Plans change!

September 8, 2006 (12:54pm)
75º F, Humid clouds, S wind 4 mph.

Good afternoon,

Plans change! Thanx to mechanical problems with the van. We had intended to head to Waukesha tomorrow for the funeral of the brother-in-law of my brother’s wife. That is scrubbed! Don’t want to get about halfway home on a Saturday night on the interstate and have car problems. We will play it some safe instead.

I have been hearing a progressively louder noise and feeling a vibration in the van for some time. Thought it would be solved by re-packing the front wheel bearings. So .... I went to my friendly neighborhood parts store to get new seals and one set of bearings, just in case. While getting the bearings, the parts book showed they were pressed in-place at a factory, so had to replace both the hub and the bearing as a unit! Not happy as the cost is $150.00 each! ! ! Not happy at all! Left with the seals and decided to take them apart to have a look see. Turned out I needed a bigger metric socket than I have to remove the wheel hub, so didn’t accomplish the task at all. I did a lot of looking at each front wheel assembly, but found nothing to indicate any problems with the bearings at all. I have been fooling around with this for the past couple three days and ended up at a dead end!

Without seeing anything remotely looking like a problem with the bearings, I started to look elsewhere - like half-shafts, front differential, &c. Even considered an engine mount may be broken or loose. No such luck! This morning I took the van down to my friendly neighborhood repair shop for them to have a listen and a look-see. After a test ride and some conversation about the problem - the right front wheel bearing needed attention. His price for the hub and bearing was $275.00! More conversation and the mechanic suggested that I purchase the parts from the parts store (both places are next-door to each other) and he would install it. I don’t know of too many places anymore that would even suggest a deal like that. It has happened in the past, but not on as big of a price tag as this. Both places know I do as much work as I can, always ready to loan me a tool or some such, and always ready to answer questions that take work away from them. I think I like small towns!

The upshot and the plan now is - the part will come in tomorrow morning and I will bring the van in for repair Monday morning at 9:00 A.M. Feel a bit guilty not doing the work myself, but I will have a chance to have the van up on a hoist and I should be able to really get a good look at the underside of it, rather just laying on the ground under it on ramps. Hopefully I will not find too much, but I know the exhaust system needs a really good looking at for sure.

Bible study is turning out to be a lot of work. Mostly because I can’t remember all that much and the text in the workbook is so small I have a hard time reading it. O have been doing much research online to help be understand it and then printing much of it out to use in the discussions on Tuesday. It is rather labor intensive but sure helps me. I scan the workbook, then insert the appropriate information where needed. The result is that I have a lot of pages, but I am aware of what the various passages mean without depending on my memory, which doesn’t work that well anymore. There some instances in the study so far to change the focus of the study to something other than a review/learning of Revelations. Guess we will have to see where it leads, but I think it could have been much clearer, especially in how the workbook is organized and written. The directions for use are very vague and in some cases, no direction at all.

I got the report from the doctor finally yesterday. After playing phone tag with him for two days, we finally connected. At the moment, everything is "normal" and in pretty good shape. He still cannot explain the disappearance of the "something" in my neck and everything there is OK too. That really did worry me. The only requirement was that we pick up a blood pressure cuff. (The last one turned out to be a battery operated tourniquet which didn’t want to let up.) We went to Green Bay after the appointment with him and one of the things on the list was the cuff - but we forgot to look for one. Another senior moment?

I also have been working on digging another post hole. I had it deep enough and when I dropped the post in and measured the set-up. The hole is about 4" too far east - I have to move the hole! I dug this hole deeper, since the layer of stones was lower which I could not penetrate. It is closer to the depth I want to go with all of the holes. The digging is really tough on my shoulders, especially my left that got messed up with a tree falling on me a couple of years ago. Apparently I tore some muscles or tendons in it, not the joint itself, is the worst. Aleve doesn’t take much of the pain away in certain positions.

I asked Margriet how she wanted to celebrate her birthday. Her request was to head to Whitefish Dune State Park on the east shore of Lake Michigan in Door County. With the impending ride to Waukesha for the funeral, we decided to put it off for a bit. We didn’t want to go on Labor Day weekend, so planed to do it this week. Now with the van needing some attention, it will be put off for at least another week. Wonder how the park will look in the snow? The way we are going, it might be then before we see it! But we will get there.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><