Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

It's down into the 60s now. But it was still about 80°F around West Michigan at 11pm. We have a slim line Sears air conditioner in the bedroom window. Once we used it to cool the bedroom and take the edge off the whole first floor. Or the fan to move air and provide pleasant white noise for sleeping -- in winter we use the humidifier for that -- and now that we have the heat pump for central air conditioning, we just use the fan. With just one day of heat, we chose not to fire up the heat pump. So I used canned air to clean the filter and the vents and put the fan on HI.

By bedtime it was still pretty close in the bedroom, so we spun the dial to AC on the window unit. Despite being around 15 years old and the compressor not run in maybe two years, it cooled like a champ.

Today's big activity was having our septic tank sucked clean. Oh joy. Seriously, living in the country you gotta do this from time to time. The septic service would like you to do every 3-4 years. We've done it every decade, just like clockwork. (grin) The last time was a week before Memorial Day and my first WisCon and two weeks before the 2004 Clarion workshop began.

Naturally, it rained.


Digging for the septic tank in a drizzle surrounded by our cheerful yellow flowers. My guess is that the berm was added after the house was built, resulting in the tank cover being deeper than usual. If we ever have to replace the septic tank, they won't do that. They also wouldn't use the kind of tank and cover we apparently have. Things change over twenty years, especially standards. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


The whole process was made easier because I had taken reference photos of the hole ten years ago when we last had it done. Yeah, ten years and ten years is a bit long. But we have a big tank and no children, which really cuts down on the load, so to speak. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


I guess the outside water faucet is turned on. The last time, or second-to-the-last-time that faucet was used was the last time we had our septic tank done. Just add water and stir. Glug, glug, glug. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


HAULED PRODUCTS - MADE IN MICHIGAN. Ah, that septic/sewer/outhouse smell -- nothing like it, even when you just get a whiff from thirty feet. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


This was all made easier because I had taken reference photos back on Monday 24 May 2004 with the tiny Sony DCS-U30 I had bought for Clarion. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Side view of the truck. Ten years ago it was another dreary, rainy day. Some things never change. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)


Another reference photo. While the grass is long, I'm not seeing a lot of twiggy weed stalks, so maybe I was still mowing. Sometimes. Maybe. Or maybe not. (Click on photo for larger.)
©2014 Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon (All Rights Reserved)

Whole thing took less than an hour. And now, other than a little disturbed ground -- too small to be a body and anyway who buries the evidence in the FRONT yard -- we're good for another ten years. Or maybe a bit less. (grin) All this fun, for just $267. Don't you city kids wish you could do this?

Dr. Phil

Back To The Shop

Drove the Teal Machine home. No problem. In the afternoon, I went and got gas -- gas was trending towards four bucks before the Sequester, down to $3.86.9/gal now -- and then drove to Holland for a couple of things. Parked at Big Apple Bagels, took my foot off the brake...

And we rolled backwards.

In Park.

At this point I started back towards Coopersville, and called in. Told them the parking pawl wasn't engaging. Doesn't anyone use that term anymore?

I'd hoped it was just an adjustment. When I had a new transmission thrown on the 1985 Blazer, it wouldn't select 1st Only until the cable was adjusted. Alas, the cable was fraying and coming apart. The mechanic couldn't even start it in Park, had to go to Neutral by the time I got it up there. Of course at 4pm, they can't get the part until Monday.

Thankfully this didn't happen on my commute.

And no, I don't use the parking brake -- can't with my bad leg anyway.

Dr. Phil

An Interesting Day or This Couldn't Last, Could It

So two weeks ago I noted that my 1996 T-10 Blazer -- the Teal Machine -- passed through the 300,000 mile mark (DW). At full speed, purring along at 70 mph.

Fast forward to last week, just before Spring Break. What with weeks of icy, slushy roads, long commutes and tight deadlines, purring along just fine. Oh, there are things wrong with a 17 year old machine, but nothing life threatening to either man or machine.

Of course, in the last week I had the turn signals stop working. I could manually make the rear blinkers blink by flicking the turn signal stalk, and the four-way flashers worked, but not the regular turn signals. Of course I've replaced flashers on vehicles before. But unlike the 1979 Suburban, the flasher mechanism isn't in the fusebox on the 1996. Huh. Can't even test this.

