Applebees is OUT!!

 Oh my Great Aunt Jane!  Another month has flown by in less than three days.  How can that be?  This time I actually HAVE a Great Aunt Jane ... or at least I DID HAVE.  Sadly, I never met her in person.

This day started out at a lovely 60 degrees.  Wow how the weather has changed.  I would put my electric blanket away, but I'm sure at some point Mother Nature will change her mind.  I mean really, we went from winter straight into summer!

Here's Miss Kitters who has decided MY couch is the place for her.  Company has taken up HER chair, and she is not happy about it.  Me either since she is laying on one of my "extra" Veterans Quilts.  

I did not work on it at all on this day.  We were both lazy as could be.  Cyndae was recovering from a return trip from Hawaii.  I think I've mentioned before that her daughter is a Pilot for Southwest.  That means she gets employee parking and standby flights for pennies, but they may not be the flight you really wanted to take.  She had jet lag big time.  We struggled to keep both of us awake all day so we could sleep at night.  Coffee and Sees candy did the trick.

Cyndae was off to her hair appointment while I finished up more accounting, including my own.  Sadly, my check register still sits beside me on the desk ... UN-BALANCED.  I hate it when that happens.  How can the bank be $3,000 off when 28 days ago it was perfect?  It's probably my fat finger calculating.

The plan was to pick up that quilt at the quilt store BEFORE her appointment, but I didn't think we had time.  Maybe later.

It was 2:30 by the time we headed out to lunch.  Applebees just got scratched off our list.  I was wanting to try out the Tri-Tippery sandwich shop until I discovered their sandwiches are $23.50 EACH.  That's a little high for a sandwich ... so we went to Applebee's instead.  A nice kid greeted us and we sat down to two huge menus.  

Doesn't this look good?  $11.99 for a big bowl of deliciousness.  We ordered the shrimp.  

First off, this is false advertisement if you ask me.  Look at the shrimp in the above picture ... as big as the little cup of dressing.  Look at the shrimp we GOT!  The dressing was some kind of cheesy pasta sauce ... not really conducive to the shrimp and andouille sausage.  Truly, you could not even taste the shrimp.

When we got the bill, it had two BEERS on it.  Ummm we didn't have beer.  We had water.  After 10 minutes of three people running back and forth, they decided we had been given the wrong ticket along with OUR ticket.  I told Cyndae to check and see if that was HER credit card on the receipt.  

Why is this picture here again?  Because they charged us $18.99 for that shrimp bowl.  Doesn't it look like both of these bowls are $11.99?  VERY deceptive if you ask me, both the picture and the price.  I'm absolutely SURE I won't be eating there ever again.

By the time we got out of there, it was too late to head to the quilt shop, so we came back home for more Sees candy.  I'm sneaking a bag into Cyndae's luggage when she leaves this morning so I don't have to eat it all.

That's it ... not a very exciting day, but a good one since we got to chat most of the day.  It's good to catch up, trade secrets and relax.  

Today I'll hit the quilt store, bypass Applebees and try to think up something I can air fry.  I suppose that would be chicken ... but maybe I can find something else more exciting.  

Hope everyone has a GREAT DAY!!

Company and Kids

 Something is wrong with this picture.  Every morning I have to get up at 3 am to let Kitters out, 4 am to let Cooper out and 4:02 to let ME out.  There is NO going back to sleep for me, but Kitters and Cooper go right back to LaLa Land while I sit on the couch and wonder how they programmed me so well.  Actually, I have no choice because I don't have a cleanup crew if I'm even 5 minutes late.

With company coming, I made the bed, added a heavy comforter because I don't keep the heat up very high and otherwise tried to make the house look a little more organized.  Okay, mostly I just hide stuff in the cupboards and the sewing room, out of sight.

There was an accounting problem called Employment Development Department who wanted my clients first born child or they were going to jail.  Weirdly, the company they sent the letter to has never HAD employees or payroll to report.  Did I mention there are now 12 companies under one roof?  

