Category Archives: About Me - Page 13

Not A Fan – You Thought I Was Capable

Posted by on June 14, 2019 No comments

If you had read the previous post about issues with my car’s cooling fan, you might have the impression that I had a clue as to what I was doing and everything was going to be awesome.  Well, think again.  If you thought things were pretty ridiculous before, the sequel kicks it up a notch.

To recap quickly, my car was lacking heat, so I got the thermostat replaced, then the car started overheating, which I determined was caused by a large frog stuck in the cooling fan.  Then, the car started overheating again, which I determined was the fan blades separating from the fan motor.  When we left off, I was going to save myself hundred of dollars by installing the fan myself.  Silly me.

To start the task off right, I begin working on the car in the late afternoon on a weekday instead of first thing in the morning on a weekend.  You know, giving yourself a few hours with no backup plan for the next day is the proper way to work.  And I got to disassembling and removing all the pieces involved.  That only took about half an hour, which is reasonable.

What became unreasonable very quickly was how many hoses and wires were secured to the fan assembly and additionally, how little space was gained by removing everything I did.  There simply was not enough space to get the fan out.  Not without removing the front bumper, that is.  And is that what I wanted to start with the sun going down?  No.  So I put everything back together for the night.

One of the pieces that I had to take out was the ECU, which is the brains of the car.  After I got done reassembling everything, I planned to give the car a quick start to reset everything.  The reason for that is when you disconnect the ECU, there is some recalibration that the engine has to do on first startup.  But, for whatever reason, I got distracted and didn’t remember until after it was dark outside.

When I did remember, I tried to start the car and it was dead.  The warning lights were lit up everywhere and the gas gauge didn’t move.  Well, this is a wonderful turn of events.  It’s now dark out, I have to go to bed to go to work tomorrow and I have no working vehicle.  I wondered if I somehow fried the ECU while I was working on it.  If so, that’s the end of this car.  But I can’t think about that now.  I have to get to work tomorrow.

I go online and get a rental car for a week.  The next morning, I use Uber for the first time to get to the rental office.  Days go by and I finally return to the car to find out what’s wrong.  My primary thought was that I reversed the plugs to the ECU and I hoped that didn’t ruin it.  When I dug down into the car and got to the ECU, I discovered you can’t mix up the plugs in any way.  So now what?  I posted a question on a car forum asking for help and the unanimous response was, dead battery or bad battery connections. 

The next day, I pulled the battery and charged it up (from 95% to 100%, so I doubted that was the problem).  When I went to reinstall the battery, I looked at the terminal clamps.  The negative clamp had a thick layer of corrosion around the inside of it.  It wasn’t noticeable from the outside, but clearly it was interfering with the electrical connection.  A quick effort with some sandpaper cleared that up right away and boom, the car started right up.  I’m back in business!

I decide to make the most of my car rental and drive it for the remainder of the week.  Monday, I returned the rental and got back to the house.  I started up my car and headed out to lunch.  A few miles down the road, the engine starts overheating.  Not a problem, I crank the heat and fan like I normally do to cool it down.  But no heat is coming out, and the temperature is climbing very quickly.

I make a quick decision to head back home and since I can’t make it back before the engine would seriously overheat, I stopped in a parking lot to let it cool down.  Since I can’t get any heat from the engine, I make the diagnosis that I introduced some air into the system while I had all the hoses disconnected.  That would prevent the coolant from circulating into the heater core.  Once I got the car home and let it cool, I could “burp” the system and get the air out.

Mid afternoon (again), I start the burping process.  I add some water into the reservoir and begin.  But still, no heat before the engine begins overheating.  I check the reservoir and it’s empty again.  I add more water.  And more water.  Where did all the coolant go?  I hear it gurgling.  Then, with reservation, I look under the car and see where all the coolant is going.  On the ground.

