People less intelligent than me:
"Use soapy water to pinpoint the site of air leak."
"[S]ubmerge the entire heater core into a bucket/deep pan of water and watch for air bubbles."
"Dunk the whole mess underwater and see where the air bubbles come from."
"[I]immerse it in the bath to see where any leaks are."
"[S]ubmerge it in the bathtub and you will any leak."
A bathtub?! Why would I waste that much water?!
You may be asking why I am insulting their intelligence and think that sounds perfectly reasonable. The thing is, people invariably suggest what I already tried it. It didn't work. I tell them why. Then they start insulting me and telling me to do it anyway.
What? Again? It is suddenly going to start working?
This was my first thought:
That isn't supposed to be sideways!
I sealed a funnel with gasketmaker, plugged the other hole, filled it with water, and watched for leaks.
Nothing, from either heater core, and I left them for hours.
Well, the system operates under pressure. I need to test it at the same pressure, I don't care what you say Routine_Condition!
All right, I need to replace the funnel with a Schrader valve, and use a bike pump to pressurize it.
The only place in my area that sells Schrader Valves is Tractor Supply. I went to Dollar Tree, bought a bag of sandpaper, and started sanding down the other end.
I wanted to make sure that it sanded down evenly, so I put it in my cordless screwdriver. After about forty-five seconds it started smoking, so I kept giving it at least five minutes to cool down--until the battery died, so I used my drill.
It still took forever.
The $1 sandpaper came with many small sheets, but only one with coarse grit. I was never going to finish with one small sheet, so I bought a pack of full-sized sheets, but they were far too big to hold down, which wasn't safe anyway. I needed a cheap board.
The cheapest thing that I could find at Home Depot or Lowe's was at least $10, but Walmart had a bamboo cutting board for $4 or $5, and it was 9x11, just like the sandpaper. I glued them together, put it facedown on the driveway, and used some cinder blocks to press them together.
I put enough glue around the edges that it squeezed out, but was still loose, although it was good enough.
The other end of the valve had the same shape as the rubber stopper, but I could get the rubber stopper to stay in by itself. The valve didn't. I held it in place while I looked it over and it seemed like I kept accidentally moving the valve and releasing the pressure.
So I used mending brackets:
I used a forstner bit to drill out a hole and nuts, bolts, and washers to hold the braces in place. I pressurized the system, took a picture, set a timer, and both heater cores leaked out.
I did not ask for help until this point. I kept asking if I have three bad heater cores or if I am missing something with my testing rig. That was when I received the useless responses that I shared. Two problems that nobody accepts:
1. Aluminum vessels float.
2. The fins trap air and it would bubble without a leak.
Everyone just doubled down on holding it under water, telling me that I need to do what they say, and insulted me when I told them that I tried it before reaching out and it did not work.
Without a known good heater core I cannot tell if my setup works. I guess that I can find a pipe joint the right diameter, plug one end, insert the valve in the other, clamp them together, and see if it holds pressure. I did not have enough confidence in my system to take the heater core to AutoZone and ask them to exchange it.
How long would that take?
I did not know what to do yesterday besides go ahead, take apart my dash again, and see if that one also holds water, but not air, and just hope that this one actually works.
However, my laptop notified me of a new article, I read it, it suggested this, and I read it too:
What Really Happened to Malaysia’s Missing Airplane. I read quickly, but it is 34 pages long! It still took a while!
I spent the rest of the morning playing games on PBSKids.org. I was supposed to have a new teleclient. Our first appointment was scheduled for last week, but the mom forgot that this was teletherapy, and I did not know how to target the kid's goals through Zoom. The previous SLPA brought an iPad and had the kids play games for the entire session. I asked my supervisor for advice and the crazy lady tried to reassign my client to her other SLPA.
I cannot imagine that he sees as few clients as I do. If there were any other speech agencies up here I would have signed on a year ago. There are dozens down there and many SLPAs change agencies a couple of times a year.
Fortunately, I found one person giving me good advice, play a game on my computer, share my screen, and since they do not have a touchscreen, have my client express his wants and needs. After familiarizing myself with a number of games I set up everything and called the mom.
They were having occupational therapy soon. Why did she schedule occupational therapy for when she was supposed to have speech therapy? We rescheduled for later and I only had a short time before my next client. I wasn't going to change out of my work clothes, start working on my car, clean up, and change again.
My second family did not answer and I did not have enough time before seeing that first client, except when I went back out to my office the mom had dropped me saying that her kid would not sit still, and they needed an in-person therapist.
It is not just families that are flaky, but SLPs, too. My brother was supposed to have teletherapy in the morning. I was in the middle of something when Mom started trying to connect. We have been doing this since March. There is no reason for her to still not know how to connect to the lame SLP. I got her connected in a minute or two, but we were twelve minutes late, and after ten the SLP decided to take a walk. Mom called, left voice mail, and sent a text. When I came back from the third time that I didn't see a client Mom was connecting.
This is the SLP that likes to call me in and tell me that I am wrong about made up stuff. I did not want to go back out to my office, it is too warm out there. I did not want to use my desktop and invite the SLP to criticize me.
My session notes were due today, as well as signature sheets, and progress reports. Why am I submitting unsigned signature sheets for teletherapy?
My agency works in mysterious ways, like the three progress reports that I wrote for clients that I did not see.
My supervisor approved the first five progress reports, but rejected some or all or the five that I wrote after my brother's birthday.
It was all five.
She kept messaging me, calling and leaving voice mail, and e-mailing me. Heaven knows that I make mistakes, but she once told me to change my notes to say that something happened that didn't. She rejects notes to have me change correct grammar. She once rejected notes to have me change "Spoke at a high rate of speed" to "Rate of speech."
I feel like she has a quota. She needs to find problems half of the time or she does not feel that she is doing her job, even if the problems are nonsensical.
I replaced the back door handle, took care of dinner, and then my brother asked me to take him to Panda Express [for second dinner].
I started doing all of that last night, but I really wanted to sleep. However, despite taking melatonin, I could not fall asleep until 0130. Then I woke up at 06.
Well, I was going to be productive. I started watering the back lawn and doing paperwork on my desktop.
My brother woke up at 0730 and threw a tantrum. He turned off the water, but refused to tell me if it bothered him.
He turns off the water [the lights, and sometimes the television] all of the time. However, I did eventually help him write "I want to turn off the water please" on his iPad.
The tantrum continued. He refused to answer any questions, but eventually I helped him write "I want to turn off the computer please."
The tantrum continued. I kept asking what he wanted and eventually he asked for breakfast. I took care of it, he calmed down, and I finished my notes, did the signature sheets, reviewed and resubmitted my progress reports, and messaged my supervisor that I approved her changes. She told me to add something superfluous to one client's report, but not the sibling's, or the other two teleclients. I told her where I added it.
She once tried to lecture me about my notes being on her license--all because I put an Oxford Comma in my notes.
How dare I?!
For four of the last five progress reports she rejected them and just wrote "review and resubmit." Can you imagine how much I would appreciate her telling me what she changed, since this is on my license?!
She rejected one of them claiming that I did not add the thing that I told her where I put it.
Someone get me into grad school!
