Ok, I’ll be the first to admit that I am not always the most organized individual, and work has gotten me a little scatterbrained. However, I have had enough.
We ended up driving to Trinidad to get the snake for the sewer. That was Thursday afternoon. Since we were heading out so late, I asked John to pick up the kids. No problem, I dropped my car off with him and then we headed down to Trinidad. We picked up the snake and went to Walmart for some things that Karen needed. Half way through the store, John calls to say that my car has died on him. sigh…
We finish our shopping, and Karen drops Dan and I off at 203 to clean out the sewers. The short version is that 4 sewer clean outs and 4 hours later, we finally had plumbing again. Our neighbor was helping us out as two of the sewers were his. Old plumbing, and ours is linked to his. Dan and I were exhausted. Dan showered while I made dinner and then after a quick trip back to 520, I came home and had a shower.
Friday, we returned the snake to Trinidad and grabbed a quick bite for lunch. Granted, we had a waiter that was so new, he still had the shrink wrap on! Oh well… When we got back in town, we picked up Karen and headed up to the Aguilar NOC (network operation center). We were trying to work on the tower and install equipment to turn on the internet. However, the building had been vandalized. Window shot out, door kicked in, etc. They even left a real good footprint of their size 9 skater tennis shoe on the door in mud. Luckily, the thugs were about 36 hours early if they wanted to do real damage. There was no real equipment in the building yet, and only 1/3 of the antenna up.
So, while we waited for the sheriff to arrive, we worked on the antenna mast, grounding cables, etc. By the way, this is the same sheriff that I have spoken of before. The overweight, ass shooting, tobacco chewing ‘Barney Fife. sigh…. He came up,took some pictures and left. We finished up when we couldn’t see any longer and then went for supper at the local Truckstop diner. We made sure we spread the word that the NOC had been vandalized and that this act would keep us from turning off the internet in Aguilar for an unknown period of time. After that, we drove home. I wrote an article for our local paper the Huerfano Journal and then went to bed. Oh, and because we are an ISP, we have to contact the FBI. The Patriot Act makes attacking ISP’s a terrorist act. Not something those vandals thought about.
Today, I got up early and while I fixed breakfast, Dan looked at my car. He couldn’t find anything wrong with it. So, I figured that while Dan and Karen went back up to the NOC to work, I’d take Matt and Morgan to Pueblo. I needed to get Daniel a birthday prezzie as he is 18 tomorrow.
We headed for Pueblo, and right about mile marker 85, my car died. I called Dan and let him know what was going on and then called AAA. We waited outside the car in the verge, because the cars were going by so fast that I was afraid that one of them would actually strike the car.
AAA called the state patrol, and they sent out a car to stay with me until the tow truck arrived. I had to laugh when I saw who it was. It was Dennis Halverson, a dear friends ex-husband. A real jerk. However, I chatted politely and thanked him for stopping. I also teased him a bit when we were talking about my “new work” with computers. Told him just enough about the computer in his car to make him twitch. It was so worth it.
When the tow truck got there, I just shook my head. It was the same chicken that wouldn’t pull our work truck out of the mud earlier this week. No way I was going to let him work on my car, so I had us towed back to Walsenburg.
After the tow truck left us at the office, I went down and sure enough, my car started. We think there is some sort of electrical short, and Dan will look at it tomorrow.
So, now I am trying to relax. Refill my energy/emotional bucket. It has been a long hard week and I think it is time to curl up with a good book. Oh, and last but not least, the sheriff thinks that he has caught the 4 kids that did the vandalism. We shall see…