[Coronita]

[quote=svelte]This thread comes across as if all accusations made against adults supervising kids are false.

While it is wise that you all protect yourself from false claims (look at Dale Akiki for proof on why that is necessary), I would like to point out that it really does happen.

I can tell you from being on the receiving end from my jr high counselor. I was able to stop him before it became physical, but from what I learned later others weren’t as fortunate. From my experience with his actions behind closed doors, I can tell you their claims are true.[/quote]

I don’t think anyone is disagreeing that real things do happen, and unfortunately it happens more often than we as parents would like…. But it’s just that if you do volunteer, you don’t want to be the one that puts in your time and effort volunteering in something and end up being one the rare cases that you are falsely accused of something you didn’t do.. Because if you ever end up in that situation, I’d say most parents would be biased and think something did happen, even if it didn’t. I admit I would be biased and give more weight to the accuser. Also, even if you didn’t do anything, and though accusations were proven false, you would be stuck with that reputation for a long long time…Which reminds me…Taking a GoPro camera wherever you go isn’t such a bad idea these days….

[Coronita]

Ok, my feet feel better now that I got even wider 4E shoes. But I have to admit, I’ve gotten into a habit of taking them off when I’m at work and sitting at my desk….

And I really don’t like wearing shoes now… It’s almost unbearable if I have to keep them on for 8-10 hrs straight…..

How do you professional types like lawyers deal with this?

[Coronita]

[quote=FlyerInHi]Times have changed. Back in the days, parents thought it was an honor for a coach to take their son under his wing and give him extra personal attention.

Dennis Hastert became a born again Christian as a sophomore in high school.

Humm… born again Christian coach who likes to be with kids, travel with them, etc…[/quote]

Times haven’t changed in terms of people who want to coach.

The thing that has changed is people have to be more careful before being falsely accused of doing something they really didn’t do. Afterall, we do live an an age where people tend to be more litigious and opportunist in the most heinous ways.

In some afterschool daycares, it takes two teachers/aides to walk a kid to the bathroom, one extra to serve as a witness…

[Coronita]

The other thing I’ve seen is a bunch of new large apartment complexes that were recently built, for example in Mira Mesa and Carmel Valley. And those apartment complexes all are marketed at “luxury apartments” with the luxury price tag.
And while I do see some people living in those places (typically corporate relocations that put them there for temporary housing), they does seem to be a noticeable vacancy in those complexes too.

[Coronita]

Anyone else think the recent runup in rental demands, especially for the 1/1 and 2/2’s is partly due to a bunch of people finding jobs and no longer living in the same house with their parents? Just wondering…

[Coronita]

[quote=Blogstar]Volunteering with kids is very important , being alone with them is nuts. I know it is very impractical for single men and does come with some risk for anyone. I volunteer in my kid’s classes for some things. Never will I let the teacher leave me alone with them. I did the screening and coached soccer. I made the parents stay at the field, or have a old enough sibling stay there so that I wouldn’t get stuck with a kid waiting for the parent to come pick them up after practice. Some of the parents griped about it but the league will support you on this.

On field trips I stay very close to a trustworthy woman. [/quote]

Holy sheet. So I’m not the only one that does the same thing? I was thinking just the same thing….

If I’m coaching a team sport and I’m the only one there, I make the parent stays until someone shows up…..

[Coronita]

Where is the stripper pole?

[Coronita]

[quote=utcsox][quote=AN][quote=spdrun]A quick perusal of Craigslist yields very few one bedrooms offered in Carlsbad for over $1600. Most are below $1500. Where are they getting an average of $1716? Are they only surveying large landlords?[/quote]
Apartments. They move the market, not the small time landlords.[/quote]

The small-time landlords will take cues from the large apartment complex and raise its price accordingly.[/quote]

Also, a lot of craigslist postings aren’t “real”. A lot of the posts are “feeler” posts to test how much rent one can push, starting with a low price, etc. But if you actually tried to contact the person, you’ll never hear back from them, ever. I know, because I do it all the time. It allows me to gauge at a given price point, at a particular season in the year, how many responses I can anticipate getting. I should actually put this into a spreadsheet and graph it out in my interested areas, because it’s a pretty interesting experiment. And since I do it, I’m sure I’m not the only one doing it, for the same reasons.

[Coronita]

[quote=Hatfield][quote=XBoxBoy]he suggested rebuilding it. For a couple grand.[/quote]

Find a new repair guy. There’s not a lot of black magic to a refrigerator. It’s a closed system with refrigerant, which might have leaked out. Unlikely, but there’s a test for that. There’s also a radiator which might be caked in dust or ice, which would prevent heat transfer. That would cause it to never stop running. There’s a compressor that circulates the refrigerant. There’s a logic board that decides when to run the compressor. There’s also some logic for the defrost cycle for the freezer. There might be a heating element for that. There’s not a lot to “rebuild.”

