Wreck on the front straightaway

Every great racecar driver has at one time or another, limped home with a wrecked car. This past Tuesday, I did just that.

MsNscr has now been involved in her very first accident with another person. <sigh>

SS and I were out for an afternoon drive, when the GMC Sierra 1500 truck in front of me, suddenly came to a complete stop in the middle of the street. Dead. Stop. I slammed on the brakes, but since I don’t have ABS, my car slid right into her trailer hitch. Totally my fault. Fuuuuuuuuuck!

The damage is not great, but it’s definitely not horrible. I was able to drive away with no issues, and although the radiator is cracked on the top, it’s still full four days later. I’ll need a new radiator and fan assembly, a new a/c condenser, a new hood, and a new headlight housing. I’m hoping the bumper doesn’t need to be replaced, but we’ll see once we get things taken apart.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt. All parties drove away with all limbs still attached, and no headaches. Yet.

Now the fun stuff. Let the rebuild begin…..

Add to list: Speaker Installation

Every day, I get into my car and look around. I look around at all the things I could replace or fix that are showing their 15 year age. I’m realistic. I cannot afford a new car, so it’s my responsibility to take care of the one I have. I’ve taken care of all the necessary fixes under the hood, and she appreciates it, I can tell. Now, it’s time to concentrate on the inside.

The other day, I turned up my stereo to blare the new Leah Turner song (Take the Keys), and noticed it was very crackly. So, I said out loud, “Guess it’s time to replace the speakers.”

Six years ago, Jeff replaced my back speakers. If there’s anything I can do well, it’s learn by watching. So, when I announced I was taking on this challenge, I knew it wasn’t something I couldn’t handle. (I learned more from that man than I’ll ever realize. I hope he knows. He’d gloat that accomplishment. As he should.)

I called the one person I figured knew something about it, and got the answer to the two questions I had. I was ready.

Sunday morning, I pulled my car into the garage, turned up the stereo we have out there, and started with the driver door panel. Within minutes I had the speaker out.

“Ha”, I thought to myself. “I got this. This is gonna be easy.”

With a few battle scars, I finished the job in just under an hour and a half. A huge success, and I’m proud of myself.

These were the speakers I took out. Front ones (on the right), weren’t so bad. Back ones (on the left), totally needed to be replaced. Ouch!

I didn’t take any pictures while I was doing it because I was so focused on what I was doing (and singing, of course). Next time I’ll make sure someone else is there with me. If for nothing else, PHOTO OP!!

I guess I can add ‘speaker installation’ to the list of things I know how to do on my car.

More repairs

Remember this post?

Well, after I wrote it, I never was able to get in touch with him again. I’m quite certain Jeff found out he was going to help me, and told him to stop all communication with me. Childish, but whatever. That’s Jeff. (rolling eyes)

Friday, I get home from work, and was relieved that I didn’t have anything to do or anywhere to go till Monday. Thrilled actually. Until I got in my car at midnight to satisfy an iced tea addiction, and it wouldn’t start. I was immediately annoyed, but figured that since it was midnight, it didn’t really matter. So back to bed I went.

The next morning, I ran through an entire laundry list of things I knew to check. Even replaced the battery. Still no dice. No power anywhere. It had to be a stupid simple thing. I just knew it did. Grrr. Obviously a much more skilled mechanic would have probably caught what was wrong, but I didn’t. I just don’t know everything.

Ended up having to have her towed to the place that does all our mechanical work at The Ranch. RM#1 was nice enough to be there when they came and got it. You know, I’m getting kind of tired of seeing her up on that damn truck.

When they called to tell me the news, I almost fell out of my chair. I felt so stupid, I was embarrassed to tell people.

Negative battery cable was damaged.

They replaced. $26 out the door. THEN he sprung it on me. I knew it was coming, but I was hoping they wouldn’t make a big deal of it. Turns out, that timing chain cover noise, wasn’t a timing chain cover noise at all. Ended up being a water pump. Interesting right? I’m a little confused by it, and would love to know how it could have possibly been falling off without my car showing the least bit of overheating, but whatever. I just want it fixed. I only have this bad boy for a few more days. (Yay for trainers that like to loan out their vehicles.)

When I picked up my car today, do you want to know what the best thing in the whole world at that very moment was?

IT DIDN’T KNOCK/CLACK ANYMORE.

Sometimes, it’s the little things in life that make it so exciting.

Watch out, y’all. MsNscr is back! Again. ;-)

Friday Rant

Hi. Remember me? I used to blog here. I used to share things here that were important to me. Things that I wanted to share with others because, well, I just wanted to.

I blame it on not having a computer. It's a lame excuse, especially since I could technically blog from my phone, but really, who wants to type out a page long blog post with photos on a small iPhone screen? Not this girl. I refuse to blog from work. Work is for work. I don't have time to search the internet for cool quotes, or interesting pictures to post that wrap up what I'm writing about. I barely have time some days to post on Twitter. It's such a rough life, I know.

