Well, it finally snowed. I mean real snow. There was not so much on the ground this morning that I would have been shy about driving in it, but there were other things at odds, such as the continuation of snow that was set to fall throughout the day, the fact the car has no traction control or ABS, and the other people on the road. Together, I decided that I would hold out from working till after picking the girls up from school, then the snow would have stopped and the roads had a chance to clear.
So I took the kids to school and came home. It was after 1PM that I finally noticed the plow truck had finally been through. That was after me clearing our front on my own with the tractor around 10AM. We are usually cleared much earlier because of the milk truck that have to get into our area. So that was indicating to me the possibility that they have had it so easy this year that they were not ready.
By the time I did all my chores, worked on a table I am building, then went to get the kids, the snow had fallen a bit deeper, and the car was covered in snow again. It was heavy, and wet, and I cleared it in a hurry to get to the kids on time. It was not enough. I left too much weight on the wipers and they stopped working. I drove on, but my vision through the window was obstructed. I cleared the rest off when I got stopped at the bus stop. They wipers would work a little, but they would not travel the full distance of the sweep, so I decided to give it a once over when I got home.
Fuses? Check. Nuts on the wiper arms? Check. Motor working? Check. Oh, there is one more place to check! Can I get to it? No! I had to remove the coweling under the wipers, and check the little rotational arm on the motor. I figured, on my own and without the help of Google, that there was a nut there that had come loose because the wipers would try to go down from the resting position before trying to go up, and then failing to go at all. I finally figured out the clips that were holding the coweling in the way and got the motor out and found the nut I anticipated. I got that tightened, and everything back together, and it all works just great now.
But now is gone 7PM. I am not going in to work to come home when things start closing at 9PM on a Wednesday. So, I lost a whole day to weather and then a sudden mechanical issue. And a stupid one at that! If the roads were dry and the snow had for sure stopped, or in other words, if it was like it has been almost every day this winter so far, I would have been fine. Well, at least I have that nut tightened up good now, and should be fine going forward.
I must remember to clear the snow more thoroughly in the future! What an enormous pain in the ass!
Now for the irony? I could not use the Honda because I need to get some gaskets for it. I cannot afford the gaskets till I earn the money I needed to earn today! The Honda has four-wheel-drive, and would have been expensive to drive, but I would have made money today. I am relying on a beater that is far more economical, but I still cannot get the credit card paid down so I can put the gaskets on it to get the other car running so I can stay in work longer on school days, and earn more money. It is a hump, and I need to get over it.
As for the table I am making, I am building one for behind the entry door to serve as a classy little entry table. I am building it out of pine from a tree that I got from a guy I know who had it removed from his yard the summer before last. I have started on the glue for the top, and I have selected the stock for the legs and cut them to length. Next chance I get, I will have to do some bandsaw work and some planing on them in the shop. I’ll first plant the outer edges, then once thos are presenting true faces, I will cut the insides clse to 1 1/2 inch square, then plane those, and then plane them to a taper, or cut them, whichever. Either is as easy as the other. Then it is time to cut the mortises and make the sides. I want some drawers in the front, and am thinking two wide ones with a narrow center one. I was thinking a candle drawer. It will prbably be used for lense wipes, but hey, what the heck!
Forgive the spelling on this post. The tablet I am typing from does not highlight the errors, so they are getting away from me for the time being.
I’m hungry and frustrated. That is a hangry state. I better go eat, and try to work up. My feet are still cold from all the time I spent out in the snow working on the car.