Minor Win thread - Life is good!

Dusterbd13-michael said:

I only drove 115 miles today.

 

But i did it in my 70 duster, with tne windows down and the radio up. Man it felt good to splatter bugs on the windshield. 

Nothing like NC in the winter.

In reply to M2Pilot :

Anen! Wanted a white Christmas, got a bit of trucker's tan instead. Ill call it a win.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to M2Pilot :

Anen! Wanted a white Christmas, got a bit of trucker's tan instead. Ill call it a win.

We have about 3 feet of snow now, you can have it

Finished second cataract removal/intro ocular implant procedure this morning.

There's going to be a couple of days of suspense until the dilation drugs wear off, but I can already tell that getting the to other side of this is going to be awesome!

First eye tested out at 20/20 distant vision a week after the procedure-- near vision seems not to have settled down just yet, but it at least seems like I don't need to hold things at arm's length to read them.

I suspect I'll want some readers yet for really close up work, but this appears to pretty much be the end of needing glasses or contact lenses for more than 50 years!

In reply to Karacticus :

I am suddenly very interested in eye surgery.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

In reply to Karacticus :

I am suddenly very interested in eye surgery.

My optometrist was kind of excited to diagnose cataracts so that this replacement could be done. 
There are some downsides:

1. These multi focal implants they put in are spendy, and are kind of like LASIK, in that they were not covered by insurance. Like more than 10 pairs of glasses spendy.
2. The Fresnel kind of implementation of the multi focus does create ring-like artifacts around bright/point-source lights. Pretty noticeable with Christmas lights up. Still, better than what was going on with the cataracts fuzzing out my vision in similar circumstances. 
3. Getting the eyes done two weeks apart (for pretty sound, clinical reasons) is a pain, but a temporary one.  Did really let me see how bad my vision had become though-- not just focus, but color change.

Today I:

Dug out an explorer from 3 feet of snow.

Pulled the 2nd explorer out of the iceberg it was in under its own power

Pulled it down the road and swapped the tires from one to another in 11 degree top temperature where the jack froze, the batteries for the impact gun died because of cold and I had to take off the last lugnut with a star wrench and awesome muscles.

And realized that I'm not sure if this belongs in the rant section or here.

berkeley I'm tired, that was ridiculous.....but I did it

Rant 1: Got in the car to drop some stuff off at goodwill and half price books, followed by a run to pick something up off of Facebook marketplace. TSX misfired. 
 

Win 1: parents were over to watch kiddo, so I took their car but messaged marketplace listing that I couldn't make it, car trouble, don't hold it for me but if it's still available I'll get it tomorrow. 
 

Rant 2: went to advancedpepzonereillys and got a coil, because TSX and misfire=coil. Only had one brand (Delphi?) and it was more than I was expecting ($70!!). Maybe that's fair, but I expected it to be about $40. 
 

Rant 3: Scanner wouldn't connect to my phone, so I had to do it the old fashioned way and just go one by one. 
 

Rant 4: it was the 4th coil that I checked. 
 

Win 2: It was indeed the coil!!! Problem solved!

Hopefully this gets an update with Win 3 and I can pickup the marketplace listing in the next hour. Hopefully they're available and it hasn't sold. 
 

Win 3: got the stuff off Facebook. Wooo!

In reply to mtn :

The one coil I had to replace on DW's TSX I got at one of the generic Otto Parts stores about 15 minutes before closing on a weeknight.

It was in a house brand box but when I got it home it ended up being a genuine Honda part. I figured, oh, great, someone returned the dud and got their money back. But it ended up being a brand new OE coil.

In reply to Duke :

They do that.  I opened up some Echlin ignition coils that were in Mercedes bags.

My wife assisted me in removing the over the elbow part of both casts today. I can touch my nose and eat a sadwich by myself again.

In reply to Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) :

Yay!

Also, thanks for the name for my "one slice of bread folded over whatever condiment I can find in the fridge" emergency snacks at work.  Mayo on Italian is not a sandwich, it's a sadwich.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I make a lot of odd sandwiches but this sounds rough. 

Datsun310Guy said:

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

I make a lot of odd sandwiches but this sounds rough. 

