Monday, July 27, 2009
Cavalier's Saga rolls on.
The Saga continues ……
Recapping: four trips to the insurance brokers to get the paperwork done; multiple jumpstarts to get it home; battery won’t hold charge; reconditioned battery not properly conditioned, strain burns out alternator leaving me stranded on Lakeview Terrace with a car that is not going anywhere under its own power without an alternator and a battery that will destroy any new (to the car) alternator; trade the VW I lived in while homeless for a used alternator and its installation, loaned a battery to get home, hooked up re-conditioned battery to trickle charger to charge and condition it, left 5 days because I was to nervous/wary/scared to drive car before that …
… and on the fifth day started the engine and drove to sign over ownership of the VW. Before stepping into the Insurance Brokers the battery was tested and proved to be fully charged, staying cool when charging and the alternator/battery was charging fine.
Driving away … the engine started overheating. The following day it overheated on the way to lunch. Discussing this state of affairs with my things mechanical advisory board over lunch I was advised to purchase and install a new thermostat. Returning home and switching to the dependable Duster, I drove to get the new thermostat for the Cavalier.
The next day I drove down to meet with the person who offered to install the thermostat if I bought and brought a thermostat to lunch Saturday. Unfortunately they were unable to be there to change the thermostat. Fortune did provide someone who could install the thermostat – after they finished work. Patience … Patience … Patience … and the old thermostat comes out in two pieces to be replaced with a shiny new thermostat.
With the new thermostat installed I drive away filled with trepidation, Which proved unfounded as the engine heated up properly and remained cool.
With the engine running at the proper temperature and my attention no longer focused so singularly on the engine temperature my senses were open to notice that there was hesitancy in the engine and its response, like a runner short of energy or oxygen.
Consulting with my advisors I secured new sparkplugs but when we went to install them it developed that my sparkplug tool lacked the depth of reach to change the Cavaliers sparkplugs. Once I had followed the advice on where to obtain appropriate tools to do the job, at an good (affordable to me price), we pulled the first plug. When that plug, and a subsequent sparkplug checked just to be sure, proved in very good shape I was off to return the plugs and secure air and fuel filters.
When we went to install the air filter it proved to be the wrong size. A return trip to Lordco revealed that the computer showed that air filter as the correct air filter for the Cavalier. Stymied, the person helping me was forced to resort to desperate measures – the actual paper catalogue. The printed catalogue showed the same air filter as in the computer … and a second air filter that proved to be the correct size. Books are such useful and entertaining friends to have around – you should take a book out for a read today.
The new air filter was installed, replacing the completely black old filter.
Then it was on to the fuel filter which is located under the car between the fuel tank and the rear axle. Fortunately I had looked up the location on the internet; unfortunately it was where it was.
With the location and design it is impossible not to have a volume of gasoline spill out when changing the filter. Indeed the gentleman who shimmied under the car to change the filter had to take a fresh air break before finishing the installation.
When we drained the remaining fuel out of the old filter the gas was dirty; suggesting that it might be a good idea at some future point to drop the gas tank and drain/clean it.
Driving away, the engine was running better. So much better that it blew the (rusted?) baffles in the muffler; leaving a muffler that looks fine to an exterior inspection but that, when shaken, rattles to reveal its lack of interior soundness.
Primal Scream; hang and slowly shake head. Take a very deep breath hold it and slowly release it – repeat as needed to reach a state of calmness.
I found myself reluctant to replace the muffler, wondering once the muffler was fixed what next? Hey - it’s not paranoia if the Universe is really out to get you.
However one of the things they do not warn you about when they encourage you to seek mental health recovery and wellness is that it severely compromises your ability to procrastinate. I use to be able to procrastinate with the best of procrastinators. But now healthy ways of thinking do not permit me to procrastinate until something simple turns into a crisis of mountainous proportions.
Being reluctant to discover what would (will) happen after the muffler was repaired I decided to take care of a small repair that should have no consequences. So I headed off to the auto wreckers to find a replacement licence plate holder since the one on the Cavalier was broken, leaving the front plate held by a single screw and flapping in the wind.
