Finding the power source

Well to keep folks up to speed in my little corner of the globe, the Paisley's Subie finally took a nose dive. The engine is totally gone and I'm on the search for a new one.

Let me tell those of you in this area, do not let Carter Subaru service your car. To give the really short version of the set of circumstances that lead up to needing a new engine:

Last April we took the car in for new brakes. That was $700. Way too much in my opinion. Then a week later we took the car back to them for a head gasket service. This includes head gaskets (as the service would suggest) but oil seals for the cam shafts in both heads, coolant service and a few hoses and oil pump and a few other things that I can't recall. They have to pull the engine for this service so there is plenty of opportunity to give it a thorough inspection for any other issues.

There were a few other things that needed to be done and the dealership did call us about them and we had them taken care of.

This is where it went bad. We got the car back and right away the Paisley thought that it was feeling a bit underpowered. I didn't totally agree with that. I did notice that we were consuming way too much oil and that the car was blowing it out it's arse every morning until it warmed up.

We took it back to the dealership two days later and brought these things to their attention. The answer we got was "we can look at it, but if it's not related to the service we did then it's going to cost you". That was shit. After explaining to the service advisor that this had to be related somehow to the service they just did we were told the same line over again. So we left and took our car with us.

Two days later we were back. This time we left the car and asked them to let is sit overnite so that when they started it up cold they could see how it smoked.

Next day the dealership called and told us to pick up the car. They didn't have same experience we had, but they did note the oil was low and topped it off.

This cycle repeated it self once more before we were told by the dealership that "according to Subaru an acceptable loss of oil in your car is 1 qt every 1000 miles to which my reply was that after having this major (and expensive service) any oil loss was not acceptable by my terms. We were then told that we could bring the car in every 200 miles to see how much oil we were losing by having them do a leak down test. So we agreed to do this.

We took the car in twice for this test and both times were down 1 qt for about 350 miles of driving. Again we were told to just make sure it's full and don't let it run out of oil and we could drive it indefinitely like this.

Every visit I reiterated to the dealership that this was not acceptable and that they were the cause of the problem. I was told that it could be piston rings or problems with the valve stems/seals.

My thinking is that if they pull the engine out and have the heads off then they should be inspecting the sh** out of the heads and the block and not charge me $2700 for a service that is going to be useless in under a year when the engine totally blows out. Thieving dealership wankers!!!

After not getting anywhere with the dealership I had almost accepted that this was the way it would be with the car. ......... almost. So two months ago now I contacted Subaru of America. They have been about as useful as tits on a man. Two months of emails have gotten me the answer of, "they will look at it but if it's not related to the service you had done then it will cost you".

Since English is my first language and having worked in car dealerships, I understand their mystery speak. What they don't seem to get is that our car had NONE of these issues the day I took it in for it's major service. My secondary point to them was that if they had inspected everything like they should have done during this service, this would have saved me $2700 then and I could have directed that money towards a new engine and not wasted on service that would prove to be useless.

So now I wait to speak to Subaru of America again. In the mean time the car is parked and dead. The same tech that services my BMW did the diagnose on it last week and in his opinion we would be better off parking it in a bad neighbourhood and leaving the keys in it. Unfortunately we still owe on it so that isn't an option.

It seems that Subaru makes one expensive engine. A standard non turbo EJ25 engine for a 1999 Forester is a few thousand bucks. Matter of fact the cheapest low milage motour in the area from a reputable yard is $2700 bucks. So I'm hitting Craigslist and E-Bay Motours in hopes of finding one more in line with my budget and also trying to avoid getting a Japanese crate motour since there could be differences in connections for various sensors.

I'll have to keep an update log on this and document the swap process as it happens once the donor motour is found.

How Starbucks saved one man's life and his story may change others

We have all had some particularly hard times in our lives. Some harder than others.

There are days where I'm sure that we have all felt that it just couldn't get any worse than it already is.

The Paisley and I just happen to be having one of those weeks. We just got word yesterday that the engine in the Paisley's Subie is done. So done that a burial is not even worth the time done.

The really hard part to swallow is that we still owe the bank on this gem of a car.

The up side to this is that for whatever reason or whatever we have done to change things in our lives, this really doesn't seem to be bothering us for the moment.

We are still able to carpool for another 11-12 months before her office moves. We still have my Bronze Bitch to get around in. We do have some kind of tax return coming back to us.

The point is that we have taken the higher road in this personal crisis and are not dwelling on it. Maybe that is what I should have been doing in my life all along. It hasn't been easy getting to this point in life either, but I'm glad I'm on my way there.

I don't want to make this a sob story about me. This is about a story that I just read on CNN's site about a gentleman in New York that hit the lowest point of his life and made it work. He recently wrote a book "How Starbucks Saved My Life" and it really said a lot to me about how we all have the power to change how we look at life and what it throws at us.

This man, Michael Gates Gill, lost it all: his wife, his health, his high paying executive job, his expensive home and probably his dignity in there somewhere. It just didn't get any worse than this.

Now I haven't read the book, but I read the CNN article as I mentioned before. On the day this man lost his job he happened into a Starbucks for his regular coffee and the manager asked him, by happenstance, if he'd like to apply since they were having a job fair. He figured why not. He didn't have anything to lose.

He does a bit of everything there it sounds like from making drinks to cleaning the loo. Not the kind of job you'd expect a six figure exec to be doing or enjoying and all for $10 per hour.

Of course along with writing a book about his experience he is also on a lecture circuit as well to speak about his last few years and how it changed his life for the better.

It's strange to think that things like this can happen to someone of his stature in life. The wealthy. The one living the extremely good life. I know people personally that are facing tough times and they either break apart or they work through it.

I think I'd rather be the latter.

