Trees And Other Things

I've pretty much decided on the Samsung Galaxy Flip Z3.

 

Oooooh. So you just want a new phone.

 

Makes sense. Maybe he has filled his quota by now. I'm not calling him, since 2 weeks have gone by. He can call me again. There is no one I know anything about anyway.

 

Every time it crawls out of my pocket and falls onto the pavement I look, hoping it is broken. No luck so far.

 

Dropping it in the toilet works. This I know from personal experience especially if you try to turn it back on immediately after.

 

(6/27/22) Monday

I wish I had a tape recorder at the body shop (BS1). The appraiser talked for 20 minutes about everything, including bad mouthing insurance companies, insurance fraud, and customers who accused them of wanting to stockpile tires and wheels. I probably missed something important.

The woman up front warned me the ins. co. hourly labor estimate was too low, but that would only be about $180 extra (out of pocket). The appraiser said the job might cost as much as $1000 extra, but he won't know the exact amount until he starts to tear down the truck. That's after I sign the papers to deal with them. First available time end of July.

All this makes sense unless one prefers to think negative. But when he said, "There won't be much negotiation (with the insurance company)," that was sort of a deal breaker. I told him I'd think about it for a few days. Maybe this man was just having a bad day. I don't want to take that chance.

In the afternoon the insurance adjuster called to say she needs to send someone out to the house to look at the truck and make an estimate. I told her they already sent me one based on photos. This ins co does not provide a list of recommended body shops. I asked her if they had one anyway. She emailed 3 names. One of them is the Ford dealer in town (out of the question). The other two places have been in business for as long as I have lived here.

 

(6/29/22) Wednesday

Appointment in the afternoon at a body shop on the list (BS2). It is a certified Ford collision shop, whatever that means. BS2 appraiser said essentially the same thing as BS1, except he couldn't foresee any extra charges more than a couple hundred dollars, for example for labor. He discussed a lot of things that could be negotiated with the ins. co., and seemed certain there would be a supplemental estimate eventually. I have a tentative appointment to drop the truck off on July 28th. Don't have to sign any papers until then. I think I'm going to go with this one.

There may not be a lick of difference between these two places. They may both come up with an extra $1000 in the end. There is no guarantee. BS1 may just have been more honest. This whole thing is a crap shoot, imo.

Just before this appointment the insurance adjuster called again and asked me to give a taped statement explaining what happened in the accident. The other guy is asking for damages to his car, but no injuries. It is a 1995 Toyota. It was hard to explain without a diagram. I'm not normally a suspicious person, but the more I think about it, I think this accident may not have been an accident.

 

I should have clarified. She was happy with the photo estimate. Just didn't notice someone had already done it.

Yeah the first guy expressed a definite negative attitude toward insurance companies. I get that, but he needs to get over it, or find a different job. Maybe he was preparing me for when he blames them for overcharges.

That's good to know. I'll ask. The ins. co. est. used prices right off the Ford retail online parts catalog.

It's hard to explain without visual aids. Bottom line, I suspect both cars—the one in front of me, and the one I collided with—might have been working together. There were only 3 cars in a large, abandoned shopping center parking lot, and two of us hit. That's hard, but not impossible, to do by accident. Maybe I've been reading too many conspiracy theories lately.

 

No, I think that is quite a possibility!

 

Nothing left to lose (again)? ..[Substitute cassette deck for lawn mower]

Donated a fairly expensive boom box just a year ago. I bought it for the radio and never could get any reception at the house. It had a cassette player on it. New cassette players are either in the $25 range or the $300 range. The $25 range get terrible reviews if they even work at all.

I would like to make copies of a half dozen tapes that various family members made a long time ago. Before the tapes disintegrate, if they haven't already. All you need to convert to digital is any decent tape player with a headphone or line out jack. I have an old stand-alone Realistic SCT-42 tape deck you hook to speakers. Tape rewinds but doesn't play. Most likely it is just a belt. But replacing a belt is not as easy as it sounds (YouTube videos). Regardless, I started tearing it apart.



There are two belts. One of them is a flat belt. It has completely melted and turned into a glue-like substance. You can see two ends at red arrows. The other belt is for the FF and RW (blue arrow). That works fine.



Found out this deck is almost identical to a Hitachi D-RV7 cassette deck. There is a service manual for the Hitachi online. It's in German. There is a belt for that deck for $12, but it comes from China. Instead I ordered a pack of 50 various size belts 4mm diameter which should be here Thursday. Gambling on one of those to fit.

Is this too many obstacles to overcome?

Will finish taking this apart and see. If I think I can't do it I'll start ordering cheap cassette decks until I get one that works. I just want to be able to recognize voices and the inflections.

 

You GO girl!
I bought my kid a stereo record player with a dual cassette deck for dubbing about 20 years ago. Later on craigslist, I got a record player/tape player, radio. If it does not work out, you can try there off and on. I have even seen beta tape decks