(written on the 29th, 3rd, and 5th from notes)
Well, it was a rough one today. It was supposed to be Temple Tuesday, but that’s not going to happen very well when I choose not to go to bed and instead choose to relapse. 😕
For whatever reason, I had no strength to resist. It wasn’t even a battle.
Was it the significant lack of sleep? Was it the long period of frustration and anger I let myself slip into while working on the van conversion?
🤷
I ended up getting maybe a couple of hours of sleep, and I felt… not great. 😕
Gratefully, despite the massive emotional hit from having “failed” yet again to stay clean, I did manage to get a bunch done today, although a lot of it wasn’t planned.
I swapped the original cluster, computer, and lock cylinder back in, and If I’m remembering correctly, I got the front wheels swapped out with the two that I brought with me from South Dakota. Then I jacked up the rear of the van to have both rear wheels off the ground, started the van, put it in Drive and started working off the 11 miles that I drove last night, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off style, though forward and not in reverse. 🙃
Unfortunately, with the CNG computer swapped back in, it ran like garbage, making all sorts of unhappy sounds 😬, so I decided after 3.6 miles worth of wheel spinning to wait until I had the computer programmed with the proper software, so I could take care of the mileage discrepancy with a properly running vehicle.
I’d been conversing with somebody on Facebook Marketplace about buying a set of wheels and tires for Rover, so I headed out to grab those, stopping briefly off where my dump trailer was to gather some information about it. Unfortunately, I noticed more damage that I hadn’t noticed before 😕, though I’m guessing this damage was actually done during one of my trips to get free wood chips from the city. I’m guessing the huge machine that loads me up accidentally bent one of the steps welded onto the side of the frame.
Oh well.
One of the things that I would like to be able to handle better is stuff like this.
At Haul Supply, I tried to price what it might cost just to replace the whole door assembly on my dump trailer, but he thought it was going to be like $700 just for the little door. 😶
And for whatever reason, the little door retaining pin, which I purchased one of already maybe a year or two ago, was apparently hard to find?
They eventually brought out a package with what might have had what I needed in it? But it didn’t look quite right, so I decided not to buy it. I probably should have brought the broken part with me.
So I didn’t end up buying anything at all. Instead, I just headed toward the house by Beaver Lake where the tires were.
…except I’d misread the ad, and they were the wrong size tires. 😕
Oh well.
From there, I headed over to the junkyard to find evap lines and a vapor canister mounting plate to complete the CNG-to-gas conversion.
Unfortunately, the only van that had what I needed was being held up off the ground by resting by the very part I needed.
😒
Did I contemplate knocking the vehicle over to be able to access it?
🙃
Yes.
Did I test out to see if I could knock it over?
🙃
Yes. 😆
Could I have knocked it over?
🙃
Yes.
Did I almost?
😅
The little welded stand that they rest the vehicle on was pressing against the spare tire which in turn presses against the bracket that I needed. I had even tried letting all the air out of the spare tire, but nothing that I tried gave sufficient play to get the bracket out.
I even tried breaking the vapor canister out, bit contrary to my expectation, the plastic wasn’t brittle, it was super flexible despite being relatively thick, which meant that I couldn’t just smash it in order to access the plate and have room to get it out.
No matter what I did, I couldn’t get it out, and having done and everything that I tried, I was concerned that the vehicle was no longer stable, or could tip over while I was under it if I kept trying to get the part that was underneath the part that was holding the vehicle off the ground. 😅
Eventually, exhausted, dehydrated, and overheated, I gave up and left, buying only the hoses that I needed but not the bracket that I needed.
From there, I headed over to the neighborhood market to get something to eat and drink, as I was so thirsty that the spit in my mouth was like paste.
I wanted to go to Sam’s Club, but it was another 15 minutes down the road, so I pulled into the Walmart neighborhood Market parking lot, and then contemplated for a minute or two, and then decided it was worth the extra drive to go to Sam’s Club for my bottomless soda and pizza or hot dog.
I love Sam’s Club. 😁
I’ve never even really thought about Sam’s Club before. Never really been interested in it, but When you have lunch for $1.50 or $2.50, good golly. 🙃
Of course, it’s not very healthy, nor is it vegan, both of which I’m trying to get back to, but… One thing at a time, and until then… 😋
Back at the ranch, as I was walking by Jim’s truck, I smelled a super strong odor of battery acid, so he popped his Hood, and there was battery acid literally spraying out of his battery onto his fender and radiator support. 😶
It had already eaten through the first layer of paint. 😯
Seemed pretty weird because it was just yesterday, I think, that we swapped out the coil in it, and there wasn’t a problem at all with the battery. 🤷
Spent a little time chatting with Jim, and then we headed over to the Walmart Supercenter to grab batteries for his truck and one for Stephanie’s Pilot, As it was bad as well.
Swapped the battery out in the parking lot of the Supercenter, and then swapped out Jim’s battery back at the ranch. The pilot also needed front brake pads and a rotor, so since we were already getting car stuff done, I convinced Jim to go ahead and plow through and get the brakes done as well, which we did, gratefully without much of anything going sideways. 🙏
I did temporarily lose one of my sockets, having left it on one of Jim’s truck’s lug nuts. 😆
Chatted with Jim a bit more before heading over to the neighborhood market in Pea Ridge, buying some flowers for my mom, some junk food for me 😅, and then heading over to my mom’s place where we chatted for a bit, and then I veged out and crashed for the night.
Been thinking a lot about a friend of mine who is working through some challenging things.
I understand challenging things.
Would love to be a support, but I’m not sure how given current circumstances… or if I should even try?
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 