2/28/1993

However, this will always be true:

Questions and Answers and Sunday Stuff

Froggy asked me about the limb in the tree.  I don't think we can get it out easily because of where it is in the tree.  At this point, we just hope that when it comes down it doesn't blow to the north because the house is on the north side of the tree.

Yes, Froggy - that is Maggie Moo under the futon!  She likes to sleep underneath it for some reason.  

Here's a close up:

She also sleeps like this, with just her head underneath.

Otter came over to do laundry today.  I was out in the back yard with Maggie at the time, I heard her car as we were heading to the door to come inside.  Maggie being Maggie, it took a few minutes to get to the door and inside, then she heard Otter at the front door and basically just levitated herself from the back door to the front door.  She was overjoyed to see her Otter.  She was even happier later on when Otter took her on a walk.

We had planned on making Mini Pizzas for lunch so Otter helped me assemble them.  Obviously, she had lunch with us today.  :)  They were pretty good and we have leftovers for dinner.  Maggie spent the entire time we were in the kitchen at our feet, hoping for somebody to drop something.  She got a couple of cheese shreds, and that seemed to be what she wanted.  Goofy little beagle!

Just thought I'd put this out there, no other reason than it's funny (and true):

I saw it online the other day.  It's not an exaggeration!

Saturday

Today I have managed to get the laundry done and put away, one load was from today and the other two or three were done yesterday.  The laundry is pretty much all I got done yesterday, since Otter shared the bug with me that had her down mid-week.  It seems to be a short-lived illness and it's apparently made it's way through her workplace now.

Yesterday morning, I felt cruddy so I called in and stayed home.  I wasn't feeling too good Thursday afternoon but there were a lot of grass fires around Tulsa and the air was pretty toxic.  So I thought at first that the headache and asthma-ish symptoms were related to that. But then I woke up feeling bad yesterday morning and realized that I had the same symptoms Otter had so I think I have been fighting the same thing.  The smoky, icky air didn't help at all!

I also managed to get to Hobby Lobby this morning since I was feeling better and needed to get something.  Otter wanted to go with me so I picked her up at her apartment and then she wanted to go to a thrift store but we didn't find anything.  I made one stop after I took her home - I saw a Girl Scout troop set up in front of the grocery store when I drove past so of course I turned around and bought cookies!

But all of my running only took a couple of hours.  Mostly, I've just been hanging around the house today.

We had a very windy week, it's been warm and Thursday was really bad because of extremely strong winds.  There were grass fires all over the place, and at least one was probably deliberately started.  I hope that the arsonist it caught, that particular fire was really big and a lot of homes and property were destroyed.  I think that was the fire to the south.

It doesn't really show up well, but there is a limb on the other side of the pole holding the bird feeder.  The limb was in the tree Thursday morning.

Toward the middle of the tree on the right side, there is a broken limb.

This is a better shot.  The piece that came off is probably from this part of the tree.  All it's going to take is another hard wind storm, and we get a lot of them in the Spring.

This is not the same tree, but I noticed these two doves when I was taking pictures of the broken limbs.

Let's hope that this is not an indicator of what we are in for this year!

This is the futon in the YARN room.  There are a few things on top of it, I was in the process of rearranging things in there.  But the object of this picture is something else.  Look closely at the far corner.  See it? :)

Words

I seem to have words on my mind today.

Just a few.

(Definition from Webster's online dictionary, but I can't get it to copy right so I'm typing them myself!)

Slander:  To make a false spoken statement that causes people to have a bad opinion of someone.

Vindication:  An act of vindication; the state of being vindicated; justification against denial or censure; defense.

There are a few others, but these are the most important words of the day.

Still Here

Just not feeling the "bloggy thing" lately.  But Froggy will get on me, eventually! :)

Bill was off Friday and today (Monday), so I had two work days that did not involve getting up at 5:00!  It was nice to be able to sleep in both days.  I woke up shortly before 6:00 on Friday and right at 6:00 this morning.  But he goes back to work tomorrow, so that means I have to get up at 5:00 again.  Somebody has to make sure the boy eats breakfast and has a lunch to take!  Otherwise, there is no telling what he would eat. :)