Better to take care of the matter before I paid the procrastination price on this by getting a ticket and fine for driving without a front licence plate.
It developed that the Universe was not about to let me procrastinate on the muffler front. At the wreckers I ran into a friend who, having heard me drive in, said he could get me a new muffler cheap. He made a phone call and I was off and procured a new muffler for $40. How could I say no to a new muffler at that price? I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid.
With the new muffler in the trunk I headed off to the library. All the way to the library the muffler was whispering to me - ‘I’m here in the trunk all shiny and new, anxious to be installed and muffle ….’ It kept up its whispering campaign while I was in the library; reaching the point I was forced, for the sake of my sanity and peace-and-quiet in my head, to e-mail a friend with a floor jack asking whether he would be able to install the muffler.
Shortly after I arrived home I received an e-mail suggesting a time the next morning which I accepted with alacrity.
I arrived at his place the next morning, backed in, blocked the front tire; he jacked up the rear end, set up the support brace and proceeded to remove the old muffler. Using his van I made a quick trip to get two new clamps to attach the muffler and Voila! it was done.
A piece of advice: you want to make sure that among your friends who know their way around cars that at least one of them has a set of tools (air/impact wrenches, SawAll, hand held grinder, sockets and wrenches up the wazoo, etc…) that is the envy of every guy.
After a cold pop and conversation on what is going on with homelessness around Abbotsford it was time to fire up the Cavalier. After which I drove quietly home.
As I finish typing this the Cavalier sits in front while I sit here hoping that repairing the muffler does not cause some other domino to fall; that the Universe is through testing or playing with me vis-à-vis the Cavalier and that this is the end of the Saga of Repairs and Headaches.
Afterword: People tend to give me strange looks when I say that I do not regret my journey through mental illness. But while this journey may have replaced the richness of my bank account with poverty, it has also replaced my poverty of friends with a richness of friends and people in my life who will lend me a helping hand when a ‘Never look a gift horse in the mouth’ gift horse turns out to be a bit of a Trojan horse
Post Script: To those who so generosity lent a hand a sincere Thank You.
Recapping: four trips to the insurance brokers to get the paperwork done; multiple jumpstarts to get it home; battery won’t hold charge; reconditioned battery not properly conditioned, strain burns out alternator leaving me stranded on Lakeview Terrace with a car that is not going anywhere under its own power without an alternator and a battery that will destroy any new (to the car) alternator; trade the VW I lived in while homeless for a used alternator and its installation, loaned a battery to get home, hooked up re-conditioned battery to trickle charger to charge and condition it, left 5 days because I was to nervous/wary/scared to drive car before that …
… and on the fifth day started the engine and drove to sign over ownership of the VW. Before stepping into the Insurance Brokers the battery was tested and proved to be fully charged, staying cool when charging and the alternator/battery was charging fine.
Driving away … the engine started overheating. The following day it overheated on the way to lunch. Discussing this state of affairs with my things mechanical advisory board over lunch I was advised to purchase and install a new thermostat. Returning home and switching to the dependable Duster, I drove to get the new thermostat for the Cavalier.
The next day I drove down to meet with the person who offered to install the thermostat if I bought and brought a thermostat to lunch Saturday. Unfortunately they were unable to be there to change the thermostat. Fortune did provide someone who could install the thermostat – after they finished work. Patience … Patience … Patience … and the old thermostat comes out in two pieces to be replaced with a shiny new thermostat.
With the new thermostat installed I drive away filled with trepidation, Which proved unfounded as the engine heated up properly and remained cool.
With the engine running at the proper temperature and my attention no longer focused so singularly on the engine temperature my senses were open to notice that there was hesitancy in the engine and its response, like a runner short of energy or oxygen.
Consulting with my advisors I secured new sparkplugs but when we went to install them it developed that my sparkplug tool lacked the depth of reach to change the Cavaliers sparkplugs. Once I had followed the advice on where to obtain appropriate tools to do the job, at an good (affordable to me price), we pulled the first plug. When that plug, and a subsequent sparkplug checked just to be sure, proved in very good shape I was off to return the plugs and secure air and fuel filters.
