I have one thing in common with old cars. We're both hard to get started on cold mornings. OK, so it's not really all that cold by, say, Wisconsin standards, but it was cool enough this morning that I put on my old red Pearlizumi vest. I was already running a bit late - a victim of the increasingly shorter days - but I finally got dressed and grabbed the bike and headed out the door. I was already contemplating a shorter ride when, as I always do, I checked my tire pressure with my build-in thumb gauge. The rear tire was nearly flat, and that was just about all it took. I stared off into the early dawn sky and rather easily decided that it was a sign from the gods that I dare not ignore. I turned right around and thought to myself, "tomorrow's another day." So I skipped riding today. Sorry!
It seems that my temperature sending unit replacement of yesterday may have done the trick. Despite the cool temperature this morning, the car started up happily now that the computer knew what temperature the engine was really at. I am thinking that the occasional hard starting I've noticed over the previous month or so was probably a side-effect of a failing temperature sender. The car's computer was thinking that the engine was hot and was adjusting the mixture and spark accordingly, even though it was actually stone cold and needed exactly the opposite settings. I managed to talk with the folks at Orleans Sheet Metal and Roofing today, and they said they'd try and get someone out to the house this week to give me another estimate. I got one over the phone yesterday from Robin R's son-in-law (still need to call Robin back about that), so if these folks can manage it, it will be nice to have a couple of estimates in hand when I meet with the insurance adjuster on Saturday.
The Wife is heading up to Toronto, Canada on Friday morning, so I'll drop her off at the Baton Rouge airport and then head down to New Orleans for the weekend. The next weekend we're supposed to be flying up to Iowa City for some sort of preseason thing that The Wife feels we should attend. These little trips up to IC tend to cost $800-$1,000 each, and that's with me cracking the whip the whole time. I mean, two plane fares just about anywhere cost a lot of money nowadays. Don't get me wrong. I love travelling and I love flying. I just hate buying the tickets!
Well tomorrow will be a busy day. I've got a lunch meeting in Baton Rouge, follwed by two conference calls in a row. I also need to follow up with some people about some data we need from the Office of Research's database, housed on a computer in New Orleans, that I think they have just recently gotten access to. I hope they are able to get what we need.
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