And then I noticed that in some settings on the HVAC controls -- heat but not defroster -- that I could hear a slight hiss. Hmmm, sounds like a vacuum leak somewhere. Hose maybe? Could it be that cheap? And Thursday on the way home the serpentine belt was being noisy. Back in the fall I had an idler pulley fail which threw the belt and left me being towed home in a rainstorm. So I've been a little sensitive in case that incident weakened the belt.

And recently I had an oil change, but I don't recall if they checked the automatic transmission fluid level. Given how thin the fluid is warm, it's a pain in the ass to measure. So when I wrote up a sheet for some work to be done during this Spring Break week, I included all these things. Sunday we ran the Blazer over to Chevy. And I noted that the Blazer seemed reluctant to go into Reverse.

So I called this morning to see what was what. And the mechanic reported that he had to practically floor the pedal to get the Blazer to back out of its parking space overnight.

Yeah. They're suggesting a GM Certified rebuilt transmission.

And it's the turn signal stalk that's bad. And yeah, the belt needs replacing. And the HVAC control switch.

Estimate: $4144.

Time to talk to my used car guy. He's got a 2002 Blazer, it's 4WD but it's a 2-door. 137,000 miles. It was listed on their website and there was a clean CARFAX result. We wandered up to Chevy to look at it. Transmission or new-to-me used vehicle? It's a toss up. Also talked to the service people about giving the 1996 a look over, is there anything else that needs to be done. Or another deal breaker.

The 2002 Blazer had some problems, including broken off seat adjustment levers. Given my size, that's not good. Also, it had a lot more rust than the six year older Blazer I already have. Nope. There's also a 2002 4WD Tahoe with 191,000 miles. That we gave a test drive. It actually was very nice, absolutely smooth. It'd be a lovely vehicle to drive on the road. But... it's a little tall for my bad leg right now. And the price was steeper than I wanted on short notice, and nearly 200,000 miles is a lot. Another time perhaps. I loved the Suburban and would be happy to have another 'Burban or a Tahoe sometime.

The look over showed three things that I already knew. The main engine oil seal, that would be easy to do with the engine already pulled for the tranny swap. And the idler arm repair? Why that'd keep me on the road longer. (grin)

In the end I asked if we could add those two things together and settle on a flat price, less than the grand total. Turned out, they could. This is what happens when you're a good customer. (grin)

We can rebuild it. Make it whole. Make it better. Make it go 70 mph. Okay, so unlike Steven Austin, a 1996 Blazer is supposed to be able to go 70 mph. At the end of the week, though, it should be able to do it for longer.

Serendipity it is -- don't like that these things occur, but I can't fault the timing. Or really, the expense.

Dr. Phil

First Time In The Office In A Couple Of Weeks

Been busy. It was 100°F+. I melted my catalytic converter. Went out of town. Had company. You know, what with not teaching during Summer I/II, the usual. Of course I knew that when I did make it into the office, I'd spend some time fighting with my computer because everything, no matter what settings I actually give it, ABSOLUTELY HAD TO UPDATE AND RUN MASSIVE SETUP PROGRAMS RIGHT NOW!!!!! So everybody collides and no one, especially the poor sop who owns the computer and would, silly me, actually like to get any work done on it, gets anything done in a timely fashion.

Add In The Laugh Track

So naturally, when I went into the garage to load up, back out and drive off, I was struck that the 1996 Blazer looked a bit... odd. Not tall enough. A quick inspection showed that, naturally, the left front tire was flat.

Now long time readers will note that I have this odd relationship with vehicle woes, in which I comment that sometimes these things happen at just the right time. Serendipity if you will -- big believer in it. Oh, you won't be disappointed here.

This is a two car garage and the right side tires are right up against the east wall, so that there's no way to get to them short of backing out. But it was a left side tire, and Mrs. Dr. Phil was long gone, so other than moving the recycling bin a few feet, the tire was perfectly exposed.

And the valve stem was up on the top.

And my AC powered compressor was still sitting on the side desk and easy to pick up, set it on two toolboxes sitting next to the tire, plug into a power strip sitting right there and hook it up to the valve stem.

Tire pumped up from flat pretty easily. Indeed, it wasn't completely flat, starting out around maybe 6 psi gauge pressure. I took it up to 40 psi -- recommended is 36-38 psi -- and while I could hear a slight hissing sound with the compressor off and disconnected, a hiss isn't going to drain a tire in five minutes.

