Man, when I woke up this morning, my body felt like it had been working non-stop for like 24 hours.
I was completely exhausted, even though I had gotten plenty of sleep. I think I slept at least 8 hours, but holy cow.
It was a work day today, but boy was I dragging, and dragging hard.
I was in a good mood, which was nice, just exhausted. 🙃
I ate some food, wasted some time, and finally got up the gumption to leave around 11:00, I think.
First stop was AutoZone in Pea Ridge to take back some parts and pick up some other parts. For some reason, apparently they were running on slow today, as it took I want to say maybe 30 or 45 minutes just to return the parts that I bought. At first, it was just waiting for people.
Then it was the person who was trying to help me didn’t have the right permissions.
Then it was just inexperienced not knowing how to do the returns, I think.
By the time they were done, the cold front had blown in, the rain had mostly stopped, but the wind was biting, and the temperature I think dropped maybe 15 or 20°?
Super freezing cold front came and blew in quickly!
The first car of the day was a Honda insight hybrid that had been sitting for like a year and a half, and they were worried about the brakes. I went out there and found that the only issue with the brakes was a whole lot of rust in the front from having sat for so long. The sound they were hearing was just the brake pads grinding off the rust.
So I chatted with them about that car after inspecting the brakes, and then I chatted with them a little bit about one of their other cars.
And we shot the breeze for a while as well. I was super grateful that the card didn’t end up needing brake pads, given the weather, and given that I hate doing brake pads anyway. 😅
By the time I got to car number 2, the cold front was fully moved in. Even 25 minutes warming up in my work van didn’t overcome the chill.
And then I had to go back…
(the 25 minutes was driving to the parts store and back.
Maybe it wasn’t 25 minutes. I don’t know how long it was, but whatever it was, I was still cold by the time I got back and decided to sit in the van and warm up a good bit longer to at least get comfortable before crawling back into the freezingness.
It really is mind-blowing how cold wind in a humid climate just goes right through your clothes and chills you to the bone.
Anyway, that second car was a 2007 Dodge caliber that he was complaining about having no power steering and the battery light being on. I got there and saw the belt was intact but no longer wrapped around the pulleys properly, and after some inspection, found damage to the belt tensioner.
That was where I went that helped me warm up at least a little bit before diving back in to freeze my little rear off again. 😅
And that’s actually what I’m doing right now as I dictate this. I’m about to pull in to the parking lot to finish fixing this caliber. I just need to warm up a little bit more first, so I’m going to pull over to a different spot of the parking lot and warm up a tad bit before I pull back in to fix it.
…
Now it’s after midnight, but darn it, I’m going to get this post done before I go to bed. 😅
I got that car buttoned up, new tensioner put on in the freezing stinking cold. The temperature itself wasn’t awful. It was somewhere around 32°, I think, but the wind was fierce and brutal.
Sucked the warmth out of my body in no time.
Even the 30 minute drive from that job to the next one with the heat on full blast was barely enough to get rid of the bone-deep chill.
The last car was going back, for a third time, to that Honda Civic that was a crank no start that first had bad gas, then the bad fuel pump, and this time misfires on cylinders one and four.
I’m crossing my fingers that nothing more happens to this crazy little car.
I didn’t charge him for the visit today.
I got home relatively early, and I spent the rest of the night pretty much just vegging out. I’m tired.
G’night. 😴
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 