The Hobo Camp Fire Is going well #VI.. Stop In!!!

[Running Bear]

Congrats on the job AF350!

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Murphy has been laughing up his sleeves big time at me today. I went to Wal-Mart this morning to do some grocery shopping. No sooner than I drove into the lower part of the parking lot the van died. I pulled it into a space and tried starting it. It wants to start but it's apparently not getting enough gas. I sprayed some carb cleaner in the carb and tried it and it kicked right over then died due to fuel starvation. So I'm thinking either fuel filter or fuel pump. Both are on the engine and easy to get at. I'll have my nephew look at it and see what he can do. I called my father and told him to come get me as I needed a ride home. The best place to wait was inside the store. It was 96 outside. I no sooner got that far into the call and my cell phone died. The battery in it is bad. I need to find a repair shop and see if they have a good battery for a Blackberry. Yeah it's a dinosaur, like virtually everything else I own. I looked around and there were no of those electric carts around and unusual for a parking lot, there were absolutely NO vehicles going toward the store. So there was only one way I was getting to the store. Walk the 400 yards up the hill. I had to stop every hundred to hundred and fifty feet and rest a bit then continue. I finally made it to the store. Suddenly there were lots of vehicles coming toward the store and there was an electric cart right at the door with a full charge. So I went inside and got a couple of non-food items. A battery tie-down kit for the van and a surge suppressor for the IIe. About the time I got through checkout my father shows up. We go to his place and he got the keys to his pickup and drove it up out of the back yard and handed me the keys. After all I need some way to get around. I went back to Wal-Mart to do my grocery shopping. No breakdown this time. I get the shopping done and get the groceries into the bed of the truck and headed home. No incidents. I get home and grab two bags (both double bagged) of canned goods and start toward my trailer and both of the bags rip open spilling the cans out on the ground. I got the rest of the groceries into the trailer without incident. I haven't picked up the cans yet, They're still out there in the yard. They can wait until I'm not hurting so bad. Right now I feel like I'm trying to bench press a steam roller from the squat position and my back, hips and knees feel like they are on fire. One other Murphy incident occurred this morning. I went to clean the a/c filter. Just pull the fiberglass sheet out and vacuum it. I got as far as turning the Shop-Vac on and it promptly blew up in my face! The motor shorted out. It's not that old! I only got it four or five years ago and it's hardly been used. Fortunately I have a motor that'll fit in it. One good thing. The power supply for the IIe came in and it tests good in all respects. I thought it had a six amp max load. Turns out it has a seven amp max load. That's a big upgrade for the IIe. The supply in it now has a three amp max load. That may have something to do with why the power regulator went south. Six disk drives, the CP/M and the built-in 128k memory is a pretty fair load to be putting on thirty plus year old components. I did get more stuff out from under the layout and out into the trash can before this sleigh ride began this morning. Well I guess it's time to go outside and pick up the canned goods. This time I'm triple bagging!