The Summer 2015 Anti-Chuff Thread

[eds1275]

I literally just watched that movie this week.

I'm also at the end of my rope. Everything seems to like to be a problem at the same time it seems. I can handle a few things but it's been so long since I've had actual conflict in my life that it's harder to deal with than ever.

[Vigo]

Absolutely how I feel. One too many things hitting me at once. Best luck of luck to you. 

Today, we have got "the Bobs" at my office. Who knows where I will be in a month. 

 

More bolt related problems. I need to get my family car working by tomorrow morning to drive to a reunion, and it is in a million pieces in my driveway. Yesterday I broke off the main bolt in my camshaft. Up til 2am to extract it. Right after work today I will have to drive my "around town" car 20 miles to get a replacement bolt that took hours to locate. I learned the hard way what a "torque to yield" bolt is, why it should never be reused, and that I can't use a regular bolt to replace it. I swear, modern engines are an entirely different breed than the 80's and earlier engines I grease monkeyed around with in my earlier years.

I'll spare you the rest of my drama, but it heavily stems from not enough time, and too much of the big stuff to worry about.

[dkersten]

I had one of those days yesterday.. Power outage followed by a series of failures in hardware complicated by the specialists that I call on when I am stumped either being MIA or retired.  Not good on one of the busiest days of the year (usually do about a million in sales each day this time of year).  The moment I got all the fires put out and things working again at all locations, a meeting I had scheduled with a wifi specialist started, so I missed lunch.  Then more power outage problems cropped up at the end of the day (internet service this time) and system was back down from 6:30 pm to 6:30 am, 3 hours after the maintenance window had ended.  Nothing like being the one responsible for the network and servers being up and being down 18 of 24 hours during the busiest time of year.

Went home desperately needing a beer but I had been sick the day before and still hurt from vomiting all night Monday night and stomach was still a bit too tender for alcohol, so I skipped that.  Upside is I took care of stuff that would have been worse if power had gone out while I was on vacation, and today things are going pretty well, so it isn't all bad.  Nevermind, while composing this I checked on a program to see if the software vendor had it working yet and it crashed the Java server and bumped 130 people out.. awesome.  Now I am restarting the damn server again.  I just gotta stay away from this thread.. so much negative energy, lol.

[Vigo]

I just gotta stay away from this thread.. so much negative energy, lol.

I hear ya, but it is nice having a bit of a digital pub to take the bite away from a lousy day.



Good luck with teh endless firefighting. I never envy you IT guys.

[dkersten]

Good luck with teh endless firefighting. I never envy you IT guys.

 

[jdbailey1206]

Fun times for all!    So my only childs first birthday is on August 8th but surprise surprise both grandparents have things to do.  I told my wife to tell them not to come.  Any other birthday I think I would be okay with it but its her first and their prior commitments are lame at best.  My wifes parents are going to hang out at the lake and my parents are going to a high school reunion.  Absolute bullsh!t.

[eds1275]

Fun times for all!    So my only childs first birthday is on August 8th but surprise surprise both grandparents have things to do.  I told my wife to tell them not to come.  Any other birthday I think I would be okay with it but its her first and their prior commitments are lame at best.  My wifes parents are going to hang out at the lake and my parents are going to a high school reunion.  Absolute bullsh!t.

Well, maybe lame to you... but a lot of people feel like the first few birthdays are more for the parents because the babies won't have any memories other than photographs and whatnot. I think instead of telling them straight up not to come, you could either move the party if it's important to you that they come or let them know how important it is to you that they do show.

[Generic Eric]

I just gotta stay away from this thread.. so much negative energy, lol.

I hear ya, but it is nice having a bit of a digital pub to take the bite away from a lousy day.



Good luck with teh endless firefighting. I never envy you IT guys.

Between a rental to drive and auto repair I dropped $1100

[jdbailey1206]

Between a rental to drive and auto repair I dropped $1100

[Generic Eric]

Between a rental to drive and auto repair I dropped $1100

#worstcarevar

[dkersten]

