May. 6th, 2019

johnridley: (Default)
My friend K was in town for some medical stuff as she often is. She was having trouble with her car and short on funds so I took Friday off to see what I could do. The first part of the day was spent driving her around to tests, then I got to it.

The problem wasn't an exhaust rumble but rather a bad rear wheel bearing. YouTube revealed this to be a very easy fix. Except it wasn't - living in the rust belt means that even if it's "remove these four bolts and take the old part out" that is easier said than done. I managed to get the car to a state where it would never be drivable until I got the new part in. I spent 4+ hours trying to get the old part out with every tool I could think of, air hammer, slide hammer, heat, etc.

Since she had to leave in the morning, I offered a 2 week car swap to get her home and give me time to wrok on it. All her stuff got moved into my car.

I gave up and went to bed and my subconscious came up with a solution, and I had the car fixed the next morning. Then all her stuff got moved back to her car.

Along with, I suspect, my backpack. Which has my security badge from work in it. Doh.

Then over the weekend the lawn mower was out for its first outing and it clearly needs a new belt. Which nobody locally has, so that got ordered and I finished the lawn at a much slower than normal speed.

This morning I spent 30 minutes looking for my backpack before deciding it must now be in the UP. Got me so focused on it that I just went to work. Stopped at Meijer in Ann Arbor to get some soda, and while putting my helmet back on my watched buzzed and let me know that I had a medical test back in Chelsea in 58 minutes. Doh^2 totally spaced on that.

So I had a barium breakfast and finally made it to work. I've had this test before but it was 15 years ago and I wasn't impressed by the man who did it last time. This guy was sharp and found two anomalies, one of which is probably my problem - both are totally benign other than causing discomfort, so no real worries, just perhaps a few more tests and hopefully some solution.

Bonus: the worst looking bad spot on the bearing (there were many more):

Wow

May. 6th, 2019 10:15 am
johnridley: (Default)
I really hadn't looked at the stats yet but this last April 15 due date, from Friday to Monday, my systems processed 4.3 million tax returns. Total YTD is 21.4 million. There's a new system coming online to replace this system (long overdue) but there will be growth for at least 2-3 more years.

I didn't think I'd ever wish for LESS job security.

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