I ran back and forth for the first four hours, finally pawning it off on the NEW accountants.  I'll let them figure out that mess so I'm not stuck deep in the mud of explanations and penalties.  Besides, my company was on their way.

Back home I fixed a quick lunch of leftover potatoes and air fried chicken.  Thank you Patsy for posting pictures of your chicken, which prompted this meal.  The first problem however, was that Walmart gave me BONE IN chicken thighs instead of the BONELESS I ordered.  

I whipped up my own batch of shake-n-bake and hit the GO button.  Not sure how long to cook it, I went for 15 minutes, turned it over and gave it 15 more.  I like my chicken DONE.  

I will never fry chicken again.  This was THE BEST!!  Crispy outside (who knew?) and so tender inside.  This is my GO TO from now on.  This is actually a VERY small plate, so just ignore those potatoes.

Company arrived and we watched television for most of the afternoon.  We were both pretty tired, but trying our best to stay awake.  Kitters was NOT a happy camper when she found someone was sitting in HER chair, not to mention she is afraid of any other human except me.  She promptly disappeared.

I try to keep close tabs on her because despite the expensive kitty litter box, she refuses to use it.  I finally found her in the Red Whorehouse Couch room.  If you remember, this gorgeous furniture came from Jan and Bill Mains.  Obviously Kitters likes it too!!

Lucky for me, Cyndae brought a huge rack of ribs from Costco for our dinner.  That was accompanied by the last of the potatoes and the last of a bag-o-salad.  That almost put us both to sleep by 5:00.  I brought out the Sees candy ... maybe that will keep us awake ... and finally coffee because nothing else was working.  We both crashed at 8:00.  It's terrible getting OLD.

The good news is the weather is cooperating quite nicely.  It's looking like I even may have to turn the sprinklers on the lawn.  No doubt many will need repair.  I am NOT looking forward to that at all, but there's only two days left in February and we have only had maybe 9 days of rain all season.

I'm sure that will be accompanied by lots of frustration as I find things like my drip lines not working because they have been hacked in half by the weedeater.  C'est la vie!!

While company has an appointment today, I'll be heading off to the quilt shop.  They called to say my Veterans quilt is done.  Hurray ... now I can start on twelve new ones for this year!!  Still no word on my longarm quilting machine computer.  It's been 8 weeks, so their 6-8 week return time estimate is in the trash.

It's okay ... all of it ... because even though I live in California, I DON'T live in New York City!!!

Have a WONDERFUL day!!!

No Diet Food Was Eaten On This Day

 Summer has arrived in sunny California.  We have a low of 58 degrees this morning with a high of 74.  I don't know what happened to spring, but I guess we skipped right over it.  Still cloudy every day with weird looking patterns, but at least my electric bill will cease to climb.  This is my chance to lower my PGE true-up bill.  

Sadly, it doesn't help with the natural gas part, which is now up to $260 a month.  Heck, ten years ago my ENTIRE bill never went over $150, and that was BEFORE solar.  Just goes to show you how much we native folks have to pay to rebuild from all those fires they had because they refused to manage the forests.

Step DOWN from the soap box Nancy!!

Breakfast was pretty simple.  Ice cream!  I know, it's not good for the diet, but I made it, so I should eat it.  This is the last little bit of vanilla.  My advice on this one is to NOT use Mexican vanilla.  The flavor is a little strong.

I had lots of things to do today, but sleep deprivation got the best of me.  I crashed on the couch with the kids for over an hour.  I was rudely awakened by the gardener's weed eater.  It's been three weeks since he's been here due to the rain and not one, but two bouts with the flu.  Poor guy looked a little worse for wear, so I told him to just mow the lawns and take off.  I'll put that money towards the electric bill.

No kidding, I was a slug most of the day.  I did clean the house since I have company coming today.  The Kissack Hotel will only be open for two days.  I still have one whole sheet of accounting questions to answer, so I cannot take too much time off at the moment.  Sometimes it's hard to get the answers when the ANSWER person doesn't know what you are talking about.  I will surely celebrate when tax season is over.

