Minor Win thread - Life is good!

In reply to RevRico :

Steel wheels / hubcaps are a good indicator too if you're in the proper orientation to see them.
 

If you behind one, the lack of a license plate frame or dealership stickers too. 
 

Although a few do get built as "detective" vehicles with more civilian features like alloy wheels. 
 

It used to be real easy in CT when we had shorter plates. Three digits then three letters. State Police were all UTZ, there still out there but now newer ones follow the newer two letters then five digits, with no particular pattern that I've seen yet. 

This could just as well go in the rant thread, but it turns out good, so lets call it a win. 

Noticed this Spring that the 24 HP V-twin Kawasaki engine on the zero-turn is down on power.  Seems I'm catching an occasional whiff of fuel smell, so I'm guessing running too rich.  Finally got around to looking at it today.  Didn't get too far into it before I noticed that one of the spark plug boots is not on a spark plug.  Hmmm. 

Clean it up, put it back together with both plugs attached to wires. 

Amazing how well it runs on one cylinder.  Even so, it runs much, much better on two.  LOL.

Toyman! said:

Good people are a Godsend and worth every penny.

The old admin was decent. She had been with us for 8 years. I had to explain things to her in detail, and if she didn't understand it, I would have to do it. When we were less busy, she was all I needed, but she had no interest in expanding her role. We are running wide open at this point, so I was starting to think about options. 

Lucky for me, she decided to move on, so I had to find someone else. I ended up hiring a fellow car person I knew from the SCCA and Lemons. She started 3 weeks ago. I pretty much gave her free rein as to how she wanted to keep up with things pertaining to her job and opened the floor to any ideas to make the company as a whole run better. One of the main reasons I hired her is for her organizational skills. 

Holy smokes, she's a ball of fire. 

The last admin was like a computer. She would run her program, and that was it. The new one is a self-starter. She nails down one skill, and then she's asking what's next? 

The warehouse has been rearranged. Materials are neatly sorted by job and labeled. A system I tried to get the last admin to keep up with is now operating smoothly. 

A job numbering system was devised and instituted to make tracking easier. 

A new PO log was created and implemented. 

All of this was done while keeping up with all of her other duties, like invoicing, estimating service work, and answering the phones. 

Her answer to everything is simply "I'll take care of it." And she does. 

She has jumped in with both feet. All in, 100%. 

She is going to be pushing me to be better.

This is going to be so good. 

 

Pay the heck out of her.  Give her some Fridays off.  Buy her a pizza.  Say, "You have made this a better business.  Thank you."

All of which you already know.  Just a remininder.

Just played catch after dinner with the little dude. Definitely a bucket list item and something I'm really excited that he's old enough to do now. 

This is/was my first car, got it when I was 15.  Lots happened in the first few years, then it ended up sitting on and off for most of the last 25 years.  This winter, it made it back to the front burner, as I need to fix the sins of the previous owner (18 year old me) and the one before that, and get it in the best condition I reasonably can to sell along.  

Today is the first time it has hit the ground in several months and lots of work.  This is after a wash, bu before detailing.  After detailing it looks even better.  It even started right up after not running in about 10 years.  Found a leak in the radiator, but aside from that, it is close to ready.  So happy to make progresson this after so many years of this getting pushed to the back burner for other projects.  

In reply to dan0 :

Alright, here's the trick I've noticed with all the pursuit Explorers so far and never on a non-pursuit - and maybe it's a state of Michigan thing so verify for yourself:

You can see a rectangular opening in the front grille. Presumably all explorers are like this behind the plastic trim, but I only ever notice it with police explorers - maybe it's the grilles they use vs the ones they put on regular ones, dunno. Every time, every police trim.

This style shows it the most obviously:

EDIT: poking around I can see it on the Timberline trim package, too. But can't be too many of those running around.

In reply to P3PPY :

Roof racks. I think I read that civilian ones have them, the cop ones don't.

Win.

We cut about 3 acres with a John Deere D170, not even one of the expensive Deeres. Every year I change the oil and filter, sometimes I change a spindle on the deck, and always keep a rebuilt one on the shelf. This year I freed up the steering, changed the steering gears, two spindles, and did an oil change, about $50 and a few hours work.

My neighbour has 3/4 of an acre, most of which is covered by buildings and other eye sores. In a dozen or so years he's on his third mower, none of them cheap, and this time a $10,000 commercial zero turn, which he's already had to repair.

This thing was built in 2011, just keeps on going, and PW likes it like an old friend

In reply to P3PPY :

damn, the fog lights on that one threw me off. i thought the cop versions didn't have fog lights.

but the combination of base model grille plus fog lights is pretty odd looking. if i saw that in my mirror i'd slow down and wait for a side view. steelies are the giveaway.

In reply to Peabody :

I'm sure it gas far more to do with the owner,  than with the equipment.  

My chest cold subsided and I was able to run the Pittsburgh Half-Marathon yesterday.  16 years between my last half and yesterday.  PR was set, but I didn't break 2 hours.  I was close.  Next year I'm going to break 2hrs and set another PR. 

