BowerBlog

Good morning all!
Dang it’s cold here today! I got up early to take the snowblower into the shop to get it tuned-up for the year. I thought it felt crunchy-cold out. I checked the local weather station and it’s 9 friggin’ degrees!

Man, it’s gonna be a long day today. I just know we’ll get a bunch of no-starts towed in today. This kind of weather will make any border-line starting and charging system fail. Not to mention all the vehicles that are thousands of miles overdue for a tune-up. I can hear the phone calls now: “But I need my car right away!”, “What do you mean you’ll get to it as soon as you can?”, and so on. Oh well, we’ll do what we can do; what gets done gets done and what doesn’t will have to wait. As I always say: “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”.

I suppose I’d better get at it. I want to get this snowblower ready to go and then I’ve got a couple of diagnostic jobs to get done this morning. In the meantime, stay warm and take care!

As Always,
Chris

Hi all!

So I stay at SR’s last night and what do I find when I get up this morning? White stuff all over the place! Crap, it snowed last night! Of course, I’m not prepared; I don’t have the snowblower ready to go. I should have but I can be a really bad procrastinator at times. Oh well, not much I can do but deal with it. It could be worse, I only have to drive a few blocks to get to work. Truth be told, it is kinda pretty out, but a few months of this stuff and I’m sure I’m going to find it pretty damn ugly.

It’s still snowing as I’m writing this from the shop. Here’s a shot outside in front of the bays:

The one thing I really, really hate about this time of year is getting sopping wet at work; every vehicle I bring in today will be dripping water for hours when I have it on the lift. I’ve actually considered wearing a raincoat when I have to lift a snowy vehicle up. But, I can bitch all I want and the weather is still not gonna change just for me. As all of us have to do, I’ll just have to deal with it.

I think I’ll run over to SR’s after work to shovel the walks if the snow is still here and tomorrow morning I’ll bring the snowblower into the shop and get it tuned-up for the season. Truth be told, if it wasn’t for this kind of weather, we wouldn’t appriciate the warm, sunny weather. I’d best get to work; everyone have a good day and make the best fo the snow.

As Always,
Chris

Hi All!
It’s a cold Monday evening and I’m relaxing over at T’s after going to Lowe’s and WalMart for him. This was quite a day at work; I damn near walked out. The lot has this Mercury Mountaineer over at the shop; it’s been there for several months. It has the typical 4.0 liter E motor timing chain noise. It’ll need chains and guides on at least the front of the engine and I’d be willing to bet the rear chains and guides are bad too. Well, the service manager has kinda been putting this off because it’s such a big job. All at once this morning, they decide they need this thing fixed right away. What’s their idea of fixing it? Change the oil and load it up with oil additives. Fer Christ’s sake, who in their right mind would think that’s going to help broken chain guides and worn chains??? I’m so sick of being second-guessed at this job that I’m about ready to give up trying completely. I guess I’ll just start asking what they want done rather than actually diagnosing any problems.

I never thought I’d hear myself say this about my job, but now I’m just there to put my time in and that’s about it. I’m not the only one there that feels that way either. Oh well, I guess I’ll just keep blogging and keep my eye out for a new employer.

I’m not really in a bad mood, just kind of fed up I suppose. T is fixing dinner, so I’d better wrap this post up. I’ll write again tomorrow.

As Always,
Chris