While looking for cleaning supplies, I discovered a bag-o-potatoes living in my toolbox drawer.  How did THAT happen?  Oh I remember ... I thought it would be good to keep them in the dark to delay potato eyes from growing.  I guess that wasn't such a good idea.  I cooked up the entire sack and had mashed potatoes for lunch.  Not exactly diet friendly, but I hate being wasteful.

Dessert was Sees candy.  I know, I know ... I was a bad girl.  Here's the thing ... when Bingo receives a donation from the local Sees Candy store, because they are wonderful members who also need a write-off, we take full advantage.  I think we got something like TEN huge bulk boxes of five varieties.  Five of the boxes were given out to the kids at the children's Valentines dance.  The rest ended up in the safe on top of my bingo cards.

Hey ... someone has to eat it!  I grabbed zip-lok bags and filled them to the brim, passing them out to any volunteers that would take them.  I ended up with two bags.  Now really ... you just can't throw away Sees Candy.  It's sacrilegious!!  I stuffed it in the freezer and limited myself to ONE piece a day.  Except yesterday when I had TWO.  No worries, I hid it in the far back reaches of the freezer so I can't see it.  Hopefully that works.

That's about it ... I really didn't do anything worth talking about.  The kids are driving me cray-cray, especially the black one who likes to crawl over everything in the early morning, knocking things to the floor, including herself.  She is obsessed with getting in the cupboards and demanding attention.  I thought cats were aloof ... never coming around when you wanted to pet them.  This one, it's hard to keep her out of my face!!

My watch pup on the other hand, just loves to sit on the couch with his Mom.  Sadly, his eyesight is failing and I have to lift him up and down a lot, in spite of the now TWO steps I made going up to the couch.  I imagine I will be in the same spot in a few years!!

The good news of the day came via phone call.  The lost car keys were finally found the next day, wedged underneath the big rolling pull tab table in the back room.  It saved him a chunk-o-money by not having to get all new ones from Toyota.  Not that it matters, because that particular bingo volunteer loves to play the slot machines once a week in a nearby Indian casino.  He rarely brings home less than $4,000, and last week he won $15,000.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Oh yes ... I'm definitely going with him to learn the secrets of slot machine playing!!!!!

BINGO 2.0

 Oh my goodness ... it's morning and I think I only got about three hours of sleep.  Things can really go south quickly when you are on the cusp of a full moon which will happen NEXT Tuesday.  I think last night there was a little early bleed over!

The day started off looking like this.  Quite cold it was, meaning Miss Kitty Kitty wanted in at the terrible hour of 2:00.  It was very cold, so what could I do.  It didn't take long for the rain to come down.  

While Mr. Cooper slept on the couch, I fielded a few phone calls.  What about the Lodge Budget?  Yes ... what about it?  It's not done yet.  Oh GEE ... that's too bad!!  I guess you should call the other trustees.  See, I AM LEARNING!!

Then I got the text message that my right hand gal didn't feel good, so she was staying home.  I immediately called the NEW Lady In Waiting and asked if she was available.  She said YES.  Boy am I liking this!

Unfortunately, the good feeling didn't last long once I got to the lodge.  Right off the bat, one of the Knights in Waiting (new guy volunteer) decided he should run the show.  He volunteers, but also plays.  He thought he could charge his way to the front of the line and buy all his bingo cards FIRST.  We are not set up for that, and I asked him to wait.  He wanted to argue.  Is it a full moon?  It's not like he has to work right up until the games start.  

Next up, we have a rule.  NO SAVING SEATS.  I walk out into the main room and I see three tables with dobbers in front of every chair.  That's a NO-NO and they know it!  The dobbers were removed.  We are just SO MEAN!!

That's when the kitchen crew came up with a complaint.  Instead of leaving our nacho chips in the Bingo cupboard, they have been leaving them in the kitchen ... on a rack ... right next to the oh-so-hot ovens.  Apparently they have been snitching bucket loads and NOT closing the bags up tight.  STALE chips did not go over well with the peasants.  They were brought back, and refunds made.  Note to self:  Talk to the kitchen staff.