I have an actual reason for blogging today though. I'm annoyed. Big surprise, I know.
It's an actual annoyance. One that doesn't seem to go away. The kind that has a name.

For four years, bff@work and I developed a relationship that some didn't understand. We became even closer after the passing of his wife, but I was shortly forced from his life when the new woman came into town. He moved her into his home, and she took over his life. His entire life. She tells him where to go, and with whom.

A few days ago, I asked him to give me a ride to pick up my car from the shop. Imagine how surprised I was when I found out he had to come up with some sort of a lie to tell her, just so that he could go. Can you believe that? He had to LIE to the woman he professes to love, just so that he could help a friend. A friend that was in his life looooooong before she was. Un-freakin-believable. Sounds like a match made in heaven to me.

When I found this out, I became so mad, that I cancelled my plans for him to help me, and asked another. Someone more interested in helping, not someone who needs to hide secrets. I'm not interested in being part of some stupid game he's playing.

I thought he was a friend.
Guess I was wrong.
Really wrong.

Enjoy your weekend, folks.

-v

Marti went in for a little surgery.

Monday. 6:30PM. Dark. Rainy.

Going uphill on a two lane freeway at about 80mph, weaving in and out of traffic like it was all standing still. There’s finally an additional lane up ahead and I jump the gas early to take advantage of the easy left side pass.

I complete the pass with ease, and continue up the hill to pass another car or two before I get back over (allowing the guy behind me to go even faster than I - such a nice driver I am). Just as I’m about to pass the final car, mine died. Right in the fast lane. I went from 80ish, to 30ish VERY fast. Because I’m constantly aware of my surrounding, and where every car is, I knew exactly when I could quickly pull across two lanes of traffic to get to the right shoulder without causing any other car on the road to even reduce speed. All while trying to avoid the back end slam of the guy behind me.

I had a really strong suspicion I knew what was wrong. JK and I had discussed it the last time work was done on my car. Timing chain needed desperately to be replaced, but we were going to go ahead and wait for it to break, then put an entire new engine in.

Finally off to the side of the road, my first phone call was to JK (who was out of state on a job). Sad face for me. He giggled about how upset I seemed, and don’t really think he put much thought into the situation until I began to cry. Sitting on the side of a freeway with remnants of rush hour cars (going 60-90mph). In the dark. In the rain. Just how I wanted my Monday evening to end.

I called AAA. Thank goodness for them. I had a pleasant Roadside Assistance Truck pull over and offer to help, and a very sexy Highway Patrol Office stop to make sure I was okay. I kept myself entertained by playing on my phone and chatting with JK. With him out of town, I was on my own to make things happen. He made arrangements with my mechanic (one of his best friends) to store and start work on the new engine replacement right away. I called Sis and asked if she’d pick me up and take me to the ranch so I could get a van to drive temporarily.

One and a half hours later, they finally showed up to tow my car.

Y’all…this is the awesome van I drove for FOUR days. (Does that sound sarcastic enough?) It’s a work van that doesn’t get used for anything other than misc jobs around The Ranch. It was lovingly dubbed “The Surfer Van”, by all the trainers. However, those of us that have had to drive it and endure the stares of those around us, we call it “The Rapist Van”. I suppose it wouldn’t have been so bad if the driver door handle was operable. Getting in and out on the passenger side, made it even more easy for others to laugh at me.

I watched the new engine go in. Let me tell you something, if you aren’t in to cars, or have any knowledge about how some things make your car run, the only thing I can compare it to is the human heart. When one performs a heart surgery, there are very precise steps that must be taken. Certain things need to be hooked back up a certain way. Well, same goes for a new engine. It took about 2.5hrs for the guys to do it. I sat back and watched the magic happen. I shed a tear when she finally started up. It was like she’d been brought back to life. I was happy.

Unfortunately, a broken wheel mount forced me to leave her at the shop one more day. Bummer. But, I was overly excited when I drove her away the next day. She was back under my control. And all I wanted to do was drive her.

Sis needed to do a few errands that day, and since I needed to break in the new engine, I picked her up and we ran them together.

It’s been about 500 miles and she’s going strong. Pretty cool to go from 209,000+ to a whole lot less. Almost makes me feel like I’m driving a new car. Except for all the rattles, of course. What WOULD I do without the sound of rattling?

I’m glad to have Marti back….

 

Car work

I’ve had to do some necessary things to my car.

I learned how to change spark plugs and wires. Never done it before. Never had anyone change them while I was around, so never got the opportunity to learn. Until now. Took about 10 minutes. Awesome.

I learned how to change the valve cover gasket. That was very interesting to me. To be able to see the in’s and out’s of what makes my car run, was fascinating. RM#1 just laughed when she heard me say This is so cool. I’m so excited to do this. Took about 20 minutes. More awesome.

A special thanks to a friend who helped.

Oh! And one of the greatest things? He fixed a really obnoxious rattle I had. Most awesome.

Spark plugs: $9.96

Plug wires: $31.99

Valve Cover Gasket: $19.99

Saving hundreds on labor charges: Priceless.

Happy almost Friday!

