I just got back in from morning rounds. We are at -27C right now, but the windchill is at -29C. I’d really love for those winds to die down! I had to clear a bunch of paths, not because we got much snow last night, but because the winds filled them in with hard packed drifts.
I got through to my mother about coming over today, and brought up about her saying she would be willing to climb into the truck. She told me she checked and has enough cash, so we can try when it is warmer.
So… spring??
No matter, for now. As long as I get her groceries. Going to the bank is the one thing I can’t do for her!
I want to talk to our mechanic, in person, about my mother’s car, but we won’t have any budget for repairs for a while. I’m considering putting the insurance on hold until we can get it in, which likely won’t be until the spring. The truck and other things have priority in the budget. After having to cancel my husband’s eye appointment at the last minute because we were at -30C with no block heater, my husband really wants to get that done.
Of course, it can’t be a generic cord. GM has their own cord with a built-in thermostat that has to be used. Generic ones won’t work right. Which I would prefer, anyhow. Our van had one of those, and I liked it. These cords shut themselves on and off as needed, so you don’t have it heating constantly. I just got a text this morning with an estimate. Replacing the cord will cost under $100. Replacing the block heater part, however, would cost almost $300. !! As far as we know, it’s just the cord that needs replacing, since finding the plug ripped off the end.
We are supposed to have a high of -16C, give or take a degree, and stay warmer than -20C for the next while before warming up above -10C. I’m quite looking forward to the return of the El Nino effect!
I’m sure the yard cats will be appreciating it, too!
Tissue just crawled over right on top of grandma. Poor thing is in heat right now. Considering what happened when we tried to get her fixed before, that’s going to be a challenge!
In other things…
With our land line down, I messaged my sister, yesterday evening, to let her know. I’d managed to leave messages on my mother’s answering machine about it. It took two tries, as my call got dropped mid sentence, even though I was using wifi calling. I told my mother that the best way to reach me was likely by calling my sister, who could then send me a message. So, of course, I had to let my sister know this!
It turned out my sister had talked to my mother earlier, and she told my sister I was coming over today, to help her either groceries.
Last I spoke to my mother, she refused to settle on a day, and just settled on “after New Year”. I was supposed to do a follow up call which, obviously, was going to be a bit trickier.
After finding this put from my sister, I tried calling my mother again. She had a hard time hearing me, but at least the call wasn’t dropped. We worked out arrangements for me to come over, and when I asked, she suggested using her car, in case she was up to going out.
We haven’t used her car pretty much since getting the truck. Just once, maybe, shortly after we brought it home. So, this morning, while doing my rounds, I got her car out of the garage and checked her tires. The two on the driver’s side were a bit low. I just used the hand pump to top them up.
I had some things to do, since I was going to be out anyhow, so I left quite early.
Well.
I tried to leave.
I drove through the gate and stopped to close it behind me, when I heard a loud bang from the back. My mother’s car has always been noisy in the back, but not like this! I tried to look to see a cause, but there was nothing visible.
So I locked and kept going. I got as far as the stop sign, maybe 300 ft away. When a started moving after stopping at the sign, there was a loud, repetitive knocking from the back.
I turned around and came home!
I font know what the noise is, and have had no time to look it up, yet.
I took our truck.
Once in my mother’s town, I made a stop at the grocery store. Before going in, I took advantage of having a strong signal and called the computer repair place, to give them my cell number.
My timing was good. The tech guy was working on my computer when I called. After giving the number – with a warning that it may or may not work, if I was at home – he gave me the good news so far. Be was able to secure and protect my data. With that done, he was about to move on to starting the machine and seeing what he could find out.
I really hope it can be fixed. Blogging with my phone really sucks. Plus, there are things I do that I won’t even try on my phone!
I also updated my brother about what was going on with my mother’s car.
After going into the grocery store for our own few items, I called my mother to let her know about the vehicle situation, and ask what she wanted me to pick up for lunch. After going on about how fried food makes her sick, she then asked me to pick up potato wedges for her.
Which are fried, of course. 😆
So that was a stop at the gas station. While there, I also got some fried pierogi, plus a couple of pieces of chicken. Just in case.
When I got there, she happily had a bit of everything, including the chicken! 😆
As we were talking and eating, she showed me a Christmas card she waxed poetic on, about how beautiful it was. By which she means, it was a religious themed card, rather than a secular one.
It was from our vandal.
Out of curiosity, I looked inside.
Wow. He can’t even give her a Christmas card without going weird. The only good thing I could say is, his attempts to guilt and manipulate her went right over her head. I did get a picture of it.
Since my mother couldn’t come with me, we went over her list and I did her shopping for her, though I made sure to message my sister about the car, and letting her know that, until we can figure put what ti do about my mother’s car, before I forgot.
This trip, I paid for her shopping using my card, then gave her the receipt, as she requested. While she was getting cash to pay me back, her phone rang, do I answered it for her. When I do that, I answer like a receptionist, identifying myself in the process.
There was silence, then a hang up.
I checked caller ID.
It was our vandal.
Once we identified the number, we got a chuckle over him hanging up on me, then kept talking.
The phone rang again.
This time, I checked the number, first.
It was our vandal again.
My mother told me to answer it, like I did before.
So I did.
Once again, there was silence, then a hang up.
We got another laugh out of it, but then my mother told me something she didn’t mention before.
My vandal hand delivered that Christmas card, on Christmas day.
Then she told me how they had a lovely tea together. With his wife.
Oh, he would have been on his best behavior, with his wife there! She would not know about his abusive calls. He does those while she is at work.
I do wish my mother had let us know, though!
With all this, before I said my goodbyes, I decided to check her answering machine. At the very least, there would have been my two calls to clear, which she doesn’t know how to do.
Sure enough, there was a message from our vandal – left near the beginning of December! We keep asking her yo let us know about these, but she doesn’t!
I took a video of the message while it was playing, so the date would be recorded, then cleared her machine. The message was his usual ranting. First, demanding to know if he’s being recorded, and if he was, that’s entrapment.
Yes. Seriously. He’s leaving a message on an answering machine, and asking if he’s being recorded.
Then he launched into his usual accusations of how I font work, but spend all my time trying to put him in jail. The only new thing is that he’s now using my late brother’s children to manipulate her. Children that are estranged from her, largely because of him.
Well, at least he’s not telling her my late father and brother are looking down from heaven at her, angry that she didn’t give him the farm, and that she won’t go to heaven because of that.
Which reminds me.
My mother has been talking about giving her car to my nephew. Of course, it’s not from the goodness of her heart. It’s her usual bribery attempt: pay attention yo me, and I’ll give you things. But she only does that with the people who treat her the worst. We learned our vandal managed to swindle many thousands of dollars out of both my parents, over the years that way.
She told our vandal about her thought of giving the car to my nephew, so he now uses that in his rants against me.
With the car now suddenly making that noise, she said maybe it’s time to give the car to my nephew. I told her, that’s hardly a gift! Apparently, he works in a garage, though.