Not to be outdone, the Bingo players and the Mini Me Debit Card Machine went toe to toe!  It didn't like their card, so it locked itself up.  We rebooted.  Next card ... decline, decline, decline!  It locked up again.  The THIRD time, we told that guy NO TAPPING, as evidenced by not one, but TWO signs this big.  He did it anyway.  It took me 10 minutes to get it to reboot once again.  Is it a full moon?

The rest of the night went sort of smoothly.  There were the normal flaming torches and pitchforks that appear out of nowhere when someone calls BINGO and they don't HAVE a bingo!  That makes the peasants MAD!!  They have to RESET and begin calling numbers once again.  A delay that put us 30 minutes later in the game.  Folks were not happy ... me included.

The infernal machine ran one on me at the end of the night.  It didn't print out the total number of bingo payouts.  The problem was mine since I was paying more attention to training the new girl than watching the payouts.  Okay, I was really not paying attention at all because I wanted to go home!

I finally yelled UNCLE and sent the cash box to the safe $250 short.  It's just too noisy to be able to concentrate and figure things out.  That's when disaster hit! 

One of the volunteers ... a very nice guy, but a little "out there" ... lost his car keys.  Really?  Where have you been in the building?  Well, OUTSIDE.  Three of us spent the next 30 minutes trying to find his keys in the parking lot across the street.  We found nothing.  

Almost an hour late now, you-know-who had to give him a ride home.  Not that that helped much, because apparently six months ago, he lost the OTHER set of keys.  It was a long drive because he lives on the other side of Timbucktu!  

Midnight ... it was midnight before I got home, and suddenly it dawned on me.  The cash box balanced after all, because of the amounts we paid out all night changed.  I'll call the Bookkeeper today.

Lucky for me, it was a very weird, very warm night and Miss Kitters spent the entire time outside.  Cooper on the other hand was up at 3:54.  It's okay, hopefully I'll catch up on sleep this afternoon.

This is this morning's sky at a lovely 60 degrees at 4:00 am.  What's up with THAT!!  And so ended another night of rousing Bingo!  I am NOT looking forward to next Tuesday and the Egg Moon slash Fish Moon slash Breaking Ice Moon that's coming.  I can feel it in my bones and it's NOT good.

I'll be on the couch trying to catch up on some ZZZZZ's.

LET THERE BE LIGHT

 Our spring was short lived.  We had two nice days of sunshine and 65 degree WARM.  Sadly, it passed too quickly.  We are back to rain and clouds.  On the other hand, I'm glad I'm not in New York City.  I've no doubt many more homeless will not survive, followed by piles of garbage and snow.  What a shame.  The East coast is taking a licking from Mother Nature.  So as much as I'm not liking California any more, at least we only have to deal with sun and rain.

And Midnight Kitties!!  This girl craves attention and gets into trouble at every turn.  I'm constantly walking around the house and putting things back up on shelves and tables.  Then she sits at my feet and stares at me for an hour.  I'm sure she is invading my brain, because soon I've got the dog brush out giving her a good grooming.  I've never heard her purr so loud!!  I guess I'm an easy mark.

So here's the thing with the battery minder.  The battery is BEHIND my feet when I'm in the drivers seat.  The disconnect is right by the accelerator, in a barely accessible compartment.  The battery CONNECTION is under the hood at least four feet away, covered with a spring loaded cover that has to be pushed back for connection.  The ground is two feet away on the side of the fender.  None of that is conducive to charging the battery.  It's fine for a jump start, but none of the three battery chargers I have tried, will work for more than a couple of hours.  That means the battery does NOT get charged and it dies. 

This one is wired directly to the battery with a connection 12" inches away.  So far the minder is still charging after 24 hours.  So unlike all the other connections, this one actually seems to be working.  Maybe we should talk to Mercedes about the stupid way they have designed the battery posts in the engine compartment, while the battery is back under the front seat.  I mean really, why not put the battery under the hood like any other vehicle?  It would be SO much easier.

