HHR Gets New Tires

Home in Holiday / Tarpon Springs area, FL

We put tires on our motorhome back in 2015…lucky a Michelin Tires recall paid for six out of the seven tires at Discount Tire Store near El Paso.  Since then, we have had to stop at Discount Tire a few times due to stem problems because of our Tire Sensors…I have since gone to metal stems, and although I paid for the metal stems through Napa Auto, Discount Tire put them on for free.  So with our HHR needing new tires, I sure wanted to find a Discount Tire (called America’s Tire Store out on the West Coast).  Our nearest one is in Lakeland Florida, a LONG 60-65 mile distance from where we live.  LONG because it is not all Interstate, and can take two hours to get there depending on traffic.

I made an appointment for 11:30, and left the condo just about 9:30.  I have gone to Lakeland taking highway 54 to I-275 south to I-4 east and over to Lakeland…but Discount Tire was on the extreme north side of Lakeland, so I opted to stay on highway 54 through to highway 98…and that was a mistake.  Once you get onto the other side of I-275, highway 54 becomes county road 54, and things slow down a bunch until you get to highway 98.  I pulled in right at 11:29…I hate to be late, and that was too close.

 

The Discount Tire Store website says that the HHR takes a 215/50-R17 tire, and I picked out one for about $60…which after installation and 3 year replacement, came to $400.  Once I got there, and they pulled me in as soon as I was done at the register, we found out that what I really needed was a 16” tire due to the wheel size I have on the HHR.  So the new tire size, with what they had on hand, cost about $6 more per tire…so I went with that.  I should have looked at the tires I had on it and not relying on their website...lesson learned.

For the past year we have been having problems with the HHR’s internal tire sensor system.  While I was getting the tires replaced, I decided to replace all four sensors since three of the four were bad or acting up.  This problem was detected because the yellow tire deflated icon would light up every time the car is started, and the notification window would say “low tire” and/or “tire sensor”.  Well, I provided the four sensors (from Amazon), and Discount Tire put them in for free as part of the installation process.  By 12:31 I was back on the road and called Marcia to let her know I had lost a good friend.  “WHO????” she asks.  “My yellow tire sensor light…it is gone…all gone!”  It is nice being able to see what each tire is inflated to again, that's for sure!  By the way, I took I-4 to I-275 to highway 54 to get home…it only took a bit over 90 minutes including getting gas and a diet Pepsi.  I told them that I can't wait until they open a Discount Tire Store in our area.

Back in August 2015, I had to replace this little Solenoid, a 12 Volt Continuous Duty Solenoid which allows the motorhome engine to charge up the house batteries.  In real cold weather, like in the 40’s or below, it has not been working very well…so I replaced this $20 solenoid again.  Since I wrote a detail about it back in August 2015, it was easy to know what I needed to order, and how to replace it.  Click this link if you want to know more about replacing this solenoid.

Speaking of weather…the next seven days are going to have cold nights, and daytime temps under 70 each day…for Florida that is cold…to me it is WONDERFUL!  Looks like another good reason to make more soup!

NOTE:  My last post was about problems with Open Live Writer, and those problems still exist.  This post was written using the method talked about in that last post, and I have heard from a few people who used my method and it worked for them too.

Open Live Writer Error Fix

Home in Holiday / Tarpon Springs area, FL

This blog will be boring for most of you…but for the person who blogs using the Open Live Writer software…well, this is for you.  For the past two days (since January 16th) Open Live Writer has been impossible to blog with for those on the blogger platform unless you did not have pictures…what good is a travel/RV blog without pictures???

THIS (above) is the error that Open Writer Users are getting as they attempt to post their blog.  The problem is that photos posting through Open Writer automatically are posted onto Google Pictures in an album called “Open Live Writer”.  When that folder reaches 2000 photos, it starts a new folder.  About a year or two ago, once this folder reached 2000, it would not start a new one…we have to go in, rename the folder, and then it would automatically create a new folder named “Open Live Writer” and it allowed us to post again.  THIS problem is different.  It will not automatically load the pictures into Google Pictures…we NOW have to do this manually.  WHAT A PAIN, but “Open Live Writer” is still the best way to post blogs in my opinion.  Below is the work around for using “Open Live Writer” and posting pictures to your blog…

STEP ONE
Load your pictures onto your computer, edit the photos as needed, store in a folder on your computer of your choice.  Personally, I always store my pictures by year, by month within the year, by day within the month.  Above you can see my July 2018 folder, and the daily pictures listed by the date that I put them on the computer.  For me, it makes it easier when I need to “find” a picture I had taken even years ago.  You probably have your own system, just use that system…you just need to know where your pictures are so that you load them into the next step.

STEP TWO
Load the pictures you are going to use for you blog into the Open Live Writer Album folder in Google Pictures.  This is easy to do by just moving them from the folder on your computer into the browser you are viewing your Open Live Writer Album with.  Be sure that the Open Live Writer Album is shared to all.  Above shows the icon you click to share your album.  Once you click it, a new small window will appear, and in the bottom left is a link to “create link”, which will then make the folder public.

STEP THREE
When you are ready to put a picture into “Open Live Writer”, and you have followed steps one and two above for that picture, all you have to do now is to click on that picture in Google Pictures.  I use Firefox, and this trick should work for other browsers….I just right click on the picture, it opens a window and “Copy Image” is one of the choices.  Once copied, I go back to “Open Live Writer” and paste it where I want to place the picture.  There are other ways to paste it into “Open Live Writer”, but this is the simplest for me.

STEP FOUR
Complete your blog, now it is ready to post to blogger.  Personally I always post via the “Post draft to blog” method.  That allows me to bring it up in blogger, add Labels, Location and Search Description, and also do a “Preview” to see how it is going to look in a browser.

FINAL NOTE
I am hoping that this problem gets fixed like the last problem … but only time will tell.  This method will be a pain in the … this is going to be if they don’t fix it.

Also, just because I can...the weather here in Florida is wonderful.  Today it got to 71 degrees, it is 56 now (10:30), and our coldest day in the upcoming week will be Monday with a high of 59.  Marcia had her first Doctor Appointment, and all went well.  Other than high cholesterol, which does not mind and won't treat because higher cholesterol is good for people with MS because MS is a demyelinating disease, and cholesterol protects the myelin sheath.  The doctor has tried putting her on statins for three years now...this year they gave up.  Marcia despises statins, she says her first husband, his brother, a cousin and a cousin's husband and brother each took statins, and they died within a few years.  But her MS is the biggest reason she does not want to treat it.

And just a few minutes ago my youngest son Ryan sent the following picture...

This is Kaelyn, they plan to get married in the fall...and he FINALLY gave her a ring, and it does not appear to be one from a Crackerjacks Box!