How I Spent My Mini-Vacation

Sigh... My little mini-vacation (2 days + 2 regular days off) is over. I rarely have a weekend off so I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately, I didn't accomplish 1 thing I had planned, like having a nice grilled dove dinner. In fact I didn't see a single bird before it started raining.

But I did manage to spend a whole buttload (is that 1 word or 2? Spellchecker was no help at all) of money I didn't plan on. Hunting license, shells, new grill, ect., and all I had for dinner was hamburgers. I also spend some unexpected cash for repairs on my Minitruck. The battery decided this was the time to give out. What I thought would be a quick and easy $30-$40 repair turned into a slow and tedious $100 repair.

I thought a motorcycle or lawn mower battery would be used for a replacement (it's a tiny 3 cylinder engine), it wound up taking a car battery. Motorcycle and mower batteries have the wrong type of terminal. I get back home, remove the old battery and discover that the top posts are about 1/3 smaller than the replacement battery. So I dig out the vise-grip pliers and start grinding away at the lead posts. Problem was I got really good at it, ground off too much lead and one of the posts is now too small (insert Fred Flintstone grumbling rant here). After inserting several of the larger lead slivers that had been ground off, I managed to fill the gap well enough to get a firm grip between cable and battery.

Did I mention the truck was sitting in the middle of the field and it was raining the whole time I was doing this?