Car #10

[Xist]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Whew!

It's another time, let me esplain.... no not enough time, let me sum up.
I'll tell you, I don't know.

I believe that I was upset with my Autism professor, who seemed to teach in a way that would be especially difficult for an individual with Autism to understand, also I ended up soloing 3 group projects.
Independent of that, our counseling professor (who doesn't do a single thing he teaches) keeps encouraging me to get tested for Autism, yet I don't see how that would benefit me for school.
Standard accommodations would be a notetaker, which they already denied me, but I only have one class left.

If I have managed 63 credits without accommodations, I should be okay with 3 more.

I realized the difficulty might not be as much with the Autism professor.
We had a Russian lady in her fifties who failed a class the first quarter and wasn't in the class with that professor the second quarter.
I didn't realize she wasn't in our class, but she kept talking to me after our first class ended, and I kept wondering "Don't we need to go to class with all of our classmates?"
When I finally left, I missed the entrance ticket, which hurt my grade 1-2%, so not so much my professor being a hard grader or inflexible, and more not checking the schedule and rushing to our next class.
D'oh!

To sum up #77, a couple of pages and 1,631 words:
I had deferred maintenance on my car, but a coil pack went out, which I had not planned on replacing, and the spark plugs, which I had planned on replacing, were aftermarket, so hopefully they were fine, but I replaced them to be sure.
I keep wondering how much a shop would have charged, but I couldn't find an estimate for replacing the plugs and packs.
I have had two male clinical supervisors who just wanted to work, one female in a clinic who fired me after two days, and my school sent me back to my first site.
The fourth quarter, they sent me to a behavior school an hour away with another male SLP, who just wanted to work.
I was supposed to have another female supervisor in a nearby clinic, but I never interacted with her.
I tried to follow up for months and then halfway through the quarter, the coordinator realized the SLP they had picked didn't see clients for them.
Then I had a virtual interview with two ladies with a third clinic, 2.7 miles away from the second, and they already had some side of the story.
The interview did not go well and they did not want me, but within a few hours, someone reached out from a charter school, and everything seemed great until I actually talked to the SLP, a female.
She didn't answer my questions and only responded to about half of my e-mails. The second male SLP said this lady just gave me the runaround before declaring she couldn't work with me.
She never tried.
School sent me back to the charter school an hour away and that has gone well again.
I moved half an hour from school, but they periodically tell me to come in for meetings, and twice they decided to blame me for things outside of my control.
I successfully argued that not everything was my fault and the professor just slumped in his chair, folded his arms, and looked away.
I successfully argued and just made him angry?
The counseling professor, who scheduled my clinicals, ordered me to meet with him and another professor between clinicals and class.
I asked to reschedule to ensure I would be able to have enough clinical hours and they put me on academic probation.
The first day of class, also the first day of clinicals, as well as the first day of meeting with those professors when I wouldn't necessarily be able to get enough clinical hours, I was also supposed to come into school and get a flu shot.
I had been able to get one for free through the local pharmacy, but this time I called the 10 closest place on the VA's website, all of which were supposed to help me for free, but all of them said it would cost $20-60.
I wasn't allowed to attend my virtual class until they approved the paperwork from my flu shot, so I paid Costco $20, and lost points with the professor who keeps almost failing me, but again, part of that was not checking the schedule when I was sure we were supposed to be in class and a classmate kept talking to me.

[Xist]

Well, that was about a third as long.
Yay.
I had an interview with a skilled nursing facility 50 minutes away and worried what questions they would ask, since I don't have any hands-on experience.
My classmate said "Be yourself!"
Why is she setting me up for failure?
Some new instructor, an SLP, not a doctor, kept asking me to come in for a mock interview.
I was positive it would be a waste of time and it was.
I felt like they asked me easy questions and we had a nice conversation for almost an hour, but then they told the coordinator they decided to not allow me to work for free because I reacted when the SLP said she spent 3.5-4 hours a day doing paperwork.
Who wants to do paperwork?!
However, I follow all instructions to the best of my ability.
Honestly, I think that is an excuse, but I invited her to participate in my research study, and she said she did.
Supposedly, I need to retake the previous clinicals, which will cost me more than I earned in Afghanistan because I didn't have a final last quarter.
I hoped to start my next site at least one day a week while finishing up with my current place.
Had the third clinic in the same town worked out, I would have had "Maybe 10" clinical hours, but two of my classmates said they didn't get nearly enough hours with her.
I need to average 6 hours a week, so maybe I would have gotten 5.
Maybe less.
If I at least got 10 hours with the skilled nursing facility, I would have more than I would have gotten with that supervisor before I needed to start.
We only have two more weeks, but I have a month off for Christmas, although I doubt that would count for this quarter, or any quarter besides the spring.
I probably can't work over the summer, either.
I currently have a 90.82% with the professor whose classes I barely passed twice, although it was higher.
The professor just graded a group presentation and gave us 95% because two of us had our cameras off.
I am pretty sure mine was on, I usually remember.
I have a 89.58% in a class with a professor where I usually earn something like a 90.5%.
I keep hoping to improve it, but her instructions for our last assignment were unclear.
I e-mailed her about it 36 hours before it was due and she didn't respond until afterward.
She claimed we would cover it during class, but we didn't, not that it would help me now.