#worstcarevar

Not so sure on that.. Here is my recent history with vehicles:
Son's car: 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse, had 75k miles on it, bought for $3500. 
Tires:$750
Battery: $120
Clutch: $600
Clutch master cyl.:$180
Brakes: $400
1000 miles away the timing belt goes on the interstate. Tow home: $800
Top end of motor rebuild (done at home): $1200
Cat converter and rear O2 sensor: $600
Tires get slashed: used tires $100
Kid gets into trouble with drugs, girlfriend ends up driving for 1000 miles without oil.. engine toast.
New Engine: $3400 (after kid is out of jail and on the rehab.. )
injectors all bad: $400
radiator leak after new motor: $250 to fix, overheated and melted tab on motor, goodbye 7 year 100k mile warranty on motor
While kid in jail, stereo stolen: $1000 lost
Also, door is hit by another car.
New door: $360
new center console from breakin: $100
New Tires: $650
car sits for 8 months while kid has no license.  intake gasket dries up and cracks, orings on injectors corrode plus front o2 goes bad: $540
clutch master cyl leaks: warranty (woot)
battery bad (warranty)
So now it has:
new o2 sensors, new cat converter, new clutch, new master&slave cyls, new engine, new battery, new tires, new brakes, body is in decent shape, interior is in decent shape.. car is worth about $3800 book, lol.  Total investment over 3 years: about $14,500

Next, Daughter saves up and I match funds, find a nice 2000 Ford Focus for $2800.  Engine is solid, timing belt had been replaced at 90k, body in great shape, etc.  One day a rad line gets a leak and is spraying coolant on exhaust manifold.  Take it to mechanic friend, he finds a small leak in trans that over time meant low trans fluid, slipped a couple times, burnt up discs in trans.  New trans and coolant line: $2500

Finally, buddy has an old 86 Nissan pickup.  I needed a little pickup and this fit the bill perfectly.. 4wd, trans had been replaced 5 years ago, engine had about 10k miles on new motor about 7 years ago (w/warranty).  Was a $1500 pickup, but buddy who owned it just put new alternator, battery, and tires on it, so offered $2100 and bought it.  One day son is driving (while his car was dead waiting for motor), couple of rad hoses leaked, engine overheated, and starter chooses to go out at that moment.  $800 for 3 hoses, starter, and a couple other minor issues.  Now son gets run off road at a roundabout, engine mounts are old and one breaks, engine comes up and tears wiring, breaks loose exhaust, and wreaks general havoc, including 2 more rad hoses leaking.  $1200 to get all fixed up.  Girlfriend drives for a while after her truck dies, one day won't start.  Tow it to shop, engine is dead (timing chain went from sitting for long periods and so much metal in oil it looks like glitter).  Engine is 4 months out of warranty.  Opt for new engine with warranty again since truck isn't too bad overall and with previous luck on vehicles I figured if I spent $3500 on another used pickup the motor could blow the next week (especially given my luck with motors lately).  So buy new motor with 7 year 100k warranty: $3500.  With trans and transfer case done, tires in decent shape, brakes in decent shape, clutch only 5 years old with maybe 5k miles, truck has 230k miles on it but not much rust and decent truck to begin with, it isn't terrible, just all the other crap got expensive.  Dropped another $150 into front suspension, replaced all bushings and shocks and re-indexed torsion bars, now rides like it's only 10 years old, engine runs well, and while interior is pretty ugly, everything functions.  So my $1500 truck cost me almost $9000.

My daily driver is a company car, so no money spent there, Thank God.
Total spent on vehicles in the past 3 years: about $29,000 for 3 vehicles with total book value of about $8000

Still cheaper than 3 years of being married, lol.

[Howard_Casto]

Well I got the Camaro up on ramps AGAIN and somehow managed to squeeze my fat self under the thing AGAIN and replaced the speed sensor AGAIN because rockauto sent me the wrong one last time.  Hook it up AGAIN ........and.... nothing....  So it's not the vss.  So now I'll have to wedge myself under the dash and get the VSS buffer out and try to track one down.  If that's not it then I dunno... that's the limit of my electrical knowledge on the car's gages. 

Why does my car have a vss and a buffer again?  You know it was assembled in Canada so I blame the Canadians. 

[jdbailey1206]

You know it was assembled in Canada so I blame the Canadians.

Its easier that way.

[ChanceKJ]

You know it was assembled in Canada so I blame the Canadians.

Its easier that way.

Its all part of our master plan to "thin the herd" south of the border so to speak.

[jennifer]

Well I got the Camaro up on ramps AGAIN and somehow managed to squeeze my fat self under the thing AGAIN and replaced the speed sensor AGAIN because rockauto sent me the wrong one last time.  Hook it up AGAIN ........and.... nothing....  So it's not the vss.  So now I'll have to wedge myself under the dash and get the VSS buffer out and try to track one down.  If that's not it then I dunno... that's the limit of my electrical knowledge on the car's gages. 

Why does my car have a vss and a buffer again?  You know it was assembled in Canada so I blame the Canadians.

My Camaro doesn't have a speedometer either, Got the trans rebuilt paid the dimwit like 1700.00 and the car came back with no speedometer, Three years later the car still sits out behind the barn and wont even start now cause the gas is so old.

