Category: Rants
Saturn Gets A New Battery
We took Kim to the airport yesterday morning for her flight to Chicago. I dropped her and Becky at the terminal and parked the car. Changed my mind about the spot I picked and when I started the car to move to another spot it hesitated slightly. My first thought (expert auto diagnostician that I am) was that the battery might be totally dead when we came back, and that we were lucky it at least got us to the airport. Well, it started fine so I thought it must’ve been the heat or just a random hiccup. This morning, however, it was not quite totally dead but lacked the juice to start the car. Becky drove the van to work. Changing a car battery ain’t like the good old days, by which I mean about 30 years ago when things under the hood were (1) identifiable, (2) accessible and (3) logical in regard to removal and replacement. So I started the day by spending a couple of hours just removing the friggin’ battery. Picked up a new one, and a replacement terminal bolt, on the way to the office. Will start the day tomorrow putting in the new battery. So it turned out we were lucky to get Kim to the airport on time, after all. Becky, by the way, wasn’t too thrilled about driving the van. The front tires are almost bald, and we had rain this morning. Not a good combination when you’re stopped on an uphill incline with front wheel drive. And I haven’t got around to gluing the rear view mirror back to the windshield. I kind of like not having it, since I can’t see the tailgaters, which helps my temperament. But it bugs Becky.
We succeeded in having stupid hot for Kathie and Stephen, and got it back for Kim but, as I mentioned, it was raining this morning and I don’t think ever got much over 70 degrees all day. Expecting a high of 68 tomorrow, 75 Sunday, 79 Monday. What can I say? ‘Course, we still got enough humidity if you spread your arms out and lie back you can float about three feet off the ground.
What else? Oh: Oxymorons.info.
p>. :jesors1:
The Dryer Repairman
A couple weeks ago the dryer stopped. It was unresponsive other than a slight hum from a non-turning motor. Called the appliance repair place. The guy showed up the next morning. Took it apart, had a look, pronounced that the motor was seized up and it’d cost at least $150 to replace and install. He didn’t even ask if I wanted to repair it, assuming I’d rather replace the dryer. Hands me the bill for his $38 service call, which I pay, as he’s recommending that I check out a certain appliance store over by Wal-Mart.
Google Boondoogle
August 14, 2004
General, Rants
10 Comments
John
Watch out with Google Gmail. A whole bunch of emails I sent out today haven’t got out. Sometimes, y’know, things sit on a sending server awhile and sometimes they sit on a receiving server at the other end. But, in my case, it’s clearly a Google problem. I have the advantage of several email accounts on several different servers and the ability to test things out pretty well. Also, whenever I send an email from gmail, I send a bcc to myself at a different address. If not for that, I wouldn’t have realized that the emails I sent weren’t going anywhere. A few of them finally got delivered after about six hours. Some are still not delivered after 12 hours. My ticket to Google support got a quick standard automated response, but still no actual response after 8 hours, and counting. Far as I can tell, I seem to be receiving okay.
Yeah, I guess they need to keep the “beta” label a while longer.