Wow after a good Christmas, the week just falls apart.

On the 26th I go into work for my normal start time 3:30 am. Nobody there.A sup showed up at 3:45 saying we don't sign in till 4 am. Oh well, I can deal with that. Hit the vending machine.Got a message before signing out that we are on 1/2hour lunches and to sign out for the 2nd half.All right!!!I finally here about it before I leave for lunch... I've droppedthe ball on thisfor the last 8 holidays or so since I goto lunch at 7 am and they send the reminder email out at 7:15 am or so.So somethings going right. Sign out at 7:30 and come back at 8 am.

Send some emails to HR and Workforce (hour management team)requesting 1/2 vacation so I don't have to make it up at the end of my shift and why I didn't get an email saying I wasn't to show until 4am. 2 hours and around 10 replies later I get my vacation, but no reason why they forgot about me. =<

Get ready to leave at 12:30 in the afternoon, my 2000 Chevy Trailblazer refuses to start. Turns over fine, but won't fire. I calm down thinking "OK, I have the Monte at home stored for the winter, I just use that and fix the truck. After 2 hours, I get a ride home. Open the door to the Monte and the dome light is still off. Grrr... Try the key to test, yup dead battery. Grr again. Get the battery charger out, hook it up, plug it in, hear the buzzing. "Alright, I'll go inside for a bit and relax and keep my cool. I'll be able to go in an hour." Get my took box, starter fluid, ok set.

Check on the Monte an hour later and the battery is still dead. Wiggle the battery clamps on the post and no spark. Take the clamps off and tap them together. No spark. %*$# !!!! THE BATTERY CHARGER IS DEAD!!!. Curse for a bit, force myself to relax. Ok lets look at the options, call a taxi and get a new charger, try some friends, call dad to bring good charger. - Call dad so we can spend time together.

He gets a good charger down here and we hook it up. Take off to my workplace and we put some starter fluid in, it fires for 3-5 seconds and dies. We do thisa few times and same results. Well at least it's diagnosed - not getting fuel. Well I've been running ethenol in the truck to clean out the injectors, plugs, and cyclinders so I probably clogged the fuel filter with setiment in the gas tank.

Fine price out filter and pump. Filter $11, Pump $250. Get the filter and a fuel line pressure tester. Go home, the Monte fires up now!!! Sweet I can get to work again!! Dads got to leave because it is getting late, I get my Haynes manual out and study fuel system, and fill the flat tire up front.

Next day after work, I climb under the truck - WTF?!?! There is a platic pressure clamp holding the fuel filter in place? Who the hell designed this? There isn't arelease on the clamp. You have to take the whole clamp off (easy on a lift, no so on your back in a parking lot) or push it out. Well I push it out with the help of a channel lock... maybe when its out I'll find something to loosen the tention. Nope. =< Just a round peice of plastic with little flutes that bow out once you push the filter in.... once again easy if its off and you can put it in a vice, not so in a parking lot pushing horizontally without leverage.

Fine, the filters about 3" in diameter. Run to Fleet Farm and pick up an electricians side cutter. Cut the fuggin plastic, bend it a bit an push the filter through... It will still hold. Hook the filter up. Turn the key on and off a few times to get the fuel pump to add pressure. Turn it over.&nbsp

 

Actally I just got a bright note!!! Some people are moving desks and one of the girls found a Narcar 2003 Winstin Cup DVD and gave it to me! Maybe things might start to turn around now.

 

I forgot, on the 2nd day - 27th- a got a message from my bank saying that someone was trying to hack my credit card pin. This happend earlier this month. Long story short here, it was my old card that was and still isblocked. I have a new card now and it's fine.

Problem being with all going on, I pulled my wallet out from my pants to check the card and left it on the coffee table at home when I went to work.My badge to get in is in my wallet so I needed help to get into the building. Also no money on me for vending machines for the rest of the day.

Wow.

 

man that sounds like you had a fun couple days, but this stuff happens...just not usually all at once lol...

good luck on fixin the truck


LOL...SURE SURE....at least in canada we can get our vehicles to start :-p lol.. jk jk actually it gets bad up here this time of year with the cold cuz batteries and alternators start to go

 

I can just imagine. When it hits -20 here we get problems too.

BTW - I don't have anything against Canadians, just a long running joke I had with a friend from Toronto at a previous employer. We we discussing tools which led to the Metric vs English conflicts and then referring them to the rest of the world and the Imperial/American way. I fired off "Imperials rule, Rebel scum!" which brought up a Star Wars nerd / geek debate (we talked about this before). In the end I jokingly just gave him hell for living in a "3rd world country" and played the arrogant American role of "our country is better than all."

 

Life has a funny way of kicking you in the teeth when you lease expect it.

All this week I got my @SS chewed by my supervisors. They even went so far as to say I was a liar when I proved they were wrong.

So they give my job to a guy with 1/8th the time in. Saying I wasn't doing my job and they doubt my ability to do it. (GIVE ME A #$%^& BREAK!)

After three days of doing my job and with the help of the supervisor who removed me from it........... with their combined efforts they could not do better then I did by myself.

If only I could prove my grandmother was native american. I'd start crying discrimination.

 

Well things are getting better... I think. Just paid the garage $90 for diagnostics. They had 0 pressure too, but the battery was next to dead. - 3 days of tshooting and no charger will do that.

They turned it over a few times and it caught. Pressure is fine now. The only thing I can think of is it needed to push more fuel through the system to get rid of air to actually produce some pressure or the filter on the pump was clogged and if finally let loose.

Oh well, here's to hoping its the end of it and not becoming an intermittant problem.