A Monday Kind Of Sunday

[cheesy]

So, this past Sunday was 'One Of Those Days'. Just needed a day or two to ease it by.

It snowed like hell again Saturday night, so I decide to wait until Sunday morning to clear the drive and sidewalk. Pull the cap off the tank of the blower and only about a half tank fuel left. Grab the can of 2 stroke and it's empty. "Oh, yeah. I was supposed to fill it two weekends ago". No big deal. I grab the 2 stroke can and one of the 4 stroke cans, hop in the Chevy, and roll down the hill to the the gas station.

First issue. It's -5F and I left my gloves in the garage. I stupidly fill the cans and head back home, park the Chevy in the snow drift in front of the house, and rush inside to place my hands in a hot cup of coffee.

Issue Two. I head back out after my hands get some feeling in them and go to move the Jeep (Here you go, Bruce) and one of the new tires is flat. Broken bead flat. I don't have time to mess with it as I have to head back to MinneSNOWta in a couple hours. I'll just clear out around it and deal with Friday.

Issue Three. Fill the tank on the blower, pump the primer, turn on the key, close the choke, and pull the rope. Only to have the handle in my hand and six inches of rope hanging from the handle. It has always started on the first pull, but not today. So now, I'm shoveling.

Issue Four. Remember me parking the Chevy in the snow drift. Apparently, you are not supposed to take a four wheel drive pickup off road in snow. At first it wouldn't start. Then when it did, I got all kinds of alarms; Engine Power Reduced, Service Select Track, Traction Control light flashing, MIL. Again, no time to deal with it. I'll plug it in when I get back home but I'm betting that when I parked in the snow I damaged a cable or connector. Which makes me long for my 4WD 1967 Ford F100 that didn't have a wire anywhere along the drive train.

Issue Five. Spending my last days of vacation for the year at work.

B!tc%ing over.

[FastDoc]

Excellent rant!

You have again earned my sincere respect.

The line of warming your hands IN rather than ON the cocca cup was great.

Bummer about the truck. Are you going to bring it in or do you have a (heated) garage?

What caused the Jeep tire to fall off the rim? I've not heard of that problem before.

Not supposed to take a 4WD truck off road in the snow??

Better not tell my humble Ranger that!

[Bruce's]

I think I have figured out that you like your jeep almost as much as me .The ether trick can get you to the tire store for a proper repair .

[Bruce's]

Doc ,pretty sure his jeep has aluminum wheels ,for some reason they seem worse than steel wheels ,but it sounds like the tire installer didn't clean the bead area on the rim well enough before installing the new tires ,and when it gets cold ,you end up with a rim touching the ground in the morning .I guess if you live in a warmer area you might not of seen it ,but any little tire leak really gets magnified in the winter and just makes you cold and late for work .

[Weldangrind]

Here's to 2017, Cheesy. 2016 can kiss my white Irish backside.


BTW, I think Issue Five bothered me the most.

[2LZ]

That's when you get that 10:00 a.m. cocktail or two...then climb back into a warm bed for a few hours and reboot.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

Here's to 2017, Cheesy. 2016 can kiss my white Irish backside.


BTW, I think Issue Five bothered me the most.

I would say that 2016 can kiss my shiny metal a$$.

As far as Issue Five goes, for anyone not in my department, it's "Use It Or Lose It". My department is allowed to roll it over because we have to "Reschedule" a lot. I just have three days, one of my guys has three weeks rolled over.

Issue Three and Four were more irritating to me.

At least I get to go home tomorrow. I may get there very late, but I'm still going home.

[cheesy]

Issue four is fixed. Got a P1682(or something like that)code. Faulty ignition switch, faulty ECM, bad connection between the two, one of the two fuses in the ECM circuit blown. Take your pick. Everything looked good so I did some reading. Turns out that extreme cold can cause a false reading in the right conditions. So, below zero temps, run the truck for only a few minutes, and park in a snowbank. Sounds like right conditions. Having the fuse box and ECM under the just doesn't seem like a good idea.

Now at NTB getting the Jeep tire dealt with. From here to Menards to get a new starter rope for the blower plus some wd-40 and contact cleaner to deal with the sensors on the Audi.

[cheesy]

Got the truck, snowblower, and Jeep dealt with. Need to buy a new hood sensor for the Audi. Three outta four ain't bad.

[Weldangrind]

Originally Posted by cheesy

Having the fuse box and ECM under the just doesn't seem like a good idea.

Please explain. Do you mean under the hood?

[Sport Rider]

I'm glad I'm only SICK. I hope you gave up and went inside to drink a few beers in front of a fire instead!

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Weldangrind

Please explain. Do you mean under the hood?

Yup. Proofreading is a lost art. Anyway, the Chevy is a Happy Camper again. Never did a thing to it other than clear the code. Took it on a 150 mile drive Christmas Eve and it never missed a beat. Fingers crossed.

The flushing of the hood sensor on the Audi with brake cleaner and WD-40 seems to have done the trick. So far. And in keeping with the irony that seems to rule my life, the new sensor arrived yesterday.

I kinda sorta lucked out with the blower. The rewind isn't designed to be repaired, just replaced. As I was having none of that, I fished the end of the old rope through the rewind, flame fused the frayed end and tied on a new handle. I would have used the old handle but I'd set it down somewhere and couldn't find it. That is, not until after the blower had been fixed. Then I found the handle.