Posted on 9/27/2017
Not the type of prepper that has an underground bunker and is eagerly awaiting the zombie apocalypse. However, if you are, September is the month for you! September is National Preparation Month which focuses on planning. The theme for 2017 is “Disasters Don’t Plan Ahead. You Can”. If you’re an optimist, you believe that ‘nothing will happen’ and if you’re a pessimist, you figure, “Why bother? If I prepare for a water event, there will be a wind event”. The reality is, this past month has taught us that many things can happen—and do. I firmly believe in having items in your car that make an inconvenience or emergency a little bit easier to deal with. Having water, snacks, boots, matches, a candle, a cell phone charger, etc. can prepare you to deal with sliding off the road, getting stuck in traffic for an extended amount of time, evacuating a flood, and many other situations. I’ve written several blog articles in the past about this because it can make a big dif ... read more
Posted on 9/19/2017
Most of the educational opportunities I take advantage of now are management or marketing related. I also attend conferences geared towards women in auto care and female entrepreneurs. Mostly because I believe you should never stop learning, and keeping myself current by learning from people that are experts in their field helps me to be better at what I do. On occasion, I take advantage of an automotive technical class. Why? I work in the automotive industry and while I don’t repair vehicles, I need to expose myself to new technology. Several weeks ago I went to a class with Jeff and one of our technicians, Gordon. Contrary to what many people believe, diagnostics doesn’t simply consist of ‘hooking up the scanner’. Vehicles have many interconnected systems and our technicians need to know what to look for when one of them is malfunctioning. One section of the training was on catalytic converter (cats) diagnostics. While I have been exposed to many conversations ... read more
Posted on 9/8/2017
The news is filled these past two weeks with hurricane damage and potential hurricane damage from another approaching hurricane. We see pictures of the devastation that these storms have caused. The emotional and physical damage is devastating and I can’t imagine watching everything you own wash away in a flood. In the automotive world, the talk starts to be about the ‘flood cars.’ These are vehicles that were damaged during a catastrophe and probably totaled by an insurance company. They’re not supposed to end up being resold but, sometimes they end up in the used car market. How does it happen? There is money to be made. Should this happen? Probably not, but if someone’s vehicle is uninsured or under insured, many people will try to dry them out and drive them or sell them. These cars may end up for sale in your area and you need to know how to spot them when searching for a used car. I could list all the signs of a potential flood car here but I’m not going t ... read more