Retooling, short circuits

Yesterday I got in contact with the woman that we bought our chickens from.  She was very sad to hear about what happened and was not surprised that Cindy and I were so upset about it.  She knows very well the emotional attachment you can have with what most people would consider dumb birds. Anyway, I told her that we were interested in trying again and was wondering if she had any young hens currently.  She said she did have several in the three month old range which is about the same age Wilma, Betty, and Pebbles were when we adopted them.  If things go as I hope we could possibly pick up the hens on Sunday morning.

When I mentioned this to Cindy she was conflicted about it.  She is still very tore up about the chickens maybe even more than I am.  She doesn’t even want to go in the back yard as it seems foreign without the girls living back there.  I told her I thought getting some new hens would be therapeutic.  I told her there will never be another Betty, Wilma and Pebbles but starting over with more hens will help us move forward into happier chicken skies.

Of course before we would take ownership of additional birds I will have had to installed the clasp locks on the side doors ahead of time.  In addition Cindy already ordered additional flashing LED predator deterrents and sent me a list of additional predator aids, some of which we will add to the arsenal.  I wouldn’t be surprised if by the time we are done we don’t have an automatic machine gun turret on top of the coop that mows down anything that steps within 20 feet.

The party van is entering it’s 19th year on the road and as you can imagine has a number of issues, thankfully most of them small.  The rust spots that are developing hardly make me pay attention since the exterior of the van is already freckled with various defects.

The driver side power window is weird.  If you let the window perform the automatic full down movement the window will no longer go back up for a minute or two.  After that time elapses it will once again return to the closed position.  The “fix” for this is to only lower the window manually and don’t use the auto function.  It took quite a few trips through the drive thru until I broke the habit.

The dash lights recently stopped working randomly. The digital odometer still lights up and is just bright enough that I can see the faint outline of the speedometer needle at night so I can judge my speed.  The LEDS on the radio still work as well.  The rest fo the dash was dead for the last 2-3 weeks until suddenly coming back to life this weekend.  Random, Fonzie-like smacks to the dash seem to have no effect on their operation.

There are various interior trim parts missing or falling off as well.  Luckily none of them serve any useful purpose.  As long as these problems remain minor in scope the party van will continue to be part of my automotive fleet.  However when the first sign of major trouble hits it will be time to do some reconsideration of my transportation needs.  If it wasn’t for the dogs loving the van so much and the usefulness it serves on race day at times the van would have been put out to pasture awhile ago.