…and my lack of desire to play, is awesome!

 

Had three new tires put on my car yesterday. The forth one was only purchased two months ago, so it was not in need of replacement. Still new, they said. Thank goodness, because the cost of three was bad enough.

While driving, I noticed that something was very wrong with my car. sad face. Took it back today and Whah-la! Fixed. I’ve never had four new tires on my car at the same time. There is no longer a vibration at 70mph+. I can take turns a little more confident. Don’t get me wrong. I’m no Kyle Busch in my little 4-banger, but it still beats everyone off the starting line of a stop light. and passing a Earnhardt Jr. fan on the freeway, is priceless. happy face.

Stopped for lunch. Got it to go, but never ended up eating it. sad face.

Having a big Halloween party at our house on Saturday. So far the count is 16. Gonna be a full house. Halloween is totally not my favorite holiday, but I promised I would be here for it. sad face.

I’m doing a few things under the hood of my car on Sunday. I’m mentally prepared and actually very excited about it. I have two friends standing by to answer any questions I may have to call them about (and The X said he would help if needed), but I’m not expecting anything to go wrong. I’ve done as much research as I can, and will likely do more just so I’m over prepared. Can’t wait! happy face.

Random Saturday

Let me start off by saying CONGRATS to Mark Martin for knocking Trevor Bayne off the pole. I will surely cheer you on in tonight’s race. Fear not. I will be cheering for Kyle, but Mark was my first love so he has a special place in my heart.

Coke Zero 400 at Daytona tonight.

In other news, it appears that my car has taken it’s last drive. :-(   I am sad about this, as she was very good to me, but nothing lasts forever. There doesn’t seem to be much I can do myself to fix the problem.

Happy 3-day weekend, Readers!

Believe it or not, I actually DO make mistakes

A few nights ago, Thursday to be exact, I was feeling like having a margarita. What better place than a Mexican restaurant? JK, being the fabulous, loving, wanting-to-make-me-happy kind of guy, took me for just the thing. I went ahead and ordered a margarita, and then another. I’m not a drinker. I drink once every six or seven months, so of course, they went right to my head. Whoo!

As we were leaving, I remember thinking to myself It’s been a while since I’ve been tipsy. This is kind of nice. (Anything after this very point in the evening, I am not taking responsibility for. It was all the tequila.) As I mentioned in a previous post, JK had his car stolen not too long ago, so he’s now driving a brand new car, that I’m not familiar with yet. On any given day, sober or not, I would walk right past it not knowing which car it was.

As we’re approaching the car, JK pushed the unlock button. I walk up to the passenger door, think to myself, these handles look different, but figured I just wasn’t used to the car yet so maybe I was wrong, and opened up the door. Once the door was opened, this is the conversation that took place:

Me: “Where did all this stuff come from?”

JK: “What stuff?” as he’s opening up the driver door.

THREE SECOND PAUSE

JK: “Oh shit! This isn’t my car!!”

We both closed the doors as quickly as we could, and looked around to make sure nobody saw us. His car was 2 spots over. We couldn’t stop laughing. On the way home, JK called three people just so they could laugh AT us, not with us.

Worst part? It wasn’t even the same kind of car!

What happened to the flying car?

I can remember being a kid and listening to other kids, and even adults talk about flying cars. Yes, flying cars. I remember being in the school yard with my besties, talking about how cool it will be when we don’t have to sit in traffic. How awesome it would be to just fly higher or lower to avoid the obnoxiously slow driver flyer in front of you. At the time, I think we pictured something like this:

But as the years passed, we began to realize, thanks in part to Back to the Future, that flying cars might look like this:

Or this:

But, after enough time, I think we’ve come to accept that flying cars are nothing more than this:

Awards

This is JK’s 1968 Ford Mustang – California Special. Nothing stock about this car. Nitrous makes this hot rod better than the rest.

Award #1:  Best in Class

Award #2:  Most Likely to Get a Ticket

Thursday Funnies

Some funny pictures I just had to share. Enjoy.

(I agree.   Hand.It.Over.)

(Taylor Swift relies heavily on this.)

(hahahahaha.)

Playing Catch-Up

I am notorious for procrastinating on things I do not want to do, as are most people I imagine, but I’m getting worse. Case in point:

• I need to have my hair done. I typically get haircuts once or twice a year (if I’m lucky). I had my hair cut last at Christmas, but my bangs are getting to be too much of a nuisance with their out-of-control wispiness.
• Oil.Change. My awesome little 4-banger needs an oil change. It’s long overdue. I don’t know why I haven’t done it, other than just pure laziness, but it’s about time I take care of it. Perhaps this weekend? If I don’t, I’m afraid my dear Marti will break down on me.  (Yes, my car’s name is Marti. It’s a she.)
• I need to make an appointment for my yearly exam.
• Need to go see my pearly white’s doc. (aka dentist) and need to send renewal payment for another year of coverage.
• Need to go farm some of my crops on FarmVille. (Yes, I’m a FarmVille addict.) Deal with it.

Enough.