I am back to being a hero!
The third opinion agreed with the second: the Maxima’s engine is not about to explode!
I had the injectors fixed and the transmission serviced!
The car runs so much better! Uncle Bob really came through.
All that remains is the heater, the A/C, the sunroof…
Trying to find a reliable, honest mechanic is quite a challenge.
Since my usual source for all things mechanical, my co-worker the Steel Trap, was on vacation, I was left to fend for myself.
I called my old Honda mechanic to see if he could recommend anyone who was as good at working on Nissans as he is on Hondas. The owner’s son answered and said that he did work on the side and would look at it.
He called me back a few hours later with great new that changed into a little good news followed by a little bad news…
He didn’t think the engine was about to die!
That’s great!
“but, I’m not an expert on these cars…”
“Oh, O.K….”
“and the spark plugs are shot.”
“Go ahead and replace them. How much will that be?”
“$50.”
He called me back after replacing the plugs and conformed that the front three injectors are bad.
When I went to pick up the car, I asked him if he knew anyone who was good with Nissans. He recommended his uncle. He was a partner with his father in the Honda business and now just works from his ranch.
I guess that’s O.K. but that is not quite what I was looking for…
I hopped into the Maxima to drive their. The car is already running a noticably better!
Stay tuned…
My grand plans to save the day for my second daughter took a blow today.
The likeable new mechanic decided to start our relationship off with a vicious shot to the body…
“The three front fuel injectors are bad. Remanufactured injectors cost $170 each plus installation.”
Ouch! I wasn’t ready for that. My plans to spend about $1,000 to get the car in top condition were not looking very good.
But he wasn’t finished…
“When you start the car up, it knocks like crazy until the oil pressure rises.”
I nodded my head in knowing agreement since I had heard that very same sound.
Then he threw the hay-maker…
“That comes from a worn out rod bearing.”
I held onto the counter to keep from going down for the count! Basically, that means that the car needs a new engine!
I weakly asked him, “Are you sure? It’s only got 110,000 miles on it.”
He was sure.
I have to get a second opinion.
I tried putting injector cleaner in the last three tanks of gas but it still runs terrible.
So, I dropped the Maxima off at a new Nissan mechanic to see what he can find.
Stay tuned…
This week was the IHOP’s 10th anniversary. Some friends invited us to come to the picnic after church.
The line for food was the longest I have ever seen! We eventually gave up and went to Chipotle. Shortly after we sat down, my wife recognized other people from picnic.
“So you didn’t want to wait in line for the food?”
The young responded, “When I saw the mile marker, I knew we were in trouble.”
I try to take my wife out on a date regularly. Sometimes it monthly, sometimes weekly. It all depends…
on her work schedule, our finances, our energy level, our children’s schedules, etc., etc.
Well, we had an unusual date this week.
I wasn’t dressed to go out on the town when I picked her up from work at Costco. I needed to shower and change because I had been working on the Nissan.
As soon as we got home, she headed straight for the kitchen and made us a very nice salad which we ate at our cute, little two seat pub table on our porch.
We then walked a mile to the local liquor superstore and bought a bottle of wine.
The weather was perfect, the walk was pleasant and the conversation delightful!
I think we are going to like this next season!
It has been a long time since I worked on a car. I was pressed into service because the rear passenger window no longer worked. I had to get it fixed before it rained.
I took it to a shop and was quoted $290!
That seems like a lot of money…
So, I bought the part from Nissan for $127 and installed it myself.
With that success in the bag, I decided to launch out and replace the fuel filter. I succeeded at that too, but not before I got squirted by a mouth and faceful of gasoline!
I have to tell you, it felt really good to be working with my hands again…
and I had no bloody knuckles!
If you read the last few posts, you can imagine how tired I was at work yesterday! Last night, I went to be shortly after getting home from work last night and slept through till this morning.
It is amazing the difference one night of good sleep can make on one’s outlook and disposition!
It shouldn’t amaze me. About 10 years ago, I learned the importance and value of sleep.
About 20 years ago, I was extremely frustrated. I had so many more things that I wanted to accomplish than I had hours in a day.
So, I bought a book called The Sleep Management Program and trained myself to sleep less. I went from sleeping 7 1/2 hours per night to less than 6 hours.
For years it was great. I got more done, etc. Then something strange started happening.
This is going to be difficult to describe but I will do my best…
Periodically, I started having this feeling that I was going to cave in psychologically. It was as if my soul was like the crust of the earth but it was getting very thin…like thin ice. It felt like my soul was just going to collapse!
This feeling would usually happen at work and would last for about an hour. At first it occurred monthly. Gradually, I started having them weekly.
This perplexed me because at night, I would meet with and mentor young men, father my children, etc. How could I help other people deal with life and then feel perilously close to just crumpling into a shell?
After much thought, I decided that I just needed to be more efficient in my sleep! I saw a book that I thought might help me, Power Sleep.
I never finished that book.
