Day 72

Good day everyone. Today I finally got the major things on the truck fixed. The big thing was the tail pipe. A few months back, it had come seperated from the catalytic converter. The guy said he could wheld it back on there securely, but then realized that apparently my rear gas tank had a small leak. He said that if he did one, he would have to do the other because of the dangers of gas vapers.

So shortly after that, I went through auto zone and ordered a replacement gas tank for my truck. It had been in the garage for the past few months, still in the box it was delivered to me in. So the overtime pay was amazing. 2.5 times what I normally would make on a paycheck. Payed a few bills, and a few days ago I had called this mechanic shop and had them put me in the book for today. Told them I was getting payed today and that I wanted to get the new tank put on and the tail pipe secured to the catalytic converter.

For both of those, they charged us $250.00, which isn't too bad at all. The owner of the shop even drove me home when I dropped off the truck, and then when he called and said he was done, he offered to come out and pick me up so I could go pick up the truck. We were going to have them charge my A/C, but apparently because it's a 93, it still has the old type of cooling system in it. They would need to convert it so that it could use the new type of coolant. They said it would cost us $110.00 originally, but then when he called to say that it was done, he said the ac wasn't completed because of the fact of it being the old system, and that converting it would make it $130.00 instead of $110.00, and that they could take care of that for me the beginning of next week. I'm trying to find out if I can get in monday, because 1) I think I will be off monday and tuesday (according to my bosses with securitas), and 2) I have the appointment tuesday morning in Iowa City (which is an hour drive from here), in order to get checked out by the Veteran Affairs Benefits medical clinic.

That day I also start class officially, so I'm glad that I should have those two days off. It's funny. I remember knowing co-workers with schwans, or other jobs, who complained because of their work schedule, saying they wished they had different days off, etc, and complain and complain. Where as, I worked almost a month straight, no days off, maybe a few hours free time between getting out of bed and coming to work again, for 25 days. I had one day off after about 13 days straight, and then I went another 12 days and they gave me monday, tuesday and wednesday off this week. With those 3 days off, the pay period officially ends tonight at 11:59, so I am still going to get paid for 48 hours this week. Next week with only monday and tuesday off I will get 60 hours.

So I was asking the owner about the AC, and about switching it over, etc, and he was telling me that a 92 ford truck he did some work on, including charging the ac, switching it over to the newer coolant and stuff like that, and that that was 4 years ago and the truck is still charged with the AC running ice cold. It makes me feel good to see the little things I have done to the truck. Eventually, the hand full of tasks I want to do will be complete and the truck will be in really good shape. It's in pretty good shape right now. A lot of the things it still has to be done are minor. Window motor being weak (either that or I need to lubricate the window. I heard that if the window track is really dry then it will not want to roll down or up very easily. So that will be my first test, to see if I lubricate the track, if the window problems will be fixed.)

Then my drivers side seat doesn't have a working mechanism for leaning forward and back. I have to occasionally lean forward and make sure the lever is pushed securely down. When I was driving back from the town we bought the truck in, the seat suddenly leaned back a few times. It scared the crap out of me the first time it did it. lol. But, from my understanding, the easiest way to fix it would be to find an old ford f250 and get the drivers seat out of it. I believe there are just 4 bolts holding the seat in place, and so it sounds like a fairly easy fix.

However, the owner today when I showed him the seat and asked him what he thought, he said that ford might be able to order that mechanism and it may be possible to change it out and keep the original seat. If that is possible, then keeping things as much original as possible is always the best thing to do.

So, on my way back from the mechanic shop, I went by Circle K and filled up both gas tanks, plus grabbed some snacks and one of the different flavors of mountain dew. This one was rasberry and citris I believe. All and all, it wasn't a cheap visit, but I'm wondering if my gas tank I put on is a few gallons bigger than the older one. I was under the impression that the original tanks were both 15 gallons. When I filled up the new tank, I thought it was 18 gallons *which I'm certain it said when I bought it*, but when I filled it up, it went to 19.12 gallons.

Last night since Erin's birthday is coming up and I don't know how money will be then, so she can order books for her kindle or whatever she wants to do, I ordered her an instant gift card on Amazon for $40.00. Instant because it emailed to her within a few minutes. She was like "O_O $40.00?" I was like "Yup! I figured you could put it to good use." I guess she didn't expect that much, but was happily surprised." I said "That way on her birthday maybe we could try to plan ahead and we all go out to eat some place special for her birth day.

So in closing, we still have not decided anything yet as far as Erin's car and her transmission. The guy said he was going to try to get to it today as far as checking out the engine and making sure there were no other potentially huge problems that might happen down the road, but he was busy today and didn't get to it. So hopefully he will get to it tomorrow. Hopefully next week at the latest, I'm hoping we have a plan both as far as getting him to go ahead and rebuild the transmission or whatever, and a plan as far as paying for it. I know Erin and I are both anxious for her to have her car back. Life is just so much easier when we both have our own independent modes of transportation to get ourselves around whenever we need it. At least we have one vehicle that is in good shape and so we are thankful for that, but we are still looking forward to getting the escape back.

So I think for tonight, I will call that it. I will write more for you all tomorrow.

thanks for being here.

CB