Back in July, we filled and patched the driveway, but didn’t seal it because the weather had been super hot, most day in the mid 90s F. Now the temperature is cooling down a bit in the 70s F. Today our kids get an extra day off for the Labor Day weekend. I decided to take off work as well. My wife, Đạo, and Đán sealed up the driveway. The process didn’t take too long. It feels great to check off another do-it-yourself project and saved about $5,000.

Materials

• 4 buckets of 4.75 Gal. Ultra Shield Driveway Filler Sealant ($120)
• 18 in. Driveway Squeegee ($18)

Total: $138

The cost for everything was $324. I hope it will last for another 3 to 5 years.

This morning my wife informed me that the shower head in her bathroom had been leaking. I opened up the valve to inspect. I looked up YouTube and came across “How to Fix Leaky Shower Tub Faucet” by Matt Taylor. I went to Home Depot to buy a single-handle replacement cartridge (Moen 1225). It also came with a white cap that can be used to losing up the old cartridge.

I also bought a cartridge puller for Moen made by Everbilt. This one was probably not necessary, but made removing the old cartridge with ease. I recommend it.

The process took about half an hour. Not bad for a Sunday home replacement project.

Parts

• Moen 1225 (Single-handle Replacement Cartridge ($23)
• Everbilt’s EvCartridge Puller for Moen 1200, 1222 and 1225 Series Tub/Shower Cartridges ($16)

Total: $39.

We had the 50-inch Hisense for 10 days and my wife was not happy with the quality. We went back to Costco today and I asked her to come to pick out what she wanted. We ended up with a Samsung 58-in Class for $380. I didn’t mind Hisense’s screen quality, but Samsung has a much better quality. I hope we’ll stick with this one. Nowadays, the TV is mostly used for the kids and their grandmother to watch YouTube. It’s hard to believe that YouTube has replaced TV cables.

Today I bought a brand new TV for the first time in almost two decades. The last TV was a hand down from my sister-in-law’s father-in-law. His son gave us his TV after he passed away. The brand was Vizio. We had it for almost a decade. In the past few weeks, the audio stopped working. We were watching silence TV.

Before the Vizio, my brother-in-law handed down to us a Samsung, which last 5 or 6 years. Before that I had a few hand-down tubes from my sister and her then husband. I didn’t care much for TV. I could live without it, but my mother-in-law and my kids still watch YouTube on TV.

I took the kids to Costco last evening and we picked up the cheapest one in the store, which was a 50-inch Hisense for $250. The quality looked decent on display. Another reason I went for it was the RCA connectors. I wanted to hook the audio to my refurbished Sony receiver my mother bought for me at a Sony Outlet when I was in seventh or eighth grade. Around the same time, She also bought me the Yamaha speakers at an electronic store that went out of business. I wanted to keep these equipments for many years to come. They reminded me of her.

It turned out that the RCA connectors behind the new Hisense TV were input instead of output. I should have paid attention. Fortunately, it also had a digital output. I will try the adaptor from digital output to RCA.

I hope that will work. I am still an old-school when it comes to video and audio technologies. I am getting antiquated as I am growing older. Oh well! That’s life.

Update: My wife bought the DAC 192KHz Digital to Analog Audio Converter and it works like a charm.

We haven’t done much to our driveway for more than 10 years. The other day, a contractor stopped by and give me a quote for $6,000 to redo the entire driveway. I politely declined. Why would I spend $6,000 on a driveway just to park my fucking cars? I decided to do it on my own via YouTube video. Even if I fuck it up, my cars will cover the surface anyway.

On Friday, I bought the materials. Unfortunately it had been raining. Late afternoon Sunday, the sun finally came out. I enlisted Đạo and Đán to help. We patched up the big holes and almost done filling in the cracks. The boys complained how hot it was working in the heat. They would rather sit in front of their devices and play video games. I wanted to experience what it is like to work hard so they can study hard instead.

Here’s the breakdown of what I had spent:

• 2 of 1-gallon crack fillers ($10 each): $20
• 3 of 2-gallon trowel patch ($22 each): $66
• 3 of 3.5-gallon super patch ($20 each): $60
• A steel tamper: $40

Total: $186

After filling and patching, we’ll seal it up.

Today I dodged the $150 AC service, but spent $200 for a pair of prescription glasses. My eye insurance kicked into this month; therefore, I better get an annual eye exam and a pair of prescription glasses. I chose a Huge Boss frame made in Italy. My first priority is to look at where the frame was made. I didn’t want any frame made in China. Base on my own experience, frames made in China didn’t last long. I had to paid $80 out of pocket for the frame and $120 for the lens. I kept the lens basic with no anti-glaring and no transitioning.

