Sunday, October 22, 2006
Quicken 2006 came on a computer I bought earlier this year, but I chose not to use it because it doesn't sync with the version of PocketQuicken that I use on my Palm. However, a few months ago I wanted to download some transactions from my bank, and found out that Quicken 2003 is no longer supported by Quicken, and so if I wanted to download transactions I would have to upgrade. Sigh. So, I had to upgrade PocketQuicken, too. The advantages of upgrading are minimal other than being able to download transactions, so that was basically blackmail by Intuit making me upgrade from a software package that is only three years old that I was perfectly content with. And now, I find out that PocketQuicken (new version whatever-it-is) has a glitch in it, as shown below.
I was using it earlier this evening, and all was okay. But when I turned the Palm on a few minutes ago I got the following image:
I browsed over to the accounts page, and it looked okay. I came back to the register, and then it looked like this:
I have already been in discussion with Landware about this quirk (not the first time I have seen it), and so I looked at the preferences page to see the font sizes. Look at the font that is selected:
The good news is that it is easy to fix. Just exit the program and launch it again.
2 comments
I was using it earlier this evening, and all was okay. But when I turned the Palm on a few minutes ago I got the following image:
I browsed over to the accounts page, and it looked okay. I came back to the register, and then it looked like this:
I have already been in discussion with Landware about this quirk (not the first time I have seen it), and so I looked at the preferences page to see the font sizes. Look at the font that is selected:
The good news is that it is easy to fix. Just exit the program and launch it again.
2 comments
Thursday, October 19, 2006
I flew down to Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday and returned yesterday. I noticed as I left the airport in Columbus on Tuesday that there were long lines for security, and so when I returned on Wednesday I was sure to arrive a few minutes early in case the lines were long again. They were -- it took about 20 to 25 minutes to get through the line. I could have flown into Cincinnati instead of Columbus. I wonder if someone will start monitoring security wait times at different airports. It might affect my travel plans.
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Monday, October 16, 2006
I found the tool to dissassemble the brake caliper at AutoZone after church on Sunday. I looked at PepBoys first, but couldn't find one there. I spent Sunday afternoon getting the brake carrier out of the caliper and into a vise where I could work on it without worrying about bending it. Got the pins out and cleaned up, and then put it all back together before evening church services except for putting the hubcap on and putting the tools away. Finished up after church and took the van for a test drive. Drove it to work today. Great to have it back on the road.
2 comments
2 comments
Saturday, October 14, 2006
I haven't been taking very good care of my cars, I guess, and managed to run down the front brake pads on my 1993 Eurovan all the way to the metal. I ordered some replacement pads that arrived on Tuesday, but when I went out to replace the pads I found out the wrong ones had shipped. However, since I was already thinking about the job, I decided to go ahead and pull the old ones off. The job is supposed to be very simple: just pull the tire, remove a wire retaining spring, drive out two pins, replace pads, put it all back together, maybe 20 minutes of time.
Ha! Everything went smooth until I tried to drive out the two little pins. Tap tap tap. Wham Wham Wham. Oil oil oil. Wham wham wham. Oh oh, head of pin is starting to mushroom. Try the air gun. Nope. Put more WD-40 on the pins and let it sit until today. I received the correct brake pads yesterday, but I spent most of the evening replacing the rear pads on the 2003 Eurovan. I tried every trick in the book to get the pins out, including heating them up to the point the caliper piston dust cover started to smoke. Nothing. I finally decided I was going to have to remove the brake carrier from the car and separate it from the caliper so that I could get the piece up on a work bench where I could heat it up without worrying about ruining any of the rubber bits, or, worst case, cut the pins off and drill them out of the brake carrier. So, I removed the large bolts that hold the carrier onto the wheel, removed the two bolts that hold the caliper onto the carrier, and learned that the carrier and caliper won't come apart without unbolting the caliper into its two halves. But wait, these are not regular bolts, they are 12-point socket bolt, and I don't have a wrench that will fit it. So, off to Sears on the motorcycle in 40 degree weather since Philip got his drivers license today and took the only other vehicle that runs to work. Guess what? Sears doesn't make or sell multipoint socket wrenches. Now what? The closest autoparts store open this late on a Saturday is too far to ride on the motorcycle without freezing, but Home Depot might have something. I rode over there, and sure enough, they didn't have anything either. Argh! Back to the garage and I inspect the caliper some more and decide that if I remove the outside brake pad it looks like I may be able to get the carrier apart from the caliper. The only way to remove the outside pad is to cut the metal away where the pins go through the pad. I got one side cut through when my dremel tool cutting disk broke. Frustrated
pretty much out of my mind, I decided to give the right side of the vehicle a go. The pins on that side were a bit frustrating, but I was able to drive them out eventually. I had to clean them up some with a file, but I put anti-seize compound on them and put the right side back together with the new pads. Took an hour or less. Why won't the other side come apart?! Found another dremel tool cutting disk and cut the brake pad all the way out, only to find out that even though the carrier and caliper come much further apart then they used to, I still can't get the carrier to fit through the opening in the caliper. I guess I will have to find the special tool after all, which means I have to give up on the job for tonight. The picture below shows the offending pins (with the mushrooming ends) stuck in the brake carrier (the fixed part of the brake that bolts to the back of the wheel hub), the caliper that free floats and has the piston in it that compresses the brake pads against the rotor, and on the top of the caliper you can see the edge of three of the four multi-point bolts that will have to come out to be able to break the caliper into two pieces. Once in two pieces I should be able to get the carrier out and to a location where I can get the pins out. The whole contraption is normally at the front side of the rotor, but I have it sitting on top of the rotor since the carrier is unbolted, and I don't want to disconnect the brake fluid hoses if I don't have to.
