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| jarrin > Personal > Journal | |
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A Day of Adventures Adventure 1: I received, in the mail, a replacement hard drive ($70 from computergeeks.com) for my old, broken iPod. After a very short and simple replacement procedure I had a fully functional 3rd gen 20gb iPod. I should have done this two years ago. And the adventures don't stop there. Adventure 2: While sitting at a red light on the ride home from work my motorcycle suddenly stopped running. Total loss of power. I eventually got it off to the side of the road and started taking it apart. The battery seemed well connected and the problem wasn't the fuses? If you want to play along at home take a look at the engine and see if you can guess what the problem was. I was then interrupted. Avdneture 3: A man pulled up in a minivan and got out. I thought he was just going to offer some helpful advice or assistance but no. I was wrong. Without so much as a preamble he started talking about his 500cc somethingsomething that he was having trouble getting running and was I a mechanic and what did I think the problem was ("I don't have any idea")? All the while I paid him absolutely no attention but I realized that I was going to have to point him in some other direction if I wanted to work in peace. After being asked if he could pay me to come look at it I told him, "no, you don't want to hire me, you need to bring it to a shop" I told him to take it to Roy's Repair because they're the best. I hope Roy doesn't get annoyed with me for sending this guy over. Adventure 2b: The annoying guy got back in his minivan and drove away. I realized I was running out of time (because of my commitment to Adventure 4) and called Laura. While waiting for her I played a hunch, disassmebled what I thought might be the culprit and took it with me. Adventure 4: Laura picked from up from the corner of 42nd & Longfellow and I joined her on a trip to pick up her new car from a dealership in Bloomington. This adventure went just fine (except that she had left her iPod in her old car which I then drove back to the city) and I didn't stick around to watch her fill out papers. Adventure 2c: Back in the city, in Laura's old car with terrible breaks, I stopped off at Midwest Cycle. I got there eight minutes before they closed, walked up to the counter and said "my bike died on the way home, I think the problem might be this on account of it being partially melted - what is it and can you sell me a replacement?". Apparently I was holding the cycle's solenoid / starter relay switch which they did have in stock (in fact, the smart guy behind the conuter (as opposed to the dim ones who didn't even want to talk to me) was able to grab a replacement without even moving from his spot) and they were able to sell to me, with three minutes to spare for $60. Adventure 2d: With an hour to spare before guests arrived at my house, I stripped the primary construction of off my Jeep and drove out to here my bike was patiently waiting. With toolbox in hand I began making repairs.Within half and hour I had jury-rigged the new soldenoid switch to work with the existing plugs. And although the form factor on the two solenoids were very similar the battery and the motor terminals were in opposite positions! Of course I didn't notice that for several minutes but once I figured out that mistake it was very little time until the bike was running. Of course, I couldn't drive both my Jeep and the cycle back home at once so I had to leave it on the road and race back home because it was almost 8p. Adventure 5: Upon arriving home (to find guests already sitting on my stoop!) I realized I had failed to arrange a ride for our fifth and most important guest. I drove with reckless abandon, picked him up and drove with even more reckless abandon (much to his chagrin doncha know) back home. Where we were all suitable depressed by recreations of Nazi Germany's concentration camps. Adventure 2e: Finally, at about midnight, I got a ride out to my Jeep and was able to get it home (in the chilly evening wind which I was not suitably prepared for) and all adventures were successfully solved. This morning I toook the solenoid back out and installed it in a more professional and permanent way. I never expect the solenoid to fail on that bike again for as long as it lives. The enb. -fts- |
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