Good Morning!!!! 46F @ 5:15AM. Partly cloudy. High 53F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.
Winter seems to bring out the worst in us, health wise at least. I'm looking forward to better days for all of us, and soon!
Got a good seven hours of sleep last night, now the cough's back. Time for more decongestant...
UPS delivered the first package in almost a month yesterday. One step closer to normalcy. For some reason the Post Office is still holding off; I called yesterday and was told deliveries will resume once the current Evacuation Warning for my zone is dropped. That decision belongs to our overly conservative Sheriff, and it could be next summer before the danger of flash flooding in the burn areas passes. Until then, I get to stand in line once a week at the Oroville post office to pick up my mail. Yesterday the line took almost a half hour to get through, and it's a half hour drive each way. Nothing like having something you once took for granted taken away to make you appreciate it all the more!
The silver lining in that post office trip is I was able to take the van and see if the speedo fix worked. It did not, and the seller of the pulse frequency module seems to think I've installed it correctly.:confused2: At least the coolant level sensor didn't throw its error code, so the new relay seems to have cured the problem. At least there's some progress.:dance1:
I had the truck parked in the driveway the past few days, and when I moved it there was a fairly large oil stain left behind. I've been smelling transmission fluid for the past few weeks, but with nowhere to work on it, haven't done anything about it. Today's the day.
I also had a chance to look at the gate opener yesterday. Turns out the fire melted the top of the plastic battery box, fusing the lid to the battery and ruining it. It's such a tight fit there's nothing to grab to pull it out, and with the top gone the plates and acid are exposed. The bottom of the box is surrounded by about six inches of concrete, and a heavy chain runs under that and around a long bar that also buried in concrete. I had the chain wrapped over the top and secured with a lock to prevent the battery from sprouting legs and walking off. Of course I couldn't find the key to the lock, and ended up opening it with a pair of bolt cutters. Ever wonder why those Harbor Freight locks are so cheap? Those bolt cutters went through the hasp like a hot knife through butter. :shocked: I have a feeling I'll end up just throwing more dirt over the whole mess rather than trying to dig it up. I also need to line up a new battery and box, but the new box won't be plastic. I'll probably end up making up a steel box so if there's a next time, the battery has a better chance at survival.
TGIF folks!:drink:
