Today: Well today was fine... was snoozing (i.e. the alarm had gone off, but I was still hitting the snooze and hadn't got up yet. I don't have to get up when the alarm goes off... I can snooze until my phone alarm goes off, and then I have to get up) when my phone rang. It was Jon at MB... he asks "Do you where the bolts are that you took out of that caliper?" I'm like "uh... let me think..." another call comes in, so he puts me on hold while I think about this.. I know I have them.. because I put them away so I wouldn't lose them since I knew I would need them. Well by the time he came back I remembered that I'd put them in the case with my Craftsman wrenches. I was afraid they'd get lost in the regular toolbox. So before work, I ran those two bolts up there. I assumed that they were just getting started on it when they called. I drove the borrowed car all day while the Eclipse was in surgery. I called about 3 to see if it was still going to be ready. Jon said "oh yeah, it's done. I thought you were just going to pick it up after work so I didn't think I'd need to call. That caliper I needed the bolts for was the last thing we had to do to it." So that was good. He gave me the total of the labor. A little more than he'd thought when he first quoted it, but not so much that it caused a problem. Still within the budget.
I stopped by on a delivery and paid him, that way if I stayed late at work, I could still pick the car up later. Turned out that I got off work on time after all.. well only half an hour late, but I almost always work half an hour late... I consider my off time to be 5pm every day even though I'm only scheduled until 4:30... that's fine with me most of the time. So I went back up to MB and picked up my cores, took them back to Autozone, got my money. Went to the bank, deposited what I had left less what I wanted to put in my tank. I also kept a few dollars to buy a hamburger. I didn't want to deal with cooking, since I knew I needed to play musical cars again tonight. Got home about 6... got my bath, clean clothes, headed up to the
evilpenguini family residence to pick up her hubby. I drove the Eclipse since either way we'd have to go back to the same place before we could part ways, and I wanted to get a feel for all the work that had been done.Well, I tell you what, I realise that the steering is now the way it is SUPPOSED to be, but I was so used to it being sloppy, that now it seems TOO touchy, so it will be a few days getting used to that. Also will have to get used to not HAVING to downshift to try to save the brakes. Now I can put my foot on the brake and there is no squealing, squalling, protesting, scraping, rubbing... the car slows down and stops. hahahaha! No downshifting required to help it slow down faster. But it will take some time to get used to it. So we made the exchange at MB and I came home. Watched the last of my movie (erm... go figure I got sleepy right at the beginning of the last battle scene... so I paused it and went to bed last night. Finished watching it today.) And that's how my week has gone. Oh... having taken care of everything else, I paid my Verizon bill so I will continue to have a phone for another month! hahaha.
Get paid Friday, will take care of the mortgage... which I have been working back towards the first of the month for a couple of months now.. I had been just squeaking it in before the late date for the last few months since the accident, so even though this car problem became an emergency, it's only because I just haven't been back to hacking pizza for long enough to exact any sort of safety buffer or emergency fund. I imagine I won't start rebuilding my savings for some months yet, but I'm getting there... if the car will just hold out a few more months things should be all right. I AM going to try to pull together a few hundred dollars and pick up one of these little Honda Civics that I occasionally catch on autotrader for $500 or $600.. that way I will have an emergency backup car again. This is the first time in years that I have not had a backup vehicle, and I do not like it... that I do not.
Oh... one other thing. I considering starting a fund to help raise awareness of the dangers of poisoned bait to neighborhood pets. So as a part of that, I'm going to set up a paypal account for that, and will probably start with a button here, and ask that anyone else interested in helping, post one on their websites. Will probably be a few days before I have time to fool with that... the desire is to gain enough money just to pay for ink and paper so I can put some informational flyers in vets offices and so on, as well as some specific information about what happened to Saruman. If at some point I find that I have more coming in than I need to pay for that expense, then the remainder will either be donated to an animal charity, of which we have so very very few here in this area, or else it if there is enough, then I will donate ear mark it to pay for shots and a spay or neuter of an abandoned pet that someone wants to take in like the case with Saruman who was dumped on our doorstep on Christmas morning. I'll post when that's finished of course.
Now... on with your regularly scheduled boredom. ^_^ I'm off to bed.
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