I Think I Have Time For That... I Retired!!!

So I did a crazy thing the other day. I went ahead and quit my job (because it sucked)- I decided to get on with my retirement. Until recently, I was an MRI technologist working for the Big-K (Kaiser Permanente) in Oakland, California. I actually really loved what I was doing, but was not crazy about my employer and management. A few years back, I used to train MRI techs and I would always teach them on the first day- make no mistake about it, healthcare is a business and all the decisions that are made are business decisions a.k.a. it's all about the money. They don't necessarily care about the welfare of the customers, it's all about the money.

And that is Kaiser in a nutshell- not giving staff enough time to properly do their jobs, not having the proper equipment on hand, forcing the techs and staff to do things against what they're supposed to do. At Kaiser, I would constantly say that they're just pushing their luck waiting to kill a patient, THEN maybe policies will change, at least for a little while. (I worked there for two and a half years and NEVER ONCE did we EVER do a CODE BLUE drill! I would spot check staff about the procedures and no one knew what to do!) And that's exactly would did happen. Again and again. The pandemic made things worse in that we were constantly short-staffed. And the more short-staffed we were, the more morale would decline and more staff would call out sick. When staff individuals quit, most of the time the staff member would not be replaced. Management style was reverting back to the late 90's. It was a thankless job. I actually wanted to quit a year and a half ago, until I realized that if I didn't achieve at least 5 years, I would not vest and all my miserable time spent working at Kaiser would add up to nothing with the pension.

So I tried applying to other jobs outside of my normal job scope. I applied for 10 months for just about any office position until I finally got a call! I took a job as a cashier in the Eye Center. When I arrived for my first day, they asked me if I would mind cross-training into scheduling. I didn't know better, so I said okay. They didn't tell me that there was very little training involved and I would be talking to 100 angry old people who couldn't hear you on the phone! It was literally 45% of my MRI pay. After 3 days, I figured that if I was going to work a job that sucked, I might as well get paid for it, so I returned to my former sucky position.

But that also spurred me on to start working on a retirement forecasting spreadsheet that recorded all my assets and liabilities. The forecasting projected through my 90 's (as well as my wife's). I came up with a plan and calculated that as soon as I crossed my 5-year line with Kaiser, I could "retire" at the early age of 59. I knew that I would not have Medicare for another 6 years, but I built that into my plan. Most people don't really know where they stand with their retirements- they just know that they don't want to run out of money, so they keep working. I was able to see that even quitting at 59-years-old (my wife already stopped working 3 years ago), we would never run out of money. By my calculations, by the time we're in our 90's, we should still have tons of money in the bank, and all along we should have enough money to live like we already do- toys, vacations and all.

My point is: if I can do it, you can do it! With the way things are today, working isn't what it used to be. Figuring out your retirement isn't rocket science- it's strictly math. You have all the tools to forecast and plan it. If you have a good plan and the discipline to follow it, you're golden!

Mounting the ARB Awning, Again!!!

Today I was set on getting my ARB awning on the Jeep. I called in sick today, since my body (and attitude) has been so worn and beaten from work for the past three weeks. I've got a lot of little projects to get done and I just don't have that many free days off to get things done. I truly needed this mental rest day just to sharpen my saw.

I already had the Rhino rack on the Jeep from the iKamper installation. The awning is so long that I really wanted to add a third rack rail to the top to give the awning more stability, since I will be taking the "overlanding" setup rock-crawling. I had another Surco rack set laying around and figured that I could reuse the front rack assembly. When I bought the used Rhino Rack bars from ExtremeTerrain, I somehow ended up with an extra (third) bar for free! So I thought it would be nice to get that into the mix. But when I tried to attach it to the feet a few weeks ago, the inserts would not work right, so I went ahead and ordered some more off of Amazon. I bought some Chinese knock-offs to save some money. What could go wrong?! Lol!

The idea was to mount the third bar in a manner that I would later be able to use it to carry traction boards or extra Rotopax fuel cans. I removed the Surco bar from the feet, then tried to attach the Rhino bar to them with the new kits from Amazon. As it turns out, the screws were too long, so I had to hunt through the garage for some suitable replacements.

