So crap. Yeah, it's my birthday today. Big deal. I should have just thrown the covers over my head and stayed in bad all day.
Tropical storm in the Gulf bring fast moving storms through this area. Was a break in the storms this morning, so I got up earlier than I should have. Wanted to do some shooting today, so I went over to open up the vault to get out my .243 Steyr Scout rifle. Upon working the electronic combination, I noticed that the beeps weren't as loud as they should be. Probably time to replace the batteries I thought. Two 9 volt batteries. No big deal. I opened the vault and popped off the cap to expose the batteries. First one popped out fine. Second one, not so fine. Instead of the battery popping out, the tab that was soldered into the circuit board popped out instead. Great.... Luckily I had opened the door first. But still, now I can't close it. Took some pics to send to the vault manufacturer as I believe they offered a lifetime warranty on that vault when I purchased it. Used my phone for the pics, of course. So I needed to forward the pics to my laptop so I could use them when composing a letter to the manufacturer. Done this MANY times, but for some reason, today, just not working. After fiddling with it and cursing quite often (my patience is nothing like it used to be) I had to try a different angle. I was able to send the pics to my Messenger account which I can access from my laptop, and from there download the pics to me laptop.
Yay me.
So sent a message off to the vault manufacturer, but haven't heard back yet. In the meantime, thought I would go over to the other building and take a closer look at that circuit board to see if I could resolder that tab back in place. Done a lot of soldering in my day, so should be easy to do. Theoretically, anyway. But I would still like to get a replacement if I can get one for free. Well, waited too long. One of those fast moving storms moved in. Shooting is out anyway, since by the time I would get set up to shoot, it would be raining again. Raining right now, matter of fact. Yeah, quite hard rain, matter of fact.
Also I had tried to arrange with the owner of the local seafood market to get some crabmeat for my birthday dinner this evening. No such luck. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe Thursday. Yeah, yay for today.
Oh yeah, my sister in law sent me a package for my birthday. Supposed to be here yesterday. Checked tracking and it looks like USPS was playing football with the package in Greensboro, NC for two days. Just left Jacksonville, FL around noon time.
And on top of that, UPS is now throwing my packages out at the gate at the entrance to my driveway. The gate is NEVER closed. It is a new driver on this route. The old driver told me I shouldn't have any problems and showed my on his handheld that ALL packages being delivered here have a note explicitly stating to DELIVER TO FRONT PORCH. Which means the driver is just ignoring that directive. A couple of days ago I heard the truck at the end of the driveway and ran down there to try to catch the driver. I could see a package on the ground at the gate. The truck was still there. I hollered and waved my arms to get his attention. He just looked at me, waved, and drove off. He KNEW he was going to get a ration of shit for ignoring those instructions. So I just filed a Better Business Bureau complaint against UPS. Had to do that to FedEx numerous times to get them to stop doing the same thing and deliver the packages to where they were supposed to be delivered to. So guess I am going through this all over again with UPS. Already had some packages stolen in the past, and really don't want to go through that hassle again.
Damn, raining like hell now. Again. Need to try to fix that circuit board as I really don't like leaving my vault open for long. But don't want to get soaked running to the building and then to the garage where my soldering station is located. I can see the river building up in my driveway now. Aw, damn. Yeah, really REALLY should have just stayed in bed today.
Happy frickin' birthday, Rich.
Tropical storm in the Gulf bring fast moving storms through this area. Was a break in the storms this morning, so I got up earlier than I should have. Wanted to do some shooting today, so I went over to open up the vault to get out my .243 Steyr Scout rifle. Upon working the electronic combination, I noticed that the beeps weren't as loud as they should be. Probably time to replace the batteries I thought. Two 9 volt batteries. No big deal. I opened the vault and popped off the cap to expose the batteries. First one popped out fine. Second one, not so fine. Instead of the battery popping out, the tab that was soldered into the circuit board popped out instead. Great.... Luckily I had opened the door first. But still, now I can't close it. Took some pics to send to the vault manufacturer as I believe they offered a lifetime warranty on that vault when I purchased it. Used my phone for the pics, of course. So I needed to forward the pics to my laptop so I could use them when composing a letter to the manufacturer. Done this MANY times, but for some reason, today, just not working. After fiddling with it and cursing quite often (my patience is nothing like it used to be) I had to try a different angle. I was able to send the pics to my Messenger account which I can access from my laptop, and from there download the pics to me laptop.
Yay me.
So sent a message off to the vault manufacturer, but haven't heard back yet. In the meantime, thought I would go over to the other building and take a closer look at that circuit board to see if I could resolder that tab back in place. Done a lot of soldering in my day, so should be easy to do. Theoretically, anyway. But I would still like to get a replacement if I can get one for free. Well, waited too long. One of those fast moving storms moved in. Shooting is out anyway, since by the time I would get set up to shoot, it would be raining again. Raining right now, matter of fact. Yeah, quite hard rain, matter of fact.
Also I had tried to arrange with the owner of the local seafood market to get some crabmeat for my birthday dinner this evening. No such luck. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe Thursday. Yeah, yay for today.
Oh yeah, my sister in law sent me a package for my birthday. Supposed to be here yesterday. Checked tracking and it looks like USPS was playing football with the package in Greensboro, NC for two days. Just left Jacksonville, FL around noon time.
And on top of that, UPS is now throwing my packages out at the gate at the entrance to my driveway. The gate is NEVER closed. It is a new driver on this route. The old driver told me I shouldn't have any problems and showed my on his handheld that ALL packages being delivered here have a note explicitly stating to DELIVER TO FRONT PORCH. Which means the driver is just ignoring that directive. A couple of days ago I heard the truck at the end of the driveway and ran down there to try to catch the driver. I could see a package on the ground at the gate. The truck was still there. I hollered and waved my arms to get his attention. He just looked at me, waved, and drove off. He KNEW he was going to get a ration of shit for ignoring those instructions. So I just filed a Better Business Bureau complaint against UPS. Had to do that to FedEx numerous times to get them to stop doing the same thing and deliver the packages to where they were supposed to be delivered to. So guess I am going through this all over again with UPS. Already had some packages stolen in the past, and really don't want to go through that hassle again.
Damn, raining like hell now. Again. Need to try to fix that circuit board as I really don't like leaving my vault open for long. But don't want to get soaked running to the building and then to the garage where my soldering station is located. I can see the river building up in my driveway now. Aw, damn. Yeah, really REALLY should have just stayed in bed today.
Happy frickin' birthday, Rich.