That wrecked fuel pump outside Amarillo taught me a hard lesson about water separators

I was hauling a load of cattle feed from Lubbock to Amarillo back in August when my truck started stumbling around mile marker 78. Pulled over and found water in the fuel sample I took from the separator. Turns out the drain valve on my Racor had been seizing up for months and I kept putting off replacing it because it was a pain to reach. Ended up stuck at a shop in Bushland for two days while they replaced the injectors and cleaned the whole system. Cost me about $1,400 plus lost time on the load. Now I replace those drain valves every year without fail and check the separator every morning before I roll. Anyone else had a water-in-fuel issue that cost them more than just a quick drain?

Old timer in Gary showed me a different way to strike a arc...

I finally learned my lesson about renting excavators without checking attachments first

Back in 2018 I rented a mini excavator from a place in Leduc for a weekend foundation dig. Cost me $450 for the rental but I didn't check if they included a trenching bucket (they didn't). Spent the whole Saturday trying to dig with a standard bucket and ended up having to call a buddy to bring his own attachment from Calgary. Has anyone else gotten burned by rental places hiding what's actually included in the base price?

My mutant carrot finally grew legs after 4 months of soil experiments

Just dealt with a 2 AM outage at our Chicago office and Comcast was useless

Last Tuesday night our primary fiber link went down at 2 AM. Comcast couldn't send a tech until 10 AM even though we pay for 4 hour SLA. I had to failover to our backup DSL line at 50 Mbps for 500 users. Has anyone else had luck negotiating better response times with big carriers?

Hit 200 cars repaired this month and had to double check the count

I've been doing body work for 18 years and somehow managed to finish 200 cars this past month between the shop and side jobs. Turns out I'd been working 6 days a week and not paying attention to the calendar. Anyone else lose track of how much work you're pushing through until you see the numbers add up?

Bought a fancy garlic press for $25 and now I just chop with a knife anyway

I was at Target in Austin last weekend and saw this OXO garlic press that had rave reviews. Figured it would save me time but the cloves kept getting stuck in the little holes. I spent 10 minutes picking garlic mush out of it and realized I could've just used my chef's knife in half the time. Has anyone else bought a kitchen gadget that seemed great but ended up being more hassle than it was worth?

Tried to save $50 doing my own brake pads and paid the price

I replaced the pads on my 2015 Ford Focus last weekend in my driveway thinking I'd save a few bucks. Got everything buttoned up but didn't tighten the caliper bracket bolts enough and one backed out on the highway near exit 12. Had to call a tow truck and spend $180 at the shop down the street to fix it right. Anyone else learn this lesson the hard way?

That time a 65 year old Polaroid Land Camera nearly caught fire on my bench

I had a customer bring in a Model 100 from an estate sale in Portland, and while I was testing the shutter, the internal battery pack started smoking from old corroded wires touching the frame. Has anyone else run into old Polaroid pack film cameras with dangerous battery leakage issues?

That tip about freezing leftover tomato paste actually works

I heard someone at the grocery store say they freeze tomato paste in teaspoon portions on wax paper and then pop them into a bag. I tried it last week with a can that cost $1.20 and now I have six little paste pucks ready for future recipes. Has anyone found a good way to freeze other common ingredients like canned coconut milk or buttermilk?