Monday, November 19, 2012

Odie Sick

My cat was sick on 9/24/2012, when I first noticed it was when Odie's bottom was red. He had been chewing his hair out of his own body. I have no idea why he did this, but it looked painful to me. I start checking the internet and see what was wrong with him, but I could not find the right answer for it. Next thing I went to the web and seach for the treatment for him. I took for his symptoms, and it looked like he had a hot spot, that why he chewed his hair off. I seached for the treatment and found two which will help him feel better. One was for Hot Spot Relief and the other one was called Antimicrobial Wound Spray which will heals cuts, scrapes and abrasions, also kills bacteria. I order both of the treatments online. It did not take long before the treatments came to my house. I started using it right away, first I used the Hot Sport Relief for 7 - 10 days, it impoved slowly, but it worked. Meanwhile when I was putting the treatment on Odie, I made him a head cover, so he can not chew his hair anymore. Plus, I don't want him to eat the medicine. I want the medicine stay on his wound. Althought I know he will not get sick, because these treatment were clinically tested and veterinarian approved. It safe for the cat, even if he eat it.

My Smog Repair Story of the 1991 Corolla - Continued

On October 20, 2012 after Tom and Lawrence fixed the car. My first stop was to take the Corolla to the Reliant Auto Repair, so they can re-check the diagnostic for my car. Before me and Tom went, I called the shop and made sure they had time, which the owner, Singh answered the phone and told me that I can bring the car down. When we got to the shop, they were busy, so we had to wait for a while before they have a chance to diagnose my car. We were there for more than an hour, then Singh told us our car is just like brand new, it should not have any problem passing the smog test this time. We paid for the bill and went to the Smog Test Station, which when I first took it but failed the test. For sure this time we will pass the test and I took the report and we both went back home. Next day when I decided to mail the registration to DMV, Tom stopped me and told me I should take it to the DMV office instead of mailing it out. It will be faster since we are already late for the registration. It took me more than two hours before I was able to get the sticker on the license plate. Next thing I went to the Wheel Works and change all four tires, which cost me over $300 and than I had the wiper blade change, because it was over 10 years old and will not work right. At first I went to Auto Zone, but they did not have the correct one, also it cost $26 ea. So I went to O'Reilly Auto Parts they have the right one for me and cost less, only $9.49/ea. After all these parts were fixed, I feel much safer to drive this car and ready to use this car to take my parents to the doctor.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Smog check repair story of our 1991 Toyota Corolla

