thejunipertree (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thejunipertree) wrote2005-07-11 12:51 am
thejunipertree) wrote2005-07-11 12:51 am
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This afternoon, while driving to Delaware for cigarettes with Thee Pumpkin Girl, I noticed that the middle finger on my right hand suddenly and sharply hurt when I grasped the steering wheel. Peering at it, while swerving into the middle lane like a moron, I noticed that I had a small discoloured bump right under the second knuckle bend.
It's a hard, little knot right under the skin. Like a BB lodged into my flesh. Blueish, like a bruise. Since I'm not inclined towards shooting myself full of BBs, I've no idea what the hell it actually is.
A photo of the finger, despite the fact that you can barely see what I'm talking about (you can, however, see my freakish hands and how the first two fingers are even), can be found .
I've worked my mad Photoshop skills to guide your focus to the area I'm talking about.
It hurts when I press down on it and a little when I clench my fingers. At first, I thought it might be a wart (which would suck verily, due to the location, it's right on the bend of my finger), but it doesn't look like any wart I've ever seen. The Engineer says it looks like a bruise, but I've never seen a hard bruise before.
I reckon I'll just keep an eye on it, for now. I don't have any health insurance, currently, because it is cost prohibitive (yet another reason to get a new job, our health care is beyond disgustingly expensive). If it turns out that I must go to the doctor to get this taken care of, I'll have to figure something out.
To make today even better, when I was at the tobacco outlet in New Castle, my car decided it didn't want to start back up again, after being parked and shut off so that I could go into the store. I turned the key and...nothing. No clicking, no groaning of the engine, no half-way turning over. Nada. I tried it a couple more times and looked at TPG with worry. It was rather hot outside and there was a creepy homeless guy almost directly sitting in front of the car, I really did not want to be going through something wretched like a pissed off alternator or something wrong with my starter.
I got out, because it was far too hot to be sitting in the car with the windows up, and called The Engineer to let him know that we had run into a bit of trouble, then called my father. I ran through the list of questions he always asks me whenever something is wrong with car and when none of my answers turned up anything useful, began giving him directions on how to get to where we were.
He convinced me to try starting the car one more time, before he started the trek down, and I got back in. I cajoled her a bit, before turning the key, something which my father began laughing at, C'mon, baby-girl. I take back every bad thing I've ever said about you. You're not ghetto at all, I swear. You're the best Caddy in the world. then hit the ignition.
Disco! It started!
After a bit of grumbling, of course. But, she started. I guess my sweet-talking worked. Yet another thing I'm going to have to keep an eye on. Hopefully, everything will be ok when I go to leave for work in the morning. I can't even drive the Malibu if I put the Eldorado in the shop, because my brother left for North Carolina today and either has the car, or has it parked at his friend's house. So, if she needs to go into the shop, it'll be me begging for rides to and from work all week, or until I get her back.
How fucking depressing.
On the drive back from Delaware, I day-dreamed about scrapping this beast and buying an old Hearse. Something, I reckon, which would be a lot like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
To liven things up a bit, here's a photo of Simon, doing what he does best: being fat and cute.
It's a hard, little knot right under the skin. Like a BB lodged into my flesh. Blueish, like a bruise. Since I'm not inclined towards shooting myself full of BBs, I've no idea what the hell it actually is.
A photo of the finger, despite the fact that you can barely see what I'm talking about (you can, however, see my freakish hands and how the first two fingers are even), can be found .
I've worked my mad Photoshop skills to guide your focus to the area I'm talking about.
It hurts when I press down on it and a little when I clench my fingers. At first, I thought it might be a wart (which would suck verily, due to the location, it's right on the bend of my finger), but it doesn't look like any wart I've ever seen. The Engineer says it looks like a bruise, but I've never seen a hard bruise before.
I reckon I'll just keep an eye on it, for now. I don't have any health insurance, currently, because it is cost prohibitive (yet another reason to get a new job, our health care is beyond disgustingly expensive). If it turns out that I must go to the doctor to get this taken care of, I'll have to figure something out.
