Another interesting day...

And you know about the ancient curse of 'May you live in interesting times'. 

The day started with a grumble when I went out and tried to start the truck.  No go.  That truck has so much crap stuffed under the hood that I really try NOT to look under there.  Apparently that isn't such a good idea.  Because it is a diesel it needs lots of starting power but for some reason Ford didn't want to put a regular extra large battery under there so they put in two regular sized batteries.  You've gotta wonder where they get these ideas.  Anyway the negative posts on each battery was extremely corroded.  That was bad but the connector on the battery cable is the dumbest thing I've ever seen.  It is part steel with maybe a copper coating and has all kinds of nooks and crannies for corrosion to hide.  Cleaning the (*%%$( things took me at least an hour.  An hour we didn't have because we had stuff to do. 

My wife had her mamogram this morning and I drove her because we wanted to squeeze in some breakfast before a meeting with the Senior Dimensions people scheduled for 10:00.  They managed to convince me that I ought to sign with them so I'm looking into all kinds of fun with them.  So we made it home in time for lunch.  After lunch I got the charger out and charged the batteries for a while.  I ASSUMED that if I unhooked the negative lead from the battery it would be isolated and could be charged.  Turns out that was wrong; when I hooked the charged to the second battery it was already fully charged.  Grrrr!  I'm an idiot.  I managed to start the truck though and apparently no harm was done.  All the same, I should have checked either in the owner's manual or online or somewhere!  It was a fine case of idiocy.

Happily I've sat in my chair and fooled with the computer the rest of the day so I have been saved from further embarrassment.  We keep talking about travelling in our trailer and one of the things I do not like is some of the high passes and narrow roads you find in the mountains.  We saw a mention of a book that specifies several hundred passes:  how high they are, how steep the grades are, etc.  They have one version for the eastern states & one for the west.  It sounded like something we would really like as a reference.  It is called the Mountain Directory and that link will take you to their site.  It is $17 for the paper version and $18 for the Windows version - no version for mobile devices, iPads, Kindles, etc.  I downloaded the electronic version and I think it's pretty neat.  Not perfect but pretty good.  The big problem is that it was published in 2006 so it's slightly out of date.  The funny thing is that I went out to Amazon looking for it and they want $250 for it!!!!  I've no idea what the deal is but they were even offering used versions for $40?  Weird!  Heck, the electronic version will be more convenient for most people anyway. 

I promised a couple photos of the sunrise we enjoy while walking early in the morning.  So here we go:  The first one is looking towards the east; just before the sun climbs over the mountain.

 The second is the mountains in the west that are gradually being lit up by the sun.  You will notice that the valley floor is pretty flat and uninteresting.  Even the houses aren't always too cool looking but the mountains fill your soul.  Or at least my soul.

So that was my interesting day.  Hope you had a good one too.  Thanks for looking in.