Sneaky Bastard

I received this awesome video for my birthday last weekend. Heather collected video from my family and friends — while keeping the entire project a complete secret. I was totally stunned when we watched it together. It’s a bit too awesome to post on YouTube.

It seems somewhat odd, even for a snake oil saleswoman, to self-title a Meetup group. It might have been more effective to use “EXXXTREME Health!!” I didn’t look into it very far, but I’m willing to bet a buck that she is looking for people to joint her Network Marketing scheme to sell supplements.

I don’t know this cracks me up so much. Normal e-mail spam just makes my stabbing arm quiver, but when a spammer/shyster/con artist puts in the effort to create a group on Meetup.com, I laugh out loud. Then again, I think scam baiting is funny too, so I may be a poor judge.

Granted, that second one seems more like a mis-tagged group than a scam. However, the fact that a drinking group is associated with a hiking group is, well, funny.

I bought a Ford F-150 4×2 Super Cab XLT Sport 4.6L new in 2002. It’s got 78,000 miles on it now. Until last week, it had been trouble-free. However, when I attempted to drive home from work a while ago, I couldn’t shift the transmission out of park. The problem was that fuse number 15 had blown. That circuit powers the brake-shift interlock solenoid, among many other things. After fumbling around in the dark with a flashlight, I pulled a 5 amp fuse that I wouldn’t need and replaced the bad one. On my drive home, I picked up some extra fuses. In the parking lot of the parts store, I pushed a new fuse into place. That fix worked for a couple days.

The second time the fuse blew, it was in the driveway. I was able to do a bit of research online to see if there were similar reports. There were many. It seems that this is all related to the voluntary recall related to the speed control deactivation switch shorting out and starting fires. I took my truck to the Ford dealer when received the letter about the recall several years ago. Their solution was to disconnect the switch until parts were available to address the problem. I never went back, and my cruise control has been disabled since.

I believe that at one of the service visits to Jiffy Lube, someone must have seen that the switch was unplugged, and helpfully reconnected it. It seems like a reasonable thing to do, so I don’t blame them. However, the end result was that the condition leading to engine files was restored. I pulled the connector off the switch to see brake fluid accumulated around the conductors. That seems like the most likely reason for the short causing the fuse to blow.

While I was under the hood doing a visual inspection, I noticed that the wires leading to the air temperature sensor had been crushed, leaving bare wire exposed. Fantastic. I’ll have to repair that at some point. Here are some pictures showing the part locations:

In the movie Major League (1989), Pedro Cerrano constructs an alter for Jobu, with the expectation that he will take the fear of the curve ball from his bats. In one scene, a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken is brought into the locker room, and his teammates apologize that they could not deliver a live chicken for the sacrificial offering. My family has seen the movie dozens of times, and we often quote memorable lines. There are several great clips are on YouTube.

When I interviewed for a job recently, my mom constructed an offering to Jobu. She arranged some of my favorite items, along with my personalized cloth napkin and a whole chicken. Obviously, it worked. How else could I have been selected for the position?