In The Home Stretch

We are in the home stretch for leaving for college.  We leave in less than a week, and Sarah is going to be spending the final few days making sure she has everything.  Most of her friends are getting ready, or have already left for college, so she is one of the last ones home.  I am hopeful that it won’t be too stressful these last few days, but knowing her, I have a feeling we’re in for at least two or three crises before we leave.  

First Road Trip

Sarah is getting her first taste of a college road trip tonight.  She is going to spend the night with some of her friends in Madison.  One of her friends a moved into school a little more than a week early, from what I have heard, to help get the campus ready for the big move in, and to help other kids move into their dorms.  But unfortunately, that means he is there alone for about a week before hand.  So Sarah and some of her friends are going to drive out to hang out with him and keep him company.  I don’t know exactly what they are going to plan on doing, other than walk around campus, maybe go out to get something to eat.  I don’t think there is much to do until school is in session.  I suppose she’ll get the idea of what it’ll be like if she ever decides to go visit any of her other friends at school in the coming year.  As long as she stays out of bars and away from house parties I’m fine with it.  I also need to remember to tell her, if you are ever at a party, nothing good ever happens after the football team shows up.

Mac Book Air

My parents were in town for some things up in the Valley this past week, and they wanted to go out to dinner.  Once we got to the restaurant, my dad gave Sarah her birthday present, a new Apple MacBook for college.  Sarah had been wanting one, or at least a laptop for school.  She knew we hadn’t bought one yet and was starting to freak out since she leaves for school in a week.  My dad had asked if he could get it for her, so I have been trying to act nonchalant about it for the last month, even while she has been freaking out.  I acted like I was shopping for one online, just so she wouldn’t know she had a MacBook coming.  It came as a big surprise for her, and I think she is really happy about it.  Now I just have to hope she treats it with care, since she doesn’t take care of other things (like her phone) as well as I would like her to.  

Oil Change

It was time to get the oil changed on my car and I thought I would try and save a few bucks by doing it myself.  Usually I shell out the $30 and go to a quick change place so I don’t have to crawl under and worry about spilling oil on the driveway, disposing of the used oil, etc.  Another reason is where things are located in engines now, you almost have to be a contortionist to get at the filter, or have some special tool to remove a cover to get at the engine.  But the Ford is pretty basic, so I thought I’d give it a shot.  I was actually pretty impressed that I remembered how to do it.  It didn’t take me long at all I think I may actually start doing it myself again, and maybe even start looking into how to repair other things, especially on the Saturn.  That may help reduce some of the costs for repairing Sarah’s car.

Good News And Bad News

Sarah's car is finished, but before picking it up, the mechanic called with good news, and with bad news. The bad news, was that they had to replace more than the brake components that he had originally quoted. The good news, was that the work went easier and faster than expected, so the cost of the extra parts was made up for in the quicker repair time. Lucky for us!

He had originally thought he was going to need to replace a rusty brake line, but it turns out that it came apart rather easily. Then once everything was replaced and he went to test everything out, the brake pads still wouldn't engage correctly. After digging a little further, he discovered that the master cylinder was bad, so that needed to be replaced. That was where the cost of the part was equal to the save time. So at any rate, Sarah's car is running again, at least for now, until the next GM part decides to take a dump. I don't know what else could go bad at this point though.

The Money Pit Strikes Again

I got the call from the mechanic today, and the news is not good.  Looks like Sarah is going to need a brake job.  The rear calipers are rusted closed and the rotor that has been getting rubbed by the pads will need to be replaced.  And then of course, brake pads, and something about the way the brake system is designed with the brake lines and how they connect to the calipers being all rusted and not knowing if he’ll be able to get it apart without breaking the connection.  I am so glad GM took more control over Saturn in the early naughts, or this car may have actually run pretty good.  Since we are not ready to get rid of it just yet, I suppose we’ll have to put the money into it.  It can’t be driven the way it is, so time to bite the bullet… again.

Never Update

I had a message on my laptop yesterday that there was a system update from Dell that was ready to be installed.  I figured, it was from Dell so I had better do it.  So I started downloading and installing.  A message popped up that said don't shut down during the install or it would damage something or other, blah, blah, blah. 

