Car Repair

One day a person at the park followed Barb in his car.  When she stopped he told her that her rear brake light was out.

I asked my sister who I could take the car to to get the bulb replaced.  She said that I could do it myself if I looked it up on Youtube.

I looked up how to replace a brake light on a Honda Civic.  It seemed pretty easy.  It would only take a few minutes.

I told Barb I would go to a car parts store, pick up a bulb and replace it.  She reminded me of the time I tried to replace the headlight on our Toyota Tercel a few years ago.  I didn’t do it correctly.  It burned the casing which cost us a lot to replace.

So I looked up a garage close by where Barb could take the car.

She bought the car in while on one of her errands.  She expected to get the bulb replaced while she waited.  She thought is would cost about two bucks for the bulb and they would replace it for free.

The owner of the garage took the car away and replaced the bulb.  He brought the car back and charged Barb $15.  Barb was surprised but paid him in cash.  He put the money in his shirt pocket. 

Barb thought he ripped her off because she was a stupid Canadian.  She wasn’t going back there ever again.

Practical Joke?

Five of us guys from the park carpool together to slow pitch softball practices on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  There is a batting practice followed by an exhibition game.

After the exhibition game one day, myself and one of the guys were waiting for the other guys to finish their game on the other diamond. 

I had changed from my running shoes into my cleats at one side of their diamond.  I left my shoes under the bleachers where I left my softball equipment bag.  After my game, my running shoes were not there.  

There were a number of guys including one of the guys from our park on the other side of the diamond sitting in the bleachers.  So I went over and asked them if they had seen my running shoes.  There was a pair of running shoes on that side of the diamond.  I thought they belonged to one of the guys there.

Eventually the game ended and all the guys left.  Nobody took the running shoes.  I thought someone had taken my shoes and left these ones behind.

When I got to the car, one of the guys asked me whose shoes I was wearing.  I said I didn’t know.

When I got home, I told Barb the story.  She looked at the shoes that I brought home and said they were obviously my shoes.  They were the same make and had the same type of insert in them.

They were definitely my shoes but I have no idea how they went from one side of the diamond to the other side during the practice.

Early Bird

Last winter, we bought a used golf cart.  It had new batteries but old wiring.  We had trouble with the golf cart soon after we bought it.  Fortunately, there is a man in the park, named Don McNish, who has a business refurbishing golf carts.

He was able to fix the wiring problem by replacing one of the five diodes that was rusted.  He told us that it might be a temporary fix because the other diodes may need to replaced later.

This year we had the same problem with the golf cart.  Barb called Don.  He said he would come over to fix the cart on Sunday.

Barb gets up at around 8 am every morning.

She waited around the house all day on Sunday for Don to come over to fix the golf cart.  Finally in the late afternoon, she phoned Don to ask him if he was coming over.  He told her he had already fixed it.  He came over at 7:30.  He left his bill on the steering wheel of the golf cart.  He did not want to disturb us by knocking on the door.

When you live in a retirement village, you have to expect everyone to be an early bird.  Old people are notoriously early risers.

Fortunate Mistakes with Tech-Toys

My iPod battery was always dying on me when I wanted to use it.  Barb decided to get me a new one.  She investigated the sales on ebay.  She found a good deal on a 16G 4^th generation.  The seller said that his company bought it for him but he never used it.  So he gave it to his wife but she didn’t use it either.  So he was selling it and it was just like new.  So Barb bought it.

It came in the mail in a few days.  I excitedly initialized it.  I set up my email and my apps.  However, the new iPod battery was even worse than the old iPod at holding a charge.

So I did some investigation on the internet.  I found some information about iPod batteries going into “deep discharge state” if they are stored for a few weeks with no charge.

Barb emailed the seller.  She complained that the battery on the iPod was not good. She mentioned the “deep discharge state” information.  Barb thought that because the iPod was never used it was probably stored without a charge and the battery went into a deep discharge state.  She said she wanted her money back.

The seller wrote back saying the battery was fine.  It sounded like he wasn’t going to give us our money back.  So Barb started a complaint on ebay about the problem.  Ebay said we should try to work it out with the seller and if we couldn’t work it out in couple of weeks to our satisfaction, they would take action.

I prepared the iPod to return to the seller.  I initialized it back to factory settings.  Then we waited a few days.

After a while, I noticed the battery lasted a lot longer now that it was reset.  So I did some more research.  I found out that the apps that I had installed were draining my battery.  So the new iPod battery was fine and my old iPod battery worked fine too once I removed the apps.

Barb wrote to the seller.  She said we had found the problem and everything was okay now.  He said he was happy that everything worked out.  Barb was embarrassed about sending him the earlier email.  She cancelled the ebay complaint she had started.

Now I had two iPods. 

The funny thing was that Barb’s iPod that she uses even more often than I do started giving her trouble.  One day the on/off switch wouldn’t work.  She panicked because she had all of her contact phone numbers stored on her iPod and didn’t have a paper copy.

Fortunately, we were able to finally get it to turn on.  I backed it up on my computer.  Then I restored the files from the backup on my new iPod and gave it to her.  Barb was very happy to have a working iPod again.  So we really did need a new iPod.  Everything worked out fine for both of us in the long run.

Voice Memo

I was fooling around with my iPod.  I found something called Voice Memo. I tried it out. I recorded a message to myself. I was then able to play it back.

I showed it to Barb. She was amazed. Then she found a way to email a Voice Memo.

So she emailed a Voice Memo to Sarah. Sarah freaked out when she heard Barb's voice on an email.

Barb also found out how to send a Voice Memo as a iMessage text attachment.

Barb sent a Voice Memo to her friend Debbie saying how much Debbie liked to hear Barb's voice. So now Debbie could save the Voice Memo on her IPhone.  Then she could play it any time she wants to hear Barb's voice.

When Debbie got the email the next day, she freaked out, she was so happy.

Amazing Memory

Last year Sarah had a professor who prided himself in being able to memorize the names of everyone in his class of 300 students by the end of the semester.

Most students like Sarah had never gone to him for help. So she had never spoken to him. However, somehow by looking up the student records, he was able to figure out everyone's name and match it to their face.

The students were really impressed when he went around on the last day of class as he went around and named everyone in the class.

This year Sarah didn't have this professor. 

However, one day she was walking down the hall of the school. The professor walked by her. He said, “Hello Sarah”. 

Sarah was amazed that he still remembered her name.

Confusing Customer Service

I forgot my slippers. I had earlier lost my sandals. So Barb went out to buy me some new slippers and sandals. There was a two-for-one sale at the store. So Barb got the sandals for free.

The slippers fit so well and looked so good, we thought I could go out wearing them. They were like boat shoes. However, Barb thought it would be too dirty outside to wear my indoor shoes. So she decided to go back to the store to buy another pair of boat shoes for wearing outdoors.

She talked to the lady at customer service. Barb talked her into refunding the money for the sandals. Then she bought the second pair of boat shoes using the two-for-one sale. Then she bought the sandals as well. This was a good deal because the sandals were cheaper than the boat shoes. So the two-for-one sale was worth more.

The customer service lady gave Barb some change. Barb asked her if this was correct. The lady said yes it was right.

When Barb got home she looked at her bill more closely. Not only had the lady given Barb the two-for-one deal, she had also given her her money back for the sandals. So she made money on the return.