Missing Tile Syndrome cured!

Posted on 02/15/2010 by RLW3

Although I am getting better, I frequently suffer from missing tile syndrome. I first read about this psychological defect in “Happiness is a Serious Problem” by Dennis Prager.

Imagine looking at a beautifully tiled ceiling. Now picture realizing that one tile is missing. My instinctive response is to find it and fix it! However, if I am not careful, that missing tile can become all that I can see.

It describes the all too frequent tendency to focus on the one small thing that is wrong in our life rather than all that right. That was starting to happen with my purchase of the Toyota’s engine and transmission. I think I have gotten a great deal but…

“I saved $50 on the transmission shipping costs. I wonder if I could have saved on the engine’s shipping costs from California? Why didn’t I think of that?”…

“I wonder if I really did get a good deal?”

I decided to put an end to this conversation.

I called the local repair shop down the street and told them that I needed to replace the engine and transmission in my ’92 Paseo.

He called me back late this evening…

“I haven’t got a call back from the junkyard yet but you are looking at around $1,600.”

I thought, “Well, shoot, that is what it is costing me now.”

“…for the engine. Then, probably another $1,000 for the transmission. If you add in all of the labor, you could be looking at $5-6,000.”

You know, that missing tile doesn’t look so bad. No, I think that I like my ceiling just the way it is.

Posted in Cars, Money | Tagged | Comments Off on Missing Tile Syndrome cured!

Tilt!

Posted on 02/14/2010 by RLW3

As soon as we  leave our apartment complex and turn right to head east on the lightly traveled 133rd Street, we cross a main North-South street. On the north corner, a development of houses that sell for $500-750,000 begins and extends for the next 1/2 mile. Over that same 1/2 mile stretch on the south side of the street, there is another nice apartment complex on the corner, a 5 story office building at the 1/4 mile mark and finally two 3-story condominium buildings.

The condominiums have been somewhat of a mystery. We drive by these buildings every week. I pass them frequently on one of my prayer walks. I hardly ever see cars parked outside or people in them. The lack of observed activity over the last year had made me curious about them.

They sign at the foot of the driveway says that they have an “Open House” every Sunday. Yesterday, on the way home from church, we decided to take a peek.

We were greeted by a realtor who informed us that the 2nd story unit we were in was 2,800 square feet! It had a very spacious, creative layout. The kitchen had Viking appliances, granite counter-tops. The bathrooms had jacuzzi tubs, separate showers, spacious, well appointed walk in closets. Really nice!

The price…

One point one million dollars!

…plus homeowner fees (I didn’t ask) 

The realtor informed us that we were standing in “the last unit of this size so the market price has been firmly established”. Maybe in New York or Boston…but in Kansas?

“You have such a great view. Look at it!”

 The condos back up to a small shopping center!

On our way out, the realtor encouraged us to also look at the 1,900 square foot unit on the bottom floor. It was a “bargain” at $550,000.

As we walked out the front door, we couldn’t help but notice the beautiful houses across the street that cost the same as the “bargain” condo. As we drove that last 1/2 mile to our apartment, that “exclusive, luxury condo” began to look like a glorified version of our apartment!

$1.1 MILLION???

You can buy a whole bunch of house and then pay people to maintain it for a lot less than that.

I can’t quite get my brain wrapped around that. Then again, I have also not been smart enought to earn that amount of money either.

Posted in Money, Real Estate | Comments Off on Tilt!

I finally took delivery

Posted on 02/12/2010 by RLW3

I called the North Hollywood company to get the tracking number for my Toyota engine. It will be delivered to my work address next Monday.

My mechanic is going to charge me $800 to replace the engine. However, he will charge the same amount to put in both and engine AND a transmission.

With each passing day, the thought of installing an engine with 50-60,000 miles and not replacing the 175,000 mile transmission just wasn’t sitting well with me.

When I ordered the engine, I asked if they had any 5-speed transmissions. They didn’t. Yesterday, it was bothering me enough that I went on car-parts.com and did a search of all the participating “auto recycling” companies in the Midwest.

I first sorted the list by miles away from my home. That didn’t really help.

Then I sorted by condition…but one junkyard’s “A” condition is another one’s “C”.

Then I sorted by mileage. I saw a transmission in Toledo, Ohio with 25,000 miles on it. I was skeptical but I decided to call on it anyway.

“Westwood Auto Parts. How can I help you”

“I’m calling about the 1992 Toyota Paseo transmission.”

“I have one with 25,000 miles and one with 172,000 miles.”

