Pink Poogle Toy Forum

I'd be on day 4 today, so I'll skip and rejoin you guys - but just sharing what I earned, not tracking! And if I need to miss a day, no pressure!

(Oh, waiit... I'm assuming by Pickles's post yesterday was actually day 25 for her? Not day 24? Then that means I can't sync up. Phooey. Guess I'll just be ahead and sync up next time. But I'll wait for confirmation before spinning today.)

Day 25: 100k

0: 12 (158,375)
2: 9 (158,000)
3: 3 (45,000)
4: 0
Gift boxes: 1
BLB: Day 7
Total: 460,375

High on record: 463,750
Low on record: 451,375


Bummer, Blue! I was just coming on to say I'd wait a few days to get in sync with you.

So, Siniri, do I need to skip tomorrow so we can all sync up, or are we good to start tomorrow (7/30)? It'd be awesome if we were all in sync again!

Yeah. Yesterday was really busy and was capped off with an urgent, "do it now" fix the car brakes situation. So, started the brake job last night at about 8:30pm. Sure enough, the pad wear indicator was somehow missing, the brake pad material was gone. Metal to metal, chewing into the rotor. I knew it. That sound is unmistakable. Rotor wasted. Honda likes to put two Philips Flathead screws on their rotors which will never come off after 200k miles* (Yes, I got 200k miles on these rotors), so they had to be drilled out. Fun. They have a huge head on them... And, since it is best to always replace rotors in pairs, the other side of the car had to be drilled out, too. Whee. It is fun to keep applying oil to the drill bit watching oil flow all over where oil should never be when driving... (Not to worry... spray brake cleaner is an awesome substance. Cleans it all off like nobody's business). No other major issues, though. Since the caliper bracket was off, I went ahead and ultra-cleaned them and replaced the slide pin booties while I was there. But... the whole process took much longer than desired, finally driving the car around the block a few times to set in the breaks just after midnight... too late to spin. But, my car's back brakes were happy, happy, happy for the drive in to work this morning

I can definitely wait a day as well if we can all sync up again! That would be awesome.

*Had to drill out the screws on the front rotors multiple years ago. Maybe had 60k or 70k miles on the car at that time, so I pretty much knew this was going to be needed for the back rotors. I did have false hope and tried for a little while to get them off via conventional means. Very little while.

Even more useless info - I had actually bought the rear rotors at the same time when I first replaced the front rotors at ~75k miles. When moving from the front axle to the back axle, the rear rotors did not need to be replaced, so the new rear rotors have ridden in my trunk for the last 7 years or so. Had the pad not completely worn out and destroyed the one rotor, they would still be riding in the trunk. Actually glad that they are no longer in my trunk. Also very glad I did not need to run out at 9pm to buy new rotors, or I would have finished up the job even later into the night/morning.

Very useless info - I am really tired today.

I accidentally spun today after asking if I should skip today... So if we all skip tomorrow (Thursday), we'd be synced up!

Wow, Blue, that's quite the saga! My adventure yesterday was far less entertaining... I was studying for my correction exercise specialization for my certified personal training, and the power went out during a severe thunderstorm! All my studying materials are online, so I called a friend who's a (mostly furloughed) pilot to borrow his. His mom had just flown in, so I sequestered myself in his son's bedroom (the wife and kids are visiting relatives this week) for social distancing purposes, and then came back home when my power came back. Thankfully my friend only lives a 5-minute drive away! (And I passed my test just a couple of hours before the course expired!)

The same kid whose bedroom I borrowed saved me from my own harrowing car trouble experience 1.5 weeks ago. We were outside looking at his car, and he pointed towards my car and asked "What's that?" and my eyes zeroed in on the bulging sidewall on my right rear tire. (He was actually talking about something on the driveway, which I never did look at!) (^_^;)

Suffice it to say, I drove it straight home, canceled my evening plans (outdoor socially distanced candlelight vigil for John Lewis along the road recently named for him, plus grocery shopping), and made an appointment. The drive to the tire place was nervewracking the next morning, and the 2-mile walk from work to pick up the car in the evening was HOT (my employer picked me up from the tire place in the morning). I was bummed about missing the vigil, but I was not about to risk a blowout! That doesn't fall under "good trouble"!

