Tire-changing party for a dryer

On Saturday, Shan and I headed to Texarkana to do some birthday shopping for Emily. While we were there, Shan's Mom called to say that her dryer had quit and asked if we could look around for a good deal on a new one. Luckily, I had loaded us up in my truck for the day's shopping, so hauling a new dryer would not be a problem!


We looked at Home Depot first, and they had a couple inexpensive dryers (that would be in the $350-ish range). Since we had some more shopping to do, I told Shan we could look at Sears, but that I thought Sears would be higher-priced than Home Depot. Sure enough, they were.


We eventually made our way to Lowe's, and they had a dryer for $268. Of course, the only one they had in stock was "damaged." Well, we thought we would look over the damage and the saleswoman said she could knock off 25% because it was damaged and that it would still have the year's manufacturer warranty. Sounded good. We felt and looked at the damage and it didn't seem too bad.

We loaded up the dryer, which ended up costing less than the sticker with the discount, even with taxes, so that was a good deal to me.

We had to stop at Wal-Mart in Hope on the way home, and when we came out, I noticed my passenger rear tire was low. Several years ago, Shan's Mom had given me a portable air pump for Christmas. I keep it in the truck and it has proven handy on several occasions. This was not really one of them. It was taking FOREVER to get any air in the tire. I decided to move the truck over to the air pump at the gas station in front of Wal-Mart, and as I walked around the truck, I could HEAR the air hissing out of the tire. That is never a good thing. Sure enough, evidently I had a bubble in the tire and it finally gave way.


So, in the 95-degree heat, I changed the tire. Now, many folks have asked why I didn't just wheel the truck to the tire place there at Wal-Mart, and the answer is simple: my tires are cheaper at Goodyear. Besides, I knew I was going to have some other work done on my truck since it has hit the century-k mileage mark. I'll come back to that.

Once we got the dryer to Shan's folk's house, we opened the box and found the dryer had a bit more damage than we thought. It was all cosmetic, though, and we did get a good deal, so they opted to keep it. I think we can take care of some of the cosmetic issues, which is a good thing.

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So, back to the truck... I took it in Monday morning, driving to the Goodyear place near the office. The tech looked at the tire and explained the whole 'bubble bursting' thing to me. I told him I wanted two new tires put on the front and the current front tires moved to the back. I also wanted an estimate on a tune-up and I definitely wanted the serpentine belt replaced, since it had 100,000 miles on it with no problems. Much better to head off a belt problem than to deal with it after it breaks!

While at work, Goodyear called me to let me know that my truck had no front brakes at all! Ouch! They had worn down completely. Well, since I am in the 'fix-it' mood, I just as well get those taken care of.

I don't imagine getting another 100,000 miles out of the truck, but if I can keep it going as well as it has for a few more years, I can feel good about passing it along to Tyler when he's ready to drive. And, really, if he doesn't end up with it, then hopefully, it'll be around for years to come as my work truck for when I need one.

I have a year left to pay on it, then I'll be looking for a new car - yes, car - to tool around in. I'm thinking Charger SXT....

I can feel 'em flyin like a hand out the window as the cars go by

I cannot believe it is already Saturday, July 11. The last time I posted, I was feeling pretty 'puny' as they say in these parts. Since I last posted, the doctor put me on Meclazine to help with dizziness. I hate that stuff. It might temporarily relieve the head-spinning, but the other 'features' of the meds are bluh-bluh-bluh! Makes me way too drowsy to function. Heck, I'd rather be slightly off kilter, thank you.

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There was also this little thing called the "Michael Jackson Memorial" that took place since my last post. You might have seen something about it on TV or online or on the radio or maybe as you looked over the magazine racks at your local store. What I'm saying is that unless you took a vacation from the planet, you are most likely very aware of the fact that the King of Pop was given a huge memorial service. And, in my opinion, a very, very well-deserved one. Whether you liked his music or not, whether you believe he was innocent of the charges brought against him or not, whether you agree with the title 'king of pop' or not, there is absolutely *NO* denying his impact of the world of entertainment. Frankly, I think his impact was greater in the scheme of things that The Beatles and he rivaled Elvis in terms of overall impact and contribution to the world of entertainment. No one else, to me, comes even close. And his memorial was done beautifully - a superb mix of his music and memories, of his impact and the hole left behind.


The most endearing parts came from Brooke Shields and from his daughter, Paris. Brooke showed Michael in a light few people ever got to see, ever got to experience, ever even heard about. And, Paris came to the microphone with a strong presence, only to show the world that she was deeply hurting from the loss of her Daddy.

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During the week, I also led a class in an introductory overview of Office 2007. That went very well, though in a couple places, I stumbled a bit (literally) due to my brain being slightly off center. I also managed to trace an errant SharePoint site down to some kind of problem with one of the color themes we had assigned to the site. I'm still not sure what that was about, but at least it appears we found the problem. The fix was to simply reset the site back to the default color scheme for now. Next week's project will be to see if I can find out what went wrong and see if I can right it.

