Tag: Tesla

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The New Tesla Bolt

It was chilly and rainy again today. I thought I might have the day to myself when Kim started to leave in the morning, but then she came back and stayed the day. I was able to focus on my SCCM server and got my SQL database set up, and SCCM installed. I almost finished configuring it, but it was getting late and Summer was making dinner.

I got back into town and parked in the garage at the old house, and I heard a clank of something metal hitting the ground. I searched all around the car, and then finally looked underneath it to find a nearly 6-inch bolt laying on the ground right in the center of my car. I backed out of the garage to pick it up, and called Summer to have her meet me at Superfast. I got into a bay and went down into the pit to find that two bolts were missing, and Summer said it looked like something else broke some plastic around my rear-passenger wheel area. I couldn’t really tell because I was afraid of getting oil all over my nice clothes.

Without a special socket with six lobes to put the bolt back in, we packed up and headed home to eat. Eaddie had Eli over, but they had already eaten while Summer and I were looking at the Model 3. I started a load of laundry and then sat down to eat with Summer while the kids watched Mulan. Then I made a pot of rice pudding with the leftover milk that my parents left behind.

Chevy Model 3?

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Resume Testing

They started interim testing today, which meant I wouldn’t be getting much work done the rest of the week. We started off with a bunch of people coming to the office looking for loaner devices and chargers, and we had to turn them away. I even got a little snippy with Denice when she started mouthing about their inability to manage an effective take-home deployment. It seems like nobody wants to hear the fact that accountability and consistency is paramount. Casey came in and borrowed a couple devices, and though I have no clue what I could have said to offend her, apparently she felt the need to make a complaint that earned me a phone call to “put a smile on that bearded face.”

I found four higher-paying tech jobs on the first page of Indeed, for which I would be more than qualified.

Kim ended up leaving after doing about zero work for the hour she was there, because she had a bunch of people coming to look at her house. It would have been quiet, had it not been for the testing traffic and some students coming by in the afternoon for help. I talked to Denice for a bit after work, and at least then she admitted to being overly-stressed about testing, and I think we left on good terms.

On the way home, just as I was pulling up to the stoplight in Dardanelle, I heard an incredibly loud “kerCHUNK” that sounded like it came from around the rear-passenger wheel. It was loud and violent enough that I swore it shook, or at least vibrated the car. I pulled right over into the gas station parking lot and walked over to the road, where I saw nothing. There was nothing on the dash cam footage, and there was no damage to the car. I couldn’t tell what it was, and I made it back home without further incident, so there’s no telling what happened.

Summer was at a meeting with the Arkansas Tech Career Center, and Eaddie was playing in the pep band for a basketball game, so I went to the old house to feed the fish, then to Walmart to use a coupon for some free Dawn. Then I grabbed some tacos and made it home to eat before taking the Onewheel to my parents’ house to check on the cat.

I took some dry cat food to the neighbor across the street, who reminded me a bit of the librarian at school. Then I rode around for about five miles, practicing some tight turns and deep carves. I felt pretty confident, even with my achy legs and feet. Then I tried riding switch, and my muscle memory was breaking everything. Evidently my riding style is heavily directional, and I got the wobbles almost instantly every time. I kept at it though, and kept switching back and forth mid-ride. I never got any better, and then ended up falling when I tried to do a 180ยบ pivot, and banged up my left elbow. I laid my head back on the street and sighed for a moment before packing it up for the night.

Summer got home shortly after that, followed by Eaddie a little while later. I got a little more sore as the night went on, but was ambitious enough to swap out one of the smoke detectors for a Nest Protect.

All interviews are just for practice until you take the job.

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Mental Health Work

I had some coffee this morning and then got into PRTG again. Maybe I felt like I had been too productively lately, but I just wanted to work on something for me. I think I got it looking pretty good, and even got a little now-playing ribbon for my music. That’s not to say that I didn’t do anything important. I cleared a troublesome log in VMware. That fixed the error, but not the root of the problem. There will be time for that tomorrow.

I stopped by McDonald’s on the way home for some free fries, and loaded up another trunk full of stuff to take to the house. Then I started to go out on the Onewheel when Summer texted that she wanted fried chicken for dinner. She agreed to actually go out instead of just coming straight home, so I made it around the block and headed back home to pick her up across town. I nearly ate a face full of sand at the top of the hill, but was able to hit the ground running as the board tumbled end-for-end behind me. I bruised the bottom of my foot a little bit, but not too bad.

Eaddie was out with friends again, so Summer and I went to Zaxby’s and hung out there for a little while. Then we went to Walmart for some stuff so I could finally make turkey soup. When I dropped her off at the carwash, we found where she had hit something in the road, and it gouged the rocker panel trim on the right side in front of her rear wheel.