My name may be on the ownership papers, as that was the only way fir me to be able to keep it licensed and insured for her use, but it’s her car and she can do what she wants with it. Talking to my family about it later, we all agree on the salient points. If she wants to give it to him, and he has the skills and resources to fix it, that free uo funds in our budget. Finds we can use to pay the truck down faster. It also takes away a headache for us. That car has been no end of expensive trouble.
However, it would also mean, i can no longer drive her anywhere. She simply cannot get in and out of our truck safely. My sister works part time, so she could use her car to drive my mother around, but when it comes to things like doctors appointments, my mother doesn’t want that. My brother is not an option, as he would have to book time off work, and he lives the furthest away.
Ideally, we would replace her car, but we can’t afford two car payments, and she certainly would not be willing to buy another car herself.
A conundrum.
Ah, well. We’ll figure it out.
Meanwhile, before I left my mother, I made sure to tell her to check the phone if it rings again, and if it’s our vandal, let it go to machine. With me answering her phone earlier, he would absolutely lose it on her. His wife, after all, would be at work, so he would not be on his best behavior!
So that’s how my day ended up going. I had intended to try and clear end organize my husband’s room, so we have access to that phone jack, while he was still ambulatory. Tomorrow, I have to drive him into my mother’s town for an errand I can’t do for him, and even that short trip will wipe him out. So it may take a few more days before we can get to it. Especially if I end up driving to the city to get my computer!
Oh, wouldn’t that be nice!
This time of year, I’d rather be in hibernation mode, though! 😆
Sad Face’s nose is still looking messy from a fight a few days ago. No new injuries. It’s always a bit distressing when I tend to the cats and find fresh blood. Most recently, on the fur of one of the friendly white and greys. Friendly to humans, that is. Friendly with most of the other cats, too, but they do get testy with each other, at tumes. To be expected, with so many maturing males. From what I could tell with the blood I saw, it wasn’t his. There were no injuries!
It is turning out to be a gorgeous sunny day. Our temperature has even gone above freezing, which is a few degrees warmer than forecast.
I got to enjoy the sun and warmth during a quick trip into town. Three of our four 18.9L (5 gallon) water jugs for drinking water needed refilling. We usually do it when two are empty. Of course, I picked up a few more little things, but will be doing a larger trip, once pay comes in.
Before I left, I checked the tires on the truck, and none of them needed topping up. That’s a good sign. Especially since we will probably have to wait until the end of January/beginning of February to get those valves replaced, depending on what the status is with my computer.
The check engine light was on again, so after I got home and unloaded, I hooked up the OBDII scanner. I got the expected codes for rich fuel mixture but, lo and behold, there was a new one.
Not an unexpected one.
Yup. There’s a code for the oil pressure sensor. Our new reader even gives extra info, including the fact that this code is very common for our make, model, and year, plus the top fixes. Those included changing the filter, doing an oil change, and even replacing the sensor. The most common fix being a simple oil change.
I really like having this other OBDII reader my husband got me. The first one we got just gave the codes, and that was about it.
This one also allows me to clear the codes. The rich fuel codes are permanent codes, but I’ve found that, after clearing the codes, then tanking up, they would clear themselves. The most important thing is knowing what’s going on, and getting an idea of how urgent or not something is.
Today, I took the truck in to find out what the heck is going on with the tires and the old pressure.
Yesterday, I’d moved the truck so I could access it to add oil, only to find the oil pressure was back to normal. We checked the tires and all were evenly lower from when they were topped up, which could be attributed to the temperature changes.
I did not check the tires before I left, but I did notice that, as I was driving, the oil pressure gauge dropped again. The sensor for the left rear tire popped up a warning along the way, too. Previously, it has been front and rear, but just one got a warning this time. The “service tire monitoring system” warning is on all the time, so we do already know we have a sensor problem.
I took advantage of the situation and gave the truck a much needed car wash – I thought they might appreciate the undercarriage cleaning in particular! – then dropped the truck off. They had both bays occupied, so I just dropped off the keys. I did have a chance to talk to the mechanic about what was going on. One of the things he told me was that GMC has a problem with sensors in general; he’s replace many a sensor on GMC vehicles over the years. Of course, they would check anyway.
When I mentioned that the oil I’d bought was in the truck, since I never put any of it in, he asked if it was dexos oil. I could not remember seeing that on the label; I’d bought the oil at our local general store, and they had only one type of SAE 5W30, and it was a high performance oil. Beyond that, I couldn’t remember. He said he would take a look, when I told him where the bottles were.
I just checked and the dexos oil was developed for GM vehicles 2011 and newer. Our is a 2011. After I got home, I asked my daughter about it, as she was the one reading the user’s manual while I was driving, and she said the manual did say dexos, or equivalent.
Anyhow.
After dropping off the key, I headed out and had breakf… er… lunch at the next door Chinese restaurant.
It was excellent.
Then I headed over to a hardware store and got a few things I needed, including a small, folding step stool to keep in the truck. It was even 40% off, so that was good! I also grabbed some new deer screamers. I had an extra set I’d picked up a while back, but when I went to put them on, I found the self adhesive mounting foam was no longer self adhesive! Once I purchased this stuff, I headed back to the garage and grabbed the keys to unlock it so I could put things away, then applied the deer screamers. With so many deer out this winter, I did not want to be without them!
That done, I still had plenty of time, so I ended up walking over to the pharmacy. My husband had some prescription refills that needed to be special ordered in. Normally, those would have been delivered on Wednesday – two days from now – but since I was there, I checked. It turned out one of them had arrived just this morning, and the other was already in, so I was able to pick those up.
I wandered around for a while long, but there really isn’t a lot to do without spending money, so I headed back to the garage and waited in their office. They were just finishing up one of the vehicles in their bays, so it wasn’t long before that was switched out for our truck.
I got quite a chuckle when the mechanic went past me and asked, with a huge smile on his face, “are you a happy fly?”
I told him yes! Yes I was! 😂
Guess what song was playing when he started the truck?
I heard him ask our mechanic (the owner) the same question, but got a more confused response! 🤣 I love how excited he was to hear the song. 😁
The other thing he asked me was if I thought the problem could be the sensors, since the onboard computer also had the “service tire monitoring system” warning. I told him, yes, it could be – that’s what we need to find out!
He got the truck lifted up and started spraying the first tire, and right away I heard, “it’s the valve!” So of course, I went over to look (they let me do that! 😁)
This is the front driver’s side tire.
I came over to talk to him, and said I has been wondering if it might be the valve or the seal, because… well, these are brand new tires! He checked the seals, but there was no sign of a problem there, nor anywhere else on the tire.
After checking all four tires, two valves were like this, one was slightly less, and a fourth was so slight, he wasn’t sure it was leaking at all for a while. Interestingly, that was the tire that I got the warning for as I was driving in!
So they’re going to change all four valves.
But not yet.
I had a decision to make.
In talking about the “service tire monitoring system” warning with our mechanic before, I got a price of $60 for the part alone, but I didn’t realize the part was the valve. I didn’t know the tire sensors are in the valves. We’ve never had a vehicle with sensors in the tires before. He looked up and calculated the cost for me.