I don’t remember missing any hoses when I was putting everything back together, but I checked anyway to see if there were any loose connections.  There was one.  Except it wasn’t loose, it was snapped off.  Apparently when I was yanking on the fan assembly, trying to get it out, I snapped off one of the connections to the radiator.  The reality hit me like a sack of money.  Now I had to buy a new radiator.  That’s it.  I give up.  I call and reserve another rental car.  Get another Uber ride to get the car.  Then I broke down and called a mechanic to replace the radiator and install the cooling fan. 

Let’s now summarize how much money I saved by doing this work myself.  Initially, I was estimating $700 to have a dealer replace the fan.  I bought a replacement fan for $150.  I was confused by a bad battery connection and spent $300 on a rental car for a week.  The new radiator and install is about $900.  Plus my second rental car, which will be about $150.  Plus towing the car to the mechanic, maybe $50.  It will literally cost me more than twice as much to do this myself.

As it turned out, my insurance’s roadside assistance considers rendering your car inoperable in your own driveway a valid roadside assistance request, so my tow was free.  I got the call from the mechanic the same day that my car was ready, but the rental office was closed, so I just planned to pick it up the next day after work.  The bill was actually less than I was quoted, so I assume they found the radiator cheaper than it was estimated.

I was able to drive all the way to work with no overheating and AC on, so I think it was a successful fix.  The AC is hissing now, so I think I’ll need to pick up a recharge kit and… wait a minute.  $50-some dollars for a recharge kit and the chance for me to ruin something else, or $100 to have a professional recharge it.  I think I’ve finally learned my lesson here.

Social Media? Not Much Anymore.

Posted by on June 3, 2019 No comments

Today, I’m walking away from another another Internet forum that I’d been involved with for over a decade.  It’s kind of sad for me, because I used to feel welcome there and would participate pretty regularly.  But, I guess I’m just not cut out for that kind of interaction anymore. 

A wise piece of advice that is frequently given is to not surround yourself with negativity and don’t waste any time being around people who put you down and don’t lift you up.  The problem with that advice is, it leaves you with very few options, especially now on the modern Internet.  It’s pretty well-recognized that being online exposes you to nothing but anger and conflict.  Even if you are not participating, simply being exposed to it is damaging enough.

My quitting of the forum is actually the third step away that I’ve made.  The first step was when I was particularly irked that some of the moderators – the people that are supposed to keep the peace and keep the place running smoothly – were actively engaging in attacks on other members.  In the particular forum I was in, it’s kind of like the wild west where rude behavior is more tolerated, but there was something sinister about having the leadership jumping into the fray instead of monitoring from the sidelines.  At that time, I trimmed back my profile of any personalizing marks and became more of an anonymous member.

The second step was when I quarantined myself from the political section because it was doing nothing but depressing me.  Seriously, nothing but bickering back and forth with trolls (some even moderators) that can’t be defeated.  And after a while of not viewing any of those posts, I began to realize, there isn’t really anything going on outside of those sections.  I began to wonder why I was coming back if there was nothing good to read.

The final step was when I asked for some assistance with, of all things, sunglasses.  There was a discussion about sunglasses, and since the population of the forum is higher-class, I thought someone could give me a recommendation for an upgrade to the glasses I had.  To my surprise, I was insulted.  The first reply could have been seen as a lighthearted joke, the second reply asked if I was a troll or just stupid (this was from a moderator), then it became agreed upon that the style of glasses I was asking about were for douchebags.

As Eric Cartman would say, “Screw you guys, I’m going home!”

I’m sure there’s a lot of people who might look at this situation and say, “What drama!” or “The butthurt is strong in this one.”  And you know what, it’s true.  There is a lot of butthurt.  We’re talking about being in a community for a decade, where you feel you can be yourself and be accepted and suddenly, you’re not.  And adding up the other issues I’ve been experiencing there, well, it’s just not welcoming anymore.  It’s not a place for me.

