Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

I just finished a whirlwind trip home, and also to a prayer service for a double-first cousin of my Dad. Saskatchewan is now short another farmer, and a kind man. I ate supper at the JH Cafe with my parents and the Zahariuks (spelling?). It rained, misted, or fogged the whole day, and is going to freeze tonight in Regina. My garden hasn’t sprouted yet, but I just remembered some plants on my deck have, yikes, better bring those in… The rain has been nice though, it’s been too long without any.

Last Sunday and Monday I planted.
Beets (two types) peas, cucumbers (2 types), zucchini, spaghetti squash, green peppers, potatoes, spinach, romaine lettuce, radishes, beens (2 types), carrots, kohlrabi, two sunflowers. Hopefully everything comes up :-)

It rained on Saturday, and is supposed to rain on Sunday. Unfortunately, I’m away from the city for a prayer service for my godfather Raymond, who passed away from cancer this week.

This week I’ll have to put in some more food into the garden. I know it’s late for a few things, but I’m going to try anyway. Pumpkin, corn, and tomatoes are yet to go in.

Jeff spent last week with people from all over the world. They were in Regina for the Student Sustainability Summit, a gathering of experts in the field of sustainable practices. Have a look at his summary, it’s interesting and uplifting. You can really feel the enthusiasm. He mentioned to me on Tuesday, that they got a tour of the flax house in Craik, among other sites. Several in the delegation were very impressed with how well they were treated (limo for transportation, etc.).

I can’t think of anyone else so desperate to not go to Regina, that they’d light their plane on fire. That’s pretty sick. Saskatoon on the other hand… KIDDING! I’m KIDDING.

I wonder if Mexico really is more violent than other tourist destinations, or if the deaths in Europe, Asia and elsewhere just go underreported?

The Leader Post is reminding campers who are headed to Provincial Parks, that alcohol is not welcome on the long weekend. The ban has been in effect since 2006, and has presumably decreased the noise and vandalism levels seen in the parks prior to the ban. It’s a shame that some drunken yahoos have to ruin it for the responsible drinkers.

Also, lifejackets for boaters, and seatbelts for drivers are being mentioned, because sadly many people across Canada die because they don’t take those simple precautions.

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Driving on the Ring Road this afternoon, I passed a speed trap that has been set up for southbound vehicles past Assiniboine Ave. I was going under the speed limit, but someone was pulled over. I was one of the few cars that slowed to the required 60km/h as I went by the police car with its flashing lights on.

While shopping through Superstore, I came across some real sunlight. It was nice, except I then noticed that it shone directly onto the stacks of DVD-R and CD-R discs. Recordable disks have to be kept out of direct sunlight, or they get damaged. I mentioned to the electronics staff that they were damaging their inventory, but I fully expect them to not move the discs. So, buyer, beware.

It’s a very nice day outside, I’m going to poke around in the garden a little, and hope the gusty wind has died down enough to not make a dust bowl while I plant.

My friend Robert finished his thesis defense on Monday, so a group of us went out to celebrate. We started out at an empty Habanos for pool, and played for an hour. Next we hit Dairy Queen, and I cashed in my “free small Blizzard” card on an Oreo fudge earthquake sundae. It wasn’t too sweet which surprised me in a good way; Blizzards sometimes give me a sugar headache. Then we drove up to Galaxy cinema to see the new movie “Iron Man” [8/10]. As I turned into the cursed parking lot, my power steering started to groan. Oh oh. I pulled into the closest parking stall available, right beside a CIBC (which I was going to head to later that night anyway — more good fortune) and popped the hood. There was a fluid leak all over the passenger side. In the growing darkness I couldn’t tell the colour, but it looked like orange coolant had sprayed onto the accessory belt, and I reasoned that it was due to the coolant work done last week at RMP. So we walked across the parking lot to the theatre, and enjoyed the very good movie.

Returning to the car a couple hours later though, there was a bit of a puddle under the car, and the power steering was not working. Getting a better look at the fluid, I saw that it was more like oil, and realized it wasn’t coolant, and a power steering fluid leak had started (finishing my car off). So I phoned CAA and the tow truck arrived within half an hour as promised. It was now after midnight though, and we thought we’d call a cab from Brewsters but they were locking up, and so were all of the other places within sight.

We saw a city bus, one that would go right by my place as luck would have it! Except it was the last bus of the night, and wasn’t going the other direction! Darn, eh?

Walking across the street to a pay phone to get a number of a cab company turned out to be in vain as well. The Yellow Pages where “Taxi” was, had half of the page ripped out! The only number completely intact was for “Premiere” which sounded expensive, and besides they were the company with the driver that tried to intimidate friends of mine in the UofR strike in November. I then remembered I had a number for Capital Cabs in my wallet (from a job last year with the Gov’t that used them) and gave them a call. The cab took almost 30 minutes to arrive, and we killed time talking at a bus stop beside a different Dairy Queen. As model citizens, we didn’t pee in the bushes of the Dairy Queen. I just thought I’d mention that.

So to recap:
Bike front wheel: stolen
Car coolant: repaired at $1150 + damage to power steering???
Car steering: disabled + $untold cost EDIT: fixed for $147 power steering line with hole from belt rubbing + $16 cab ride

Vehicles suck.

UPDATE: RMP refunded me both the repair that Capital did, and my $16 cab ride. Thank goodness finally something went right.

I have to dig up more information about this faulty part, or else I’m on the hook for a $1000+ repair job. Seems GM settled a lawsuit without admitting fault, recently as March in the USA. Small claims court here I come? They only want to do the repair if it’s under 5 years or under 100,000Km. I’m at 9yr and 200K. Shouldn’t matter much, I maintained the coolant, and this part would have died from the fault anyway!

Gosh darn it!
“Chrysler, Ford, and GM, engine head/intake manifold gaskets—Too many service bulletins in the book to count, plus some important court cases that nailed Ford’s hide to the wall. Symptoms: overheating, windows fog up, and poor gas mileage”

I took my car to a GM dealer in Yorkton years ago for service, and mentioned my windshield fogs up easily. I wonder if it was related. They sure as heck knew there was a risk with this gasket, and never mentioned it to me.

Might be worth searching this page for your vehicle too.

Excuse me while I go blow a gasket.

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UPDATE:
Phoned GM back on Friday, and they are talking with the dealership on Monday morning where I’m having the repairs made. I found the receipt on the weekend that shows I had the coolant system flushed in 2006 like the scheduled maintenance in the manual recommended. Of course, GM didn’t mention at that time that the gasket I had was likely to fail prematurely, or that the dexcool could end up causing rusty sludge.