Sunday, March 04, 2007
Friday, March 02, 2007
A Record For Icicles?
This week has been rather eventful what with the snow and recent transportation problems. It's snowed about three out of the five days this week and I've shoveled and shoveled and shoveled some more. At least I'm making good friends with our neighborhood mail carriers (Kjell's replacement included). I started the week off good by shoveling the public sidewalk out front of the house all the way south to the next block over, as the corner house hadn't been shoveling theirs at all (Kjell had some choice words for that house and said he would just skip that one). He told me not to shovel it next time and just leave it be. Apparently the municipal code here in TRF allows the City to give one warning and if the sidewalk remains unshoveled in any 24-hour period following a "snow event," they are then allowed to hire someone to remove the snow and the homeowner is then given the bill for snow removal, so a good incentive to keep the sidewalks clear. As I started the week off good, though, by shoveling the neighbors' walks on both sides of me, Mike, my neighbor to the south of us fired up his old snowblower and headed out at 9 p.m. Wednesday night and cleared off my sidewalk, the mailman's path between our houses that runs across our front lawns, as well as the sidewalk up and down the street, so I guess I earned some good kharma there.
In the middle of all this beautiful winter weather, the Weasel started acting up with a broken heater core. I realized on Sunday that we had no heat and I smelled antifreeze, which kind of narrowed the problem down a little. By Wednesday, I got it in to the Ford dealer and it was hanging on by only a pulley. They told me it would be a good five hours of labor, because they have to pull the whole dash out to get to the part and even if they did that, it wouldn't guarantee I'd have a working vehicle a year from now, so I figured I'd get every last mile out of it without the repair and then dispose of it. Turns out "every last mile" really meant about 10 miles... Come Thursday, the boys had early dismissal because of the snow and Aaron begged me to come pick them up at school, so against my better judgment, I hopped in the Weasel and headed off to Challenger. I made it only to Trinity before it stalled and after another 30 or so turns of the key, I got it started again, but decided to turn around instead of continue on to Challenger and it's a good thing I did. I managed to go back about three blocks and was turning right on Knight right where Terri Cuppett's house sits and before I could complete the turn, I heard the heater core fall off and the car stopped in mid-turn. One of Aaron's buddies from youth group, Jeff, lives just a couple houses over by Subway, though, and as his siblings are home schooled, I was able to head over there and use their phone to call Joe for help. As the car was blocking the intersection, Jeff (12) and his little sister (about 9) came out and helped try to push it, but it was not going to budge, so I then realized one of Thief River's finest was parked over at the China Buffet and had just gotten into his car to leave. I ran over and got his attention and he was nice enough to give me a shove off to the side of the road with his police cruiser. Joe arrived soon after and gave me a lift home.
I called the police department and they told me if I didn't move the car from Knight, I would not only be ticketed, but they would tow and impound it because of calendar parking for the snow plows the following morning. I called the wrecking yard and the guy told me he "won't even go out in this weather," so I went with Falls Radiator and when I told them the wrecking yard wouldn't do it, they muttered, "cheapskate." In the end, I got the car towed for $40 to the wrecker and the wrecker said he will pay me $50 for the scrap metal, so I guess I came out $10 ahead there... Joe came over this morning and we headed off to clear out the Weasel and then I yanked the old battery from the Blazer and embarked on the beginning of my unexpected journey to "resurrect" the wounded but not forgotten SUV. Steve at the Ford dealership said he'd work with me to repair or replace the transmission on it so I wouldn't have to come up with the entire expense at one time and I figure it's the best route to go because I have replaced just about all the other major parts on it including the whole exhaust system, brakes, serpentine belt, air conditioning, etc. so it should give me a good 3 to 4 years without major problems once I fix the tranny. I'm just looking forward to having four operating doors, power windows and locks, and above all having a better view of the roadway from the higher seats. Hopefully then this summer I can get it in to the local community college auto body program to get some of the kinks worked out and perhaps a new paint job, as it's fairly inexpensive.
