S10 transmission woes

Personal,

The ’99 S10 ZR2 I’ve had for 5 years now has been pretty much bullet proof. Replacing the water pump is all I’ve had to do other than regular maintenance. But I may have forgot about the transmission. A trip to Charlotte, NC the first of this week I knew would be an interesting one, and it was. The reason was I had noticed some clicking noises coming from around the transfer case when shifting in and out of park, not to mention rapid clicking when accelerating. Of course I did not take it in to get looked at and I’m thinking now I should have. If something was going to go wrong I figured that was the time.

The trip was somewhat eventful on the way as the transmission would not shift down out of overdrive when coming to a hill. Once in Charlotte I had the transmission flushed at a Valvoline Oil change for $100.00. At least they did a flush and not just drain the pan and refill. That did help but there is still a problem. The clicking noises went away but now the humming came about.

A humming noise at about 55 mph seems to be what’s going on. When that happened to the wife’s car it was a bearing and a $1,200.00 bill. None the less the $100.00 at Valvoline was worth felling better about getting back to Nashville but the damage is done, I think.

I can only hope it is not a new trany that is needed.

Note: Gapping spark plugs correctly can also help with getting the most (power) out of ones engine. Check twice, gap once.

Government asks is IE-only OK ?

Technology

I got a kick out of a CNet news article titled U.S. Copyright Office poll: IE-only OK?. It made me grin cause the DOJ goes after Microsoft on charges of being a monopoly which has dragged on for years, and other branches of the government are requiring you to use it. Of course the Copyright Office does note it plans to support other browsers in the future but the planned upgrade to Siebel7.8 will not be in time for the launch. Funny that Sieble7.8 has no plans to support Opera or Safari so non-mainstream users will be out in the cold.

Maybe since they are going to support Firefox it means other browsers that use the same engine will work ? Who knows… I’m sure at some point a PC statement will come out that admits they were right and wrong.

This also made it to Groklaw, the thread is here, so you know the open source world is buzzing.

Eight legged company

Personal

I’v read a number of articles and watched a few TV specials that documented horror stories and spider bites. It always seemed like the Brown Recluse always got it’s nose in there somewhere. When I lived in IL I did not pay that much attention to them, didn’t seem like they (spiders) were around that much or they were smaller than a dime. Yes I know about Black Widows but I didn’t see those hardly at all.

I will pay much more attention now though.

The articles and shows would comment where spiders like to hang out and shoes seemed to be one of there favorites. Every time I’d read about or see a show where someone was bitten I’d always think twice for a few days and then it would pass. Today that changed.
I keep some shoes in the garage basically if I know they are going to get messed up, you know for mowing and things. Last night I happened to leave my regular shoes in the garage and this morning when I put them on, without socks, my foot was not the only thing in the shoe.

Yes I had company… after pulling my foot out as fast as I could, a brown recluse came scampering out. I paused stunned for a moment trying to realize what could have happened, then squashed it to a pancake. Wow that was close. I don’t mind spiders but if it has the potential to put me in a coma …well I can do without that.

MedlinePlus notes good information about a brown recluse bite. I was lucky and didn’t get a scratch. But from now on a shoe won’t go on the foot without a thorough shaking. I can get lucky once, there doesn’t need to be a second time.

Hockey’s back !!!

Personal

Can’t believe we went an entire season without hockey. Thank God I can still go to the rink and play otherwise I’d have to go back to golf. I’ve been keeping track of what’s going on at Eklund’s Hockey Rumors, which is in the “links” section, and it seems like all that’s left is the formalities. With the draft coming at the end of the month and the seaons just around the corner it will be good to get back in the stands and see some games. With any luck ticket prices, initially, might be a little bit cheaper.

As a side note I’ve noticed equipment prices seemed to have dropped slightly. Of course the major brands have come out with new products during the lockout but things appear to be more reasonable. Especially one piece sticks.. I’ve seen them for less than $100.00 from Bauer and Reebok (RBK) and two pieces are are in the $50.00 to $60.00 range. I have paid $130.00 for a one piece and it lasted about 90 days before the blade split on the face. I don’t think that was talent however.

Can’t wait for a new season and at least we’ll have some entertainment for a few years till this CBL expiers, but hopefully they have learned their lesson and this won’t happen again.

Identity theft hits home

Personal

Identity theft seems to be a topic in the news almost every week. While just recently MasterCard is feeling the effects of a recent exposure of almost 14 million cards keeping your personal information private is becomming increasingly more difficult. In many instances this information is not even in your control banks, credit card companies, financial institutions, employers, retail stores, the list goes on and on. All of them need to know who you are, where you live, your income, and you are at the risk of how good there security is.

From a personal perspective a recent run in with incorrect information at one of the credit reporting agencies appears to have allowed someone to use a credit card to the tune of $1500.00. A simple type-o, mail not being delivered and an enterprising individual with low morals on the receiving end and the damage was done in one day. Luckily at the moment it appears that is it. A credit watch being placed on the SSN has not produced any inquires from credit reporting agencies and after two months no additional unknown charges have appeared.

Googling the internet will get you many resources one non profit organization is the Identity Theft Resource Center. I’d recommend reviewing what’s out there on preventing identity theft not to mention some prevention methods. Here are some you can do today.


1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook,they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put “PHOTO
ID REQUIRED”.

3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the “For” line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes
through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it.

4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home
phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc… keep it in a safe place.

Of course you can only do so much and there is no guarentee it won’t happen to you. But if you pay attention and try to prevent it you can save yourself some headaches, not to mention potential serious financial difficulties.