I stayed pooped

The kitchen will have to wait.  I'm feeling congested and achy again,  even with the meds.  Tomorrow a friend from work is picking me up at the car shop so I can get some work done on it but not miss work either. So, I have to go on to sleep. A's safely home and I'm in bed. Good night.

I didn't sleep hardly at all last night

I was worried about the choice between fixing the car and paying rent. Since the next time I should supposedly get paid is within the timeframe for paying my rent without being evicted, I decided to fix the car,  although that means most of next pay cheque will be taken up by rent and fees.

Today I took my car to a Tire Discounters and had the oil changed (long overdue--they didn't put a sticker reminder in last time). I had them check the battery, EGR valve, brakes, replace the battery, replace a brake light, and rotate the tyres.  Everything was fine except for the battery, which was cold cranking at a fourth of regular amount. I got out of there just under $200. But the car is starting much better and with no hesitation.

Okay,  I'm sleepy and I want to get going early tomorrow morning. Good night!

Having just come in drenched from a thunderstorm, this made me incredibly happy

My very own Google Doodle, presumably because I'm signed in to my Google account on Chrome. :)



I went this morning and got some $1 bills for the bus, got some gas, stopped by McDonald's for a couple of egg and cheese biscuits, and then dropped my car off at Mitch's Auto on Industry Road. There were several cars they had for that day, so it will be awhile before they can get to mine. I walked over to Eastland Shopping Centre and the bus came just as I was coming up to the stop. The bus driver was one I knew and we talked for awhile. Then I got down to the transit centre and transferred to my route's bus, and it started raining just as we pulled out, then thundering and lightning. By the time I got to my stop, a very cold rain (what happened to getting into the 70s today?) was coming down. My little umbrella that fit into my bag tried valiantly to keep the rain off, but my feet got drenched and my blouse and pants were pretty damp by the time I got into my apartment. The wind was such that even with being careful, the umbrella went inside out once, but recovered. Now my shoes and socks are off, and I'm going to take a bit of a break before starting on the house, as I've already walked almost three miles today, and anyway, some of what I was going to do (the re-potting and taking the trash and recyclables out) involve the great outdoors, which isn't so great at the moment.

So there were actually three things wrong with the car

1. The motor for the blower (air conditioner/defroster/heater, all of which are no working noislessly)
2. A part that my car has instead of a distributor, called a crank sensor and synchroniser [which tells the engine how to fire]
3. A serpentine belt [which was making noise and now the car is very, very quiet]

Grand total: $724.73. Thank goodness for credit cards, that I could take care of it without freaking. But, wow. And this is a place I trust which doesn't push things on you or make unnecessary repairs. Apparently the synchroniser, if left as it was, might have broken completely and caused damage to the engine. The parts were almost $450, the labour $250. But the car is running amazingly well now, so I'm glad I took care of it and didn't just think the gas was the problem.

Speaking of gas, I'd noticed certain premium gas places like Shell and BP had gone up to $3.79 for gas today, but Speedway and Kroger were still lower. I also realised that, this being the last day to use my gas points from Kroger, I should stop by and see what I could save. Turns out for April I had 50 cents off a gallon, so I got the gast at $3.03. Yay!

It's been a very busy day, especially for being off work. I:

1. Rode on the bus for three hours (two back, one to the garage)
2. Got the car fixed
3. Went to Office Depot and got a few things I needed, almost all of which were purple :)
4. Went to Dairy Queen and had dinner (they have a nifty fountain dispenser with a touchscreen and one spigot, where you choose your drink and flavouring on screen)
5. Went to the library
6. Did actually work some on the house
7. Visited YKWIA and A
8. Watched 'The 100'
9. Fixed something with the computer and the printer over there
10. Walked a lot (see previous post for phone screenshot)

I still need to work some on the house (I did nap a bit today, too, especially after riding the bus home, as I'd gotten up early and walked much). But it was a good day off.