We made it home and wound down for the night. Eaddie made it home late and talked to Summer for a while before coming to me with a W-9 from school for some reason. She couldn’t even assemble a sentence as to why she needed it. All I heard was something about “superintendent” and “National History Day.” We didn’t get paid to take the kids on the trip. We hadn’t even been reimbursed like we were promised, and they wanted this form filled out overnight with barely any explanation. It sounded fishy to me.

Needs more maths done.

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Make Life Take the Lemons Back!

I didn’t feel great this morning, and after picking up a Casey’s coffee, I made it to work about 12 minutes late. Otherwise, it was a decent day of learning VMware, with several student interruptions. I was surprised I was able to stay as focused as I did for the entire day, but I still didn’t have a whole lot to show for it by quitting time.

I had the rumblies for most of the late afternoon and all the way home, where I loaded up my trunk with more stuff from the old house. A bird got me while I was parked at work, so I ran by the carwash to hose it down. Then I made it home and quickly unloaded.

Eaddie was hungry and Summer was late getting home from work. I wanted to kill a bit of time until we at least got a response from Summer whether or not she had any opinions on dinner, so I decided to run a couple things over to Dad on the Onewheel. Just as I was hopping the curb out of the driveway, I stumbled and the board sucked up my pant leg. It was really wedged in there, and I had quite a lot of trouble getting free. I felt pretty helpless standing in the road with that heavy thing stuck right at shoe level.

I finally freed myself and jammed my thumb in the process. Then I made it to my parents’ house without further incident. I didn’t stay long since it was already dark. I got home just before Summer did, and she didn’t want to get out. Eaddie wanted to celebrate a good flute lesson, so we went to Cici’s and had a good time.

Summer was on the couch when we got home, so I put on an episode of The Brothers Sun. Afterward, I saw an email from the Tesla service center saying that they agreed to buy my car back. I have mixed feelings, partially because there’s not a current Model 3 Performance for me to repurchase. I’ve got to try and get some documents from my closed loan account anyway, so maybe they’ll have a solution for me that doesn’t involve being without a car for several months. I love my car, but it would be stupid not to get a newer, potentially nicer one for less money. Wouldn’t it?

I don’t want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these?

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So Long, Dot

We got up early this morning so we could make it to Tulsa early enough to make a day of it. Eaddie didn’t feel great, so she went to school a little late. Summer and I left for my house, then the wash to vacuum out the car. From there, we made it to Ozark to charge and get breakfast at the restaurant inside. It wasn’t bad at all, but I had kind of hoped for better, given my experience at truck stops in the past.

That got us enough juice to get all the way to Tulsa, but we stopped briefly at the Love’s oasis for some energy drinks for ourselves. When we got to downtown Tulsa, we parked right by the Center of the Universe “art piece.” The look on Summer’s face when she finally spoke up enough to hear the echo was priceless. We didn’t stay long though, and went to the nearest supercharger to get some juice before finally just heading straight to the Tesla service center.

I met several new people this time. Blake was working the service counter and contacted the manager, Jess, about my buyback inquiry. He indicated that he had already escalated it internally, and that I should hear something back in a couple weeks. He blamed the weather for the delay in getting the replacement battery pack. After that I met Tam, who introduced himself as a Vietnamese American for some reason after I asked his name. I drove him down the road to try and reproduce the rattle in my passenger door, and of course it really had healed itself. I don’t know if someone heard it and fixed it, if it was changed due to the weather, or maybe someone fixed it on accident somehow. When that was all done, I moved everything over from the loaner and got Summer into the car. She made a comment about my trunk being loud again, so I had Tam check it out while we were there. He didn’t seem to think there were any adjustments they could do, but said they could replace the trunk strut if I wanted to submit for a new service request.

We left after that, and got some dinner at Cheddar’s. I tried their Cajun pasta, which was pretty good. I kind of wished I had stuck with the pot pie though, just because it really is delicious with their croissant crust. Summer really enjoyed her tilapia and shrimp as well. We started home after that, but on a whim I stopped at The Peach Barn after seeing a billboard. Peach ice cream sounded good. They had a cute little store with lots of jarred goods, nuts, fudge, and some other stuff. Then we got a peach sundae, smoothie, and a couple hand pies and fudge to take with us.

The drive home was mostly rainy until we got back to Arkansas. We stopped in Van Buren to charge, and then almost made it home when we got into some heavy traffic with a bunch of trucks, and I took a bunch of gravel to the face a couple of times. I had a few new speckles in the paint, as well as a small surface chip in the windshield, dead center in my vision. Now I’m really hoping the buyback works. If not, I’ll have to raise concerns with the service center due to at least one paint bubble that I think happened due to the freeze while it was in their possession.