Wasn’t a built in fridge, but I once had a standalone that ran all the time. Repair guy came out. This particular fridge had a mechanical cam on a clock motor, with a little finger that felt the cam so it knew to run the defrost cycle every X hours. Well the cam had broken, so defrost never ran, and the radiator iced over, preventing heat exchange from occurring. He charged me $5 for a new plastic cam and $95 for the service call. That’s the kind of guy you want to hire. I’d give you this guy’s number but he since has retired.

That was in a rental unit. Our place has a GE Profile fridge. While it was still under warranty, the ice maker and water thing in the door stopped working. The GE repair guy came out, played with it a bit, rolled the fridge out, removed a little panel in the back, and took out a circuit board maybe 4″ x 4.” Popped in a new circuit board, everything works again. I asked him how much the service call would have cost had the fridge not been under warranty. “Lemme look that up!” he says. $430. “Say, can I have that old circuit board?” I ask. Googled the part number, found it on eBay for $45.

Find a repair guy who doesn’t need to “rebuild” you fridge to fix it.[/quote]

I had a problem with my 3 door fridge recently, of it not defrosting, and I was going to call my repair guy. I gave him my make and model, and he insisted that it was probably just a the drain was clogged, and told me how to take things out and check the drain myself. He said he could come by and do it, but it would cost $100 since he was from the south, and that’s his minimum service call for north county. He suggested I try it first, and worst comes to worst, I couldn’t really make it worse…Anyway, followed his direction yup, it was clogged. But man, a normal repair guy wanted like $250 just to see it.

Why am I an software geek again? 🙁

I also had a problem with an oven control logic board one time. I didn’t know exactly what was the problem, so I ordered every possible logic board/controller/circuit board for the oven from repairclinic.com. I replaced each board, one by one, and figured out which one was the problem by trial and error. I simply returned the two boards I didn’t need, minus the restocking fee. It was much cheaper than finding someone to diagnose and repair the oven. In most of the cases, that’s exactly what they are doing…Just swapping boards…

[Coronita]

I think my system is much more efficient. If I am due maintenance on one car or running low on gas, I switch to another car. And I do the same thing until all my cars are either due for maintenance or out of gas. Then one weekend, I am seriously hurting. But st least its just one weekend

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]Drill two holes, one for a Tygon hose attached to the nipple, one about 2″ dia, bit enough to operate the valve.[/quote]

Then, what’s the point of having underbelly pan? The purpose of it can be for aero, airflow, or simply protection from soot on the ground. Plus using a valve has two issues. 1. They can fail.
2. Being that part of the thread remains in the pan, depending on the angle of the drain plug, you aren’t really going to drain the tiny amount of oil still stuck at the bottom of the pan.

You really aren’t saving that much time between unscrewing a drain plug and using one of these valve-based drain plugs..

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]Fumoto nipple. Position pan, reach under, open valve.[/quote]

Unless you have a plastic cover you need to remove first.

[Coronita]

[quote=svelte]I’m not sure how this keeps you from crawling under the car – don’t you still have to change the oil filter?

I stopped changing my oil long ago. Doesn’t cost that much more to have the shop do it.

[edit: just read AN’s comment about US/JPN vs GER…concur][/quote]

A lot of the newer car, the filter is a canister type that is accessed from on top of the engine bay. Most 6 cylinder BMW engines are like that these days. The 8 cylinder is usually at the bottom, since there’s no room on top.

[Coronita]

I thought about getting one of these awhile ago, because I’m all for saving time, but then decided against it because for me.

*Neither the X5 or the 550 have a dipstick, so I wouldn’t be able to use it for those cars. Draining the oil isn’t going to be the issue….Refilling the oil back to the correct level without a physical dipstick is always a bundle of joy. Fortunately, this only needs to be done roughly once a year, according to my logs.

*The audi and miata would be a beneficiary to this extractor… Both are a bigger pain, because I need to take off the splash shield to get to the drain plug. But being that both cars are boosted, I wouldn’t feel comfortable not draining the oil from the bottom. The audi can go 6 months between intervals. The miata, I go roughly every 2 or 3 autocross, or roughly every 2 – 3 months. … But I need to crawl under the car often to do a safety check anyway.

That leaves the mercedes. The drain interval is 1 year, and it’s relatively easy to access the drain plug. So I didn’t think it was worthwhile for me to get this just for 1 car.

If you really don’t like to crawl under the car, just pay someone to do it. Especially if you don’t need to use synthetic, it won’t cost *that* much. Personally, I don’t think I could ever trust one of these extractors that do it from the top.

If you’re tired or jacking up your car, buy yourself a nice set of ramps.

[Coronita]

I guess I have an opposite view. I’m not anticipating having a very long life…So, time to go have a beer…But man, what they say about hitting 40 is true. Once you hit 40, you just don’t give a shet as much anymore…

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