A Week From... uh, Heck!

Hi everyone!
just thought I'd share a little of the craziness that is my life of late. but first, I would like to share a picture with you. I was eating dinner at a local Zaxby's - one that I have eaten at many times before. I was looking at the random stuff on the walls, when I nearly choked on my dinner! I saw this:



Recognize it?
I had the same pennant on my wall in my bedroom in Syracuse! (I believe that it was navy blue though... sound right mom?) it is even visible in some of Dad's old Super-8 movies!

Now a little about my recent activities:
I'm sure some of you saw my Facebook status the other day when I said I was tired, frustrated and ticked off... well here's the scoop on that. I was in Brunswick GA teaching a Haz-Mat class for one of our regular customers. Ever since we started this company, we have been busting our tails for this company. First of all, they insist (wrongly) that their interpretation of the OSHA regulations tells them that a Haz-Mat technician class can be done in 24 hours. The class is written to be given in 40 hours, and I believe that the regulations require it to take 40 hours. So, against my better judgement, I have been persuaded to teach a 40 hour class in 24 hours. To add to the fun, OSHA also requires that each trained person must have 8 hours of continuing training each year. So, the customer just takes their "trained" people and has them sit in on a day of the class, figuring that that will do for "continuing training". They basically pay for 3 days of training, and cram all of their training needs into the class. To accommodate this, we usually send at least 2 instructors to do this class. 1 to teach the 24 hour class, and 1 to handle the previously trained people.

Not so this time... my co-instructor couldn't get off of work, so I went to Brunswick alone ("All by me onesies" as Jack Sparrow would say) and attempted to run a class with 6 people taking the full course and 12 - 15 people per day for the continuing ed. To make matters worse, the head of the plant's response team was in day 1 and after the class he basically told me that I didn't get in enough hands-on training for the continuing ed guys. THAT was why I was tired, frustrated and ticked off.

The next day, however, when the other guys from the company saw my status, they called me to ask what was going on, and I let Matt (one of the owners) have it with both barrels! We had gone against everything we said we would do LAST year to try to improve the class, and I was hot. They sprang to my aid, and located a Firefighter from Brunswick who assisted me on day 2 and 3 of the class. He was a great guy, and I made a friend. I also may have located someone to become another instructor with the company.

The next situation came about on my way home from Brunswick. I drove Truck Norris down and back... and he had really done well. Nearly 700 miles is quite a haul for an old fellow like him, but he gave me not 1 minute of trouble - until I stopped in Forrest Park on Saturday night to unload equipment. The starter went out. So I had to call Tonya to come get me. Then I had to be at the fire station on Sunday, so I made plans to go back Monday and see if I could get the old guy running.

I was originally supposed to stop by Mom and Dad's house to pick something up, but I decided to go straight to Forrest Park to work on Truck. When I called to tell them what I was doing, Dad insisted on coming with me so that Tonya and I would not have to go back down to pick up the Truck that night. So, I went by Mom and Pop's, then Dad followed me home to drop off the LeBaron (which I drove to work), and we went to Forrest Park to get Truck Norris.

I was pretty sure that the problem was the starter, having consulted with some of the top shade tree mechanics in Hall and Rockdale counties. So we went to the auto parts store and got a new one. The starter is only held in by two bolts, so the change seemed pretty straight forward. Yeah, right!

Bolt one came out easily - it was the bottom one, and easily accessible. Bolt two was another thing. The top of the bolt was slightly rounded, so the socket kept slipping. it was above the starter, beside the exhaust pipe so my attempt to put a crescent wrench on it was thwarted. Likewise my try at snap-on pliers. I got them on, but there was no room to turn them. I was stymied for over 2 hours! Finally, I hit on a simple answer that I should have tried first. My socket was a 3/8 inch drive, with 12 points inside. These points kept slipping when I tried to turn the bolt. So I did something I have done before - I grabbed the 1/4 inch drive socket. It has a hexagonal configuration with less room to slip. It worked easily! When I got the bolt out, I found out what the problem was: the last person to change out starters had cross threaded the bolt.

That wasn't the only problem... the new starter and the old starter were different. Not a lot, but different. The bendix was in a different place. The new one would fit. I tried it. But it was different. So, we went back to the auto parts store. I brought both starters, the old one for the core charge, and the new one to make sure it was the right one. While returning the core, I asked the guy to double check the stock number on the new one just to make sure. He was nice, but it looked like he thought I was a pain in the butt. When he checked his computer though, his eyebrows shot up: "They gave you the wrong starter dude".

What ensued was one of those episodes that seems to come straight out of the "Twilight Zone". The store's computer had gone down, and they couldn't do an exchange without a receipt... then they couldn't give me my core money ($20), then they got on the phone with "Cooperate", and whatever else. So a simple exchange of parts that required no money to change hands took nearly an hour.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention it: when we were getting ready to go to the auto parts store to return the wrong starter, I locked my keys in the truck. That was a whole comedy of errors in and of itself! Attempts to use a coat hanger were quickly abandoned when I realized that the hanger was both too short to reach the door handle and not strong enough to pull it. With my patience at an all time low, I used a hacksaw to cut the hinge on my wing window, pulled the hinge pin out and reached through the wing window to open the truck's door. Another 45 minutes wasted. At least it was a moment of hilarity for Dad!

After the auto parts store, it was on to Home Depot to buy a "Chase" (Like a tap, but tapered) to fix the threads in the block where the bolt was cross threaded. We also bought a new bolt and lock washer.

Then back to the truck, where I fixed the threads in the bolt hole and installed the new starter in about 5 minutes.

Throughout the whole thing, Dad was there giving me advice (what with my distinct lack of mechanicin' ability), hand me tools, and explain what was happening. I am SO glad that he came along, and very glad that he taught me how to tap out the bolt hole. I would have probably tried to just thread the bolt back and hoped for the best... that would have been a colossal blunder.

The next day I worked at the race track, and then at the fire station. Then, Wednesday night, Tonya called me and said that her van had broken down on the way home from church!

So, the next day I had to go and change out her alternator on the side of the road. Luckily, there was no problem this time, and it went smoothly!

That's my week from heck. hope it entertained you, I'm going to bed.

Be careful,
ME