The Trouble With E-Bay

December 30, 2005 @ 9:48 am by Pressed

I’ve found that you get both good and bad experiences with E-Bay. Sometimes you get very good experiences and things turn out well, and then other times you get someone who lies, cheats, and attempts to steal from you. Apparently I’ve run into the latter type person recently. I purchased a dehumidifier from a dude in SC who has an e-bay store called Wheeler World. If you are ever looking at anything on E-Bay and you come across an item being sold by the store Wheeler World or by the user second_chance_tools then might I suggest making good use of the back button on your browser because this has been one of the worste E-Bay experiences I have had yet.

I bought this dehumidifier from this guy who said its a new or slightly used item and that he plugged it in and it works perfectly. I looked at his ratings and he has a good rating on E-Bay and lots of other people bought dehumidifiers with seemingly no problems and thus I decided that this looks like a good deal to me and I bid on the item. I asked him to ship it right away and eight days later I had to e-mail him again to see why it wasn’t shipped. Apparently he forgot… so eight days after purchasing the item it was finally shipped to me. I took it over to my house, plugged it in, and heard one of the most aweful squealing rackets known to man. I pulled the back of the dehumidifier off to look at it and the fan is hanging down and the fan motor is so loose that you can jiggle it up and down. I took the whole thing apart, tightened the fan motor, and tried again. Fan doesn’t work. Doesn’t kick on or anything and the compressor still squeals like mad.

So, I e-mailed the guy about it and he wants to just send me another fan and fan motor so that I can take it all apart a second time and install the fan motor. This is a whole lot of trouble for something that was said to work. I’ve e-mailed him and asked him if I could just ship it back and get my money back and we will see what he has to say about that. My guess, the answer is no… but we will see.

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Treasures

December 23, 2005 @ 10:46 am by Kendall

Remember when you went to the dentist office when you were a little kid and he had a treasure chest that you got to choose a prize from if you were good and behaved while you were getting your teeth cleaned? I remember those treasures….erasers, card games, candies, you name it, it seemed to be in the chest. Oh how I remember taking hours to choose that one special prize and how I guarded it with everything in me. I never really considered how that situation really applies to life, as well!

The other night, I was having a conversation with a dear friend and we were discussing people that were important to us in our lives, and how we felt toward them and how we hoped they feel toward us. She shared with me that she really believes that the man who she marries will treasure her as precious. She firmly believes that if you truly love someone, with a forever kind of love, then they will be a treasure to you and you to them. This really got me thinking and so I have been pondering the whole “treasure” concept.

What exactly is a treasure? Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary describes it as something of great worth or value; also : a person esteemed as rare or precious….this was the most fitting definition that I found, anyway. So is it evident in my life that I treasure those I am closest to, or have I lost that special love and adoration that I held for those who are dearest to me? Do I hold those people near to my heart? I have decided that it is essential to never let this treasuring of loved ones disappear from my life. I love feeling that I am treasured, myself, that I am special and unique from anyone or anything else, and thus, I intend to treasure others in the same manner.

All this led to another thought….do I treasure the Lord? In the Bible it says that Mary treasured everything the angel told her and pondered them in her heart. Do I treasure what God reveals to me daily? Do I treasure my time with Him, or even His amazing attibutes? It has been hard for me to admit that in fact, I don’t. I realize, however, that the dearest treasure to me should be Jesus, and I truly want Him to be my utmost treasure!

Kendall

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How To Change The Oil On Your Chevrolet Cobalt

December 15, 2005 @ 6:28 pm by Pressed

I’m writing this because it seems no one else in the world will do it. I am very particular about changing my own oil in my cars. First of all because I can do it cheaper than anyone else, secondly it only takes about 15 minutes which is less time than it takes at some places, and thirdly because I trust myself to do it correctly. When I was ready to change the oil in my new ‘05 Chevy Cobalt I discovered that the Cobalt uses an oil filter cartridge instead of the normal oil filter canister. This was new to me and so I went searching on the internet to find out where it goes and how to change it. Guess what, I found nothing. After going through the trouble of trying to figure it out myself I decided to help out my fellow Cobalt owners.

Where does the filter go?
For those of you that already know how to change your oil, let me tell you quick. You can find the filter under the hood of the car. Pull the oil cap off, pull up on the big plactic cover that sits over the engine and you will see the canister where the filter goes. It hangs directly off the side of the engine closest to the front of the car. You’ll be able to tell because it has a large, black plastic top that you have to take off to get to the filter. Thats it!.

