Paint Chips - the saga continues

I picked up the truck last Thursday... and paid $60 for the 3 "calendar days" of the loaner car. I tried to argue that it was only two days -- Tue > Wed and Wed > Thu, but he said "we count calendar days". Yeh, ok. I tried. :)

I took a quick look at the bumper before leaving the dealership and it looked pretty good. The truck was washed and the inside was even vacuumed. I was happy.

I got home and looked closer at the bumper. The passenger side was beautiful. No complaints. On the driver side, where there were two lower chips (I didn't take photos of that side) I discovered a new paint bubble, almost in the exact same spot that there used to be one on the passenger side. I gave it a light poke with my finger nail and it was indeed a bubble. Not just a build-up of paint.

My wife called the dealership back on Friday and left a message with a brief explanation. No return call. So she called them again this morning and explained what the problem was. "Jamie" said he wasn't aware of this new problem. He said that they don't inspect anything other than what is reported and repaired. My wife told him that we were sure it wasn't there before, so this was likely new due to the repainting. But regardless, since there's a 3 year warranty on the paint, it doesn't matter if it's new or old. He said something to the effect that if they fixed every little thing like this, they could be doing this 5 or 6 times. My wife said if that's the way it has to be, then perhaps the bumper should be replaced? And we're not going to keep paying for a loaner car every time when it should be fixed right the first time.

He said he would have to speak with the service manager.

Now, I can understand that time is limited and maybe they don't have time to inspect the entire bumper, but realistically, how long would that possibly take? I'm not a body repair expert, but it took me all of 10 seconds to spot the bubble when I got home. This new bubble is like a foot higher from where the chips were that they repaired. How could they not see it? It's not like it's on the back of the bumper where they wouldn't have been looking during any preparation or repainting. It's 12" above it!

Now we wait....

(Original post here)

Relay for Life -- Our First Year

Team W.T.F. - Walk to Fight survived the Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life! Our team raised $2,943 for our first year.

It was a great event, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We're already talking about next year! Now that we've experienced the whole event, we'll try to make it even more fun for everyone on our team.

I managed to stay away the entire time, meaning I was awake for about 26-27 hours in total. My entire body is achy and sore. Mostly from carrying the 200lbs of stone dust filled bags that we used in place of tent pegs.

I think my favourite part was the Luminary ceremony after sunset. The field lights were all turned off, leaving the track lit only by the luminaries. It was a very touching moment when the bagpipers played Amazing Grace as Sandra and I stood in front of my Dad's luminary.

I think the only downside was having to move our tents 6 or 7 times on Friday morning to make room for the track. Ideally, it would have been nice if the tracks had been marked prior to setting up.

The funny moment of the evening was when three teens stopped in front of our tent and asked if they could take a picture of our team sign. One of them said "it's the most awesomest team name!" Apparently there were other people who commented on our team name.

The last time we managed to see our total laps, we think it was around 130-140. That's about 5 minutes per lap. However, more often than not, we walked in pairs or small groups and those only count for 1 lap. One lap counter per team. We didn't have any designated times for when each member took their turn. It simply worked out that someone was always willing to take the lap counter and do their part, throughout the night. We had a great team!

A few things I learned from all of this that might help for next year:

• Most people either ignored, or weren't aware of, the "no pegs" rule for tents. I was told that there's an underground sprinkler system on the field, therefore they asked that we didn't use tent pegs. We had 200lbs of stone dust packed in freezer bags to use in place of pegs. Moving the bags to and from the truck was a pain. We'll have to think of a better way to "peg down" our tents next year, or get a cart to move the bags!
• I am way out of shape. I should start walking more in the weeks leading up to the event. My body hasn't stopped complaining since we got home yesterday. :)
• We packed way brought way too much with us.
• Parking wasn't as limited as we were told it would be.
  

Canadian Cancer Society Relay for Life - THANK YOU!

What started out as an idea about 5 or 6 months ago between a friend and I after a mutual friend passed away from cancer at a very young age earlier this year, is about to become a reality.

This Friday night, I will be participating in a 12-hour Relay for Life to help support the fight against cancer. I am the captain of a team of 12 people who have have collected a total of $2,898 in pledges for the event.

I am extremely grateful to all our generous friends and family who have who made a pledge to help us achieve this amazing total. Thank you everyone!

With rain in the forecast for Friday and Saturday, it is certain to be a very wet night for us, even though we will have shelter when we're not walking around the track. Let's hope for reasonably warm temperatures!

I'm sure we'll have plenty of photos to post and share with you all.

If you'd like to make a donation, it's not too late! You can do so online by following this link. Any amount is greatly appreciated.

Again, thank you all for your generosity!

How NOT to park (or How to not make friends with your neighbours)

I had to drive my wife to work this morning, so I'd have the car to drive our kids to her when she's done for the day, so we can take them to the dentist. Note that I said car and not truck. We have a loaner (a Ford Focus) while our truck is in the shop.

Anyway, I stepped outside to find that the neighbour from two doors down had parked their truck behind the car beside us, and it was partically blocking our car. The car beside us rents the spot from the neighbour right next door.