“I’m calling about the one with 25,000 miles. I have a few questions.”

“What do you want to know?”

“How can a transmission for a car that is 18 years old only have 25,o00 miles on it?”

“Well, we bought the on 6/7/94, pulled the transmission, put it on the shelf and it has been sitting there ever since.”

This transmission is effectively 2 years old! They have been holding it for me for 16 years! You talk about service…

I bought if for $175. Add in $100 for shipping and my total costs to buy the engine AND transmission are $800. That is not too bad.

Posted in Cars, Money | Comments Off on I finally took delivery

Bean takes me to the woodshed

Posted on 02/11/2010 by RLW3

I realize that I haven’t written in a few days…

It’s my oldest daughter’s fault!

She started a blog! And it’s good.

Great picture (of course she has much better material to work with than I do!)…contemporary look…creative, fun writing…(I wonder where she gets that from? They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…).

I enjoyed her blog so much that I immediately went to write a post about it. And then I saw it…

My blog looked so cluttered! Monthly Archives…Categories…Search Box…

What am I thinking? This isn’t the National Archives. People aren’t coming to this site to do research for a project!

And the fonts! Could they be any larger? I mean, I need bi-focals to read but, come on! Mr. Magoo could read them without his glasses!

In 15 minutes, my daughter made me hate the layout of my blog!

So, for the past few days, I have been learning how to to alter HTML code!

By the way, I deleted the links to my other two blogs since I am not currently writing anything on them and I have added a link to Bean’s blog. Take a look. It is a fun read.

Posted in Children, Technology | Tagged , | Comments Off on Bean takes me to the woodshed

Diving into a new fishing hole

Posted on 02/08/2010 by RLW3

I have needed an engine for a car that I owned only two times in my life. Both times, I bought a book and learned how to rebuild them.

Tonight, I picked up the phone and bought a JDM engine from a company in my old stomping ground, the San Fernando Valley in California, without having ever heard the engine run. In fact, I have not even seen it!

It’s like diving into a new fishing hole. You don’t really know what lies beneath the surface of the water.

JDM stands for Japanese Direct Market. Evidently, Japan’s emission control laws are so strict that they replace their engines after 50-60,000 miles. I know they have been getting quite a bit of bad press recently, but that for a Toyota engine, that is barely broken in real good. And I am getting it at a pretty reasonable price: $350 ($525 if you include shipping).

However, it still feels risky. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Posted in Cars, Money | Comments Off on Diving into a new fishing hole

I hope I don’t have my head in the sand?

Posted on 02/06/2010 by RLW3

When my wife made the big weight loss bet with me, I had two thoughts: if she does it, she will look great and that will be fun, if you know what I mean! If she doesn’t, I don’t have to get braces. Either way, I win.

When she said that she wanted to go back to school to become a nurse, I thought, “She is really making some big changes in her life!” But, I thought it would be a good thing for her.

Now I starting to wonder…

Am I in denial? Will I look back and conclude that I ignored the obvious signs?

Think about it, out of the blue, she wants to lose weight. That subject has been off limits for years. No se toca! (That’s a little Spanish lingo for “Do Not Touch”)

Then, she wants to get her own career…earn her own cash…

Hmm…

I’m no physicist but I can handle elementary math…

She’ll be lookin’ fine AND she’ll have her own mu-nay!?

Now that I think about it, it does seem that every week I learn about a different young buck taking classes with her at the local junior college.

Oh sure, the stories are all innocent and above board. But…

Isn’t that the way it always is???

Today, she asked our youngest daughter to sign her up for the ACT test! She said that she HAS to take it in order to be eligible for nursing school. They are going to take it together!

Do you see what I am getting at?

What if this is just the early phases of a mid-life crisis? What if she is tired of the “old man”? What if…

Umm, I have to go now…

I’ve got to put some more of that hair growth goo on my head…

got to go work out…

Posted in Marriage | Comments Off on I hope I don’t have my head in the sand?

RotFLOL…well, more like DOMKNFOLSHIH!

Posted on 02/05/2010 by RLW3

I finally made it over to my mechanic’s to get the master cylinder fixed. I asked him to change the oil and oil filter while he was at it.

Everything went pretty much like he predicted. He then asked for the key to start the engine up just to give the car the once over before I paid him and took off.

When he turned the car off, everything changed…

It sounded like a dog was taking a leak on the floor…but there was no dog in the shop!

It was my car!

He had forgotten to put the oil filter on!

He didn’t cuss, but boy, did he want to!

