4/23/07

Well, the air card survived almost exactly one month. Yep, it got broken over the weekend. After one too many disconnections and slow downloads, it got yanked from the laptop and somehow broke in half. Go figure. I took it to the Cingular store to see if I had options but since I didn’t buy the insurance I was screwed. I couldn’t cancel the service either because I didn’t have a working air card to return. Oh, I could cancel the service but it would cost me $175.00 for lack of a card to return and I couldn’t do it there at the store, I'd have to call Cingular to make it happen. I took the two parts of the card to the shop and nailed them to the wall with a note saying, “Buy the insurance next time.” I went home and reloaded AOL and am using dial-up again for the time being. On e-Bay I found an “unlocked” air card that is supposed to work with the SIM card from the other unit. I bought it. I figure $59.00 is cheaper than $179.00 to cancel and a hell of a lot cheaper than $400.00 for a new Cingular card. John will notice that there is a discrepancy in the prices quoted here and the one I quoted him earlier. That e-mail’s assertions were not the most correct ones I have ever made. Ok, I have to go to the TOB to hold someone’s hand for a bit. I may be back later to tell what else happened over the weekend. Ok, I'm back. Nothing else happened over the weekend. I slept in on Saturday. Well, I called John about 0900 h to see if he was getting a lot done without me there. He was not because he was in the process of getting sick. I mean, he really sounded like crap. He went home before I even left the house. I went to the shop, eventually, and had a look around. I decided against a hoon in the Seven, still a bit too nipply, and went out in Mr. Wiggly instead. I filled up the tank, still getting about 11.6 miles per gallon by the way, and went for a hoon. I remembered that the voltage looked suspicious last week and kept an eye on it. It hovered right around 12 volts instead of 14 like it should. I went to the BoP. They couldn’t fit me in and suggested I come back in the morning. I said I would do that. I had a Cheesy Beef sammich at Sweet Home Chicago and then headed for the house. There was a wreck or something on I-20 between Bryant Irvin and 377. That means there was no way to avoid the traffic jam once past the BI exit. I sat in the slow lane for probably half an hour creeping toward the crest of the hill. I finally saw that it was in the fast lane and was glad I held my ground on the right. Once past the BI entrance ramp the slow lane kept moving while the middle lane had to let the left lane folks in. I think I made it out before the guy who was in the middle lane when we came upon the slow down but I don’t know for sure. Anyhoo, I got to the house and took a nap. I decided to go ahead and take Mr. Wiggly back to the shop before dark and headed out. I made an FM 5 run and was coming up on the shop from the south when mom called to say they were at the airport and headed home. I dropped Mr. Wiggly off and hauled ass back home to pick up around the place and wash the dishes. I got all that done and was relaxing when she called again to say they were just leaving the airport and did I want to meet them someplace for dinner. I declined since I was still full from the cheesy beef, as well as hot and tired from hooning and cleaning. They arrived at the house an hour or two later. My sister and brother in law left and mom told me about the trip. She apparently had a good time. Saturday night was when the air card broke. Sunday morning I made a plan. I'd take Mr. Wiggly to the BoP to have the alternator and voltage regulator checked then go to Cingular to see how screwed I was on the air card. These things I did. They changed the alternator at the BoP and finished up right before noon, which was when the Cingular store opened. I already told that story so I won’t go over it again. After nailing the air card to the wall of the shop I had a look around to se what I wanted to work on. I found nothing for a bit. Suddenly I remembered something I wanted to do. I took a 10 mm flare wrench out to the tan 510 wagon and disconnected the hard line for the clutch. I had to go back and get a regular 10 mm wrench and a flathead screwdriver to finish taking it off. When I had it out, I took it to George and re-bent it to fit in that car. I didn’t tighten it down or anything but I think it is going to work. With that one little thing done, I decided I had accomplished something and went home. So there you have it, my weekend. I hope it was worth the effort. Talk to y'all tomorrow.