Averbuch.NET » car

Oil Changes

ahaverbuch — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:25:42 +0000

While my mother was in town (she left on Friday), I was trying to make at least one jaunt out of the house per day in the car, just to build back up the sitting strength for that position. In trying to find errands to run, we decided it would be a good idea to get oil changes for Joelle and my car’s – it had been a while for both.

I knew we didn’t drive a lot, but after looking at our paper work to figure out when we last changed our oil, this is getting ridiculous:

My car: It had been 9.5 months since my last oil change, and I only went 1800 miles. My manufacturer (Saturn) recommends every 3 months/3000 miles. So on the mileage number, I still had a while to go.
Joelle’s car: It had been about 14 months, 3500 miles. Her manufacturer (Scion) recommends every 5 months/5000 miles. So she also had a ways to go, and it had been a year-plus (a little before we were married!)

How do we drive so little?

Both of us bus to work every day
Grocery shopping is mostly done around our neighborhood (Queen Anne, Seattle) – Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and Metropolitan Market (and 7-Eleven, while we are at it, though we never go there) are all within 4 blocks – so we walk to all of them
Most dinners, by ourselves or with friends/family, are on Queen Anne Ave or at our house
Even our doctors are either 5 blocks from home or right by work. Some of the specialists I saw were a little farther away, so for those, we did drive.
Given my back situation, I haven’t driven a car in 3 months! That helps keep things down Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things…

Needless to say, the rising gas and oil prices hasn’t had a major impact on our direct budget, thankfully. Chalk one up for the urban density crowd!

Doggie-Friendly Dining

ahaverbuch — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:37:21 +0000

Greg, Joelle, Shay (woof!), Molly (woof!) and I spent some quality time at the dog park on Saturday – and then we got hungry for dinner. We spent a bit of time researching where to eat that would allow dogs to sit with us (since we had the dogs with us, and it was so hot out, we didn’t want to leave them in the car). We ended up back at Norm’s, the only place we know of that allows dogs both inside and out. Luckily, we were able to get an outdoor spot, so both us and the pooches were happy with the choice.

Rather than always going back there, I spent some time looking up additional places around Seattle that are dog-friendly. Found a couple of a articles with good links

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/520235 – recommends Norm’s, the Islander, Tutta Bella, and Volunteer Park Cafe (so far, more likely coming). (Note: Broksonic, who replied, is me – I use that name on some sites. I think it was the brand of a TV I had a while ago, or something like that – I’ve been using it forever)
http://community.livejournal.com/seattle/5202948.html – recommends White Horse Trading Company, Norm’s, Wayword Coffeehouse, C+P Coffee, Lava Lounge, Tin Hat, Stumbling Monk, Summit Public House, Edmonds The Dining Dog Cafe & Bakery. But then digresses into arguments over dogs and food, also links to DogFriendly’s and Citysearches list, but I called a few of the places on there – I wouldn’t trust those lists.

Good to have options!

Aaron Automobile Accumen (AAA)

ahaverbuch — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 08:39:13 +0000

(this post was written while I was flying and will be posted once I get online later- actual written time, 8:03 AM, Dec 11)

Two stories about my car recently and interactions with AAA. They must think I am crazy.

My car is about 5 years old, and a few weeks ago, the car wouldn’t start, though it was sitting at home. As neither Joelle nor I had jumper cables (we do now), I called AAA over. An hour later they show up, and car still wouldn’t start. We waited another minute, and tried again – boom, it started. WHAAAT? Oh well, the AAA guy left on his merry way. (he did run a test and tell me I should probably replace the battery at some point soon, as it was at the end of it’s lifetime, and CCA or something like that was getting very low).
So I replace the battery (myself even, though I did have the Parts Plus guy standing over my shoulder telling me what to do ), and all was fine until late last week, when the car wouldn’t start again. Waiting until the weekend when I had time, Joelle and I couldn’t get the car started ourselves, so off I go to call AAA over. He gets there, and tries quite a few diagnostic attempts, failing each time (though the lights did turn on, as did the air, there was no starting). Finally, he decides we’ll need to tow it to the nearest service station. As he pulls out the towing gear, the guy gets in the car to get the car ready to push forward manually.

He immediately is able to start the car, as he yells – “Your car was still in drive. It won’t start unless it’s in park!” AAAHHH! – a) Why does my car let me pull the key out while it’s in drive? I feel like that is just a little dangerous… and b) I feel really stupid.

Probably the same reason caused the magical healing for #1. Oh well. At least I know what the issue is. And I am sure AAA thinks I am crazy!