Yesterday wasn’t a bad day. I took my family on a short hike at Price Canyon Recreation Area, then we went to my mom’s and visited with some of my family who was in town from Washington. Afterwards, I fixed a nice dinner, then we watched Sahara. Other than that, it was pretty uneventful, but relaxing.
Today, it was back to work (ugh). After work, I made two appointments to get some work done on my truck. First I went to Sherry’s Paint & Body–the driver’s door has been hanging up on the fender lately, so they’re going to adjust the hinges so it hangs right. I tried doing it myself, but I didn’t have the right tools to reach the bolts, and I didn’t have anything to support the door once I got the bolts loosened. The guy I talked to said to bring it in Tuesday morning and they’d be done in about an hour, and it’d probably cost $30.
After I talked to him, I went to Price Autoplex and got an appointment Tuesday afternoon to get the transmission shift linkage fixed or replaced. A couple of weeks ago, we were in the middle of nowhere having a picnic with my sister’s family, and when we got ready to leave, my truck wouldn’t start. The starter wouldn’t even turn over, but I turned the headlights on and made sure I had plenty of battery power. For some reason, I automatically suspected the shift lever, and after jimmying it around for a bit, I got the truck to start. Vehicles with automatic transmissions are designed to start in either Park or Neutral, but my shift lever wouldn’t go up far enough to trigger the switch in Park, so now I have to shift all the way down, then go back up to Neutral in order to get it started. I found out this weekend that I can’t even get the transmission into 1st gear, and that is what finally forced me to get it fixed. Towing a trailer down steep hills with no trailer brakes and no first gear wasn’t fun.
I’d considered going geocaching this weekend, but I think I’ll sit this weekend out and save myself some dough. With as expensive as fuel is, I think I’ll stick close to home and maybe do some mountain biking.
Have you gotten a bike trailer for the kids? Best thing we ever borrowed – you’ve got to go slow when it’s bumpy, but it sure beats being trapped in the big metal box anytime you all have to get somewhere.
If you haven’t, Nashbar offers solid trailers at a less-than-heart-attack-inducing price.
Yep, we’ve had one for a few years now, but we don’t use it much. Damn, we’re lazy asses.
Traci and I actually started riding to the top of the street and back (two miles total) every so often, but it got to be such a hassle getting our bikes out, hitching the trailer on, and getting the kids ready, that we got out of the habit. Maybe gas prices will force us back into it again.
Happy Birthday! I had a good day to. 😉
That’s how we were forced into it – I started using one to pick up my daughter from daycare on the days my wife was in class, and a couple of miles every other day atop the four each way to and from work slimmed me down pretty well.
Michigan winters being what they are, though, it ain’t a year-round solution.
How Was Sahara??? I want to see that movie
It was pretty good, though not quite like the book (no surprise there). I don’t buy DVDs often, but this one I just had to have, mostly because I’m a big Clive Cussler fan. If I’d never heard of Cussler before, I doubt I’d have bought this one.