We made it home, Summer went to bed, and I pumped the basement out again. Eaddie made it home late after all-region, but went to bed almost immediately after. I was up for a while just wasting time until I went to bed.

Rotten luck.

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Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

It was rainy all day, so I don’t know what I expected. I got to work early, and Kim got to yapping. Otherwise it was relatively quiet all day. I was a little scattered when trying to dig into a project, so I had basically zero feeling of accomplishment all day. When I left work, I got a message from the Tesla service center that said I had 48 hours to return the loaner vehicle before I would be charged a rental fee. That felt a little dirty after they had my car in service for 31 days. I wished I had known the details of the lemon laws much earlier.

I continued straight home to pick up Eaddie, and we went to my parents’ house so Dad could practice taking some photos before her school dance. She fussed every time we brought it up, but when we finally got there, we had a little bit of fun with it. Noah got to the house just as we got back home, and I left to get some more things from the old house.

I stopped for some tacos on the way back home, and Noah and I ate. Then I tried unpacking and organizing a little bit while everyone else settled in for the night. Just before bed, I finally went out back to check the basement for water. I should have gone out days ago, because there was another foot of water in there. Unfortunately, my boots were only waterproof up to half that height. I can’t believe the seller said they had only used the sump like three times in their time in the home, because I’ve used it that many times in less than a month. I’ve got to plumb that thing in somehow.

I’ll never understand how some kids seem to hate showers. Frakin nasty.

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Future Proofing

We couldn’t make it a full week off for snow and ice, so it was back to work this morning. There were a couple spots with some ice near the house, but then roads were clear until Ola, where you could see some residual black ice. It looked like Dardanelle was still out, because that place was a relative ghost town.

Kim was somewhere doing non-work things, but came to the office after a while before leaving to do more non-work things. Evidently they had a frozen, blocked, or crushed pipe somewhere in the new house, and Roto-Rooter was coming out to find their septic tank. I had a pretty quiet day to myself, except for Jalen coming in a few times for help setting up his new Hudl basketball camera. Then I spent the afternoon plotting my budget to hopefully have something reasonable to present to the superintendent when I ask for more money to sign another contract. Of course, it could all go out the window if he just decides he’d rather hire somebody else. It’s a good time to look for work.

I got a notification on the way home that service on my car was finished, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I should have messaged them to try and negotiate something earlier. I figured that waiting longer would give me a better chance to get something out of it, but I hadn’t accounted for sudden and sneaky repairs. I had a suspicion that they started yesterday, but then I got a low tire notification today that really made me think they were working on it.

It was another quick trip to the old house for another carload of boxes to take home. Eaddie was on the way out the door, so I was left to unload myself. Summer was home shortly after that, and looked unfrazzled enough for a dinner out. I called Mom to see if they wanted to go, but they were already eating, so Summer and I went to Mulan’s.

When we got back, we watched a standup special from some guy named Dusty Slay on Netflix. It was fine. Eaddie had a late curfew, and came to talk to me for a little while when she made it home. Then it was off to bed.

It’s been a long week.

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The Coolest Fuckin’ Guy

I got around today and cleaned up a little bit while the girls were gone to work and school. I got screaming-mad at the dishwasher again, because Summer insists on partially loading it, and I basically have to unload everything once we have enough dishes, to rearrange them in the most compact way possible. She refuses to just leave it alone.

Afterward, I called to schedule a tow to the Tulsa Tesla Service Center, and then took a shower. At around 11, a guy named Moses come by from Diamond Ridge to check out the ceiling work we want done in the house, as well as the outhouse. He seemed to really recommend taking the existing ceiling down and hanging a new one, which made me a little nervous. I don’t really know where to start in the shed out back either, because we’re right in the middle of the expensive time of the year and it’s not like we’re just rolling in extra money.

There was a little bit of time to kill, but not too long before Doug from Storey Wrecker showed up. I drove my car onto the back of his truck, and then rode with him to Tulsa. I had asked the Tesla Roadside dispatcher if that would be alright, and I thought he had asked to confirm, but it sounded like it was a surprise to Doug. He didn’t seem to mind at all though, and spent the ENTIRE three hour drive telling me progressively less believable stories all about the cruise ships he had been on with the “Bruce Lee” silk dragon robe that his girlfriend bought him, how his son was a semi-professional wrestler and drill sergeant, and eventually some stories about sewing his wild oats and seeing Pink Floyd in Germany while he was in the military.

I would have liked to power through the trip, but he stopped once at the little oasis on the turnpike for a restroom break, and again just a few miles from our final destination to fill up with diesel. When we got to the service center, the actual service department was closed and for some reason I couldn’t get my car out of park. Being unable to drive it off of the truck, I ended up having to enable tow mode, which let it free-roll down and into a space.

