Well that says it for me. It was damn cold this morning. Showed to be 19 when I got up, but it warmed some by afternoon. Since it was so cold for the morning I didn’t get out and do much on my “list of stuff”. I had some strange twists this morning and made some progress that was not expected as well.
I had been setting up “auto-payment” for some of my bills, but Sprint even though it acknowledges by email that I set it up, did not show to be set up when you go to check. What’s up with that? I didn’t have the same problems with setting up AT&T or CREC. You can go on-line they show when they will pay the bill that is due and where it will come from, etc. Well not Sprint. So I got online to chat on their webpage to figure this one out. The service person was nice enough but couldn’t answer my questions on why, but wanted me to set it up again. Damn I had done that twice and told her so, but no, we need to do it again. I finally got frustrated enough and told her I would wait till the bill was due and hope?
It only took me a few minutes off-line to decide to just call support and double-check. This time the service tech said that the system would pay but for some reason they just didn’t show up as being set up, but if I had the email confirmation it was ok. Yea, ok? I like more confirmation than that but they are not going to give anymore until the first one is paid? Then it struck me to complain about the problem of dropped calls and having to go outside sometimes to make calls and now it was too damn cold to do that (go outside). Not expecting any action on this he said “let me pass you to my supervisor” OK this will be some more wasted time but it is cold out and I can do this while I wait for it to warm up… ha!
The supervisor was nice and after explaining my problem, that I had turned this in several times in the past but nothing seemed to change, she said they have a work around if I have High speed Internet. Well, I have DSL? OK, then they can send me an Airave that hooks to my network and will take the phone calls through the internet? I had been hearing about this for a long time but never figured I would be able to talk them into one for here and I told her I was not interested if I had to pay for it as I was paying too much for the phones now.
After a long process – mostly on her part, I got the Airave for free, well almost. No charge for the Airave (which is $200+ something retails and even for good customer is is like $99). No charge for the monthly $5 fee (we will have to watch for that and make sure). They also waved the setup charge. I did have to pay the tax on the stuff? and that came to a little less than $20. I just hope it works like a “home tower” and we can call from anywhere in the house.
After this little success, I felt pretty good. Then it was off to lunch , but first I had to make my list of things I needed from Staples and Lowes. I need some computer parts from Staples and I have a 15% off coupon to use and figure I will get Dad a camera for his computer,
Dads Webcam – maybe?”]
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since he decided to not get a new laptop for now. I had found one for $39 at Staples that has a microphone in it so we can mount that on his monitor and get him set up for SKYPE with most of the rest of the family. Maybe?
I had also found some $15 portable USB powered speakers
USB speakers – CHEAP!”]
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that I can use at work or traveling or what ever. They are small and will work fine for some minor things I needed speakers for. We also need some more paper for the printer but DAMN, just Saturday I ran off to get the new laser print cartridge for that printer, had forgotten the paper so if I had waited a day or two I could have had it all at 15% off. Sometimes being in a hurry is not a good thing. Anyway after lunch we got the parts at Staples then went to Lowes for more parts.
The Lowes stuff is electrical for the shop, setting up to move the security camera to the driveway and I need power on the east wall and will need to get the network cable run to that spot as well. In the process I will put in another power box on the South wall for the table saw and some other things that I had to run extensions from the center post for. This double box on the south, will also run power up to the camera that will show the pond and back yard, after I move it to the spot under the eave.
I got back to the house at about 2:30pm and it had warmed up a bit so I jumped on getting the tops changed on the Jeep first. I had been running with the rag top and should have changed them out back in November but didn’t. This little job had a failure rate pretty high. In trying to get the back window out the zipper came apart. That will require a shop to fix as it totally broke off one side. I fought that thing a while and with a little help finally go the rag top stowed in the carrier and lowered the hard top. Sure am glad I put up a winch for that
Top removal winch – works great for the light weight top. “]
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“The cross that holds the top and balances it when pulled up in the rafters.”]
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and it stores in the attic of the barn, great place out-of-the-way. Anyway we got that lowered and fought getting the tie down screws in place. the back one on the driver side is a real bitch. the nut does not have a holder for it and you must have long skinny fingers and be steady to hold the nut to get it on back in there
“That wouldn’t be too bad but the arms for the canvas top are all down in there as well so you can’t just reach under to get to it. “
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but finally I got it started ,after several drops and then digging to get it back out.. anyway we got it all done until the one nut on the passenger side would not tighten. The threads didn’t look all that bad and I tried swapping several screws but it is jammed up? so I will have to go order some more, and while at the shop, will try to order some holder for those damn nuts… The zipper problem will have to wait for spring as I am not tearing that whole thing out to fix it now. And this is how it looks now with the hard top back in place.
Well with that little job done, finally, it was 4pm and I figured why not get one of the new electrical plugs put in. That job went pretty well. I spotted where i wanted the box, mounted it up, pulled the electrical wire into the box, then up and over the door and used loop nails to hold it in place and got it over to the power box. striped the wire, turned off the power, put the wire in the box and tied to a breaker and grounded it and then turned it on – no sparks and no smoke. TEsted with a test light and the new box worked as it should. put the cover back on the power panel and turned things back on and quit for the day as it was getting cold quick and dark as well. Although in the p;process of checking the parts I bought at Lowes, I got several that have to go back. The new breakers I bought, were the wrong ones,? I bought Eaton breakers as the panel on the front says Eaton but it appears the box uses D1 breakers so those have to go back and I neglected to get double box covers and go all single box covers when I will be putting up a double box… so those go back as well. Anyway here is the new box but still need to put the plate on it
“New box, but needs the cover”]
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I guess from all this, I am maybe batting .50? not bad if I were a baseball player but pitiful for the things I was working on. To top that off, I still did not get the radio out of the motor home and in the shop office to play PSK31 yet and there is a big 30MDG contest this weekend? I am going to need to step it up on that side.
So with some positive accomplishments for the day, I feel ok to tackle another one. Day that is. – WD0AJG