Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Well my quest to find a pulse board for a 1999 Buick LeSabre ended today.

I had done a lot of searching online to no avail and then put out feelers on twitter and here on the blog, even asked other bloggers to put out the word for me as neither my mechanic nor NAPA nor anyone else seemed to be able to find a Pulse board for a 1999 Buick LeSabre.

One reader apparently had found the part on Doorman site. They make all sort of replacement parts but alas their Part # 906-121 which runs about $60 while listed as comparable with the 1999 LeSabre on some sites that resell Doorman parts is specifically listed as not fitting my LeSabre on their own site.

I also checked with Cardone which does the same, they had the motor (Everyone seems to have the motor) but when I check in their chat system alas said motor did not come with a pulse board.

I thought I might have a winner at the rockauto.com site but again their AC delco re manufactured motor didn’t say if it came with a pulse board and nobody was available at the AC Delco site to answer that question concerning this part.

Finally I did one more ebay search and lo and behold:

$399!

That’s literally 6 to 7 times the price of the motor offered everywhere else, however unlike everywhere else it EXPLICITLY stated it was compatible with my 1999 Buick LeSabre.

You can’t imagine how nice that result looked given the number of times I had filled out a similar form over the last week or two and gotten a different result.

As you might guess once I had the part number from said piece I started looking for it elsewhere to see if I could find it cheaper, no luck. I tried the part number at the AC Delco site, not listed.

So it came down to this. My car’s inspection sticker runs out on Halloween I could hold out in the hopes that I could save a couple of hundred or do and hope some other person didn’t need a pulse board before then or do I bite the bullet and buy this final part figuring that ending the search with a month to spare was worth it?

That’s when I remember the Jon Sable quote above and decided to buy the part now.

In the end $400 or $500 is a lot less than $4000 or $5000 for another car and when it comes down to it if I can keep the body intact that Glorious Buick motor will keep going for years to come. And the time I would have spend over the last month worrying and scrounging has to be worth something

If I hadn’t just dropped $200 on tires for the car I might have decided that the time had come to enter the 21st century but if the Buick goes that dough was out the window. And and perhaps if DaWife hadn’t just depleted her projects fund on a new Reed’s ferry shed and a new fence that’s going in next month it wouldn’t have been so bad to lose the LeSabre rather than drop $400 on an $80 part.

Even better I don’t have to do a new used car bleg. It’s one thing to shake the tip jar for the work I do, that’s a return for services rendered it’s another to have to ask to defray the cost of an unexpected bill.

And hey at least I got a blog post out of it.

The NFL kicked off its 2020 season, and amidst the crashing and crunching of helmets, the NFL implored me to vote. PSA after PSA, the NFL talked about how we should all do our part. It was all very feel-goody, and the players all locked arms for “unity” with those fighting for social justice. And it wasn’t just as a way of celebrating the opening game of the new season, either. All summer long on the NFL network, the viewer was constantly bombarded with PSAs about athletes speaking up for “change,” whatever that means. I doubt even they know.

Probably worth noting that the ratings were down double digits over last year’s opening game. And the crowd at the stadium, rained boos on the “uniting” players. The sports talkers feigned confusion as to why the crowd would boo such a gesture. I have a guess: why should we care one whit what these multi-millionaire athletes (Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs just signed for a cool half-bil), many of whom likely needed tutors to get past high school civics, have to say about politics?

And one more thing: what does the NFL care whether I vote or not?

Everyone should vote, we’re told by celebrities hoping to assure themselves they do Important Work, and it’s supposedly shameful only 60% of eligible voters voted. From Rock the Vote in the 1990s to the NFL today, we are told we need to vote. And politicians frequently propose new measures to make it easier to vote, and there are even some who argue voting should be available online.

Are these people nuts? Have they ever taken a good look at some of their fellow citizens? I wouldn’t mind if fewer people voted, to be honest. And by no means should voting be made “easier” or “more convenient.”

Everyone’s seen those staples of late-night television, where a “man on the street” interviews “average Americans.” And we all laugh, as these idiots can’t name the current Vice President, or find France on a map. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty fine if these dimwits stayed home on election day. If you pay so little attention to the news, you draw blanks when asked who lives in the White House, trust me, it’s cool if you sit this election out.

And likewise, if getting off your couch and making it all the way to the polling station a couple of blocks away is too much trouble for you, then buddy, take a load off and stay right there on the couch. The election will get on fine without you.

There’s a reason that many pet rescue organizations require that adopters pay a small fee to adopt a pet. They know when you invest in something, you take better care of it. When becoming a pet owner is too easy, the pets tend to suffer.

And if you can’t invest in an hour or two of your day to vote, you’re really not that invested in the vote. And the election – and eventually, the people – suffer.

Haven’t we all suffered enough this year already?