Lisa Wins a Cookie
Dec. 17th, 2013 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeAs I mentioned two days ago, the right turn signal on my van stopped working. (Replacing the bulb didn't work. Corresponding signals on the utility trailer didn't work, but did when pulled behind Lisa's pickup.) I walked over to the auto-repair shop down the street, and they told me they were backed up until Christmas. Hanneman's Towing Service (where we get our propane) suggested a local mobile mechanic. When we came back from getting the propane and dropping off our Christmas cards, Lisa decided that she would take a crack at the tail light issue this morning, despite the temperature being about -2° C. I returned to grinding my way through a tedious database design project.
After a while, Lisa came in and asked if I would buy her a cookie and get pizza for dinner tonight.
"You fixed the light, didn't you?" I said.
"Yep." She showed me the wiring diagram for the minivan. (Lisa bought a set of the diagrams when we bought the van.) Both the turn signal and emergency flasher switches were recently replaced, so they should be good. The bulb is known good. The marker light and backup light (same assembly) worked. So Lisa reasoned that there were only one or two possible points of failure, traced the wire back to a connector, and then unplugged and re-plugged it. Presto, the lights work again.
Not content to rest on this, she attacked a different problem. The utility trailer has a cranking post on which it sits when not in use. The crank broke when we were last hitching it; it would neither raise nor lower. But Lisa found the tiny part that broke and took it with us yesterday when we went to Big R after getting the firewood and bought a replacement part. It's a 40-cent force pin; she bought two different sizes because she wasn't certain that she'd actually salvaged all of the broken pieces. Today she fixed the crank, and it's a good thing she got the second, larger part because it was the correct one.
With the van lights working and the trailer post repaired, we'll use my van to drag the utility trailer to Fallon again later today to buy another half-cord of wood, this time the "fence post" Douglas Fir from Big R. (Although the walnut is burning nice and hot, we want to have more firewood in stock even though it means moving it multiple times on account of the wood box only holds 3/4 cord and is currently full.
I said that I have no problem with buying her cookies and pizza tonight.
After a while, Lisa came in and asked if I would buy her a cookie and get pizza for dinner tonight.
"You fixed the light, didn't you?" I said.
"Yep." She showed me the wiring diagram for the minivan. (Lisa bought a set of the diagrams when we bought the van.) Both the turn signal and emergency flasher switches were recently replaced, so they should be good. The bulb is known good. The marker light and backup light (same assembly) worked. So Lisa reasoned that there were only one or two possible points of failure, traced the wire back to a connector, and then unplugged and re-plugged it. Presto, the lights work again.
Not content to rest on this, she attacked a different problem. The utility trailer has a cranking post on which it sits when not in use. The crank broke when we were last hitching it; it would neither raise nor lower. But Lisa found the tiny part that broke and took it with us yesterday when we went to Big R after getting the firewood and bought a replacement part. It's a 40-cent force pin; she bought two different sizes because she wasn't certain that she'd actually salvaged all of the broken pieces. Today she fixed the crank, and it's a good thing she got the second, larger part because it was the correct one.
With the van lights working and the trailer post repaired, we'll use my van to drag the utility trailer to Fallon again later today to buy another half-cord of wood, this time the "fence post" Douglas Fir from Big R. (Although the walnut is burning nice and hot, we want to have more firewood in stock even though it means moving it multiple times on account of the wood box only holds 3/4 cord and is currently full.
I said that I have no problem with buying her cookies and pizza tonight.