To get all four valves replaced, with parts and labour, will be about $420, plus taxes.
Ouch.
Or, we could replace them all with ordinary valves for about $100 now, and do the others later.
Or just do the ordinary valves and not have sensors.
If we did that, we would always have the warning light on, because the onboard computer would think we had zero tire pressure.
If we did the ordinary valves now, then did the sensors at a later date, we’d basically be throwing away a hundred bucks – but we’d have more time to save up the money.
Or we can just do the whole thing in January. It’ll be tight, but we could do it. Particularly since we’ll be done making payments towards that quarter beef we’re picking up in January. We’ve only got about $35 left on the balance for that, which will be paid on pick up day.
After asking how urgent it was, he said to just keep an eye on them and don’t drive on a flat tire.
So we’ll get it done in January.
While the mechanic was checking the tires, I mentioned to him that for us, we actually do have a possible vandal, and with both vehicles having tire issues, we can’t avoid thinking that someone is involved. He didn’t think that likely. He said that sometimes get dirt in around the valves which can damage them, and that, over time, aluminum rims like we have are more prone to it than other types of rims. He thinks that’s more likely the cause than vandalism. Which I suppose makes sense. This vehicle was used commercially by the original owner and, while it’s 4 years younger than my mother’s car, it already has more mileage on it. Until we have evidence to show otherwise, that’s the most likely scenario.
Then there was the oil.
Our mechanic looked at the oil I’d bought. It did not have dexos anywhere on the label, and he’d never heard of the brand before. Ultimately, he said to keep it in the truck, just in case, but he wouldn’t do an oil change with it!
The other mechanic, meanwhile did a thorough check for an oil leak while the truck was on the lift, then checked the oil again when it was on the ground, before topping it up.
The oil level was fine.
The dipstick is also different from any other vehicle we’ve had. It has markings on it, but no “maximum” or “minimum” markers, like I’m used to. Plus, my light when I checked it wasn’t very good, so I had a hard time seeing the level, anyhow. It just seemed like the shiniest part was low. It turns out what I thought was “low” on the dipstick is just fine. The truck is not low on oil. There is no leak.
Which means it’s another sensor problem.
Something to address another time.
Meanwhile, the tires got topped up and that was it.
They didn’t charge me for anything! I know they didn’t do any repairs, but they did use materials and equipment, not to mention their time, so I did expect to be paying something! Nope. He said we were good!
Well, that just means a little more from the budget towards getting the work done next month.
Once I got home, I called my mother. She has her telephone appointment with her doctor tomorrow morning, and I want to be there for it. Partly to answer any questions the doctor my have about the ER visits my mother may not remember anymore, and partly to help my mother understand what the doctor is saying. It turns out she thought it was today! Thankfully, she did have it written down on her calendar.
I wanted to know if my mother would need a shopping trip afterwards, since I would rather use the truck instead of her car, due to the icy road conditions in some areas. She’s still pretty well stocked up, she says, so she’ll just give me a list of the few things she needs, and I’ll pick them up without her having to come along. I’ve done enough shopping with her to know what she typically gets.
I’ll be driving the truck!
The next time I need to drive my mother’s car, we’ll have to make sure to check the tires on it, too. We’ll get it into the garage to see what’s going on there, too. Her tires don’t have sensors, though, so if her valves also need replacing, it’ll be a lot cheaper!!
So we got a mix of good and bad news today. We now know both why the tires have been getting low, and that it’s not the tires themselves that are the problem – which would have been a real shock, considering how new they are. The truck is otherwise fine. We mostly just have gremlins in some of the sensors. Nothing is urgent, from a safety point of view.
I do love technology, but the more technical things get, the more there is to break!
I had some excellent responses to my earlier post, trying to figure out what’s going on with the vehicles. For the tire problem to be happening with one vehicle is strange enough, but our truck, as well as my mother’s car? Then there’s the oil thing, in the truck.
First, to address the tires.
Yes, cold most definitely can be a factor when it come to air loss in our area… but not this year! Temperatures have been much warmer than average in our area this year, because of the strong El Niño. We might even have a brown Christmas this year! Yesterday, as I was coming home from a dump run (my last trip of the day), it was even starting to rain. We’ve had winters where both the van and my mother’s car basically froze, saved only by the block heaters, and did not have this sort of air loss.
My mother’s car had all 4 tires replaced not long after we took over keeping and caring for the vehicle from my brother. I had managed to miss hitting some deer, but ended up in the ditch. Much to our shock, I was able to drive straight out without any stop and keep driving, but one tire went flat before we got home. After it was taken to the garage, we discovered other damage and all the tires got replaced. That was about 4 or 5 years ago and, for the amount of driving we do in general, they are still in excellent shape. It’s not like we’re commuting every day on them or anything like that. One tire is newer than the others, after our gravel road conditions caused a blowout about 3 years ago.
The tires on her car becoming unexplainedly flat has mostly been in just the past 6 months or so. I found the right rear tire flat one time, with no cause found. Once pumped up, it held it’s air fine. Then there was the left front tire. When that happened a second time, we got it checked, along with the other front tire by mistake. No signs of any leak. Then, most recently, I checked all 4 tires before going to my mother’s. The left rear tire was almost flat, the left front tire was really low and both right tires were also low, but not as much. The right rear tire was lower than the right front tire.
With my mother’s car, it’s parked in an addition to the garage and, as small as it is, it still barely fits. If I have a passenger, they have to get out of the car before I drive into the garage. In order to get in and out of the driver’s side without the door hitting a counter shelf against the wall and having to squeeze my way out, it is parked closer to the other wall, and diagonally. Which means the driver’s side tires can be reached fairly easily, the rear passenger side tire could be reached if someone really wanted to make the effort, but the front passenger side tire is virtually inaccessible. To check the tires, I have to drive the car out of the garage completely.
Thanks, Silk, for your info about the Schrader valve. I was wondering what it was called! I’ve looked at the tool you linked to. The more I look at it, the more I wonder; have I seen one of these before? With all our digging around what’s left at the farm, trying to find what’s still useful. I may have seen something like that and wondered what it was for. Or, my brain it trying to fill memory gaps. I can definitely see my late bother having a tool like that around. What I don’t know is if our vandal would have one. I tend to find that idea highly unlikely; at least not as something he would have acquired to work on his own vehicles – though he’s taken so many tools from here before we moved in, he may have one among them. Whether he would know what it is, I’m not sure.
Also… I hope that jerk you mentioned got caught and faced the consequences for his actions! Vandalizing people’s tires can cost lives!
To answer some other points brought up:
The truck is a 2011 and, since we’ve bought it, the mileage is over 240,000km/149,130m. I’ve got the vehicle’s history, and a record of the work done on it to get it safetied. It has all new tires and, while they are not the highest end tires, they are certainly not cheap. These are very good tires. We got the vehicle from the mechanic owner of the garage we’ve been going to for years, rather than a dealership. We’ve been burned by dealerships and dealership garages way too many times. I’d rather buy a vehicle from a garage that sells cars on the side, than a dealership that also has a garage, if you get what I mean.