[dkersten]

Refrigerator died yesterday.. just went grocery shopping, so I lost around $300 in frozen foods.  Fridge is 15 years old so rather than repair I think it is time to buy new, but I can't seem to find a brand that looks reliable.  Lucky Goldstar (LG) is still a cheap VCR company to me, I always see $35 microwaves and $15 vcrs when I see that brand.  Plus I took a risk with an LG dryer recently and I am less than impressed.  Samsung seems popular, but I can't find a single "top ten" review with a Samsung in it.  I have heard horror stories about Maytag, Whirlpool, and Frigidaire, but you never know if that is just people who had a bum unit and were unlucky or if the brands are truly crap.  When looking to spend $2-3k without the luxury of spending the time to research properly, it really sucks.  I need something soon or what food I have that is still good will be trash.  Unfortunately I can't eat 10 lbs of chicken breasts, 25 hamburger patties, ten lbs of burritos, and 12 lbs of hamburger meat tonight, so my two week stock of frozen meats is mostly going to go to waste.  It is rapidly approaching room temperature and I am pretty sure refreezing it is a bad idea at this point.  I knew the other shoe would drop sooner or later.  At least this time it is only money.

[pbj]

Grill it all, bag it, and put it in ice chests, dude.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/10/top-refrigerator-brands-in-consumer-reports-tests/index.htm

[Vigo]

I personally stay away from korean brands when it comes to appliances and electronics. The have a history of using components with a more limited lifespan in order to offer more features for the cost. I would go with them in a heartbeat for an appliance in a house I was planning on moving out of in 5 years, because other than the stunted lifespan, they are good.

+1 to PBJ. Most my food lasted through a 2 & 1/2 day power outage last week, ice chests the second night for anything I was overly worried about, grilled a lot of meat, and even some of the ice cream lived through the outage.

[BadMouth]

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2014/10/top-refrigerator-brands-in-consumer-reports-tests/index.htm

Every single thing I've bought because of it was rated highly by consumer reports has fallen short of expectations.  I rely on amazon reviews almost exclusively now.

I just spent four days at a motorcycle rally sleeping on an air mattress with a slow leak.  Two hours into the four hours of sleep I got each night, some part of my body would be bottoming out and touching the ground.  I felt fine in the morning though.

Slept on my consumer reports #1 rated inner coil spring mattress last night and my back hurt like hell this morning...same as it does every morning.  I should have returned that thing in the 30 return window.

Same experience with trash bags, appliances, etc.

[dkersten]

Went with this one:
http://www.whirlpool.com/kitchen-1/refrigeration-2/refrigerators-3/-[WRX988SIBM]-1021865/WRX988SIBM/
Got it from Lowes for $2400, added the 5 year warranty (which I normally don't do) for $150, but also got a Lowes credit card that I will cancel next month after paying for this which gave me another 5% off, so that covered $125 of the warranty.  I gotta pick it up though, so it's good that my little pickup runs well, lol. 

Warranty:  Normally I avoid in store warranties, but there are so many "horror story" reviews of refrigerators bad out of the box or failing in the first few months that, even with a brand that my buddy who repairs appliances for a living recommended, it made sense to throw that warranty on.  If I didn't, I would end up with a bad compressor in a year and have a $400 bill and a ton of food all thawed out again.  This way I will never end up having an issue (because if you have warranty you almost never need it, lol). 

Of course, now I need to replace all my other appliances to match the stainless, lol.  Oh well, microwave is as old as the fridge, and was eyeing a new one anyway.  Ranges aren't that expensive, and it is a good excuse to make the jump to gas.  Dishwasher and sink.. ah hell, I'm a guy, so who cares, right?

[dkersten]

And I am having kids move the stuff into the beer fridge this morning.  Milk was cold but getting warm by this morning.. compressor must be out because the fan was working.  Felt like it was blowing cold air last night, but went to a Motley Crue concert and didn't have time to deal with it (was waiting to see if turning the temp down fixed the issue anyway) and by the time I got home everything was still defrosted and most of it worthless already, so I just went to bed.  I can grill up the chicken and burgers, and the rest will keep for a few more days, but mostly I have to trash stuff like burritos, pizzas, etc.  I just stocked up too, which is the part that sucks the most. 

[pbj]

You, uh, DID use a mover's coupon, right?

[dkersten]

No idea what a movers coupon is..

[HaRuMaN]

No idea what a movers coupon is..

10% off coupon

[dkersten]

And where do you get them?

