Timing Chain! Now we do the Dance of Joy!

[Channeling Balki Bartokomous] (spelling?)

I had originally thought that L's car would need a super-expensive timing belt replacement before the end of the year, so I had started bugging co-workers about their mechanics (since I am NOT going to the dealer again. Last 60K service on the Sentra cost $453! No, they didn't do anything special. Only replace oil, oil filter, air filter, and engine coolant. The rest was "inspection" labor, which is total crap).

Anyway, then I checked online to see the Nissan maintenance schedule and the only models requiring timing belt replacement was the Xterra and the Frontier... hmmm... So, I asked Google different combinations of the words "timing", "belt", "chain", and "sentra", and I find that '04 Sentras have timing chains! Woo Hoo! Why am I so happy? Chains rarely ever require replacement - they are hardy! Usually last at least 200K miles (basically, the life of the car). So, yay! At least $500 (probably more) that does not need to be spent on vehicle expenses.


Popcorn. Why are you taunting me?

A couple times a week, towards the end of the work day, someone in the office makes popcorn and it drives me crazy. Crazy in that I want to eat it (in large quantities). And it's funny because I never crave popcorn. It's only when I smell it. It's got an addictive aroma. I heard on the Stern show a few weeks back that some kind of weird lung disorder was related to inhaling too much popcorn steam. They were talking about how this guy ate at least 1 bag or more per day of microwave popcorn, and each time he made it he would pull it out of the microsave, open it up, and inhale the steam (clearly, this man has issues). He ended up with some kind of funky, severe lung problem. As soon as he stopped doing his pseudo-cocaine popcorn-steam snort, his symptoms faded away (and he lost significant weight - go figure. 500+ less calories a day of popcorn). So, anyway, this popcorn smell appears to be addictive, IMO. I can still smell it now, but at least it's lessening and I am no longer wanting to scarf down a whole bag.


And when I find some time later this week, I will bitch about the California bottle redemption situation. It is very high up in the rankings of my pet peeves.

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