I woke up earlier this week and it was about 10 degrees cooler than usual in the trailer..., but the outside temperature wasn't much cooler than usual.  It didn't take long for me to notice the little green light on my Home Comfort electric heater blinking.  That usually means one of the heating elements has burnt out.  I posted a couple of stories about my adventures in mechanicing earlier this fall..., Here and here.  In those posts I said that I had a "spare" all ready to go if I encounter any more problems.  So I wasn't worried..., I hauled the spare into the trailer and plugged her in..., only to see a blinking green light..., and no heating elements heating up 😡.  The only excuse I could come up with was that I was so sure of my mechanicing skills after successfully repairing one heater..., that I assumed that I had repaired the spare without fully testing it.  The only solution I could come up with was to take out one heating element out the spare and use it to replace the bad one in the trailer model.  I hate to brag..., but I am getting pretty good at taking apart those heaters by now..., I didn't even have to keep the YouTube videos on full time to accomplish the task.  But I shouldn't have been too lazy to run down a set of pliers to tighten up one of the loosely fitting wire connectors the first time.  I had to do that when I got the trailer heater all put back together and plugger her in..., yeah..., you guessed it..., a blinking little green light.  But I did guess right and took the correct side panel off the first time..., so I didn't have to take off both sides..., and I got the pliers to tighten up the wire clip..., and I am warmed back up now.  

Just waiting on parts to put the "spare" back on line.  I need to send a shout out to Mesha at Home Comfort Customer Support for making sure I got the right parts ordered..., it is so nice to work with a real person instead of of a damn AI bot.  The parts should be here on Monday..., but I have to replace a a circuit board that has about eight or ten wires connected to it..., plus the heating element that I robbed from it..., stay tuned for further adventures in mechanicing.

In other developments my main weather site is back up and running now.  After the power outages of a couple of weeks ago, the weather report of the Quillayute Airport was off line longer than usual..., and when the New Year rang in and still no data showing up I was afraid that funding for the old airport weather station had dried up.  It provides updates on temperature, wind speed and gusts, rainfall and barometric pressure about every five minutes.  It can let you know if the temperature is falling fast and you should leave your faucets dripping to avoid frozen water lines.  I had already bought an inside/outside thermometer and was checking out rain gauges on Amazon..., when I decided to email the National Weather Service and ask what was going on.  Much to my surprise the site was back up within a few hours..., and the next day I got an actual response..., apologizing for the outage and saying that it was back up !!!  I responded with a thank you and said I was just curious if my email had prompted the fix?  I got this response, "It's tempting to credit you, but it was a coincidence :-)".  Once again..., it is nice to work with real people instead of AI bots.

That's about it for the adventures of this week..., and I guess it is only appropriate to leave you with my theme song...,

  

"Hard On Equipment (Tool For The Job)"

He's been roundin' off bolts since the age of fourteen
Was that a five eighths or a nine sixteenths?
He's got a metric socket that don't quite fit
Well, it'll wiggle just a little but it ain't quite stripped
The safety guard's gone from his grinding machine
He got a stiff paint brush he only kinda got clean
He's the hired man, my neighbor and a cousin in law
He's a Jerry riggin' fool, he got the tool for the job

Well, it's vise grips for pliers, and pliers for a wrench
A wrench for a hammer, hammers everything else
It just don't seem to make much difference
I sure do like him but he's hard on equipment
I sure like you son, but you're hard on equipment

His corners ain't square and his floor ain't level
And he's always had trouble with the old tape measure
His doors don't close 'cause the jamb ain't plumb
And he's a Goddamn menace with an air nail gun
They love to see him comin' at the lumberyard store
Fixed the leak in his roof with a two by four
Drilled holes in his boards with the wrong kinda bit
And when they don't line up he blames the government

He got the whole front yard full of fix 'em up cars
Three don't run and the rest won't start
Everything's fine with his rebuilt motor
Except of course for the couple spare parts left over
Baler wire tie downs goin' down the road
On two bald tires and an oversize load
He ain't never read a manual 'cause that's like cheatin'
He don't mind a little grease on his hands while he's eatin'

He's got busted up knuckles, his thumb got bruised
Jesus Christ was a carpenter, too