When it rains it pours...had a miserable week

[70herald]

That't it I officially had a cr-p week.
The Herald is still all apart and I barely made any progress, not for lack of trying.

The "free" rabbit my son got as a pet broke its leg (turns out you should never hold a rabbit, if it tries to jump the consequences are bad) so I brought it to the vet (not cheap) and it turns out that it has scabies and now the whole family needs treatment, even if we don't actually have scabies just to make sure we get rid of this all at once.

I made a left hand turn yesterday and got a ticket, no sign but I crossed a solid white line (I deserved it but still annoying)

And as if all this weren't enough for one week, I went to make a very minor change in the electrical box, and accidentally created a tiny spark between two phases (3ph system) and BLEW OUT THE ELECTRONICS ON AT LEAST TWO NEW SPLIT A/C SYSTEMS WE JUST INSTALLED TWO WEEKS AGO and the dryer's electronics and a several wall warts and who knows what else is going to die in the next few days.....

All this while I am supposed to be on a "relaxing" vacation. What I came to the conclusion is that not only am I not enjoying this vacation, I really don't have the time ever to enjoy the stuff that I want to do so something(?s?) are going. So after allot of debate, I just advertised the Herald, and really hope someone wants it its current sad state.....

What a nasty miserable week. I am starting to think that should cut my extended vacation just to avoid creating any additional damage...

 

[NutmegCT]

Yep - one thing I learned the year of my prostate cancer, blindness, back cyst, squamous cell carcinoma, floods and polluted well -

There ain't no guarantees!

You make the changes you need to make. You'll live to fight another day (and fight another day ... and fight another day ...)

As a friend of mine says, Sometimes unexpected problems give you opportunities you'd never have otherwise!

 

[70herald]

Hi Tom,
Of course you are correct, in the greater scheme of things, relative to health problems, etc, all of my problems are quite small.

I advertised the Herald and I seem to have two potential buyers... Will let you know what happens.
Yisrael

 

[NutmegCT]

Wow - you just advertised the Herald and already have two potential buyers? Sounds like things are looking up!

Tom

 

[sail]

Yisrael, good luck with the sale. I too am trying to simplify things somewhat. To start have my boat and a bicycle up for sale. Fortunately I've not blow out or up anything lately and I'm not going to get any bunnies. Tough call but in many cases less is more.

 

[NutmegCT]

Tough call but in many cases less is more.

I think sometimes I buy something for the fun of buying it. Get it home, see what extra responsibilities and problems it brings, and have second thoughts.

 

[59diamond]

Speaking of rain.On Friday the 25th of October I drove my BE over to Borrego Springs from San Diego,( about a 80 mile trip) for the annual Borrego Days celebration, and I entered the Car show portion on Saturday and won a third place trophy.The sponsor of the car show made a mistake on the trophy so they took it back and said they would mail me the correct one. I am still waiting for that. Next I backed my wife's car into a pole that was there to protect a fire hydrant and did about $3,000 damage to the rear of her car. She had followed me over to the desert in case anything went wrong with the BE..On Monday morning we had breakfast, gassed up the cars and headed back to San Diego. There was a prediction of light rain for the late afternoon, but since we were leaving Borrego at 10:00 AM I wasn't worried about getting wet. I didn't bring the top but had the toneau cover over the passenger side of the BE. We left Borrego and climbed out of the desert with no problems. Right after leaving Borrego we entered a stretch of a two lane road called Ranchita. There are just a few old shacks along this road, although we did drive past the fire station. It started to pour down rain and the temperature dropped to 45 degrees and the wind started blowing at 30 to 40 miles an hour making the wind chill factor 35 degrees.
And then the BE just stopped running.It would not start back up no matter what I did. My wife stopped behind me with her emergency lights flashing while I tried to figure out what to do. I called my mechanic on my cell phone and he suggested a few things, but nothing worked. Meanwhile I was freezing and drenched by the rain which was getting worse by the minute. My wife looked up the fire station we passed and they came to help. I got in the BE and two Firemen pushed me to a safe place on the side of the road. I got in my wife's car and thawed out while she called Hagerty Ins. for a tow truck. It took two and a half hours for the tow truck to arrive. Meanwhile as we waited a man came out of one of the shacks nearby and motioned for us to come to his place and warm up and have a sandwich. Then two other men appeared on the porch and motioned for us to come inside. We thought about their hospitality, but decided we should wait by the side of the road and wait for the tow truck. The tow truck finally arrived after a two and a half hour wait, put the BE on the flat bed and I told my wife to go ahead and go home. As we were leaving the tow truck driver said as soon as my wife was out of view he was going to stop and take a leak. So he stopped the tow truck after a short distance to go behind the truck and do his business. Instead of passing the tow truck my wife stopped behind it because she thought something was wrong. Finally she called on my cell phone and I told her the truck driver was taking a short break and to head on home. The tow was 60 miles to my mechanic. I got there about 3:30 PM and he tried everything he could think of, but the BE would not start. He said it must be some stupid thing and he would take a fresh look at it in the morning. I had just gotten the BE back from him on the Tuesday before the Friday I took off for Borrego after having a new clutch, master cylinder etc. done. I told him I thought my BE just liked him better then me and wanted to be with him. The next morning he called me and said come and get your BE. The problem was a loose wire going to the coil and when he tightened the screw holding the wire the BE started right up. It was a stupid thing but he had to be smart to find the problem. The other reason I had gone to Borrego was to celebrate my wife's birthday which had been on the Monday before the Friday of the fateful trip.
She has informed me that on her next birthday she will pick the place to go.
All of this so I could win a third place trophy that cost around 10 bucks to make and I still do not have the trophy in my possession.
Tomorrow I am going to the annual Bugeye Barbeque where we drive down old highway 101 and meander around for a couple of hours before arriving at John Felt's house in Vista for the Barbeque. There may be as many as 20 Bugeyes driving along in a procession turning a lot of heads.
So cross your fingers for me that everything goes as planned.

