10/21/10

How do you feel about your gut instincts?  Mine tend to lead me astray quite a bit of the time but, when push comes to shove, I usually follow them.  Sometimes they're right.  Sometimes they're wrong.

I got out of bed this morning and prepared to drive my car over to the shop in Allen Park where my replacement engine had been installed.  Just before I walked out the door, the pervasive thought in my mind was, "Fuck that guy.  I don't trust him."  So that was that.  Even though I probably had some financial interest in sticking with the same shop, as I noted in last night's post, I decided to drive down to the Mazda dealer in Woodhaven instead.  Instincts.  Sometimes right, sometimes wrong, always persuasive, at least in my case.

After I dropped off the car, the courtesy shuttle gave me a ride home from the dealership.  Then I had time to do some reading and take a long nap.  I got a call at some point in the afternoon from the boss man in the service department.  The thermostat housing on my engine is cracked.  "Did you get a new engine in that car?" he asked.  Not too long ago, of course.  Apparently homeboy used some kind of silicone sealant on my new thermostat housing when he installed the engine.  Apparently this silicone sealant wasn't suitable to the purpose for which it was used.  Apparently this caused my brand new thermostat housing to crack.  (Guess who was feeling pretty glad that he trusted his instincts this morning.  Fuck that guy.)

$234 more dollars sounds relatively tame in the context of what I've spent lately on that damned car.  I would have to guess that I'll get the proper sort of repairs done on my Mazda this time around.  You know, given that it's in a Mazda shop and all.  They had to order the parts for overnight delivery, meaning that I was stuck at home all day without a car.  This was no great inconvenience though.  It seems to behoove me to stay off my feet as much as possible whenever the opportunity presents itself.  With nowhere to go and no way to get there, I haven't done a lot of walking today.  In related news, I'm not in a lot of pain at the moment.

My dispatch tomorrow doesn't sound too bad either.  I'm not starting until 2pm, so maybe I'll be able to get my car back before I have to go to work.  I can't imagine that replacing a thermostat housing is too major a repair.  In any event, once I do go to work I'll be pulling a load out to the dairy in Grand Rapids.  When I get back from that one, I'll have a one-stop milk delivery down to Monroe.  My $250 in earnings for the day will be earmarked for car repairs, essentially, but at least it looks to be a nice and easy shift of work.  I like nice and easy shifts.

As effective as I think the following commercial could be in terms of spelling out the choices facing our country, I'm not convinced that people will get the message.  When presented with the massive amount of spending that would have to be cut in order to secure our future, people will inevitably chicken out and kick the can down the road.  They'll keep electing politicians who lie to them and tell them that it's not so bad.  My instincts tell me that we're screwed.  Sometimes they're right.  Sometimes they're wrong.

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.

10/19/10

If it ain't one thing, it's another.  After taking it easy yesterday and staying off my feet during today's long drive, I seemed to get back to the numbness rather than pain in my right leg.  All things considered, we'll consider this a step forward.  So I went to the gym and got through a pretty good workout.  I rode the bike for the cardio portion of the deal, since it seems that I'm able to sit now, and everything felt... well... not good, but better.  Let's just put it that way.

So I got out to my car and started the engine, then waited for the idle to slow before putting it in gear and heading for home.  As I sat for whatever it was, twenty seconds or so, I watched the temperature gauge shoot right past the 'H' and stay there.  What the hell?  I put the car in gear and drove down the street a mile or so.  The temperature stayed pegged in the overheated range.  I pulled into the Meijer parking lot and checked the oil.  Full and clean.  Now for the antifreeze.  More accurately put, now for the lack of antifreeze.  If it ain't one thing, it's another.

First things first - I bought some pre-diluted antifreeze and topped off the radiator.  I also spotted a bottle of that Motor Kote stuff that our man Calmar recommended some time ago, so I grabbed some of that and tossed it in the engine while I was at it.  The package said that it's good for power steering too, so I put the leftover 2oz. in the steering fluid reservoir.  Why not, right?  And I got some windshield washer fluid.  Okay, that oughtta cover it.

Next I drove back over to the gym and checked my parking space.  There was a little spot on the ground that looked like it may have been from a fresh leak, but nothing to indicate a major spill of any kind.  I'm not even 100% sure that it was a fresh leak.  Moving along, I headed down the road a few miles to the Quickway terminal and checked my parking space there.  This time I'm pretty sure that there was some fluid from my car, but again nothing too major.  All I can surmise is that this damned thing has been leaking slowly since the new engine was put in. 