Actually, this isn’t the first or worst betrayal I’ve gotten from that place.  One time in a moment of weakness, I posted a picture of myself on the forum.  One particular member made a series of photoshops of my picture and posted them.  Unfortunately, I know that those pictures will live on forever.  Since that event, I had to watch everything I said and did so that someone wouldn’t randomly repost one of those pictures and start it up all over again.  As I understand, the member that did the photoshops has since died, and good riddance to him.

And now, good riddance to that whole place.

Like the dust, which settles all around me
I must find a new home

Afterglow – Genesis

 

The Fan, Of Which I Am Not A Fan

Posted by on May 28, 2019 No comments

In the middle of a record-breaking heat wave, I’m going to go without AC in my car.  Not by choice, mind you.  This situation is the result of a series of issues, not unlike tumbling down a hillside.

The first issue, quite ironically, was that my car didn’t have any heat.  Initially, it didn’t have heat for an extended period, then it had none at all.  You would think this wouldn’t be a problem in the middle of summer here, but it actually is.  My complaint was that in the morning, when it is cool and foggy, you need to use the defroster to clear your windshield.  Without heat, I was just blowing pure AC at the glass, which made it fog up – on the outside.  So I would have to run my wipers for about 20 minutes until I got some heat to balance out the temps.  And also, during that time, I am freezing my ass off.

I know that this symptom can be caused by a failed thermostat, which prevents the warm coolant from getting to the heater core inside the car.  So I went to the shop and requested to get the thermostat changed.  It was much more expensive than I expected – $400 – but I agreed to it.  While they had everything disassembled, they said the coolant had sediment in it which probably caused the failure and they recommended a coolant flush.  Fine, now it’s $500.  Whatever.

The next day, I had heat.  Things were back to normal.  On the drive home that day, I suddenly had heat when I shouldn’t have.  My AC turned warm and my engine temperature gauge started climbing.  I followed the standard procedure for engine overheating, which was to roll down the windows, crank the heat and fan to max and roast in the convection oven until the engine cools down.  At the time, I thought it was a fluke because I was stuck in traffic and it was a ridiculously hot day.  But the next day was just as hot and the car overheated again at a stop light.

I called the shop and asked if they could have a look at it, since this wasn’t happening until they did their service.  They agreed, but when I showed up, they were too busy to see me that day.  So I went home and determined to troubleshoot it myself.  My first thought was that they left the cooling fan harness unplugged, because I hadn’t heard the cooling fan run since the service.

I took the car apart and was somewhat disappointed to see the cooling fan plugged in.  But the fan still wasn’t turning.  I moved the fan blades and found out why.  There was a large, desiccated flog jammed in between the blades, preventing it from turning.  After extricating the frog carcass and changing out the fuse which had blown from the motor being blocked for an extended period, I thought I was golden. 

The next day, I was sitting in the car, talking on the phone for about half an hour, and the AC went warm again, the temperature gauge climbed again, and this time, there was a piercing smell of burning plastic.  Things have gone from bad to worse.  Over the weekend, I pulled everything back apart and found the fan blades had detached from the motor shaft.  I assume the burning smell was the shaft spinning freely against the plastic and melting it like a Dremel.

Ok, I now have to replace the fan assembly.  A quick search online suggests that this is a $700 service at the dealership.  But, but, I can buy a new fan assembly for only $150, and the install is just unbolting about four things and dealing with a few clips.  I made a quick purchase from EBay for the new fan and my heart sank when I got the order confirmation email that said delivery would be in about two weeks.  That’s a long, long wait in Internet time.

And now I wait.  And I have to keep alert in the car to make sure it’s not overheating.  And I have to drive with the windows down, like it’s the 1950’s and AC isn’t standard equipment.  It’s so retro.

Better Than Nothing?

Posted by on May 24, 2019 No comments

I keep some notes of ideas for potential blog posts and when I happened across the list today, this item stuck out at me – “T-shirt sweatshop interview”.  Oh yeah, I remember that event.  And maybe it stuck out to me a little harder today, since I am actively looking for a new job (shhh!).  But it also gave me some other thoughts about the current job market, and a bit about those that are unfortunate.

