Tarkblog

I used to love changing the oil in my car (and, after getting married, my wife’s car). It was a lazy Sunday afternoon task and it gave me a chance to do something different.

But anymore, it’s just so much easier to take it to the oil change place. In fact, the one nearby work advertises $18.99 oil change special. Recently, I visited and attempted to purchase this oil change.

First, realize that this only applies to their house brand 10W-30 oil (TropArtic brand, which as best as I can tell stands for “made in North Korea”). Now, my car is a little picky in specifying that it should have 5W-30. The only difference is the low end temperature viscosity, with 5W being able to handle lower temperatures. Not wanting to tempt fate, I told him to use the 5W-30.

So, the whole thing proceeds. I told him not to bother washing the windows, since I would do it anyway (a lie, but they do such a terrible job at these things that I didn’t want my windows to end up dirtier than they already were).

About 8 minutes later, I get the bill. $39 and change. Here’s how it played out.

Apparently the 5W30 house blend oil is $26.99, not $18.99 like the 10W30. So, for a slightly different viscosity grade I get an $8 surcharge. As best as I can remember, they’re the exact same price at the auto parts store.

Then there was a $5 fee for removing the skid plate on the bottom of my car that covers the oil pan. They had never charged me for this before, so I didn’t realize it would be applicable.

Also, there was a $2 disposal fee.

And, since my car has a large displacement V8, there was a few extra dollars charged for going over 5 quarts of oil.

All in all, $39+. That’s over double what the sign was advertising.

Crikey!

As Caleb and I were driving down I-69, we spotted a mini-van pulled off to the side of the road with it’s hazard lights on. One of the car’s passengers was sitting in a lawn chair against a row of trees. There was a second unoccupied lawn chair. It was pretty obvious that they were waiting to see something. But what?

In the following sentences, “I” is the implied subject.

Looking forward to it. Honestly did not need this past Tuesday off. Just wasted time. Did catch the Price is Right, but even that wasn’t amusing enough.

Thought about coming in an working, but since nobody was here didn’t feel like I would have accomplished anything. Would have just goofed off anyway, and am plenty capable of doing that from my own house.

Had a very vivid dream last night that would make for a good intruiging book. Considering writing it into a story. It has nothing to do with this style of writing.

Also probably going to sneak out early today to get a good head start on the 3.5+ hour drive to Angola. Perhaps not, as it looks to be a busy day though. Everyone seems to want to start their tests at approx 4:59pm.

So I read that Microsoft is now the supplier to Formula 1 for engine control units.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad idea? There’s two possibilities here:

* they put Windows in the thing, it crashes, and someone dies

* they DON’T put Windows on the thing, which means that they’re admitting Windows isn’t good enough to run your car.

Yesterday, Caleb suggested we quit calling the 4th of July the 4th of July and call it Independence Day. Then we could celebrate Independence Day on a Monday or a Friday every year so you’ve got a three day weekend every year. I’ll 2st the motion. Now I just need to get a member of Congress to introduce the bill.