Random thoughts (really? Again?)

Last night I got to bed somewhere between 1:30 and 2:00 am (ok, that's really this morning). So, I'm a little tired now, and this blog post may or may not make sense. Just giving you a heads up in case you want to check out now.

Why so late, you might ask? Well, we were having car trouble (that seems to be one consistently dependable thing in my family: car trouble). We'd taken the van into our regular mechanic (Trax Tires), and they'd recommended a throttle body and tps cleaning (the codes I'd read from the OBD indicated that was likely the culprit, but research seemed to indicate the replacement part was an upgraded unit that required ecu reprogramming). We also wanted them to do the oil change (I don't normally do the van because it has a weird filter) and check the brakes (they'd done some brake work a year and a half ago, so if it was related, it should be covered).  Well, that whole visit was over $300 (they'd previously done the front brakes, this time it was the rears). That, of course, failed to correct the issue.

Well, yesterday we made an appointment to take the van in today. In the meantime, we were borrowing my parents' van, initially because I've bought my dad's BMW (a 2003 525i Sport), but it was in the shop getting the front bumper cover reattached where someone had scraped it and knocked it loose in a parking lot.  Anyway, it was now out of the shop, and since we were taking our van in, we were going to go ahead and pick up the Bimmer so I could drive it today and my wife my parents' van while ours was undergoing what we'd been told were expensive repairs ($400 for the part). So we got back from my parents' house kind of late, and then I needed to get some work done for one of the software systems I'm working on but hadn't been able to much during the day at work because of having to do some support training on another system yesterday.

Well, I was successful with fixing the issues that were significantly hampering use of the system, but that made it rather late of a bedtime.

On another positive note, the guy who initially told us that the van repairs were going to be expensive apparently didn't know what he was talking about. The total was $133.94, and there was apparently an open recall on something unrelated that they fixed, too.

And I have a BMW now.  (My dad bought a Mini Cooper because he was having trouble getting in and out of the Bimmer- yes, it's easier for him to get in and out of a Mini than a 5 series BMW because of the fact that the Mini is a two-door and the BMW a four-door, meaning you have to twist into the BMW since the front seat back is behind the B pillar.)

Unrelated, someone recently asked about potential part-time, non-food and non-retail evening work. My thought? Cat burglar. You're your own boss, set your own hours, work only the nights you want... just not sure how the cat market is these days- might not be such a high paying gig, but still, the flexibility of the work schedule is nice.

Ok, going to finish watching The Office now, and then head to bed.