My total packet bet is 7979.43 by the law of average, should be right on the button. Now while we wait can we talk about my poor pumpkin seeds that were so fresh when I sent them, I mean I was still turning them every hour in the sun coming thru my french doors,before bagging them. Anyway, today, to my horror, the Musque de Provence seeds were moldy green!!!!I did not figure tha tthe time from when I packed them and the time we will get our seeds back would be enough to mold them, as I din't want to treat them with chemicals or bleach but maybe I should have!!! Looked on line for answers , someone mentioned rinsing the seeds in hydrogen peroxide before drying them. I panicked and use what was close at hand , put some bleach in water and filled the little baggie with it and slooshed them around until they cleaned up a bit, then i rinsed them further with my fingers, and planted them in a peat pot to see about germination. I don't know what to tell you. It's really sad to loose these, they were beautiful pumpkins, of the brightest orange flesh. If they are really lost then I will have to make sure mine grows and distribute the seeds again thru another swap.I am so sorry about that, thought i was doing the seeds a favor by not using bleach or other chemicals...and look what happened. Chris

Hi Timgren Yes there are still real mechanics, although we think of ourselves as Automotive Technicians these days. As has been said by others, you need to find a good shop, with a strong diagnostic technician, and then stick with them even if they don't nail this the first time. However, after what I write here, if I don't skip anything I should be able to give them all the ammo they need to get this one. One of the things that I have preached for the last 5 odd years that I have posted here is for people to test, and not just throw parts at someones car problem "because that is what was wrong with their neighbors, or relative, or whoevers car" when it was doing the same thing. Todays cars simply have so many ways to produce the same symptoms that nothing but solid diagnostic routines will provide accurate answers. Sadly, the industry still tries to compete between shops by price, and consumers reward this by trying to go to the cheapest place, and hopefully for them the cheapest fix first. Thats why you have had plugs thrown in, filters, a fuel pump ect. Most of the time the symptoms you describe can be caused by these components, but not always. One of the most telling parts though was the convertor replacement. That is something that has two possible causes for the failure, either a missfire was occuring and or the convertor overworking, or quite commonly insulation between the double walled pipe in front of the convertor is coming out of place and blocking the convertor. Without knowing first hand, I'd have to rely on seeing your truck to know, but I suspect you have more than one convertor. One of the things that need to be done is a road test with a good scan tool, (GM's Tech II) not some $300.00 code reader and a snapshot of scan data saved to be looked at to analyze the failure. Basically if the engine is losing power something is affecting either, fuel delivery, spark timing, spark strength, engine displacement, or some combination of those. Scan data has the ability to show a trained technician almost all of that except for strength of the spark. What I would do if your truck came here is first road test the truck under the conditions that display the loss of power and capture a snapshot of the scan data. When I got back to the shop I would concentrate on; mass airflow sensor readings in grams per second, MAP sensor voltage if used, engine RPM, throttle position, spark timing, knock sensor, timing retard, fuel trims, and O2 sensor voltages. One of the things that I can do back at the shop is calculate the volumetric efficiency of the engine using the MAF sensor reading at a given rpm. This would tell me right away if the engine is breathing correctly. I would compare MAF readings while the problem is occuring to TPS and MAP readings. BTW during the symptom event, I would purposely move the throttle around a bit, while keeping the truck acting up and then examine the results on the scan data. Fuel trims and O2 sensor voltages would tell me if we are dealing with a fuel pressure, fuel volume problem. Knock sensor, spark timing, and spark retard could help me identify everything from simply a bad knock sensor, to mechanical engine trouble, to even something loose on the truck rattling and making the knock sensor send a signal that the computer see's as the engine pinging. Lastly while back in the shop, I would go back over secondary ignition and ensure strength of spark, and other normal issues. Off hand I expect you have an individual coil for each plug. That pretty much in itself rules out a number of potential problems that could occur with other designs that could cause your symptoms. This testing that I have outlined would take very little time and would either have me already knowing what is wrong, or it would have me narrowing the investigation to only a few points having ruled out a large portion of the operating system. One thing that is mandatory is to forget anything else has been done to the truck, and test exactly as it is presented, and allow the results to lead me to the problem as it exists today. Feel free to contact me by e-mail once you have this back to a shop if they have trouble figuring it out. I will give you contact information for them and can help them analyze this via live chat on the net if they want. John G. ASE CMAT L1 BTW, thanks Akthy. Take care, we got to get together one of these days. Maybe Arts up for another party....

Hello and thank you for sharing your experiences. Here I am having the same issue. Almost 5 months ago while I was on vocation with my family suddenly I felt a sudden weakness of both arms which it lasted for 30-40 seconds. Then in a month it happened again and again; randomly. I also have some difficulty breathing but non of them are related to each other. Shortness of breath happens mostly when I go to sleep and it goes away while the weakness of arms has no such a time or any other sign that helps me to figure out what and why i did go to the doctor and after many test and check ups no diagnosis. However my doctor said it could be from the stress Today I had two episodes in a row while I was working with a little boy ( I am an ABA provider) Lately though I have been thinking if it’s related to the heavy begs that I carry all day long since travel from Staten Island-Brooklyn-Manhattan and back ( using public transportation) Does anyone have any idea about what age am thinking about? Furthermore, today I read that Hypothyroidism must be one of the causes that might be connected to arm weakness

Many salons in Europe use appointments. The ones both I and my wife have been to over many years, and when we lived there, almost always did. Especially in cities. The unbelievably excessive litigiousness of American society has nothing to do with the internet nor DIY anything, in my view. We've long had an excess of lawyers, both in numbers and in terms of their being underemployed. We have more per capita than any other country. (Just as with guns. Reach your own conclusion about that.) A high percentage of law school grads don't work as lawyers, but of the ones that do, the specialty with the lowest bar for entry is the practice of plaintiff personal injury. Meaning - find a client that can allege personal injury as the fault of another and sue for damages. Ambulance chasers. In most other countries, when a baseless lawsuit is dismissed, the plaintiff has to pay the defendant's costs of defense. In the US, not so, so there's really nothing to lose but the time of the otherwise not busy lawyer. That's why cases are taken on a strict contingent fee basis - the lawyer gets percentage of a settlement or client pays nothing. And that's why businesses are so cautious and defensive, including all the warning signs and also waivers so common in business establishments. If you have a problem, don't sue us, we warned you.