This morning I got up early

and took my car to the auto repair shop, dropping it off at 8:10 am. It took me 20 minutes to get there from my apartment. Then I walked over to Eastland Shopping Centre (the shop is on Industry Road), caught the bus, and came home. I'm already at 4,703 steps for the day, slightly under what I usually get in a day, and that was just the first couple of hours of my day. I got home at 10:20 or so. I forget sometimes just how long it takes to do anything by bus. But I got home for $1, as opposed to taking a cab. I did get some cash out of the bank on my way in case it gets late in the day and I have to take a cab over there to pick it up.

So now I'm home and I've finally eaten something. Now to figure out my plan for attack when it comes to cleaning the house. I think I'll start in the bathroom, which is the smallest and most contained room in the house. :)

Okay, that was one expensive (and long) oil change :)

When they did my free rotation after doing the oil change, they found that my front rotors were too thin. so the rotors and brake pads on that end were changed. I swear getting cars fixed is like going to the dentist--something small always leads to major work. The price wasn't bad as rotors go (I've gotten those before, and even just had them turned before, but of course there's only so much you can do when they're thin), but it was substantially more than I was thinking I would pay. Fortunately I did my taxes the other day and should get a refund soon, so that took about half of it. And while I could have waited a couple of weeks until that refund came in, I'd rather not mess with brakes in terms of safety. All told I was at the shop for three hours.

After that, my main objective was to get a car wash. I went to the Speedway on Malibu, but theirs was closed. I called over at the one on Southland, which was working, so I went there and purchased one that would get the undercarriage as well as the car body. Unfortunately, when it became my turn (and it was a hopping place, let me tell you, with temps in the 60s for the first time in weeks and sunny, coming off of subzero temps and lots of salt on the road), I apparently put the code in too early, even though it was asking for it, and the car wash wouldn't open. Since I'd just called them, I still had the number on my phone and called, and they came out and then went in and got me a new number, but the car wash had to be reset both outside and inside before it finally worked. I remember how much car washes annoyed me when I worked at Speedway; now I was the problem child. There were about 8-10 cars waiting in line this whole time. But, I finally got in the bay and the wash itself went well. It's so nice to have all that salt off it.

Then it was off to Kroger for milk for a friend and a few things for me, and I went over to my friends' house and spent some time there with one. Then the other came home and we went to the grocery for their shopping run. I then fixed some dinner and a friend and I watched an episode of 'Absolutely Fabulous'. Then I came home so they could watch the finale of 'American Horror Story: Coven', which I've already seen. I've spent about an hour or so downloading some music to the laptop from Amazon, and now I'm thinking of doing the game notes. I'd like to get them done so I don't spend all night 'trying' to wake up like I did last week.

It has been a long day today, and I am tired, though. Maybe a few minutes stretched out won't hurt, do you think? :)

Got everything I needed to accomplished today

I did miss the farmer's market, but hey, there's always Tuesday or next Saturday. I got a new serpentine belt and tensioner. They finished about 2:15 and then came and got me a bit after. I got over to my friends' house a little after three. One friend's mom and stepdad came over a little after that and we visited with them, and then we went to pick up what my friend needed, grabbed some food from Captain D's, came back, ate, and then my other friend and I did a fairly small grocery run. We came back and I watched an episode of 'H2O: Just Add Water' with YKWIA, who is watching the 'Mako Mermaids' series and trying to get me caught up with the first show so we can watch that together. He also showed me several fashion show videos in an attempt to understand style. What I got from that is that I think Prada products are quite ugly, judging from what I saw. I did like Dolce and Cabbana, though.

Tomorrow there's housecleaning, working on updating a character of mine from the Cthulhu game, working on something else, and maybe watching a little more of 'H2O: Just Add Water'. I think I'm going to listen to some music and read a little before going to bed. Have a good night.

Back over at the house while they work on the car

Looks like it will be a new serpentine belt and tensioner for the car. The belt and labour wasn't much. The tensioner added quite a bit, but will make it less likely that a belt will go out and keep the wear down. Danny from Tire Discounters brought me back over to my house, then I realised my house key was with the car key ring, and he took me back, got the keys, and brought me home again. They're going to call in a couple of hours when they're finished. But it's given me the opportunity to get something to eat (a tomato basil pizza soy burger) and I don't have to listen to CBS' Saturday morning children's programming, which I must say is quite sad compared to what we had, I think.