Next up I was on the phone for an hour trying to explain to the NEW company accountant about the books I've been working on.  She laughed, then apologized.  No apology required.  I've been an accountant most of my life, and truly, many folks do not know to keep their business separate from the personal stuff.

That was followed up by a quick trip to the dentist.  I'm SO very lucky to have been raised on property that had water containing lots of fluoride.  It means I have great teeth, which is a very good thing.  I'm scared to death of dentists ... have been since that guy drilled with no pain killer ... no novocaine of any kind ... when I was 7 years old.  I was out the door in 30 minutes!!

On to the Chevy dealership for a light bulb.  This is a picture of what I need.  See that one little tab on top?  The other guy gave me a bulb that had TWO little tabs and insisted it was the right one.  

I also took a picture of the actual info this time, just to be sure.  I think the first one from Napa had the number 9005 on it ... and it was not the correct one.

The nice man in parts only had one bulb for a whopping $25.97.  YIKES!!  I made him take it out of the box to check for ONE tab.  Back home I put it back together, being sure not to touch the bulb at all. 

I got smart this time, and turned on the key to be sure it lit up BEFORE I put it all back together.  Then I turned it on AGAIN just to be sure.  LET THERE BE LIGHT!!  Woohoo ... I did it!!  I have no idea if one is pointing to the sky or not, but at least I have two lights now.  I'll check it out in the dark tonight and see if it's wonky or not.  No doubt that would have cost me a nice $100 bill had I not done it myself.

And so ended a day of accomplishments.  I completely forgot I was going to go pick up something delicious for dinner, so instead I went with the fabulous grilled cheese.  The potato chips are from the big party for one I had planned for the Super Bowl.  That didn't materialize, so now I am forced to eat them.  For some weird reason, the bag THIS time was completely full to the brim with chips.  NO AIR!!

Tonight is ARMOR night, as I head on down to the Castle dungeon for Bingo.  Maybe a full bag of chips is a sign of good things to come.  I certainly hope so, because NEXT Tuesday is a FULL MOON ... ON BINGO NIGHT!!!  I'll be sure to wear EXTRA armor for THAT night!

Hooking It Up

 Welcome back to WHAT CAN HAPPEN TODAY!!  It was a lovely sunny 65 degrees yesterday.  What a welcome sight to see the sun and some WARM after all that rain and freezing cold.  Not that we will see much of the sun for this entire week, but even a little is better than nothing.

Sadly, it's not warm enough for Mr. Cooper to have a bath (which he hates), but he did get his jammies off long enough to get a fur trim so he doesn't get knots.  He doesn't like the clippers any more than he likes water, but he was a good boy and stood relatively still.

This one ... she is constantly in trouble.  Seems it's pretty fun to slide under the chair upside down and claw the bottom as she slides along the floor.  I left her outside last night, but the crying and door knocking was epic, so I got up at 2:00 to let her in.  Not sure how I'm going to stop that behavior.  She's always starving for attention!

It was Sunday, so I had nothing on my plate for the entire day.  Not wanting to be a complete slug, I finally finished up the binding on this quilt.  It's a weird one because it has Bible verses written at the bottom under her feet.  I never noticed that until I was almost finished.  The good news is I really wasn't late for Halloween because it's actually EARLY for NEXT Halloween.

I tried my absolute best to stay out of the fridge because there was NOTHING on television worth watching.  Dish Network has really gone to the dogs, on purpose, so you will buy the pricier programming.  Truly, their lineup includes movies and shows from 2017 to about 2020, and most of those are kids cartoons.  The only current stuff is the news, which isn't fun to watch at all.  Luckily I was able to stave off the urge to cook something ... like a chocolate caramel cake with chocolate chips and marshmallows.  

I finally headed outside to plug in the battery minder and HOOK IT UP.  Somehow I could not get the plastic door to open all the way (like if I was trying to disconnect the battery altogether), but I was able to reach in and blindly find the connection piece.  The main disconnect is just beyond the connector, and the battery lives right under the minder.  Funny place to put a battery, yes?  

To actually get TO the battery, you have to have a special tool to remove the weird bolts in order to take up the entire floor.  Then there is a secondary battery cover to be removed.  They ran the wires from the battery, up through the whatchacallit where you have to fish for it.