So here’s the story.  I had been fired from my first job after I sliced my finger open, because I didn’t follow safety protocols.  I went jobless for quite some time.  One of my friends gave me a lead for a T-shirt printing business that was looking for help.  In fact, he worked there, so I had an “in”.  So, one day, I made my way out to the company, which was located way off the beaten path, which is saying a lot when you’re already living in sticksville.  It was the kind of place where deaths go unreported.

And I showed up and said I wanted to apply for a job.  I filled out a paper application (how quaint) and then I was ready for my interview.  The “interview” was nothing involving talking or getting to know me or what my background was.  It involved taking me onto the floor, giving me about a minute of instruction of how to use a manual screen-printing machine, then seeing how productive I could be in 30 minutes.

Of course, I didn’t know any better at the time, but I’m sure no one would get away with this today, with liabilities and unpaid labor laws, and on and on.  But I was a teenager in a rural shop in the heat of summer with no AC, and I worked that machine for my 30 minutes.  At the end of my time, I was told I would hear from them soon.

Soon came and went, and I drove back out to find out what the holdup was.  The person at the office asked if I did my test.  I said I didn’t know there was a test.  So, she took me back onto the floor and showed me the screen printing machine.  Guess who got an extra 30 minutes of free labor?  Now, guess who didn’t get a job after all that?

Now, after that experience, I did eventually get a job in fast food and I went to school, and began my professional career based on some connections I had made along the way.  But, what might have happened if I did get that miserable job, sweating for hours at a job that would probably destroy my fingers from CTS?  I had a job.  Would it be good enough?  More importantly, would it keep me from being able to find something better?

To expand on that last point.  There are times I see panhandlers on the roadside, and on days when my cynicism is low, I would like to offer to take them to a restaurant for a dinner.  Most of the time, I would expect that they would just ask for money instead.  Being cynical, yeah, they just want alcohol.  But, not being cynical, what if the reason is that they can’t afford to leave for a meal because every minute they are not begging is a minute that they could miss a dollar.  Although the meal would be free for them, they could lose more in cash by taking the time to eat.

So, what if the time I was spending making a little bit of money was holding me back from being able to get a job that makes more money?  How many others are in that same trap right now?  You can’t get ahead because you’re just getting by.  That’s a reality that so many people don’t see.

I’m not exactly advocating quitting your job to focus on finding a better job, but… sometimes you have to make a drastic change to have a dramatic change happen for you.

Micro-Macro McDonalds Views

Posted by on May 19, 2019 No comments

In an older post, in passing, I wrote about how I sometimes clean up a store where I enjoy shopping at, to make it nicer for me and for everyone else.  Tonight, I saw it being done by other people.

I was slumming it at McDonalds.  not saying McD’s a slum, but I was really dressed down, something I don’t really do when I go out, even for McDonalds.  But tonight, maybe more than usual (I don’t know since I hardly ever eat there anymore), the place was really a disaster.  I really shouldn’t be surprised.  I bitched about their new kiosks years ago and knew that it wasn’t going to change anything service-wise.

So of course, the place is understaffed, just as it should be.  One person at the counter who had to take orders, prep orders, deliver orders to tables, and also keep the whole dining area clean.  Fucking yeah.  What a load of crap.  So it’s no surprise after the dinner rush that all the trash cans were full. 

But on top of that, it seems that the customers are… worse?  There was trash left on tables, food on tables, food and paper on the floor.  It’s something I just can’t get over in any environment.  How can someone come into a place, which is in a certain state of affairs and purposely leave it worse off than when you arrived?  Doesn’t matter if it’s a restaurant, store, house, park, or anything.  Ok, I understand accidents, like you drop your drink at a convenience store.  But even then, you should make an effort to clean it up until an employee tells you they will handle it.

