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So, according to our Division President, our strategy for the next year is to “penetrate the customers” and “penetrate the market.” Are we supposed to be reading between the lines like everyone in the room did?
Tags: Nothing at all, Random
This was a Super Bowl ad, but I think it’s pretty cool. Especially since it’s Valentine’s Day. Call me a sucker, but I think it’s cute.
Tags: Nothing at all, Random
….I posted something. This goes to prove Patti isn’t the only one that uses the blog. I just don’t have anything interesting to write about unless someone wants to hear about my hour long commute or my distorted opinions on software testing, economics, or world peace.
Yea, didn’t think ya did!
So, when we last left off I was trying to get the transmission to shift. Well, having talked to a mechanic it’s been determined that the transmission is shot, most likely from being towed while in gear! Just our luck! I would say that’s a very reasonable explanation especially since the shift cable is broken so either, it was towed in gear and then the shift cable was broken trying to get it into gear, or the shift cable was broken and it was assumed that it was in neutral even though it wasn’t.
If you’ve been paying attention, that leaves us with two dead cars each with a blown transmission!
This whole vehicle situation is really wearing on Patti and I because every step we take ends up being a step backwards. Not only are we down to one vehicle (which leaves Patti or I home with Erik and no vehicle if there was an emergency), but we’re piling the miles onto the only car we do have (that we still owe money on)!
So, we’re really at a loss as to how to proceed. We have a transmission for the truck (taking up all of Patti’s trunk), but no one to put it in yet (or the money to do so). And even if we pull that off, we’re still stuck with this gas guzzling POS truck that bites us in the ass every 3 to 6 months with something major!
Hopefully we can get the truck running and still buy groceries and hopefully we can trade in the truck at the next opportunity for a more reliable vehicle that gets better gas mileage. I also think I’m going to keep working on the Neon, possibly try and rebuild the tranny myself. I don’t ever want us to be in a situation like this again!
As I’m sure you are well aware, the transmission on my Trailblazer is shot. (Don’t buy a GM product, worse decision I’ve ever made). So, I’m trying to get an old 1995 Dodge Neon running that has been “willed” to us. I went out to Rochester today to get the title transferred into our name so we can get the thing registered and titled (registration assuming we can get it running. Title so we can sell it if we have to for whatever we can get for it).
Last summer my Grandfather had Nora’s Neon towed up to the lake, where it could sit some more. I started to “passively” tinker with it to try and get it running because we thought if we could get it running then I’d be able to use it to drive to work with since it would be a lot better on gas than the truck and wouldn’t be tacking on the miles.
After I couldn’t get it started, I pulled the starter and had it tested: it was bad. We bought a used one online and I dropped it in. Nothing still… I tinkered a bit but didn’t know much more to do other than kick the tires and turn the key hoping it would work. So, I gave up.
Now, we need this car. It’s not a want, it’s a need! So, I had my dad come up to “kick the tires” with me since that’s about the extent of his mechanical ability and we tried to get it to a better spot to work on.
Yesterday we got it towed out, using my $10,000 trailblazer “tractor” (reverse, 1st, and 2nd gear are still working). While towing it, we noticed a clicking sound in the front end even though it was in Neutral (we now realize it was probably the transmission). So after we found it a new home in front of the garage where we could work on it better, we put it on blocks and started removing the tires (they’re all toast). While doing this, I noticed the tires would still spin even though it was in Park which made me nervous that the transmission was bad (just my luck). After talking to my dad’s friend Gary, he had me follow the shift cable and try to change the gears at the transmission side. That’s when I found the shift cable led to “nowhere” because it’s clip had broken on the transmission side.
Today, I braved the bitter cold and wind to try and manually get the car in Park so that I could try and start the car. No such luck at all. No matter how hard I tried to get the gear selector to move, I couldn’t. I pushed and i pulled and I heated it up and I WD-40′d it and I tap’d it lightly with a hammer and I hit it with a hammer and I fought and finally, I broke the bracket….
So, I removed the two brackets from the shift selector (there is a large, keyed bracket that the shifter hooks to, and then on top of that is another bracket that has a spring loaded cable attached to it that then connects to what looks like the throttle (What is this one for?!)). I then tried again to get the shifter to change gears but I couldn’t get it to go. Having been chilled to the bone (my legs were cramped because they were so cold), I called it quits.
I’m at a loss at this point because I have no idea why i can’t get the shifter to change gears. I also want to know what the other cable is for and I am having a hell of a time finding a new shifter cable!
Any ideas? They would be greatly appreciated!
Tags: Cars
Owning a car is ridiculously expensive! Worse, they all cost the same really. You can buy a reliable vehicle that is maintenance free and doens’t give you any grief, but you’re going to end up paying $500 or more a month for a loan and then a ton for insurance. On the other hand, you can get yourself something cheaper, but then you’re probably going to be forking out cash to keep the freakin thing running! Either way, you’re screwed!
So, we have a descent Sony Handycam Digital8 Camcorder that we used very infrequently. In the past two and a half years of Erik’s life we’ve recorded maybe 4 hours worth of stuff; if that. The biggest problem? What to do with the video once it was recorded.
We tried Patti’s Macbook and maybe we’re too stupid or something, but it just didn’t work. The whole computer crashed. So, we tried it on my old laptop (that has since died) and it just didn;t have the horsepower to keep up. Naturally, we gave up and back into the drawer the tapes went.
Recently, I got a new laptop for work and so we tried importing with this new system and we finally got it to work! It actually worked fairly well! So, we are going through the videos we had on tape and trying to get them onto a DVD and possibly online.
We were quite excited by all this and were really looking forward to using the camera more. But, as is typical in the Finton household, the camcorder took a crap. What a huge disappointment, especially with the holidays upon us!
So, Patti and I decided this year for Christmas we would buy each other a new camcorder. After quite a bit of research and a lot of price shopping, we decided on the Canon FS200. It’s a digital camcorder that barely fits in the palm of your hand and it’s full of features. Also, BestBuy put it on sale today as a pre-Black Friday special and we quickly ordered it! (We wanted the red one, but they were sold out, so we got blue instead)
Hopefully, in the next week or so we’ll have a new camcorder and we can start posting some videos and maybe if I think of it, I’ll put up my reaction to the camera after using it some!
O, here’s a link in case you want to take a peak:Canon FS200 @ BestBuy
Tags: Technology, Videos
I know Brandon wrote about our awesome Senators game we saw the other day, but I just remembered that I had some pictures from the game.
The first one is during the shoot off after over time. This is when the Senators lost.
And of course, while they were fighting. They spent probably 75% of the game ripping their helmets off and taking swings at each other. Stupid. I get the violence for the benefit of the game, but just to punch someone in the head?
I really like Wordpress, a lot. Of all the Content Management Systems (CMS)/blog systems that I have used (and I’ve used a LOT), Wordpress takes the cake. I think it’s powerful, easy to use, easy to manage, very easy to understand and tweak, and has a HUGE assortment of plugins.
That plethora of plugins is also it’s biggest downfall. It seems like for every one good plugin I find, there are at least ten more bad ones that either screw everything up, don;t work as expected, or just plain don’t do anything.
Kinda annoying if you ask me!
Tags: Rambling, Website, Wordpress