2 comments
Ha! Everything went smooth until I tried to drive out the two little pins. Tap tap tap. Wham Wham Wham. Oil oil oil. Wham wham wham. Oh oh, head of pin is starting to mushroom. Try the air gun. Nope. Put more WD-40 on the pins and let it sit until today. I received the correct brake pads yesterday, but I spent most of the evening replacing the rear pads on the 2003 Eurovan. I tried every trick in the book to get the pins out, including heating them up to the point the caliper piston dust cover started to smoke. Nothing. I finally decided I was going to have to remove the brake carrier from the car and separate it from the caliper so that I could get the piece up on a work bench where I could heat it up without worrying about ruining any of the rubber bits, or, worst case, cut the pins off and drill them out of the brake carrier. So, I removed the large bolts that hold the carrier onto the wheel, removed the two bolts that hold the caliper onto the carrier, and learned that the carrier and caliper won't come apart without unbolting the caliper into its two halves. But wait, these are not regular bolts, they are 12-point socket bolt, and I don't have a wrench that will fit it. So, off to Sears on the motorcycle in 40 degree weather since Philip got his drivers license today and took the only other vehicle that runs to work. Guess what? Sears doesn't make or sell multipoint socket wrenches. Now what? The closest autoparts store open this late on a Saturday is too far to ride on the motorcycle without freezing, but Home Depot might have something. I rode over there, and sure enough, they didn't have anything either. Argh! Back to the garage and I inspect the caliper some more and decide that if I remove the outside brake pad it looks like I may be able to get the carrier apart from the caliper. The only way to remove the outside pad is to cut the metal away where the pins go through the pad. I got one side cut through when my dremel tool cutting disk broke. Frustrated
pretty much out of my mind, I decided to give the right side of the vehicle a go. The pins on that side were a bit frustrating, but I was able to drive them out eventually. I had to clean them up some with a file, but I put anti-seize compound on them and put the right side back together with the new pads. Took an hour or less. Why won't the other side come apart?! Found another dremel tool cutting disk and cut the brake pad all the way out, only to find out that even though the carrier and caliper come much further apart then they used to, I still can't get the carrier to fit through the opening in the caliper. I guess I will have to find the special tool after all, which means I have to give up on the job for tonight. The picture below shows the offending pins (with the mushrooming ends) stuck in the brake carrier (the fixed part of the brake that bolts to the back of the wheel hub), the caliper that free floats and has the piston in it that compresses the brake pads against the rotor, and on the top of the caliper you can see the edge of three of the four multi-point bolts that will have to come out to be able to break the caliper into two pieces. Once in two pieces I should be able to get the carrier out and to a location where I can get the pins out. The whole contraption is normally at the front side of the rotor, but I have it sitting on top of the rotor since the carrier is unbolted, and I don't want to disconnect the brake fluid hoses if I don't have to.2 comments
Thursday, October 12, 2006
About this time 
every year the weather forecasters start talking about possible snow, but it is always wishful thinking on their part. Well, not this year. When Philip and I got up this morning to go exercise we found out there was about two inches of snow on the ground. It was kind of pretty, but not something I was really ready for. At least the roads were so warm there wasn't any sticking on the road. I guess it was smart to finish the patio under the deck earlier this week.0 comments
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
When I arrived home from Allentown on Friday I was informed by my wife that it is supposed to get cold and start to
rain this week -- even some threats of snow -- so she suggested finishing our outdoor project while the weather was still nice. That would be the patio under the deck we started on Labor Day. So, Saturday morning Joyce, Philip, Cara and I went out in the backyard about 10 and started digging up the rest of the dirt from under the deck. Joyce and Cara worked on spreading the dirt around some low places in the yard. By about 3 PM we had all the dirt removed and it was time to hook the trailer to the van to get some timber for edging material and sand for the base. I calculated I needed 40 cubic feet of sand for a 2" bed. When we got to Home Depot I learned that they sell sand in 50lb bags, and each bag is 1/2 a cubic foot. A pallet of sand has 63 bags, so we bought a pallet plus 17 bags (4000 lbs!). We loaded the 17 loose bags of sand into the van and the pallet of 63 bags on the trailer along with the 46' of treated 6x6 lumber. Well, my trailer only has a 3500 lb axle, so the tires were almost rubbing on the fenders of the trailer. We moved several more bags from the pallet to the van to even out the load a bit, and carefully headed towards the house (on 10 year-old dry-rotted under-inflated trailer tires -- I was sweating a bit). After digging out all the dirt for the timbers, cutting them, and setting them in place, we dumped out all 80 bags of sand. It was dark by this time.
