Closet Extremist

Aaaah! Naked Site. Must Post Something!

Well, I've been down with the flu or flu-like symptoms for the last week or so. The first few days, I was firmly in denial of my condition, and the last few I've been downing a NyQuil-esque product like the stuff was going out of style. I can say that I am now on the mend, but I ain't up to a hunnert percent, yet.

What the heck have you been doing, and why haven't you blogged about it? (foot tapping)

Let me 'splain it to you this way: When I'm feeling under the weather, my partner is left in the lurch to build elevators if I don't show up. If I take time off, I also don't get paid. I LIKE to eat., so I've been at work. This week, every time I've gotten home from work, I've found that all I can do is stare in a braindead fashion at whatever is in front of me until it's time to pass out from the "NyQuil-esque". I've been lurking around though, so I at least know what's been going on with all of you.

What else?

While I was still in my denial stage of illness, there was an afternoon that was just so damn beautiful that there was no way I'd be spending it indoors, so I fixed my minivan. It has been running rough and backfiring for a couple of months now, but that evil, mean, nasty, ugly thing called Winter was in the way, so fixing it has been put off and put off. It had been speculated that I had a problem with my oxygen sensor so the ECU was telling the injectors to put more gas into the combustion chanbers than was needed, and then the excess fuel was expunged in the exhaust stroke of the piston and then being ignited by the heat of the exhaust manifold/pipe. Savvy? If not, trust me it's plausible. I plugged a jumper into the proper place, and turned the ignition to standby...and the ECU told me that everything was "Just Ducky" with all the sensors. Hmmn. at least it wasn't in the emmission control system, as fixing those type of problems is quite a chore, and the parts are pricey. I put new plugs in it before I went down to the "Family Reunion" so I knew that wasn't it. However, I didn't replace the plug wires as General Motors' car designers (In their infinite wisdom) decided that they should be run in a little plastic channel to keep them safe. The channel that is right behind the upper engine stiffener, and cannot be removed without disassembling the aforementioned stiffener. (The previous sensor should be read as: "big pain in the ass.") It appears that every previous owner of this vehicle had a similar procrastination in regards to the plug wires, as they apparrently were from the factory. Only lasted 134,000 miles. I just don't see why they can't make anything to last nowaday's.

Anyway, my van runs correctly now, and I am extremely happy with that. I also managed to screw up at work. We are putting in a two-stop holeless hydraulic elevator in a new office building, and I managed to overflow the oil tank. The machine room is upstairs, so not only did I cover the machine room floor in oil, but I got the room below it as well. Two-hundred and fifty pounds of kitty litter later, I had the mess cleaned up. Luckily, the oil that we use is essentially Vegetable Oil (with a few additives) so it's bio-degradeable and can just be thrown in a dumpster. Otherwise, there would have been a Haz-Mat team out there to clean it up, and I would likely not have a job. The Best part is the fact that even though I got about 15 gallons of oil all over the place, the total damage was the cost of one suspended ceiling tile. That's IT. See? Even when I mess up, I get out light.

After my boss heard of the incident, he wanted to let me know that the "rule of thumb" for filling up hydro tanks is to "put in one barrell first, then top it up as needed". ford and I both found this amusing, as the tank overflowed with the contents of the FIRST barrell. So far as I know, this has never happenned to anyone in the company before (Others have overfilled the tank, but always AFTER the first barrel of oil was in it), so I didn't get in any trouble. Damn I'm lucky.

I'm going to go get in the shower now, and prepare to drink away my sickness this evening at the bar. I hope to have fun, and I wish you the same.

Posted by Johnny - Oh at May 6, 2005 04:18 PM