Thurs. not so misc.

Some who shall remain nameless told me a while back told me not to brag about my van, that I would jinx it and it would get back at me.

There might be something to that….

Yesterday was my day off, so the only driving I did was to go downtown and check my PO box (nothing there).  I left home at 12:30 am and drove downtown to get my papers (carefully calculated  to miss seeing someone) and got there just minutes before my papers came down.  I spent a little time there at the bldg to tie up and re-bundle papers for various drops on the south route and set out towards Milwaukie.  I got to 17th ave. and the van stalled.  Not much traffic meant no stress, just guide it to the side of the road and restart it.  Once, twice, c’mon, I said re-start, thrice, four times, nothing.  Oh oh.

Now, the van has occaisionally stalled and so far It hasn’t been too stressful – I haven’t blocked the road too long, and it’s alway started right up.  Not this time.  Oh shit.

So, I pulled out the cell and called my boss and told him what was up.  He said that if I could get back to the store where the stepvans are parked, to take the white one.  As I was on the phone, I tried to start it again and it fired right up.  At that point, I knew I was only a 35 minute walk from home and the other van, but I put it in gear and drove over to the store.  No problem, but fuck being uncertain all night – I put all the papers in the white van and drove off towards Milwaukie.

Oh, but what’s this!?  The brake light is coming on when I press the brake and it goes too far to the floor….I said screw it and drove off, but when I got to my first stop, the brakes were clearly barely functional.  wtf?

I searched the junk box in the van where the spare brake fluid usually is, but found none.  Oh really???

Since my first stop is a gas station, I was able to buy brake fluid, which was good, because when I pulled the fluid reservoir top off, half of it was empty.  No fucking wonder the brakes don’t work so well!

I filled up the reservoir and called the boss to tell him that plan B was not going perfectly and said I’d call him again if things continued to go downhill.  Of course, by that time the next front had moved in and it was raining big time.

(one side question:  Will this fucking rain NEVER stop????)

I finished the south route, now nearly 40 minutes behind schedule and raced back to the plant to get my SE Portland papers.  Since it was so late, I had to deviate from my route sheet to get the papers to the bus garage and othe places where people would be waiting for them, and I raced along the route to get the papers out.  I’ve been using my van since last April to do these dailies, and it was kind of nostalgic to use the white van again for the dailies.  I ended up finishing on time (speed limits?  at this hour?  hahaha)

In a while, I’ll call the local repair shop (they did the fuel pump back in May) and see if they’ll change the fuel filter for me today.  I’m guessing that may be clogged – I haven’t replaced it since I bought the van, so it needs to be done.  I’m kinda positive (lol) that will cure the stalling and I can go back to using my van.  (my pay goes down if I don’t – no expense money if I don’t use my own van)

I left my van parked at the store while I ran around in the white van, and it started right up for me to drive the two blocks home, so I’m pretty confident that changing the fuel filter will make it work right again.  The fuel filter is not that hard to change, but this fucking rain!  The fuel filter is under the back of the van and I would have to get wet.  Fuck that.  I can pay someone else to do it.

So, it’s been a less than excellent day so far, but it worked out fairly well, so it could be worse.

*****