Otter saw the dentist last week.  The dentist we used before retired and she sold her practice to another dentist.  But we decided to change to a closer one, which is the only reason we ever went to the dentist in the near by town that put her crown on in 2014.  But when the crown felt loose and the dentist that put it on wanted nearly $7,200.00 to do a whole bunch of work on Otter's teeth and they were very pushy about it, we decided it was time to give the new dentist at the old practice a try.  So I called them and set up an appointment for her.  Since we weren't sure if it was just going to be a cleaning and exam, I took Otter to her appointment because the poor girl gets so sick from the anesthetics and the happy gas lasts a whole lot longer on her than most people - both courtesy of the RedHead curse and our wonky metabolism!  They did not do any additional work, but she got a good exam and the cleaning that was overdue because the "crown dentist" never actually did one.  The x-rays do show that there are several spots that need attention.  Some are actual cavities but not all; some of them are pre-cavity areas that need to be taken care of so that they don't become cavities.  The tooth that hold the crown is not in the best shape and at some point the crown may well need to be replaced.  But the dentist thinks that he can remove the crown and reattach it which will buy her some time.  Maybe a lot of time, but at least some time.  It does need to be done fairy soon, but not "right now" as the crown dentist was insisting.  He took plenty of time with Otter, she said he explained everything in detail and made sure she understood completely everything he thought needed to be done.  The tech that did the cleaning was not in a hurry and was very thorough.  Unlike the crown dentist!  Also, I compared the treatment plans from both dentists - the crown dentist did not have quite the same list, - his was actually not as complete.  But the main thing we noticed is that the old/new dentist is very different in what he will charge.  As in $3,100.00.  OVER $4,000.00 LESS.  We did not ask about a discount for paying it outright, his prices are just that much better.

She has the first appointment in about 3 weeks to get started, obviously at the old/new dentist.  Not based entirely on the cost issue, but that is one of the reasons.  But the care level is the main thing.  Because of her reactions to the numbing stuff and also to the happy gas, I will be taking her.  She'll have several teeth attended to, they are all next to each other and some are visible so they need to be done at the same time to match the composite color.  He's also going to reattach the crown at that time.  The rest of the teeth will be taken care of in several other appointments, but this is the biggest.  She does have the decalcification issues and they gave her a super-flouridated toothpaste to use.  They suggested she use it before bed because it shouldn't be actually rinsed out.

She asked Bill to make some of his specialty mashed potatoes so she'll have something she can eat that evening that she will also enjoy.  I'll bring her back to our house after the appointment so she can rest and recover for a while.  The potatoes will be cooked, mashed and eaten at our house and I'm pretty sure that some will go home with her when I take her back to her apartment!

We also got new cell phones last week.  Bill needed to get his phone fixed but he decided to go ahead and upgrade it.  He got an android phone, and I intended to stick with my flip phone but then the next day (when I was waiting at the dentist) I realized that I was having to push the button 3 or 4 times just to see what time it was.  So when Otter got through at the dentist, we went to Verizon and both got new phones.  I got one like Bill's, Otter's new phone is similar but not the exact kind and ours.  The one she picked out is actually the one I originally liked for myself when we were looking for Bill.

Also, we are not going to be able to go to Froggy's daughter's wedding in March.  There are a lot of reasons, and we wish we could go but it's just not going to be possible.  But since Otter's first dental work appointment is on one of the days when we would have been in deep S. TEXAS for the wedding, I guess it's just as well.  Not that we are happy about having to miss the wedding, but it can't be helped so I guess we just have to make the best of it.

What else?  Guess that is it for now.

Timelines!

I'm putting the 2002 Impala timeline on here so that I don't forget it

Otter started driving that car as her main transportation after she moved out of our house, that was October 2014.  She and Bill basically shared it, I picked her up and took her to work a few times depending on her schedule mostly.  Winter hit early and Bill really did not want to drive the El Camino because it is basically a giant sled on icy roads so Otter and I managed to get her to work on the days when he needed the car.  After we got through the bulk of the winter, we basically just left the car at her place and she drove it on a mostly daily basis.  (She didn't actually become the owner of record until April of 2015.)

