Car Troubles :(

Coolant leak

A little before finals, I noticed that the car was now smelling like radiator fluid. That seemed less than optimal to me, but not enough to get my focus off of school and graduating. (Oh yeah, I passed all my classes :).

Just before finals, I had to drive up to the stake center (about 20 minutes) for seminary/institute graduation. After I got there, I got out and started to talking to friends in the parking lot and one of them pointed at my car and said oh no. There was a bunch of radiator fluid coming from under my car, onto the parking lot. No good. I stayed extra long to make sure the car had time to cool down and added some water into the overflow tank. I managed to get home fine monitoring the temperature gauge the whole way.

During finals week, I avoided driving as much as I could. Every now and then I would pop the hood and try to see if I could notice anything. The fan came on when I turned the A/C on, so it looked like the fan was not the culprit to making the coolant overflow. Once, it sounded like the cap was leaking, so I replaced it. Then I noticed that the old cap and the new cap did not seem to make a proper seal with the tank. It would screw on a bit, then become loose once you twisted too far.

Finally, after finals, I got a recommendation for a repair shop in town from my uncle who lives up here. The last place I went to in town wanted about $900 for something that the next shop back in Longview said did not need to be done and could be fixed for $40. I liked The Panacea. They were strait forward about what they were going to do and what it would cost. They talked to me as though I had useful information and was smart enough to be involved.

The end result... ... The coolant tank needed to be replaced. The one that was on it was a non standard tank. Then the testing showed that the heater core was leaking, luckily the head gasket was OK or so it seems. The heater core costs less than $100, but the installation takes all day and brings the total cost up to near $700.

They said i could try to use some leak stopper to slow the leaking, or possibly have someone put the heater core input directly to the output to bypass the heater core and cut out the leaking. As it is, I should avoid using the heat (evidently breathing coolant isn't that great).

Being Late is Costly

Oh so Costly

For economics class we have a presentation. Not a normal presentation, a poster presentation. Instead of standing in front of the class and going through a PowerPoint presentation, we have to design a poster and present it to the class as they walk around asking us questions. Its a new thing for most of us in the class and a cause of great stress to many, including myself. As luck would have it the school offers poster size printing for free to students upon instructor request and students reserving a time to print. Problem one. I have no idea what I am doing, so I threw some stuff together proceeding slowly since I am trying to figure out what to do. Problem two. The print office didn't get the teacher's request for printing rights for our class, so he had to resubmit it. (Not that I was ready anyways). Problem three. I didn't sign up for a time early, since I had no idea when I would actually finish doing something I have never done before. Problem. I called to see about getting a time to print it, the schools print services are no longer scheduling appointments to print. This leaves me with few options. I went to Kinko's. Kinko's was reluctant to take the job telling me they wanted more time, but they could put the job in with a note that I would pick it up early (with a specific time). Not my most desired thing to hear, since they didn't seem to encouraged that it would be done. I went to one other place to check them out, but the guy in front of me asked about printing posters, and they didn't have anywhere near the right sizes, so back to Kinko's it was. After going through the hassle of hearing how bad I was for procrastinating, the bill came out to be $72 before taxes. Quite a price to pay for being slow this once, but I don't have too many options. I need to pass the class. The poster presentation is a large part of our grade. I guess $72 is not a lot to pay if it means that I can graduate, just seems like a lot when it is an unexpected expense.

So Close

So Close

8 Days. 8 Days until I am done with school. People keep asking if I am excited or what not. I am glad that I will be finishing up with a bachelors degree, but I am not sure I am ready for what comes next. What does come next? Well, I have no job yet, so, yeah. I guess maybe that is why I am not sure I am ready to be done with school.

In other news, I am supposed to go on a blind date with a girl I have been told would become my future wife. I am not sure she knows that the girls that know her and me have said such high hopes for the two of us. No pressure though. Yeah.

Also rapidly approaching, my birthday. I guess I am having a joint birthday party. There is a girl up here that has the same birthday as I do, but on a different year (she is younger). The joint birthday party does not include her yet though. My birthday is being paired up with one a couple days after mine. I think it will be planned by the same set of people that planned mine last year, so it could prove to be quite fun.