Private Sector vs. Public Sector

So I got a letter a few weeks back from TaxServ Capital Services. The gist of it was that I owed some back property taxes on my cars, stemming from the time I lived in Hartford. It basically amounted to one half tax year ($240), plus minor amounts $25 for other years - although by the time interest and fees were tacked on it was $400.

I paid up, not happily, but without rancor. I owed the taxes, the bills probably got lost in the mail forwarding / moving process when I relocated to New Britain. No idea why I underpaid two years of bills $12 (perhaps late fees or interest or something). I'm happy enough to be free and clear - that sort of thing tends to catch up with you at registration time, which usually involves a trip down to City Hall (where they have odd rules like cash only and even odder business hours) to make things right. So here's my credit card number, I'm all set, right?

But it struck me that this was clearly a place where the local tax collector (looking at you, City of Hartford) had not the interest, time, aptitude, or motivation to go out and get this money. And some wizard in the private sector figured out how to make it work, collect debts that Hartford probably had tossed into the uncollectable bin, and make a few bucks on it. I not a scofflaw, the tax bills just got lost in the shuffle.

Stuff like this reminds me that not EVERYTHING the Republicans stand for is bogus. I'd love to see a political movement that is socially liberal and fiscally moderate / conservative. Northeast Republicans used to hold that ground - perhaps these days the Democratic Leadership Council (which both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both play nice with) are seeking the same ground.

Car Troubles

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I lost use of my car for 11 days. Here's the blow-by-blow.

My Check Engine light has been lit for, well, months. No excuses there - I needed to get it in, but the time and money never coincided, and the car continued to run. A bit roughly, but it never conked out, never stranded me. I assumed it was a bad spark pug or something.

So when I got some money and the end of the summer rolled around, I took it in. I've been meaning to find a regular, independent mechanic and garage, but never got that sorted out. So, needing to get the brakes checked out, and having had the brakes done in the past (with a lifetime warranty) at Pep Boys, I took it there. Mistake #1.

I took the car in late in the day on Wednesday. Waited around for it - by diner time, they had gotten stuck (Cylinder #3 was not firing and had low compression) and were dialoging with a national specialist. They took me home, and I started figuring out options. Thursday morning the diagnosis came in - bad ECM (computer). Bad computer = big money ($1200) but what are you going to do. The problem was, with Saturn out of bizness, parts were not easy to come by, and the Pep Boys folks could not program (or "flash") the computer. So I'd have to wait over the Labor Day weekend. They hustled to get a computer on Friday, but when they replaced it, the new one was dead out of the box. So I waited until Tuesday.

Tuesday, the call came - the computer was replaced. The problem was still there. Upon further inspection, it turns out that here was a bent valve, it had damaged the #3 spark plug, coil, and head. They *said* that had damaged the computer (I remain dubious, think they were just throwing parts at it, and one of the parts they threw was the computer). Nevertheless - big job. To make a long story short, they ended up remachining the head,  which took until Saturday). $2900 later, my car runs great.

I'm going to write a couple of letters. Pep Boys gets a letter- both for the length of repair (11 days? really?) and the computer (which as I noted, I do not feel was bad). And Saturn / GM gets a letter, since th Pep Boys folks feel (based on the engine head damage) that the net valve may have been there from the get go (the car has 80K on it, but never really ran smoothly,  and the first tank of gas post repair got 4 MPG more than any previous tankful, and I monitor that fairly closely)

While the car was out of commission, I ended up riding my bike a bit - mostly back and froth to the studio (15 miles round trip). But I only rode up to teach (15 miles bike ride PLUS a hot / power practice would have been too much) so my own practice, as well as my social life, suffered.

On the up side, being home alone gave me the time to clean - and that has precipitated an amazing life change here, to be blogged next!
 

Long Overdue

Rainy Saturday morning, and a long overdue blog update.

The end of summer was a busy time - I spent a week on a Hillside in New York at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival; my annual musical retreat among a family I have known for 20 years. In addition, I spent a week in Maine for my second visit to Camp Camp - a GLBT adult summer camp which, truth be told, has stolen me heart and spirit. I am sure I will be back.

In addition, I spent a few days in Missouri at a customer site, and a week in Tulsa at another customer facility. And finally, I had an 11 day car fast - took my vehicle in for a long overdue tune-up (check engine light) and it took 11 days and $2900 to set it right (bad computer, bad head, destroyed cylinder)

So it's been a bit of a crazy few months, and one very bad blogger. This morning - I'm going to post a bunch of things - catch up a bit. And then see where we go from there.

New GPS

I am not exactly an early acquirer, and I tend to hang on to technology long past its average life. Witness my old iPhone 2 (still working fine), my iPad (a first generation device that I bought on closeout when the iPad 2 came out, and I'm still enchanted) and, until now, my GPS. I have had one of those old fat Garmin GPS devices that looked like a miniature CRT. The batteries died years ago (only worked when plugged in), the power cable was getting a little wonky, the touchscreen would occasionally and intermittently get out of registration, and the maps and software had never been updated (last time I checked, a few years back, it was $99 or something and it seemed better to buy a new box)

It owed me nothing - not exactly sure when I purchased it, probably 2006 - it went with me (via checked luggage) all over the USA on business trips. Occasionally, I'd pull up the history and find directions to a hospital 2000 miles away, to the southwest. It was, all in all, a VERY USEFUL and  RELIABLE bit of technology.

The last few months, I have found myself relying on my iPhone maps app for directions (and more importantly, traffic) so I knew it was time to update. 

Picked up a Garmin Nuvi 40LS (hey, I'm still not an early acquirer and I'm cheap!) that came with a lifetime map / software update for $120, on sale at Staples. I'ev never liked the Tom Tom User Interface, so Garmin it is again, even 10 years later the Garmin GUI is familiar.  A real impulse buy (I went in looking for a low profile extension cord, came out with a notebook, pens, and a GPS.)

Deus Ex Machina

Locked my keys in the car this morning, pumping gas en route to yoga. I opened the passenger side door to clear out some trash, left the keys on the passenger seat. A few seconds after I closed the door, I heard the ominous click of the car doors locking. No idea how that happened; the automatic door locks are pretty smart - I've tried to to this in the past without success. Best I can guess, the door lock button was inadvertantly pressed as the keys were sitting.

Anyway, I have OnStar - came with the car with a free year subscription and I've procrastinated killing off the subscription. Found the toll free number on the little window sticker, and borrowed the gas station phone to call. Took about 3 minutes (an extra minute because I never updated the subscription with my new address / phone number) but the satellite unlocked my car. Was not even late for yoga.

Once upon a time, pay phones would have been ubiquitous. And remarkably, there was a working pay phone in the lot, but for some reason, it did not seem to want to dial OnStar's toll free number, and I had no quarters to mess around with it.

I understand OnStar has smartphone apps that are cool and powerful; though they do not work for my vintage device (it's a 2007 car). Next vehicle, perhaps.

Had OnStar not been active, would have been a minor annoyance - I was about a mile from home, and could have walked home, gotten my hide-a-key to get into the house, and gotten my spare car key. But this worked faster!