On Sunday, our kids -- being somewhat smarter than we are -- went to friends' houses for the afternoon and left us to work on the project by ourselves. After a nice lunch at Panera Bread Joyce and I went home and hooked the trailer back up to the van (this time with properly inflated tires!) and headed back to Home Depot. We needed about 240 SF of paving stones, but a single pallet of 12" red river stones has 144 pavers and weighs about 3000 lbs. Since 240 pavers would be well over the weight limit of the trailer, I decided to just buy one pallet and get the other pavers later. When we got home we started to put the pavers down and found out that one of the timbers was set about 2" too high on one end. Once we corrected that we started to set the paving stones. I worked until it was dark and Joyce helped until it was time for her to go pick up the kids from church on Sunday night.
Monday I left work early and came home and worked on setting the paving stones until it got dark -- I actually ran out of stones right as it was dark. After dinner Philip and I went to Home Depot to buy the remaining 81 stones we needed -- only Home Depot only had 76 left. So we bought 76. Joyce and kids also 10 additional bags of sand since it didn't look to me like we would have enough. The weather forecast indicated it would probably start raining this evening, and so I decided to stay home from work today and finish the patio. I basically spent all day working on it, and got it done about 5:30 PM, including a few minutes to try to change the brake pads on my van (that's another story for another day). Joyce bought the extra paving stone I needed from Lowes. So, the small picture above is a link to some pictures of the finished product. It is nice to have this job done, even if we only get to enjoy the work until we move to Texas in a couple of months. Maybe it will help the house sell.
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rain this week -- even some threats of snow -- so she suggested finishing our outdoor project while the weather was still nice. That would be the patio under the deck we started on Labor Day. So, Saturday morning Joyce, Philip, Cara and I went out in the backyard about 10 and started digging up the rest of the dirt from under the deck. Joyce and Cara worked on spreading the dirt around some low places in the yard. By about 3 PM we had all the dirt removed and it was time to hook the trailer to the van to get some timber for edging material and sand for the base. I calculated I needed 40 cubic feet of sand for a 2" bed. When we got to Home Depot I learned that they sell sand in 50lb bags, and each bag is 1/2 a cubic foot. A pallet of sand has 63 bags, so we bought a pallet plus 17 bags (4000 lbs!). We loaded the 17 loose bags of sand into the van and the pallet of 63 bags on the trailer along with the 46' of treated 6x6 lumber. Well, my trailer only has a 3500 lb axle, so the tires were almost rubbing on the fenders of the trailer. We moved several more bags from the pallet to the van to even out the load a bit, and carefully headed towards the house (on 10 year-old dry-rotted under-inflated trailer tires -- I was sweating a bit). After digging out all the dirt for the timbers, cutting them, and setting them in place, we dumped out all 80 bags of sand. It was dark by this time.On Sunday, our kids -- being somewhat smarter than we are -- went to friends' houses for the afternoon and left us to work on the project by ourselves. After a nice lunch at Panera Bread Joyce and I went home and hooked the trailer back up to the van (this time with properly inflated tires!) and headed back to Home Depot. We needed about 240 SF of paving stones, but a single pallet of 12" red river stones has 144 pavers and weighs about 3000 lbs. Since 240 pavers would be well over the weight limit of the trailer, I decided to just buy one pallet and get the other pavers later. When we got home we started to put the pavers down and found out that one of the timbers was set about 2" too high on one end. Once we corrected that we started to set the paving stones. I worked until it was dark and Joyce helped until it was time for her to go pick up the kids from church on Sunday night.
Monday I left work early and came home and worked on setting the paving stones until it got dark -- I actually ran out of stones right as it was dark. After dinner Philip and I went to Home Depot to buy the remaining 81 stones we needed -- only Home Depot only had 76 left. So we bought 76. Joyce and kids also 10 additional bags of sand since it didn't look to me like we would have enough. The weather forecast indicated it would probably start raining this evening, and so I decided to stay home from work today and finish the patio. I basically spent all day working on it, and got it done about 5:30 PM, including a few minutes to try to change the brake pads on my van (that's another story for another day). Joyce bought the extra paving stone I needed from Lowes. So, the small picture above is a link to some pictures of the finished product. It is nice to have this job done, even if we only get to enjoy the work until we move to Texas in a couple of months. Maybe it will help the house sell.
0 comments
