Looking Up?

I feel better than I did the other day. The van is still squealing and unless I'm just getting paranoid I'm pretty sure it's getting louder. Hoping nothing major happens until this weekend. I went ahead and got a new water pump that I hope to be installing on Saturday while it's a balmy 36 degrees before the cold weather sets in on Sunday. From what I've read online I'll have to take the radiator and a bunch of stuff out just so I have room to get to the water pump. So I bought a new radiator too, and a new fan clutch, upper and lower hoses, and thermostat. The upper hose and the thermostat might require the most effort to replace so they might simply NOT get replaced, I'll see how it goes. (It sounds like I have to take off the A/C Compressor to get to them)

The transmission is still slipping but hasn't been nearly as noticeable. I've just been working to remember that I drive a 1 ton van and that I should take off from stop lights slowly. I'm casually looking for another transmission but I figure if I continue to baby it then it should be okay for quite a while. Maybe. All the transmissions I've found are the 4x4 version. Blech.

I'm typing this from my laptop again, which means my new laptop screen arrived and I successfully swapped out the old bad one. This one is bright.

I wish I had a plan for you, but I don't anymore. I'm stuck in that 'waiting for things to line up' mode that I've been in for the last year since returning back to the home state. In the mean time, plans are forming and falling apart. I had a job I wanted for the summer so I was going to quit my current job around the end of April and take a month long leisurely trip out to the new job but that fell through. That job required living in a dorm situation, which would have been a stretch for me but I figured I would have the van to fall back on when I got antisocial.

I guess the plan at this point is to keep making repairs on the van, keep working where I'm working, and eventually if I can save up money I'll take off. If none of that works I'll have to start doing weekend trips in the van. I guess within several months I'd like to be at the point where I could move into the van no matter what else is going on at the time. That really isn't that far off, I'm just not in any rush to finalize the interior at this point.