Along with the tires, I know it got an oil change, so basically both the oil and the tires have been driven only by us since we bought it.
A few things did get missed when the vehicle was being prepped for sale. They (both our mechanic and the garage that did the safety inspection) did not see a problem with the battery; that showed up after we started driving it. The tire sensor module’s battery is not something they would have checked, either. No one bothered checking the cord for the block heater, the end of which was neatly tucked away, so no one noticed the plug had been torn off at some point. With this winter being so mild, there is no rush to get that fixed. Of course, being an older vehicle with so many miles on it, I would expect to find things that will only show up by actually driving it regularly – like the driver’s side seat belt being difficult to get latched in place.
The truck is parked in the original part of the garage (where my mother’s car is now, and where the lawn mowers, etc. are stored, were added to each side, much later on). The tires can be easily reached from all sides. However, it’s a longer vehicle, and just barely fits. In order for us to be able to close the garage door (which is broken right now, so it’s open all the time), the truck has to be pulled so far forward, it’s almost kissing the counter against the back wall. The space under the counter is open, so the front bumper can actually go under the counter, just a tiny bit. If we pop the hood from inside, we can’t access the lever under the hood to open it all the way, because it’s right at counter level. If we need to access the engine while in the garage, the truck has to be backed up. However, if someone could manage to get the hood up, they would be able to access the engine compartment from the sides. Even with the truck not pulled all the way in, from the side was the only way I could reach the dipstick.
Speaking of which…
While I was poking around in there, with a utility light hanging from under the hood so I could see, I cleaned off the top of the oil cap, then reached with my phone to take a picture. That was the only way I could see and read what was written on it!
I can just reach that dip stick from the side, enough to pull it out. If I really stretch, I can touch the cap, but not enough to open it, or add oil, without basically climbing the truck. Hence the need for a foot stool!
It never occurred to me that someone might remove the oil through the dipstick. In theory, if they could get the hood up, it could be done but, if nothing else, I would have seen some sign of that in all the gravel dust all over the engine compartment. The top of the cap was covered with gravel dust and clearly hadn’t been touched since the engine was worked on before we bought it. It was thick enough that I could barely see there was writing under the oil symbol.
While there is no sign of a leak under the truck, in the photo above, you can see there is a small section that does look oily. Again, this is something that was visible when I took the picture. Even with the work light above, it didn’t look damp like that while I was checking the oil level.
The gauge layout is completely different from any other vehicle we’ve had, and the oil gauge itself is different from any other vehicle we’ve had. My daughter actually looked it up while I was driving, shortly after we brought the truck home, so we could figure out what it was telling us, and what range for the needle to be in was good or not. That very difference, as well as the different location of the gauge, has had me checking it frequently. It’s where I’m used to the fuel gauge being, in other vehicles we’ve had, so my eyes still automatically go there first. Which is why I can be so sure the oil loss was sudden. There was also no change in driveability.
Well, I still need to head out and pick up oil for the truck – and pick up another parcel at the post office, which is closed right now, so I have to wait another 1 1/2 hours. Unless I take my mother’s car and go to town and talk to our mechanic directly, then hit the post office on the way home. I think I’ll do that.
Assuming, of course, the tires on my mother’s car aren’t low again!
The Re-Farmer
Update:
I didn’t make it into town to talk to our mechanic. Since I was going to use my mother’s car, I made a point of checking the tires, first. Sure enough, the tires on the driver’s side had lost about 10-15psi, with the front tire having lost more. It was raining/snowing at the time, so I fired up the compressor to pump the tires, rather than using the hand pump. The hose is long, but not long enough to reach both sides of the vehicle, though it turned out the passenger side tires didn’t need it.
As I was just getting onto the main gravel road, I realized going to town was not a good idea. That area that’s shaded by the trees and covered in ice had plenty of water on top of the ice. In the time it would take me to drive to town, talk to our mechanic, then drive back, it would probably be starting to freeze, and I use as heck didn’t want to be driving on that with my mother’s car!
So I stopped at the post office, which is inside a general store. They did have the type of oil I needed in stock, so I picked up a couple of litres – and a package that had been delivered yesterday, but not though the mail, so I never saw it! My husband got a delivery notification for it and was wondering. He thought it had been sent by post. 😁
Anyhow.
Once I got home, I just left the oil with the truck and headed inside. We’ve got nicer weather coming up. One of us will grab a stool, move the truck, and get some oil in there when it’s not so unpleasant out.
I was able to send the photo I took yesterday, along with a message asking our mechanic to call me when he had some, saying I had a tires and oil mystery. He didn’t see me until he was closed up for the day, but called me anyhow.
I told him about the tires on my mother’s car, first, since I’d already taken it in for him to check it earlier, and it’s an ongoing thing. Then I told him about the tires on the truck also being low, which surprised him. We’d had the warnings due to the faulty sensor before, so they’d topped the tires up for me, just in case, before, plus I’d checked the pressure before, because of the warnings I was getting.
Then I told him about the oil suddenly being low.
With that, we talked for a bit about how GM is somewhat different from other vehicles (we’ve never owned a GM before), and while it may appear really low on the dipstick, it’s probably just down one liter, not almost dry. The oily moisture visible in the photo I sent it normal.
As for the tires, while it’s possible that our fluctuating temperatures and humidity levels could be affecting the tires, it is still really strange. At one point I told him, if it weren’t for the lack of physical evidence, I’d think someone were coming in and letting the air out of the tires! His response was, knowing where I live, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was. The thing is, if someone had – even some random vandal – there would have been some sort of evidence visible. With my mother’s car, just getting the doors open to access it would have made it obvious. The doors are sagging slightly and don’t latch properly anymore, so I’ve got an old tire, with a rim still on it, in front of one door, and a metal object of some kind I found in the garage in front of the other, to keep the wind from blowing it open. In theory, they could go through the main part of the garage, as there is a doorway into where my mother’s car is, but I’ve got 6 years of collected aluminum stored in that corner, and there isn’t a lot of room to get around the front of the car. The light switch is by the double doors, too, so if someone went that way – even someone who knows the layout of the garage – they’d be knocking over bags of aluminum in the dark. Plus, there’s that dirt flour that would have shown scuff marks and tracks.
He’s asked me to bring the vehicles in, starting with the truck. He’ll take all the tires off and check them. I’ll bring my mother’s car in, another time. I don’t even need to make an appointment. He just asked me to text him, first. Today is Friday, so I’ll do that on Monday.
He’s as perplexed about the tires as I am. Particularly since it’s now happening on both vehicles!
My regular readers might remember a strange situation we had with my mother’s car.
The first was discovering the left from tire almost completely flat. It was pumped up and seemed fine, until it was suddenly flat again. I took it to the garage to have it checked. They accidentally checked the right front tire, which was fine, but they found nothing wrong with the left front tire, either.
