Free Friday Fun

[greatbear]

I've been enjoying my 'compressed work schedule' that gives me every other Friday off. As it has worked out, it's given me the Friday off that I would have normally taken for trips to Hillside, for example. Plus it allows me the chance to run errands and do other things that have to be done during normal work hours. No need for taking any sort of personal or vacation time. The only downside is my days at work are longer by an hour. I can accomplish that standing on my head.

I used the time for a doctor's appointment to confirm what I knew already, that I have an abdominal wall hernia at my navel. So, that will eventually require surgery, time off from work and being unable to lift anything heavy. Boo. While I welcome most time I can take from work, I hate being injured, ill or incapacitated during the time off. This should not be too bad. Let's hope. I will also have the ongoing pain and swelling in my Achilles' tendon worked on. It's hell getting old.

I pulled the still-defective PCM from the car and took it back to the shop so it could be properly diagnosed. I then headed to Crazy Ray's Junkyard Auto Parts to scour the place for an extra, usable PCM. Now, I totally love junkyards. I love the smells, being able to find my own parts, get the hardware and little bits that always come in handy when replacing or modifying something. If I smash my finger or otherwise get hurt, I can take it out on the junker and punch my fist through a side window or pound dents into some body panel. I will often come out with more than I originally went in for, usually with some optional part my car didnt have, or some piece for some other project. I managed to find a suitable part for a mere 35 bux. For some reason, the guy checking toolboxes on the way out for pirated (arrrh!) and pilfered parts seemed really intimidated by me and my 70 or so pound bag of tools. Of course he saw nothing wrong. Maybe it was when I pushed it towards him and he had a tough time lifting it did it. I dunno. I came away with a mental snapshot of the yard inventory for later reference.

Some other running to auto parts stores and the electrical supply house and I was back home. I tested the PCM, it's good but needs to be reprogrammed. I fired up the air compressor and bead-blasted the module and now it looks like new.

This weekend will be full of yard work. Yippee. It needs to be done though.

Comments

[ricksf.livejournal.com]

Envy, envy, envy! Although I'm a car guy, I never managed to make it to a Crazy Ray's and never owned a 70 pound bag of tools with the knowledge of how to use them. I so want to be you on these parts hunting trips!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Junkyard hunting is an adventure. I used to do it a lot more in years past, mainly because there were a great deal more yards to scour. It's fun picking apart cars, finding the hidden gems. It's not quite the same in recent years as it was in my youth though. Where a yard would keep cars forever, often till they started rusting into the ground (and the cars themselves were 30 years old or more in some cases), because of regulations the cars cannot linger in the yard too long and have to be disposed of. This does have an advantage of keeping fresh stuff available, but it also keeps older cars from being available in many cases. Crazy Rays tries to keep some of the oldest stuff around for as long as possible to help people in restoring and maintaining the old stuff, but it's way limited.

I keep a bag of all sorts of tools together to do a lot of things. I have fine tools for repairing electronics, electrician's tools for working on house wiring, which I always seem to do for others, and enough mechanic's tools for typical on-the-spot work and repairs. I have two big tool roll-arounds, one in the basement for general stuff in the workshop there, and a bigger set in the garage for auto work. I also have several cabinets full of tools, power and manual, plus a fair amount of wood and metalworking machinery I've accumulated over the years. There's very little I cant do in the garage or workshop. It's also a great feeling of independence. I had plans of adding an extra bay to the garage with a higher ceiling in order to put in a lift, but events in recent years derailed that. I have access to lifts and other goodies at a garage I do work for on occasions, so I am set for that anyway.

If you're ever in town, we should go junkyardin'. ;)

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

Oh junkyards can so lots of fun, no so much when it's rainy like the one time I had to get a replacement multifunction switch for my old Civic when the wiper control lever got wonky and sometimes worked, sometimes didn't and then in getting it to work one day, I broke it off. :-( That's when I realized that Honda often modified parts from one year to the next even if the same generation vehicle. So when I sold the car in 1997, it no longer had the intermitten feature as a result for it came out of a base Civic and mine was the mid grade 1500DX hatch version. This past April on a lovely warm day, I found some hinges from a wrecked Explorer for my truck's canopy (both used essentialy the same style strap hinge) but was not able to get a strut for the left side for the glass bolt had been frozen/rusted and I had no WD40 with me. Perhaps next time. :-)

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Cordless impacts make short work of taking things apart in junkyards. It's something I wished for in earlier years. :)

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

But do they work on glass? That is, some cars have hinges and struts that bolt through holes in the glass.

Anyway, WD40 works miracles in any event and it's cheap. :-)

[restoman.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about the hernia and Achilles' tendon problems, Phil.

Yeah, It's hell getting old, ...but it sure beats the alternative!!!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not aging gracefully at all, but I am still managing, and doing better than some of my friends who are younger and more able. I'll be taking care of these issues soon, depending on what I can set up at work.

[gregbearphl.livejournal.com]

I had the "belly button" surgery 3 years ago: Walked into the hospital on Thursday morning and walked out at noon. They put this mesh thing in me that looked like a coffee filter lol. I stayed on the couch for a couple of days and then went back to work on Monday. My biggest problem was the constipation side effects from the pain killers. Good luck with it. You'll be good as new in no time.

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

I'll be limiting my food intake before and after the operation anyway. Having diverticulitis several times made me very adept at fasting. :)

[dougoros.livejournal.com]

Before you get laid up after surgery ...any chance of getting you to visit for a few days/week/month.....we're moving into a new (to us) house and there's tons of stuff to do Mr.Handy guy??...LOL

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

LOL

I need to find some handy people to help me catch up on some things. Mostly outdoor stuff.