Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Finally an update!
OK, it’s been a long time since updating, so there’s just a few items of news. First off, the Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Academy was awesome! It’s worth attending if for no other reason, than to learn about yourself. The graduation was a Military Formal Dinner. If you have never attended one of these events, it’s a great experience. Needless to say there are a lot of traditions and history involved with it.
Once I returned from the Academy, I finally got my windshield installed on the Ranger, so it was a much warmer ride for the rest of the winter. Didn’t do too much snowmachining this winter, it seems either I didn’t have time, or the weather wasn’t good enough to go. Kenny and I did go out one day and had a blast. We were supposed to meet up with a bunch of guys from work on their quads, but never saw them. Apparently they kept breaking through the snow and finally gave up after a couple of hours of winching. The advantages of having snowmachines in the winter!
A few weeks later I went out in the Ranger on part of the groomed trail. It seemed plenty firm enough and I had just ridden the same area on the snowmachine, so I figured I could turn around and head back. As soon as the back tires left the groomed trail, the Ranger sank up to the frame! I tried digging it out by myself for about 45 minutes, and of course there was nothing to hook onto with the winch. I finally called a friend and met him with my snowmachine. We hooked up the snowmachine to the back of the Ranger and it took about 4 or 5 good yanks to get it back up onto the groomed trail. Teach me to try and take the Ranger off the trail in the winter!
I took the Servicewide Exam for Senior Chief in May. I have my raw score, and I didn’t do too badly, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to make it. We’ll see when the profile letters come out next month. I’m hoping, but not going to hold my breath on making it next year.
On a different note, we got a new vehicle. Traded in the Sedona on a 2005 Ford Expedition Limited. I’ve been wanting to get an Expedition for a while now, but Ro has been trying to convince me to keep the van. Especially if we decide to retire in ‘09. The straw that finally broke the camel’s back, so to speak, was the service department at Stanley Motors in Anchorage. We’ve taken the Kia in a few times for service or warranty work at Stanley and they were very professional and courteous. The last warranty work we had done they had changed out the entire service department and hired a new service manager. They tried to charge us $300 for a front brake job. I told them no, and bought pads for $35 at Kragen and did it myself! About a month later we took it in again for more warranty work, they told us there was nothing wrong with the van. Let’s see, the front wheel has a grinding/growling noise which goes away every time you turn right. To me that sounds like a wheel bearing, but according to the service manager at Stanley it’s road noise and just the tires. They claim to have not been able to reproduce it and even had it up on the rack and checked all the wheel bearings. The service manager went on a test drive with me and still claimed it was only tire noise. I pretty much called him a liar and left. I stewed over this for about a month and a half, getting more and more ticked every time I drove the van. Finally on our last trip to Anchorage, I went and started looking at Expeditions. I really looked at one that Cal Worthington had on his lot, but decided to sleep on it. The next day we went over to Nye in Wasilla since we were staying in Palmer and didn’t want to drive all the way into Anchorage to talk to a dealer. They had a few ‘07s on the lot, and one ‘05 Limited with only 13,800 miles. We test drove the ‘05, then two different ‘07s. Ro and I talked about it, and even compared them side by side to see what differences there were. The deciding factor was the ‘05 sits a little lower and is easier for Ro to get into. I would have been happy with either, but the Limited is really nice! It has leather, quad seating, and about every option available. It even has heated AND cooled seats! I think the only thing missing is a built in navigation system, but they don’t work in Alaska anyway!
I think this is long enough, so here are a few pictures to tide everybody over.
Here is one of the portraits we had at the graduation with my Mom and Step-dad.
Here we are at the Chief Petty Officer Academy graduation.
The new Expy - beautiful, ain't it?
- posted by AK-Brando @ 10:13 PM
Once I returned from the Academy, I finally got my windshield installed on the Ranger, so it was a much warmer ride for the rest of the winter. Didn’t do too much snowmachining this winter, it seems either I didn’t have time, or the weather wasn’t good enough to go. Kenny and I did go out one day and had a blast. We were supposed to meet up with a bunch of guys from work on their quads, but never saw them. Apparently they kept breaking through the snow and finally gave up after a couple of hours of winching. The advantages of having snowmachines in the winter!
A few weeks later I went out in the Ranger on part of the groomed trail. It seemed plenty firm enough and I had just ridden the same area on the snowmachine, so I figured I could turn around and head back. As soon as the back tires left the groomed trail, the Ranger sank up to the frame! I tried digging it out by myself for about 45 minutes, and of course there was nothing to hook onto with the winch. I finally called a friend and met him with my snowmachine. We hooked up the snowmachine to the back of the Ranger and it took about 4 or 5 good yanks to get it back up onto the groomed trail. Teach me to try and take the Ranger off the trail in the winter!
I took the Servicewide Exam for Senior Chief in May. I have my raw score, and I didn’t do too badly, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to make it. We’ll see when the profile letters come out next month. I’m hoping, but not going to hold my breath on making it next year.
On a different note, we got a new vehicle. Traded in the Sedona on a 2005 Ford Expedition Limited. I’ve been wanting to get an Expedition for a while now, but Ro has been trying to convince me to keep the van. Especially if we decide to retire in ‘09. The straw that finally broke the camel’s back, so to speak, was the service department at Stanley Motors in Anchorage. We’ve taken the Kia in a few times for service or warranty work at Stanley and they were very professional and courteous. The last warranty work we had done they had changed out the entire service department and hired a new service manager. They tried to charge us $300 for a front brake job. I told them no, and bought pads for $35 at Kragen and did it myself! About a month later we took it in again for more warranty work, they told us there was nothing wrong with the van. Let’s see, the front wheel has a grinding/growling noise which goes away every time you turn right. To me that sounds like a wheel bearing, but according to the service manager at Stanley it’s road noise and just the tires. They claim to have not been able to reproduce it and even had it up on the rack and checked all the wheel bearings. The service manager went on a test drive with me and still claimed it was only tire noise. I pretty much called him a liar and left. I stewed over this for about a month and a half, getting more and more ticked every time I drove the van. Finally on our last trip to Anchorage, I went and started looking at Expeditions. I really looked at one that Cal Worthington had on his lot, but decided to sleep on it. The next day we went over to Nye in Wasilla since we were staying in Palmer and didn’t want to drive all the way into Anchorage to talk to a dealer. They had a few ‘07s on the lot, and one ‘05 Limited with only 13,800 miles. We test drove the ‘05, then two different ‘07s. Ro and I talked about it, and even compared them side by side to see what differences there were. The deciding factor was the ‘05 sits a little lower and is easier for Ro to get into. I would have been happy with either, but the Limited is really nice! It has leather, quad seating, and about every option available. It even has heated AND cooled seats! I think the only thing missing is a built in navigation system, but they don’t work in Alaska anyway!
I think this is long enough, so here are a few pictures to tide everybody over.
Here is one of the portraits we had at the graduation with my Mom and Step-dad.
Here we are at the Chief Petty Officer Academy graduation.
The new Expy - beautiful, ain't it?
- posted by AK-Brando @ 10:13 PM