Then, not very long ago, before going to my mother’s, I checked the tires and found all four of them low. This time, it was the rear left tire that was almost flat. I pumped them all up and they were still fine when I checked them again before taking my mother to the hospital for her follow up, just a few days ago.
Now that we’ve got the truck, we’ve got a vehicle with brand new tires. The onboard computer, however, started giving us low tire warnings, right from the start – even though a pressure check showed they were fine. We’re also getting a “service tire monitoring system” warning. After talking to the mechanic, he thinks it’s just a low battery in the monitor. That’s a repair by replacement. The part is not expensive, but replacing the battery was the priority for our budget this month.
The problem with having these warning lights on all the time, though, is not knowing if they’re actually legitimate or not. So when my daughter and I headed to the city today, we paused at a gas station to check the tires.
Three out of four tires were low. One, very low!
???
Then, on the trip home, I saw the oil pressure gauge was low. I am not sure if it was low as we were driving out, but I know for sure it was where it was supposed to be, the last time I drove it. I do normally keep an eye on all the gauges when I drive.
Once we were done driving around and the truck was in the garage, I popped the hood and checked the oil. Which was rather amusing, since I can barely reach the dip stick.
The oil was very low, too!
Yet, there was no evidence of a leak anywhere.
Also, I know the oil had been changed as the truck was prepped for sale, so we are the only ones to have been driving it since then. Same with the tires.
I was going to add oil to the truck, but it uses 5W30, and what we have on hand is 5W40, so I’ll use my mother’s car, tomorrow, and pick up some 5W30 and top up the truck.
And maybe find a stool of some kind that we can keep with the truck, so I can reach further into the engine compartment. I might be able to just reach the dip stick, but I can’t reach the cap to add more oil!
If it weren’t for the fact that there is zero evidence for it, I would think that “someone” has been letting the air out of our tires, but… the oil, too? No. If that was what happened, there have been tracks in the snow (for when it happened with my mother’s car), or scuffs in the dirt floor of the garage around the truck. Plus, the only person I can think of that would do something like this is our vandal, and he’s got too many mobility issues for him to have been able to reach all the tires on my mother’s car (it barely fits into the side of the garage it’s parked in, and can only be accessed from one side). Or slither under the truck to drain the oil into a pan, which is what would have had to have been done for there to be no oil on the ground under the truck.
I am perplexed!!
Aside from that, the day went well.
My daughter and I went to several places. One was a liquidation place I wanted to check out, as I’d heard they got a huge shipment of name brand pet food. It turned out to be mostly dog food, but what cat food we found… well, it may have been a deal from the regular prices for these brands, but they cost more, for less kibble, than what we have been getting at Walmart and Costco. We didn’t get any kibble, but we did get a few other things that were a good price, including a little Christmas tree. Since we will be limiting our Christmas decorating and celebrating to the cat free zone in the living room, I’d been wondering how we would find space for any of our trees. Certainly not the 6′ one, but even the one we’ve been using against the door in the dining room, well above the floor, would have been too big. My daughters have a smaller one they would set up, upstairs, but not with the kittens this year. I think it’s a 4′ tree, which would still be a bit large for what we want to do with the space.
What I got was a red sparkly cone shaped tree with baubles already on it that’s only about 2′ tall. It’ll fit on top of the piano. I later found some plain white string lights for it at Dollarama, and we already have small tree toppers that would work.
An almost instant Christmas tree!
Before we went to the Dollarama, we swung by the international grocery store for some dim sum for “breakfast” – neither of us had eaten yet! Along with the string lights we found at Dollarama, we remembered to get a small garbage can for the truck – my daughter chose one with flowers all over it. 😊 They also had more of the little puppy beds in stock, so we got another one of those, since the cats love the first one I got so much. They are thrilled with the new one, too!
One of the places I wanted to try for our shopping was Fresh Co. I keep hearing how they have such good prices. My daughter had their shopping list, so I just needed some basics. I didn’t find their prices to be all that much better, except for a couple of sales. They had bags of 4 avocados selling for under $2 a bag! These days, you can’t even get a single avocado for under $2! So I got two bags. They also had a brand of butter for under $5 a pound. They had a limit of 4 pounds, but I only got 2, since we still have plenty from the last Costco shopping trip in the freezer. Costco’s price is over $5, but in most places, a pound of butter costs almost $7 a pound – and that’s the cheap house brand or no-name ones. The other brand name butters are much more expensive.
My daughter had a longer list than me, and she wasn’t able to find everything at the Fresh Co, so we went back to the international grocery store, after I filled the gas tank. Today is Thursday, and Domo has 5¢ off per litre on Mondays and Thursdays. The gas prices had also dropped and were 138.9¢/L, so we were paying 133.9¢/L. While my daughter was at the international grocery store, I popped over to a Dollar Tree I hadn’t been to in years, just to check it out.
That done, we were going to head home, when I remembered I needed memory cards for the older trail cam, so we swung by a Staples. I only needed 8gig cards, and two of them, so I can switch cards when I do my morning rounds. The lowest they had in stock was 16gig – and they were almost $20 each! The 32gig cards were cheaper than the 16gig cards, and the sales person that tried to help me said 8gig cards would be even more expensive. I guess nobody buys such low memory cards anymore. I could have gotten even better prices if I were getting micro disks, instead, but those don’t work on the camera. If they did, I could have used the ones I already have on hand.
So now I have a pair of 32gig cards to replace the old 8gig cards for the older trail cam. Here’s hoping they’ll work! I know the cameras generally can’t handle the large memory cards, but that usually starts at 128gigs, if I remember correctly.
Once we have the spare funds, I’ve got my eyes on some solar powered trail cams. They don’t make the model we have now, but I’ve been able to find others where the solar panel powers the camera directly, rather than charging rechargeable batteries, and has regular batteries for when it’s too dark for the solar panel to do the job. There are other features I want, too, but I think that one is the deal breaker for me, when looking at the different models out there. That will mean needing more memory cards. I think I’ll buy them online, along with the camera, when the time comes!
But I digress!
We had ourselves a productive day in the city; my daughter found everything they had on their shopping list, and I got a few extra things as well.
My mom was sent home from the hospital after many hours waiting and several tests. What she thought was the problem turned out to not be the problem – but there is a problem! They couldn’t get a good scan, so she was told they would phone her on Monday with an appointment.
Well, they must have gotten a cancelation or something, because they called this morning! I was planning to phone her this afternoon and let her know I would get her there whenever they called her for. Instead, I got a call from her while in the middle of breakfast!
She is booked for this afternoon. She told them she would need to arrange transportation, and they gave her a number to call if she could not get any.
Then she phoned my brother. The one who is farthest away!!! There was no answer, so she called me. She said they were ignoring her calls. I told her, he was with her all day. He’s got a lot to catch up on and was probably outside. She refuses to believe that. *sigh*
Anyhow.
I will be driving her. I just got back from taking her car out of the garage so I could check her tires. They are fine. It’s still a mystery why they were so low, last time!
