Vincent The Dragon

well..my first tough job as manager is to fire the new guy. he is not going to work out and it's hard because he is a god guy. He just lacks the ability to take stuff apart and actually put it back together. That and he shows his frustration to the customer; cursing in front of them is not acceptable behavior. If I had more techs he could grow into the job but we simply don't have the time or people out in the field for him to learn. I need a tech that can hit the ground running. We will daily see odd equipment that one never has seen before on a daily biases and i need someone that can learn how the machine works as he is taking it apart and be able to put it back together. I had new guy take apart a WJ150 base 5 times in the comfort of the shop and he can't re-assemble it and he strips screws and forces things to fit.
This is going to be hard for me, but it is the best solution for our company, and for me.

ATM i am in a hotel in Lexington getting ready to go out to eat with Will then we are going to a party hosted by one of the members of kyfurs.com. Some much needed R and R but i still can't keep my mind off of what i need to say to new guy and how to continue to instill confidence in the bosses. After I told them how new guy is doing this week, it was them that told me to go ahead and pull the trigger on him, but still...

well..the flu did burn out.

Works is still busy, but we have a new Service Manager...me!
I am promoted, and i have my first technician to manage starting monday.

Did some work on Will's car. I got one window functional and diagnosed the AC issue. It's a two fold problem, the drivers side blend door is warped and not sealing well thus letting warm air pass; it's a known issue for this model. Also the blend door actuator motor is borked. I removed the motor and have the door set to AC only which will help.

Next on the list of things to do for the house is rip up the nasty, smelly floor in the business room and replace it with vinyl tiles. This means pulling up the wood sub-floor.

Ow, my back hurts

Last night i felt bad..i mean doubled over in pain with uncontrollable shakes bad...Went to the ER at about 2am.

FYI I am NEVER going to the ER in Henderson again, that hospital just sucks...no poking around on my gut, no blood test, not much other than..Oh yeah, you have Crohn's but you know there is this bug going around so here is some Lortabs now go away.

Well. that was at 4am, so i stayed home and let it burn its self out, more or less. I still feel a bit icky but it must have been tummy flu.

Sooo..for our 7 month anniversary we went and seen Eclipse.
The Wolfs are sexy, I want one to hold and pet and purr on.

And really, things would be easier on the girl if she just decided not to choose between the Wolf and the vampire and just have a three way. This would also prove amiable to getting the Vamps and the Wufs to like each other more.

(^_^)

In other news, I am now the only service technician at work as the other one quit...meep...

So, me and Will went down to Kentucky lake area to be at the Cadiz 4th celebration with his family.
Had lots of fun swimming in the lake, grilling out and hanging with his family.

The temperature was nice.
Lots of cute guys to ogle.
The band was horrible.
The fire works were nice.

We got only a little sunburn as i remembered to wear sun screen this time.
All-in-all we had a very nice time.
(^_^)

okay...if you drop a car on your cell phone...

no, really, me and Joe managed to get my phone inside the jack we were using on a car and then smurshed the phone with it...Actually..surprisingly...after I unbent it from the nice U shape and put some tape on it to hold the battery in; the damn thing still worked..mmm...mostly, parts of the keyboard were busted.

insurance?...no (-_-)
Upgrade? ... no (-_-)

so...i had to eat the cost of a new phone, I got a Palm Pixi Plus
...lets try to keep thins one longer than 4 months...Mmmkay?

Okay...so here is the thing...it's friggen hot outside. AC in the truck is usefull.

Problem...it blows hot air, or on max AC only kinda blows cool.

It's something I have been putting off for a while to fix.
I tried adding refrigerant but that did not help. The AC system all seems to be working fine.
I replaced the temperature selection switch..no go..

Some internet research .. common problem.
Cause..the plenum blend door. Aparently it breaks..Why? It made of plastic and not well constructed.
Whats is it?...well...the plenum is the big plastic thing your air vents all run too, there is a heater core and an AC core in it. The blend door opens and closes the space between the AC and the heater core.

