10/20/10

If they get to do it to me, then by golly I'm gonna turn the tables on them →  The federal government are nothing but a bunch of racists!  Well, the USDA, at least.  "Under an interim rule, the USDA agreed to bar WIC participants from buying potatoes with their federal dollars. Potatoes are the only vegetable not allowed."  Banning potatoes for poor women and children?  And we know who likes the potatoes, don't we?  What's next?  Are they gonna ban cops, beer, and Catholicism too?  Racists.  You should have seen that powdered milk shit that my mother used to get from the WIC office here in Michigan.  It had to be worse than a plate of fries.  Had to be.  That processed cheese wasn't bad though.

Fortunately for me, the powers that be are still willing to allow people to drink real milk.  They seem to go back and forth every few years regarding whether or not it's good for you, but it's on your store shelves nonetheless.  Getting it into the stores is the way your don makes a living now, so hopefully more studies will say that milk does a body good... or whatever.

My three stops today went well enough.  I got rolling shortly after noon and headed out to Jackson.  Then it was across town to the other store in Jackson before rolling out to Hillsdale for my final stop.  No incidents, only moderate ass pain, $150 for an easy shift, all is well.

I was done with work too early to head to the gym, given that I prefer the less crowded late night environment for my workouts, so I had some dinner and took a long nap in my car.  Once I woke and started rolling up to Novi, my car's instrument panel started getting colorful.  A little too colorful.  I already told you about the coolant situation.  That hasn't changed, obviously, so I wasn't terribly shocked to see that the 'check engine' light came on tonight.  The temperature gauge has been all over the place, so the car's computer is probably not sure what to make of the situation.

I was more surprised to see that the little car with skidmarks behind it and the 'TCS OFF' lights came on and stayed on.  That skidding car indicator usually comes on for a second or two if my tires start to spin on an icy or snowy road.  I think the car reduces power to the spinning wheel or something.  Then the light goes off and everything is normal.  There's a button that I can press to override this system and keep my wheels spinning, if I so choose.  When I press this button, the 'TCS OFF' light comes on.  Then, if I press the button again, the light goes off.  Tonight, for whatever reason, both indicators came on and stayed on.  I tried pressing the TCS button to see if it would make the indicator go away.  Nope.  One more fucking thing on my list.

I just paid a shitload of money for a rebuilt engine and the mechanic took the liberty of replacing the thermostat and housing in the process, so I guess I'll have to take the car back to him in the morning.  I can only assume that all of the parts involved would be under warranty for at least a few hundred miles.  There's no point in going to another shop or a dealer and paying someone else to fix the same stuff when it probably won't cost me anything to go back to the original place.  In the back of my mind though, I'm tempted to go to a damned dealer anyway.  I would have expected to get more than three weeks' worth of driving out of the thing before shit started leaking and the gauges started going haywire.  The guy who put in my new engine is a friend of the family and all, but what if he's just incompetent?  I do know that he's a fairly heavy drinker.  Then again, that must mean he's really smart.  I'm gonna go ahead and have him take a look tomorrow, but he's on a very short leash at this point.

Aggravation tends to be a pretty good motivator once it's time to throw some weights around.  Tonight was no exception.  I had to go really light on the cardio work due to the aforementioned ass pain, but the shoulder workout was nice and intense.  We'll take the small victories where we can get them these days.