How Was Your Fourth?
July 6th, 2009 . by CaryAs I mentioned in a reply to a comment to the previous post, mine was acceptable.
A little background – about three weeks ago, a little piece of plastic and circuit board under the dash of the QX4 (my primary and paid for non-green transportation) decided that it would take the summer off. That little piece of electrical engineering wonder (let’s call it 27761N) is known as the Fan Speed Control Module Assembly. In a QX4 it’s job is to automatically control the speed of the fan to keep the interior of the vehicle at the pre-set temperature. Most new vehicles have either this or a similar system in it attached to the air conditioning and the heater. It also sends the signal from the manual fan control to the fan motor. Well, with 27761N on vacation, there is no way to make the fan blow. That means that there is no AC in my primary means of transportation. That means that I won’t go anywhere with MEG since I will not subject her to a 110 degree breeze from the windows.
Last Tuesday, TMBWitW’s work told her she would have a laptop to use from home, since the VPN had been shut off and our home computer would not support the new SSL. “Great,” I thought – “Now I can remove the VPN from our home computer and no longer have that annoying conflict that keeps me from printing and surfing at the same time.”
Boy, was I wrong. The VPN removal stalled out AND permanently conflicted the Internet connection – unless I boot up in safe mode. TMBWitW’s laptop works just fine on the same cable modem.
Friday evening the start/run capacitor on the house AC unit decided to join 27761N on vacation. I was driving cab, TMBWitW was spending time with MEG and our church family at the home of the Pastor, so didn’t know anything was wrong until she got home at 2130 and found the temp climbing. When I finished my 12 hour overnight shift, I fell into bed at about 0515 Saturday morning. MEG woke up at 0730, and TMBWitW got up to take care of her. She woke me up right after that to tell me the AC was STILL blowing hot air. $150 and five hours later, the issue was resolved. But, now I had to go to the cage on two hours of sleep and get in line to get in line for a cab for Saturday night. Friday had not been lucrative at all, and I was hoping I could make up for a little bit of that on Saturday. While I was waiting to get a cab, TMBWitW and MEG were with friends and church family at a BBQ and swim party. Saturday night was better for me, but still not as much as it has been in the past. Also, for the last week, the humidity levels have been bouncing everywhere and we had a little bit of rain Friday evening. I’m sure you all remember how that affects my body, plus, as a bonus, I have a sinus infection. Again. I did, however, get to spend about 45 minutes watching the fireworks show over Tempe Town Lake – I was in the East Valley most of the evening and spent a little time during the show (when no one was moving) playing spectator; once the show was over the streets were so jammed that it took me about an hour to get to a dispatched call that was only 3/4 of a mile from where I had sat for 45 minutes.
Sunday morning I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep – which was an hour more than I needed if I wanted to get to church on time. I made it to church – but my body was hurting, my voice was not with me, and I must have looked like death warmed over, since everyone had a shocked look on their face when they saw me. TMBWitW and MEG overslept, too – I think we were all so exhausted that we slept through both alarms.
This morning I did some clean-up work at the church. My body was still not ready for hard labor, but it was stuff that needed to get done and I got it done. Now I can relax a bit and let my body recover and my sinuses unwind.
I hope your Fourth was patriotic and it reminded you why you are proud to be an American.
(quick note – the TEA party for my area was held on Friday at 1630, not the best time to get coverage since all the government offices were closed for the weekend and only mad dogs, englishmen and cab drivers were outside at that time…)
Chat ya later…
Thank you for stopping by, In GOD We Trust, God bless you all, don’t buy or breed cats or dogs while homeless pets die (spay, neuter & adopt a pet, one by one, until there are none), Wear Red on Fridays, and support Warriors for Innocence!