So to get the Blazer fixed, I had to get a new battery for it and Joe drove me over to Wally World and we went in directly to the automotive area and there was no one in sight but an older lady in the car service area who pretty much ignored us. We stood there for an extended period after selecting a new battery and placing it on the counter and after a while Joe walked behind the counter, picked up Wal-Mart's phone and announced over the PA system that someone was needed in automotive. When nobody answered after another five minutes, he went back again and made another PA announcement, this time stating, "This is a customer in the automotive department. If anyone works here, we could use some assistance in the automotive department." It was pretty funny until the automotive manager came walking up and said it was "bad" that "we" did the PA announcement like that. Thankfully I knew the manager, though, as it was Leland Mott's little brother, Lonnie... :) A few other employees had come over at the same time and Joe managed to smooth it over, basically covering for Lonnie not being there so all was well that ended well.
In any event, we headed back home and I sunk the new battery into the Blazer and Joe helped me push it out of the garage. You know Joe and I are pretty big guys when just the two of us pushed it backwards out of the garage over the piled up snow. He was pushing by himself at first with not much movement, but then I came around front with him and in seconds it was out of the garage. It was like the football front line pushing a pair of tackling dummies out of the way. I'd guess we weigh in at a combined 665 pounds, a good match for the task at hand. I managed to start it up after it had been sitting for almost two years now and it still would only go forward in one gear, so I called the same tow truck (I'm going to put them on speed dial at this point with two tows in as many days) and had it towed to the dealer this afternoon. I'm hoping I can have it fixed by this time next week. Joe has been pretty nice with ferrying us around where we need to be. We'll probably just hoof it to church on Sunday, though, in our LPCs (Leather Personnel Carriers - shoes).
This afternoon was a good Kodak moment, I must say. Daniel promptly threw his backpack down on the front porch upon returning from school and headed outside to shovel snow from one pile to another and I headed over to the next door neighbor's to take a picture of the front of their house. I have never seen such a sight as that - their entire front entrance of the house was shielded by a string of icicles each measuring a good three feet minimum in length and I pulled one of them off that was actually one LONG one in excess of four feet that had melted together with three or four smaller ones and carried it over to Daniel and his buddy, Samuel. They held it between the two of them like a log so I could take a picture, then I put it upside down in our front yard with the pointed edges sticking up and it looked rather majestic that way. I'll post pictures of it hopefully this weekend. I would guess it weighs in at about 20 pounds and is a good four inches in diameter at its base.
So that should about do it for this week's update. We'll be learning the Drevlow's paper route for the Grand Forks Herald next week so we can cover for them starting a week from Sunday, so that will probably be the next update, i.e. how we manage to get up at 4 a.m. on a school day...
In the middle of all this beautiful winter weather, the Weasel started acting up with a broken heater core. I realized on Sunday that we had no heat and I smelled antifreeze, which kind of narrowed the problem down a little. By Wednesday, I got it in to the Ford dealer and it was hanging on by only a pulley. They told me it would be a good five hours of labor, because they have to pull the whole dash out to get to the part and even if they did that, it wouldn't guarantee I'd have a working vehicle a year from now, so I figured I'd get every last mile out of it without the repair and then dispose of it. Turns out "every last mile" really meant about 10 miles... Come Thursday, the boys had early dismissal because of the snow and Aaron begged me to come pick them up at school, so against my better judgment, I hopped in the Weasel and headed off to Challenger. I made it only to Trinity before it stalled and after another 30 or so turns of the key, I got it started again, but decided to turn around instead of continue on to Challenger and it's a good thing I did. I managed to go back about three blocks and was turning right on Knight right where Terri Cuppett's house sits and before I could complete the turn, I heard the heater core fall off and the car stopped in mid-turn. One of Aaron's buddies from youth group, Jeff, lives just a couple houses over by Subway, though, and as his siblings are home schooled, I was able to head over there and use their phone to call Joe for help. As the car was blocking the intersection, Jeff (12) and his little sister (about 9) came out and helped try to push it, but it was not going to budge, so I then realized one of Thief River's finest was parked over at the China Buffet and had just gotten into his car to leave. I ran over and got his attention and he was nice enough to give me a shove off to the side of the road with his police cruiser. Joe arrived soon after and gave me a lift home.