How to fix it...well...the small plenum assy is like $400 or more from Ford and to remove it you have to pull the heater core (not to bad) and the AC core (requires special tools and removing all the refrigerant from the system) AND pulling the entire dash board out...bad!!!!

okay..so..you can buy a nice replacement that will never fail for $120 and to replace it..you stand on your head and drimel out the bottom of the plenum; put the new on in and glue the plenum back together.

Sooo..i drimeled out the bottom of the plenum (yes, there is now a large hole under the dash of my truck). I epoxied the broken piece back on the door and when its dry, I will drill a hole and cut a ridge for a nice metal band so this part never breaks again. Slide the unit up into place and fit the bottom of the plenum back into place, Once I know the movement of the door works nicely I will back fill the cut out piece with epoxy and it should last forever.

Cars are NOT efficient machines, A heater core gets hot even if the single valve it uses is closed because the other side still has engine coolant. Even if there were two valves it would get hot through the valve. A better way, I think, is to not have a heater core at all and just use an electric ceramic heater that would positively be off unless needed....less moving parts, better heat/cool control...Stupid car engineers...

news is news though right?

good - I put the last piece of soffit vent up, the outside of the house is now finished.

Bad news - Will moved out...We are not splitting up, but he needs to get some life things in order and i can't afford to pay both our ways through life. He moved back in with his family. (-_-)

In the chair again getting my Remicade....

Will starts a new job today; I hope things all go well. Money issues are stressing us both out and its also pissing me off. We don't spend money on things we don't need or waste money and yet we have to worry about having enough money to eat with.

Not much else going on really.
Been here an hour and still waiting for I.V. Therapy...nice to know I get top notch service for $4000 a pop.

a rant, more or less..
Soo...the company i finally found work at doesn't offer a group health care, lots of small business can't afford to do so. What they do is use a local company to shop for personal plans then give us a partial reimbursement.
Well..guess what? i am un-insurable because i have Crohn's.

I am told my options are...Find a job at a place that has contractual group health care policies; become un-employed or buy government health care at a minimum of $500 a month (which i can't afford).

Thank you USA, please bend over for the rape stick.

We went to the local gay club...it was a slow night, not many people there. I got a little too drunk -_-
But we did have fun and it's nice to get out.

Next day, Party at Will's sisters...i feel a little out of place there and mostly just set on the couch and watch TV

Next day, Party at my sisters for Niece...He feels a little out of place and mostly sets outside.

Either way you look at it, it is nice to get out and do things together.

Will is going back to school to continue his education in Nursing.
I hope he manages to snag a part time job that will fit into the schooling schedule 'cause we need the $
(-_-) i feel like i am never going to have enough finances to move out and get us a place of our own...

Will lost the job. new policy. they axed a lot of the new hires.

ah well

We fired a Tech at work, so like...it's busy...
-_-;

well..so much for a quite house..lol
she is back from her vacation.
^_^ I got a Cheers (c) mug ant T-shirt
*purrr*

Things worked out at work more or less and we are not loosing the technician, but i am gaining another Tech's area and he is being pulled into shop only and local work.

Will had to stop working for the census due to a minor bad check thing in his past but...got a job working for a satellite TV place...YAY! in 3 months we get free TV!

Guy at work had a steal of a deal.
9800GTX+ for $50
(^__^)

Now i can play SL and still have other things running.
YAY!

The guys are coming down today to hang out and bringing that case with them >_>
Next project will be the server. I think i'll take my time with the case and re-paint it a nice purple.
*purrrr*

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I have a friend that may have a server case for me; an old AS400 box.

Work..well..hrmm..we are loosing a technician. Apparently he did not get the pay raises he was promised...This bodes not well for me and my future there. If thats true, it may work out to be a dead end job and i see the copier technician/team lead jobs are not coming back any time soon. If i am out of the business too long, those skills will become less usable.
*sigh*

Will is working part time for the census but is looking for a full time job again.