Topsy Turvey

Things are in a real state of flux right now.

Not only does the house sense when I am stretched to the limit, but that extends to the cars, too.

They were installing new storm drains on our street this week, so we had to move all of the vehicles across the street to give them access.

The good part was that Mrs A. went out to the work crew and asked if they couldn't drop an extra ccouple of yards of crushed rock in our parking strip, which gets pretty swampy. They said no problem, did she want then to grade it, too? Of course she did, and in exchange for some sodas and chips, they dumped and graded the entire parking strip. Gotta love that Mrs A.

When I went to start the truck, it groaned once, and then just clicked. Crap. I was tired and didn't want to deal with it, so I jumped in the RV, and it didn't even click. I was bone tired and just fely like bawling, but I girded my loins and broke out the battery charger. Even after a half an hour on fast charge, the truck would still not even turn over. I cleaned the little window on the battery, and it was green, which means it was charged. One of the side terminals had a quite a bit of corrosion, so I deccided to take it apart, clean evverything, and put it back together. When I put a wrench on it, the entire side post came off. It was broken inside the battery. How the hell that happened, I have no idea, but it meant that evven though it was a functional battery, it had to be replaced.

Down to the Auto Parts Purveyor. $90.00 later, I had a new battery. Try as I might, I could not separate the battery cable from the broken post. I went back to the Auto parts place and got a replacemment battery cable clamp, but by the time I got back, it was dark. Besides, it has been pissing rain all night, and I was cold and soaked, so I gave up on it.

Today I came home and changed into car working clothes and went out and reterminated the battery clamp. The new battery wasn't charged up, so I put the charger on it, and after a half an hour, it started. I was oncerned because they are predicting snow tonight (that's right, I said SNOW) and I don't want to drive Z in the snow.

I pulled the battery out of the RV and put it on trickle charge, so it ought to be ready to go when I get home tomorrow.

I am switching to second shift starting on Sunday. I will work my normal nine to ten hours tomorrow, then report to second shift the next day. That gives me 24 hours between shifts. A chance to recharge MY batteries. By next Friday, I will have worked nineteen days in a row.

I had been planning to take off next weekend, as ML3 had a concert at a women's prison on the 26th. The concert has been called off, so it looks like I will have a whole two days IN A ROW off. It will be nice to recharge, but the reason the concert was called off was that April, the lead singer found a lump, and the biopsy was inconclusive, so they are going to go in and take it out.

So say a little prayer for April McBride, singer extraortinary, composer, and the inspiration that keeps up all going when we want to quit.