Hey, y’all! Happy… what day is it? Thursday! Happy Thursday!
It’s been an interesting day today. The story of today actually starts yesterday. I need to do my assessment, right? And it was raining pretty good yesterday, so I thought, I’ll pull everything out of the Durango, throw it in the garage, and then that’ll make it so I can go through everything even while it’s raining.
Well, that was a good idea, I was off work. I really need to get that assessment done, and moving all the tools to the garage would make it possible regardless of the weather. So it was a great idea. Except… I felt the little prompting/nudge not to do it. Just the gentle, “no, not a good idea.”
But it was a good idea. To me anyway.
So… what did I do? I ignored the prompting because… apparently I’m smarter than God, and I don’t make life hard enough on myself already. 🙃
So I unloaded all the tools into the garage yesterday, went back out to work on the road, and worked until I had just about run out of fuel and was over the edge physically. So I was tired. I was over the edge, and it was late, so I wasn’t in any state to do the assessment work.
When morning came, I thought, I’ll throw everything in the van, and I’ll use the new van today. . I’ll do a couple of jobs, and then I’ll get the van registered and be on my way, totally forgetting that I needed to do the assessment before I could register the van (short memory 🙃).
Partway through loading up the van, it donned on me that I still haven’t done the assessment, so no dice on getting it registered, so I started putting everything back in the durango (one big wasted mess of time, only I decided to leave a bunch of things in the garage because I was late, and I was wanting to get the assessment done, and the jobs I had to do didn’t need all my tools.
Well… nice wish.
First job wasn’t what they said it was. And I needed stuff I didn’t bring with me, so that was one normally unnecessary trip to the parts supplier. So that wasted 20 minutes or so, not too bad, but wasted time. It was supposed to be just a dead battery, and the battery was drained down, but I couldn’t even try to start it because the oil wasn’t reading on the dipstick. So that’s why I had to run to the supplier. Normally, I carry oil with me for things like that. Nope. It was in the van because I didn’t think I was going to need it.
Incidentally, after charging the battery, it was still a no crank, no start, and it turned out to be an issue with the lighting control module circuit, but I was able to bypass it for her by removing the fuse that runs the circuit. She just can’t drive at night because the taillights don’t work. Brake lights do, but not the taillights.
After I was finished, it was kind of nice. She was like, “How how did you get to be so nice?” And then she gave me a $70 tip! Nice lady. 🙂 That was super cool of her.
The next job was someone who’s car died going through the river roads during the flash flooding yesterday. I pulled off the air intake, and I just poured water out of it. The throttle body was full of water. I pulled all the spark plugs, and there was water in the cylinders themselves. But… how to get it out? The battery was drained down, so the engine RPMs cranking weren’t enough to shoot the water out. What did I need? Just some rubber tubing. That would allow me to blow the debris out of the spark plug wells before pulling the spark plugs; and it would let me suck the water out of the cylinders.
But did I have it with me? No. Where was it? Garage floor.
Yeah.
By this time, I was frustrated. Well… angry. If I had just listened to the prompting. Things were taking so much longer because I was having to invent ways to get the job done, which took more time. Fortunately, I was able to use parts of other tools and come up with different ways of getting the job done, so in the end, I got it all done, but over and over and over again, I was hampered because I’d chosen not to follow the prompting, and now I was short… tooled.
I will listen next time.
After getting that done, I was starting to go over the edge again physically, and it was around 5 p.m., and I wanted to get home early (on time), so I made the good decision again and postponed my last appointment and started to head home. But, as the universe seems to have something against me going to bed at the hour I’m trying to get to bed even when I’m making the decisions that should allow it, the Durango died on the way home–immediately, abruptly, dangerously. Gratefully, I was right near an uncrowded parking lot entrance, so I pulled the steering wheel with all my might and coasted in.
I checked the the codes (a split second before it died, it made a noise, and the check engine light came on, and then boom, it was dead. Codes pointed to a likely throttle position sensor issue (a sensor I’d replaced about this time last year). I tried to limp it home, but it died only maybe a minute or so later, so I limped it back to AutoZone, where I replaced the sensor and decided to check the oil.
Well… there was no oil on the dipstick, and the dipstick was covered in dirt.
😶
Ummm. I looked under the car and noticed an oil leak. Front main seal. Not a happy place to have a leak. I think it must have started recently because it’s enough to drip, and I don’t think I’ve been dripping on customer’s driveways? Don’t notice at home because it’s gravel.
Anyway, I thought the oil was crazy low, and I was a little nervous. I figured I’d just do the oil change right there, so I drained the oil out, and there seemed to be plenty, so I was like… hmmm…. I replaced the oil, put in a new filter, and I tried to put the dipstick back in, but it wouldn’t go back in. I tried and tried and tried, but it wouldn’t go in. Finally, I realized the dipstick tube was split in half.
How does that happen?
Anyway, I ordered a new tube, closed everything up, and headed home–getting home around 8:30, which is my bed time. I tried to make good decisions about my day today. Well, I did make good decisions about going home. It’s just that the universe voted no again, apparently.
So… it’s been dinner, chatting with a guy on FB who’s selling what could be a great trailer for hauling my skid steer or a mini ex or something around. Excellent price. Needs some work, but excellent price. That could be great. Then I could start renting out the skid steer and get going on this transition or new thing or whatever.
Now it’s time for bed.
#1. I’m grateful I was able to find some things to work around the issues I created for myself by not following the prompting yesterday.
#2. I’m grateful for the lady who gave me that big tip this morning.
#3. I’m grateful the Durango managed to make it back to AutoZone. It was after commercial hours, so I wasn’t going to be able to have someone deliver parts to me.
#4. I’m grateful that the second car’s engine appears to have survived. After I got all the water out of the cylinders, it started up and ran pretty decently. I didn’t hear any knocking or anything, so that was great. The engine oil was full of water, though. It seemed clean and good, but once I started it, it turned into a light chocolate milk shake. So I did an oil change for him as a one off because, otherwise, he’d have to tow it to get the oil changed, and I’d feel like a jerk. Anyway, I’m grateful his car seems to be running decently.
#5. I’m grateful to be…. making better decisions, even if the results are still the same. At some point, the results are gonna have to normalize. Cross your fingers, at least.
Love to all y’all.
Lift the World
~ stephen
Lift the World 