When we went to install the air filter it proved to be the wrong size. A return trip to Lordco revealed that the computer showed that air filter as the correct air filter for the Cavalier. Stymied, the person helping me was forced to resort to desperate measures – the actual paper catalogue. The printed catalogue showed the same air filter as in the computer … and a second air filter that proved to be the correct size. Books are such useful and entertaining friends to have around – you should take a book out for a read today.
The new air filter was installed, replacing the completely black old filter.
Then it was on to the fuel filter which is located under the car between the fuel tank and the rear axle. Fortunately I had looked up the location on the internet; unfortunately it was where it was.
With the location and design it is impossible not to have a volume of gasoline spill out when changing the filter. Indeed the gentleman who shimmied under the car to change the filter had to take a fresh air break before finishing the installation.
When we drained the remaining fuel out of the old filter the gas was dirty; suggesting that it might be a good idea at some future point to drop the gas tank and drain/clean it.
Driving away, the engine was running better. So much better that it blew the (rusted?) baffles in the muffler; leaving a muffler that looks fine to an exterior inspection but that, when shaken, rattles to reveal its lack of interior soundness.
Primal Scream; hang and slowly shake head. Take a very deep breath hold it and slowly release it – repeat as needed to reach a state of calmness.
I found myself reluctant to replace the muffler, wondering once the muffler was fixed what next? Hey - it’s not paranoia if the Universe is really out to get you.
However one of the things they do not warn you about when they encourage you to seek mental health recovery and wellness is that it severely compromises your ability to procrastinate. I use to be able to procrastinate with the best of procrastinators. But now healthy ways of thinking do not permit me to procrastinate until something simple turns into a crisis of mountainous proportions.
Being reluctant to discover what would (will) happen after the muffler was repaired I decided to take care of a small repair that should have no consequences. So I headed off to the auto wreckers to find a replacement licence plate holder since the one on the Cavalier was broken, leaving the front plate held by a single screw and flapping in the wind.
Better to take care of the matter before I paid the procrastination price on this by getting a ticket and fine for driving without a front licence plate.
It developed that the Universe was not about to let me procrastinate on the muffler front. At the wreckers I ran into a friend who, having heard me drive in, said he could get me a new muffler cheap. He made a phone call and I was off and procured a new muffler for $40. How could I say no to a new muffler at that price? I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid.
With the new muffler in the trunk I headed off to the library. All the way to the library the muffler was whispering to me - ‘I’m here in the trunk all shiny and new, anxious to be installed and muffle ….’ It kept up its whispering campaign while I was in the library; reaching the point I was forced, for the sake of my sanity and peace-and-quiet in my head, to e-mail a friend with a floor jack asking whether he would be able to install the muffler.
Shortly after I arrived home I received an e-mail suggesting a time the next morning which I accepted with alacrity.
I arrived at his place the next morning, backed in, blocked the front tire; he jacked up the rear end, set up the support brace and proceeded to remove the old muffler. Using his van I made a quick trip to get two new clamps to attach the muffler and Voila! it was done.
A piece of advice: you want to make sure that among your friends who know their way around cars that at least one of them has a set of tools (air/impact wrenches, SawAll, hand held grinder, sockets and wrenches up the wazoo, etc…) that is the envy of every guy.
After a cold pop and conversation on what is going on with homelessness around Abbotsford it was time to fire up the Cavalier. After which I drove quietly home.
As I finish typing this the Cavalier sits in front while I sit here hoping that repairing the muffler does not cause some other domino to fall; that the Universe is through testing or playing with me vis-à-vis the Cavalier and that this is the end of the Saga of Repairs and Headaches.
Afterword: People tend to give me strange looks when I say that I do not regret my journey through mental illness. But while this journey may have replaced the richness of my bank account with poverty, it has also replaced my poverty of friends with a richness of friends and people in my life who will lend me a helping hand when a ‘Never look a gift horse in the mouth’ gift horse turns out to be a bit of a Trojan horse
Post Script: To those who so generosity lent a hand a sincere Thank You.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Now it is Field User Fees
In reading Barry Crocker’s statements concerning the imposition of user fees next year I was appalled by his cavalier attitude towards increasing the cost for kids to participate in soccer. Not to mention his total lack of logic or reasoning concerning the new fees.