 

[Guest]

I thought I was having a bad week too ....then I read Peter and Paul's posts.

 

[AngliaGT]

Back we had rabbits,our middle Son stepped on one of ours,
in the kitchen,where he lived,& broke his leg.
I'd always wondered who these IDIOTS were,who would spend
hundreds of dollars on there pets -NOW I was one of them.
When we had 3 young kids living here - we had to spend
the money.

- Doug

 

[70herald]

I'd always wondered who these IDIOTS were,who would spend
hundreds of dollars on there pets -NOW I was one of them.
When we had 3 young kids living here - we had to spend
the money.

- Doug

I'm also wondering who these idiots are but it turns out it is me.... We got the rabbit for one of my sons, who is a really bright kid but a bit hyper, and having a tough time in school etc. The rabbit has really made a difference. He is crazy about animals, and it really calms him down working with it. Anyway as is understandable, he was absolutely hysterical as a result of this, and I couldn't put an animal to sleep, so the vet gets his pay.

Getting stuck in the rain is something I have experience with! I took one of my younger kids for a ride a while ago and got stuck in a hail/rain storm. Between water coming in between the roof and windshield, the incredible noise of hail on a fabric roof, my son cry really was to much Fortunately I found an overhang to park under for a while.

As for the car, I have a low offer, a better offer and another potential buyer who will come to take a look tomorrow. And, one of the purchasers actually offered to come help me get the project back on schedule, but as hard as it is at this point I need to simplify my life a bit.

Besides the boys want me to fly RC airplanes with them, so that we be the priority for now.

 

[70herald]

And the Herald is sold.... no where near my investment but enough that I am not unhappy, and the buyer got a fair deal.

Thursday the happy new owner will come back, we will put together as much as possible so that he can see how everything goes together and prepare to move it.

Tomorrow the electrician comes to replace our electrical box and make it safe. Then I will have to bite the bullet and pay to get my brand new A/Cs repaired...

So I guess this week is basically all about repairing last week... Just hope no more appliances fail, and of course since everyone is basically healthy well I just have to keep everything in proportion.

 

[NutmegCT]

Sold in less than a week. Now that is great news. And if you're all healthy, you've got a lot to be happy about - the toys all come in second.

Tom

 

[DrEntropy]

Wow, Yiz, that's one of those cascading series of events that can make a fella run screaming and hide under the bed for a week!

As to the "simplification" scheme, likely a good idea. A life-long friend's dad has called it an "age-and-stage" issue. This weekend Mitsy and I visited the friend and his spouse, we had the discussion about what we own and what ends up "owning" us. We're at an age where ~things~ can overwhelm us. Too much responsibility of ownership, so much energy has to go into maintaining things we end up not being able to enjoy any of it. So good for you, you will be my inspiration to assess what needs to be gone from this place and what may stay to concentrate on.

Finally got the bulk of the bathroom remodel materials this AM, so once that's done I'll be a bit less stressed. Now just need to construct the new vanity/sink and do some re-plumbing.

 

[70herald]

Well I spent the day sorting out parts with the new owner.

He has apparently been looking for a Herald for 2 years! He will have allot of work making it look nice but he is starting out with a very good basis to work on. I hotwired it to start the engine to show him that it all worked properly.. Started instantly, and wow did it sound great. So different than when I bought it 9 years ago.

New electrical box is in, the electronics for the dryer are out hopefully being repaired, and I have order a bunch of new phone chargers since they all blew out, and my internet is back to normal... Now on to the A/Cs and getting them repaired.

Anyway now that I have simplified things a bit, I am going to play with R/C airplanes with the boys for a while.

 

[JPSmit]

Obviously, car or no car you can't drop of the boards - or fly a plane into the AC unit.