Commercial Items Identified on my Commute

-
Image
I see a lot of interesting commercialitems on truck on I-75. When you make the commute many times you start to see the same items over and over again. Sometimes it is huge equipment tires, sometimes heavy equipment of different types. I see these huge blocks of aluminum going North. I think about what the mill must look like and where it is going. And how much aluminum foil a block like this will make. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised) allows me to look for these things on the highway. The FSD also helps me through the crazy stop and goes. Easily over 70MPH and then sudden traffic at dead stops, frequently. I see accidents every trip. It is amazing there aren't more. A side note- aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side. The reason why is that the foil is folded as it goes through massive rollers. The shiny side is the side that faces the steel roller. The dull side faces itself - aluminum.
Post a Comment
-

Well I got my truck back. It had been in the shop for two weeks. I made the serious mistake of taking the truck to Botnick Chevrolet in Binghamton, NY.

I suspected the injection pump went bad. Chevrolet, as part of a class action suit increased the warranty on the injection pump. I thought it was increased to 150k miles. It was only increased to 120k miles. I have 132k miles on my truck. I asked Brian if it was under warranty. He originally said yes. So every day I would call Brian from the (place primary color here) team in service and everyday he told me tommorrow, except for Friday when he said Monday.

The original quote for the repair was $2100. So I told them I would take it to a diesel shop where I could get it done for $1800. They decided to fix it for $1800, 'cause they would have had to put it back together. I think that is quite a bit of flexibility in price. They have quite a gravy train.

So yesterday I give Brian a call at 12:00 and leave a voice mail indicating that I was making special arrangements to get my truck at 4:00 pm that day; call me back if that is a problem. No call.

On the way there we get rear-ended on RT 12 in Chenango Bridge. Some young lady ran ito the car behind us which in turn ran into us. There turned out to be no noticable damage to the Subaru, but we called the cops and got a report just in case since there were three cars involved and some pretty good damage on the at-fault car. No one was hurt thank god.

I get to Botnick Chevrolet in Binghamton, NY. and Brian said the truck wasn't ready. It is now 4:30. I had to wait until 6:00 for the truck to be done. At one point the technician came into the room and walked intimdating in front of me while I was waiting. I can only imagine what Brian was saying to the tech. I don't think it was very motivating. I told Brian that I am sure the tech was doing what he could. I asked Brian how he had decided to have the tech work on "higher priority" jobs than mine. I did not receive a suitable answer. The tech made sure he took a long test drive and my radio was tuned to a country station. Brian made sure both the tech and customer were upset. That doesn't seem like that is a good goal. After I finally get the truck, they have problems verifing my check to pay the bill. I had to wait another 15 minutes for them to screw around with that.

Anyway, overall, in the scheme of things the whole deal is quite trivial. I am sure this is a very common story for many people. It just gets you going when you get lied to everyday for two weeks creating distrust of them and then they make you wait 15 minutes for a check verification because they don't trust me. What has happened to the golden rule? Jerks.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ditches, Vents and Drains

-
Image
Beautiful morning on the lake. I needed to put some vents in the basement. It's never about just one thing. The vents through the brick was one thing. Getting a window well to allow proper airflow and a drain to ensure the window well doesn't fill with water are other things. I had some fun with my bobcat and digging in the dirt. I am glad its over. We went out to dinner at the American Legion Post in the neighborhood. It only made sense to drive my M998 and pose next to the tank. The humvee has been my grocery-getter lately.
Read more

Knives and Septic Systems

-
Image
I went to the largest knife show anywhere. It was in Atlanta. https://bladeshow.com/home/ It's not like I am crazy about knives. I am however, interested in intense human efforts and world class passion in particular areas. I find myself having very involved discussions with folks that are sharing their passion and expertise. I met with folks about knife making from the US and Western Europe of course, but also South Africa, Finland, Australia. It's a effective and pleasant way to learn. I had an issue (sewer pipe was broken by my stump grinder) with the septic system here in Duluth. Of course, I had to ask lots of questions and do inspections and assessments myself. Septic technology is interesting. Nothing to be scared about and although the technology is ancient and sometimes unplesant there is a lot to know. https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1421&title=a-beginners-guide-to-septic-systems Having that knowledge is especially important if you...
Read more

The Electromagnetic Spectrum --DC to Daylight (and actually well beyond)

-
Image
Besides carrying my scintillation detector with me looking for ionizing radiation (over 2.46 petahertz) and decaying isotopes, I have been playing in the more friendly "basement" of the electromagnetic spectrum (under a gigahertz). A pic of my radio bench. I sold my IFR ( http://blog.theguysatwork.com/2025/02/updates-storm-and-other.html) . I needed to replace the function (at least a lot of it) with a cheaper digital produt. So for 1/10 the sale price of my IFR, I ended up buying a TinySA Ultra+ ZS406 Spectrum Analyzer. It is indeed tiny. It does what I want it to do and it's a fun new toy. Our autographed copy of the "Fall of Civilizations" arrived from the UK. Paul Cooper does such a great job with his pobcasts and videos. I felt compelled to get a personalized copy of the book. ( https://www.paulmmcooper.com/ ) Seeing this licence plate on the front of a pickup truck seemed fitting-- not so much as contrarian, but as a Komatsu equipment fan. It's g...
Read more