My mother is going home on 10/10/12 from Vista Manor Nursing Home. Since I have a two door Honda Accord which was inconvenient for my parents to get in and out of my car. Tom and I decided to get a smog check the Toyota Corolla which has four doors.
Tuesday 10/9/12 I called the Valero gas station on North Capitol Ave. which was the closest place to get a smog check. The mechanic told me the price is $46, and I can bring it to his shop now. Then Tom told me "Why you don’t give the mechanic more information about my car, so he will remember when he see you," I called him back and ask for an appointment. He told me he is busy today I should come in this Saturday; I told him I just call you a minute ago. “Why you tell me different story? “ he said “If you come now I will smog check for you.” I drove it to the Valero gas station and I showed the paper work and he told me my car is more than 10 years old I need to get a smog test-only. I called Tom and told me I need to smog test my car instead of smog check.
I drove it to the place where I smog test my Honda, the Discount Smog Center on Berryessa Rd. I told me this car is for my parents, but I did not drive it for more than 10 years, and the gasoline was 10 years old. He took my papers and started working on my car. When he was done he told me my car failed, but he can retest within 30 days for me. At first he wanted to charge me $45 dollars, but I talked down the price to $40. I called Tom and drove the Corolla home.
Tom needed to go to the Jury Service at Hall of Justice W. Hedding St. Before Tom left the house, he told me to call the mechanic at K & E Auto Repair (the owner's name is Ed Lee) which my brother told me he took his CRV for repairs. I called Ed on the phone and told him that I am Pablo sister and I have a 1991 Toyota Corolla car and I need him to check to see what is the problem. Since I failed the smog test, he told me I can bring it down after lunch at 2:00 p.m. By the time 1:30 p.m. I called Ed again and told him that my car register was expired. If I came down at around 2 it will be busy hour and I may run into the police. He told me why don't I go to the DMV and get a temporary paper to drive this car.
Before I went down to the DMV, I called the office at 1-800-777-0133. The waiting time was long, so I just left my name and phone number have the customer service to return my call. DMV customer service called me back about 40 minutes later. I asked her if I wanted to change from a non operated vehicle to a operated vehicle, what do I need to do. She told me that I need to pay for the registration fee $99 and I will get 1 day to go to the smog test place to get the smog certification. I told her what if my vehicle was not going to pass the test. What should I do then, she told me that I need to pay additional $50 to have a 60 days time limit for me to bring it back to the repair shop to fix it.
Tom called me at around 4:00 p.m. and told me to call K & E Auto Repair again to see what time they close, but no one answered the phone so I hanged up the phone and calls back Tom and told him Ed may already have left for the day. Tom got home at 4:45 and told me to call Ed's shop again. This time Ed answered the phone, but told me all of his workers are going home at 5:00 p.m, so I should bring the car down tomorrow. I told Ed that can I come down now and you can take a look at the car. He told me that I can leave the car in his shop overnight, and he will have his workers look at the car for me. But I told him that I need to know what's wrong with the car ASAP. "You know how to fix car, you can help me look at the car," I said. He said he knows, he's been fixing car for more than 30 years. I told him I will come down now. We got there and started telling to him why we need it to fix it right away, because my mother is going to be out of the hospital soon, I need this car to pick her up. But Ed kept telling us this car was too old and is a waste of our time and money to fix it. Tom tried to have him take a look for us, but he kept saying that it will take a lot of his time to find out what wrong with your car and that it was not worth it, so you should sell it to somebody. He thought my car could be worth over a thousand or more. Tom told Ed that this old car should be easy to fix not like the new car. Also this car has a very low mileage and is in good condition. I thought if I sell this car I can not buy it back for a thousand. Tom ask Ed if he had a machine that can hook up to our car and see what wrong with it. Ed said I could not help you now since all of my workers are gone for the day and my machine was broken so there was no way I could check it for you. He also told Tom that you told me it was easy, so why don't you fix it yourself. He refused to help me to fix my car.
We both left the shop and looked for a different auto repair shop. We found one on the other side, the auto shop's name is Reliand Repair. We walked in and talked to one of the guys, who's was name Sinh and Tom told him the problem with our car. Sinh told us that he will take a look of our car, but his shop is closed for the day. We need to leave it overnight and he asked me for my name, address and my phone number. Before he took the not passed smog test paper,Sinh also told us the dionostic was going to cost $45. Tom gave him the car key and we left the shop and went back to home.
The next day in the late afternoon at around 4:00 p.m, Sinh called my cell phone and told me he was only able to check on the XXXX. Since my gasoline was so old, he suggested we needed to pump out the old gasoline and put in the new one before he is able to get a better test on the Catalytic Converter and Oxygen Sensor.
I told him Tom and I will come down to his shop before 6:00 p.m., but he told me his shop closed at 5:30 p.m. I told him why don't he leave my car outside the shop, so we can pick it up. He told me "OK"
he will leave the key in the glove department for me to pick up. I said "thanks" and hanged up the phone and called Tom and told him what happened, he told me back he was on the way home. When Tom got home we went together and picked up the Toyota Corolla, and since the Corolla backlight was burnt out, we went to the O'Reilly Auto Parts to buy the backlight; 2 bulbs for $4.99. After that Tom put in the bulbs and we went back home.
When Tom got home, he started to order the Catalytic Converter and Oxygen Sensor from the internet. Before the parts arrived at our house, Tom had Lawrence removed the Catalytic Converter from the car. Tom also needed to borrow a Strut Spring Compressor from AutoZone to help him replace a broken spring top cushion on the right front side of the car. We went to the AutoZone and we were lucky enough to find a set to borrow. When the parts arrived on the next day (Saturday 10/13/12) afternoon, Tom took a look at the new Catalytic Converter. It looks different than the old one. Tom had to return the new one and buy another one. Tom found out that AutoZone had Catalytic Converter which was cheaper and match our car. So he order it right away. Since we have to wait for the another part. Tom asked Lawrence to take out the old Oxygen Sensor out as well. Tom found that the 2nd Catalytic Converter fit right into the Corolla perfectly, though it was difficult for Lawrence and Tom to install into the Corolla. Before the tire spring could be replaced, Lawrence had to take the front right tire of the Corolla out, as well as the brake pad to take the old spring out. When the tire spring top cushion arrived, Tom and Lawrence was able to put that into the Corolla perfectly, but it was difficult to hold the spring up before being able to tighten the screws in. The Oxygen Sensor was easy to put in because it only needed to be slid in and the two screws on the bottom of the sensor tightened. When that was done, Lawrence just replaced the tire into the Corolla and it was ready to be tested for the smog test again.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Detail of my parents auto accident happened 2 months earlier

