Took it relatively leisurely today. I did just three jobs today. Alternator on a 1999 4 cyl Camry that didn’t take much time at all, alternator on a 1995 Chevy 1500 that didn’t take much time at all, and a starter on a 2009 Chevy Impala that should have taken probably 45 minutes less than it did, except the starter was bad out of the box. I went to go put it in, and as I generally do before putting starters in, I bench tested it.
Gosh, it made a hideous racket. I looked at it to try to figure out what was wrong because it sounded so bad, and what did I find? One of the two main assembly bolts was broken in half.
It’s funny because they print a sticker on the starters that say “triple tested.” But guess what? The busted bolt had the factory paint on the end of the broken part, which meant it was already broken when they painted/coated it, which meant it was trash already.
They didn’t catch that in their triple testing? It sounded awful.
So… my guess is they didn’t triple test it, or testing means something a lot different than what I thought it did.
Gotta love aftermarket parts. People don’t want to pay for factory parts (and I personally don’t either most of the time), but man… aftermarket parts really can be pretty crappy.
Anyway, I’m sort of floating out in the ether right now. Having a hard time focusing in on what needs to be done. I think I’m just so burned out… It’s like my masters project all over again. Possibly worse (I’m referring to the whole tax/financial mess I’m still trying to clean up).
Well, folks. Almost through with the first month of the year already. My how the time flies.
Loves and hugs to all.
Lift the World.
~ stephen
Lift the World 
Thinking of you, Stephen… I’m excited for your trip! Love and hugs!
I was not listening to the supporter ads on the radio, when one I’ve heard a million times popped through – Avalara is a cloud based tax app that calculates and files taxes for small businesses. Maybe worth a look? Of course it for years past, most likely, but going forward? Big hugs!
Thanks, Tish! Unfortunately, the problem is mine, combined with a super complicated tax structure here. It’s just that my records were both not well kept, AND they were inaccurate because I didn’t properly understand what all the state of Arkansas needed, and I wasn’t smart and how I ran the business, and I didn’t understand the nuances of how they wanted money collected and recorded, and some people told me incorrect information, and also because I worked myself so much to death that I didn’t properly record everything everyday, so it’s just me having to go back through every transaction everywhere of any kind and figure out what happened and make sure I did it right and be sure what everything goes to. It’s a mess mostly of my own making for not having been properly prepared knowing what I was doing when I started the business. Knowing all the little details of how to run it, what to do, what not to do, how everything is supposed to be done locally and at the state level here. As well as not being very well structured in my business decisions, like in the beginning using my personal credit card for business purchases and vice versa. Having to go back and separate all that stuff. They’re just so many things. Nobody can do it for me but me because no one anywhere would have any idea what is what and would have to ask me about every single transaction. So I’m the only one who can do it, unfortunately. Going forward I have my accountant, and she’s taken care of everything, and it should be much much easier. It’s just that I made so many mistakes, and was told incorrect information, and yada yada yada.
Hang in there! If it’s possible for a human to do, you can do it!