February 2015 is when we put the two front tires on it and had the front end alignment done.  Both were necessary, the tires were bad but the front end needed to be aligned very badly and especially when we put the new tires on it so they didn't wear in spots.  Sometime after that, the "check engine" light came on.  I'm not sure exactly when but I think it was before the title was transferred to her name.  We had it checked at the auto parts store that does that for free, they thought maybe it was the sensor so Bill replaced it.  It went off but then it came back on again after a little while.  They checked it again and thought that maybe the new sensor was not good so they exchanged it.  It was off for a while then it came back on.  We had it checked at the local repair shop when they did an oil change, they couldn't find anything but they did reset the light.  After a while, it came back on.  At that point, the car was  still not titled in Otter's name.  I was driving it one day, I think maybe my car was getting something done and Otter let me borrow it.  The "check engine" light was still on and then it had another warning about checking the engine but it was a different warning and potentially very serious.  We took it to Chevy then.  And that was the last time we went to that particular dealership because they lied to me about a lot of things but they did at least say that they checked and the engine was ok so they thought the sensor was just bad and that unless it did specific things, the car was safe to drive.  So Otter had the title transferred into her name in early April.

The car seemed to be fine, the engine light stayed on but it never did anything else.  When the oil was changed, the repair shop would reset the light but it would come back on after a while.  She drove it through the spring, summer and early fall with no problems.  There were a couple of times when she went out of town and left it with us since she didn't want to leave it at her apartment complex and Bill drove it then.  It acted fine.

The first part of August, I don't remember but it was within the first couple of days of the month, she and J were at our house and it was parked in our driveway.  Bill noticed that the radiator seemed to have sprung a leak.  Bill told her when she got the car that we would take care of any repairs for her for the first year - at least "normal usage" repairs but Otter always takes care of things so we weren't worried!  He replaced the radiator and it seemed to be fine.

Then on November 1st (or maybe 2nd?), she was on her way home from the not-quite-next-door little town that J lives in and it was about 9:00 at night.  That's when the temperature gauge suddenly shot up to the dangerously high reading and she pulled over so she could call us.  We got there and Bill checked it, it did not look like it was overheating but it was still warm.  He drove it home and she rode with me.  He had to pull over a time or two, on the turnpike where there are no lights!  She took my car home and we kept the 2002.  I took it to the local repair shop the next morning.  They decided that it still had air from the radiator being replaced, which was a logical thing to think.

It drove fine for a couple of weeks, then the temp gauge started to run hot again and the "low coolant" light came on.  At the time, Bill (and the neighbor who is a mechanic plus the mechanics at the local shop) all thought that it was probably just more air working it's way out of the system because Bill was able to get more air out of.  It kept doing it and he kept "burping" it.  But when it didn't stop and the temp gauge sometimes went all the way up, Bill thought it might be the thermostat.  Again, so did all the mechanics!

We had been discussing buying Bill a used car to drive so that the El Camino could be parked over the winter like we usually did with it.  But then he was afraid that we would be buying somebody else's problem so we decided to buy me a new car and then he would drive the 2008.  Except that Otter's car was still acting up and we decided to offer her the 2008 in trade for the 2002.  She decided to take us up on the offer so we went back to the title agency.  She had the 2008 transferred to her and we had the 2002 transferred back to us.  We bought my new car and Bill drove the 2002.  It worked fine for a while, but then it started acting up again and each time it was worse.  Everyone agreed that it sounded like the thermostat so he decided to have another chevy dealership look at it when he got the next oil change and they were also able to do the ignition recall issue that the first chevy dealership said couldn't be done.  That was a couple of weeks ago, the last Friday in January.  That is when they determined that it was a cracked head gasket - something that the first chevy dealership probably should have seen and that just convinced us even more that we were right to not use them anymore.  Especially since they claimed to have checked the car over and the problem would have been evident!  In hindsight, we probably should have just gone to the 2nd chevy dealership at that time.  Since the repair was going to cost just under $3,000.00, we decided the car was not worth that much.  Which it really wasn't.

When the "check engine" light came on might not be when the head gasket cracked, but it was probably at least beginning to leak at that point.  When it actually cracked is probably when the radiator leak happened, because of the air/coolant being forced through it under pressure and at high heat.  It basically cascaded from one problem to another and none of it was "textbook" for a cracked head gasket which is why everyone thought it was the thermostat.  We were pretty surprised when it turned out to be the actual problem with the head gasket.  The car itself would only be worth $1,500.00 on a good day and in better shape.