And that’s kind of what happened tonight at McDonalds.  While I was waiting for my food, a woman walked up to the counter carrying a stack of trays.  One of the employees met her and seemed confused.  The woman said, “I packed down all the garbage cans as best I could, but they’re going to need changing.”  They employee replied, “We really appreciate that…” and seemed like he was going to say it was unnecessary, but the woman had to explain.  “We come here all the time and blah blah”.  I didn’t catch the rest, but I pretty much understood.  This was a place they enjoyed being in and they didn’t want it to be a shithole.  Yeah, I understand that.

When I did get my food and walked back to my table, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of someone sweeping the floor and knew without looking further it was that woman’s husband.  The person working at the counter followed me out and confronted the man.  “Sir, our store doesn’t allow customers to do any employee work.”  The guy jokingly said, “I forgot my hat.”  She replied, “I’ll get it, thank you.”  The guy handed over the broom and the floor got a quick sweeping.

What a sad state of affairs, that businesses staff their stores so poorly that customers feel compelled to help out?  And maybe I would feel some compassion for the business because taxes and competition and it’s so rough being a small business owner today, but this place is a fucking gold mine.  There is rarely a time that I don’t see it busy, with drive-through lines out to the street.  This place isn’t hurting at all.

But, back to this old couple, and people like them.  It certainly does seem the world is in decline on many fronts.  And when that does happen, what do you do?  …  I was going to say, do you let it go or do you fight?  I quickly realized “fight” is not the right word, whereas, “help” is.  That word choice suddenly made a lot of things uncomfortable for me.  Because, as we know, there are a lot of people who see the world declining in different ways.  What is their choice of words for their solution, “fight” or “help”?

That’s something I don’t want to dwell on.

But, Is It Art?

Posted by on May 14, 2019 No comments

I’ve started an art project, which is usually bad because I am not good at art.  To forego any buildup and drama and suspense, the project is painting my couch.

You might have an image in your head of a early 1900’s couch with velvet cushioning and a painted wood frame, but that’s not it.  I have a modern couch, entirely wrapped in white vinyl, no wood.  And now you may have some confusion.  Painting your couch?  Yes, did you know you can paint vinyl?  Vinyl is just plastic and you can buy paints for plastic, Krylon being one well known brand.

My couch is nearly 15 years old.  It’s probably due for replacement, actually.  As I said, it is white, but that white is not as white as it used to be.  It’s that sad kind of off-white now, with some stains that refuse to come out.  The original idea for painting came as an outgrowth of an idea I had that maybe I could dye the vinyl bright white again.  Do they make white dye?  I don’t think I ever got a good answer to that, and I stumbled on articles talking about painting vinyl furniture.  So that’s where I am.

They do have white vinyl paint, but I figured if I was going to fuck something up, I should at least fuck it up in a bold way.  So I decided to change the couch to grey, which is another common vinyl paint color.  The paints I was buying were intended for car upholstery and dashboards.  I guess if you want durability, a car seat is going to take a pretty big beating, so this paint should be pretty solid.

The paint isn’t available for store purchase, so I had to order it to be shipped to a store.  Home Depot was probably about 50% the cost of Amazon (really).  I bought a 6pk of spray cans, not just so I would be sure to have enough, but because that’s the only cost-effective way to buy them.  The paint showed up in about a week and I brought them home and got ready to fuck it all up.

I made a shitty little paint booth in my garage, which just means I draped a sheet over things I didn’t want painted and stuck some fans in the windows to pull out the fumes.  I took one of the cushions off the couch, wiped it down with some degreaser, and set it on my little painting pedestal.  Ok.  There’s no ctrl-z on this, let’s hope it goes well.

I sprayed the paint on and immediately noticed it was actually kind of a brownish color.  This better work out.  I tried to keep in mind the tips I’d read in the articles I’d read.  Try for multiple light coats.  But, I do suck at painting of any type, so at the end when I surveyed my results, I was underwhelmed.  Hopefully it would dry better…

After a little while, I came back and checked on it.  While the color really did turn out grey and not brown, the coverage would be what I would call blotchy.  Definitely not uniform.  And that was even after I tried to even out spots that seemed too light the first time.  Some of it seemed to be caused by the “grain”, as if there is a grain to vinyl.  But what’s done is done.  I have to keep going now.

