Got a charge out of this

During my failed attempt to install the mobile ham radio in my car, I discovered the car's battery had a ton of corrosion around the positive terminal. It also looked like it was leaking as well. In addtion, when I'd had that battery put in almost 5 years ago, the stupid people rounded off the nut on the negative terminal. So, rather than wait til the battery officially died, which would probably happen in the next few months anyway, I went in last night to get a new one put in. As further proof that nothing in my life ever seems to go as easily or smoothly as it should:



It's hard to tell from the poor quality camera phone pic, but that's four guys standing around trying to figure out how to get the old battery out. They did finally manage it, though, and now I've got a new one in there that'll probably outlast the rest of the car. Dare I try to put that mobile in again now?

Cables, delicious ham, goodbye to a box, and playin the ponies

I overslept this morning, big time. I didn't get up til almost 10am. That kind of nixed my plans for maybe checking out the Kerry rally in Reston, then trying to get to the zoo for pandaguy's picnic and such.

Instead, I ran the power cable for the mobile radio in the car. I'm amazed I managed to do it without zapping anything or making the battery explode. A quick test to make sure the engine still started okay and then I hooked the mobile up. It actually worked. Hurray!

I've been meaning to cancel the post office box I have up in Bethesda. It would've been up for renewal in October, and I wasn't sure when I'd get up that way on a Saturday again any time in the near future, so I drove on up. It gave me a chance to test the radio and see if I could hit any repeaters that Ferian and Oryx use. I talked to Ferian on the cellphone while I drove up and tried to hit the repeater unsuccessfully a number of times. It wasn't until I was pulling into the mall parking lot that I realized I'd not set the pl tone to 'on' Oops. well it worked fine after that. Went on inside and turned in the PO box key.

Ideally, I'd have stuck around and met the folks from Pandaguy's group, but they don't plan on arriving there til 7:30. Since the post office closed at 2, I needed to get up there in the early afternoon. I went to Dave & Busters, which is in the same mall. Played Derby Owners Club (aka the Pony Game) for a bit. Did fairly well, though the two new horses I created had a hard time, due to some folks playing some really powerful horses. I lost a grade 1 race when an obnoxious kid next to me distracted me just at the start. Bah. Still, it was a fun time. They still have those stuffy horses in the winner's circle that're the size of a real mini horse. I dunno how many tickets one of those requires though. Around 4:30 I realized that it was going to be forever before any of the folks from Pandaguy's picnic showed up, so I decided to head home.

Oryx called when I was walking out to the car and asked if I wanted to meet 'em up at Arundel Mills to see a movie with 'em. Saturday night is a tough night to go to that particular mall, though. It's mobbed and parking is near impossible. I decided to head home instead. On the return trip, I was able to hit one of the 2 meter repeaters pretty much all the way home, even from outside the apartment. yay!

Tomorrow I'll be driving back up that way to work at the barn. Kinda wish I could get in on one of the trail rides, but all 3 are already booked solid at this point. There's always the possibility a guide won't show up and I'll have to fill in. That's a little less fun, though, and a lot of work keeping an eye on the non-riders in the group.

It was nice to finally have a non-sucky day. Hopefully it's the start of a new trend.