I got the new bar assembly onto the top of the Jeep. Then I tried attaching the awning. I mounted both front and rear awning stays on the tops of the bars. There was a difference in heights between the Rhino and Surco rack bars. The Rhino setup has such a low profile that the awning mounted at a downward angle front to back. Hmmm...something I hadn't really considered. Okay. So I mounted the front awning stay to the bottom of the Surco bar. Much better! Close to perfect, but now the awning sat so low that the driver door couldn't even open. Also when mounting the stay to the bottom of the bar, the stay was so long that it ran into the mounting foot, so it was sticking out away from the roof quite a bit!

I decided to whomp on them awning stays and do some cutting and drilling. I drilled three new holes in each 1 inch higher that the original holes. I also took the front stay and cut 2 inches off its length. I sprayed a little satin black paint on them to keep the rust away, then it was time to mount.

In order to mount the stay on the front, I had to remove the rack from the top and slide the foot aside, so I could have access to tighten the bar mounting screws. At this time, I also measured 8" off the RTT so that the Rotopax will fit comfortably when mounted. The rear stay was a bit more work. One of the awning stay bolts was buried under the RTT, so I had to unmount both left and right mounts for the tent, just so I could lift the tent assembly to give me access to tighten the bolt! Of course after I had it all tightened up back together again, I realized I needed to undo it again, so I could be able to tighten the bolts that attached awning to the stay! Argh!!!

Once it was all back together and tightened up, the awning was mounted solidly and level! Yay! The mounts were far enough apart that they will have plenty of support when things get rough. 

My Honda CRF300L- a Little Horror Story.....

After riding the CRF300LA for one dirt outing, the bike had an issue with the ABS system. I had decided that the bike needed a different kickstand, since it made the bike sit so high that I always thought it would just fall over if a light wind hit it. I bought an adjustable replacement from T-Rex Racing and installed it. I used the youtube video from JaketheGardenSnake, which also showed how to disable the factory kickstand engine killer safety device. The device is designed to kill the motor if the rider tries to put the bike in gear with the bike running and the kickstand is still down. After I finished doing the kill switch bypass, I gave it a quick test by starting the bike and putting the bike into first gear with the stand still down. To verify that the bike was truly in gear, I slipped the clutch and let the rear wheel spin a few rotations at a slow speed. Well, after that, the bike was never the same. From then on, the ABS light would be constantly flashing no matter what.

I went online and tried to do combination button resets, riding the bike past a specific speed, etc. Nothing would reset the light. It was probably tripped because the computer thinks that there is an ABS deployment case, when the front and the rear wheel are turning at different speeds. I asked the forums and got radio silence. Some forum informations suggested that it was an OBD issue and that the stealership can just hook up their reader and reset the light. I realized I was over my head and that I should just take it to Honda and let them reset it.

After calling around, the only local Honda dealer that had immediate time slots to reset the light was in Berkeley, so I rode the bike there. After a couple of hours (I got there just in time for the techs to take their lunches), Carl, the service department rep, informed me that it wasn't as easy as a quick reset. and that the system was reading a speed sensor error code. They needed to order the part and they would call me when the part arrived. I rode back home with the problem unsolved. Two weeks later, I was back again to install the speed sensor part.

Again I waited a couple of hours. Apparently the new speed sensor did not fix the problem either, so the tech was on the phone getting advise from Honda, the mothership in Ohio. They finally told me that they needed to order a couple of more parts to try on and that again they'll call me when the parts arrive. Again, I rode home issue still in hand.

A couple of weeks later, I loaded the bike on my hitch rack and I was back at the dealership, but this time, I was advised that they would need to keep the bike, while they'll have to correspond with Honda to get the problem fixed. I called them every week hoping for progress. They swapped out more ABS parts including the rear ABS disable switch. Nothing seemed to work. They had to order another ECU, thinking that could be the problem.

Five weeks passed. FINALLY I got the call that the bike was ready for pickup!! When I picked up the bike, I asked Carl if they ever figured out what caused the problem. He told me that nothing that they replaced fixed the issue. They even tried a different (new) ECU and that didn't do the trick either. Then suddenly the blinking light went away! I could've been a loose/bad connection in the loom and that by messing around with it so much, the connection finally seated. Who really knows? He said that if the problem comes back, I can always have them check it out again. Well, that's just swell.

So if I never brought the bike back to Honda, there is no way that I would ever have intentionally fixed the blinking light. Maybe over time, it could've fixed itself. This also means that for anyone with this bike (or me in the future), this problem or something worse could happen to them/me, more than likely after the warranty has expired.