Last week I noticed a few oil spots on the driveway where Sarah parks her car at night. The first thing I thought was that someone messed something up when they changed the oil a couple of weeks ago. I crawler underneath and looked around and it looked like there was oil dripping from the oil filter. My first thought was that when the guy changed it he cut the gasket on the filter or something like that. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the cover for the filter housing off, so I thought I better take it in and have a mechanic look at it.
The guys who have been working on Sarah's car are really nice, and fair with their prices, so I called them up and they said, yeah, bring it in. After looking around under the hood, and then looking underneath while it was up on the lift they think they spotted the problem. The oil cap was not sealing tight, so when the engine was running, there was oil slowing leaking out of the opening and dripping down the engine. They recommended getting a new oil cap, since it should only run a few bucks and trying that first. If it was still leaking after that, they could look at it a little more closely.
This weekend I went and got some engine degreaser and sprayed the engine down so I could start with a clean slate, and see if I could confirm that was where the oil was coming from. After about five minutes a clean train of oil could be seen coming from under the oil cap, so I think that is probably the problem, and should be fixed on Monday when I go get the new cap.
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Ford Sucks
Yes, that's right, Ford sucks! And here is why.
I have a 2011 Escape, and I just passed a full four years of driving it. I currently have about 39,000 miles on it. And, I also have three areas of rust on the body. That's right, 3 areas of rust. One spot is above the rear wheel, and another is on the roof. The final spot is inside the rear hatch. Now I understand that there isn't much that can be done when the paint chips, exposing the bare metal, which is what looks like happened on the roof and above the wheel. A stone must have flow up and hit the roof, and in the wheel well, which ended up chipping the paint, over the winter, because those spots were not there last fall. But the rear hatch is rusting under the paint all along the bottom of the door/hatch. That just seems to me to be ridiculous for a four year old car.
I looked up my warranty and didn't see anything specific about a length of time that the body is warrantied for, then I notice something about 5 year unlimited miles. So I figure I am set, it must be covered. Not so fast. I took the car in to the Ford dealer and explain that the body is starting to rust and the service guy comes to take a look. He then informs me that Ford's warranty is 3 year, 36,000 miles on the body for rust thru, and 5 years for something else. I didn't really listen after he said that basically the rust wouldn't be covered.
So even though I have never had a problem engine-wise, or anything mechanical with my Escape (or the Tempo that I had years before) other than the normal wear and tear, I can truthfully say that this is the last time I am going to be buying a Ford. There is no excuse for having the body rusting after four years with no exterior damage to the surface. And since I have sworn off of GM after the Government Motors (what GM really stands for) take over a few years ago. That leaves me with foreign cars. And after this incident with Ford, I have no problem not buying American anymore.
I have a 2011 Escape, and I just passed a full four years of driving it. I currently have about 39,000 miles on it. And, I also have three areas of rust on the body. That's right, 3 areas of rust. One spot is above the rear wheel, and another is on the roof. The final spot is inside the rear hatch. Now I understand that there isn't much that can be done when the paint chips, exposing the bare metal, which is what looks like happened on the roof and above the wheel. A stone must have flow up and hit the roof, and in the wheel well, which ended up chipping the paint, over the winter, because those spots were not there last fall. But the rear hatch is rusting under the paint all along the bottom of the door/hatch. That just seems to me to be ridiculous for a four year old car.
I looked up my warranty and didn't see anything specific about a length of time that the body is warrantied for, then I notice something about 5 year unlimited miles. So I figure I am set, it must be covered. Not so fast. I took the car in to the Ford dealer and explain that the body is starting to rust and the service guy comes to take a look. He then informs me that Ford's warranty is 3 year, 36,000 miles on the body for rust thru, and 5 years for something else. I didn't really listen after he said that basically the rust wouldn't be covered.
So even though I have never had a problem engine-wise, or anything mechanical with my Escape (or the Tempo that I had years before) other than the normal wear and tear, I can truthfully say that this is the last time I am going to be buying a Ford. There is no excuse for having the body rusting after four years with no exterior damage to the surface. And since I have sworn off of GM after the Government Motors (what GM really stands for) take over a few years ago. That leaves me with foreign cars. And after this incident with Ford, I have no problem not buying American anymore.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
The Hahn Summer Tour 2015
The Hahn Summer Tour moves on. We've already visited UWM, UW-LaCrosse, and made a second visit to UWGB. This weekend we'll be braving the heat and humidity to visit MSOE. I'm actually not sure the major they have there will appeal to Sarah at all, biomolecular engineering. But the description of the program sounded interesting and it dealt with a lot of research, so I thought we should check it out, if for no other reason than to rule it out. It isn't like we have to pay to visit, right?
