A Better Way

Electric car windows are great. Except when they’re not. And that would be when they stop working. Then they are very much a pain. And a little expensive to repair.

There have been a rash of electric windows breaking lately—at least in my limited world. First, it was my wife’s vehicle, then my parents’, and then my pickup. This past weekend, the window on my daughter’s vehicle stopped working. And of course, the window was down. And then to make things worse, it started raining!

As many of you may know, I find working on vehicles these days to be quite annoying. There is no room to do what I need to do, nothing is ever a simple fix, things tend to not come apart (or go back together) the way they are supposed to, etc. As a result, the job takes way too long. Also, it seems every time I work on a vehicle, I need to purchase a new tool, or two.

Unfortunately, this summer I’ve had more than my share of opportunities to play mechanic. In fact, most weekends have been spent fixing something on one car or another. That’s because even though I detest working on them, I really don’t like taking cars into a shop. So, like most things that need done around my house, I do it myself.

Except this one. This time there was a silver lining to my black cloud of repairs that’s been hanging out all summer—my son was visiting. No, I didn’t tell him he had to fix the window, didn’t even ask him, he actually volunteered for the job. I was more than willing to allow him the privilege, while I watched. I wasn’t entirely useless though and did help a little. I handed him tools as he needed them and held things now and then as he took the door apart, replaced the electric motor, and then reassembled everything. And yes, it did work when got finished!

As we were cleaning up, I decided that working on vehicles wasn’t so bad after all. Not as long as I had someone else to do all the work! Think I’ll keep his number handy. Never know when those power windows will stop rolling up and down! ~

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, The Lana Denae Mysteries, and The Wynn Garrett Series. Available in ebook at www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS and paperback on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million. Bruce A. Borders is a proud member of Rave Reviews Book Club.

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In The Shop

I wish I could decide when a vehicle will break down. I know, everyone wishes that!

It wasn’t that many weeks ago that I wrote about changing the alternator on my wife’s car. You’d think I’d get a longer reprieve than that but, sadly, no. Last weekend, I had a battery light come on, on my pickup. Not a big deal, I checked the battery and it was old and slightly bulged, so I bought a new one. It took only a few minutes to put in. But, the light did not go off.

So, before spending money on an alternator—again—I drove down to the auto parts store to have the system checked. They hooked it up and after a few seconds told me everything was working as it should. Apparently, my truck was just confused.

Getting the clean bill of health for the pickup, I took off for work. It’s about an hour’s drive to work and I’d made it about halfway when I discovered the system was definitely NOT working. By the time I made it to my job, I didn’t even have enough power to roll up my window.

Lucky for me, the route I drive in my semi takes me right through the town where I live. So, my wife met me at K-Mart, took me to the auto parts store to purchase an alternator, and then home to get some tools. I finished my run and at four in the morning was psyching myself up for another vehicle repair, which I hate, and this time the weather was not nearly so cooperative as when I did my wife’s vehicle. The temperature was 29 degrees with a slight wind blowing. And, I would be working in a gravel parking lot.

But...

The mechanic at my job, who doesn’t allow anyone in his shop (even the other mechanics do a lot of repairs outside so the shop doesn’t get messed up), and who never lets anyone use any of his tools (probably for good reason) offered, yes, offered, to let me pull into the well-lit, nice warm building with a clean concrete floor. Then, he pointed out the brand new floor jack and said I could be the first to use it. He set up a work light and told me if I needed any of his tools to help myself!

As the morning guys arrived, a few of them seemed quite shocked that I was working on my own pickup inside the forbidden shop! They also thought I had taken it upon myself to use the shop and were worried that I was going to get caught. The mechanic had other things to do so he was not there the whole time but he did show up now and then throughout the three hours it took—and helped. Another shock.

Now, here’s the neat part. I have never worked on a vehicle in a shop in my life! Sure, I’ve worked inside my garage, when I had one, but a shop is a far different experience. Tools, the right tools, power tools, were at my disposal, and the smooth concrete floor made dropped nuts and bolts so much easier to find. The lighted climate-controlled setting was a lot more comfortable than working outside. All in all, working in a shop made the job seem like not so much of a chore. In fact, it was almost fun. Wait! That might be pushing it a little. It was still three hours of work—after I’d driven eleven hours in a semi. Really though, it wasn’t that bad. Aside from the two hundred dollars spent on the alternator, this was the best break down I’ve ever had.

That’s why I’ve decided from now on when I break down, I’m going to do it at my job! Yeah, right. If only it was that simple! ~

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, and The Wynn Garrett Series. Available in ebook and paperback on iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords.  Amazon Profile - http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS. Bruce A. Borders is a proud member of Rave Reviews Book Club.

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Car Repairs

I gave up working on cars years ago. It is extremely annoying and makes me irritable and grumpy. Why? Because things never go right, there isn’t room to get to anything, and usually multiple trips to the store searching for some obscure tool is involved. I decided I’d rather make a payment on a decent car than spend the same amount or more on repairs. Life is easier that way.

