Better by a bunch... although I've still got that weak-kneed feeling, pretty wrung out....
Up at 04:30 this morning, I had a pot of coffee drank before Karen got up. I took her to work and played Free Cell until 08:00, when I started calling people to fix the brakes on the Subaru.
Nobody could do it until next Wednesday at the earliest. Well, damn, that wasn't going to work. I told them what needed to be done, and they all gave me prices of $300-400.
Damn. It was windy and cold. So I got my cold-weather gear on and went to the parts store and bought a set of brake pads and a book.
It took me four hours to get the first side on. The second side was done in twenty minutes.
After dis-assembling the first side and re-assembling it with the new parts, I noticed that the calipers wouldn't fit. Like, the pads were too thick by three-eights of an inch apiece!
So I took them off and took them back to the store and explained my problem to the parts guy. He looked at me like I was some kind of a fool... and indeed, I am. It turns out that you need to compress the piston, which controls the width of the caliper. Well, I knew that, it said that in the book, it just didn't say what the piston was or what it looked like or how to do it.
Rudimentary knowledge for everyone who works on brakes, I suppose. The kind of fool that I am today... one who struggles without knowledge, attains that knowledge from a scornful source and goes on to triumph and save himself $300. I really don't mind that at all.
The actual job itself was the usual litany of misplaced tools and cold fingers. The wind chill was about 15F and much of the work had to be done ungloved, of course. And I had to go buy a large C-clamp in the middle of it, to compress that damned piston. I went to Big Lots and got a 4-inch quick-clamp and a standard 10-inch C-clamp. I didn't think that I'd need the 1-incher, but I needed them both. The large one wasn't marked and it took ten minutes to arrive at a price... I finally paid $4.00 for it, it shoulda been about $12, so I did OK there... I'll probably never use it again.
I got mostly cleaned up and went over to Ryan's... Ryan is a nurse in the ER, and he had a P-75 that he gave me. Pretty damned slow windows machine, but I'm DLing RedHat Linux 7.0 right now, and I'll put two NICs in it and set it up as a server. It's only got 16 MB of memory, which is at the lower limits for RH 6.2, I don't know if it'll be enough for 7.0. Guess that I'll find out soon...
I really plan on spending the next coupla relaxing and computing, maybe work some on those shelves, maybe get that wall painted...
Many people are amazed that I do mechanical work on my vehicles... amazed that I can do it and that I will do it.
Some of it is a matter of necessity... like today. Well, we could have gotten by with one vehicle, but it would've been a pain. And I know how easy brake work is... it really is. If you have the books and the tools and a smart-ass parts man. Most mechanical things are easy.
But the main thing is... I really like to prove to myself that I can do them. I like to amaze people. People are most often amazed by my sheer stupidity.
So, it's an ego thing.... a challenge to myself. And I enjoy it when I win, and I hate it when I lose. Sometimes I'm better'n I think I am and sometimes I'm a miserable failure.
Today was a good day. I'm better'n I think I am. And I needed that ego boost.