Cool, possibly cold, and rain in the forecast.\u00a0 Yesterday sure got nice once the sun heated up the day.\u00a0\u00a0 I was in shirtsleeves for most of the day.<\/p>\n
We are supposed to get really cold, maybe freezing and possibly get rain later today.\u00a0\u00a0 Didn’t look like it was coming when I went to bed.\u00a0 We’ll see later, I guess.<\/p>\n
Spent the day doing stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 And stopping because of failures.<\/p>\n
First challenge o the day was my wife working from here.\u00a0\u00a0 Cell as hotspot, VPN, applications running on back end servers in the office, and a lot of latency.\u00a0\u00a0 Not a good combination.\u00a0\u00a0 Lazy programmers, assuming everyone is on a fast connection, erroring out if something takes too long….\u00a0 not a pleasant day.\u00a0\u00a0 The real problem was laptop battery life though.<\/p>\n
It’s good.\u00a0\u00a0 So good she doesn’t think about it most of the time.\u00a0\u00a0 So when she got the low battery alert and went to connect the power brick… and didn’t have the AC cord, it was suddenly an issue.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve got cords up here.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ve got cords in my other truck.\u00a0 I’ve got BOXES of cords at home.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I didn’t have the one that looks like mickey mouse here though.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She ended up going into town to try to find a cord.\u00a0\u00a0 Walmart SAID yes, but was wrong.\u00a0\u00a0 Dollar Store, everywhere else, no dice.\u00a0\u00a0 Last chance, and why not, the pawn shop had one.\u00a0\u00a0 She paid $15 but didn’t have to drive a couple hours round trip to get one.\u00a0\u00a0 It is DIFFERENT up here in the country.<\/p>\n
My day was similar.\u00a0\u00a0 I decided that knee high weeds instead of lawn wouldn’t do, so I got the mower charged up and started cutting.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I didn’t do my annual maintenance first, thinking I would bang the snot out of it one last time, then start my season with new stuff.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Well….\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While I was waiting for the battery to charge, I got out my string trimmer and started clearing edges and flower beds.\u00a0\u00a0 Ran out of string.\u00a0\u00a0 Since I didn’t have a gas string trimmer here, I took the string home to use with the trimmer there….\u00a0\u00a0 and brought that trimmer up but didn’t bring any string.\u00a0\u00a0 GAHHH.<\/p>\n
However, I have a trimmer here, new in the box, not even assembled yet.\u00a0\u00a0 It probably came with string… so I took the time to set that up.\u00a0\u00a0 Called my wife and had her get some string while she was at Walmart.\u00a0\u00a0 Used the new trimmer until it’s string ran out.\u00a0\u00a0 Started the mower up and SLOWLY began cutting grass like plants.\u00a0\u00a0 Tall and tough plants.\u00a0\u00a0 I ended up cutting only a 1\/4 of the width of the deck on each pass.\u00a0\u00a0 More would bog the mower down.\u00a0\u00a0 It took a long time to make progress but I was about 85% done when the drive belt for the mower deck failed.<\/p>\n
No more mowing for me.\u00a0\u00a0 A belt was not one of the maintenance items I bought for the annual.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (It will be next year.)\u00a0\u00a0 Wife came home with some line, and I went back to work.\u00a0\u00a0 It only fit the old trimmer head.\u00a0\u00a0 Which was fine until I dropped the trimmer and broke the gas tank…\u00a0\u00a0 OK, switch the head to the new trimmer motor and get back to work.\u00a0 At least until I ran out of string again, because my wife bought a whole lot less than I hoped and asked for.<\/p>\n
So switch gears again.\u00a0\u00a0 Put the blower attachment on the new trimmer engine and cleaned up where I could.\u00a0 Until I ran\u00a0 out of 40:1 premix fuel…<\/p>\n
That’s a whole lotta gum flappin’, but it shows the value of having two (the trimmers) and the pain of only having one (the drive belt.)\u00a0\u00a0 And the value of a simple cord when you need it but don’t have it…<\/p>\n
Hopefully, either my fisherman buddy or one of the stores in town will have a belt to get me back up and mowing.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ll probably end up going in to town in any case to get fuel and string for the trimmer.\u00a0\u00a0 If they have the belt, I’ll buy it and return my buddy’s (assuming his spare will fit my mower.)<\/p>\n
None of this stuff is critical, but it could have been.\u00a0\u00a0 Have spares.\u00a0\u00a0 Have maintenance items BEFORE you need them.\u00a0\u00a0 Have duplicates of critical equipment.\u00a0\u00a0 Barring that, have good contacts and local help.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There might be someone up here that has the power cord my wife needed, but I didn’t even think to ask until afterwards.\u00a0\u00a0 One of the neighbors who is a full timer has a sign business, and probably has computers and a junk box of cords.\u00a0 Next time, I’ll ask him if we need something similar…<\/p>\n
Stacks.\u00a0\u00a0 You need them, even if you don’t think you do.<\/p>\n
n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ps.\u00a0\u00a0 Wife was able to D\/L and use a phone app for access to the database for work, without the latency of the pc connected to the hotspot connected to the nearest cell site…not ideal, but she can work with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cool, possibly cold, and rain in the forecast.\u00a0 Yesterday sure got nice once the sun heated up the day.\u00a0\u00a0 I was in shirtsleeves for most of the day.<\/p>\n
We are supposed to get really cold, maybe freezing and possibly get rain later today.\u00a0\u00a0 Didn’t look like it was coming when I went to bed.\u00a0 We’ll see later, I guess.<\/p>\n
Spent the day doing stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 And stopping because of failures.<\/p>\n
First challenge o the day was my wife working from here.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n