Figured a showery
morning was a good time to take the Ranger into Brandon to get the slow leak in
left rear tire repaired. Unfortunately
(or, if you prefer, in keeping with my ongoing string of luck), the leak is at
the seam between the tire sidewall and the rim… and the guy who can deal with
that was off for the holiday. Of
course! So I decided to fill out the
warranty card and get the new generator fired up. One of the required bits of info for the
warranty registration is the generator serial number… which is NOT to be found
anywhere on the generator. Hmmm… Filled the petrol tank with petrol, the oil
reservoir with oil (instruction manual says to use 10W30, sticker on the
generator says to use 15W40… uh, huh), connected the battery, turned the switch
and… WRONG! The generator started right up. However, this being a 120v system, you have
to physically ground the generator to Mother Earth if you want the things plugged
into the generator to have grounding protection. Fashioned a grounding rod out of rebar and
attached it to the generator with 12AWG wire, even green in color. Being the anal person that I am, used my
circuit tester to ensure that all was wired correctly. Open ground, said the tester. So spent an hour verifying that my grounding
rod and wire were working perfectly fine and the fault is in the generator
itself. Bah, humbug!!!! Moved on to overcooking some country-style
ribs on the campfire so the Marty & Merry could get good exercise with
their jaw muscles when they came for a mid-afternoon lunch / dinner. At least the pork wasn’t raw this time… Completely stuffed and afloat on a bottle of
Lambrusco, Chree and I then went to work on the wood walkway. First thing we needed was the 4x4 post we had
drilled for the rock pin the other day.
We both knew right where we’d left it.
Not there! And not only not
there, but absolutely nowhere to be found.
Shlomo? Ghosts? Someone who has a wood post fetish? By dark we’d put in the first (and most
critical in terms of placement) set of posts and their cross stingers, had made
some progress on the second set of posts, and were in danger of never speaking
to one another again. Good time to call
it quits!
