Entry tags:
The Day That wouldn't end, Pep Boys of EVIL and GURPS Madness
Another long entry, I fear.
Where to start?
Let's start with Pep Boys, I'll get the bitching done first.
So, those following the saga of my car problems have heard, i think, the latest (and not at all bad) theory that I got a load of bad gas. The bad gas plugged up the fuel filter once already and the new one is, supposedly, already dirty. This support my theory.
Anyways, I was agitated at the first mechanic because despite paying for a new fuel filter, my car was stalling and flooding. Badly. I had to trouble getting the car home three days in a row.
As you may recall, I found out I was law on transmission fluid. So I went to Pep Boys to get some. I explained the problems I was having and they suggested I bring the car into THEM to check the engine.
So I brought it in Wednesday night.
Thursday was the day that wouldn't end. More on that to come. When I called Pep Boys, though, they were like "We had alarms all over. The spark plugs need replacing. The distributor cap too. There was electricity ARCING. By, the way, this will clear up your problem with your Check Engine light."
(note: up to lately, my car's one oddity is that the Check Engine light is on all the time. I've learned to live with it and it doesn't bother me. I didn't want to pay extra money to fix that. It wasn't REALLY a problem. )
Did I mention they wanted $550 ?
Now, I just had the other mechanic look at the car LAST week and he said none of this.
LITE doens't LIKE being taken for a ride!
So... we told them we weren't interested in putting that kind of money in my old car and brought her home. As we picked her up, they mentioned that it was all IMPORTANT.
Anyways, once we got the car warmed up, it drove fine.
That's the key, though, to get the car warmed up.. without flooding it out.
It spent last night at school, in fact, because it flooded out.
At the moment, it's QUITE temperamental.
She's home now, though. So.. *shrug*
Still.. I kept the paperwork from Pep Boys. Just in case the problems persist. I can take it to the first mechanic and see if he mentions anything on the list. If so, maybe it IS legit. if not.. they WERE taking me for a ride.
So... going back.. The Day That Wouldn't End. That was Thursday.
Thursday started up TFE (Too Fucking Early). I had to be at school at 8:00.. And since the car was at Pep Boys, that meant I was walking to school.
And I had to be there at 8:00 to stay there all day to work on the pilot plant.
To fill in more details, this is the last project from the Practicum. The class had to get a Water Treatment Pilot Plant (already designed and put together) operational and run it for 8 hours to see if it works.
So we started the pre-run work (making sure the influent was ready to go etc.) at 8:00.
Let me describe the pilot plant to you. Maybe you care, maybe you don't. I'll tell you anyways.
Here's the basics.. first you need some sort of influent. We used a Kaolin clay mixed in tap water so that the turbidity (def: 1 a : thick or opaque with or as if with roiled sediment b : heavy with smoke or mist from Webster of 20 NTU.
The influent first meets up with a coagulant, a chemical used to bind the clay together into a bigger particle called floc. Since to do that, the chemical needs to mix with the clay, it first goes through a rapid mix (an inline doodad that swirls the water all about) and then through a system of basins called Flocculators. In these basins, the floc is formed.
Assumedly.. if you set your speeds right, the floc does NOT settle in the Flocculators but DO need to settle. hence we have a Sedimentation basin for the floc to settle into.
The remaining material is filtered out in a sand material.
In real plants, the effluent is then chlorinated, fluoridated and sent out to the distribution system. Our pilot plant didn't do that.
So.. I spent near eight hours watching the plant operate.
Plus, it didn't even operate well. We had to keep backwashing the filter because it was plugging up with clay since the settling basin didn't work too well.
Also, in the middle of the day I had to go and do some paperwork. Problem being.. I left the papers at home. So I had to get home. A classmate lent me her car... a beat up old white dodge that makes my car look well behaved.
The seats wouldn't go back.
So i drove in this tiny car with my knees behind the wheel and in 2nd gear since drive kept pooping out.
But I got home.. and I got my papers and came back.
And eventually the day ended and I went home to, i THINK, start work on my GURPS character. More on THAT later
Yesterday was.. better. I had the presentation, as you may recall, on desorption during resuspension events. And the car flooded and wouldn't go home. But we had a nice dinner out.
This is a cute story. Let me tell it.
My brother tried out for the musical monday. He wanted the male lead, Horace Vandergelder (the play is Hello Dolly).
So all week, he's been excited and obnoxious and unbearable because he REALLY wants the part and he's got the voice for it and he KNOWS he can do it.
We were ready to kill him.
Anyways, he said that if he got the lead, he wants to go to Pizzeria Uno, his favorite restaurant. And we agreed.
So yesterday comes and, grumpy from the car not starting, I come home and josh is like "Dress nice, cause we're GOING TO PIZZERIA UNO!"
So, he's got the male lead.
Go Josh :)
OK, so Friday I come home and I finish work on my GURPS Char. What the heck am i talking about?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
trillain, xb95 and draci. I don't know much about the plot, but we get 100 points to spend on "normal self" and 50 more points to spend on becoming another species (elf, winged folk, were, reptile man..) or on MAGIC.
So my character is gonna be a Druidy type of character. Human, Male, lots of magic. Yay magic :)
Not much else to say yet.. I'm excited about roleplaying, tho :)
Can't think of anything else worth discussing it. So I'll finally post this.