Mr. Crocker apparently has not met a fee he is not happy to impose, thereby increasing the cost to participate and play soccer. With his attitude that parents have bottomless pockets from which to pay fee increases, he should be on city council.
Fee increases do not occur in a vacuum – they are added on top of what it costs to play soccer already. An additional $10 - $15 is going to deny some kids playing soccer.
"It's not going to affect us at all. It will probably cost kids $10 to $15 a year more". Mr. Crocker: if it puts the cost up $10 to $15 it IS going to have an affect. If it had no affect fees would not go up.
According to Mr. Crocker 20 years ago Abbotsford had the best fields anywhere. It follows that in order for Abbotsford to now be “…near the bottom end of the list in terms of what is spent on sports fields” City Council has chosen to invest and spend less and less on fields and maintenance.
Why would one expect this behaviour to change just because Abbotsford will now be imposing user fees? The City has demonstrated by its behaviour over those 20 years that playing fields and park maintenance are a low priority for the City.
There is no evidence that imposing user fees for use of fields will in any way change the City’s neglect of fields and parks. Whether Mill Lake parking fees or user fees for sports fields these “fees” are about City Hall’s inability to manage their finances in a responsible manner and that has City Hall seeking to hide tax increases by calling them user fees.
"If we get three or four all-weather fields I think it will be worth it because the kids will be with us." I do not recall City Hall making any announcement about building three or four all-weather fields?
If there is an agreement in place that City Hall will be building these all-weather fields and bring playing fields up to par and maintaining the fields as they should, let’s hear all about it. If not …
"The biggest problem will be the administration of it.” There is a simple solution to this. That is to do what Mr. Crocker should be doing: standing up for the soccer players not making excuses for another revenue grab by the City.
Mr. Crocker apparently has not met a fee he is not happy to impose, thereby increasing the cost to participate and play soccer. With his attitude that parents have bottomless pockets from which to pay fee increases, he should be on city council.
Fee increases do not occur in a vacuum – they are added on top of what it costs to play soccer already. An additional $10 - $15 is going to deny some kids playing soccer.
"It's not going to affect us at all. It will probably cost kids $10 to $15 a year more". Mr. Crocker: if it puts the cost up $10 to $15 it IS going to have an affect. If it had no affect fees would not go up.
According to Mr. Crocker 20 years ago Abbotsford had the best fields anywhere. It follows that in order for Abbotsford to now be “…near the bottom end of the list in terms of what is spent on sports fields” City Council has chosen to invest and spend less and less on fields and maintenance.
Why would one expect this behaviour to change just because Abbotsford will now be imposing user fees? The City has demonstrated by its behaviour over those 20 years that playing fields and park maintenance are a low priority for the City.
There is no evidence that imposing user fees for use of fields will in any way change the City’s neglect of fields and parks. Whether Mill Lake parking fees or user fees for sports fields these “fees” are about City Hall’s inability to manage their finances in a responsible manner and that has City Hall seeking to hide tax increases by calling them user fees.
"If we get three or four all-weather fields I think it will be worth it because the kids will be with us." I do not recall City Hall making any announcement about building three or four all-weather fields?
If there is an agreement in place that City Hall will be building these all-weather fields and bring playing fields up to par and maintaining the fields as they should, let’s hear all about it. If not …
"The biggest problem will be the administration of it.” There is a simple solution to this. That is to do what Mr. Crocker should be doing: standing up for the soccer players not making excuses for another revenue grab by the City.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Responsible Reporting.
I was reading the new Science Fiction novel by a favourite author of mine in which media could be sued over misinformation in their reports and any consequences arising from less than complete and balanced information in reporting events.
It was only a minor point in the world and culture built by the author but it set in motion a train of thought when I saw the television news coverage of the death of Alberto Morgadinho.