So it was easy to go off to Chevy and pull it into the entry bay. There, one of the usual guys came over with a spray bottle -- he could hear the slight hiss as soon as I shut off the engine -- and spraying around, found the leak right about in the center of the tread area. Didn't even have to rotate the tire to find it.

Choice between putting on the spare and coming back for the fixed tire tonight, or just fixing it Right Now. The latter was estimated within a half an hour. Turned out to be a moment longer, but only because they took care of some corrosion on the aluminum wheels, so I won't have a bead leak on that wheel in the near future.

So now I'm running later than planned, but I'm up on I-96. I knew there was some kind of construction on US-131 through the heart of Grand Rapids, but decided to chance it anyway. One lane down from Leonard to 76th Street, which is most of G.R. But traffic was light and we moved at the appropriate 60 or 45 mph, as needed, and so really it was no bother at all.

The next-to-the-perfect parking spot was open when I got to Lot 61.

So yeah, it all could've been much, much worse. Still annoyed that I had to get any work done, but it all went swimmingly. And much, much better than if I couldn't have held the tire pressure on reinflation, had to call and wait for AAA to change the tire, take the flat into the shop and pick it up later.

And of course the computer has settled down after I left it have all its hissy fits, while I played Solitaire.

Serendipity.

Dr. Phil

The Weather Breaks

After a week of temps that got into the 80s and nearly 90°F, the weather over the next week or so will have highs in the 60s and low 70s. Ah-hhh. And today we're to have some rain. That actually isn't bad. Last night driving home the traffic reports included several grass fires around Sparta. And the rain had another benefit -- the no-so-cold winter meant that my windshield was covered in bug glop. Now it's clean again. (grin)

But Then...

When I got to work, I discovered a sign between the two elevators saying that they were both out of order. In a six-story office building. Fortunately, my office is on the second floor. Unfortunately, this leg nerve makes stairs a pain. So since I had my rolling cart from the parking lot, I rolled back across the way into Rood Hall and to the back where Rood's huge but slow service elevator lurked. One of our middle-aged custodians was in the elevator -- she looked beat. She'd already hiked up and back to the 6th floor of Everett once already. Unfortunately, Rood is only three stories above ground, so the Rood service elevator can only get you up to Three.

And I made a nice little discovery for future reference. There's a Unisex bathroom on the first floor of Rood, so I was able to do that and have my little cart with me inside, instead of having to wait until I made it all the way back to Everett.

Eventually when I went to class, I found the big lecture hall to be hot and humid and no airflow. I figured the system realized that it was cooler out and figured we didn't need no stinkin' air conditioning.

At two, after my second class, I was in a bathroom on the first floor of Everett before tackling the stairs, when the lights went out. From a conversation I heard from the hallway, they'd cut out the lighting circuits to reduce the load. And the AC had been shut off all day. An electrical connection between Rood and Everett had been the original problem which took out the elevators and now they were shutting off systems and putting Everett on an emergency backup generator. Hence still being able to type and get an Internet connection.

I thought I heard maintenance people in the hallway about half an hour ago discussing elevators, so maybe by the time I need to get out of here, I won't have to do things the complicated way. (emergency-backup-detoured-grin)

Dr. Phil

A Momentary Jolt

Enter building. Press button to elevator. Elevator arrives, doors open. You don't really expect to see a third of the space of the elevator filled with metal tanks. And nobody with them.

There is that moment of Huh?, colliding with that moment of This Does Not Look Good, in this post-9/11 world before you realize that what you are looking at is a whole bunch of fire extinguishers neatly standing together.

Yeah, they're changing out the fire extinguishers and so one of the elevator cars is doing the heavy carrying. Now you'd think they'd stop the elevator at each floor, but of course that trips off an annoying alarm. So it's gotta be really annoying to have to take a couple of fire extinguishers and get off on a floor, change them, then have to call the elevator perhaps more than once to get "your" car back. (grin)

And As I Write This...

I just heard someone in the hallway and the metallic clang of a cylinder banging on the metal bracket as the nearest unit to me is changed.

Still, there's that annoying little voice nagging in the background. "They" want you to THINK that those are fire extinguishers. Yeah, like anyone really needs to give "them" any more bad ideas.

Dr. Phil