Sorry for the silly stories; I fell asleep on the couch and woke myself up enough to get to bed, so I'm really tired, too.

(It's very impressive how much of your own maintenance you do, Blue. I had to pay the female tax because I had them do my 125k mile maintenance, and I missed where replacing the sparkplugs was on the list - and that they'd charge me over $200 for it! I was like, dude, that takes five minutes, and I know four sparkplugs don't cost that much! Maaaaybeeeee they're harder to access on a Prius? Probably not... And they often don't need replacing - you can usually just clean them a bit, and they last forever. *sigh* I did at least manage to avoid the ripoff for the cabin air filter. I was like, "I can do that myself." She was like "It's hard to get to." "It's behind the glove box; there are 2 connection points and the whole thing takes less than five minutes." She wrote on the order "Boss is going to change them herself!"

Now I have to actually go buy a cabin air filter and actually change it... Anyway, I'm chalking it up to one of those random costs of the pandemic, because usually I go through the whole list, look up how to do everything, and then decide what I'm actually willing to pay for (basically anything that would require me to get under the car or remove engine parts), but with social distancing, I never really got to see the whole list. At least the maintenance is done; it was 6k miles overdue...) (^_^;)

Okay, that was a whole other story! To bed, Siniri!

Fun stories! I'm afraid that I'm not very good with cars at all. I believe I could change a tire if I needed to, though it's been years since I've had to do so on my own, so there's that? My uncle would be ashamed of me if he knew, because he still works on his older cars and keeps them running on his own.

I'm afraid I don't have any from this week. Last week...that's another story. I think our kids were out to get us. But this week it's been just trying to get through each day. I've not been getting enough good sleep (lots of freakishly real nightmares) and I'm hoping for a nap this afternoon. Maybe that'll help? My body is ready to just shut down on me.

I am consciously skipping today. I have cleared the reminder so I won't spin.

I shall not spin today, and will resume tomorrow (Friday 7/31).

@Siniri - Good job on noticing the tire bulge, and even better as to how you handled it safely! Try not to worry about missing the spark plug cost. While $200 seems a little steep, from a little checking, you really should use the OEM plug for best performance/least risk to engine. Best price on the recommended spark plugs for your car I found was ~$30 for the set of 4. I also highly recommend using a proper click torque wrench for spark plugs. They are going into a nice "soft" aluminum block. Munging up those threads will definitely ruin your day and cost a ton to fix. Lowest price decent 250 in-lb torque wrench I found on Amazon is $45. (I think I paid ~$80 for mine at Home Depot years ago). After a little more digging, it appears to be a bit of a pain to replace the plugs. Some sort of box needs to be moved out of the way, and you need a 5" extension for your socket wrench (~$8 on Amazon for a 1/4" drive set). At this point, you are nearing $90 for the parts and tools. Now, you are only saving $100. Without digging deeper, I am guessing it is 3-5 hours of "figuring it out for the first time". Sure, the next time on this car will be faster, but if the plugs only get changed every 120k miles, then you will not likely need to to them again. Sure, the torque wrench will come in handy for other repairs, but you've lived this long with out it, right? LOL... At least you have the piece of mind that they are done - in theory, they were also done right - and they'll last you a good long time. Cabin filter on the other hand... easy peasy - once you figure out the trick. Next time will be even easier.

@P -Hopefully, you are sleeping when I click 'Submit'.

I just almost accidentally spun because of the notification! Keep that hand away!

Thanks, Blue! I actually told myself that maybe they were buried and harder to get to in this car - and maybe there were some kind of special circumstances for disconnecting the hybrid battery. Maintenance tends to cost more on this car, but be required less, so that it washes out in the end (except for the electronics issues... never buy a 2005, apparently). Actually, Blue, did I ask you about the radio already? How much do you know about troubleshooting electronics? Maybe I can pick your brain via PM?

I actually thought I needed new shocks/engine mounts, but they failed to find those issues this time, so... I'll save the money for the next time.

I fully expect to still be driving this car in another 120k miles, by the way. I know people who've gotten 400k+ miles from their Priuses! (I probably won't push it that far...)

