Packing Up

Sarah starts school again next week so we are packing up and getting things ready to finish getting her moved into her new apartment tomorrow.  This is what the back of Kris’s car looks like 12 hours before leaving. 

Amazing isn’t it?  This is all pretty much clothes and groceries/supplies.  It is a good thing that we kept half her stuff in LaCrosse and moved it into the apartment in June, then took more stuff up at the beginning of August to get her bedroom set up.  Then by morning, we had even more so I had to put down one of the seats. This was the final load we took up:

The Start Of Another School Year

Only three years left.  Today was the first day of Ali’s sophomore year.  This year she got to stay home until around noon since the freshmen were having their orientation and what not in the morning.  Luckily, Sarah was still home and was able to take the traditional first day photo.

Have a great year girls! 

Last Day Of Summer

Today was the last day of summer for Ali.  How did she spend it?  Well she slept in to start.  Then she originally had plans to go to a friend’s house who was having a “pool party”.  Unfortunately, because of weather and other things, that fell thru.  So she was going to be stuck at home all day.  She asked if she could go hang out at another friend’s for the day because she “was not about to spend her last day of summer doing nothing”.  Being the nice guy I am, I let her go.  I thought she should at least enjoy herself before having to start getting up at 6:00 AM every day and spending all day in class.  It could be worse though, she could have to go to work. 

Yellow Jackets, Not Bees

Yesterday I had the time to call about the “bees” that are flying around the foundation.  I was pointed to the Milwaukee & Waukesha Beekeeper Association website by a co-worker and told that they have local beekeepers come and “rescue” the bees rather than destroying them.  The guy I spoke to gave me the rundown of what they do, and what the steps would be.  Since they are in the wall/structure they wouldn’t be able to do it but would put me in touch with a few places that would be able to get them out, but they would charge a fee. 

The first thing he wanted to do was determine if they were bees, and not a variety of wasp, or yellow jacket.  I asked Kris to try and take some pictures that I could forward to him to review.  This is what she got:

IMG_0368 from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

This was better than the pictures I tried taking with my phone last week, and just looking at it, I had a suspicion that these weren’t bees.  I forwarded it on to them, but never got a response.  So today, while I was out looking at the crack, I decided to try and kill one as it was hovering, waiting to enter the nest.  I swatted one to the ground, and as it lay on the concrete, stunned, I could see very clearly that this was not a bee, but looked more like a yellow jacket. That was good news, because now I knew I could just poison the hell out of the nest.

While we were at WalMart Saturday getting supplies for Kris’s dad, I got a can of Raid Maximum Strength Wasp & Hornet Foaming Spray.  Let me tell you, that stuff does the trick.  Although, the one problem I see with it is not being able to get it up far enough under the siding.  It foams up well enough and keeps the yellow jackets from being able to go in and out, but I am not sure it is actually getting to the nest itself. 

IMG_0369 from Dennis Hahn on Vimeo.

After the first application, there was a pile of yellow jackets on the ground next to the house.  

I ended up giving the areas three or four more applications and the pile is about 50 deep now.  I think this is going to take a few days of spraying and waiting in order to kill everything.  But at least I don’t think I’ll need to rip the siding off the house now.

Problem Solved

Coincidentally, yesterday I had my car scheduled for an oil change.  So while I was there I asked our car guy about what was happening with Sarah’s car.  I explained what happened when it totally lost power and asked if it may have been related to the error code that caused the service engine light to come on. 

As we were talking about the battery, I asked about the connections, because the battery is only a week old so there is no way is should be dead already.  Plus, the car started up without any charging so obviously there was power coming from it.  He suggested checking the connections for corrosion, that sometimes on the connecting ring (it’s a side post battery) corrosion will build up preventing a good connection.  I told him that makes sense and that I know for sure there was some build up on the ring when I took the old battery out, so I can definitely try cleaning it off.

When Sarah got home from work, I pulled her car into the drive way got a wire brush, emery paper and some WD-40.  After about 5 minutes, things were cleaned up and put back together.  The car started right up, but it usually does when the engine is warm.  This morning, there were no problems at all thought.  No hesitation turning over, no cranking waiting for it turn over.  One turn of the key and, vroom!  So it looks like we have one problem solved, though I will need to keep an eye on it just to make sure.  Now I just need to figure out what to do about the leaking brake fluid (yes, that is still there).

New Google Street View

I was driving home tonight and when I got to the stoplight to turn left, I saw the Google car coming at me in the opposite direction.  It turns out that it turns right at the light, so that when I turned left, I was right behind it.  So I thought, cool, I am going to follow it and maybe I’ll end up on the Street View again.  It ended up turning on the street that goes by the Jr. High and I thought, perfect, I’ll follow for a block or two and then head home without really having to go out of my way. 

Unfortunately, there was construction in the road in from of the Jr. High (I don’t know if we have any streets not under construction right now!), so it had to turn around, which also meant I did too, along with my shot at being on the Google Street view again. 

It turns out that the Google car went back out to Appleton Avenue, and then turned right onto our street, so I was able to follow it past Pop’s and all the way up the hill.  It went up to Menomonee Avenue and then turned right I think, but I was behind it all the way until I turned into the driveway.  Now I will need to make sure that I keep checking back to see if we get a new street view of our house.  The last one was done in October of 2016, so it would seem strange to have another one done so soon, but who knows.

The Zombie Car

As was reported there have been more problems with the Saturn.  Sarah informed me that her car was starting “hard”, and that it almost didn’t turn over yesterday.  Then she was running back to a store (maybe Target?) to return something and she walks back into the house saying she needs to take someone else’s car, because hers was dead.

I walked outside with her and she put the key in the ignition to turn it over and nothing. Not even a click. No dashboard displays came on, we was not able to put her foot on the brake and shift it into neutral… Nothing.  I told her to take my car and when she got back we would see if I could jump start it.  It made me mad because I had to take in a battery I purchased for it only about a year ago because it was no longer holding a charge, and they gave me a brand new one since it was still under warranty.  So I knew the battery WAS good, but now who knows.  Maybe there is something draining the power from it and that was why the old one was shot. 

When she got back, I told her to pop the hood and get ready to try starting it while I get my car in place to jump it.  She got back in and I though as long as the hood was up, I would take a look to see if anything was going on in the engine when she would try to start it.  I told her to turn the key and bam!  It started up.  So obviously it isn’t the battery that is the problem.  I was able to get it moved into the driveway for the night and I thought I would have a look in the morning. 

Morning came around and I went to move it so Kris and I could head to work, and it was dead again.  I put the key in and the display came on, but as soon as I turned the key, it was completely dead.  I pooed the hood and checked the battery connections, wiggled the cable a bit, and was about to tell Kris we would have to drive around it on the grass.  I went to show her that, yep, it’s dead again, and boom, started right up.  So now I am n\more convinced than ever there is something going on with the battery cables.  I am hoping I can figure it out to at least get it running for her, and then, I think that yes, it may be time to have a look for a replacement.