Ciao folks!
Where to start?
Let's start with Pep Boys, I'll get the bitching done first.
So, those following the saga of my car problems have heard, i think, the latest (and not at all bad) theory that I got a load of bad gas. The bad gas plugged up the fuel filter once already and the new one is, supposedly, already dirty. This support my theory.
Anyways, I was agitated at the first mechanic because despite paying for a new fuel filter, my car was stalling and flooding. Badly. I had to trouble getting the car home three days in a row.
As you may recall, I found out I was law on transmission fluid. So I went to Pep Boys to get some. I explained the problems I was having and they suggested I bring the car into THEM to check the engine.
So I brought it in Wednesday night.
Thursday was the day that wouldn't end. More on that to come. When I called Pep Boys, though, they were like "We had alarms all over. The spark plugs need replacing. The distributor cap too. There was electricity ARCING. By, the way, this will clear up your problem with your Check Engine light."
(note: up to lately, my car's one oddity is that the Check Engine light is on all the time. I've learned to live with it and it doesn't bother me. I didn't want to pay extra money to fix that. It wasn't REALLY a problem. )
Did I mention they wanted $550 ?
Now, I just had the other mechanic look at the car LAST week and he said none of this.
LITE doens't LIKE being taken for a ride!
So... we told them we weren't interested in putting that kind of money in my old car and brought her home. As we picked her up, they mentioned that it was all IMPORTANT.
Anyways, once we got the car warmed up, it drove fine.
That's the key, though, to get the car warmed up.. without flooding it out.
It spent last night at school, in fact, because it flooded out.
At the moment, it's QUITE temperamental.
She's home now, though. So.. *shrug*
Still.. I kept the paperwork from Pep Boys. Just in case the problems persist. I can take it to the first mechanic and see if he mentions anything on the list. If so, maybe it IS legit. if not.. they WERE taking me for a ride.
So... going back.. The Day That Wouldn't End. That was Thursday.
Thursday started up TFE (Too Fucking Early). I had to be at school at 8:00.. And since the car was at Pep Boys, that meant I was walking to school.
And I had to be there at 8:00 to stay there all day to work on the pilot plant.
To fill in more details, this is the last project from the Practicum. The class had to get a Water Treatment Pilot Plant (already designed and put together) operational and run it for 8 hours to see if it works.
So we started the pre-run work (making sure the influent was ready to go etc.) at 8:00.
Let me describe the pilot plant to you. Maybe you care, maybe you don't. I'll tell you anyways.
Here's the basics.. first you need some sort of influent. We used a Kaolin clay mixed in tap water so that the turbidity (def: 1 a : thick or opaque with or as if with roiled sediment b : heavy with smoke or mist from Webster of 20 NTU.
The influent first meets up with a coagulant, a chemical used to bind the clay together into a bigger particle called floc. Since to do that, the chemical needs to mix with the clay, it first goes through a rapid mix (an inline doodad that swirls the water all about) and then through a system of basins called Flocculators. In these basins, the floc is formed.
Assumedly.. if you set your speeds right, the floc does NOT settle in the Flocculators but DO need to settle. hence we have a Sedimentation basin for the floc to settle into.
The remaining material is filtered out in a sand material.
In real plants, the effluent is then chlorinated, fluoridated and sent out to the distribution system. Our pilot plant didn't do that.
So.. I spent near eight hours watching the plant operate.
Plus, it didn't even operate well. We had to keep backwashing the filter because it was plugging up with clay since the settling basin didn't work too well.
Also, in the middle of the day I had to go and do some paperwork. Problem being.. I left the papers at home. So I had to get home. A classmate lent me her car... a beat up old white dodge that makes my car look well behaved.
The seats wouldn't go back.
So i drove in this tiny car with my knees behind the wheel and in 2nd gear since drive kept pooping out.
But I got home.. and I got my papers and came back.
And eventually the day ended and I went home to, i THINK, start work on my GURPS character. More on THAT later
Yesterday was.. better. I had the presentation, as you may recall, on desorption during resuspension events. And the car flooded and wouldn't go home. But we had a nice dinner out.
This is a cute story. Let me tell it.
My brother tried out for the musical monday. He wanted the male lead, Horace Vandergelder (the play is Hello Dolly).
So all week, he's been excited and obnoxious and unbearable because he REALLY wants the part and he's got the voice for it and he KNOWS he can do it.
We were ready to kill him.
Anyways, he said that if he got the lead, he wants to go to Pizzeria Uno, his favorite restaurant. And we agreed.
So yesterday comes and, grumpy from the car not starting, I come home and josh is like "Dress nice, cause we're GOING TO PIZZERIA UNO!"
So, he's got the male lead.
Go Josh :)
OK, so Friday I come home and I finish work on my GURPS Char. What the heck am i talking about?
trillain, xb95 and draci. I don't know much about the plot, but we get 100 points to spend on "normal self" and 50 more points to spend on becoming another species (elf, winged folk, were, reptile man..) or on MAGIC.So my character is gonna be a Druidy type of character. Human, Male, lots of magic. Yay magic :)
Not much else to say yet.. I'm excited about roleplaying, tho :)
Can't think of anything else worth discussing it. So I'll finally post this.
Ciao folks!
