Daily Archives: July 11, 2020
The Fix That Didn’t . . .
Jan got a new shirt yesterday that she found on Facebook. It’s a really nice material and very comfortable.
Of course one reason she likes it is because it looks a lot like our Karma.
I told Jan I get a permanent Sharpie and fill in Karma’s Hitleresque mustache onto the shirt for her. She said No.
Jan and I tried a new place for ‘linner’ today, and it turned out to be really good. it’s called Salata and has locations in Texas, California, Georgia, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Illinois, and Florida. It’s basically like a Chipotle with salads and wraps, but with much less emphasis on the Mexican side of the menu.
Like Chipotle, you go down a cafeteria line telling the server what kind of salad mix you want, and then which of the 50+ veggie, fruit, and meat ingredients you want on it. Here’s Salata’s menu.
They also have Tomato Basil, Broccoli, and Chipotle White Bean soups, so Jan and I got a bowl of the bean version, which was really, really good too.
The only problem was that we didn’t realize how large the regular salad was. The stainless steel bowl is almost 12” across. Next time we’ll get the small one, especially if we’re also going to get soup, which we probably will since it’s so good.
And we will go back.
As far as the ‘fix’ that didn’t, yesterday morning when I headed into work, my truck AC wasn’t working. It was just blowing warm air.
Now it was working fine Thursday evening for Jan and I, so I was hoping it was just a blown fuse, or something else simple. But, alas that was not to be.
So this morning I went out to take a look at it. The fuse/relay was fine, so next I checked the 12vdc that feeds the electric clutch on the front of the A/C compressor. The voltage was good, and when I plugged the connector back it, I heard the loud ‘click’ as it pulled in, so it was OK.
I replaced this compressor about 4 years ago, just because the clutch was bad, so I was glad to hear it working.
My next step was to check the Freon level. A while back I had picked up one of these A/C Pro recharge kits on a ‘just in case’ basis.
But plugging it in to the system, I was very surprised to find the gauge showing no Freon at all. Now what was surprising about this is that the clutch voltage goes through a low-pressure switch which is supposed to keep the clutch from engaging the compressor with too low a Freon level.
This is because the oil in the Freon system is what lubricates the compressor internals, so you don’t want it running without Freon/oil.
Checking out the A/C piping I saw no signs of any obvious leaking, I.e. oil, so I started adding Freon from the can. And the level gradually started coming up until it was in the middle of the green band. And now I had nice cold air coming out of the vents.
But I didn’t expect it to last, since it had obviously leaked out before. And it didn’t.
When we headed out to Salata about 4pm, the air coming out of the vents was cool, not cold. And when we were coming home it was only ‘coolish’. So I’ll have to get it in the shop next week.
Another in our Where We Were 11 Years Ago Today series.
July 11, 2009
Mt. Vernon, George Washington, but no cherry tree…
This is our last full day here in the Washington DC area, so we started it with breakfast for one last time at the Silver Diner.
After that we drove down to Mt Vernon to visit George Washington’s home on the Potomac River.
We got there about 11 am and the place was packed. They were already into overflow parking.
After watching a very good film at the Welcome Center on George Washington in the French and Indian War, and the Revolutionary War, we headed up the house itself.
And ran into a very long line.
They said it would take about 55 minutes to get into the house.
They lied. It took over 90 minutes to get in.
But in the meantime, we got to see some very old trees lining the path that were planted by George Washington.
They even have these old trees protected with lightning rods to keep them safe.
Finally we got within sight of the actual house itself.
After touring the very large house (over 9000 square feet in three floors) we got to sit on the wide front porch and look out on the same river view that George Washington used to enjoy.
And from the big smile on her face, Jan enjoys it too.
One interesting tidbit we learned from one of the guides during the house tour was that George and Martha must have presented a somewhat odd appearance as a couple.
George was about 6′ 3″ and Martha was 4′ 11″. Talk about ‘stooping to conquer”.
After leaving Mount Vernon, we drove over to Alexandria, VA to eat at the Chart House restaurant on the Potomac River.
After a very good meal we headed back to the coach to get ready to leave tomorrow morning.
An update. A few days after I posted this blog, I got a email from a PR person at Mount Vernon, apologizing for the long wait and the misleading signs. Not sure how she found the blog, but I guess she just regularly Googles ‘Mount Vernon’ to see what’s being posted about the place.
Thought For The Day:
SECRET: Something People Tell Other People To Tell No One.
