Hello ... no Dafad hasn't been swept away by all the water running off the mountain and still more to come. As the U.K weather map has at times just shown the whole country under a mass of blue, with varying wind speeds and gale force warnings in the Shipping Forecast, it's as if all the Islands that make up our nation has been in a giant car wash!
(and if you saw some of the cars that were well and truly caught, they got washed inside and out). Which brings me neatly to the ongoing problems with my elderly old dear,
<<< my menopausal Rover. This time last year she was behaving well, but the gremlins have been no doubt been gurgling with glee about their latest exploits in her immobiliser system. After being reprogrammed and ... with a new key fob (something I haven't needed for a while) just imagine standing in the pouring rain pressing the button and facing it in all different areas of the interior and no doors open. At last the buttons click, get in start car ... brilliant she ticks over nicely. Turn her off, try to restart her and this is where she has a problem. A dashboard full of red lights and the sound like a muted ambulance siren, stubbornly she refuses to start. Back out in the rain and try to lock her with the fob, "No!" Try to manually lock her, No!" At this point Dafad headed back indoors feeling somewhat fed up.
A break in the rain .. try again. She had a real funk of a sulk! The gremlins were in their absolute element.
A few days later my friend Dai took me over to my favourite scrap yard to see another Dai (hey this is Wales) where I got a battery and out of an old scrapped Rover got a healthy looking starter motor earthing lead (the old one was a bit, shall we say worn looking). Returned to sulking car, attached a well charged battery ... tried to change the earthing lead ...
ha ... ha ... could not undo bottom attachment bolt. "Bggr!" (that's a very polite way of putting it. There then followed an afternoon of varying attempts involving ... having got said recalcitrant motor started (wound down windows to get fresh air in mouldering car) she then refused to start, and without power ... guess what ... yep 10 smartie points if you got the answer correct, could not wind windows back up! All this with rain threatening again. Dafad here (post pneumonia, recovery stage) had to be honest quite enough!
A kindly neighbour helped to resuscitate the old earthing lead, she started ... windows wound up and then went dead again. The gremlins were by this time having a party!
I was feeling like dead beech leaves.
and looking back to this time last year did little to cheer me up, what a lovely day.
I left the recalcitrant Rover sulking and basically went into brief hibernation.
Instead of the wonderful sunset I witnessed last year, it rained heavily.
Anyway, what of the moody motor. Well just yesterday I managed to get her started
and drove her straight over to my garage, where. on the ramp she behaved. The new earth lead was fitted, an all over check of tyres etc, ready for the journey up to see Dad.
Hunky dory or so I thought ... now don't ask me why because none of us know the answer but, you cannot leave her unlocked on her own (maybe she's getting paranoid about being mugged). Sooo ... every time I switch the engine off I have to lock her with the fob, it can no longer be done manually as the physical key barrel is worn. All this extra hassle to be honest wore me out and of course there is this annual season of Fez-Divities to cope with.
The way I feel at the moment I just want to say "Jingle "frigging" jingle!
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