In the first few chapters, the author described about 15 symptoms of severe sleep deficit. I was regularly experiencing at least three of them!
The very day after I read those few chapters, I went to church and learned that a friend of mine had had a nervous breakdown a few days earlier. He had been working at least 20 hours per day and been under an extraordinary amount of pressure. One day, he went to work and had a nervous breakdown. He just slumped down to the floor and cried. He cried for a week straight!
When I heard this, I realized that if I didn’t make an immediate about face, I was just a few steps behind him. My desire to accomplish things had run up against my physical limitations.
It took many months before I could sleep more than 6 hours. That may sound strange, but my body was trained. I went to bed two hours earlier at night only to wake up two hours earlier in the morning.
Now, I plan to get 7 1/2 hours. It doesn’t always work out that way, but I do try.
My wife is trying to teach me how to to sleep in on the weekends. She has a Ph.D in sleeping in. She can do it on ANY day.
Sometimes, I actually make it to 7:00. My all time best is 7:30!
Anyway, today was a nice reminder of the value of a good night’s sleep.
Good night!
We got into Kansas City at 1:30 A.M.!
At least that was an hour earlier than the night, er, morning before!
We drove one car into Nashville: our SuperCrew pickup. Normal people would just drive the same car home! But, as I wrote last time, I’m not all that good at “normal”.
So…I thought we should at least try to fit one more twist and turn into this trip…otherwise, it wouldn’t be a Castle trip!
Just before we left Kansas City, I got another “great idea”! My daughter had told me that her new apartment was withing walking distance of the school and her job. So, I thought,
“Then she might not need the Nissan Maxima that we gave her last year….
and we need a good MPG car to replace the Honda…
and I have money from the insurance settlement…
I will offer to drive her car home and use it as my daily driver to go to work. (It gets over 30 MPG!) At the same time, I will put fix everything that needs to be fixed and give it back to her in better condition than when she gave it to me and I won’t have to spend all of that money on a car right away!”
When I proposed the idea, she jumped at it. A little thought of skepticism crept through my mind, “What did I just get myself into?”
It turns out that the car NEEDS some work…and she didn’t have the money. In fact, the car has been sitting for 3 weeks!
I like that…relatively pain free heroism.
She is stuck. I offer to come in and save the day, she accepts, and it helps me out to! I believe that would be called “win-win.” It is also known and “blessed when I come in and blessed when I go out”!
So, instead of sleeping in the back of the truck while my wife and youngest daughter drove, I drove the Maxima home. Bleary eyed is a fair description of my condition at work today!
I planned to get into Nashville at midnight…
But we left NJ an hour late…
and I didn’t expect the hours worth of stop and go traffic when we left D.C. …
So, we got into Nashville at 2:30 A.M.!
This little Nashville diversion all started when I called my second daughter about two weeks ago with “a great idea.”
“What do you think of driving home with us?”
Although she already had a plane ticket, the idea of spending time with Mom, Dad and her little sister seemed very appealing. So she agreed. I felt all warm and fuzzy inside.
While we were on the phone, she explained all that was going on in her life…
She is entering an intense educational/vocational training program with her church. Since she won’t be able to work as many hours as she has been, she wanted to cut her costs.
Coincidentally, she met some new girls at the church who were looking for a third roommate to rent an apartment that was two minutes from her job and two minutes from the church/school that cost 1/2 as much as her current place.
The big problem is that she is only 9 months into a 2 year lease on her current place. I told her to advertise it and see what happens.
She called me back a few days later to remark on how perfectly everything was going to work out.
“What do you mean?”
“I placed an ad on Facebook and found a renter to take my place that same day!”
“That’s great honey!”
“So, when we drive back to Nashville, you can help me move because I have to be out by Sunday!”
that’s great…yippee…isn’t that wonderful…I have to admit that the thought of moving caused me to lose a little of my fuzz.
When we walked into her existing apartment, I began to realize how woefully incomplete my planning was…Where were we going to sleep?
…in one of Kimba’s roommates bed! Neither my wife nor I was really all that comfortable with that. I had thoughts running through my mind, “What do ‘normal’ people our age do?” But the thought of looking for a hotel at that hour of the night was even less appealing, so we laid down and slept for a few hours.
We were awake by 7:30. By 8:30, we had packed all of our daughter’s stuff into the truck. By 9:30, we had moved her in to a new apartment!
Kimba found her shower curtain, hung it up and we showered and got dressed for church in an apartment that she had not seen before this morning!
While I was in the shower, those “What do ‘normal’ people our age do?” thoughts came back to my mind. How would I know? Who ever accused me of being ‘normal’?
We stopped by Starbucks to meet a bunch of our daughter’s friends then hustled over to church.
Both my wife and I really liked the pastor’s message and philosophy. Kimba is in VERY good hands!
That is a very comforting thought! Although my three oldest children now live in three different states, they are all involved in very good churches.
Then we HAD to eat at The Macaroni Grille! She gets a 50% discount! The food was great
