Vehicle Repair Shops

I have been having some squeaky breaks on my truck so I wanted to know how much it would be to get them changed out. I can do the disk breaks but drum breaks are too much. My dad and I almost changed the drum breaks once, but then we could not figure it out. Since I was already at the Toyota place this past weekend (engine light was on) I decided to ask how much they charged to changed drum breaks. Toyota dealership: $185.00. Then I started calling around. I talked with Meineke first. Meineke: $160.00 - w/coupon $130.00. Then I called Auto King. Auto King: $190.00. Then I called Midas, you know the Midas touch. Midas: $119.00.

There is a Midas and Meineke right next to each other on College. I went to both of them this morning. Midas tells me $132.00. Since they went up on there price I went to Meineke to get it done for $130.00. I go over there, $200.00. WHAT? They went up $40 on their phone quote! I go back to Midas and ask them if people always give a lower quote on the phone. He asked me why I would say that. I explained that they went up $10 and the other guys went up $40 from their phone quotes. Midas politely tells me that if they said $119.00 that is what they would do it for. Settled.

Point of this really long story with no pictures for entertainment: Why does a repair shop always try and get a better price off of someone? Why are they screwing people over like that. I feel sorry for the people that are in a bind and they cannot "shop around" for prices. Maybe when I talked on the phone they heard me wrong on what exactly I wanted done, so the price was different. I don't think that is the case, but hey, why not mention it. I have always known to watch out for repair shops, "they are thieves". Have all of us been taught to watch out? If so, don't you think that the shops know that we are paying attention to what they are charging?

The Rat

Yesterday I walked into my garage to see a blur across the wall. I thought that it may have been a bird in there. I tried to find it where I thought it flew to, but there was nothing. About fifteen minutes later I saw it again. Except this time I caught it off guard so it was a little bit slower. It was a nice size RAT. It was eating on the deer corn that I had on a shelf. So I took all of the deer corn and I went put it out in the woods, for the deer. I remembered that at Teakwood Apts we got this rat zapper from the manager. That thing took out our rat problem the first night we had it, so of course I kept it knowing it worked well. I went in the house found it, put new batteries in it, and set it up for the kill.

This is what I found this morning:

Yes the rat is so big its tail was hanging out.

Just something for you to laugh about: I was telling Justin about this rat and he said "I hope that thing has enough juice to kill that rat." (since I was telling him I had a huge rat) Well last night I had a dream that there was a rat in the trap but when I went to pick up the trap the rat ran out! So, this morning I will admit that I was hesitant to pick up the trap holding a rat so big that the tail was hanging out. I would have screamed like a little girl if that thing would have jumped on my face when I turned it to look at the rat.

I can't even get trash right.

This morning I went to get my garbage can and I found this on it. It says: "Unacceptable material in cart. Do not place construction materials, toxic or hazardous materials, hot coals, ashes or burning material in your cart. Animal waste (WHAT?), hypodermic needles and other materials that could be harmful should be wrapped in plastic."

One of these days I am going to be DONE with all of this garbage (literally).

New Notebook...?

Amanda and I are thinking about getting a laptop and I wanted to get some feedback. I know that Sean says that I should get an Apple, so now that we have that out of the way, I want to hear suggestions about everything: price, name brand, processor, memory, operating system, and anything else that you can think of.

It seems like everything that is out there right now pretty much out runs my desktop. Which makes me wonder, why not get the cheapest? I am happy with how my desktop operates so the bare minimum does not seem bad.

Me and the Wii

A friend of mine has a Wii and was nice enough to let us play it. It was SO FUN! I am going to get my one! Really, seriously, I am going to get me one. I liked it that much. All that I did was played the Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing. They were all convincing enough to make me get one. I played it really late one night with some friends. Amanda was in bed so she did not get to play. The next morning I was like a little kid on Christmas morning. I woke up and I ran down stairs to play the game. Amanda came in and played some tennis and bowling with me. She likes it too! My favorite was the boxing. I could not get enough of that.

The reason I went to LSU.

I was just a young lad when I saw someone driving a car with an LSU license plate. I thought that was the coolest thing. So, I decided that I was going to go to LSU so I could also earn the right to get one of those and show everyone that I went to LSU. Little did I know that you do not have to go to LSU to have one of those. You just pay a small fee to LA every couple of years and you got yourself one. I did not find that out till later in the game though. Anyway, I finally got one. When I bought the truck they were not allowing "special" plates so I could not do it then. They are back now, and I have one!