And that’s a little problem.  Just that one cushion used up almost three cans of paint.  I have another cushion at least as big as that one, plus two frames that have to have at least twice as much surface area.  That night, I immediately ordered a second case of paint.  I might need to buy a third, too.  That would put my art project budget at around $135.  Granted, that’s nowhere near the price of a new sofa, but based on the results of my first cushion, if I don’t level up my painting skills as I go, this is going to end up pretty embarrassing.  Well, I’m sure a thrift store could use a new donation.

Back inside, I removed the legs from one section of the frame and a realization came over me.  I think my couch is handmade.  The couch was not purchased at a large retailer, it was from a tiny retailer that specialized in modern design furniture.  I think they built the couch themselves or maybe bought it from a builder.  The first thing that struck me was that the legs were held on with drywall screws, not wood screws.  Then, while I had the couch on its side, I wondered where the little tag was: “UNDER PENALTY OF LAW, NOT TO BE REMOVED BLAH BLAH”.  There was none, which is concerning when you know why that tag is required.  It’s there to guarantee to the buyer that the cushion and filler are made of all new material, not reused materials.  And not only that tag was non-present, there was no other indication that the couch was made by a company.  No stamps, labels, tags, nothing.

So you can take that however you want.  Either I have a custom, handmade, one-of-a-kind couch which is really awesome, or I have a handmade, one-of-a-kind couch that is seriously sketchy.  “Nice couch, what brand is that?”  “No idea.”

The next day, I hauled one half of the couch frame out for painting.  I managed to complete an entire coat with most of one spray can left, so it’s possible I can do the whole couch for two cases of paint.  On the plus side, my technique did get a little better.  Even so, you can’t mistake there’s something “off” about the final result.  It’s probably good enough for a staging picture, but when you get closer, it becomes more obvious.  Oh well, I’m going to take this project to the end and the couch will serve me well for a couple more years or whenever I decide I really want something different.

Halfway done; before and after:

IMG_20190511_143812

And here, fully complete:

IMG_20190513_173820

Changing My Tune With A New Band

Posted by on May 10, 2019 No comments

I posted before about the recent death and dismemberment of the Microsoft Band.  I had pretty much given up on fitness tracking and fitness in general about a year ago.  In that time, as you might expect with someone not as young anymore, with more health issues than none, it had a detrimental effect on my wellbeing.

Without dwelling on the negative aspects of that situation, I powered back on again.  With a new blog tagline to lead the way, I began mentally preparing myself for change.  Positive change, I mean.  I’ve had plenty of other changes already.  Along the way, I happened to see something about a high-feature, low-cost fitness tracker, the Huawei Band 3 Pro.  Very interesting.

In my mind, I was just imagining it as the next version of the MS Band (which stopped at v2), but the design was more standard – no extra bits in the strap and clasp.  But, it did have the one feature that kept me from immediately replacing my MS Band – built in GPS.  And the price was about 25% what I paid for my last MS Band.  And it’s waterproof, which doesn’t mean much to me, but might for others.

I bit the bullet the other day and ordered one, in blue of course.  I’ll be able to use it this weekend.  In the meantime, I’ve begun walking on work breaks again, which is something that ended with the departure of AK, right around the time I gave up on my Band.  Of course I would begin this just as the furnace of summer heat is kicking on.  But a start is a start; building momentum and all that shit.

So, to remember a little about my last post, I’m putting my trust in a new company to let me use their hardware and software for as long as I can.  Will the hardware outlast the software this time?  We’ll have to see.  At least I won’t have paid too much for the experiment.