When I last checked the weather forecast for this week, today was going to be the only day that wasn't at least a 30% chance of rain. When I checked it just now, it's down to just Thursday having a chance of it and the whole weekend being nice and dry- a very welcome change from the last week or so, especially since I have work on like 4 vehicles that needs to be done ASAP.

Streetwiseguy said:

Toyman! said:

...words...

This is going to be so good. 

 

Pay the heck out of her.  Give her some Fridays off.  Buy her a pizza.  Say, "You have made this a better business.  Thank you."

All of which you already know.  Just a remininder.

She has been here about a month. She's off the rest of this week, paid, for a previously scheduled trip. She is also making almost twice what the previous admin was. 

Don't worry. It's a symbiotic relationship. I make sure they know they are appreciated. 

I managed to sell the old disgusting bench seat that came with my Ventura for $200 to some old guy that is putting it in a 1939 rat rod dodge

Ever since we moved in the older dryer that came with the house has been sub-par. It takes like two runs to get a good load dry. This was brought home to us last summer when a dryer at a campgrounds managed to dry a huge load in the humidity of the shack it was in. FF to today when a load of clothes was in for its 4th time. I contacted a couple ppl on Marketplace and had a replacement lined up. Then, while the kids were having breakfast, I decided to make sure the tubing wasn't blocked. One thing led to another and then:

In reply to P3PPY :

Must be the day for it. I came to post that I managed to repair my parent's dryer today. A new heating element and an hour or so of my time and it's off and running. $50 for a genuine Samsung part (for a Kenmore dryer). Way better than trying to get a new set installed without damaging anything.

I'm a couple days late, but I just realized that the mint was up!  A little simple syrup, a nice pour of Weller, and I just might be able to muddle through the rest of the day!

Its T-minus 36 hours until I get on a plane and leave the middle east. It's been an extremely long 90 days of 12-14hr shifts with no days off. I've got 3 weeks of PTO/LWOP scheduled but I'm thinking about requesting an additional week.

I'm exhausted.

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

Safe travels friend.  Hope you get the extra week of PTO.  You deserve it. 

P3PPY said:

Ever since we moved in the older dryer that came with the house has been sub-par. It takes like two runs to get a good load dry.

Well done! May I suggest my annual tradition? Get a decent leaf blower and seal it to the ducting where it goes inside the wall so all the air gets blown into the duct. Let it run for several minutes!

When we moved in, I did this. Three minutes of nothing then kablammo - a ton of lint, pet hair, feathers and several-year old bird nest blew out the exit. Good luck!

I've finally checked all the boxes and am officially a substitute teacher, so i can start getting paid for what I've been doing since 4/24. It's not about the money. But it kinda is. 🤘🏻

While I had the E46 convertible under the carport swapping its original diff back onto it I also decided to tackle trying to unclog the drains under the top hinges- there's no way to keep water from getting under the cover for the top, so there are large drains at the front under the hinges. Unfortunately they get clogged up with leaves, debris, and such which when it rains on it a lot means the water ends up draining into the trunk & battery area. One of the drains was cleared using the Drano method (exactly what it sounds like), but the other was just too clogged so I had to go through the process of unbolting the hinge and prying it up a few inches to be able to get a coat hanger into the drain to clear the debris. Got it cleared and bolted everything down.

However having both drains cleared and working isn't the minor win. For pretty much the whole time I've had the car, the windows haven't seated quite right into the rubber molding/gasket on the top. So to get them to seal properly, I have to roll both the front window and the small rear window down 6" or so and then pull the front window in slightly as I roll it up so it seats properly and then roll up the rear window (or push in slightly when closing the door from the outside). But now after having unbolted the hinge and bolting it back down, the windows now seat properly into the top- so I inadvertently killed two birds with one stone!

In reply to Ashyukun (Robert) :

Nice!
That reminds me of a minor win when I was a kid with a 1980 Camaro. I'd only ever driven FWD so I did not know that hitting the gas on a twisty road with gravel could end catastrophically. Someone was riding my bumper so I gave them both the glasspacks and took off. Next thing I knew I was sliding this way then that way then YIKES sliding on the driver's side of the car!!!

I had time to know I was about to die in a rollover but then YAY(!) it settled back onto its wheels!

The minor win? 
 

After my attempt to do a barrel roll, the driver's door no longer sagged! I used to have to pull up on the door to open or close it but not after that! WIN!

Finally back on American soil. That 16 hour flight from Doha to Dallas was brutal. But I've got a 6 pack of Blue Moon and a 5 Guys Bacon Cheeseburger enroute to my hotel room.

I've been in transit from Iraq for 40 hours. Time to drink a beer, eat a cheeseburger and pass out.

I have one more day of transit tomorrow but it's only like an hour and a half flight and I'll be home 

Got recruited into a new job and quit my old (19 years) job this week. Going to work for a client who values my experience.

Stressful week for sure (and a bit emotional) but the net result looks to be a win. Maybe even a major one if I don't crash and burn. 

4 days of heat, penetrating oil, and impact gun got the FU bolt out in one piece.