Once I got inside, it seemed that the instructions for my loaner vehicle weren’t clear. It took the guy a little while, but eventually he set me up with a pretty new, white Model Y Performance with Full Self Driving. I started to drive away, but then stopped by the exit to adjust some settings, and the guy came out and caught me to get pictures of my license and insurance. It seemed like there should be a better process for that.

I wasn’t starving, but I wanted to eat before I left town, so I drove a couple miles away to a Cheddar’s and had some spinach dip and a chicken pot pie. I had forgotten that they seem to be famous for their honey butter croissants. All of the food was delicious.

From there, I headed on home in some relative cold. I had a little bit of range anxiety since I left the service center at 80%, but made it to Van Buren without any trouble. Full Self Driving was leagues better than my Enhanced Autopilot on the interstate. I think there were only like two incidents of something behaving a little goofy, and only one false lane change mistake. Mine changes lanes improperly all the time, and it’s infuriating that it’s not the same experience.

I got a large coffee to get me to my next stop in Ozark just to top off on Tesla’s dime. I picked up a sparkling water, and then powered on home as quickly as I could. I let FSD take me from the offramp all the way to the house, and it worked near-flawlessly. I didn’t take over driving at all, and it was great.

The girls were in bed, but awake for a little while. I laid with Summer for a bit before wrapping things up and going to sleep myself.

I’m not very patriotic, but after seeing it in the garage, I have to admit it would be kind of cool to complete the red, white, and blue set.

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Center for the Farts

I took Summer’s car to work today so she could keep mine in town. Casey’s had a free Reign Storm (ha), so I picked one up on the way to work and just accepted that I’d squeeze in a little bit late. It was more or less pretty quiet, with just a small group of kids doing some makeup testing in our office, followed by the usual lunch shenanigans. I was pretty scattered again, so it was a lot of meaningless accomplishments and nothing of any consequence was fixed.

Summer went home early with a headache, and got some new messages about reduced power and acceleration in my car, so we’ll tow it to Tulsa for a replacement high voltage battery. I guess I should be happy to rewind a year of degradation, but it doesn’t make me feel really great about the longevity of my car. I noticed Summer had a little dent in the back of hers when I got back home, apparently from trying to open the trunk while the garage door was shut. I almost made the same mistake once, so I couldn’t be too mad at her.

I fed the fish and picked up some tacos to take home for us. Then we went to the high school for Eaddie’s Christmas concert. Autumn spotted us as soon as we walked in and came over to our seats to talk at us. It was super awkward, and I imagined it was a little bit like how she still hangs out around the high school where others can’t just walk away from her.

The concert band was pretty bad, but it wasn’t until the symphonic band played that I realized how spoiled I was from listening to Eaddie’s elective concerts. It really is the difference between a group of really passionate, or at least dedicated musicians, and a public school band. There’s simply no comparison.

Eaddie went out with friends afterward, so Summer and I came home so she could go to bed. I was up a while, in part to try and get the old refrigerator running. I’m afraid the compressor may have finally bit the dust, which is frustrating to have happened after we finally got it situated in the laundry room. Oh well.

It’s obviously the product of favoritism, and not at all hard work.

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BMS_a035

I got an error message on the drive to work today, which said my car may not restart. Nothing appeared to be wrong, and I made it to work, but a quick Google indicated it could be anything from the high voltage system to the 12-volt battery. I parked close to the building in case I needed to run an extension cable out to charge something, and set up a service appointment once I got inside.

I really struggled to stay awake today, though I wasn’t particularly low on sleep. I was fairly concerned about my car, and I eventually received a message recommending that I have it towed to the Tulsa service center. I asked whether that would be covered by warranty, and a quick call to the roadside assistance number confirmed that it would be. He also said my car had been on for a really long time and had me restart my screen, though I don’t think that really had anything to do with my problem. I wasn’t even really sure that restarted anything but the screen computer.

Shortly after that, I got a call from the actual tow driver. He would be coming from Broken Arrow and could pick up the car the same evening, but after the reboot, my car wasn’t complaining about anything. Service said I should be fine to drive home as long as I had the range, but that I may have trouble charging. It wasn’t until I got back through Dardanelle that I got the error again, so I was hesitant to stop at Casey’s only to miss out on the freebie of the day. I made it to the old house without further incident, though it wouldn’t start charging the first time I tried. I unplugged and plugged in again, and it successfully started charging.

I had Summer pick me up so we could go to Cici’s for dinner. Then she dropped me back off with the car and I drove home to finish charging. It seems to be fine over short distances, but I figured I’d take her car to work in the morning until we can figure out how everyone will get to school or work after they take my car for service.

I ended up relaxing in a bath until the girls came home. Eaddie needed some energy to study, so I made her a milk-heavy latte and then settled in for bed.

Tough luck