I messaged my brother and he called me soon after. It turns out they hit the ground running, early this morning, and have already been to several places in the city. At the time my mother called, they were most likely at the gas station, tanking up. They will be out again for more errands before he can finally catch up on things at home.
My brother just goes, non stop!!!
I had a few things I wanted to get done today, but I will have to get the girls to do most of them. They can’t, however, do my garden analysis posts. My last scheduled post went up today, so my buffer is gone. If there I’d no post tomorrow, it would be because things took longer or something, with my mother!
Now to go see how the gravel roads are with her little car. I’m not looking forward to it!
This morning was pretty routine. As I was finishing up my morning rounds, I was able to get a picture of this handsome fella. Or lady. We don’t know!
One of quite a few black and tuxedo kittens for this year.
Yes. That’s a kitten!
We can’t get near most of them. Unless they have very distinctive and easily seen markings, we can’t tell them apart enough to give them names. I counted 34 cats outside this morning.
This afternoon, my daughter and I headed into town so that she could get used to driving the truck. For all that we saw the grader making passes down the gravel roads twice yesterday, the main road was still sheer ice! You could see snow ridges on the sides of the road and parallel scrapes in the ice in a few places, but for the most part, it looked untouched. WTF? Thankfully, the truck handled it much better than my mother’s car did.
With gravel roads, everyone typically drives down the middle of the road, unless there is oncoming traffic. Most of the roads are just barely wide enough for two vehicles, but we’re next to the “main” gravel road, which is wider and gets more maintenance, due to the higher amounts of traffic it gets. As we were going down that last half mile to our place on the way home, where the ice is the worst, my daughter moved aside as far as she could to let an oncoming car by. She had traction, but we could see the car start to fishtail, while trying to move to one side!
Once in town, we parked and walked to a few different places. I am still trying to find craft materials for the Christmas decorations I’m crocheting this year. I’m almost out of fibre fill, and I hoped to find tiny decorative items I could add to them as finishing touches. At the very least, I hoped to find some Styrofoam balls to use, if I couldn’t find fibre fill. So one of the places we tried was a dollar store. I found a bag of “snow” that I could have used as fibre fill, but it was insanely expensive for what was in the bag. I did find some packages of foam balls, but only needed one. I’ve been using cash lately, so I didn’t even have enough change to buy it. They have a minimum purchase to use debit, and I wasn’t going to buy something I didn’t need, just to use debit, so I didn’t get anything. My daughter found some knitting supplies she wanted, though. With that done, we went to a local store that has the only other supply of yarn in town. While the dollar store has the big name brand yarns, this place has a section of high end, imported wool yarn in remarkable range of colours. Expensive, of course, but worth it for my daughter. I can barely touch the stuff, as it’s a type of wool I react to. I had no idea I was allergic to wool until I tried a high end brand of 100% virgin one time, years ago. I was working on a scarf and had the length draped over my arm as I worked. I developed red welts where the wool touched me that were so defined, you could actually make out the stitch pattern in my flesh! My daughter was able to get a couple of skeins, and then we tried another store. No Christmas crafty stuff there, either. It’s been so strange. I’m looking for stuff I used to be able to find easily, every Christmas, for years. Now, it’s basically just finished decorations, jingle bells, or ornament and craft kits for kids. I might have to go to a Michaels the next time we’re in the city. They are the only dedicated craft store franchise choice we’ve got. I should be able to find at least something I can use, there!
While we were out, I discovered my daughter hadn’t even had breakfast yet, so after dropping her purchases off at the truck, we walked over to one of the restaurants in town that doesn’t close for the winter. We went to a Greek place and ate in, then grabbed a couple extra meals for take out for my husband and other daughter at home.
My daughter, meanwhile, LOVED driving the truck, after we’ve had to use my mother’s car for so long. Excellent visibility, better traction and handling, and no weird noises from the back all the times. Plus, she’s figured out where everything is, so she’ll not have to worry about that when it’s time for her to drive me home after my eye appointment, when my eyes will still be dilated.
While all that was going on, I was keeping in touch with my brother. When I was with my mother yesterday, one of her errands was to talk to the pharmacist. After asking her some questions, he told her she would need to go to a doctor before he could help her. She balked, because the doctor that took her on after our previous doctor moved to another clinic, is not someone she likes. My mother’s racism aside, she has a very strong accent, speaks very quickly, and tends to talk over people instead of listening. My mother mentioned not being able to understand what she was saying. The pharmacist started nodding along. It turns out quite a few of his clients are having troubles understanding this doctor. I had troubles, too, but that’s normal for me, with my auditory processing issues. I’ve only seen her a couple of times; once with my husband and I think only once with my mother. She might be a good medical doctor, I can’t say, but it doesn’t do much good if her patients can’t understand what she’s saying.
So I was going to start making calls on Monday, since I still need a new doctor, too, and see if the closer clinic has the new doctors they were expecting, and if any were open to two new patients. If I couldn’t have made an appointment then, I would have gone back to the other clinic and made an appointment for my mother.
Then I updated my brother on this. He and his wife were quite concerned. A family member had a similar issue that was left untreated for too long and developed sepsis, which is insanely dangerous. They survived, but I believe they were permanently damaged by it. My brother was planning on visiting my mother anyhow, so they looked up a quick care clinic that would be open, and my brother was going to take her there. After calling her first and she agreed, he was on the way when my SIL called the quick care clinic. She was told they had no room to fit her in !!! So my brother decided to take her to the emergency, instead.
They are still there, and it’s been about 4 hours. Another patient there was complaining because they’d been there since 4am and still hadn’t been seen, which means they were in the ER for something like 12 hours before they were seen! Other patients were triaged and rated more urgent and treated first.
My brother has been keeping us updated as much as he can, but he’s basically on baby sitting duty. My mother has said they should just leave a couple of times already, on top of her usual snarky comments, nasty assumptions and insulting behaviour towards others. There’s nowhere they can get food or drink while waiting, without leaving the ER entirely, and then they’d probably have to start all over again, so that’s a problem, too. My brother is going to be completely worn out by the time he gets home! Meanwhile, she’ll probably just get the prescription that the pharmacist couldn’t give her on his own and be sent home. Something the quick care/walk in clinic could have done, too, if they’d been willing to take her.
Hopefully, they will get in soon and be on their way, though it’ll mean my brother will be driving home in full dark, and there are a lot of deer crossing the highways of late! *sigh*
The worst of it is, I know my mother won’t appreciate what my brother is doing for her at all.
Oh, dear. I just found out she got away from my brother, stormed over to the nurses desk and made a scene. The nurse ended up going to the waiting room to make an announcement to everyone to explain their waiting times. It’s at 6 hours now, but had been at 12 hours overnight. To be fair, they’re making a 92 year old woman wait for… going on 5 hours now. You’d think their triage would take that into account, though my mother is easily mistaken as being decades younger.
Welcome to “healthcare” in Canada.
*sigh*
Okay, time to get off the computer for a bit and get some work done, while keeping my phone glued to my pocket as my brother updates us!