Old And Desirable

Posted by on May 7, 2019 No comments

Today, out thrift shopping, I happened across a couple of pieces of stereo equipment.  You know, that’s exactly what I need is more stereo stuff.  I must have a third stereo in my house.  Maybe it will go in the guest bathroom.

That’s not what I was thinking, exactly.  The thought I had was, “I’ve seen this before.”  I’d seen pictures of it in forum posts of people bragging about their systems and others drooling and praising those people’s stereos.  This was one of those stereos.  It was old, like older than me, old.  And it was neat looking in that retro way.  From pictures I’d seen, I knew what it would look like powered up.  The power level meters would have a beautiful, soft aqua glow.  But on the whole, it’s not my aesthetic.

BUT, it is one of those impossibly rare finds, and the price was reasonable.  Only $20 per piece, $40 out the door.  This is the same thrift shop at which I bought my other retro stereo.  That stereo only cost me $18.  So I walked swiftly back up front to get a shopping cart (because these components are easily 60 pounds together) and made off with my spoils.

Back at work and back online, I do a quick search on the eBay for the components.  Each one is selling for about $1000.  So, assuming these pieces work, I have a $2000 stereo for the price of $40.  But again, it’s not really my thing.  There seems something sacrilegious about running a CD player through a 60’s era stereo.  This system was made for vinyl, and that’s not what I do.

In fact, to give an idea of what the preamp is capable of, it has inputs for two turntables, three (3!) tape decks, radio tuner, and another input.  You can output to three different destinations including a monitor output.  It almost seems like a piece of equipment you’d find in a broadcasting studio.  It has a function called “expansion” that is supposed to work the opposite of a compressor: make quiet parts more quiet and loud parts louder.  Crazy.

So my initial plan is just to clean it up and flip it, assuming it works well.  Even if it doesn’t work well, the place I plan to sell to is a repair shop.

It Just Doesn’t Come Cheaply

Posted by on May 3, 2019 No comments

In another blog of mine, I discussed improvements I was making to my house.  In some posts, I talked about making quality purchases and how we have all become conditioned to expect great stuff for low prices.  In reality, that doesn’t happen.  You might get good or ok stuff at low prices, but when you really want something good, something unique, something that will last and continue to look good all the while, you’re really going to have to pay for it.

Of course, I’m not talking about a $12,000 chandelier, although there may be a rationale for it, especially for uniqueness.  But I am talking about buying things 3-4 times more expensive than you might originally have in mind.  In my current situation, I want a chair.  Just one chair.

You might think, ok, go to Walmart and buy a $30 chair.  No, this is a listening chair for my music room.  Ok, go to Staples and get an office chair, maybe $150.  No, I really want something like a recliner.  Then go to Ashley Homestore and get a recliner, they can’t be more than $300.  I want leather.  Ok, $400.  I want a modern style.  (After searching modern leather recliners)  You’re not thinking of a $5,000 Herman Miller Eames, are you?  No, but you’re thinking the right way.  You have to see where you could end up so you feel better about where you actually end up.

So, I’m not planning on getting an iconic art piece of furniture for $5k.  More reasonable is another famous brand you might have heard of, Stressless by Ekornes.  I was surprised to see they’re almost in the $2k range.  But it seems you can get them just about anywhere.  Stressless is a very popular brand and that lends it to a lot of flattery in the form of imitation.  So yeah, you can get a chair that looks like a Stressless for $300.  Great, you say.  Cheap and done.  Looks the same, is the same.

Well, no.  Far from it actually.  First and foremost,  I’m not buying a piece of furniture my ass has to enjoy until my ass has given it the thumbs up.  So no blind internet ordering for this piece.  With that restriction in mind, I begin stopping at furniture stores in my surrounding area.  One thing I quickly learned is that my vision of “modern” is not the same as theirs.  If it doesn’t look like an overstuffed box with tufting and pillowtops on every edge, then it’s “modern”.

