A 911 kinda day
Sep. 18th, 2006 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jim_pThis day was bound and determined to be one of those where I would get almost nothing useful done...
After sleeping in longer than I wanted to, Tam and I decide that this will be the best day in a while to mow the lawn. That goes relatively uneventfully.
What I really wanted to get done today was:
I got as far as the first item.
So I'm driving up towards Littleton when I start noticing that the van is pulling to the left pretty badly, like I really have to crab it to drive it straight. I pull off the highway into a church parking lot to assess the situation. The left-front wheel is really hot. Uh-oh, I've seen this happen before... as a test I pour a bit of water into the wheel... *sizzle* *steam*... yup, I have a rubbing brake that has gotten really hot. Can't drive it like this, so I call AAA.
Doesn't take too long for AAA-dude to show up. As he's pulling the van up onto the flatbed, I hear a "krunk" sound, and he stops pulling. Turns out that pieces of the rear frame are rusted out, and the winch hook just ripped out. Oops. (thinking: "maybe I should just cashier this truck and be done with it"). He re-routes the chains and tries again. This time as he's pulling I notice something dripping off of one of the chains... give it the old smell-test, it's gasoline. Turns out that the re-routed chain is now pressing on the joint between the fuel filler and the gas tank. Oops. He lets the tension back off the chain, and the leak stops.
At this point we decide it would be better if we reversed the orientation of the van on the flatbed (nose first rather than tail first). Because of the fuel drip, the towtruck guy suggested we call the fire department. Whoo-boy. Cop car comes in, flashing lights, then the fire chief's car, flashing lights, then a second towtruck from the same company, flashing lights, then the fire truck comes, flashing lights... it's a regular epileptic's delight out there. Long story short, after much head-scratching and re-rigging we finally achieve a configuration that the fire dept believes will get us home... though they insist that we strap a pan of kitty litter to the flatbed under the fuel filler as a precaution.
Eventually I get home, relax, have a sandwich... then I decide that in order to make the day not be a complete waste I'd head over to the new shop and try to lay some more floor down. I'd just done some prep work and was getting ready to lay floor. I pick up the chop saw to move it, and right at that moment I hear a loud "BZZZZT". Kind of an electrical sound, though I *know* I hadn't hit the trigger of the saw and the blade was still. Turn around to see sparks flying out from one of the fluorescent fixtures, arcing onto the floor. I jump up and hit the light switch to cut power to the lights. Everything stops... *all* the lights go out. The breaker must've popped at the same moment. Pause a sec to figure out what to do and in what order. Notice that I still smell a burning smell. Decide that the best thing to do is call 911 first, then call the landlord.
Once again, police car arrives, I show the nice occifer what happened. Fire truck follows, and the firemen start poking and prodding at the light fixture and checking out the rest of the place. They determine that the ballast in that fixture had just failed spectacularly, and that while one ceiling tile was a bit singed nothing else was smoldering. Fire chief sends the boys home, then we wait for the landlord. Turns out that the fire chief and the police officer all spoke familiarly of "Dickie", and apparently in a good way :). Landlord arrives, we all go over the situation. Landlord will call an electrician to make it all right. I go home frustrated that yet another bit of usefulness had been snatched away from me today...
Now I need to decide if it's worth fixing the van, or if it has hit the point of diminshing returns... at which point I need to figure out what else to do for cargo haulage...
Maybe tomorrow will be a better (or at least more useful) day...
After sleeping in longer than I wanted to, Tam and I decide that this will be the best day in a while to mow the lawn. That goes relatively uneventfully.
What I really wanted to get done today was:
- Assemble sandwich board signs for Chorale rehearsals
- Drive to Littleton and Ayer to put up said signs
- Drive to Leominster and clear out the framing work queue in preparation for moving the shop
- Drive to Phillipston to tend the feral cat
- Drive back to Natick
- If I had time and energy, lay down some more laminate floor in the new shop
I got as far as the first item.
So I'm driving up towards Littleton when I start noticing that the van is pulling to the left pretty badly, like I really have to crab it to drive it straight. I pull off the highway into a church parking lot to assess the situation. The left-front wheel is really hot. Uh-oh, I've seen this happen before... as a test I pour a bit of water into the wheel... *sizzle* *steam*... yup, I have a rubbing brake that has gotten really hot. Can't drive it like this, so I call AAA.
Doesn't take too long for AAA-dude to show up. As he's pulling the van up onto the flatbed, I hear a "krunk" sound, and he stops pulling. Turns out that pieces of the rear frame are rusted out, and the winch hook just ripped out. Oops. (thinking: "maybe I should just cashier this truck and be done with it"). He re-routes the chains and tries again. This time as he's pulling I notice something dripping off of one of the chains... give it the old smell-test, it's gasoline. Turns out that the re-routed chain is now pressing on the joint between the fuel filler and the gas tank. Oops. He lets the tension back off the chain, and the leak stops.
At this point we decide it would be better if we reversed the orientation of the van on the flatbed (nose first rather than tail first). Because of the fuel drip, the towtruck guy suggested we call the fire department. Whoo-boy. Cop car comes in, flashing lights, then the fire chief's car, flashing lights, then a second towtruck from the same company, flashing lights, then the fire truck comes, flashing lights... it's a regular epileptic's delight out there. Long story short, after much head-scratching and re-rigging we finally achieve a configuration that the fire dept believes will get us home... though they insist that we strap a pan of kitty litter to the flatbed under the fuel filler as a precaution.
Eventually I get home, relax, have a sandwich... then I decide that in order to make the day not be a complete waste I'd head over to the new shop and try to lay some more floor down. I'd just done some prep work and was getting ready to lay floor. I pick up the chop saw to move it, and right at that moment I hear a loud "BZZZZT". Kind of an electrical sound, though I *know* I hadn't hit the trigger of the saw and the blade was still. Turn around to see sparks flying out from one of the fluorescent fixtures, arcing onto the floor. I jump up and hit the light switch to cut power to the lights. Everything stops... *all* the lights go out. The breaker must've popped at the same moment. Pause a sec to figure out what to do and in what order. Notice that I still smell a burning smell. Decide that the best thing to do is call 911 first, then call the landlord.
Once again, police car arrives, I show the nice occifer what happened. Fire truck follows, and the firemen start poking and prodding at the light fixture and checking out the rest of the place. They determine that the ballast in that fixture had just failed spectacularly, and that while one ceiling tile was a bit singed nothing else was smoldering. Fire chief sends the boys home, then we wait for the landlord. Turns out that the fire chief and the police officer all spoke familiarly of "Dickie", and apparently in a good way :). Landlord arrives, we all go over the situation. Landlord will call an electrician to make it all right. I go home frustrated that yet another bit of usefulness had been snatched away from me today...
Now I need to decide if it's worth fixing the van, or if it has hit the point of diminshing returns... at which point I need to figure out what else to do for cargo haulage...
Maybe tomorrow will be a better (or at least more useful) day...
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 04:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-18 08:24 am (UTC)No setting things on fire, not your van and not your shop, got it?