First Rain Of The Year

I was just getting into working outside on the minivan. Then this morning we had crazy rain, for the first time in six plus months. I hate the rain. Its warmer out, because its raining, but I was freezing cold in less than an hour, just packing stuff up and putting it away. Thank goodness I got the hot tub working again, it earned its keep today.

I am more than happy with the minivan. The last tank got a respectable 26 mpg, 3 mpg better than the first tank. The motor seems to consume a bit of oil, but in a stupid way I think that is good, cause I would have trouble changing out a perfectly good gas motor for the newer diesel, and that was the original plan. I am hoping to double my gas mileage with the new smaller diesel and standard transmission. Plus I can make biodiesel for 1/3 the cost of diesel, and run a thinned out fryer oil in the summer.

Today I just went to the city I was so fed up with the rain. It stopped rite away and it was a beautiful sunny day the rest of the day of course. I am glad I cautiously took the van out to the city, with no back brakes. It has alerted me of a potential problem with the passenger side front brake. Without the rear brakes it really wants to pull to the left, which tells me that maybe only the left brake is working.

In the city I got bolts I need to finish the hitch, I got colored paper to make some fliers, got smaller stencils for my logo, and I got yellow paint to paint the name on the van.

I was thinking of making fliers, and hitting up post office boxes in new developments, since thats where all my work usually is. I kind of hate flyers myself, and without paying the post office a fare chunk of change I am forced to go door to door or put fliers under wipers. Both tactics seem obtrusive to me. So I will try putting posters with pull tab numbers on them, but otherwise I was thinking fridge magnet business cards would be cool to get on your windshield if you were parked in a targeted subdivision. I never discriminate when it comes to putting magnets on the fridge, even if it was annoyingly placed on my windshield. The fridge would give my cards near eternal life. Lets hope I can keep a phone number for more than a year.

The rain and thaw has tricked me. I have been so used to rock hard frozen ground, I forgot I need to use a piece of plywood whenever I raise a vehicle. Here is the latest catastrophic failure.