The cats are quite enjoying the box I found to better stabilize the platform I rigged up for them as a way to store the wire mesh door we made to keep cats out of the old basement in the summer. The one that reminds me of Nosencrantz so much especially likes to just be a loaf in it! I’m constantly seeing cats milling around under there, though, and they do like that rigid insulation!
Also… I’m not 100% sure I recognize the cat on the left. It’s getting so hard to tell some of them apart!
I counted “only” 34 outside cats this morning.
As for the inside cats, Tiny, aka: The Beast, is now big enough that it’s safe to let her out of isolation. With the loss of Snorri, we no longer have to keep the door to my bedroom/office closed, even overnight. Tiny has been thrilled with her new freedom to explore the rest of the house.
The rest of the cats are thrilled to be able to go into my room again. As I write this, there are currently 8 of them asleep on my bed, with all but one of them in a single, huge pile of fur!
Gotta get more adoptions done!!!
Anyhow…
The plan for today was to help my mother with errands so, while doing my rounds, I took the time to open the doors to where her car is parked and give it a quick check.
I almost immediately noticed the back tire on the driver’s side looked awfully low. The tire that had gone flat before was the front driver’s side tire, so this was not expected at all.
The car barely fits in this addition to the garage, so I backed it out, then checked the tire pressure.
It was only 10psi!!
So I pumped it up, but saw no sign of a leak anywhere. I checked the front driver’s side tire, and it was really low, too, though not enough to be noticeably flat.
Of course, I checked the other two, and they were slightly on the slow side, too.
The bizarre thing is, when I took the car in to get that tire checked, the employee that worked on it thought it was the passenger side tire that was leaking and was done checking it when I returned to the garage. I told him it was the driver’s side tire, so he took that one off. He could not find a leak in either of them. All the tires, however, were topped up with air, just in case. I was there to see it done.
So why would all four tires be low, with one practically flat? We even used the car a few days ago, when we had to pick the truck up from getting its new battery.
I’m so glad I took the time to check on her car, so far in advance of needing it! With all the driving around I did with my mother, the tires have held their psi. No evidence of leaks, anywhere.
Very strange.
If it weren’t for the fact that we have snow on the ground that would have given evidence, I would be concerned that a certain “someone” made their way into the garage and let the air out. As it is, the only foot prints in the snow have been our own.
Another reason I am glad I checked the tires.
Road conditions sucked.
But only the gravel roads, and only those sections shaded by trees. They were sheer ice! Even though I was driving slowly and cautiously, ever now and then, the car would suddenly start fishtailing. Not much, thankfully, and not for long, but enough to be a concern. The last thing I’d want is to hit either ditch on the sides of these roads. They are very deep and very steep! The chances of being able to drive out, even with 4 wheel drive, are very low.
We got a light and fluffy snowfall overnight, which didn’t help matters.
Even on the highway, for the first while, I was not confident driving at the speed limit for quite some time.
Oh, how I wished to be driving the truck, instead!!!
Thankfully, today turned out to be warmer than forecast – again – and the paved roads melted clear by the time I was heading home.
Except the gravel roads, where were even slipperier!
As I was reaching the intersection by our place, though, I saw the grader coming through. Our section of the road had just been done. He had to move aside for me to be able to turn in, so at least the last 200 ft or so was good!
This should have been done long ago. People are really upset with our current municipal counsel. For some reason, they didn’t go with the usual company for road maintenance – a local company that has all the equipment and storage facilities on hand, and had done an excellent job of keeping our roads cleared and safe as quickly as possible, every year we’ve been here. Instead, they’ve decided to lease a grader, rent someone’s space to store it, for a ludicrous monthly fee – and a 125 hour limit. Oh, and they’d have to hire a driver each time, too. They only got the grader today, which means for the past while, roads like ours have been just left as they were. It got so bad in areas that the school division would not allow buses to drive on them, for safety reasons.
Which means parents on these dangerous roads had to drive their kids, however many miles, to meet the bus at the highway, instead.
Hopefully, it will no longer be an issue for the rest of the winter.
Anyhow.
Since I was there with the car, my mother wanted to do as many errands as she could, so we stopped at quite a few places. For all that my mother is 92, uses a walker, frequently complains about how bad her knees are (but won’t wear her brace), and is clearly struggling at times, once she gets going, she is really hard to keep up with! At the grocery store, we’ve switched from her using the shopping cart as a walker, to her using her walker and me pushing the cart, so that she has the option of sitting down if she needs to. Once she gets going, though, she just races off! Unfortunately, she’s one of those people who doesn’t really watch out for others or, if she does see them, all but barrels right through them. Yikes!!
We got it all done, though, and she was quite glad to get home and finally rest!
For me, it was just a stop at the gas station, then home, and I was sure glad to be home, too!
I thought I could look forward to taking it easy for the next while, but…
There was an answering machine message when I got home. A reminded for my eye appointment on Monday. I was very glad to get it! I have my phone set to send me a reminder 1 day in advance, so I wouldn’t have forgotten or missed the appointment. However, my eyes will be dilated for a field of vision test, which means I have to get my daughter to drive me home.
Other than parking in the garage, she has yet to drive the truck.
So tomorrow, we’ll be heading out for her to do some practise driving. Pretty much everything is in different places from any other vehicle we’ve driven. It’s also just a few inches wider and longer than the van – just enough to really affect getting in and out of parking spaces, or taking turns. It won’t take long for her to get used to it, but better to do that in advance, then when I need her to drive me home because I’ll essentially be blinded.
I just checked my calendar and see I have a reminder to get my bloodwork done on the same day my husband’s CPP Disability comes in, before Christmas instead of after. That, at least, is not an appointment. I just need to show up at the clinic and ask for the requisition for that should be on file, then step across the hall to the lab to do the tests. Since I will likely be doing our first January stock up shopping that day, and don’t usually have breakfast until I’ve reached the city, I can swing by on the way and get the bloodwork done while still technically fasting.
Then there’s the extra city trip that my daughters will need next week.
Good grief. I try to keep the winter months as close to home as possible, but this year it looks like our December is going to be filled with outings!
So, I ended up having to make a trip into town this morning.
This bugger is part of the reason why.
If she would only let us near her, Brussel could be adopted out right away! She’s such a beauty, too, even if she does look ready to bite off my face. 😂
It’s interesting how the different cats have their preferred eating spaces. I try to spread things out, both inside the sun room and outside. I started putting kibble on the well cap, and the calicos – especially Brussel, here – prefer to eat there over the kibble house or the cat house roof. They almost never go into the sun room, or even the cat house. I don’t know where they hide out during the day, but I think it’s somewhere in the outer yard. Brussel will at least come to the well cap and closer to the house, regularly. Her sister, Sprout, barely even does that, and prefers to eat under the shrine – and even then, only after I am well away!
