Tuesday, October 19, 2010

A LONG 6 HOUR WAIT IN A MECHANIC'S LUNCH ROOM:((

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WORKHORSE BRAKE RECALL BEING DONE AT 'CARRIER TRUCKS' IN SARNIA, ONTARIO

Mighty dark this morning at 5:30 when I fired up the rig & got the big wheels rolling for my 'brake recall' appointment in Sarnia.  Aside from a pesky couple of construction zones it was a pretty quiet drive.  Was nice having somewhere to go for a change with the Motor Home & I was at my destination,  the Carrier Truck Center, about 7:20.
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AND, THIS IS WHERE I SPENT 6 HOURS TODAY!!

They took the rig in at exactly 7:30 & sent me off to the mechanic's lunch room to wait for what would turn out to be a very long 6 hours.  Good news side of things was that I had brought my laptop but the bad news side was that I could not access the internet!!  However, I did have 2 things going for me.  Had oodles & oodles of hours filled with my favorite music in the laptop plus a whole host of photos from as far back as 2001 that needed editing.   Back in those days I did not have the Picasa Editing program so I ended up editing over 700 photos today.  It had been a job I have been putting off for years.  Had I hooked into an internet connection I probably would not have got that long overdo job done.
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AT ONE POINT I SAW THEM BACKING THE RIG OUT THE DOOR

At precisely noon all the mechanic's came rumbling into the lunch room & both the micro-wave & toaster ovens were on overtime.  The room filled with many aromas from homemade spaghetti to pepperoni pizza's & something that smelled like it might have come from the dark side of Russia somewhere.  The mechanics only had a half hour for lunch so there was little talking, just a lot of silverware doing battle with plastic food containers & some very fast slurping & burping.  In what seemed like only a few minutes there was a shuffling of chairs & the mechanic gang rumbled back out of the lunchroom, down the stairs & back out into the garage.  That was good by me because I figured the sooner they got back to work, the sooner I would get out of there & the sooner those food smells would leave the room.  I had a banana for breakfast & that was it for me until I popped into a Subway on my way home later in the afternoon. 

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THAT IS A BLADE OFF ONE OF THOSE BIG WIND TURBINES

At 1:25 one of those same mechanics came back up the steps, stuck his head in the door & said, 'your ready to go sir."  And boy I didn't waste any time packing up my laptop, signing off on the recall paperwork, (no charge) jumping into the Motor Home & pointing the nose for home.  Same construction zones, same delays but I was home before 4.  Nice to finally have that 'brake recall' worry behind us.  The confusion with this Workhorse recall has been rolling around the industry for the past couple of  years or more & it is only lately that they have got things together enough to now effectively begin the correct brake repair work.
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Tom Bosley, who played Mr. C, the Father figure in Happy Days has died & just a few days ago Barbara Billingsley, the TV Mom on Leave It To Beaver passed away.  Our favorite old TV characters are slowly moving on.  Remember when television was entertaining & when it was enjoyable to sit down & watch those light hearted shows.  I watch very little television anymore.  What a rude insult it is to even turn on a television set these days!!!!

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Here's a bit of news in the world of Verizon if you happen to be a Verizon customer, which we are.  We briefly considered this new Mifi thing but after a few phone calls to Verizon have decided to stay with our UMB 175 card & go with the Cradlepoint router idea.  If we switch to Mifi it renders our UMB card useless & we like the fact our UMB card does not require electricity to operate.  Plus, we bought the card outright 3 years ago so no contract!!  And, with the UMB Air Card we can freely take the laptop outside anywhere without being tethered to anything.  Now, I hope I just got all that techy stuff right!!

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WANDERING WILLY has found his way down into Utah already & it looks like he's got his sites set on Bryce Canyon.   And, Ivan from ROADTRIP 2010 is criss crossing & zig zagging all over Vancouver Island this week with his sites set on no particular place at all:))

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I KNOW IT'S A WOODPECKER BUT NOT SURE WHAT KIND

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A young boy asks his Dad, "What is the difference between confident and confidential.  Dad says, "You are my son, I'm confident about that.  Your friend over there, is also my son, that's confidential!"

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19 comments:

  1. We have heard a lot form our friends with the workhorse brake recall. They are seem pretty wound up about it. Glad to hear your repair went smoothly.

    We use the USM 175 air card with a cradle point router and can see no reason at the moment to "upgrade".

