This weekend, Mark and I did some car work. He worked on his air conditioning unit, and I worked on replacing my radio. No really, I did it mostly by my self. You'd be so proud of me! Working like I knew what I was doing :D I have a few pictures that I got with my cell phone. So I'll post them when I finish typing, so that blogspot can mess up my paragraphs.
I ran into a few snaggles along the way. Ok, maybe more than a few. I used Mark's electric screw driver to remove the face plate around the radio and stuff. Impressed yet? Mark had to come and rescue me. I wasn't able to get the plate off, it was snapped in place, and I was afraid to break it. Passing that hurdle, I, all by my onsie, took the radio out and disconnected it. Then I was stumped. But these things always come with some directions, right? And they'd be helpful, right?Wrong. Now I know why guys throw the directions away. I threw them away (read, I threw them into the backseat in case I did need them after all). It came with these plastic boxes with wires sticking out connected to nothing. Weren't they supposed to connect something, rather than dangle like octopus legs?? I guess I was mistaken. I called my backup. He came riding in on his white horse with...you get the point. He said all the wires are supposed to connect to each other. What the-?!? He brought these boxes of....wire connectors?...or something. Sure, he made it look easy when he crimped the thingy on the end of the wire. I was thinking, "Oh, just like crimping beads with jewelry making, huh?"
Wrong, again. I can start IV's, I can draw blood, I can attach a 12 lead EKG to a chest, I can interpret EKG rhythms, I can't replace a radio. I'm flawed!! I couldn't crimp those things to save my life! My poor little arm muscles, they were worn out. And I had only done 2, there were like 12,549 left. And you know what else?? Not all of them had a matching wire to be connected to! I was shocked! I did about half of them before I had to surrender the crimping tools to my husband. He did the other half in about 1/16th of the time it took me to do the other half. But I couldn't figure out, where the black wire attached to. I guess that's why I'm not an electrician.We decided to see if it worked. I turned the car on, pressed the power button...nothing. turns out, I blew a fuse playing with the bazillion wires. Imagine that. Still didn't work after we replaced the fuse. Mark worked his magic and connected it to an outside power source and that proved it did work, at least outside the car. Inside the care was another story. We were both frustrated. Neither of our projects worked. His AC was still broken, and my radio was...not. I put the old one back in (no wire connecting, this time, just snapping parts together), in hopes that it would work....
Wrong, again. We drove home, him with his uncold air conditioning, me with my silent radio. My whole life of driving flashed through my head during the 3 minute drive home from the shop. How will I be able to drive more than 10 minutes without getting bored or sleepy?? How will Mark and I take long road trips?? We'll have to...t-ta-talk.
Then, Mark had this great idea that there must be another fuse that I had blown. Great, now I'll forever be known as the wife who blew both fuses in the car, trying to change the radio. Sure enough, he found it. Yay, now my old radio works! If only we had thought of that while were still at the shop.I do have this plan to go over to the shop later today for attempt #2. I'll still have to figure out how to get it mounted in the car...I guess I'll trip over that hurdle when I get there.
Now for pictures...I think they turned out pretty good. I'll try to remember to take some today. I don't want people gawking at me, so I'll be over there later today, about 3ish, after most everyone else is gone. So perhaps by tonight you can see my new cool sounding radio :)
Gotta run!
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