yah, only about 2-3" this am... but taking the FitSW to work. not taking chances in my FitS's tires.

 

We got about 4" overnight. More coming later today.

Mark

 

yah, it's been snowing non-stop.

problem with me in fitsw with snow tires... i floor the damn thing all the time cause i luv its traction and has a AT.

sometimes i want to just keep going and going and going and going and going and ... woops, time for work.

 

someone say somethin?

 

We gots snow. I was hoping for a snow day today and when I got up to 1/4 inch of snow I heckled Mother Nature for this pansy-azz "snow storm".

By noon, I had the rest of the day off, and probably tomorrow too

 

I think we got like 7-8".

Anyway, how the heck do you replace the ballast in flourescent kitchen lamps?
Ours crapped out. I've never changed just the ballast so not sure how...

 

Ken, you have to open up the fixture, usually from the side the bulbs are on. The ballast will likely be held in place with a couple of machine screws. The wires coming out of the ballast will be connected with wire nuts. Take it all apart, and take the ballast with you to the hardware/lighting store of your choice and get the same kind. Sometimes it is cheaper to replace the whole fixture.

Did you feel the ground shake this morning, around 4:00 am?

Mark

 

Wow! You are quite sensitive, Mark. 3.8 in IL at that time.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...us2010snay.php

 

Nope, not me. Just heard it happened. I have a history of leaving countries when the ground starts to shake

Mark

 

Ah, I thought you had a hypersensitive "butt seismometer."

 

Thanks lotsie.

Yep, gotz a new ballast and rewired this am. hardest part was getting the damn decorative cover to hook up correctly to the base housing .

Earthquake... Huh? hummmmm...

 

I experienced an earthquake once, maybe several. During the time I was in Tokyo a few years ago, I would wake up and sometimes see the rail maintenance crew leveling the train tracks with large gravel vibration devices as I walked to the station. I thought it was some kind of maintenance, but it was done at seemingly random intervals.

One night, I felt my first earthquake. It was audible first, like thunder that kept going. I could hear it get louder and louder as it rolled towards me. Then the place shook back and forth for a few seconds. Nothing violent it was like I was in an old bunk bed that someone was shaking, but it was the whole room. After these few seconds, the shaking stopped and the sound rolled onward. The next morning the crew was out leveling the train tracks and I connected the dots and realized I had slept through several quakes.

This one must have been the biggest in a while because everyone in the building was talking about it the next day. The building had some new and expanded cracks in some of it's walls. No on had mentioned the previous ones that necessitated the track maintenance.

 

My earthquake experience was 1976 in Guatemala, about 6 weeks after the big one had struck there. We were in a small rural town, sleeping on the floor/ground in a small one room house. I woke up to what felt to me like a wave had gone under me. Thought I was dreaming and went back to sleep. Next thing I know I'm 50 feet outside the building, dragging my ex behind me, still both in our sleeping bags. I don't really remember waking up the second time, but I guess my "flee right now" instinct kicked in. The quake was small to the locals, but we were on the next bus out of the country.

Mark

 

the biggest ive felt was 5.3. it was pretty long too... like 25-30sec, felt like a frikken hour.

i was a kid at the time (well, still am ) i was like EARTHQUAKE~! and hid under a heavy duty table bracing myself with my cousin and bro and calling grandma to come over to hide with us... i remember she was cracking up laughing.

it's okay kenchan, you boys just stay there...i'll be okay, not enough room for me. <= grandma.

<= kenchan

i was freaking out thinking my grandma was going to get smashed by the huge book case that was swaying back and forth.

nothing other than a few cups broke. some the books fell but not on grandma.

 

So ended up taking today off and worked on other electic issues I've been having in the house. turned out well.

 

Ken, speaking of music I think you need these for you fits so they sound more like you're G/Zs.

 

i want my FitS to sound like a V10 lambo.

 

so every week my son has a letter in the alphabet to do a show and tell about. like last week it was "Q", so he brought a Quarter (coin) to class.

this week is "R."

I told him to bring a TOYOTA emblem.

 

^

"Daddy, what's a recall??"

 

Okay my esteemed OCD friends, I come to you for advice.

As we all know, Clara is getting up there in miles (over 100k). She also has a CVT that is (today at least) currently still functioning. However, she is extremely testy, and while I don't think the problem is the CVT itself, I haven't quite been able to nail down what it is, so it worries me. However, the issue itself has been going on for a year...I think if it were the CVT itself it would have gone by now.

The past several weeks I have been tossing around the idea of trading her in before something bad happens. My options at this point seem to be:

1) Wait for something to happen, then fix it. The cost of this could be a $200 ECU/TCU reflash, or a minimum $5k new CVT.

2) Trade her in for a 2010 and get it over with. This would put me *slightly* upside down but at the savings of a potential $5k repair.

I'm not sure if should go into the dealer for a sure diagnosis. If I do, and they determine the CVT is toast, that will kill the trade-in value for sure. But if it's just a $200 CVT flush-and-reset and the reset solves the problem...

What would you do?

 

i would trade that in today and get a 2010. at least then, you might still have ECU/AT problems on the new car but that's on warranty.

sorry clara, but "you're fired!"

so, are you going to get at TOYOTA?

 

We were in a similar situation with our 05 Cabrio. At just before the end of the warranty, there was a clunking noise happening at launch, either forward or backwards. The dealer swapped CV boots, then axles, and numerous other things, but none of it made it go away. It got worse about 100 feet after the warranty ran out, and they said it was the tranny. Now they were willing to do it under warranty, as it was an ongoing documented problem. But at the same time this was going on, the dealer had a launch edition Clubman in the showroom they wanted to get rid of, so we traded in the Cabrio for it, and they did not care about the tranny issue. Now being in the business of selling cars, they sold it to another lot (we found it less than a week later doing a search of used MINIs). Who ever bought it had a beautiful looking Cabrio with a bad tranny.

I would trade it in, with it looking it's best, and move on.

Mark

 

I'm in talks with Patrick MINI. We'll see what comes of it. They have exactly what I want on the lot (that never happens!). We're going down to the auto show on Sunday and I'm going to talk to the MA while I'm there.

Breaks my heart though.

 

I think I said this a year or more ago... if I had a MINI with a CVT, I would RUN AWAY from it as fast as I could... no matter how much I loved it otherwise.

The CVT is heartache waiting to happen. It WILL happen. Better to fall in love with another car first and let it be someone else's problem IMHO.

 

Ah, nostalgia...