But sometimes, I still find myself lying under a vehicle with wrenches, or reaching down into places too small for my hand to fit, or just staring at the engine, hoping for inspiration. Maybe I’m hoping it will fix itself. For some reason, that never happens.

This past week, the alternator on my wife’s car went out. I tried suggesting she should fix it. But that was met with a less than favorable response. And so, since I do not like paying the exorbitant fee for a mechanic—$120.00 an hour is a little ridiculous—the job fell to me.

It used to be, changing an alternator took only a couple of wrenches and about ten or fifteen minutes. But times change. Now, it takes longer than that just to find the alternator. And then once it is located, an entire arsenal of tools is required (and several hours) to figure out how to get the old one off and the new one on. By the time I was finished, I remembered very clearly why I stopped working on cars.

The good news is, it’s done. Everything is back together and I didn’t end up with any extra nuts or bolts. I got very few scrapes and cuts on my hands and made only one trip to the store. All in all, not a bad experience. And for those who may be wondering, yes, it works! Hey, I never said I didn’t know how to fix cars, just that I didn’t like to. Guess I could go into business as a mechanic. At $120.00 an hour, the pay would be good, but my wife probably would rather I not. There’s something about me being irritable and grumpy that she finds annoying.

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, and The Wynn Garrett Series. Available in ebook and paperback on iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords, or at www.bruceabordersbooks.weebly.com. Amazon Profile - http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS. Bruce A. Borders also serves as the Vice-President of Rave Reviews Book Club.

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Current Reads

Rave Soup For The Writer’s Soul: An Anthology

Various Authors

Damaged Goods

Jack Everett

My GRL

John Howell

SPOTLIGHT Author

Michael Eging

Annwyn's Blood

Ready-Made Pile Of Manufactured Grief

Writing last week’s post about being cold, reminded me of a car my wife and I once had. I should point out that we haven’t always had the best of luck when it comes to vehicles. And this particular vehicle, a Pontiac 6000, was exceptionally problematic.

There’s an old saying that goes, “If it don’t come easy, let it go.” We should’ve heeded this warning. Just buying the car was a chore in and of itself. It took the better part of a month due numerous delays from everything imaginable, from the dealership to the bank. But we were persistent because it was such a good deal—or so we thought.

We paid $3,500 for the four-year-old car with relatively few miles on it. But that, as we discovered, was just the initial buy-in fee. And what we bought into was a classic money pit. This car was a lemon of the sourest variety—and a very expensive one at that.

From the moment we drove off the lot, the car began having problems. Some were small and rather insignificant, others were major. The cost of the car immediately began to skyrocket. In the four years we owned the vehicle, we replaced nearly everything that could be replaced; alternator, regulator, power steering pump, injectors, air conditioner, master cylinders, wheel cylinders, wheel bearings, the list goes on and on—and on. We also had to do major repairs to the transmission and engine, multiple times.

I used to spend practically every weekend working on that car, fixing something, and then hoping it would run for another week. Usually, it didn’t. Yes, this vehicle was the source of much frustration; exasperating is what it was.

But perhaps the most annoying feature was the car had no heater—and we lived in Wyoming and then Wisconsin. In case you aren’t aware, it gets down right cold in both of those states. Neither are the place to be in the winter with no heater in the car.

I guess I should clarify what I mean by no heater. When the outside temperature is -25 degrees or colder, and the car is blowing out air at 0 degrees, technically, that would be a heater. But that is a rather meaningless, and ultimately useless, technicality.

Of course, I tried to fix it. I bought several new thermostats, flushed the cooling system several times, replaced the radiator (twice), and installed a new water pump as well as a new heater core. Nothing made a difference. We finally decided that as long as we had that car we were going to freeze in the winter.

Once we were finally able to trade it off, just for fun, I compiled a list of all the parts I’d replaced or repaired, and then listed the price. Adding it up, I found the total was over $10,000! Our $3,500 car had cost us $13,500. No, that didn’t include regular maintenance items like tires and brakes.

After this aggravating experience, I decided I was through buying used cars and our next vehicle purchase was a brand new pickup—a pickup that lasted exactly eleven days before the ignition broke. Like I said, we’ve not always had the best of luck when it comes to cars.

Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, and The Wynn Garrett Series. Available in ebook and paperback on iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Diesel Books, and Smashwords, or at www.bruceabordersbooks.weebly.com. Amazon Profile - http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS Bruce A. Borders also serves as the Vice President of Rave Reviews Book Club http://ravereviewsbynonniejules.wordpress.com

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Current Reads

Deceived: Soul Keeper

by L.A. Starkey

How To Get Anything You Want

by Mike Nach

Living With Grown-Ups

by Nadege Nicoll

SPOTLIGHT Author

Harmony Kent

The Glade