April 25, 2006

April 25, 2006

Kingston, Ontario

YEAR 2 DAY 312

 

Today was sunny and cold.

Well, that ******* piece of crap is not going to let go of her death grip on my wallet until the moment I hand her keys over to Belleville Dodge.

This morning I headed for Van & Truck World. As I turned out of the campground, I could tell from the rapid flashing of the turn signal that a bulb must be burned out. Darn ! At Van & Truck World while they worked on removing the fifth wheel hitch, the fifth wheel electrical connector and wiring, the brake controller, and the aluminum tool storage chest, I browsed for truck accessories. I noticed there was a PetsMart across the street, so I walked over to drop off an affinity card application form we have had sitting on the dash for quite awhile, since the last time we shopped at a PetsMart. When I returned to Van & Truck World, the young man working on Dee-Dee came out front to see me, to discuss a problem. The goofball who had installed Dee-Dee's cruise control had hard wired it into the trailer brake controller circuitry. If Van & Truck World removed the trailer brake controller, the cruise control would be inoperative, or need to be completely reinstalled / rewired. That reinstallation / rewiring would be more expensive than buying a new brake controller. My sense of ethics prevents me from trading in the truck with inoperative cruise control, and a malfunctioning signal light. They both worked on Saturday when we were buying the new truck, and Belleville Dodge was assessing Dee-Dee for trade in. With a bit of sympathy, Van & Truck World's manager offered me a discount on a new trailer brake controller. < sigh > I bought a new trailer brake controller for $100, so I can leave the existing one in Dee-Dee, to keep the cruise control operative.

When they were finished I drove across the street to an auto parts store to buy a signal light bulb. I have a supply of spare auto bulbs, but since we emptied everything out of the tool storage chest yesterday, the spare bulbs were in the trailer, and I had no idea if any of my spare bulbs were the correct bulb. And I had no tools in Dee-Dee except for a multi-head screwdriver. I wrestled the rusty mounting screws out of the taillight assembly, and went inside the auto parts store with the taillight. I needed to borrow tools from them to open the rusty taillight assembly. When I finally got it open, I bought a package of 2 correct bulbs, installed one, reassembled the taillight, and took it out to test it on the truck. It wouldn't work < sigh >. Back inside, the clerk who was helping me brought me a new taillight assembly circuit board. I dissembled the taillight again, removed the printed circuit board, installed the new one, put everything back together again, took it out and installed it in Dee-Dee. Everything worked fine. I went back inside to pay the bill. Another 53 bucks into Dee-Dee < sigh >.

I went to Water Depot and refilled 5 jugs of water. Water refill machines are slightly difficult to find in Canada. In the United States, there's a water refill machine, or kiosk, every few hundred feet, it seems. I drove across the street to the Post Office inside Shopper's Drug Mart, and mailed Amelia's birthday gift. While exiting Shopper's Drug Mart, I bumped into Joyce Malley coming into the store. We chatted for just a minute. I walked over to Tim Horton's in the same mall, and had a late lunch. I drove to the library, and got online using Wi-Fi I sent and retrieved e-mail. I retrieved the long version of a Federal corporate income tax form. 89 pages ! I retrieved the short version of a Federal corporate income tax form, for smaller, simpler companies. 25 pages ! I retrieved the Province Of Ontario corporate income tax form. 8 pages ! I got the phone number of the Government Of Canada forms office. I sent an e-mail to Dodge Canada asking a warranty question, as if I was about to purchase a new Dodge vehicle, and needed to know the answer to the question before I made a purchase. Yeah, I know, I was supposed to send that question before I bought the new truck. I finished up online, went outside into the library's parking lot, phoned the Government Of Canada forms office, and ordered the 89 page tax return, the 25 page tax return, and a corporate tax return guide, to be sent by mail < sigh >. No wonder I always used an accountant. I drove to Canadian Tire and bought some Velcro I need to reinstall a piece of moulding in the bedroom that I had previously installed with double sided tape. The tape let go, and the moulding came off recently. I don't want to install this piece of moulding with screws, because it's right at a flex point in the trailer. As the trailer flexes during travel, screws would just strip and pull out.

I drove back to Rideau Acres, arriving back at the trailer about 6:00 P.M.. It seemed like a long, hard day. I sat and talked with Joanne a bit about how my day went, then started working on the computer while she prepared supper. I worked on today's journal entry, then today's accounting.

We had supper, watched a couple of hours of TV, and went to bed early.

DSK