Pickles, I read about some of your joys last week on FB. Glad this week is going better! You think kids are smart and rational and bright, and then sometimes they remind you that their brains just don't quite function like ours do. And they tend to do it in bunches. Eventually the things that make you want to tear your hair out might become your fondest memories. Or at least a good guilt-tripping source for when they're older! I hope you got good, dreamless sleep.

Pick away!

Sounds like I need to venture to FB to see what's happening... Perhaps tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day. I shall make it a good one

Staying on topic... I did not spin today

Day 1: 2k

Day 1: Match 2, 2k

0: 0
2: 1 (2,000)
3: 0
4: 0
Gift boxes:
BLB: Day
Total: 2,000

High on record: 463,750
Low on record: 451,375

I did manage to get a nap yesterday, though it was a little later than when you submitted, Blue. I'm still pretty exhausted, though.

Biggest Little P's infractions were against several of our walls (irritating to deal with but manageable, will require texture and fresh paint), but more drastically, against the piano I inherited from my grandma. I have EVERY intention of telling that story to all of my kid's eventual spouses, and potential grandchildren. Especially since one day, one of them will inherit the piano...and will know that their daddy/uncle scratched "Zorro" onto the top of the lid and "(Biggest Little P's name)'s Secret Hideout" on the back side of it where he's taken to sitting and reading. We've gotten the words off, but it'll need a fresh coat of lacquer in those area...sigh. I'm glad we had NOT refinished the entire thing when we had it refurbished, or I would've been suuuuuper upset. They like to try our patience, that's for sure!

Ouch re: the piano, P! Glad you were able to get the words out. Hopefully they've all learned their lesson about not writing on furniture!

Blue, I hope you managed to spin yesterday!

Day 2: 2.5k

Day 2: no matches, 2.5k

0: 1 (2,500)
2: 1 (2,000)
3: 0
4: 0
Gift boxes:
BLB: Day
Total: 4,500

High on record: 463,750
Low on record: 451,375

I sure how they've learned their lesson about scratching on things. Ugh. And playing with water outside the bathtub/bathroom. And quite a few other more minor lessons that were learned last week.

Not sure what happened to my post yesterday. It was a genuine masterpiece! Or not.

Day 1... No matches, 1.5k
Day 2... 2 matches, 3k

0: 1 (1,500)
2: 1 (3,000)
3: 0
4: 0

BLB: N/A
Gift Boxes: N/A

Total: 4.5k

Low on record: 451,375
High on record: 464,750

Glad you were able to get the writing off of the piano, and glad you had deferred the refinishing! That would have been heartbreaking.

...water outside the tub? Oy. That doesn't sound so good, either.

Kids. LOL. There's no training in the world that can prepare you for everything they do. Their brains definitely work differently than our adult brains. My mother could tell you many stories about how creative I was as a kid

Still no radio, Siniri? For some reason, I thought you had swapped that out. I still say, get the junkyard pull. Two huge benefits - 1. It is much cheaper than the other alternatives, and 2. you get to practice taking it out from a car that you truly do not care if you mess up on accident. It is a fantastic trial run. I did that twice when getting a used carburetor for the '86 Honda in my garage. From that, I learned several things... 1. it's a PITA to get out, 2. its hard to NOT damage things around it. 3. I really don't want to pull the carb that is in my car in progress. and 4... I bought a "new" professionally refurbished carburettor to put in No way I want to try and rebuild it and trust it for daily driving and passing smog check. I may still rebuild the carb I take out, but just for the experience. Or not. So many projects, so little time.

Oh, right, you already gave me advice on it! I literally don't know how to "go to a junkyard and pull one out." Do you just call around junk yards and ask if they have those kinds of cars in them? And then go there with tools and try to remove it, and then they'll charge you based on what you pull out?

Since I do want to fix the center console thingy, anyway (and order that new/refurbished), I may as well get a radio so I can tackle both jobs at once. And it will be great practice for getting to the part I really want fixed, even if the radio doesn't pan out.

Oh, 4.5k (no matches) today.

Day 3: match 2, 5k

0: 1 (2,500)
2: 2 (7,000)
3: 0
4: 0
Gift boxes:
BLB: Day
Total: 9,500

High on record: 463,750
Low on record: 451,375