Flash back to the story of the Canadian Tire store clerk who was fired for not letting the thief get away with stealing items from the store. The tone and tenor of the reports was that the clerk was a hero and should be rewarded not fired. News reporters went so far as to harass the store owner seeking a statement about why the store has a policy that resulting in firing the heroic (media tone/spin) clerk.
When the owner refused to comment, media “proved” the policy existed by interviewing other store clerks who knew that they were to let thieves getaway and call the police.
Not once did I see any reports that examined the whys of such a policy and whether, in light of the whys, this was a reasonable and intelligent policy. Even when they were glossing over the fact that this was not the first time this clerk had confronted a thief.
Flash forward to the tragic events surrounding the death of Alberto Morgadinho who, in attempting to interfere with thieves at his place of business, was run down and killed.
One report had his daughter stating how stupid it was that the thieves had killed Mr. Morgadinho over a few dollars worth of stolen items. A statement which contains a great deal of truth, but a statement that also fails to acknowledge a very important truth.
Yes killing someone over a few dollars of stolen merchandise is stupid.
However, it is also less than intelligent for a man such as Mr. Morgadinho to get himself killed over those few dollars of stolen merchandise. I wonder what Mr. Morgadinho’s reply would have been if you poised the scenario of his death to him, asking if dying under these circumstances and for simple goods that could be replaced was a good decision.
I found myself pondering the question of whether Mr. Mr. Morgadinho had seen the earlier television reports on the actions of the “heroic” Canadian Tire clerk. Wondering if seeing those reports had influenced Mr. Mr. Morgadinho’s actions on the day he died.
It is only stuff and can be replaced. The only rational, intelligent policy is a policy of doing nothing to interfere with thieves taking merchandise, instead protecting the lives of people – lives which cannot be replaced.
Careless, unbalanced and not thought out reporting can kill. Unfortunately, unlike the world created by my favoured author, media is not held accountable in anyway for the consequences of their poor reporting.
Bit of a sticky wicket, eh what?
It was only a minor point in the world and culture built by the author but it set in motion a train of thought when I saw the television news coverage of the death of Alberto Morgadinho.
Flash back to the story of the Canadian Tire store clerk who was fired for not letting the thief get away with stealing items from the store. The tone and tenor of the reports was that the clerk was a hero and should be rewarded not fired. News reporters went so far as to harass the store owner seeking a statement about why the store has a policy that resulting in firing the heroic (media tone/spin) clerk.
When the owner refused to comment, media “proved” the policy existed by interviewing other store clerks who knew that they were to let thieves getaway and call the police.
Not once did I see any reports that examined the whys of such a policy and whether, in light of the whys, this was a reasonable and intelligent policy. Even when they were glossing over the fact that this was not the first time this clerk had confronted a thief.
Flash forward to the tragic events surrounding the death of Alberto Morgadinho who, in attempting to interfere with thieves at his place of business, was run down and killed.
One report had his daughter stating how stupid it was that the thieves had killed Mr. Morgadinho over a few dollars worth of stolen items. A statement which contains a great deal of truth, but a statement that also fails to acknowledge a very important truth.
Yes killing someone over a few dollars of stolen merchandise is stupid.
However, it is also less than intelligent for a man such as Mr. Morgadinho to get himself killed over those few dollars of stolen merchandise. I wonder what Mr. Morgadinho’s reply would have been if you poised the scenario of his death to him, asking if dying under these circumstances and for simple goods that could be replaced was a good decision.
I found myself pondering the question of whether Mr. Mr. Morgadinho had seen the earlier television reports on the actions of the “heroic” Canadian Tire clerk. Wondering if seeing those reports had influenced Mr. Mr. Morgadinho’s actions on the day he died.
It is only stuff and can be replaced. The only rational, intelligent policy is a policy of doing nothing to interfere with thieves taking merchandise, instead protecting the lives of people – lives which cannot be replaced.
Careless, unbalanced and not thought out reporting can kill. Unfortunately, unlike the world created by my favoured author, media is not held accountable in anyway for the consequences of their poor reporting.
Bit of a sticky wicket, eh what?
