White Lightning Axiom: Redux

ZING! I had a little issue last night. Broke my schedule all to heck. I had arrived at the manor just before 1700 hours. With the SuperSaturn safely docked in the car-port, I was exiting the command capsule when my ears picked up an odd high-pitched sound. I knew this sound, I've heard it once before. It's the sound of metal grinding against metal. That high pitched tune of heat and vibration which only ends in a charred and smoky end of whatever is producing the shrill song. It was the attic exhaust fan all the way uptop the manor roof. PICKLES! I was not planning on spending my evening clinging to the precipice of the manor amongst the snarling Gargoyles and glaring, cackling crows. I was going to head off to the Gym tonight after feeding the kids their dinner. Well, I was going to the gym until I realized that I had no sneakers. Two pair of slippers, two sets of dress shoes and 3 pairs of boots. Not the kind of thing you would want to head off to the stair-master with. I suppose it was all for the best then. Once I completed the S&R mission and had the kids securely seated about the table, I could clearly hear the whine of the fan. Every second that ticked by the issues ground on my mind. The Mrs was going to be late ... she was in a meeting with her boss from 1500 till 1730 ... argh. Once she finally arrived, I scaled the manor and began the work of figuring out what was amiss. Of course, I had to shut off the fuse for the fan first which was a real blast. With miles between the fuse and the fan, communication was nearly impossible. The composition of the Manor creates a nearly impassable barrier for radio-wave communication. Too much steel, wire, stone and brick. Once we had identified the correct breaker, I had to shout down to the Mrs to turn on and off the circuit to test my 'engineering' efforts. Mostly, that involved me pumping silicone oil into the spindle housing and tapping hammeringBASHING the unit with a locking wrench till the alignment was correct. Took all the daylight hours I had left and I managed to get nailed by 4 mosquitoes in the process. How was your night? I'm exhausted.

This morning, I managed to get up at 0600, but then went right back to sleep for 15 minutes ... pickles again! The traffic was still a mess even though we managed to get going near 0700. This was due to an accident on the Schuylkill Expressway. Nothing to do with the Turnpike expect some Genius put up a notification on the electronic billboard near the 309 exit. Every single-cell organism had to stop their car, get out and read the gosh-durned tootin' message to make sure that their heads were not going to explode. Not that they would suffer from that malady. Grrrr!

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 7:52 AM