I'm glad I read the article. I don't watch tv news because it's the same depressing crap every nite. At least when I read the news on line I can pick and choose what I read and avoid the depressing and disturbing.

This man's story made me feel better about the fact that losing the engine in the Subie was truly not the worst thing that can go wrong in my life. I'm not upset by losing that engine or by the fact that I'm not even sure where I will come up with the rest of the money for the work that needs to be done.

I do know that after reading the article and how Mr. Gill made his worst experience work for him instead of becoming a slave to it, I realised that I have been doing the same.............for the last year I have done some clearing of clutter out of my physical and mental life and it's working. It took this article to see that there is a difference from just over a year ago.

It feels great to be able to see the good side of life even if it does smack you in the back of the head like an older sibling when mom's back is turned from time to time.

Sharing the road doesn't mean stealing parking

So the wonderful city of Seattle has decided that they will start providing on street parking for bicycles.

Huh?

WTH are they doing to us?!

See the story.

So let me get this clear. The City of Seattle is taking money from their DOT fund to build on street bicycle parking. This means that one parking space per neighbourhood will be taken away and a new bike rack will be put on that spot.

Oh and lets not forget that it will cost $6,000-$7000 per bike parking rack to install.

Again, WTH?! They better be gold plated or perform erotic favours for that kind of money!

It doesn't look like it should cost $7k.

Good parking is scarce in this (or any other) city and now Mayor Greg 5-pennies and and his cronies have decided to take it away and give it to some greenies!!! Mayor 5-pennies needs to pull his head out of his fat arse!

What's wrong with providing additional bike lock racks along the sidewalks like any other normal city?

There's another flaw in this. In a worsening economy with our local governments in need of generating revenue, ours chose to toss it off on some bike racks!! They're not even high tech bike racks at that. I don't see anyplace to put money to park a bike so this little burden is apparently not on the bike riders.

If I have to pay to park my rice burner or my kraut kruiser on the street, then put a system on here to make the bikers pay for these things. You don't pay, then that bike is picked up and donated to a needy child or someone who could really use it.

Please don't take our parking Mayor Nickels. It's hard enough to want to drive into the city and visit it with the rates that the four wheelers have to pay to park. You're driving us away from the city. I love my car and if I wanted to live in a city where the bikes out number the cars, well I would live there already and have my own special Schwinn to ride.

How do you get to work Mayor Nickels and more importantly who pays for your parking?

That's what I thought.

Share the road?

First I need to say that I have nothing against bicyclists. I ride a bike for fun but not for commuting. I'm just not completely green yet I guess.

I don't even mind sharing the road with bicyclists. They need to get places too. I do have a problem though with the bicyclists that don't feel the rules of the road and sharing don't apply to them.

Here in Washington most cities have designated bike lanes on the right side of the road next to the curb. I see them all over in my daily commute to and from work. Most bikes stay in their lane.

There's that occasional biker that rides in the road outside of the bike lane and holds up the car traffic because they think the lane designated for bikes doesn't apply to them somehow. These people are the same douche bags that will most likely end up a fixture in the grill of the Paisley's Subie. I did it before on a road trip with a few birds that didn't get out of the way soon enough. It's not called and Egg Crate grille for no reason folks!

There's a specific corner in our commute that has a free right and at least once a week there is one of these bike douches keeping us from making that free right because they're sitting on that corner waiting for the light to change. Move over!!! You're on a piece of light weight aluminum/titanium/carbon-fibre tubing that barely weighs 12-15 pounds and you can't move over a bit to let a 3000 lb car make a free right turn!!!!

Bicycles at lights is another issue. There are some (again the hardcore commuters) that don't wait for the light to change. They just cross the intersection when it's clear enough for them to go. Never mind that a car could come out of nowhere and toss them like a small boulder launching out of a catapult. Dumb asses.

A few years ago we had a bike come up on our right at a light and into the left turn lane and when it turned green, cut off the first car in line to make the light. Well when we made it through the intersection the Paisley put the window down and yelled at the biker that he should really obey the rules of the road. He wasn't going to have any of that. Next thing I know there's an angry biker coming up on my six to sweep up on my left and actually stuck his arm in our car and threatened us for telling him to obey the road rules!!! What a prat!!

Of course I pulled over and followed him at the snails pace and called the police. Do you know what those doughnut eating c***stains told me to do?! Pull over and wait for an officer to come to me! I told the dispatch that I could hand the phone over to my wife to let them know our direction of travel while I followed our biker, but they didn't want us to do that. I mean really. Use your common sense. It's not like bikes have license tags on them or that this biker was just going to provide me with his personal information as he's leaning in the car and threatening us. WTF!

Then there are the car slappers. You know, the ones that come up next to car and yell and slap the car when they think the driver hasn't shared the road or given proper right of way to the biker. What ever. I can promise that the first biker that slaps my car will be the last biker to slap my car.

I am a careful driver and I look out for bikes. This comes from being someone that has ridden motourcycles and knows just how dangerous it is out there for two-wheeled traffic.

If we're all careful then no one has to get rude and no one has to get hurt. I see it this way.........if bicyclists want to have cars share the road with them so bad then they should make sure that they are obeying the rules of the road and not pissing people off.

I think that bicyclists should also be paying for maintenance and up keep of the roads they use too. Gas is getting high (Washington state has one of the highest gas taxes in the nation, thank you) and the tabs for our plates are getting expensive as well.

There has actually been talk here in the Emerald City of imposing an annual $25 bicycle tax. Hey I can't make this one up. Read the article.

Seems ridiculous. I realise that we are in a severe economic recession right now, but taxing the shite out of us isn't going to solve that problem. On the other hand if bikers are paying a licensing fee annually then maybe they won't be assholes on the road and then whine about not be treated fairly.