My wife and I hadn't been able to drive to Show Low since April, but this Saturday, after she runs a half marathon, will be our fourth trip in a row, although we won't be able to attend the next few weeks.
She works retail and will need to work weekends.
I have finals December 2nd through 4th and then we are going to Seattle.
I will attend the Speech and Hearing convention and she is doing another half marathon.
We will probably try to find places with good french toast or something.

We mostly cleared out the house, but decided to focus on the garage because we kept packing boxes and not knowing where to put them.
We could put them in the living room or something, but we were still trying to clean the living room.
We kept putting some in the garage, but it was already full.
We have gone through almost everything in there, and we filled a minivan and mostly filled a pickup.
We preferred the minivan because it is smaller, easier to park, more fuel efficient, we don't need cargo straps, a tarp, or a net, and the contents stay dry, but Avis has a pickup at the nearest location for $78, while the only minivan they showed was at Sky Harbor for $168.
Google says the rental center is 30 minutes away, but you can't park there.
The nearest lot looks to be 1.5 miles away and $26.
We currently have 9 big black trash bags in the garage, a decent load to take to donate, and then tools and car parts.
I worry that I haven't found all of the latter.
I mopped most of the floor and used bleach water for about half, but ran out of bleach, so I will bring bleach, we will clear out what we can, mop the entire floor with bleach water, and then we will work on the stuff I stored in my room and what is left in the kitchen and laundry room.
It doesn't sound bad, but then I will start the endless repairs.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Xist

I realized the difficulty might not be as much with the Autism professor.

What are you studying? Psychology?

[Xist]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

What are you studying? Psychology?

I apologize for the delay, but I earned a Master's in Speech-Language Pathology.

To update my "Build thread" (I'm not building anything... yet...):
P0353 – Ignition coil C, primary/secondary circuit malfunction left me stranded.
I hit some lady's 2021 Tundra.

[redpoint5]

Congrats! Now earn $$ and let someone else purchase your car problems.

[freebeard]

Too late? cRiPpLe_rOoStEr "Last Activity: 09-27-2025 02:19 AM"

[redpoint5]

Somehow I didn't notice the lack of participation, but that was probably "noise" from lack of participation in general following the DDOS issues the site experienced. He was the last Brazilian I regularly saw on this forum.

[freebeard]

Missing...Presumed_Having_a_Good_Time

[Xist]

I thought that the Big O near us did a great job when I took Mom's car for a $17 $25 oil change, so I took mine to a location near clinicals and everything was different.
They wrote "Called customer @1054am; no answer."
I was working!
I was finishing up and received a message to hurry up and pick up my car, they were closing within an hour.
They said that all of my tires had edgewear and one had low tread.
The tires I bought around 40,000 miles before, but I need to fix my suspension.
Hence the edgewear.

They suggested wiper blades due to age, recommended replacing the air filter stating it was dirty, said the oil was low, the power steering was low and leaking (elsewhere they noted "HARD TO STEER PTS!"
They crossed out the cabin air filter.
I have one!
Of course, they recommend flushing my brake and transmission fluid and coolant.
They suggested replacing my hoses claiming they were soft and white.
They marked the serpentine belt as suggested, but wrote "Rec."
They recommended replacing the year-old spark plugs due to miles, recommended a fuel filter service, stated replacing my power steering hose(s) was\were required.
They claimed the yellow headlights I never restored were good.
They recommend replacing all of my motor and transmission mounts claiming they were OE.
I had just replaced the torque mount the night before and it was aftermarket.
They wrote my control arm and sway bar bushings were shot.
They recommended replacing my ball joints for being OE and stated my rack and pinion was leaking, but my CV boots were good.
They recommended replacing my shocks and struts stating they were OE.
If I push on a back corner of my car, it bounces.
A lot!

The second page has the estimates:
$ 25 for the air filter
138.75 for brake fluid service
$40 per $10 spark plug and 48 minutes of labor (for a 6-minute job) at $189 hourly.

A hundred and ninety dollars?!

$70 for a GDI fuel treatment.
I don't have GDI.
$80 for labor for something I don't have.
$474 for a $14 valve cover.
54 minutes of labor at $189: $170.10
$140, $290, and $190 for power steering hoses.
1.9 hours for hose labor: $359.10

I thought we were finished, but there is a third page!
They estimated tires and an alignment.
$700 for both lower control arms and 3 hours of labor: $567
$1,400 for a new complete rack assembly.
4.9 hours for adjusting the steering gear: $926.10
12 quarts of ATF at $7 each: $84
$40 for an ATF service kit, $76 in labor, and $4 for disposal.
$40 for a coolant service kit, $30 for coolant, $90 for labor,

I had replaced my radiator in August because when I was replacing the coil pack plugs, I snapped off the radiator neck nipple.
Dorman sells a repair kit, but it made it worse.
I didn't flush my system, but 40-50% of the coolant was new?

$70 for a power steering fluid kit, $60 for labor, and $5 disposal.
$390 each for a complete strut assembly, a quick strut assembly, and two ultra struts.
4.9 hours of labor: $877.10
$40 for two wipers (I replaced myself)

The tire estimate included TPMS, which my car doesn't have.

The estimate included two things my car doesn't have and excluded the cabin air filter, which I have.
The yellow headlights I never restored were good.
They claimed the aftermarket torque mount I replaced the night before needed to be replaced because it was OE.

[freebeard]

What was estimates and what was out-of-pocket? Did you add all that up?