Golf Cart Is Dead!

I hit something last night while driving around the golf cart and bent it's front axle. I am pretty bummed out over it! I was riding around when I hit a curb near the cart's top speed with the right side tire, it was still at a pretty slow speed though (about 10 mph), however since the wheels are pretty small the frame took the brunt of the hit bending the right side of the front axle back just a little. Nothing is broken, however the turning radius is smaller now with the frame bent back. I will fix it when the part comes in, it should be a pretty simple replacement.

Senia's Family Xmas

So when you agree to help your grandma cook, I mean shouldn't you be helping her cook. I did some undercover work and discovered otherwise!

Post Party and Stuff!

We woke up late from my Christmas party last night. I was scheduled to work but with the plant not running, I was able attend the party. It was ok, it was a little too crowded for my liking...last year's hotel had a little bigger ballroom which made the layout more open. Plus for some reason, this hotel required that the bars be outside the ballroom, this made it harder for the lushes like me to take full advantage of the open bar. I mean when your sober and all it's pretty easy to navigate through a crowded ballroom, but when your butt f#@&en drunk, it can get a little challenging. Senia got a little bit of an allergic reaction to the food, the salad dressing was vinaigrette and made her break out. Luckily she noticed it in time, and was able to get some Benadryl. She was fine after that, just a little drowsy the rest of the night.

Today, one of my best friends came over after we got home from the hotel, we shared a late breakfast since we hadn't eaten yet. We had made plans to visit my dad's grave together. I took my usual terry cloth that I use to clean up the marker stone, but today I took some simple green and a scrub brush. It turned out real well, the white letterings were really dull and needed some cleaning. Somebody nearby saw us cleaning up and offered to let us borrow a pair of scissors to clear out the grass around the borders. This was long overdue, It looked really sharp when we were all done. I really miss my dad, but I feel a little better every time I visit.

Load Of Crap!

So I just recently sold some of my stock which is offered up as a "benefit". Every year I get a "bonus" and half of it is given to me as stock. Now I guess it's my fault for not understanding how it works, but lets just say if I were given $100 bucks in stock a few years ago and the stock is now worth $120, can you blame me for thinking that I would be recieving the $120. Apparently that is not how it works, your portion is only the profit that is gained (minus half or so for taxes). So it works out to about $10. WTF, why is this even called a benefit, I would rather just get the cash!

Bring In the New Year!

So work has been getting on my nerves lately....nothing that bad really, just tired of things changing for the worse. One thing that really upset me was the way our christmas party was set up, it's always on a Friday night so that everybody (99% of us) can go, our company pays for the rooms which is always at the same hotel. It is set up this way because of the open bar. For the guys that can't go (operators on shift), they are cut a 300$ check...but not anymore. The people stuck working that night will expense out an equivalent of dinner/room. I think this is wrong, and not in the spirit of the Holidays! Don't get me wrong, at least it's something, but why change things? It feels like people don't know where the money is coming from. It's a freakin' power plant, and the money comes from operating the power plant! It just feels like this rebate offer is an insult that not all of the operators who did not go will take advantage of. I guess I am just sick and tired of this year....Is it 2008 yet? Happy Holidays!

Popular Failure!

I just wanted to watch some football today, but our dryer had other plans for me! It was actually gonna be around 2 years old in a few days but it just stopped rotating last night. It sounded like everything was in working order, the usual noises and clicking relays/switches after pushing the start button, even the motor sounded like it was turning...but the dryer wasn't spinning. My guess was pretty basic, a belt must have given out. So I took it apart last night hoping to gain access by removing the back panel, but that was a no go! I looked at some diagrams online realizing access to the belt is through the front (located on the bottom/right and about centerline to the drum) I also read some troubleshooting stuff from this website. I got my part numbers and decided to start fresh early in the day.

Today I disassembled it by removing the top panel of the dryer first, which is screwed on to the back panel. The front panel rests on the bottom frame and with the top panel removed you can slide the front panel up and out. The failure was pretty evident once I got a clear view, the belt was no longer looped around the drum/tumbler. That sucker is 92.25" long, thats almost 8 feet in circumference! That POS of a belt is designed real shitty like, it looked as durable as a rubber band! Why are things designed to fail???? Those mother fucker's just want my freakin' hard earned dough!

Being Sunday I got very lucky, the only Sears repair shop open today is about a block away! There was a line to get in since I got there at opening, but once in, I made my way to the dryer area and looked at their selection. The part numbers were a little different so I had to get help. There was a line at the counter about 4 long now, and some guy came in behind me carrying the same freaking belt. I made small talk with the guy when the lady in front of me overheard, she was in for the same thing too, freakin' POS! Luckily they had enough for all of us! The belt was $20 (costs half of that online) but I was in hurry to get it fixed so I payed it and came home. Studying the diagram that came with the new belt with the ones found online, I was finally able to figure out the loop pattern. It required no disassembly, the hardest thing to do was keeping the tumbler in place since it rests on both the back and front panels, the front being removed. I held up the front part using a Snuggles box until i was ready to put the front panel back on...it was pretty much the right size!