Took the car

over to Mitch's Auto Repair today after work and got a fuse put in for the cigarette lighter so I can use it as a charger and a resistor put in so that the heat control works on something other than high. Kenny, the owner, also showed me that there is a power point (secondary charger) directly under the cigarette lighter that I didn't know existed. We also discussed anything he would do to the car given its age and inactivity for most of its life, as well as any maintenance at its current mileage, and it turns out I'd done everything he'd suggested. (Mainly flushing the fluids and changing the oil). Apparently transmissions are also a problem with 2001 Tauruses (that's what got my last car), so keeping things flushed every 30,000 miles or so is very good. The repair took about 30 minutes and was cheaper than I expected, so I'm happy. There is a bit of a squeak in the heater blower, but I can live with that. I'm assuming that may be a belt of some sort. One of my co-workers, when told what I was planning on having fixed, was so proud that I knew it was the fuse and resistor. I did admit I Googled it. I may not know much about cars, but I do know about searching and Google, and that helps me every day and gives me quite a skill set these days.

I got my books from Amazon today (along with the DVD set) and started the second one, Charmed to Death, while I waited for the car repair. Now I'm home for a quiet evening. I think I may take a nap and then work on the game notes some. Tomorrow I'm going to stop by T-Mobile and try to upgrade my phone and then go over to help a friend with an issue he's having. Hope you had a good week, and thank goodness it's Friday!

Just got home

I've worked, gone to the pharmacy, gone to physical therapy (and had a better session today than Tuesday, when all my muscles were tight and painful), taken a friend to the grocery for a few things and a bus pass, and eaten dinner with my friends. Now I'm home, in the process of becoming comfy, and it's so nice that there's just one more day till the weekend.

I made an appointment for tomorrow to have a couple of small things in the car fixed. One is that the cigarette lighter doesn't work (not a biggie; I don't smoke--but I can't charge a phone either). That's probably a fuse or something like that. The other is that the fan on the heater only works on high. That's probably a resistor. Neither are big fixes, so I'm going to leave work a little early, get it over there by 4:30, and have them look it over.

On Saturday I'm going over to T-Mobile's store to see if I can upgrade my phone. Mine has been a pain to text with (it runs a very old version of Android, Froyo, and the Swype keyboard stores all typos directly to the dictionary, then autocorrects to them later. Also, I have hardly any space on the phone for applications, as the ones that came with the phone bloat it to the point, if updated, that nothing else can go on. Applications like Facebook are getting huge these days. So wish me luck in finding a deal on one that will last me a couple of years that I can load with useful and not-so-useful applications and really use.

Well, one good thing about being up

I checked, and my second payday has happened for the week, so I now have the funds to cover the car repair, my phone bill, the pizza, and groceries. The cable and electric bill get paid with next week's cheque from the gas station. I'll be a couple days late on the rent due to the car, but it won't be much more than normal. Still, I'm going to ask them if I can set up a monthly debit on the 5th of every month. I don't know if they do credit/debit cards, but it's worth an ask. I would pay less in bank fees if something did not go through right away and it would be paid each month on the 5th, so I wouldn't have a tendency to be late from the landlord's point of view, since my bank pays things like mortgages and rent over smaller debits. At least that's the theory. I could see where it could go horribly wrong, for that matter. But barring things like more car repairs, I'm set to be on time in June (which starts the new lease I signed the other day,) and hopefully that trend will continue. I never got my carpet cleaned for signing my lease last time. I wonder if they'll still do it? Might as well ask; all they can say is no. They didn't offer this time; I guess the recession is melting away such perks. They used to that or give gifts; one year I got the Mummy series on DVD. :)

Okay, I think it's safe to try to go back to bed. Have a good day. Good night, again.