It’s chillier out, so the yard cats need more food than in the summer, which means we were running out of kibble again. Even with giving them lighter feedings, the bin would have been emptied this evening. I could have taken from the bin for the inside cats, but that one was getting low, and I didn’t want to empty it, too. The problem is, my husband’s CPP Disability payment doesn’t come in until tomorrow, which is when I will be doing our Costco shopping trip. His SunLife payment comes in on the last business day of the month, so that’s when I’ll go into the city again to do the other stock up shopping. I could have juggled some numbers; when I worked out the budget for the month, I always round up, so that there is wiggle room. Unfortunately. At least there would be, if there weren’t some odd purchases coming out. For example, for the second month in a row now, we got two Audible payments processed. One appears to be from a Canadian account, and one from a US account. My husband has an Audible subscription, but only one, so why are we being billed twice, with one clearly being converted from US dollars? I’ll have to call the bank about that and see what’s going on.
Anyhow.
My daughter was a sweetheart and was able to send an e-transfer that was enough to get some more kibble. We also just switched out one of our 18.9L/5 gallon drinking water jugs, so we had two empties that I refilled as well.
After I was done at the grocery store, I started the truck and the check engine line was on again. So I turned it off and set up the OBDII scanner. I didn’t do a full scan, though. The one we have now allows other options, including scanning just the check engine light. It took maybe a minute or two, and I got the same codes as before, that I already talked to our mechanic about. This is a “too rich fuel” reading that turns itself on and off. When it was on before and I got him to check it, he said it should clear itself. Which it did, after I filled the tank. Then it turned on again after another top up, only to be off the next time I used the truck. It’s been off ever since, until today. This time, when I cleared the codes, it turned off and it stayed off.
While doing a scan, the engine is off, but the key is in the half way position, where you can use the electrical system and see the displays on the console. Which is why I got a surprise warning on the onboard computer.
“Battery is low. Please start the engine.”
!!!???
Again????
Of course, this battery is brand new and was fully charged when it was installed. I started the engine, and the battery gauge showed me it was charging just fine. The alternator is not the problem.
Since it was just across the road, I drove over to the garage to talk to our mechanic – leaving the engine running while I went in!
He is perplexed. He’s gone over the truck a few times, now, and he can’t think of anything that would be draining the battery. I know we didn’t have any lights left on or anything like that. It’s not the first vehicle he’s encountered that would have these warnings come up, for no reason he could find. The last one he had it happen on was an Escalade. After talking to him for a while, it basically came down to, watch and see, and if it happens again, call him.
As we were talking, he remembered a gadget he now carries that he thinks we might want to pick up. A portable booster. We have booster cables, but they’re not much good if you don’t have another vehicle to connect with. Especially living in the boonies like we do. The one he showed me was a power pack with booster cables as well as other things, like the ability to charge devices with USB. Something like that would definitely be good to have in our vehicle emergency kit! I’ve since had a chance to look some of these up, and found a larger portable device that included an air compressor as well. The price was good, too, though it’s not something we can get any time soon with our current budget.
The truck seemed just fine in all other respects. For all I know, it could be a sensor issue.
While there, I remembered to ask about my seatbelt problem. He remembered I’d asked him about it in a text, but wasn’t sure what I was talking about. I described to him how the driver’s side seatbelt just doesn’t want to click into place. I keep having to push and wiggle and push again until the buckle finally latches – though I’ve had it come undone a couple of times, even then. Never while driving, though, but immediately after it latched and I was adjusting the seatbelt tension around my body.
This is not something he normally fixes at all. He did have a suggestion I didn’t even think of. Use a flashlight and see if something had fallen into where the latch is. Yeah, that could cause the problem! Then, if we didn’t find anything obvious, try a bit of WD40. Something to do tomorrow, before I head into the city.
Meanwhile, once I got home and things were brought inside, I was able to give the cats another light feeding, so I could safely drive the truck out of the yard and park it in the garage!
We need to do something about these cats. I counted 34 or 35 this morning. We’re spending more on cat food now than we are on truck payments. It may even be more than we are spending on actual food for ourselves. Our trips to the grocery store usually includes non-food items, like household products, persona hygiene products and the like. With how much food prices are going up, we haven’t been able to get the extra stock up items of the pantry the way we used to. I’ve even tried looking up Canadian wholesale pet food suppliers, and the few places I found that had online sales, the prices were no better than retail prices in the stores, so there’s no point. Even Amazon prices are higher than what I can get at Costco. I suppose I could go to that livestock feed store again and get the 16kg bags they carry that’s cheap, but the quality is so low, even the outside cats didn’t like to eat it. It’s much the same with the economy bags of kibble at Walmart. Sure, it’s cheaper per kg, but that doesn’t mean much if the quality sucks so much, the cats don’t want to eat it unless they’re practically starving. Which means it’s also likely to be quite unhealthy for them, too.
But what can we do? This year, we actually have people wanting to adopt some of our outdoor female cats as mousers on their own property, and they’ve have a better living situation than we can give them, but we have been unsuccessful in socializing them – and no one wants male yard cats, who are more likely to roam, no matter how friendly they are, it seems. It’s gotten to the point where we are going to have to seriously consider looking at how to humanely euthanize them. We could contact the municipality, and they’d send someone over with a rifle. Which can be humane, but only if they are a really good shot! Even then, no matter how good a shot they are, these are small, moving targets.
I can’t believe I’m even considering this, but the situation is getting untenable. It’s not just a matter of the cost of feeding them. It’s not healthy for them, either. The more there are, the more sick cats there will be – and we’ve lost so many more this year, than any year before! Without those losses – the ones we know of! – we’d probably have more like 50 yard cats right now.
*sigh*
I hope to be able to talk to the Cat Lady about it before any decisions are made. They’re moving to a new home seems to be falling through. They got financing for the new house, but have not been able to sell the old one. They’ve had many offers, and every one has fallen through. People just have not been able to get financing. They have until the end of the month. If they don’t get a buyer before then, they have to give up the new place and stay where they are. Meanwhile, they are still paying to board almost all their own cats, too!
Which reminds me. One of the sick kittens they took from us, got vet care for, then adopted out, came back. This is the white and grey one. While it was recovered, it was going to have a lifetime of relapses, which would have required antibiotics probably a couple of times a year. Which turned out to be too much for the woman who adopted him. So, the Cat Lady said she’d take him back. !!! Their dog is very happy about this, it seems. They had really bonded, and he was clearly missing him. This was a kitten that they fell in love with and really struggled to say good bye to. This does however, make the 5th cat from us, if I remember correctly, that they are keeping permanently! I’m afraid to tell her about any other cats or kittens we have to adopt out! By the time they get the cats fixed and get vet care, too many of them are turning out to have invisible health problems, and no one wants to adopt them. They also have pair of bonded kittens from us that they tried to adopt out together, but one of them turned out to have heart problems, so they’re keeping both.
*sigh*
Once their situation settles down, I’ll talk to the Cat Lady again about borrowing a trap and trying to get some of the female yard cats. This has been a mild enough winter, we could risk it. We could even rig up shelter around the trap somehow, but we really need to try and get them caught and spayed before they go into heat again.
It’s either that, or we start looking into more permanent actions, and I really don’t want to go that route.
The Re-Farmer 