Then next week we'll be hitting up the flagship of the UW system, Madison, and the following Tuesday we'll be taking a stroll around my alma mater, Marquette. Though with what MU is doing lately, I am not sure I would want Sarah going there. Plus, with the crime rate in Milwaukee, I don't know if I want to send my child into that cesspool (and that applies to MSOE too). But I suppose it doesn't hurt to check it out.
There are also a couple of small private colleges that have been sending Sarah literature, Concordia, and Wisconsin Lutheran. We don't have plans to check them out yet, I think they might be a little too small for Sarah's liking. That was why we didn't stop and check out Viterbo in LaCrosse when we were up there. But maybe if we can squeeze it in, it wouldn't hurt to make a trip to check them out. Maybe I'll make up a tour t-shirt for her.
Then next week we'll be hitting up the flagship of the UW system, Madison, and the following Tuesday we'll be taking a stroll around my alma mater, Marquette. Though with what MU is doing lately, I am not sure I would want Sarah going there. Plus, with the crime rate in Milwaukee, I don't know if I want to send my child into that cesspool (and that applies to MSOE too). But I suppose it doesn't hurt to check it out.
There are also a couple of small private colleges that have been sending Sarah literature, Concordia, and Wisconsin Lutheran. We don't have plans to check them out yet, I think they might be a little too small for Sarah's liking. That was why we didn't stop and check out Viterbo in LaCrosse when we were up there. But maybe if we can squeeze it in, it wouldn't hurt to make a trip to check them out. Maybe I'll make up a tour t-shirt for her.
Power-less
Well we had our first severe storm of the year roll thru on Monday morning around 5:30 AM. It was only about a 10 minute burst of really bad weather, but it was enough to knock out our power. Kris had just gotten up and wasn't going to start getting ready for work until it rolled thru because she had a feeling the power was going to go out. The last couple of years every time we have had a storm like this, we have lost our power, all because the power lines run though the backyards here and there are a bunch of mature trees down the block that will either have a branch break off and take down a line, or otherwise hit the lines, resulting in a loss of power. The most recent was last year when we were without power for a little over a day.
This time wasn't quite as bad. It only took eight hours for WE Energies to get our power back on. And once again, the power was on across the street, but not in the two block square to the east, just like last year. You would think that the electric company would realize this and do something, like cutting down some of the trees. But of course that would be too easy. At least we didn't have any food ruined this time. And the girls slept thru most of it, so they didn't much care.
This time wasn't quite as bad. It only took eight hours for WE Energies to get our power back on. And once again, the power was on across the street, but not in the two block square to the east, just like last year. You would think that the electric company would realize this and do something, like cutting down some of the trees. But of course that would be too easy. At least we didn't have any food ruined this time. And the girls slept thru most of it, so they didn't much care.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Fixing Things Around The House
Since the landscaping is all done (at least for the time being) it was time to get moving on some of the other things around the house that need fixing. The first thing to tackle was the windows. While outside this spring, Kris noticed that the caulk around the windows was cracked and in places missing. I haven't done anything with the caulk in the nearly 17 years that we have lived here and there are some gaps between the siding and the window frame as big as a quarter inch (just estimating). After thinking about it, this may be what caused the window to crack this past winter. If some water got in between the window frame and the house and then froze, I believe it could have pushed on the frame and caused it to bow, thus fracturing the window. But that is just a theory, and since I already told the window company the seal failed (which technically it did) I am just keeping quiet.
So then today I started pulling all the old caulk out, and it was old! There was actually two layers, so who knows how old the original stuff was. In fact the caulk that was left in the gaps didn't look like caulk at all, but rather more like plumber's putty. But it couldn't have been putty could it? It chipped and cracked as I was scraping it, so who knows? I managed to get the three lower windows in the back of the house done this afternoon and recaulked with new stuff. Hopefully it will cure well enough that I won't have to worry much about it for at least a few more years. So now I have nine more windows to get done before the summer is over. I think I can handle that.
So then today I started pulling all the old caulk out, and it was old! There was actually two layers, so who knows how old the original stuff was. In fact the caulk that was left in the gaps didn't look like caulk at all, but rather more like plumber's putty. But it couldn't have been putty could it? It chipped and cracked as I was scraping it, so who knows? I managed to get the three lower windows in the back of the house done this afternoon and recaulked with new stuff. Hopefully it will cure well enough that I won't have to worry much about it for at least a few more years. So now I have nine more windows to get done before the summer is over. I think I can handle that.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Digging Up The Hostas
This weekend we decided to get after the hostas on the side of the house. When we replanted them years ago, there was a little bit of ground cover mixed in with them. Don't ask me what it is, because I have no idea, and even Kris didn't know. All we knew is that it was ground cover and it was taking over everything. Half of the north side of the house had become overrun with it, so we decided it was time to rip it out.
What I thought would be a simple job that would last a couple of hours turned into a weekend-long project. The big problem was making sure that I got the bulbs/roots out because I didn't want them coming back. This proved to be way more difficult than I thought. I ended up digging up half of the bed just to get it out, and then there were shoots that had intermingled with the hosta bulbs/roots, so then all the hosta had to come out too.