I called the police department and they told me if I didn't move the car from Knight, I would not only be ticketed, but they would tow and impound it because of calendar parking for the snow plows the following morning. I called the wrecking yard and the guy told me he "won't even go out in this weather," so I went with Falls Radiator and when I told them the wrecking yard wouldn't do it, they muttered, "cheapskate." In the end, I got the car towed for $40 to the wrecker and the wrecker said he will pay me $50 for the scrap metal, so I guess I came out $10 ahead there... Joe came over this morning and we headed off to clear out the Weasel and then I yanked the old battery from the Blazer and embarked on the beginning of my unexpected journey to "resurrect" the wounded but not forgotten SUV. Steve at the Ford dealership said he'd work with me to repair or replace the transmission on it so I wouldn't have to come up with the entire expense at one time and I figure it's the best route to go because I have replaced just about all the other major parts on it including the whole exhaust system, brakes, serpentine belt, air conditioning, etc. so it should give me a good 3 to 4 years without major problems once I fix the tranny. I'm just looking forward to having four operating doors, power windows and locks, and above all having a better view of the roadway from the higher seats. Hopefully then this summer I can get it in to the local community college auto body program to get some of the kinks worked out and perhaps a new paint job, as it's fairly inexpensive.
So to get the Blazer fixed, I had to get a new battery for it and Joe drove me over to Wally World and we went in directly to the automotive area and there was no one in sight but an older lady in the car service area who pretty much ignored us. We stood there for an extended period after selecting a new battery and placing it on the counter and after a while Joe walked behind the counter, picked up Wal-Mart's phone and announced over the PA system that someone was needed in automotive. When nobody answered after another five minutes, he went back again and made another PA announcement, this time stating, "This is a customer in the automotive department. If anyone works here, we could use some assistance in the automotive department." It was pretty funny until the automotive manager came walking up and said it was "bad" that "we" did the PA announcement like that. Thankfully I knew the manager, though, as it was Leland Mott's little brother, Lonnie... :) A few other employees had come over at the same time and Joe managed to smooth it over, basically covering for Lonnie not being there so all was well that ended well.
In any event, we headed back home and I sunk the new battery into the Blazer and Joe helped me push it out of the garage. You know Joe and I are pretty big guys when just the two of us pushed it backwards out of the garage over the piled up snow. He was pushing by himself at first with not much movement, but then I came around front with him and in seconds it was out of the garage. It was like the football front line pushing a pair of tackling dummies out of the way. I'd guess we weigh in at a combined 665 pounds, a good match for the task at hand. I managed to start it up after it had been sitting for almost two years now and it still would only go forward in one gear, so I called the same tow truck (I'm going to put them on speed dial at this point with two tows in as many days) and had it towed to the dealer this afternoon. I'm hoping I can have it fixed by this time next week. Joe has been pretty nice with ferrying us around where we need to be. We'll probably just hoof it to church on Sunday, though, in our LPCs (Leather Personnel Carriers - shoes).
This afternoon was a good Kodak moment, I must say. Daniel promptly threw his backpack down on the front porch upon returning from school and headed outside to shovel snow from one pile to another and I headed over to the next door neighbor's to take a picture of the front of their house. I have never seen such a sight as that - their entire front entrance of the house was shielded by a string of icicles each measuring a good three feet minimum in length and I pulled one of them off that was actually one LONG one in excess of four feet that had melted together with three or four smaller ones and carried it over to Daniel and his buddy, Samuel. They held it between the two of them like a log so I could take a picture, then I put it upside down in our front yard with the pointed edges sticking up and it looked rather majestic that way. I'll post pictures of it hopefully this weekend. I would guess it weighs in at about 20 pounds and is a good four inches in diameter at its base.
So that should about do it for this week's update. We'll be learning the Drevlow's paper route for the Grand Forks Herald next week so we can cover for them starting a week from Sunday, so that will probably be the next update, i.e. how we manage to get up at 4 a.m. on a school day...
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