Tag Archives: Life

Jun 08

Brain won’t sleep.

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So, I post. Please excuse the randomness, but I’m just trying to clear my mind for rest. I also have a slight headache, which I’m sure sitting in front of the PC isn’t helping. Oh well..

Working second shift has totally screwed my sleep pattern. I can almost never get to sleep before 3am now, and then Bart gets up for work at 5:30-ish, which wakes me up. Sometimes I can’t get back to sleep right away, so I end up staying up most of the morning doing laundry or watching tv. Then around 10-11am I get sleepy again and try to nap until 2pm so I can at least get a little more sleep before work. This doesn’t always work though, and sometimes (seeming more often as of late) I go to work with about 2-3 hours of sleep.

Speaking of work, I have my first performance review next Wednesday. Which is the 13th, and also my “Friday” since I get Thursday and Friday off each week. So I am a wee bit nervous. And confused, because the higher-ups in the review meeting are Travis and Chris1, neither of which do I interact on a even a weekly basis, much less daily. Though Travis does IM me sometimes to ask how things are going.

I’m wanting to get back into painting again, but, there is just never any time. Which goes back to the 2nd shift sleep deprivation problem. I think I’m wasting too much time trying to sleep or catching up on my sleep to get anything else done besides the bare necessities like laundry.

Moving on.. Bart & I determined that we’re not taking the I-75 route (OH, KY, TN, NC, SC) to Charleston SC, for Alex & Nicole’s wedding – instead we’re going to go through OH, WV, VA, NC, SC. In preparation for that trip (July 5-9), my car has new brakes. It may be getting the exhaust looked at next week too. I’ll get to add 2 more states to my “visited” list then (I’ve been to OH, VA, and NC previously).

I am currently ripping more of my CD’s to mp3. Hope my computer’s hard drive is in good shape.

I changed the theme on my LiveJournal. I might see if I can match it here. Or not. I need to update this to WordPress 2.2 soon.

Maybe I should try to go back to sleep now.. yep. Good idea.

Apr 20

Car Problems

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I’d been having a few nagging issues with my car lately (a ’98 Pontiac Bonneville), including a slow-ish coolant leak, misfiring on at least 2 cylinders and a subtle whining noise coming from the engine. I went up to TC last Friday and took it to the usual oil change place for.. what else, an oil change. The guys there found the coolant very low, and told me it had some discoloration to it. They also told me the whining was the tensioner pulley, and that if it wasn’t replaced soon it could seize up and break the serpentine belt. Bart had previously replaced one of the ignition coils in an attempt to cure the misfiring problem, but it seemed the wires &/or plugs needed replacing too/instead. He purchased plugs & wires at an auto parts store and on Tuesday I took my car to a repair shop near where I work.

Wednesday I got a call from the mechanic telling me that yes, the tensioner pulley was bad, and the plugs/wires should be replaced. But, the worst and most expensive thing wrong with my car was a deteriorated Upper Intake Manifold Gasket. For those interested and especially owners of GM vehicles with the 3800 Series II engine, read this article.

What happens is this: since the UIM is basically a plastic composite and literally touches a hot part of the engine (the EGR stovepipe), it degrades over time and eventually fails causing coolant to be sucked into the engine, which contaminates the oil and causes the engine to seize if not caught in time. The gist of the article is that this is not just a common issue with this engine,  it happens to every single one due to the way this part is designed. That’s fine and dandy if you drive your car a lot and it happens while still under warranty/extended warranty. In the seven years I’ve had my car I’ve only driven it around 55,000 miles total (it just rolled 80,003 when I took it to the repair shop). Not bad, but I wish I had known about this before, I might have done something about it or at least had it checked 3-4 years ago. Its going to cost around $900 to fix (including the pulley and plugs/wires).

Apr 04

Yay, Bart gots a new job!

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In Grand Rapids! So, its still a 2-hour daily commute, but he can sleep in his own bed every night! With me! Yay!! And he’s making more money! Double-Yay! And its in his degree field! Triple-Yay! AND.. its with the same company he currently works for! QUADRUPLE-YAY!!

Mar 11

Of Sickness and Sinks

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Got sick again last weekend (3/4), I’m pretty sure I just ate something bad, but since I now have health insurance I didn’t take any chances and went to a clinic on Monday. The doctor there gave me a shot for nausea (which didn’t work all that well since I gagged in the car again on the way home), and sent me to Sparrow for bloodwork. I still have no idea what the results were however since no-one from the clinic has bothered to call me back. I’m still feeling pretty off, though the puking has stopped.

The dishwasher/sink saga continues.. a couple weeks ago I decided to call the apt complex office to see what their progress was on getting a new seal for our dishwasher, since when it leaked in late January I was told that the maintenance guy who cleaned the seal the day before filled it up with water and that was what leaked out on the floor/carpet in our kitchen/dining room. Turns out that wasn’t the case at all – their new story is that the drain pipe backed up, filled up our kitchen drain with water, which then backed down into the dishwasher and filled it with water, which then leaked on the floor since it overfilled the dishwasher. They said that they ended up snaking the drain then and that is why we haven’t been hearing the drain gurgle and having the upstairs neighbor’s dishwasher foam back up in our left kitchen sink since that time. However, a couple days ago I started hearing gurgling noises again, so I think I’m going to call them and say something like – “Hey, our kitchen sink is gurgling again.. please remember the last time we warned you about this, we had water all over our dining room carpet despite all reassurances from maintenance that the drain was working fine.”
The dishwasher itself seems to be working alright. It does still leak a small amount of water when running it, but just putting a towel under the door sops it up. The last time the maintenance guy was here I told him about the burning smell coming from it, and sure enough there was a plastic lid and several plastic spoons melted onto the heating element which he removed.