I began being more specific in what I was looking for.  I started with a half-apology because the question could rub a salesperson the wrong way.  “I hate using a brand as a description, but I am looking for a recliner in the style of Stressless.”  You might think I was just a cheap bastard – wants a Stressless, doesn’t want to pay for a Stressless.  One salesperson clearly had no idea what I was talking about and showed me a typical recliner, (as I’d begun referring to them) a box.  You’d think if he was selling furniture, he’d be knowledgeable about top brands.  I guess not.

So I looked on and on.  Of the six places I visited, only one had any recliners of the style I wanted.  So I guess they won by default.  But I didn’t just concede the win.  I went online and researched the chairs and found out who the manufacturer was and compared prices to Internet stores (it was comparable, actually).  And I went back to buy the chair the next day, while the store was having a 20% off sale.  The chair is on backorder for oh, about a month, so I have plenty of time to look forward to it.

And how much was this not-$5k chair?  $700 before discount.  I did see similar chairs online for $300, but during my research after finding this chair, I learned a lot about leather.  The key takeaway I got was that a lot of “leather” is of “bonded leather” construction, which is complete garbage.  What you want is top-grain or full-grain leather.  A lot of the lower-priced chairs were upholstered in bonded leather, which is why they were so cheap.  They wouldn’t last a few years before flaking apart.

The chair I bought is top-grain leather with a caveat.  It’s leather on all seating surfaces and vinyl everywhere else.  I’m actually ok with this design since I won’t be sitting on the back of the chair, nor on the sides.  It saves natural resources and keeps the cost down, but still has the durability wherever it will be used.

With my recent purchase of patio loungers, I will soon be able to nap just about anywhere in my house I want.

I Made It Work Again

Posted by on April 30, 2019 No comments

Over the weekend, I made a roadtrip in the interest of thrift shopping.  It was a generally easy-going, low-stress trip that turned up plenty of CDs, mostly smooth-sided cases.  Along the way, I also picked up an early CD player, 30 years old, for $7.  I figured it would be interesting to have an opportunity to experience newer and older players and see if I could determine sonic differences between them.  The price was good, so why not?

When I got it home and fired it up, I found out why not.  It wasn’t operational.  When powered up, it would immediately eject the CD tray.  Pushing the close button did nothing.  If you pulled the tray out a little further, the close button would work, but after a second or two, the tray would eject again.  Huh.

My first thought was that there were some sensors that were dirty.  The ones that tell the player when the tray is fully opened or fully closed.  It seemed like something I could fix.  So I opened the case and disassembled the tray assembly.  I didn’t really see any sensors like I expected.  I did see a pressure switch that would toggle when the drawer was open or closed.  Opening and closing the drawer, I could see that when closing, the switch was not being contacted.  I think I was on the right track here.

Considering why the drawer wouldn’t close fully, I had a memory of a web page I had read about CD player troubleshooting and the primary takeaway was that the great majority of player failures can be fixed by replacing the drive belts.  I inspected the drawer assembly and found only a single belt.  It seemed to be in good condition, maybe a little loose, I don’t really know.  But I figured I could change it out easily and maybe that would do it.

I ordered a pack of various sized belts from Amazon and they arrived the next day.  Without too much trouble, I installed a new belt of near the same size, maybe a little smaller.  The reassembly was a little sketchy since I wasn’t exactly sure where to set the gear so that the open/closed pressure switch would get hit in both directions.  But for my first test, the drawer stayed closed when I powered on, which it should because the switch indicated the door was closed.  I pushed the open/close button and the drawer ejected.  I checked the switch and it indicated the drawer was fully open.  I pushed the open/close button again at the drawer closed.  Then I saw something I hadn’t seen in previous attempts: the laser lens moved up and down trying to focus on a non-existent CD.  And the drawer stayed closed.  I ejected the tray and put a CD in.  I closed the tray and the CD spun up.  I pressed play, the CD spun and the display counted up the time.  I fixed it!

That’s a plenty good feeling to repair something so easily, just a single part replacement and the part was a tiny piece of rubber.