TheBanyanTree: Past the one month mark

[paul]

To start, Happy Birthday to your Mom!

To second, ain't nothing much happening here.  I need to mow.  But 
first I have to charge the battery.  Mowing will take a couple of days 
because sitting on the mower for six hours makes my back hurt.  Whine 
and gripe...

Mom's nursing home locked down late February.  No bad news from there.

The instrument cluster in my truck died mid-January for all but a red 
light.  Nice.  What an awesome place for the body computer!  At least 
the silly truck defaults to low beam headlights and running lights. 
Brake lights, turn signals, gauges, power locks, and dome lights are 
over rated features anyway.  But you can get home in the dark.  So 
with it being cold or raining or both, not much happened there beyond 
checking every single fuse.  Reading about this mess is crazy.  Two 
grand for the dealership to replace the cluster?  Err, that's more 
than the truck 20 year old is worth according to the Blue Book.

Well, eBay.  After some shopping, (like yeah, you can fix my cluster 
but I have ship it and pay first? No.) I found a seller with many 
options.  Because you have trucks with automatic transmissions.  And 
with manual transmissions.  Some of each have power door locks.  So, 
that's four variations.  Add on remote keyless entry for trucks with 
power locks.  Then add the factory alarm system.  I've lost count now 
but I think you can have the factory alarm and not have remote keyless 
entry or power locks.  It's complicated.

So, "pull your cluster and tell me the part number on the sticker". 
What sticker?  I see a trace of dried glue.  "Ouch! Call the dealer" 
and yes, I then had a part number.  A few days after paying $200 
including shipping and tax, I have a "B grade" cluster that looks as 
good as what I had and better, it works.  All of the light bulbs work, 
too.  I had a couple out but not worth the bother of pulling the dash 
apart.

So that's installed.  After a couple of days of drama....

Went for a walk with the dogs.  Not far, to the rebar marking the 
pincushion cactus patch by the driveway.  Just starting to bud. 
Halfway to the gate.  They did doggy things, some smelly, but.  The 
pollen or whatever is way up there and I'm just about drowning with my 
nose draining down the back of my throat.  So almost back to the house 
and Missy stopped and looked at me with an odd look, sat down, just 
out of breath, and a couple of minutes later has a spell.   Asthma?  I 
have no idea but foaming at the mouth and spasming isn't normal. (and 
yeah, at 5:30PM the Vet doesn't answer the phone.)

We made it to the house.  She had a cookie, drank some water and did 
it again.  A few more times, too.  She was mostly gone around 9:30PM. 
   For sure at midnight.  Finally passed at 11PM the next day.  All I 
can figure is an asthma attack, so out of air, so... heart attack or 
stroke.  It was a great nine years.
Penny is still weird two weeks later.  Can't imagine why. I'm still 
weird.

What the hell is that noise?  Oh, I'm in bed and I can hear the 
refrigerator running.  I dunno.

Installing the instrument cluster was not a big deal other than a 
couple of screws that go in at a weird angle.

The plates expired in January.  The inspection joint was closed the 
last time I went by.  Shrug.  I've gone all of maybe twenty miles in 
four months so I still have a half tank.  I need to go to the car wash 
because pollen on a dark blue truck really shows.  And top off the 
tank with fresh gas.  I'll buy tags eventually.

Meanwhile, it sure is quiet here.  And I don't mean the almost 
constant low rumble of jet planes.  I mean, big 95 pound dog that 
snores and sighs and grunts and gets off her bed to thunk down on the 
bathroom tile floor.  And back.  With a trip to the water bowl in the 
kitchen.  Plus the ever popular "I heard something" barking in the 
middle of the night.  Grin.
And never forget about a hint of thunder and lightning.  Now you have 
a 95 pound dog that thinks your pillow is the perfect place to be 
safe.  Yeah, she made a good pillow.

But yeah.  Nothing much going on.

paul




tobie at shpilchas.net said the following on 4/21/2020 4:50 PM:
> Friday, April 21th, 2020
> 
> Hello fellow shut-ins!
> 
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