For those of you that don’t know how to change your oil, or need a reminder I am writing this small step by step guide to changing your oil in the Chevrolet Cobalt:

How to change the oil in my Cobalt
1. When Do I Change My Oil? While many times the manufacturer recommends changing your oil every 3,000 miles or so, the Cobalt actually has a computer that uses a working algorithm to calculate the use of your oil based on how much you drive, how fast you drive, and how quickly you accelerate. With the computer you only need to change your oil when the “Change Oil Soon” messages appears on your message board. For me, I went about 7,500 miles before I had to change my oil.

2. What materials do I need? You will need 5 Quarts of 5W/30, an oil filter (cartridge) for your car, a #15 metric wrench, a tool to take loose the oil filter plug, old rags, an oil pan, and a funnel.

3. Make sure the engine is warm Get all of your tools together, purchase the oil and filter, and then drive your car around awhile to get your engine warm. If your heater is blowing out hot air then you are good. This gets your engine oil thinned out which will make it easier to drain.

4. Drain your oil Put your drain pan under the car’s oil pan and loosen the bolt using the metric wrench. Just loosen the bolt first, unless you wish to have your hand drenched in burning hot oil (remember, you just drove it around to get it hot). Once you loosen the bolt with the wrench, you can continue to turn the bolt with your fingers, holding it tight until your ready to pull the plug out and let it drain. Make sure your aim is correct and you pull it quick or you could get oil all over the floor, your hand, your face, or anything else that is in the way. Remember you just drained the oil out of your car, so good luck getting to the emergency room if you burn your face off.

5. Change your filter While you let your oil drain, go ahead and get under the hood of the car. Once you pull the oil cap off you can pull off the big plastic cover that sits over the engine. It isn’t bolted down, so all you have to do is lift up on it and it will come right off. Once the plastic cover is removed, you will be able to see the canister where the filter goes. It’s silver, it hangs directly off the side of the engine, closest to the front of the car, and the top of it has a black, plastic plug that you can remove by turning it with a socket or a wrench, but let me tell you it takes a big one. If you don’t have a socket that fits, then you can be creative and try to get it loosened another way. Be careful, don’t ruin or bust the plastic top. Once you get it unscrewed, just lift up on the black plug and the filter will come right out with it. Put the new filter in. Make sure the filter canister is empty, and then put it back into the canister and tighten it up.

6. Put your oil plug back in and fill it up Once it’s finished draining, put your oil plug back in and tighten it. Now that your filter is in and your oil plug is in, your next step is to put your new oil in the engine. This is where the funnel comes in handy.

7. Start it up and check for leaks Once you have filled your car with the proper amount of oil you need to start it up and make sure it isn’t leaking or dripping from the oil plug or from the filter canister. If everything is tight you shouldn’t have a problem.

8. Reset your computer As soon as your oil is changed you need to reset your computer. Read the manual on your Cobalt to figure it out… it is easy.

9. Clean-up Once you are finished you need to take your used oil to a place that accepts old oil. Do not dump it! Oil contaminates the soil and the water supply so you need to dispose of it properly.

This should be about it. It will only take you about 15 to 20 minutes to complete the whole process.

The next step is resetting your computer. If you need to know how to do that you can view my detailed description: “How To Reset The Computer On Your Chevrolet Cobalt”

UPDATE: Here is an added note by Thomas Witt who e-mailed me some inside info. I haven’t tried this myself since I sold my Cobalt a while back, but you can give it try:

“I found that if you turn your key to ACC (without turning the engine over) you can press the “”"I”"”" button to see the oil setting % and then press the gas pedal three times. This will set the oil setting back to 100%. This info comes from the dealership. They forgot to reset mine so I called them. They told me how they reset Chevy cars which works on most of the later models.”

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Oh My Goodness, Look What I’ve Done!

December 14, 2005 @ 11:05 am by Pressed

I can’t believe this. I’ve been searching for a couple CD’s that I burned about 3 years ago and finally found them. These CD’s have mp3 files on them of split-track youth worship songs and I finally found the CD’s in a big pile of stuff I had shoved back in a shelf. I grabbed them and began to rip the stickers I had on the top of the CD off because it doesn’t work well in the Mac with those big honking stickers. Did you know that if the sticker is really sticky that it rips the CD track information right off the CD? I ripped all the CD info off of the CD and completely destroyed them…. Guess I’m not supposed to use those. *sigh*

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Where Did They Go?

December 7, 2005 @ 2:32 pm by Pressed

The last 20 comments were accidently deleted. If you left a comment and see that it is deleted now, it wasn’t on purpose. Sorry.

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