I go to check back a little later and I am unable to restart my computer.  All I get is a message saying something about not finding some file or something, and to click Enter to restart, which just put me into a viscous, never ending loop. 

After asking a guy I work with who knows computers, he suggested it was just a setting that was changed during the update and that as soon as that was put back to normal, I would be able to boot up normally.  Luckily I have other computers in the house so I could research the problem, excuse me, issue.  I eventually located the setting I needed and how to get into it to change things back to their original configuration, but it only took me a day.  Thanks a load Dell (and when I say that I mean thanks for nothing).  Lesson learned.  I'll be thinking long and hard about updating that again. 

Brakes

As had been previously noted, the Saturn has been having brake issues.  As I was washing it this weekend, I noticed a rusty trail running down the rim & wheel cover.  So I decided to pull the wheel off and have a look at it.  Wow! The mechanic wasn’t kidding when he said the calipers were all rusty.  It actually looks like the pads are sort of stuck a little in the closed position, and as such are wearing away at the rotor.  There is a bright, shiny ring going around the width of the brake pads.  And the inside of the rim is coated with grey and rusty dust.  I am not much of a mechanic anymore (not that I ever really was other than trying to do repairs on all my old cars myself), but that just can’t be good.  Looks like I’ll be calling first think Monday morning to get this in to get looked at.  Hopefully it is something that can be fixed for not too much money.

Insurance Update

I think we finally got Sarah’s little crack-up figured out.  The insurance is paying out something like $1500.  When I called I informed them that I was questioning the damage, and when the adjuster went to look at it, to keep that in mind.  I also thought that a couple of the quotes the clown sent me were a little outrageous for replacing a bumper cover.  But best to get this put behind us for now, and just shell out the extra few $$$ per month for a bit.  I hope Sarah learned something in all this.  Take pictures with your phone immediately, and if the other person says, everything is fine and asks for your contact info “just in case”, have a fake phone number ready to give out.

First Time Voter

By sheer coincidence, Sarah turned 18 on the day of the Wisconsin partisan primary for the Fall election.  So as a birthday present, I took her to go vote.  She was a little apprehensive because she didn’t have any idea what was on the ballot, or who she should vote for.  Most kids don’t.  But fortunately I was able to give her a quick lesson on the primary and who was running.  I told her that since this was a party primary and there wasn’t much to choose from (you had to go all one party) that it would be a good introduction.  That way when November rolls around (it’ll actually be October since she’ll be voting absentee on the Menomonee Falls ballot in La Crosse) she isn’t overwhelmed by the amount of things on the ballot, and she’ll be able to get it filled out correctly so that it is counted on November 8^th.

We got all the paperwork filled out ahead of time online and printed out so all she had to do was sign it.  Unfortunately I didn’t realize (since the instructions didn’t specify) that she had to have her signature witnessed by a government or polling place official.  She had to have her photo ID to prove who she was (WOW! What a hardship that is to carry around a photo ID, right?) already so I didn’t think witnessing the signature would be a big deal.  It was thought.  The good thing is the poll worker running the registration table allowed her to simply initial and date her already filled in signature rather than having to completely redo the whole form.  I was actually amazed at the common sense applied.

But now she’s on the voter rolls and can exercise her birthright as an American (as long as she doesn’t vote Democrat…  just kidding, we would never tell her who to vote for, she can make up her own mind) and select who will represent her in the government.  My philosophy is you have no right to bitch if you don’t vote.

Insurance Rates Are Going Up

I got a message at work today from Kris saying that got in a car accident.  Actually it was something more along the lines of Sarah rear-ending someone.  My first reaction was, is she (everyone) OK?  Then I got mad.  Because I know her brakes need work and I have told her for the last two weeks to drive it as little as possible until they can get fixed, but of course, in one ear, out the other.  She HAD to go to the mall for something or other with her friend.

The details of what happened are not too bad though from what it sounds like.  There was no damage to Sarah’s car, and supposedly the other car was OK too.  Sarah gave the girl her info and then she left without calling the police.  Hopefully, nothing will come out of it.  She should have just given the girl a fake phone number since she didn’t ask for anything else, didn’t call the cops, or take any pictures.  So if no photos were taken and the police weren’t called, did it really happen?  Hmmmmmm….