Ok, might not have made it on time. This Vermont Hwy 9 is nuts – on the order of tasered spaghetti. The speed limit most of the way is 50mph, but even in daylight I don't think I'd have gone much faster than I did tonight.
Add in the fact that the local directions are outdated and arriving on time in the morning would have been.. . Well, let's just say “unlikely”. Yes, I sent in corrections.
I'm spending the night at a Citgo “truck stop” just off exit 3 on I-91. I dunno if they'll let me stay two more nights – nobody here at 03:00 to ask.
May hit one of the local motels, though.
One bit of good news: this place has a Radio Shack! Woot woot!
And there's something about cell phones – aside from the fact that mine can't connect to any network. There's a sign on the door of the Mobil station's “store” next door: “Please turn off cell phones”. On the way back to the truck from my walk, I passed a few moments in conversation with a local. He works at McDonald's... his manager wouldn't allow him to use his cell phone to call for his ride. Weird.
Now it's almost 05:00, I'm gonna try to get some sleep.
Did some tinkering with the tower today – there's a Radio Shack just a hundred meters or so down the road. Got a gender bender for the video cable. Got back to the truck and I can't get into the passenger side “closet” outside. None of my keys seem to work – though they worked fine when I put my keyboard and printer IN there. Ambled back to Radio Shack and picked up a wireless keyboard/mouse. Not exhorbitant, but more than I really wanted to spend. Still, got it set up and it's nice.
Put it all away and made ready to buzz down the road a bit to do some laundry. Damn truck won't start. Thought at first I'd forgotten the anti-theft device, but no, it's fine. Voltmeter showing only 10 to 10.5V. That's an issue.
Brattleboro Towing happened to be here at the Citgo, gave him $20 to jump it. Joy was not forthcoming. Even tried jumping straight to the starter, though on further thought, if I don't have enough juice to close the starter selenoid, jumping to the starter won't do much good.
Thanked him (Joe) and sent him on his way. Notified Breakdown. Gave them particulars, and hopefully detailed enough written instructions on finding me, since my damn phone has no service here. They're sending road service. I wonder if the reefer has enough juice to recharge the tractor batteries. Not that I have long enough jumper cables to try it. Or any jumper cables at all, for that matter. One of those things “on the list” but not struck off yet.
Road service was prompt and courteous. Threw a charger on the batteries and replaced the alternator. All in all, I spent just under $1000 of the company's money. Of course, the new alternator is supposed to be 100 amps more powerful than the original. Wheeee!
I've decided that 18:00 is too late in the day today to be doing laundry. Instead,spent $6 of MY money at Dunkin Donuts as desert for dinner. Also, tomorrow, I want to find a deli place that sells pre-made 2-foot sammiches. The local grocery store sells all the makin's, but that's not what I want. And their grapes look.. sad. Bought oranges instead. They're not great, but not all that bad, either. Certainly better than those grapes.
Finished adding the DVD drive and wireless card to the tower tonight. DVD certainly recognizes CD-ROM disks -played a round of Railroad Tycoon. No wireless networks to test the card on- but it's probably ok, too.
I think I'm going to have to break out the cds and the music on the laptop. Only non-country or NPR radio station I can get is crap. Not even MOR, or at least not so in my book. Full of electronically “enhanced” female voices... not even angsty. Just whiney. And they have a 6 hour repeat schedule.
Oh fine. As soon as I type that, they put Joan Jett on. Just gotta make a liar out of me, even over the radio.
No comments:
Post a Comment