Chris​Hubbs​.com

Yesterday I had an unhappy occurrance. I had stopped at Quik Trip to get some gas on my way to work. When I got back in the car and turned the key: nothing. No lights, no radio, definitely no engine turning. I checked the basic things I know to check (battery cable connections, fuses, etc) and found nothing apparently wrong. So I coasted it down from the gas pumps into a parking spot and walked the 6 blocks home and took the minivan to work. Soon I got a tow truck called and since my preferred mechanic was booked full until Tuesday (a day on which I plan to be on the road), I had the tow take it to the local Saturn dealership’s service department.

Two hours later I get the phone call. They checked everything out, my alternator is fine, my battery is fine. However, I had a bad connection with a battery cable/terminal. So they replaced it, and now the car starts fine, even better than before. However, they did notice that a motor mount had collapsed and needed replaced. I did a quick bit of investigation, ascertained that motor mounts are probably important, and had them replace it. So by 3 pm they had sent a nice lady in a courtesy car to pick me up, and upon my payment of around $200, I got a car back that had a new negative battery cable, a new motor mount, and an oil change.

What I had not realized was how much of a difference the motor mount made. The engine just feels tighter now. It accelerates better. It’s just all-around improved. I took it for a spin up a few exits on the interstate last night with the windows down and the cool night air in the cabin, and it was glorious. Oh, and the car ran really nicely, too. I think it’s ready to make the trip to Nashville next week.

If you’re ever buying a used car, I could recomment the ‘99 Saturn SL - at least, my ‘99 Saturn SL. We bought it 5 years ago, have put 70k miles on it, and so far the only two repairs have been an oxygen sensor back in ‘03, and now the motor mount. That’s a level of repair I can handle.

Having been disgusted with my lack of exercise for a while, and having been challenged by my wife’s initiative to start swimming on a regular basis, I bit the bullet yesterday and set my alarm back an extra half-hour so I could get up and run to start the morning. Yesterday morning wasn’t too bad - I was ready to get up at 5:15, I did about 2 miles in 20 minutes, and felt pretty good. Woohoo!

Fast-forward to this morning. 5:15 seemed much earlier. I was sore. But I argued enough with myself to go ahead and get out of bed and do it again. But my heel was hurting this time; it felt like it was rubbing funny against my shoe, enough to hurt a bit, but I didn’t think there was much to it. Finally I sat down on a park bench about half-way through my run, and found that I had a bloody sock to rival Curt Schilling’s. Bummer. I guess it was worse than I thought. So I’m wearing my sandals to work today, and I’ll have to figure out what to do with the shoes this weekend. I’ve had ’em for 3 years or so, but haven’t worn them that much - they should still be in decent shape… oh well, I’ll figure it out this weekend.

So anyway, now I’m at work feeling a little bit sore. But that feels good - much better to have sore muscles than to be feeling fat and lazy. :-)

That’s actually not a bad thing, just a statement of fact. Had a nice weekend; installed a screen door on the side entrance to our house. It went pretty easily, but I ran down the batteries in my drill and had to wait until Sunday for them to charge up so I could finish the job. Note to self: pick up a cheap electric (plug-in) drill sometime so that doesn’t happen again.

Sunday was nice, church in the morning went well, then finished the aforementioned screen door, then later on we took Laura to the splashpad at the park. She’s still a little bit scared of the water, and quite a bit intimidated by the throngs of (larger) kids, but she’s figuring it out and getting braver. I have to keep reminding myself that she’s not even 2 yet. Amazing. Then we came home and I washed all of the nasty tree pollen and junk off the car, Laura helped with that, too. Give her a wash rag and she has all sorts of fun. Becky took some pictures, if they turned out I’ll have to post one.

It was awesome sleeping weather last night; it only got down to about 70 in the house, but the humidity was really low. Nice to have the windows open again and the a/c off at least for a day. Now it’s Monday and back-to-work time. This afternoon is softball… it will be fun to play again after a week off for the holiday. I’ve got Andy O’s The Morning playing on the iPod for about the zillionth time since I got it, and it’s still good. Probably even better than the first several times. More good stuff to appreciate each time. You’ll probably get tired of my raving about The Morning before I get tired of raving, so just get used to it… or go buy the album and joing the raving maniacs. :-)