That's what makes his a sadwich.  Mine are sad because I had to have them fed to me for weeks.

As someone who has to eat sandwiches at work for years......all sandwiches are sadwiches

We had a great visit with my brother and his family on Thursday. Honestly one of the best days I've had in a long time. 

I have room on my LEGO shelves in my office for one large building- I picked up some of the new road plates to put my newer car sets on, and they are made to match up with the Modular Building sets. So I've been looking for a while to decide what to get. I'd --ideally-- have gotten the Corner Garage, but since it's OOP it's upwards of $400 to get now. Since it's both quite detailed and large (over 4000 pieces) and also the 10th anniversary Modular set, I decided on getting the Assembly Square set which retails for $280. 

I was planning on either ordering it from LEGO directly or getting it from Target who sell it online, but decided that I would check and see if the local LEGO-centric hobby shop had it so I could buy it from them and support them (also if I bought it in person I wouldn't have to worry about The Dancer seeing the huge box in the mail and wondering what it was :p) So I went by today and lo and behold they did have it, but it was up on a high shelf behind the counter where I couldn't see the price. After shooting the breeze with the worker there (it's rare to get to talk LEGO shop with anyone in person these days) I asked how much it was. He took it down and said, "We have it labeled at $240, but I could sell it to you for $200."

So I not only got to support a local shop but also saved nearly $100 on it. Happy New Year indeed!

Also keeping an eye on an auction for a LEGO set that my nephew-in-law will absolutely lose his mind over if I'm able to win it for a decent price. 

This month has had a lot of ups and downs.  Christmas especially sucked, I spent it alone with my mother as I injured my right leg and she couldn't go home because my brother in law had Covid.  In the middle of the regularly scheduled E36 M3show I met someone.  A girl, a living one with a pulse and everything.  She's funny, cute, a bit nerdy (makes her own costumes for comicon every year, and we have a lot in common. For our first date we went to a steakhouse, talked until they closed, then drove around looking at christmas lights until about 3am.  We talked about going out the next night but I got hurt and couldn't go anywhere.  We chatted all week and really didn't want to wait until I could drive until we met again so she asked to come for dinner last night.  I made dinner, watched movies and the ball drop.  She didn't feel like driving home, spent the night and most of today before she had to go to a family function.  She had so much fun she is coming back tomorrow.  This is the most excited I've been in a long time.    

In reply to Wally (Forum Supporter) :

I want to make a bogus account just so I can upvote this again.

2+ years ago, when we moved into this house the 2nd floor bathroom got redone - plumbing completely replaced (nasty, old-as-berkeley galvanized steel be gone). That bathroom is the only plumbing on the 2nd floor, and the hot water pressure has always been awful. Like, make you want to move bad. Today I OPENED THE SHUTOFF VALVE IN THE BASEMENT more and got life-changing results via increased water pressure. 2+ years and the answer was opening a valve.

In reply to classicJackets (FS) :

That belongs in the rants thread. I would be PISSED that I missed such an easy solution...

In reply to Recon1342 :

Definitely belongs here. Figuring out plumbing you didn't do, in an old(er) house can be total what-the-berkery. If only most problems were that simple. We should all be so lucky.

In reply to classicJackets (FS) :

I've been trying to decide what to do about my water softener for a while now. It been working, but only just and I have to do a manual regen from time to time. My water is hard - like really hard and it has iron too, so it's not easy on softeners and I did go on-size, rather than overkill large like I did last time. So I was kind of regretting that.

I did my bi-annual filter changes over the holidays and just giving the system a quick once over to make sure everything's OK, I noticed it was hooked up backwards.  In the last few years I've changed the pump, installed a new pressure tank, and replaced a few of the poly pipes. I have no idea during which job I made the mistake, and I can't believe I did. I do E36 M3 like this for a living and I double and triple check everything, that's how I found it.

It's embarrassing, but I owned it

first piece of new metal is in dads 51!!!

Lots of rust repair yet, but step one is step one.

I'm at Laguna Seca and I'm NOT sick. It's cold, clear and sunny and my son and nephew are here to be passengers for the day. 
 

Major win.