January 9, 2006

January 9, 2006

Las Cruces, New Mexico

YEAR 2 DAY 206

 

Today was sunny and mild, with a strong, cold wind.

First thing this morning I took the truck to Aamco Transmission to have them replace the rear differential cover gasket. This was warranty work, arranged by Aamco in Yuma, Arizona. The truck wasn't going to be ready until after lunch, so they drove me back to the trailer at Sunny Acres RV Park. I phoned MTS to discuss some charges on my October cell phone bill. Some of the calls I made in Abbotsford, B.C. were picked up by a cell tower in Bellingham, Washington, and I was billed for U.S. roaming charges. Until November 1 my service plan was only for calls made in Canada. On the same 2 days that some of my calls were routed through Bellingham, Washington, some of them also routed through Abbotsford, B.C., where we actually were. MTS could offer no explanation why some of the calls routed through Abbotsford, and some routed through Bellingham. They cancelled half the U.S. roaming charges. I guess that left me half dissatisfied !

We took Bo for an obedience training session, but the wind was so strong, and so cold, it was a short session. Just as we sat down to lunch, Aamco came to pick me up. They drove me back to their shop, I picked up the truck, and returned to the trailer to finish eating lunch. After lunch, we went off to do some errands. First stop was a propane refill station, to refill an empty propane tank. Next stop was a Post Office to mail Madeleine's birthday gift. We returned to the trailer, to reinstall the propane tank, and drop off the dog. We left for a sightseeing drive around some of the older parts of the city of Las Cruces. Joanne had read in a tourist magazine about the old adobe houses in the older sections of Las Cruces, so we went to see. After a bit of sightseeing, I stopped at a couple of specialty hardware stores looking for some hard to find screws that I needed. The first hardware store didn't have what I wanted, but the second one did. Then we stopped at a specialty food store Joanne had read about that sells New Mexican gourmet specialty food items. We bought a few gifts. Then we drove around for quite awhile looking for a large grocery store. We had difficulty finding one, which was odd. It's usually very easy to find large grocery stores on the main arterial streets of a city. We stopped at a Wal-Mart and I checked how long was the wait foran oil change. It was about 2 hours, and I didn't want to wait that long.

Twice today the starter failed to engage, so when we got back to the trailer, I composed a lengthy letter to GM Of Canada, telling them about the chronic starter problems of Dee-Dee, and requesting their assistance and guidance. I phoned GM to get their e-mail address, and was told I had to go to their website and use a "contact us" link. The form on the "contact us" link wasn't long enough to accommodate my letter. I phoned them back. They said to send as much of the letter as the link would allow, mark it "more to follow", then repeat until my entire letter was sent. It took 5 submissions to send the entire letter. GM must have a department of people whose jobs are to find ways to annoy their customers !

I did today's accounting and started today's journal entry while Joanne went to do some laundry. Then we went out to dinner to Cici's, a chain of all you can eat pizza buffet restaurants. Their food is great, and their prices are cheap. We had been to a Cici's in Livingston, Texas a year ago. When Joanne saw an ad for Cici's here in Las Cruces, she wanted to go.

When we returned to the trailer after dinner, Joanne wanted to watch a movie she had picked up in the clubhouse when she went to do laundry. Lost In Translation. Odd movie ! By the time the movie was finished, Joanne seemed to be suffering from food poisoning. She hasn’t had much luck with buffets lately.

DSK