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What a day
Mar. 30th, 2011 11:32 pmWe had a training class going on in Las Cruces today for GIS and database administration, so I drove down. It was supposed to start at 7:30, I didn't get there until about 2 hours later. Fortunately they had technical problems from the presenter's end as it was an internet-based class and they hadn't covered much when I arrived.
Afternoon comes and I get a call that one of my dad's sisters in Las Cruces passed away today. She had severe Alzheimer's and really wasn't here, and she had recently broken both hips, so it was just a question of time. Fortunately she was a very happy Alzheimer's patient, as opposed to another of my dad's sisters who also has Alzheimer's and was a pretty angry and confused woman.
So I'm bummed about that.
After work I go to a nice little camera repair store to give the owner my former tripod legs, I'd replaced them last year and kept the old head, so now he has some spare parts. We talked for over an hour, just shooting the breeze and talking about old cameras that we'd loved (Canon F-1, Nikon Fotomic, Pentax MX, etc.). Left feeling much better.
Went to one of my fav restaurants in town for fish tacos. I really like them: lightly battered and fried with a nice bean/corn/chili salad sort of thing on the side. Russet loves their shrimp tacos as they come with a monster serving of guacamole, not that she was with me. Sadly, this time and a time or two previous their quality had dropped a notch. Still, good grub.
It was getting towards sundown when I finished and went to Best Buy to buy a new iPod cable. The one in Russet's car had died and would no longer charge the devices plugged in to it. It was less expensive to buy a car charger with a cable than to buy a cable by itself. Go figger.
I go on to the mall to buy a card for my uncle who just lost his wife. Come out, jump in my car, and head to the freeway. I forgot that I was going to stop at the ATM and get some cash, so I circle the block and pull in to the bank, and I'd noticed that my headlights seemed dim. Brights worked, but I can't very well drive almost 100 miles on high beam. While I'm at the bank I check, and sure enough, the low beams are out. There's not really enough light to check fuses, and there's an Auto Zone nearby, so I drive over there on back streets. Pull the fuse box apart (under the hood, conveniently the cover of said box had a diagram as to what was what) and the fuses look fine. Go back inside and talk to the guy and he suggests that maybe the light is out as it has separate bulbs for high and low. I'm a little dubious that both would go out at the same time, but I buy one bulb anyway. I figure that if replacing one gives me one headlight, that's adequate. I try removing the one on the right, I'd left the headlights on so I'd know when I had a good connection. While trying to pull one out of the housing (nasty tight clearance), the right low beam came on. Sighing, I closed the hood, letting it drop 2-3', and the left headlight came on.
Apparently I have an electrical short. Not good.
So I guess I'm going to be spending some time at the dealership tomorrow.
I'm still impressed with Toyota, though. It's a 2005 Matrix AWD that we bought new, and actual maintenance (excluding consumables ) have been around $800 for a preemptive water pump and timing belt replacement and suspension component, so I've been very happy with maintenance costs considering I've got 108,000 miles on the beastie.
So just a heck of a day.
Afternoon comes and I get a call that one of my dad's sisters in Las Cruces passed away today. She had severe Alzheimer's and really wasn't here, and she had recently broken both hips, so it was just a question of time. Fortunately she was a very happy Alzheimer's patient, as opposed to another of my dad's sisters who also has Alzheimer's and was a pretty angry and confused woman.
So I'm bummed about that.
After work I go to a nice little camera repair store to give the owner my former tripod legs, I'd replaced them last year and kept the old head, so now he has some spare parts. We talked for over an hour, just shooting the breeze and talking about old cameras that we'd loved (Canon F-1, Nikon Fotomic, Pentax MX, etc.). Left feeling much better.
Went to one of my fav restaurants in town for fish tacos. I really like them: lightly battered and fried with a nice bean/corn/chili salad sort of thing on the side. Russet loves their shrimp tacos as they come with a monster serving of guacamole, not that she was with me. Sadly, this time and a time or two previous their quality had dropped a notch. Still, good grub.
It was getting towards sundown when I finished and went to Best Buy to buy a new iPod cable. The one in Russet's car had died and would no longer charge the devices plugged in to it. It was less expensive to buy a car charger with a cable than to buy a cable by itself. Go figger.
I go on to the mall to buy a card for my uncle who just lost his wife. Come out, jump in my car, and head to the freeway. I forgot that I was going to stop at the ATM and get some cash, so I circle the block and pull in to the bank, and I'd noticed that my headlights seemed dim. Brights worked, but I can't very well drive almost 100 miles on high beam. While I'm at the bank I check, and sure enough, the low beams are out. There's not really enough light to check fuses, and there's an Auto Zone nearby, so I drive over there on back streets. Pull the fuse box apart (under the hood, conveniently the cover of said box had a diagram as to what was what) and the fuses look fine. Go back inside and talk to the guy and he suggests that maybe the light is out as it has separate bulbs for high and low. I'm a little dubious that both would go out at the same time, but I buy one bulb anyway. I figure that if replacing one gives me one headlight, that's adequate. I try removing the one on the right, I'd left the headlights on so I'd know when I had a good connection. While trying to pull one out of the housing (nasty tight clearance), the right low beam came on. Sighing, I closed the hood, letting it drop 2-3', and the left headlight came on.
Apparently I have an electrical short. Not good.
So I guess I'm going to be spending some time at the dealership tomorrow.
I'm still impressed with Toyota, though. It's a 2005 Matrix AWD that we bought new, and actual maintenance (excluding consumables ) have been around $800 for a preemptive water pump and timing belt replacement and suspension component, so I've been very happy with maintenance costs considering I've got 108,000 miles on the beastie.
So just a heck of a day.
