Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Wednesday...not quite "hump day"...

for me, anyway; this is the first of two back-to-back 6 day weeks. It wasn't supposed to be, but it seems they want every Saturn we can build between now and New Years, so they switched some days and put these together to get another day's production.

In February we are supposed to put in requests for most of our vacation days so they can allot manpower; figuring out Dottie's weekend schedule against our Saturday schedule, I plotted out a lot of her Tuesdays off on weeks I would be working on her Saturday off that way we see each other on occasion. Yesterday was one of those, my next is Halloween. That will be my first Halloween off since my grandkids got to start "Trick or Treating", and I'm looking forward to it much, though I kind of wish I had next Tuesday in addition...

I had planned on doing two movies yesterday, but we slept an hour later than I had planned on, then had some "us" time (grin). Back in May we had some hail damage repaired on our Malibu, and the "ditch moldings" they had replaced on the roof were coming loose, so I swung by the Chevy dealer to see about having them replaced. They asked if I had a 1/2 hour, and we said "sure" so they did them right then!

While we waited we went down to the "Parts" department to see about some odds and ends for our new truck. I had bought a "bowtie" (Chevy emblem) cover for the receiver hitch that matched the one in the grill the day the hitch was put on; last Sunday while I was in Wal-Mart for about 20 minutes someone stole it. They actually pulled the retainer clip and pin from the hitch, took the emblem, and put the pin and clip back!

$20, it pissed me off some as I'm still paying interest on it, but made me think that perhaps I should worry about my spare tire, as being a "plain Jane" my truck didn't come with the tire lock as standard equipment. Having to replace a $200 wheel and $150 tire would really wind me up, especially when I need it and it's not there!

So I asked about it at the parts counter, and they had the lock in stock, keyed it to match our ignition key, and told me how to put it in. They also gave me 10% off since I'm a GM employee.

While we were there we picked up a set of mudflaps that fit without drilling. Whenever Dad and I fished the powerplant lake an hour south of here, the gravel entrance road would stone the amber running light off the boat trailer, so I figured it was easier to put those on one time than replace the lenses every time we fish there, lol!

After that there wasn't time to do two movies, and "The Guardian" will be around for a while (Sunday morning is looking good right now for us) so my art house movie "won" the afternoon.

"The Illusionist" starts a bit slow, but is a great movie! The snowball that starts so small picks up momentum until it finally ends up in a brilliant conclusion! Holding at 7.7 on the IMDB with almost 5200 votes in means this isn't just me prattling on...it's really a good movie!

For those of you who have a weekend and a chance, it's well worth your time!

alan

6 comments:

Kranki said...

Hi Alan!

Pimping your truck sounds great.

CrackerLilo said...

*giggle* I thought of you "pimping your ride," too!

I'm glad you get Halloween off with the grandkids.

alan said...

I hadn't thought of it like that, though I guess the gold "bow-tie" was too much for someone to either resist or stand...not sure which!

:o)

alan

robin andrea said...

I don't know why it surprises me that someone would steal something from your truck right there in a parking lot, but it does. Good thing it wasn't a very expensive item, like your spare, and it gave you an incentive to take that precaution. We're planning on traveling in December and taking our bikes on a rack-- I think we'll look for a very secure rack.

alan said...

Robin Andrea- I had bought a Yakima "strap-on" rack for my Chrysler (I don't dare put in on Dottie's pretty Malibu) and was always afraid of losing it when I parked the car, so I would take it off and lock it in the trunk until I came back. I wanted to put a small receiver hitch on her Malibu for a more secure one; you can buy a locking hitch pin for those (another investment I made this last week, so I don't find my boat missing the same way) and then you cable the bikes to the rack, one through the front wheels, the other through the frame and rear wheels.

It's really sad that I remember growing up when you could leave a car unlocked and not worry about it...I remember the guy I bought my first bike from taking me downtown to the cafe his Dad hung out in and leaving the motorcycle sitting by the curb with the key in it!

There are things I love about this modern world (the net high among them), but those I detest as well!

alan

MB said...

I was surprised, too. You sound busy as usual — glad to hear you found time for "us"!! ;-)