What are you doing today?

[jaylach]

WOW! It is only the first week of January and I've already done my 'good deed' for the year.

A guy in my apartments is getting a wheel chair lift put on his truck tomorrow and the battery was dead on the truck. The truck needed to be reversed to put the back open to the parking lot for access for the lift install.

Bottom line was my 'jumper box' for starting a vehicle saved the day. Another guy in my apartments was trying to jump start with cables from his truck and could not even get a spark. At first attempt my jumper box was the same but it can also be used as a charger and, after being connected for a few minutes the truck fired right up probably due to a little bit of charge being back in the battery making it not totally dead which allowed my jump box to actually put full output to the truck. The thing started as if had a new battery.

I don't drive any more but will never get rid of this jump box as it could keep me on-lime for several days in a power outage as long as my ISP was still up.

 

[gimme30]

I should invest in one of those, maybe one of the solar versions. I always buy the cheapest battery I can find and they tend to fail at the most inconvenient times. Plus good jumper cables are bulky and take up a lot of space.
Once the lift is installed I hope he'll let you use it to cannonball into the pool!

 

[GaryE]

This is the weirdest winter here. We've been in the region for 4 winters, and in the last week, have equalled the one coldest day we'd had (the day I moved the fish in...). We're getting minus 18 to 24, but with a sharp wind. We got 38 cm of snow, so it's crisp and beautiful, but Wednesday they're talking about zero and possible rain.

I neglected the tanks when everyone was here over the holidays, and can't do water changes because the water is grey with oxygen saturation. I was able to reseal my 40 gallon leaker, and it has held. I made an undergravel for it, and got gravel in yesterday. A frozen Moroccan kid was responsible for the largely shut down garden centre and we slid along the aisle to find the right bags. It must be tough to come from a warm climate into this cold, but he was a cheerful young guy. He'd been preparing while at home - his English was excellent (to my old ESL teacher's ear).

I'll run a slightly too small HOB on the 40 while the undergravel comes to life. It'll be a tank for midwater swimmers, so the 1/4 gravel won't be an issue. In fewer than 60 days, I'll be fishing and learning in West Africa, so I have to begin to think longterm in case I can bring fish back. The inhabitants of 3 smaller tanks'll get this one, and I'll have space for any discoveries.