On July 31, 2012 my parents had an auto accident. A lady driver with the BMW SUV hit my
parents minivan from behind. It happened around 2:00p.m. at Ocala and E Capitol Express. My father called my cell phone and told me he just had a auto accident, so I needed to go help him now. I told Tom and we both went to the accident scene. I saw my mother was still inside the minivan and both the police and ambulance arrived at the scene. The paramedic came to me and asked me did my mom understand English and asked her where did she feel pain? I turned around and asked my mom, she told me that her chest was very painful. I told the paramedic and they started to move my mom into
ambulance. While I was talking the the paramedics the

police was came over and asked if they are my parents. The police also gave me the accident report. We dropped off the minivan and went to the Regional Medical of San Jose. My mom was in the emergency room and they took all kind of test
with my mom. While I was waiting I called my brother to come pick up my father and told Tom to go home. I was at the hospital until they transfered my mom to the ICU. I did not go home until after 9:00 p.m. My mom was in the ICU for 7 days
and moved to the regular room to cover a day
before the hospital transfered my mom to the Vista
Manor Nursing Home. Then my mother was to stay there for a month before they dischange her.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Shed House and Lucky House

We were at my mom's house again. Tom put the two redwood and futon woods in top of the shed house and nailed it down to the post. We put the roof screen cover on the top. After that we stapled the clear poly sheeting on of top and around the shed house. Next we put the black plastic inside the shed house's ground.

After that we put

the carpet on top of the plastic, and glued them together. Tom removed the door next to the shed house and pulled out the nails and put new screws
on the door. He sew the top of the door evenly and put a latch in the door. Also he fixed the big door (the fence) because it could not close. Tom needed to remove some of the material from the door hinge and
then I stacked the milk cage and I
put a longer screw into the wall.
It was getting dark, so we had
to come back the next day to finish
the job. We loaded the trash into
our truck before we went back
inside and had a dinner.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Mom's Little Shed House Repair

9/8-9/9 We were at my mom's house again to fix the shed house. Before we went to her house, we went to Home Dept and bought 2 2x4x8FT Common Redwood for 2@$7.05/ea. and Screw Red 2IN. 1LB for $9.37. Next we went to the Big Ben to buy BBQ Pork and Chinese BBQ Duck both for $19.85. By the time we got to my mom's house it was already past 3:00 p.m. We started working on the shed house. We replaced the common redwood hand rail of the fence. Tom saw the fence door was too loose and took it down to fix it. Next Tom looked at the Lucky House and he saw several areas were damaged by the rain. The door had water damage. We needed to take down the door too. Both window frames were in bad condition. We needed to go to the Home Dept again and buy more woods 3/8x8x12, we only needed 8 feet. Also we needed plastic to wrap around the shed house.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