It's actually not too unusual to find the two-door-down neighbour parking their truck there. They tend to do it often, but usually for short periods of time, while unloading stuff from the truck.

My wife went out to ask them to move it. Before she got to their door, our neighbour's basement boarder came home. This was the first time I've heard him speak. He's a quiet guy, who works night-shift. He asked her if it was our truck. She said no. He said it had been parked there all night, apparently. He works with the guy who rents the spot and said that he blocked in car owner) had been ringing her (the truck owner) doorbell non-stop this morning to tell them to move I guesss he must have given up and found another way to work.

So my wife rang the "offender's" doorbell and knocked on her door a whole bunch, in attempt to wake her up. Finally, she answered the door and my wife asked her to move the truck. Her response was something like "Did I forget that I parked my truck there last night?"

Holy crap.. what kind of condition would you have to be in when you got home to make you forget that your truck was parked illegally all night?

I think they'll soon be hearing from their landlord. My wife and the guy from next door are going to call the condo management office and complain, and ask that they notify the owner who rents to them. We do have parking security that we're supposed to call if someone parks in our spot, but apparently you have to prove that it's your spot before they get it towed. All the home owners got letters a while ago stating which spot is their's, but I'm sure the guy who rents that spot doesn't have the paper. Still, I don't think you need to prove parking spot ownership to get someone towed or ticketed when they're parking behind you, which is technically in a fire lane.

This isn`t the first time we`ve had parking problems with them. I came home one day from work to find an unknown car parked in our spot. I parked in the fire lane and sat on my door step for about 5 minutes. I was about to move our truck directly behind them so they couldn`t leave, but then a kid came out of that house and left in the car. The woman who lives there (the offender from last night) told him that he`s not supposed to park there, and to use visitor parking. (Pot... kettle?) He said, "I was just there for 5 minutes" which was obviously BS.

The woman and her live-in boyfriend used to park in the neighbours spot all the time, when the unit was empty for months and undergoing renovations. They never asked permission. Even when the place was sold and the owner moved in, they continued to park there on occasion after he started renting his spot out to another neighbour a few doors down. That guy even once left them a note on their windshield telling them that he'd get it towed the next time.

It's too bad because they are generally nice people, but they're not making (or keeping) any friends by being so inconsiderate.

Spread Firefox - Download Day 2008

I think most people have tried Firefox at some point. If not, it's time to check out the new version, and help set a world record for most downloads in a 24 hour period.

Spread Firefox | Download Day 2008

What are you waiting for?

Day 2

It's officially day 2 of my 2-week vacation and so far I have done nothing terribly exciting.

Monday was spent vegging on the couch and playing Rock Band. :) Oh... and the inlaws from 4 or 5 doors away came over for cake since it was my Birthday.

This morning my wife and I attended our daughter's school play for an hour, after my wife dropped our truck off at the dealership to get the paint chips on the bumper repaired. The remainder of my family-free day was spent watching a movie and farting around here on the laptop.

Now that the kids are home from school, I'm sitting on the doorstep typing this boring blog entry.

Tomorrow will probably be more of the same, but in the evening I'll hopefully be going to pre-register our team for this Friday's Relay for Life event. That's assuming that I can get everyone's cash donations to bring with me, otherwise we'll have to wait until Friday evening to register during the event.

Guitar Hero & Rock Band Haters Make Me Laugh

I can't help but laugh at all the Guitar Hero & Rock Band haters out there.

I was browsing a few impressive videos of young people playing both of these games when I noticed a trend. It never fails that some know-it-all chips in his two cent comment like "That sucks man, play that on a real guitar" and adding that they hate it when some kid thinks that it's like playing a real guitar.

The only people I ever see making a comparison between Guitar Hero or Rock Band and a real guitar or drum kit is the so-called "real" musicians who hate the game.

Here's a particularly pissed off individual, quoted straught from a YouTube video (spelling & grammar errors included) of Eddie Van Halen's live "Eruption":

"It fuckin pisses me off,kids go into the guitar shops while youre playing a real guitar,and theyre like,yeah,I can play that...on guitar hero,its easy.and they think theyre real bad asses.Guitar Hero has to be one of the worst inventions ever."

Good grief, does that really matter? It's apples and oranges.

I'm sure there are probably a few kids who think that it's like the real thing, but so what? If it gets them interested in music, maybe one day they'll take interest in learning a real instrument?

I've heard some say that these games are nothing more than a glorified "Simon" game. Hate to break it to you, but they're more difficult than Simon. There's more coordination needed to play. It's not as simple as just pressing a coloured button when it flashes. There's timing involved in pressing the button and hitting the strum bar. You have to be in sync with the notes. You need to get a feel for the rhythm and the beat to play the game well.

If you're one of these haters, keep your hate to yourself. Don't slam anyone who likes the game. You've got nothing to fear. You may or may not realize this, but these games are designed created by REAL musicians. People who can play real instruments, AND play the game well.

Maybe that's why you hate the game. Because you can't do both?