True story: I was carrying my cell phone and a cup of coffee in my right hand on my way to lunch and *bloop* it fell in. The LG Phone That Could stayed on for a short period of time and after drying it off then putting the battery back in, it became the LG Phone That Couln’t. I admit my fault and fully take responsibility for the dumb-assed nature of the incident. It was a stupid mistake, what can you do? Get bummed.

I called the 800 number verizon rep and they told me I had to purchase a new phone for $180.00. I found this a tad ridiculous as I only paid $36.00 extra to get the phone because the free one sucked the dog’s bollocks according to all the reviews I read on CNet. They practically give them away with contracts so why couldn’t they just replace it for free, right? Well, due to the inherently dumbass nature of the incident, I was going to have to pay for my mistake. It was only fair. Just to see if there was a way around the very polite and helpful Letisha, Verizon Wireless Representative, I called the store on k’wood highway and they said the same thing. Shit. The day was appropriately overcast. I was pretty morose about it but I had to take responsibility for what I did and literally pay the consequences.

Facing the fact I was going to have to shell out $180.00 for a phone just like the simple, basic LG 3200 I had carelessly let slip into a cup of coffee, the rest of the day had quite a pallor. Well, work ends and I drive to the Kirkwood Highway Verizon Wireless store, enter my name into the electronic queue for tech support (*coughcoughAPPLESTORERIPOFFcoughcough*) and wait my turn. A Verizon tech calls my name and I say to him: “Hi, I do technical support for a living and I really, really hate it when people do stupid things. I have done something really, really stupid. I accidentally dropped my cellphone into my coffee. I totally messed up and accept responsibility. Can you help?” The Verizon Wireless technician, a very nice black guy looking like he should be in the World’s Strongest Man competition took the phone back messed around for about ten minutes and came back out. He just swapped out my phone for the newer model at no charge. You could have knocked me over with a feather. They won a contract renewal right there. It’s the kind of service you would expect from HostMySite.com (blatant plug), not Verizon. Honestly, you wouldn’t get that kind of service from Vz Data or Comcast.

Well, I finally buckled and purchased the Bently Repair Manul for the BMW Z3. It ended up being $75 and some change. Now the extraordinary bit about this is the SuperSaver Shipping. On a ton of items if the order is over $25.00 the shipping is free. It initially wasn’t. So, ever curious, I decided to call them. After nearly pitching a fit trying to find their phone number, I found a link which allows you to send your phone number and someone will call you. This is all over a brilliant web interface which politely updates you with the status of the connection. I spoke with an incredibly polite Indian woman who waived the shipping fee. Score one for the home team!

Now, about the function. I work in a call center doing technical support for the best website hosting company around. The inbound calls and chats are frequent enough as it is, if we had this application to make outboud calls, we would all go nuts and quit. Anyway, that’s all for tonight.

I successfully changed the rear rotors and brake pads on my car. Go Me. The Bently Manual for the BMW Z3 is expensive. It’s around one hundred dollars on average and is supposed to be the best resource for the Z3. I’m Scottish and therefore cheap. The manual has to wait, I have the Internet. God Bless the internet. Saint Isidore watched over me as I left the important print outs of brake changing instructions at my apartment. (side note: The condo association won’t allow me to do repair work in the parking lot. Basically nothing more than a tire change. No header work, no brake work or even car washing is allowed. All repair work must either be done at my parents’ house (driveway) or performed by European Performance.)

The Philadelphia Eagles were playing the San Francisco 49ers in the 1:00 PM game and really wanted to finish my brakes before then. I arrived at my parents’ house at noon and started getting my hands dirty. It was a glorious day, kind of cloudy, temperature was in the low 70s and manly work was being done.

With Sears having loosened and retorqued the rear lug nuts, I was able to remove the wheels without too much of an issue. The nitty and gritty started now. The brake caliper required removal. This meant removing a spindly metal clip from the exterior side of the caliper. Using a screwdriver for leverage helped a lot. Two hex bolts required removal from the interior side of the bracket. This was easier said than done. I used a 7mm hex wrench (possibly 6.5mm) to remove them. More effort was required that you would think. The angle was odd, and there are rubber gaskets around the hex bolts which effectively act like vaccuum seals. This makes them a royal pain in the rear differential to remove.

In any case, I was able to remove and replace the rear rotors with enough sweat and toil. The next time it will be easier. Especially if the front wheels are not air-hammered on by Sears auto techs. They have great service, just they made a mistake. Live, learn, specify a torque when re-applying the wheels.