It's not hard to set up, and is definitely better than a dead battery ... if it works.  The minder is then plugged into your extension cord.  

Here's my question.  Do I run the extension cord under the door where it will get pinched when the door is shut ..... or do I open the window about 1-1/2 inches and run it through that, leaving the window open?  Will a thinner extension cord work?  Inquiring minds want to know.

That's it ... that was my big project for the day.  After that, I took Mr. Cooper for a short walk outside, whereupon we stopped traffic both ways while he did his business right in the middle of the street.  Good grief KID!!!  I left him back at the house while I went for a nice long walk.

You know how you feel so good you go farther than you probably should?  Yes, yes I did.  I went about 1-1/2 miles before thinking that was probably not such a good idea.  I kept trying to keep up the pace on the way back, but oh did my legs talk to me using rather bad language.  It's okay, I made it back after a total of three miles.  

I spent the rest of the evening trying to stay occupied with another Veterans quilt binding, while showing great restraint at the screaming in my head, calling for ice cream.  Lucky for me, the milk was so sour it came out in clumps.  No ice cream was made or eaten.

That was it for the day and it was a long one.  Today should be shorter ... I have a dentist appointment before heading to the Chevy store and the Post Office.  I still haven't mailed off my taxes.  Maybe if I accomplish something today, I won't be so zoned in on SWEET TREATS!!

Prayers for all our friends who are down in the Puerto Vallarta area of Mexico.  Seems the cartels are taking a licking and not liking it much.  I took the advice of my Mexican construction crew who came from that area many years ago, and I don't go there any more.   Hopefully things settle down soon.

MEN!!!

 Bet you're wondering what THAT title is about ... MEN!!  So here goes.

It was freezing with another nice breeze on this morning, chilling me to the bone.  I had absolutely nothing planned for the day, hoping to catch up on some sleep.  It was not to be because my luck is NOT that good, as you know already.

Stuff like this goes on all day long.  I think she sleeps most of the morning, only to pester me for the next eight hours.  This is the quilt I'm supposed to be finishing up any time now.  

That's when I found this picture Patsy posted on her blog.  I love this picture of Miss Jessie!!  She does look a little scared, but actually she's looking at Patsy and Bills puppy Clemson when they came to visit my house in Tucson.

Anyhoo ... I knew I was in for a phone call when I got the 25 point accounting email letter stating WHAT ARE THESE.  Off I headed down past the beautiful blooming orchards recently soaked with rain.  The good news is the bees are out and about, pollinating ... which means there just might be a crop this year.  Buy your almonds now and keep them in the freezer just in case.  That's not snow on the ground, it's flower petals.

Two hours later I was back with the motivation to try and replace that burned out headlight on my truck.  I followed the video exactly.  Amazingly, with a little help from the pliers, I got the old bulb out.  You may not remember I purchased two new bulbs for a whopping $41.00.

DON'T TOUCH THE BULB it said, so I used a pair of gloves to get the light out of that white hole.  The pliers are holding the plug end down so it doesn't disappear into the bowels of the engine.

I grabbed the new bulb and went for the install.  It would not go in, no matter what I did.  I finally looked closely enough to discover the bulb had two pins and the connection only had one.  Well that's not going to work.  Rather irritated since I already made two trips to get this bulb, I headed back out to the Napa store.

This is not it.  OUR store is a dump in an old broken down wooden building that smells bad.  I asked for a refund from the guy who could barely speak English.  He just stared at the receipt until he said ... 2005 Silverado, yes?  Yes, that's correct.  Diesel?  Yes, that's correct.  

This are thee one!  I'm sorry, but it is not "thee one".  It does not fit.  He looked again.  No he said, this ARE thee one.  Big sigh.  No it is NOT ... it has two pins, my connection only has ONE.  It will not fit.  BUT THE COMPUTER SAY ... I don't care WHAT the computer say ... that is NOT the one.  Good grief.  Why is it MEN do not think WOMEN know what they are doing when it comes to mechanics.  It took 20 minutes to convince him before he finally gave me a refund.  