My optometrist is Vietnamese American. She is very nice. We chat a bit and she revealed that her oldest daughter is in her third year of optometry and her second daughter is starting medical school. Her youngest son is in tenth grade. I asked for her parental advice and she told me that she just kept telling her daughters to go to school. She didn’t want anything from them. She just wanted them to school. As a minority in America, school is the only path to success and better future. She didn’t pressure them into becoming optometrist or doctor. She just wanted to to finish school.

Reminding our kids to go to school doesn’t sound like a hard task. I will take her advice and will see if it will work. I paid $200 for a pair of glasses and parental advice. The price might be worth it.

Driving home from work yesterday was hell. The AC in my 2011 Toyota Sienna was blowing hot air even though I had it serviced less than three months ago. I called up Khang about the AC as well as replacing the timing cover gasket. He told me to bring it in the next day.

I arrived at his shop at 8:00 am this morning. He had his boy pumped freon without even taking a look at the car. After 10 minutes, the AC pumped out cold air again. I also noticed the AC light stopped flashing. He told me $150. I asked him for an estimate on replacing the timing cover gasket. He told me that he would also have to replace the water pump. My natural reaction was, “Oh really!” He went off, “Am I the mechanic or are you?” He continued, “If you knew how to fix it, you would have.” I nodded and thought to myself, “No shit!” He went on, “You have to trust me. I have many cars here. I don’t need to cheat you.” I replied with a bit of a joke, “Of course I trust you, but I am not sure if I can afford your trust.” Then he asked me, “Did I recommend that you replace the timing cover gasket? I can’t remember, but I must have said the timing valves.” I responded, “Yes you did as part of maintenance.”

I asked a follow-up question, “Will the AC last this time or will it stop working again? You did a service on it less then three months ago.” He replied, “Why didn’t you tell me? I fixed so many cars I don’t remember.” He went on, “If that’s the case, there’s a leak somewhere. I still have to charge you because your car leaked.” I nodded and replied, “Sure.” Then he said, “I am a fair guy. I am not going to charge you for the AC. Why don’t you bring your car back next week when you go on vacation and I will check everything.” Fair enough.

Now I am debating if I should bringing back my car for him to service. I do want to keep this car for as long as I can. I don’t want to keep paying for services, but I also don’t want to buy a new car. I have been thinking of taking the free shuttle to work instead. I don’t want to depend on a car anymore. The cost is just too much to maintain a car. We’ll see.

I woke up this morning and made myself a vegetable omelet to give me the energy to edge the sidewalk. After the smaller side was done, I took the kids to the skatepark. We skated for an hour and went back home for Mother’s Day lunch. We enjoyed BBQ on the deck we washed last week.

After lunch, my brother-in-law drove his family home. My sister-in-law also drove her kids home. I went back out to continue edging the sidewalk. My kids went out and helped me. We finished the job around 5:30 pm. I couldn’t believe edging the sidewalk took the entire day. Just like washing the deck last week took an entire day—even with the kids helped out a bit.

I would be lying if I say that I enjoyed doing these things. I didn’t, but I had to. I wished I could spend time doing something else. I still have more maintenance to do. Next week I have to take the kids to scouting camping. The following week, our family will have another camping weekend. I need to mow the lawn on a weekday next week.

Welcome to the summertime joy!

As documented, I replaced a headlight bulb for our 2011 Toyota Sienna on December 3, 2022. I didn’t write down if it was the driver side or the passenger side. Last night, I noticed the driver side bulb was dead. I ordered the replacement on Amazon instead of Toyota Dealer. Now I have an extra bulb.

After Toyota dealer provided a list of recommendations for repair and tune up, I took my minivan to Khang Auto for the following services:

• Replace 6 spark plugs (tune up)
• Replace right front axle
• Replace 2 lower ball joints
• AC service
• Check alarm horn

Total cost: $1,200

It was still a big cost, but much less that $7,723.93 the dealer had quoted. Another big item left to do is replacing the timing cover gasket. The dealer quote was $4,200.79. I will try to get this one done in the near future. I wanted to keep this car for as long as I can. Hopefully, it won’t cost me too much more to maintain. I don’t want to spend another $50,000 or $60,000 for a brand new car. Depending on a vehicle sucks.