[pbj]

Ebay.  $3.  Time to cancel and reorder.  You can kick me $20 for the heads up.


 

[wp34]

And where do you get them?

You used to be able to get them at the post office when you asked for a change of address form.

[pbj]

And where do you get them?

You used to be able to get them at the post office when you asked for a change of address form.

Yeah, that era is pretty much over.  You used to also be able to plug and chug numbers into their website until you got lucky.  I used them all the time on stupid crap like $4 boxes of screws.  Then some genius had to go and make a website that generated the numbers for you and Lowe's shut all that down.

Anyway, Best Buy and Lowe's - movers coupons on big purchases always.






 

[BadMouth]

You get them on their website now: http://www.lowes.com/cd_Coupon+Registration_253641591_

I had big plans to buy everything I'd need for a renovation with it, then decided I'd rather nickel and dime it than have to store everything.
Been using the $10 off $50 coupons my friends and myself regularly receive in the mail.
....and they expect me to use the $25 off $250 coupon sent with it?!  Half as much off for spending 5x as much?

EDIT: Home Depot doesn't do it anymore, but they did send me some BS coupon that was limited to full price garden stuff that had no other sales or discounts already applied.

[HaRuMaN]

Anyway, Best Buy and Lowe's - movers coupons on big purchases always.

Yeah, when we bought our house we got one of the Best Buy coupons.  Normally we don't shop there, but we used the 10% coupon off a new TV.   

[harveybirdman]

This is some serious naff, and I know it's happened to you....

That feeling you get when you totally eyeball something and it turns out super perfect so you get super cocky and totally eyeball the next measurement on the next piece you are working with and it's freaking an 1/8th of an inch off and your access panel doesn't close appropriately.

[dkersten]

Ebay.  $3.  Time to cancel and reorder.  You can kick me $20 for the heads up.


 

Saved me another $238.17, thanks!  Got the fridge moved in, but had to go through the back, and because it is 36" x 34", had to unpack it to get it through the 36" doorways.  Only had me (gimped with right arm and wrist at about 50% strength still) and my son, who is strong, and this thing is frackin heavy.  Going up the back deck stairs, he lost it and had to set it down.  Even though he laid it down gently, it happened to come to rest on the edge of the door and sure as sh!t, it dented the door, right on the corner, which on stainless is super visible.    

So it's good I saved all that, I might end up spending twice as much to buy a new door.  I doubt the extended coverage covers damage like that.. of course it had to be the door with the ice/water dispenser, not the easy door with nothing on it.  Also it had to be the door that is most visible in the kitchen.. the other side is practically invisible.. go figure...

Anyway, I am sure I tweaked something in my back, but the fridge is in.  I told the kid to call some friends and haul the other one out and headed back to work, lol.  I am not in the mood to muscle another one out of the house.  I will get it quoted for repair and if it isn't horrible I can use it in the garage as a spare. 

[pbj]

Your son didn't do it, it came like that.  You didn't notice until you had it unpacked and set up in the kitchen.

Amateur.

[dkersten]

Your son didn't do it, it came like that.  You didn't notice until you had it unpacked and set up in the kitchen.

Amateur.

Yeah, I just couldn't justify saying that.. A $1500 door makes it tempting, but I couldn't look anyone in the face and try to pull that one off.. I will just have to live with it.  Got a buddy who does paintless dent work, will see if he can at least minimize the ding.. would be easy if it hadn't been on the edge of the door.

[Howard_Casto]

If it's not a scratch but instead a dent then it's usually fairly easy to get out.  They make dent pullers for cars that work via suction cups... you can get a kit for 20 bucks at your auto parts store. 

[dkersten]

If it's not a scratch but instead a dent then it's usually fairly easy to get out.  They make dent pullers for cars that work via suction cups... you can get a kit for 20 bucks at your auto parts store.

I don't think a suction cup is gonna help here, lol!

[jennifer]

    I would think you could get a replacement fairly easy, not the whole door mind you just the tin.

[pbj]

Good grief.  Sandwich the dent between 2x4 blocks and whack them with a hammer.

[Howard_Casto]

Good grief.  Sandwich the dent between 2x4 blocks and whack them with a hammer.

+1

If you can remove the metal from the door that should still be fairly easy to fix. 

[BadMouth]

Wouldn't hurt anything to play around with it....

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-piece-door-skin-repair-kit-46781.html
Don't forget the 20% coupon from your Sunday paper, NRA magazine(much longer expiration date), or online. 

I just realized that I haven't been taking the harbor freight coupons from the NRA magazines in the lobby.
Meh, haven't needed anything from there in a long time anyway.