I told him I would bring the part in on Monday and show him the exact part number.  Not really ... I'm going to the Chevy Dealer to buy the bulb.  And so my truck sits with its hood up and its eye laying out on the bumper, just waiting.

Back home, I sat down for 15 minutes and fell fast asleep.  I guess I was a bit exhausted after the last few days.  My plan had been to connect the battery minder in the rig, but it will wait until tomorrow.

Knowing I had a fridge full of veggies that needed to be eaten, I sauteed them in butter and added noodles.  Stir in a little cream and a CUP of parmesan ... okay, the recipe only calls for half a cup ... and you have dinner for the next three days.  I admit, I made WAY too much.

Today I'll replace all the things I took out of the rig and try to find the paperwork I stuck somewhere.  I hate it when I do that.  Maybe, just MAYBE I'll be lucky enough to find it and stash it where I'm SURE I will find it next time.

Lastly, if I can find a heavy LARGE envelope, I will finally get my taxes mailed off to the accountant.  I hear tell people are getting big refunds.  

I also hear our wonderful state governor is trying to take advantage of that and approve a bill that would tax us all based on the number of miles we drive, not to mention raising fuel prices $4.00 a gallon.  His regulations have driven out several big fuel companies, including Valero, cutting our supply by 2 billion gallons.  Add to that the SBA loan fraud that has just been uncovered - similar to day care in Minnesota, only much worse.  It's getting interesting folks!!

JAKE THE SNAKE!

 Good Morning to the breezy 36 degree back yard.  The good news is we are supposed to have a sunny day.  That would definitely make my day a little brighter. 

With four hours of sleep, I wasn't exactly feeling like driving, but I cranked up the "musica" and rocked out the entire way.  If only the cruise control would work, it would have been a little nicer.  Luckily this time all the turn signals came on.  On the other hand, for the first ten miles, the driver's door kept trying to lock itself when it was already locked.  You just have to laugh at computers.

I pulled over for a quick rest stop while looking for a McDonalds for breakfast, but alas, this guy is all I could find.  There were two sea eagles (that's what we call them around here) trying to get into this bag.

In no time I was at the appointed place 15 minutes early.  The door was closed.  I waited ... and waited until 7:32.  The gal finally looked straight at me and opened the farthest door first.  Really?

She pointed at my Service Guy.  I must have been drinking some funny water, because gosh darn these guys are good looking.  JAKE was his name.  I thought that a little weird since he was Asian looking, so after a few minutes of complaining about my van (having seen his desk name tag), I asked how he came about having THAT middle name.  His last name was TRAN.  

He said he came here from Vietnam with his family when he was two.  I'm sure we all remember that.  They immediately applied for citizenship.  As a kid, he LOVED watching Hulk Hogan, Rowdy Roddy Piper and JAKE THE SNAKE.  I smiled ... ME TOO!   He took on the name Jake so he would fit in, and his buddies called him Jake the Snake.  

Okay Jake the Snake ... can you get my van fixed?  And where can I get something to eat, I'm starving.  Right across the street is Perkos Cafe.  I stepped over the homeless guy under the blanket with two huge German Shepherds sleeping next to him and headed to the door.  Another homeless man held the door open for the guy ahead of me, looked me straight in the eye and closed it in my face as I walked up.  Really??  Ummm thank you!!

The good news, the breakfast was VERY good, at least double what I could actually eat, and only cost me $11.00.

From there I walked back to the waiting room.  Pretty fabulous room if you ask me.  By the way, Jake agreed with my assessment of just too much electronics, and the van needed to be driven more often.  An online guy suggested it might be the Co2 detector being on 24-7.  I'm not sure if that is chassis or house battery operated.  I also asked Jake to see if they would install a battery minder directly to the battery itself, which lives under the driver side front seat.  I had heard they would refuse.

I settled in with a fabulous cup-o-joe from this machine that dispenses at least 50 different varieties of coffee.  It's like Starbucks in a metal box, only it's FREE!

