Back in 2008, my entire email got hijacked from a library computer in Tacoma. It taught me a hard lesson about public Wi-Fi.

Tried using a heat gun to soften some old vinyl trim on a '92 Civic, ended up melting the whole panel.

It was last Thursday on a customer's car, and I figured a little heat would make the old trim flexible enough to pull off clean. I set the gun to about 400 degrees and started on a corner. Next thing I know, the whole rear quarter panel started to warp and bubble like a bad paint job. I had to tell the owner I was ordering a new panel on my dime. Has anyone found a better way to get that super-glued-on trim off without destroying the sheet metal underneath?

I hit 500 hours on a single timing belt job and it made me rethink the whole 'book time' system.

Vent: I tried a new hoof stand for a month and went right back to my old one

Bought a fancy lightweight stand with a rotating head, thinking it would be easier on my back during a full day of trims. After 30 days of use, I found it just didn't have the solid feel of my old 15 pound steel stand, especially with a big draft horse that likes to lean. That extra weight and wide base kept everything steady when I needed it most. Anyone else try a 'modern' stand and find the old ways just work better?

The time a client's 'broken' monitor was just a very clean screen

I was on a house call in Springfield for a lady who said her monitor was dead, no picture at all. I pressed the power button, saw the power light come on, and then spent a good ten minutes checking cables and the video card. Finally, I opened a bright white Notepad file, and that's when I saw it: the tiniest, faintest 'Hello :)' in the top left corner, written in white on a white background. She had been using it as a digital sticky note and forgot. Has anyone else had a 'fix' that turned out to be something this simple?

Appreciation post: The salvage yard in Tacoma that keeps old shop manuals organized by year

I was at a place called Pull-A-Part in Tacoma yesterday looking for a door panel, and they had a whole shelf of factory service manuals sorted by make and model year. The guy there said they keep them for mechanics who need wiring diagrams or torque specs on the spot. Has anyone else found a yard that does this, or is it just a lucky find?

A local bakery in my town got slammed online for a 2014 tweet the owner forgot about

I saw the whole thing go down on Facebook last week. Someone dug up a really dumb, off color joke the owner posted eight years ago when he was like 22. The online pile on was huge, people calling for a boycott. The bakery ended up closing for two days. It made me think, how far back should we be digging for stuff to hold against people? Has anyone else seen a small business get hit for old social media like that?

My 10-year-old nephew asked me why I always fix cars for other people but my own truck has a check engine light on.

He said, 'The mechanic's car is always broken,' and now I'm looking at my dashboard wondering if he's onto something... anyone else have a personal vehicle that's a total project while you work on everyone else's?

Reading a food history book and the butter thing got me

I just found out that before refrigeration, American butter was often dyed orange to hide how yellow it got from cows eating certain grasses. Saw it in 'The Food Explorer' and it made me think about how much our ingredients have changed. Anyone else come across an old kitchen fact that seems wild now?