(Written on the 14th)
It wasn’t a very effective work day today, at least not on the money making side. 🙃
I started out very slow out of the gates, just… Burned out. After going to the AutoZone in Pea Ridge, I think I got to the first job about 10:00.
The first job was a 2014 Jeep Patriot that needed some burned electrical parts replaced. When I got there, I realized I didn’t have everything I needed, so I had to leave and order the parts.
From there, I headed over to centerton to try and finish up with that Lincoln MKZ that I’ve been working on for a while now, the one with the brakes that they blew up.
The goal today was to get it to bleed so that it was drivable.
I spent probably an hour and a half or 2 hours over there, I would guess, bleeding and checking and bleeding and trying to get it to the point that the brakes felt good.
I was about ready to give up, when, on the test drive just to see how bad they were, they seemed to be fine.
😶
That was a bit of a shocker, but a good shock. 🥳
I was thinking I was going to have to tell them they were going to need to take it in to have it bled somewhere because I had done all that I could do as a one-man show, but then it was good! 🥳
From there, I took some parts back to the Dodge dealership. Then I grabbed an o ring that I had ordered for my Chevy truck at the Bentonville Chevrolet dealership.
From there it was off to the Rogers AutoZone to pick up one of the electrical parts for that Jeep. Then to the UPS store to drop off some stuff that I had bought that I was returning back to Amazon. Then to the Super Walmart to return some gloves that I bought in Wyoming or wherever last year on our road trip. Then it was over to harbor freight to exchange some broken sockets for new ones on the lifetime warranty. Amazingly, instead of just exchanging the one socket, they gave me the entire set for each one.
👍
Sweet.
From there, it was over to the Toyota dealership to pick up the alternator that I’d be installing in that Tacoma on Friday.
Lots of errands. 🙃
From there, I headed to southeast Rogers to a Ford truck that was leaking gas. Every time he would turn the car on, with just bleed gas at the bottom.
I figured that it had to be either a broken fuel pump connection, or a squirrel had gone in there and chewed the fuel line.
It was the latter.
🐿️
Got to love those little guys. They are feasting on our back porch. And they seemed to love to choose fuel lines and wiring in vehicles.
🤷
Fortunately, for both myself and the customer, I was able to remove the fuel line without having to drop the tank. It was a bit of a challenge because I had to take the fuel line off by Braille, as the connection was on the top of the pump on the top of the tank, But I got it. 🥳
The dealer said the fuel line was special order, so it’s going to take a week to get it from Detroit, so I let the customer know, and we’ll be waiting for the part to come in.
The last car I did was going back to that 2017 Hyundai sonata from a week or two ago, the one where the customer had torn apart the steering column and ignition assembly trying to replace stuff but had the wrong parts, and the hole assembly was broken and needed to be replaced.
They had bought the assembly, so I came back and installed it. Gratefully, it went super super quickly. I never dreamed that it would go that quickly and that easily, so that was fantastic. 🥳 From there, I went to a 2008 Toyota 4Runner that wouldn’t start. She was confident it was the starter, so she didn’t want me to do any diagnostics, just replace the starter, So that’s what I did. Gratefully, it went easier than expected. That was nice because billable hours wise today, it wasn’t a very effective day. I had three cancellations, which is super rare, which left only five cars on the schedule, and one of those ended up being a bust because I didn’t have all the parts.
I finished out the day with about five and a half billable hours, but I did get lots done with all the errands that I ran. Lots of little things that had been on the to-do list for a good little while got done.
So that’s good. 😊
And then I… made a decision that maybe I’ll be happy about and maybe I’ll regret. 🙃
The customer with the 4Runner had a 2000 Ford e-250 conversion van that she said had been sitting there for 4 years and just needed a fuel pump. She said it had 250,000 mi, but that it was running fine when parked and only parked because of covid. She had used it as a travel vehicle, traveling the country to dog shows. Something I’m fairly familiar with, as my grandparents used to travel the country doing dog shows.
She just wanted it gone, and she asked me the easiest way to get it out of there, so I told her the easiest way would be to call up the U-Pull-It auto parts, and they would come get it and give her money for it. I told her she could get the most money for it by putting it on Facebook marketplace and selling it, and she said she just wanted to get rid of it, so I offered her 200 bucks for it, and she accepted.
So… I just bought another vehicle. 😅
Go Stephen. 🙃
I just couldn’t pass it up for 200 bucks. It’s an extended conversion van, or maybe better labeled an extended high top van. Lots of space inside.
Fun fun fun.
I could have gone back to the other Jeep. I forgot to mention that I had stopped by the Springdale O’Reilly’s hub and picked up the parts that I needed for it, but it was already like 6:30, and I was tired, and didn’t want to keep going. So I headed home. 😊
Haven’t done any just answer for a couple of days, as our internet has been out.
Not sure what’s going on. It’s both good and not so good to have the internet out. 🙃
Buying the van lifted my spirits a little bit, just because it’s a fun little new adventure.
I think the biggest challenge for me right now is that I just… I’m lonely. I can still do all the things that I want to do for my life, but I don’t have someone to share it all with.
Lonely.
🥺
But I manage. Kind of.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 