That's when I noticed the BOX-O-COOKIES.  Really?  I mean what waiting room has cookies and coffee for you?  Oh and free cold water.  I took advantage of everything, even though I was full to the brim.

So here's what happened.  I met yet another Prince of a kid ... why are they all so young? ... who said they would be happy to install a permanent battery minder.  Just plug it in when you park and the battery will always stay charged.  That is EXACTLY what I need.  No more packing up when parked in an RV park just to drive around and charge the battery.  

Of course it would cost me a whopping $400, but I didn't care.  It was 90% labor, but here's the best part.  It's a Mercedes charger, and installing it did not void my warranty, which would have happened if I had anyone else do it.  Now it's on them if it doesn't work.

Prince #2 also showed me where there is a complete battery disconnect.  Not that I can reach it or that I can push the tiny little button with my hand stuck up in a hole under the dash, but it's there if I can talk someone else into doing it.  

The reprogramming of the computer and charger install took three cups of coffee, two bags of cookies (one just jumped in my purse and came home with me) and 3.5 hours to complete.  

It was a nice drive home with the cruise control working and the thought that my battery problems were now in the past.  My how my attitude changed.  Truly, I let this stuff get to me WAY too much in my old age.

So as the sun set in the West, I said a big thank you to JAKE THE SNAKE for being a GREAT service guy with a big smile.  I guess I have to give it up to Mercedes.  Any other dealership and I might still be fighting with them in a greasy cold waiting room.  

Or maybe it was just the cookies!!!  I'm going out to plug it in this morning.

Another Glorious Day!

 What could be better than freezing temperatures, constant rain and a dead battery?  Unloading everything OUT of the van for its trip to the next town up .... also in the rain!

True to Mercedes Towing, they sent me twelve messages regarding the tow truck that was to arrive.  I called the tow truck company to explain to them that this was not JUST a van, but an RV van with generator and propane tank 8" off the concrete.

Okay he said ... that will be about four hours before I can get a big truck there.  MY suggestion was to please send the BATTERY JUMP guy to see if we could get it started.  He said good idea.

Forty minutes later, Tony arrived.  Tony saved my day!!

What a GREAT kid.  He said he gets lots of calls for these vans ... no surprise.  Every one built in the last three or four years has the exact same problem.  He hooked this gadget up to the hot and neutral posts under the hood.  They stuck like glue because the alligator clips are much stronger than the flimsy battery charger ones.

Go ahead he said ... start it up.  NOW?  We don't have to wait?  He laughed!  Hit the button he said ... and it started right up.  I NEED ONE OF THESE!  In fact, I ordered one.  You plug it in and it will give a minimum of ten jumps to any vehicle.  Charge it up with an extension cord.

He waited while it kept running ... just to be sure.  We talked about a hard wired charger to the battery itself.  I'll look into that next week.  

He left after a REAL handshake.  I like that kid!!  And so with a big sigh and a still nagging headache, I drove off into the rainstorm of rainstorms.  The computer is out of its ever loving mind, but it was still moving the wheels down the road, so I kept going.  

The left turn signal red light (someone is beside you) kept going on and off for the first ten miles.  It was a two lane road.  The windshield wipers would work ... not work ... work screaming fast ... go really  REALLY slow and then stop again.  At least this time the brake lights worked.

The storm got so bad I finally turned off on a side road and went the back way to the freeway, before heading home.  An hour later, I pulled into the driveway.  

I called the Mercedes repair shop to tell them it was NOT being towed in, but I needed an appointment to unscramble the computer's brain.  I'm in at 7:30 THIS morning.  That is way too early to be at the shop an hour away, but I guess I have no choice.  I have to wait for it since I have no ride, so I will try my best to be on time.  

Then began the UNPACK because they don't want anything near the front seats and I don't want anything expensive left inside.  An hour later the sun actually came out for a bit, but I looked like a drowned rat! 

To make it even more fun, I had to attend an Elks Lodge meeting that I truly wanted to miss.  It lasted 90 minutes before I was headed home.

Wish me luck today!!