The hunch

There's a vehicle repair shop within walking distance of my house. I'll bring my car there for routine things, like brakes. In fact, I took it there a month ago for brakes. I could just walk home after dropping it off, and walk back to pick it up. In and out no problem.

They can't do state inspections though, so I had to go elsewhere. There's another place I'll do that. Usually I drop it off at the end of the day, and they'll pick it up the next morning and I'll have it back by the end of the day. It passed inspection, but they 'found' a host of other issues that are gonna cost me $2K to fix.

Issues that the other guy didn't see at all. Things they can and will take care of, they didn't see any issues whatsoever. But they just appeared in the two weeks between.

I took the car back, and a couple days later half the warning lights went off and I started to hear a grinding noise.

The reason I don't take it back to the dealership for maintenance is because I need to schedule an appointment, and it's never convenient. I booked it anyway, and waited a week doing so. They had the car, and discovered two problems. One under warranty (nice), and another minor issue that was definitely the cause of the noise I was hearing. Didn't cost me a fraction to fix that issue.

And people wonder why I have trust issues.

Tinker Falls

So we took the kids on a hike. Supposed to be an easy one, for hikers anyway. Tinker Falls is close to a hang glider launch site, which is a 1260 elevation from the parking lot. My kids tuckered out about halfway up, but powered through and got their second wind. The wife lost steam about a third of the way up, but slowly finished the climb.

I spend 15 minutes on a stair master every day, so it was nothing to me. Until we had to go down.

Going down uses a different muscle group, one that apparently doesn't get worked nearly as much as the ones used going up. Oh no, the kids were racing down the trail. The wife merrily hopped downhill, and I wobbled like a rookie sailor.

I earned that one.

Leaves

Ah, fall. That magical time of the year when people ooh and aah over the dying leaves. I can appreciate the dynamic contrast, but knowing that it's all happening because they're dying and being shed so the tree can survive winter just adds an odd morbidity to the whole thing.

First day of whatever

The first day of school used to be like a minor holiday. I'd take the day off work and the wife and I would go out and do whatever. Now that our oldest is capable of watching the younger ones, we don't need to arrange a sitter. 

The first day of school came and went without much fanfare.

But not entirely finished

There used to be a closet in the downstairs bathroom. I suppose there still is, the gap where a closet could go, but nothing went in. It was built in, a custom job by the previous occupant. They used a very thin  wood wall, and when the walls went back up, the contractor used a mold resistant drywall, which was thicker (and should have been used in the first place). Turns out that small difference was enough that the shelves don't fit in there any more (custom cut), and the door frame didn't fit over it (it's close enough to the wall to make a difference). The general contractor was, admittedly, stumped. They do bathrooms, and only bathrooms. The original plan to reinsert the closet materials simply wouldn't work. 

So in the end the closet is now just an open space we have to figure out. Had I known ahead of time I would have had plywood put in between the studs, because they're just awkward enough that I can't put in supports for new shelves, but it's too late for that now. Finding something I can insert into the space has been frustrating because, well, nothing is the right size.

Lesson: don't go to work while the contractors are busy. Just take the time off and babysit the job, because it won't get done right otherwise.