They say bad things come in threes. Well, I guess I'm living proof of the adage.

 

Many of you may remember that I bought a used Bass Tracker a few weeks ago.  Between downpours I have been slowly getting the boat ready for the lake.  My biggest problem was that the previous owner had an FM/AM radio installed in the console.  Someone's precious little darlin decided to steal it, and in doing so, ripped out every wire anywhere near the radio.  When I got the boat home I found that electrically, absolutely nothing worked with the exception of that related to starting and running the big motor.  After replacing the bilge and live-well pumps, plus the bow-mounted locater, I set about solving the wiring disater under the console.  I'm 6'3" and tip the scales at about 215.  Needless to say, I had to learn to be a contortionist to get under the console and then make the repairs.  I finally got everything working and planned on putting the boat in the water yesterday afternoon.  My plan was not to go fishing, but to just put the boat through its paces to determine if I had any other gremlins to deal with.  So, I backed my Suburban up to the trailer, hooked her up, and pulled out of the driveway, turning left onto the street.  At that instant, my power steering failed.  Luckily, only the two right-side tires of my truck went across the soggy lawn of my neighbor across the street.  I never even considered taking the boat to the launch site.  It took everything I had just to drive around the block and park in front of the house.   I managed to manhandle the truck to the repair shop this morning and found out that I was looking at a $300 bill for the repair. Bad thing #1.

 

Yesterday morning I woke to find that my computer had died during the night.  Thinking that it was a minor problem like a power supply failure, I took it to Best Buy and turned it over to the Geek Squad.  Five minutes later I was informed that the problem was in the Mother Board, and that it was time to buy a new computer.  $400 later I had a new computer, but was forced to take it to the Geeks to have the info on my dead computer transferred to the the new Vista-based one.  That was another $100.  Bad thing #2.  So far, bad things have cost me $800.

Last evening I threw some meat on the Bar-B-Que pit.  Not a bit to my surprise the spark igniter didn'tork.  Bad thing #3.  It's not an expesive repair, but it just added to a REALLY crappy day.

Ouch. :-X

Some days you're better off not getting out of bed. I've had the power steering rack replaced twice on my Ford Windstar. It's an expensive mess to fix. I wish you better luck tomorrow.

Man I feel you pain. A couple weekends ago I broke the "indestructible" composite shaft on my Minn Kota trolling motor, then later that evening I broke a brand new onboard charger I was installing in my other boat.

Kind if makes ya want to scream, dosen't it?

Y'all stay away from my side of town  

At least the power steering went out at home not at the lake.

Had a friend who's ranger got stuck in 4wheel low at the ramp 50 miles from home

At least the power steering went out at home not at the lake.

Had a friend who's ranger got stuck in 4wheel low at the ramp 50 miles from home

Man that stinks! Bet it was a long, slow, drive home

I feel your pain.

Sunday I decided to clean up my boat a bit.  I went to replace a cup holder and came prepared with a "factory replacement".  ANyway, I start on the broken cup holder and find that it is riveted in place and the back of the rivets are under carpet.  Nice clean install, but sucks for me to replace.  I drill out the rivets and try to line up the new cup holder.  The holes don't quite line up.  Grrrrr.  I manage to get two screws in and it seems to be a tight fit.  

Next aggravation....go to install another cup holder...drilled some pilot holes and started screwing things together.  As I'm doing the second screw, the head of the screw shears off.  Fabulous.  I can't get this thing to come out or go in any further.  Luckily, it holds the cup holder on and it doesn't look hideous (unless you know where to look).  

Next....I decided to vacuum out the boat.  I break out the house vacuum, b/c it's got a lot of suction and I'm wanting to get the cracks between the carpet and the gunwale clean.  My minivac won't do that.  So, all is well until I can't reach a spot b/c the hose is too short.  I lift the vacuum into the boat, but it's collected some grass on it and it begins to deposit this all over my freshly vacuumed carpet.  I then decide that wet grass will wipe off of vinyl easier than it will vacuum, so I put the vacuum on my boat seat.  I fired up the vacuum and hear some bad sounds coming from my seat.  The vacuum rollers had instantly burned a nice hole into my boat seat.  GRRRRR.  This was the real pisser of the day!

Next....Wife calls me in to help install a shelf.  I hammer in the spreading wall mount and tighten....remove the screw and begin to mount the shelf bracket.  My wife gets her side tightened, but mine just keeps slipping....screw won't go in and won't back out.  After 20 min of fighting it, the pliers come out and I managed to rip the mount out of the wall leaving a nice hole.  Luckily, the shelf had a couple other holes in it, so I was able to slide over a few inches and place another mount.  The 2nd mount attempted to hose me, but I realized what had happened and avoided disaster the second time.

Needless to say, I did not attempt to install my new fish finder.  I will save that for another, hopefully less cursed, day.

-J

G3, d**n, I thought I had a bad day.  Man you were snakebit right from the get-go.

OH Yes...sounds so familiar!

After 6 months of the wife being unemployed ( she makes more than I do so it hurts more when she is unemployed) she finally finds a job...we were so relieved...finally get caught back up...

We spend all of our available cash to get som bills paid and start catching up again...

1. and the fridge catches fire.

so we buy a used one of craigslist...

2. it last two weeks and the compressor goes out...while we were away...and ruins $200 worth of meat we had just bought.

so we go get a new fridge and new meat...

3. while transporting some dogs to a rescue my van starts acting up..figure well it is overdue for its tune up..no big deal...take it into the mechanic...

3rd cyliner is dead.

needs the heads rebuilt...and it is the only tow vehicle I have so I cant go fishing! WAAAAAAAAAAA!

we had to borrow money to get the heads done...

and we are now more in debt than when she was unemployed!

LOL!

I am actually afraid to go out and start the boat. LOL!

and I recently found out why the fridge problems happened...one leg of my electric service was way high on voltage...it also burned up a couple lights in the house...

while the utility company fixed the problem...do they care the cost me several hundred dollars???

of course not.