This actually turned out to be a good thing because just like the ground cover, the hostas had become overgrown to the point where they were pretty much out of control. I didn't realize it until I got in and was getting the unwanted stuff out. So I began digging up the root-balls of the clumps of hostas. Then I found that the root system and spread out and attached to the weed barrier underneath, which resulted in essentially a "root carpet" over the entire bed. OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was a lot. So roots were cut, bulbs were split, and clumps were downsized. I was also able to move the remaining hostas away from the house a little bit so that they are not interfering with the covers for the basement windows that go on the house for the winter.
Saturday was on the side of the house was actually much easier than the back of the house. In the back, the ground cover had overgrown the hostas so much that it had choked out two banks of hostas altogether. And while I exaggerated about the root rugs on the side of the house, I am not when it comes to the back. I was ripping up sections of roots that were 3 feet wide and 6 feet long.
When all was said and done, I had 8 yard garbage bags full of cut ground cover and roots. So that should tell you how bad it was. And I have to say that I think everything looks much better now that it has been thinned out a little bit. I thin we went down from nine clumps of hostas to five along the side of the house, and six clumps in the back. I can't say how many were there when I started because some of the clumps had grown into one huge bank of leaves, and one area, as was already described, was gone because the ground cover had choked it out. But it is so much more "clean" looking now. I can't remember exactly when it was last done, but it has to be at least 10 years. Hopefully I won't have to worry about it again for at least another 10 years.
What I thought would be a simple job that would last a couple of hours turned into a weekend-long project. The big problem was making sure that I got the bulbs/roots out because I didn't want them coming back. This proved to be way more difficult than I thought. I ended up digging up half of the bed just to get it out, and then there were shoots that had intermingled with the hosta bulbs/roots, so then all the hosta had to come out too.
This actually turned out to be a good thing because just like the ground cover, the hostas had become overgrown to the point where they were pretty much out of control. I didn't realize it until I got in and was getting the unwanted stuff out. So I began digging up the root-balls of the clumps of hostas. Then I found that the root system and spread out and attached to the weed barrier underneath, which resulted in essentially a "root carpet" over the entire bed. OK, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was a lot. So roots were cut, bulbs were split, and clumps were downsized. I was also able to move the remaining hostas away from the house a little bit so that they are not interfering with the covers for the basement windows that go on the house for the winter.
Saturday was on the side of the house was actually much easier than the back of the house. In the back, the ground cover had overgrown the hostas so much that it had choked out two banks of hostas altogether. And while I exaggerated about the root rugs on the side of the house, I am not when it comes to the back. I was ripping up sections of roots that were 3 feet wide and 6 feet long.
When all was said and done, I had 8 yard garbage bags full of cut ground cover and roots. So that should tell you how bad it was. And I have to say that I think everything looks much better now that it has been thinned out a little bit. I thin we went down from nine clumps of hostas to five along the side of the house, and six clumps in the back. I can't say how many were there when I started because some of the clumps had grown into one huge bank of leaves, and one area, as was already described, was gone because the ground cover had choked it out. But it is so much more "clean" looking now. I can't remember exactly when it was last done, but it has to be at least 10 years. Hopefully I won't have to worry about it again for at least another 10 years.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Parade 2015
Today was the time of the year again, the day of the annual fight for parade spots in the Village of Menomonee Falls. This year, we got lucky. Some friends who haven't been at the parade the last couple of years were going this year, and she was going to be out running errands at 7:00 AM and was planning on going to stake out our spot right afterward. That meant I didn't need to get out there right away, so I took my time getting ready and got there to sit with her by 9:00 AM. By about 11:00 AM, there were virtually no spots left on our section of street.
There were a few guys who parked their cars sideways apparently attempting to claim a spot without being there (I assume they had to work and didn't have anyone to sit there all day). We had a little bit of fireworks as someone came and sat at that area planning on claiming it, and then hen those guys showed up they sort of threw a tantrum. I just had to laugh. But in the end we got our same, regular spot where we have been sitting for the last 6 years. So we plan on having a good time again this year celebrating Independence Day (July 4th is the day, the holiday is INDEPENDENCE DAY). With any luck we'll have Governor Walker in it again this year.
There were a few guys who parked their cars sideways apparently attempting to claim a spot without being there (I assume they had to work and didn't have anyone to sit there all day). We had a little bit of fireworks as someone came and sat at that area planning on claiming it, and then hen those guys showed up they sort of threw a tantrum. I just had to laugh. But in the end we got our same, regular spot where we have been sitting for the last 6 years. So we plan on having a good time again this year celebrating Independence Day (July 4th is the day, the holiday is INDEPENDENCE DAY). With any luck we'll have Governor Walker in it again this year.
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