With all the nonsense going on with Tweetolini and his unwinnable jousting against Pro Players taking a knee, I have kept up the struggle of being kind of homeless while still trying to open an upholstery shop. My travails pale in significance when held up to the pressing issues of the day: Can Steve Mnuchin even recite the words to his beloved National Anthem, and next time he demands someone else’s employees do what he says, lets see if he can sing the whole thing: acapella! Mnuchin & Donnie Two Scoops can maybe do a duet? We the People demand it! or STFU….
Me, I’m just trying to keep the lights on, and my vehicle running. The drip drip drip I see behind my van gives me great pause: what new seal has been broken now, and what new hell is unleashed upon me in torment eternal?
Oil. Black gold, Texas Tea. 30 weight. A dotted line in the pavement behind me, from where I’ve been to where I’ve stalled. OK not stall so much as parked in a flat parking lot allowing me to check fluid levels properly. initially I thought it might be more transmission fluid squirting out the output shaft seal and all over hot exhaust pipes YUM!
No: this leak was further forward in the engine, and darker, much darker then the blood red of used tranny fluid.
The oil filter had quite the flow coming out of it while the engine was running. Turned off, I tried to unscrew the filter by hand but it was tight. With persistence, success! I turn the filter, unscrewing it from the block, black gold drizzling all over my hand and arm. Yes I did have an oil collection pan, and yes I did fetch the thing before getting too deep into this hole. And after getting the filter to start turning out, I can see a hole in it, about the size of a 22 bullet!
WTH!
First impressions aside, I realised the paint around the hole was bubbled out, suggesting the metal beneath the paint had corroded. Yesterday just happened to be a really fricking hot day here in Southern Wisconsin, and I’ll chalk it up to an old filter trying to do its best in difficult conditions.
This was a huge relief, knowing the source of the leak, and knowing the source was NOT one of those my fevered imagination could manifest. Manifold gaskets. Main seals. Expensive things.
So, I did not know that an oil filter could fail after being penetrated by corrosion. I’d post a pic, but my hands were to full of Texas Tea to try to get my brand new smart phone I spent all of 1 penny on at US Cellular a month and a half ago. Its my first smart phone, and I’m still getting used to it.
But here is my next problem: I am stranded in a little <strike>town</strike> village because a friend had asked me to live in her empty farm house while she is out west in Eugene Oregon basking in True Love™. I wouldn’t be in this bucolic village except for my friend’s plans. Her plans changed for the worst when I tried getting the four feral cats out of the farmhouse. Urine, feces & fleas. So much urine, so many piles of cat shit and fleas up to your knees. She preferred the cats she had abandoned last March. (march, april, may, june, july, august, now september. — can you imagine the damage four feral cats can to a home in 8 months of ignoring them?)
Now I hate my one-time friend, with the heat of a thousand suns I hate her for convincing me to give up my home and step into her vacancy. Karmically speaking one should be wary of fucking with someone born under the 13th sign. She’ll get hers, I am sadly certain.
No laundromat in this village! No auto parts store! I’ve been wearing the same set of clothes all through this recent heat wave and it is embarrassing to me. Owing to the fact I can only give myself a splash-down from a tiny restroom sink, I am wary of becoming noticeably odorous but to be fair, Monticello is surrounded by milking cows and all the poop they can produce. And that poop has to get flung onto the fields, somewhere. On the upside, at least its not pigs. Holy nostrils Batman!
If I was in my 20’s, this kind of lifestyle would be rockin, but I actually qualify as a senior citizen at Denny’s now, and I am less-than thrilled finding myself in this half-assed situation. I am 30+ miles outside of Madison, far too far to try the drive on an empty dipstick. The town where all my friends are, too far away. Its better than before when I was 250 miles from Madison.
I watch the Senate with morbid disgust, waiting for the day they finally make good on their campaign promises to kill millions of their own constituents.
Today, right now, the misery index along the Gulf Coast and East Coast as well as all across the Caribbean is off the charts. Puerto Rico may not have fresh water or electricity for weeks if not months. I spent a few years in Florida and can attest to the misery everyone suffers after a hurricane blows through.
In comparison, my struggles are laughable. I have a leaking oil filter and cannot buy a new one until (shudder!!) tomorrow. And to add insult to injury, I must pay the modest markup at the local grocery store for my daily bread I mean Pale Ale.