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Also next week, Emily Grace has her BIRTHDAY!!! Wahoo!!! It is hard to believe she is already SEVEN! How did THAT happen!? Wow, do the days go by....

No flying pigs...

I went to the doctor and he said if this were a few months ago, he'd test me for flu, swine or otherwise, but he believes it is viral and it has impacted my nervous system - specifically my inner ear. He said he did not see inner ear infection, but that based on a TILT test (which is named right - they lay you down, take your blood pressure, then stand you up and take it again), my bp dropped 15 points (meanwhile I nearly tilted myself onto the floor, thank you).

So, I am out today and Tuesday for sure. he's got me on meds and I have to wait and see how things are by Wednesday morning. It's ironic to me that the meds for relieving dizziness make one drowsy... I may be in late Wednesday, depending on what things look like late Tuesday.

Aren't you glad you chose to read what's popped in my head lately? I tried to warn you, things are not always pretty in there....

A (not-so) funny thing happened...

I went to bed on Wednesday night, after another very cool day in The Big Apple. I don't know why, but the air vent in the hotel was bothering me. The fan was blowing too high for my liking - too much airflow. But, it was late, and I didn't want to bother with changing the setting from HIGH to LOW. My wife offered to do it, but I told her to never mind about it.

And then, I woke up on Thursday. I had a strange, groggy feeling and my throat had one of 'those' tickles to it. As the morning wore on, and we headed to Carmine's for some killer Italian lunch, the thought of actually putting anything in my mouth brought forth feelings in the pit of my stomach the likes of which I have not felt since my worst days of drinking back in college. This was not good. and to make things stranger, my head was floating in its own elevator shaft. My whole body felt like it was perpetually going either up or down, with an occasional dip to one side or the other.

I put on my brave face, though, and ate what I could of lunch. We then hiked down to Herald Square for a look at the Empire State Building and a walk through Macy's. I was hot, breaking out in fierce sweats and in the next moment, I was freezing my butt off, restless from riding the escalators up and down eight flights of Macy's. Yes, Elizabeth, Macy's really is the largest store most people will probably ever set foot in.

Looking back, I was probably sporting a 100-plus degree temperature for most of the day, but I just chalked it up to generally not feeling well. Yeah, I can be a little slow to admit when I am really sick.

Friday came, and it was time to head back home. By then, it was obvious to all of us that I was not doing well at all. I vaguely remember even getting in the van to the airport. I seem to remember going through the Queens tunnel. I remember going through security and the guy telling me he had to check my laptop case. I remember passing out on the plane. Oh, wait, there was some kind of problem with our check-in at the airport, but that turned out to be no problem at all, but a 'simple' computer glitch. Oy... I remember riding the tram at Houston, and I think I drank some fluids and maybe ate something. I don't remember. Oh, yeah, continental did feed us from NYC to Houston - hot turkey/cheese sandwiches.

Casey picked us up at the airport in Little Rock, and we went back his place for a bit to visit with Aunt Linda, Vanessa and Samuel. I drove us home after a stop at Sonic. I was not hungry, but the sweet tea was just what I needed to keep my brain focused. We made another pit stop at Wal-Mart for the 4th cookout, and then headed home. My fever was really bad at that point (though I never flat-out admitted it until now). The temperature reading showed that it was 87 degrees outside, and I had the driver's side blower set at the lowest HEAT setting because I was freezing otherwise.

When we got home, I helped what little I could with unpacking, then I took some nite-time medicine and was fast asleep. Saturday came, and every cough made my chest feel like I was in some kind of compression chamber. My head was killing me, still feeling like it was floating in some kind of gelatin mold. I was also now sneezing and my sinuses were leaking like a bad faucet. And, yes, I still had an on-again, off-again fever.

We watched the Macy's fireworks on TV, which was cool since we had just been there the day before. Then, Shan started looking online for what I might have. I need to add here that by this time, my Mom and Emily were quickly showing a lot of the same symptoms. Not everything was the same, though, so from we can tell, I either have/had a flu or 'the' flu. I am going to the doctor Monday to find out for sure. Mom most likely had bronchitis. Emily is doing much better after taking meds, though her fever still comes and goes. Tyler had a little fever Sunday morning, but he seems to be mostly unaffected. Shan started off the week a little sick, but she seems to have dodged this thing completely... or so far anyway.

I don't know if this little ditty makes any sense or not. If not, just know that my head is still stuck in some sort of floating limbo and that I am hoping the good doctor will at least have a way to steady the ship....

Did we mention we were going to a YANKEES GAME!?

If you are a glutton for punishment and want to see all the pictures I took, they are here:

NYC - Yankees Game