Amanda's 1st N.O. Mardi Gras

Amanda had never been to New Orleans for a Mardi Gras so we went down there with some friends that are from the area. We stayed in a nice spot near Lee Circle. The Bob, Kelly's dad, always reserves a great spot with the camper near by for relaxing/eating. Anyway, so we went down there Saturday morning. We got to see all three parades for that day. Of course the last parade Endymion was the biggest.

This was the "conversation" setup. We were waiting on the first parade to come.

All of us just hanging out. The two on the left side are Eric's neighbors from Alabama. It was their first Mardi Gras ever.

These are the beads that I thought were the coolest ever. I caught them just by chance. They just liked my crazy screaming!

Happy Valentine's Day

Amanda, will you be my Valentine?

TWO car garage!

I am sure that most of you remember my post "Before and After - Cleaning". Well I finally got the other side of the garage cleaned out. Here are some pictures of the cleaning.

Left Garage

No, this picture is not to show to size difference in trucks.

I am sure that you are wondering why I have that big Dodge Hemi in my garage. I am borrowing it for the next couple of weeks to do some hauling.

It was NOT me!

Check this out:

My father-in-law (Buddy) went into the backyard to turn his truck around and that just happened. The truck just bogged down in the mud till it hit the axel/frame of the truck. We tried getting it out with the tractor but the tractor was no match for that heavy truck and the huge holes that it dug in the mud. Buddy had to go home and come back later with a backhoe to pull it out.

As you can see my chain was not doing so well. After all of the things that chain has pulled out from the farm it finally had enough. It is now repaired and ready to go again though.

Affirmation

Click on the image above, it should bring it up so that you are able to read it. They use the term "bona fide" (second line, towards the end), I did not even know that was really a word/phrase.

Where can you throw your trash?

So I am sure that everyone knows about my progress on getting rid of trash at the house that we are renting. I know that you have seen the pictures of the garage (from the post "Before and After - Cleaning). I encourage you to look at those pictures again and pay attention to the material (trash).

This weekend I started working on the other side of the garage. The reason that I waited so long was because I was told in January that I was only allowed to make 4 loads at the landfill (free of charge). So I waited till the beginning of the month. I went over there with a full load yesterday morning. I go to the window with my proof of residence and the woman tells me that I am going to have to pay $20 for the refrigerator on the trailer, because the door was still on it. I said "OK, I wont throw it away", then she wants to charge me for the rest of the material on the trailer ($28/ton). I ask "WHY"? She tells me that it is CONSTRUCTION material. So I give in and try to pay for it, but I have no cash/check. I go home and figure I may as well burn all of the wood on the trailer to get rid of the CONSTRUCTION material. I burn all of the wood, load up some more trash and I go back to the landfill. Again the same woman tells me I have to pay for CONSTRUCTION material. "Where do you see CONSTRUCTION material? That is all trash on there. How can you construct anything with what I am throwing away?" She disagrees and refuses to come out and look at the load. I get a phone number and call this person to try and get an explaination of what CONSTRUCTION material means to the landfill. I explain my situation with the house, she understands and calls the landfill to check and make sure that the material looks like trash. I get back to the window and the woman tells me, "I still say its CONSTRUCTION material, I am going to let you through free of charge for this load, but do not come back unless you want to pay $$. That is when I told the woman that I never understood why people would throw loads of trash on the side of the road, UNTIL NOW! I only have about 5 "trash can fulls" left to dump. I guess I could go down the road and put a little bit of trash in each can that I pass. I wish that I could just do the right thing and bring it to the landfill.

I understand that someone could possibly be making money by cleaning up and making dumps for free. But, what is someone to do when they move into a house like mine with "collectors" living there for 50 years?

Salvation Army strikes again!

Another trip to the dump, for me and the Salvation Army. Same truck, same kind of thoughtfully donated stuff.

I am going to take previous advice and write a letter to figure out why this is happening.

Made me look twice

I got a $20 bill the other day and it made me look twice. I was not sure why it caught my eye until I looked again. It was the one at the top (the oldest one). I have not seen at bill like that in years. I am just so use to the new bills now. I noticed how the newest bills are getting so colorful.

Speaking of what the U.S. is using for its new bills. I also wanted to point out the Canadian $20 bill, which came out just before the U.S. bill:

Just like Microsoft did to Apple, it looks like the U.S. is trying to be more like Canada. They have an important person on the front, we have an important person on the front. They have all of that color that changes from left to center to right, so do we! But hey they are two different bills right?

HEY SEAN, why don't you go to Canada since they came up with it first!

p.s. if you want to understand the last part of this blog, please visit: http://www.stwthoughts.blogspot.com/ and watch the video under "Hmm. Windows Copying Mac"