Last week I sold off some Provident Energy (PVX: chart, web, Y!) stock, and some CREE (CREE: chart, web, Y!).

I’m up about 80% on CREE, and am about back to even on PVX. I’m rarely up 80% on anything (read my posts on Ford before you draw any conclusions on my trading style), and I’m overweight in PVX.

I’m sure there’s more room to run on both of these, but it’s time to score some of those gains.

General CREE, Investing, PVX

There are only 24 hours in the day, and I need at least 8 of them for sleep. Otherwise I’m a grumpy bump the next day.

My son just had his first birthday this last week, and I’ve reflected back on the last 12 months, and constantly wonder where the time has gone.

We spent 8 days in Costa Rica in early January, and took the kid and two sets of grandparents with us. Never in my life has a vacation been so… un-relaxing. Constantly chasing the boy, changing diapers, giving a bottle, shoveling Gerber jars.

And I’d do it all over in a heartbeat.

I’ve got hundreds of pictures of my son dipping his feet into the sand on the beach for the first time, his first trip to the pool, and even pictures chasing iguanas and monkeys.

To be sure, I need more than 24 hours in a day to get stuff done. But I’ll never trade in my time at the beach with my son.

General family life, time

My good old Ford F150 has been a bit ill lately.  I’ve had a persistent but not constant misfire in the #4 cylinder that’s been giving me fits for the last couple months.

Spark plugs and wires have been changed in the recent past, and a local shop even replaced a computer they said was faulty, along with an ignition coil.  That seemed to fix the problem for about a week, and then the misfire came back.

So today was truck fix’n day.

Some guys on a Ford F150 forum suggested that I check the heater hoses that carry hot coolant out of the heater core.  If those hoses had a leak, it could drip right down onto the #4 spark plug and cause a short in the plug well.

So today I checked that.  No drips from the hoses, and considering the temperature outside, the hoses weren’t even perspiring; I wish I could say the same for myself.

As a last ditch effort, I pulled the #4 spark plug out and replaced it with a spare I had sitting on the shelf.  Voila that seemed to fix it.

A good test drive down the highway revealed no evidence of a misfire, so I’m slightly relieved.  If I can go several days without a problem, I’ll just assume it was a bad plug.

Money Saved?

I vowed that if I couldn’t find the problem today, I’d make an appointment at Ford for a quality diagnosis.  I’ve taken the truck to my local mechanic, and while I thought he fixed the problem, it showed back up less than a week later.  That was after he spent nearly $700 in parts (the computer, plugs, wires, etc) to fix the problem.

The local Ford dealer will charge me at least $75 for a diagnosis (refundable if I have them do the work to fix the problem) and while I have a high level of confidence they’d find the problem and fix it, it will surely cost me a fortune!

So the fix really cost me about $8 for the spare spark plug I already had, and a half days worth of my time.

Not bad for being a tightwad, do-it-yourselfer…

Perhaps if my current career hits the skids, I could go on to be a mechanic… but only if truck driving school doesn’t work out!

Frugal Living, General auto repair, Ford F150, saving money