“Boy, that makes me so mad!…I could just kick myself!”

I think that the only reason that he didn’t try was because he was afraid he might slip in the oil and end up on his…

Posterior!

I felt bad for him. I tried to cheer him up by telling him this.

As I was talking, I was standing in front of his tool box. A magnet held a series of pictures printed out from the Internet titled “Murphy’s Law Revisited”.

I took them down and started looking at them. (click on the pics to get a larger view)

Did you notice that there is a guy standing IN the water? Did you see the tires behind him? He is standing on a car! Now, that’s a problem!

“Fine…we’ll just get a crane and pull it up out of the water.”

“There you go…That wasn’t too hard.”

OOOOPS!

When I saw this one, I doubled over in laughter!

When I recovered, I looked at it again and doubled over again! I could almost hear ‘Mater’s voice (the tow truck) from the movie “Cars”!

The van is BACK in the water AND the crane is in the water! Now, THAT is a problem!

“What are we going to do now?”

“We could get a bigger crane…”

“I think we’ll have to…”

We’ve been here before so let’s wait and see what happens…

Good. That went pretty smoothly. Now let see about that other crane…

“This baby’s got plenty of power…You just got to hook it up and go!”

“We’ll have this buttoned up and be out of here in just a few more minutes…”


When I saw this, I laughed so hard that my stomach convulsed. I was reduced to squatting down on the floor with only my hand keeping me from completely falling over. Oh, was I in pain! Thus the new acronym Down On My Knees Nearly Falling Over Laughing So Hart It Hurts!

When I recovered, I told my mechanic that if he wanted to feel better, he just needed to look at this! He does not have any problems!

You can find the original pics here. The man who deserves the credit for taking the shots is here.

Posted in Cars, Humor | Comments Off on RotFLOL…well, more like DOMKNFOLSHIH!

I like where I am but I am really glad about where I have been

Posted on 02/03/2010 by RLW3

We attended our first home group with our new church.

It was pretty interesting.

First, the room was filled with people who really love God.

Second, I don’t think that we were the youngest people there, chronologically speaking. However, we were clearly the youngest people there! I guess all of those years mentoring young people and fathering my children has preserved my wife and I.

Third, it made me even more grateful for my spiritual heritage! Wow! It is not as though I haven’t realized this before, but I am so grateful for where God saved (CA), the time that I was saved (1981), the ministry that He used to reach me, and the pastor and peers that he gave me. My wife and I have been spiritually privileged people!

Posted in Personal | Tagged | Comments Off on I like where I am but I am really glad about where I have been

Off the hook!

Posted on 02/02/2010 by RLW3

I knew what I was doing all along…

When I started driving the Nissan last Monday, I noticed that it needed brake fluid.  I stopped by my mechanic the next day and he determined that the master cylinder was leaking. He called and ordered the part while I was there and told me to come by after work on Friday since the job would only take an hour.

On Saturday morning, I went to my first men’s meeting at our new church. Since the church is about a mile from the mechanic, I decided to slip on over to get some things out of the trunk of the Toyota.

As I lifted the trunk lid, I remembered that I had completely forgotten my Friday appointment!!! When Friday afternoon came around, I was so excited to see my wife at the apartment complex movie theater, I just headed straight home.

I called and left him a message.

He didn’t call me back. I called him today…

It turns out that he forgot about it too. He never picked the part up!

So, if I had remembered, he wouldn’t have been ready anyway. I am officially off the hook!

In fact, I actually did him a favor by forgetting!

Posted in Cars | Comments Off on Off the hook!

How do you do this nicely?

Posted on 02/01/2010 by RLW3

I had to do something uncomfortable this morning…

For the past two months, the pastor of our new church has been calling me by the wrong name.

I haven’t said anything because he has really gone out of his way to make us feel welcome. Besides, it has usually been just a quick handshake in the middle of the worship service.

But today I met has I was heading into the men’s meeting. He was shoveling snow off of the sidewalk.

Once again, he called me by the wrong name.

I thought, “I’ve got to bring this up sometime and now is as good a time as any…”

But how do you address this? and still be cool?

Oh, that’s right. I just remembered…

I don’t have to worry about that last thought. I’ve never been cool. Whew! That’s a load off my mind!

I decided to just dive in. I put my hand on his shoulder, looked him in the eye and said, “I’m not offended, but my name is Lord.”

No, no, no…I said my real name!

He was so embarrassed and apologetic.

I said, “No worries.”

Oh well, now he knows.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off on How do you do this nicely?