That explains the antifreeze situation, as far as I know, but the temperature gauge still reads wicked hot when I'm going above 50mph, occasionally dipping into the moderately hot range.  When I drive more slowly, the temperature is closer to the normal zone, although it still fluctuates upward from time to time.  Obnoxious.

I have a 12:30pm pull time for tomorrow and my chances of getting out of bed early appear minimal, so I guess I'll have to take my car over to the shop on my day off Thursday.  Homeboy put in a new thermostat when he replaced the engine, so maybe there's a loose connection or something.  I don't know.  Whatever.  I need some sleep.

Back on my feet and delivering milk tomorrow.  Let's hope for the best.

10/18/10

Is it time for one of those annoying 'perspective' posts where I try to sound as if I've figured out some deeper meaning in the world?  Yes, I suppose it is time. 

While I've been fighting some injury issues lately, I have no doubt that I'll get to the point where things are somewhat normal again.  Years and years of injuries have left me in a state where my 'normal' probably involves a little more pain than most people's 'normal' but, you know, close enough.  Maybe I'll have to give in and have a doctor fix something before much longer here, but I'll be okay in the end.  To be perfectly honest, quite a bit of this situation is probably an offshoot of my own curiosity to see if I can prevail without any help.  Some of you have meaningful goals in life.  I don't.  So I end up with stupid shit like this as motivation.

In contrast, my buddy Mr. Pedro had a fall at home yesterday and wound up in the hospital.  The testing that the doctors are doing hasn't turned up any problems that they can see, but for whatever reason he hasn't been able to muster the strength to move himself around and such.  Given his ongoing struggle against dementia, I suspect that he's slowly losing the motivation to care for himself.  Each successive problem that he encounters seems to be one more step toward the day when he just might not be okay in the end.  Heart trouble earlier in the year, the loss of his wife in the spring, a bump on the head a couple of weeks ago, and now this latest incident.  I saw him tonight and he's still got some fight left in him, to be sure, but when you're 97 years old you might not keep winning the battles forever.  And so my leg pain wasn't much of a concern today.

I'm not sure what time I finally got out of bed today, but it was after noon.  After unwinding from last night's workout and doing some reading, I must have gone to bed today at 7am or so.  Not exactly a productive way to start a day off.  I hadn't intended to leave home at all, given that I only have one day to rest before I'm back to work and dealing with whatever symptoms my crazy leg decides to throw at me.  Then my roommate and the reverand showed up and told me about the old man.  They had gone up to the hospital this morning and visited for a while.  They told me that Mr. Pedro was still a little shaky but improving.  (In the absence of human cloning, I recommend getting an unemployed friend to stay in your extra bedroom for a while.  They have all the free time in the world, allowing them to act as stand-ins when you're too tired or busy to do much socializing.)

Later, after the three of us had gone out to dinner, we swung by the hospital to see how the rev's father was doing.  It probably doesn't surprise you that my conversational style, even with the elderly (perhaps especially so), isn't quite the same as that of most people.  It may surprise you though that my style seems to bring the old fella to life a little bit.  Of course the others would have their say of the blah blah blah stuff - "Do you need anything?  How are you feeling?  What did the nurses say?...  ZZZzzzzzzzzzz..."  Not me though.  Mr. Pedro and I talk about things like attractive nurses, trucking (he used to be a fleet mechanic), and Detroit politics.  Apparently we're also going turkey hunting once he gets a little stronger, so I have that going for me... which is nice.

I'm pretty sure that my old buddy's spirits were lifted at least a little bit by the time we left the hospital. If nothing more, at least his eyes seemed to have brightened a bit.  The rehab people are gonna have a go at him tomorrow and see if they can get him to start walking a little more.

As for me, I'll be spending tomorrow pretending to be a real trucker again.  As long as my crazy leg doesn't change symptoms on me, this is good news.  The present situation is such that walking is bad and sitting is good, so a run to Eighty Four, Pennsylvania should be just what the doctor ordered.  I spent most of today off my feet and I'll spend most of tomorrow off my feet as well.  Maybe we can turn the corner on this sucker after all.  I don't think I've had consecutive days yet in which I avoided aggravating the situation.  Tomorrow could be an important day.  Or maybe not.  I don't know.  It's another one over $300 though.  I do know that much.  And that, as we say here at Tales from the Road, is better than a kick in the balls.