It went to an auction last Thursday.  It did sell, for more than we thought but not for very much.  Which is fine, it's out of our way now and we don't have to worry that Bill (or Otter) will be stranded on the side of the road again.  I think the buyer probably bought it for parts.  It's an older car with over 150,000 miles on it after all.  I still see several of that body style on the road, it was one of chevy's best selling vehicles.  They did get it right with that car.  It just wore out, basically.  But when we bought it, we intended to drive it until it wasn't driveable anymore and that's pretty much what we did and for many years.  With regular maintenance, cars can last a long time and we certainly feel like we got our money's worth out of it.  Otter is very happy with the 2008, she said she actually likes it better than the 2002.  I'm very pleased with the 2015 and Bill does like to drive the El Camino but he is also thinking about selling it and then getting another car to drive.  That probably won't be anytime soon, if he actually decides to do that.   But then again there are still times when we need a truck, so he really doesn't know what he wants to do.  I just wish we had realized much earlier that there was a serious problem and what it was.

Safe!

The groundhog is safe from the stewpot for another year.  Guess the groundhog stew fixins* can get put up for another year.  But I can get them out at a moment's notice, rodent - you better get ready to run if we get socked in by a late winter snow.  :)

We decided to send the 02 Impala to a local auto auction.  We cleaned everything out of it last night and then I got the vacuum and cleaned it up after work today.  I gave Otter the floor mats from the back, she didn't have any back floor mats in her car.  The jumper cables will get put in the trunk of my car.  Most of what was still in the car after we got it back from Otter was things like a few ice scrapers and some misc. stuff that was thrown out.  We get whatever we get from it, if it sells.  It's not a big deal if we don't get much or if it doesn't sell because we'll donate it if it doesn't sell.

Car Trouble

We've finally gotten an official answer on what the problem is with the 2002 Impala that was mine, then Bill's, then Otter's, then ours.  Bill's been driving in since it stranded her on the side of the road in October.  Everything that he's wondered about and our neighbor (who is a part-time mechanic) has wondered about have been related to the thermostat.  Bill talked to the repair shop we've used and they were also stumped.  They wondered about the cooling fans, but Bill replaced those a while back.  It was a logical guess, given the way it was acting.  They never actually saw it for the issues it was having, beyond "burping" the radiator - which it probably did need.  It acted fine for a while after that, then it started acting like it was overheating and having some other related troubles.  That's when we traded cars with Otter, she got the 2008 and we took the 2002 back.  We didn't take it back to the repair shop at that point because Bill kept thinking it was minor and then he finally just decided to take it to Chevy - but the repair shop would probably have had no trouble diagnosing the problem, we just never took it back there.  So I'm not complaining about them!  We have used them when we needed to and will continue to.  It may be a while, the El Camino hasn't been driven much since it's last oil change and the '15 can go much further between oil changes than cars used to.  Otter's car has brand new tires, the repair shop put them on when it was my car last summer.  I don't remember how old the El Camino tires are but I don't think they are too old.

Bill took the 2002 to Chevy last Friday.  He asked them to do the oil change it needed and they also were able to do the recall issue - unlike the first Chevy dealership!  In hindsight, we probably could have skipped the oil change although it wasn't terribly expensive and it isn't really a big deal.  But I do wish Bill had not stopped at the gas station on the way home from Chevy on Friday!

The problem turned out to be fairly serious.  And fairly expensive.  It has a cracked head gasket.  Which is probably due entirely to normal age and wear.  It's a 2002 and it's well over 100,000 miles - I think it may be closer to (or over) 150,000 miles.  The repair estimate is just under $3,000.00.  The car itself is probably worth about half that, or maybe less.  So, since Otter has a safe car (the 2008), I have the new car and Bill has the El Camino to drive, we've decided it's time to tell the '02 goodbye.  I think we're probably going to take care of that this week, we know someone who has an auction for used cars and that's probably our best bet.

It's been a good car and we very much feel like we got our money's worth out of it.  Otter learned to drive in it and I enjoyed it when it was my car, then Bill drove it for a few years so we've gotten a lot of use out of it.  It's just not worth spending that much on it.

The El Camino did have an issue, the part was hard to find because it's a 1976 vehicle but Bill was able to fix it himself.  We usually park the El Camino through the winter because it is basically like a giant sled when the weather is icy.  We may still get another used car for Bill, but not at the moment.  We'll worry about that later on.

In the meantime, at least now we know and we don't have to worry about it.