My Mom's Storage Shed

My Mom told us to clean out the storage shed in her backyard, so we went down to her house. We noticed the shed was in bad condition, the roof caved in and when Tom carefully walked inside the shed, we found out there was a lot of trash and a very many items inside. It took me and Tom several days to dispose of all the trash. We filled up the back of our truck with the trash from the shed. Also Tom noticed that the top of the fence around the shed was worn out, so we went to Home Depot to buy two pieces 2x4 redwood planks costing $7.95 a plank and one bag of concrete mix which cost $2.89. After we bought the planks we went back to my mom's house. When we removed the old wood from the fence, we found out the side door was in bad shape as well. So Tom removed the door and tried to fix it. We found out we needed some more wood to fix the door, so Tom looked around the garden to salvage some wood, and he found some to repair the door. Unfortunately, when we were half done, Tom's power drill ran out of power, so we had to stop. Tom decided to fortify the fence poles in the ground, so he poured concrete mix into the ground under the poles, which took 24 hours to dry. Before it dried, Tom make sure the poles were the same height. After that, we had dinner at around 9:30 P.M, then we left the house at 10. We went dispose the trash, and then after than we went back to our house. We only were able to finish 1/3 of our job and come back to finish it someday.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

My Garden

My Front Yard with Next Door Neighbor car


My Favor Flower is Bigger Everyday


The Front Road with Flower and Plant on Each Side

Back Yard with Fruits Trees


Small Plant

I really don't have the time to take care of my front or backyard. Most of the time I will sit on my computer and check on the internet for movies or shows. Sometimes I will read books which I have checked out from the library, but my biggest problem is that I don't like to do yardwork.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Big "Fight" With My Mom

Today I went to visit my mom in the Generations Healthcare. She has been in this place since 8/6/12.
When I went inside her room, which was #41, she told me she just went poo-poo this morning. She would like to have a shower. I asked her when was last time she had shower. She told me she did not take a shower for many days.While she was talking to me, there was a lady that came into the room and asked my mom that it was time for her to do physical exercise. During that time I went outside to station 1, and talked to one of the nurses about my mom needing a shower. She said "I will need to check the schedule and get back to you." I went back to the exercise room and watched my mom doing the physical exercise for 20 minutes. After my mom finished, the lady pulled her back into her room, and I went back to the station 1 to ask the nurse again, if she was able to schedule my mom for a shower today. She told me that she will put her down for 3:00 P.M. I went back to my mom's room and let her know she is going to have a shower at around 3:00P.M. While we were talking, there was a man named Frank (Administrator) who came to ask me "How is everything, did anyone come back to you?" I told him so far that no one came to tell me anything yet. Then the supervisor of the showers came in and told me that my mom already had a shower on Monday. I told her that my mom told me that she did not have any showers for several days. She also insisted that my mom had a shower on Monday and that she won't be able to get another shower until Thursday, because her shower worker already gave her a shower on Monday and would not lie about her work. I told her back that my mom would not lie to me either, since I'm her daughter, so she would not lie to me either. The supervisor replied with a "If you don't like trust us, why don't you move your mom to a different nursery home?" I later then took the person who gave showers to my mom, so my mom can confirm if she really got a shower lately or not, and my mom said that she didn't remember if she received a shower or not. The supervisor said "If you insist on having a shower today, I will give it to your mom." My mom said that she would like to have a shower today. After the supervisor left, I started to yell at my mom because she told me conflicting views, as in at first, she told me she did not have a shower for a few days, to not remembering about it, to telling me to back out about the shower problem, and by then, it was too late to back out of the conflict. Then I told my mom, "If you don't know or are uncertain about having showers, then please don't ask me to request a shower for you." My mom said that "I didn't know that you would be in such a big conflict over having showers, you shouldn't have a big fight about it, if they say I had a shower, then I had it." I was upset and told my mom that she made me look like an idiot in front of the staff, and you drove me crazy since you keep telling me different things and I don't know how to react to them. I left the room afterwards, then I met Jerome, the physical therapist, who overheard us fighting in the room, and asked me what was wrong. I told him that my mom drove me crazy and we just had a fight, so he asked me if he can do anything to help us. I told him there was nothing he can do to help me or my mom but to feel sorry for us, and then left to go pick my son up.