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  2. I totally remember Barbara Billingsly..Leave it to Beaver..and Happy Days Tom Bosley...what great TV....what ever happened to that???

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  3. Glad you're now safe to travel, as far as the brakes are concerned. It was actually good for you that you had all that time to spend and could get those pesky jobs done.

    I agree with you about TV today, which is why I can't bring myself to get one.

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  4. I sure can relate to your wait. A few weeks ago we did the same thing in Flagstaff while waiting for our rad to be installed. We also spent 6 hours in the repair shop's lunch room, along with our 2 dogs. It was brutal.

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  5. Looks like a red-bellied woodpecker to me. Believe me, I can equate to waiting for repairs! I think I prefer the picnic table to the lunchroom, however. :)

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  6. I wouldn't have been able to stay in a confined place like that for 6 hours. I'd have been out walking around and bothering everyone. Just can't do the sit still in the little room thing at all.

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  7. 700 photos is a lot of editing in one day. I'm surprised you could still see straight to drive home.

    For what it's worth, I think you made the right decision going with the cradlepoint router. It offers you more flexibility and avoids those contracts.

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  8. Did you have to take anything for a severe case of Numb-butt? Glad to see it's done and your good to go south now. I'm like you aside from a train movie, TV of today holds nothing for me either, even the so called comedies aren't funny, what ever happened to the likes of Skelton, Gleason, Carney, Mathau, to name a few, now they were funny. Be safe out there Al. Sam & Donna...

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  9. Al, I'm glad you had the recall done and thats out of the way. It puts you one step closer to hitting the road and you and Kelly will be much safer now.

    700 photos :0 Wow! Its great you took a long day of waiting and made it productive.

    Connie

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  10. I see by one of your photo's that you got up and personal with one of those big wind generator props.
    I've been passing about 10 trucks a day this trip carrying those things,sometimes 2 to an over sized truck.
    I was hoping to find one in a rest area but they are all going north and I'm going south....Sure like to know where they are manufacturing them.

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  11. i agree that it is likely a red bellied woodpecker.

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  12. Sounds like those big wheels will be ready to roll when you folks are.

    I followed one of those windmill blades across West Texas a couple of years ago, tried to pass him a couple of times, but the vortex they create with that blade was incredible. After a couple of scary attempts we decided that he was moving quick enough that we should just sit back and "enjoy" the scenery rolling by and wait till he pulled over to pass him.

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  13. Loved that Groaner! Does that remind you of anyone you know?

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  14. Hi, Al. We switched from the aircard/router combination this past summer when I accidently plugged the router into the computer's power cord, frying both the aircard and the router instantly.

    It was cheaper to switch to MiFi than to buy another router and aircard. The MiFi acts just like an aircard if you plug it into your laptop via a USB cord (meaning, only one device can be online with it). Otherwise, when not plugged into a computer, it runs for around 4 hours on its own batter power (I don't recall the router running without a power source?), or indefinitely when charging via either 120 v. (charger supplied) or 12 v. (charger needs to be purchased).

    Since Odel and I like to be on the internet with our computers at the same time, we love the MiFi unit. No reason to upgrade if you don't need to, though.

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  15. Good to get that job over with! What years are they recalling? ours is the 2004 Damon challenger and since we have moved we want to make sure we haven't missed a notice or something in the mail

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  16. I'm with you on the TV not being worth watching. I find PBS is pretty good at times, but not always. Loved the groaner's corner. Stay safe.

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  17. Glad your wheels are ready to roll!

    We are using the Cradlepoint Travel Router that runs on 12 volt, and our USB aircard from AT&T and a Wilson antenna.

    We were told the Mifi doesn't have an antenna port on it, so that kinda rules us out using one. Even in our home, we need an antenna to get a signal from AT&T, and in most of the places we travel to in WI and MI.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com

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  18. Glad your wheels are ready to roll!

    We are using the Cradlepoint Travel Router that runs on 12 volt, and our USB aircard from AT&T and a Wilson antenna.

    We were told the Mifi doesn't have an antenna port on it, so that kinda rules us out using one. Even in our home, we need an antenna to get a signal from AT&T, and in most of the places we travel to in WI and MI.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com

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  19. Glad you got the brakes changed you should now be good to go on your trip.
    We have the Verizon Air Card and router and it works great for us.

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