To make today even better, when I was at the tobacco outlet in New Castle, my car decided it didn't want to start back up again, after being parked and shut off so that I could go into the store. I turned the key and...nothing. No clicking, no groaning of the engine, no half-way turning over. Nada. I tried it a couple more times and looked at TPG with worry. It was rather hot outside and there was a creepy homeless guy almost directly sitting in front of the car, I really did not want to be going through something wretched like a pissed off alternator or something wrong with my starter.
I got out, because it was far too hot to be sitting in the car with the windows up, and called The Engineer to let him know that we had run into a bit of trouble, then called my father. I ran through the list of questions he always asks me whenever something is wrong with car and when none of my answers turned up anything useful, began giving him directions on how to get to where we were.
He convinced me to try starting the car one more time, before he started the trek down, and I got back in. I cajoled her a bit, before turning the key, something which my father began laughing at, C'mon, baby-girl. I take back every bad thing I've ever said about you. You're not ghetto at all, I swear. You're the best Caddy in the world. then hit the ignition.
Disco! It started!
After a bit of grumbling, of course. But, she started. I guess my sweet-talking worked. Yet another thing I'm going to have to keep an eye on. Hopefully, everything will be ok when I go to leave for work in the morning. I can't even drive the Malibu if I put the Eldorado in the shop, because my brother left for North Carolina today and either has the car, or has it parked at his friend's house. So, if she needs to go into the shop, it'll be me begging for rides to and from work all week, or until I get her back.
How fucking depressing.
On the drive back from Delaware, I day-dreamed about scrapping this beast and buying an old Hearse. Something, I reckon, which would be a lot like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
To liven things up a bit, here's a photo of Simon, doing what he does best: being fat and cute.
no subject
don't know if that helps.
(btw i need to email you)
no subject
No, I'm not on any kind of medication at all.
(btw i need to email you)
You've got my email address, right?
opiumtea at comcast dot net
no subject
no subject
It should, but I haven't gotten anything. :/
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no subject
(Actually, that worked out all right. They don't rape you if you're not related to 'em).
This is probably repeating everyone else's advice, but I'd be looking in the order of:
Starter Inhibitor - switch that stops the starter running if the car isn't in park. Jiggle the shifter when you're starting, see if it stutters.
Ignition switch itself (I've had almost exactly this problem in a Chevette, and it drove me nuts until I held the key in place for ages hoping for some sign of life - battery charged, everything as it should be, and smoke poured out the ignition - the corrosion inside was shorting terminals out)
The bad one would be heat-related component failure in the computer, but that shouldn't stop it from turning over, only from running. The less bad one and the one that is actually pretty easy to get checked out is alternator failure; the light will tell you it's not charging, but it won't tell you that it is overcharging, boiling the battery (which then kills cells in the battery) and quite often giving you this awful situation where it'll do short runs no bother, but a long run will result in a car that has all the symptoms of a dead battery - but will quite often start after it has had a chance to rest. Replacing the battery alone will result in another dead battery eventually - I haven't checked the manual, but on anything that age, the alternator probably has a replaceable regulator pack which is a hell of a lot cheaper than the modern "replace the whole damn lot" situation.
no subject
This is a possibility, as my father mentioned replacing the ignition switch some years ago. However, it turned over just fine this morning. So, I'm unsure.
It damn well better NOT be the alternator, because that cunting thing was replaced last year when the bitch refused to start for me while I was out on an office errand, getting lunch for the rest of my co-workers. I bitch-talked it into starting, then had to drive half an hour (down near my dad's house) to the mechanic, with it almost dying every time I had to hit the brakes.
no subject
If the battery checks out okay - and I think you can check for a dead cell, then it could simply be the regulator and not the actual alternator - and running a nice new alternator with a battery with a dead cell will hurt the alternator pretty badly.
Another one I just remembered - the Scorpio refused to start at Christmas, and one of the failure points was the ignition relay. I'll check the Haynes book and see if the Caddy has a similar arrangement, but basically this relay switches everything in, including the starter - it failed by burning out, and it would let the car start sometimes, then overheat and boom, no starter, nothing. Due to the Scorpio's modern electrics, the whole damn car shut down when it happened too, but the engine kept running until you switched it off (sans lights, instruments or anything else). A less computerised car would probably give less indication of faults. The relay fault was the cause of, or caused by, the alternator and battery failing.