August 17, 2010

From Great Falls, MT, N47°29.386’ W111°19.942’

Day 75

This morning I had an appointment at Lithia Dodge/Jeep to have the left rear window of the Jeep fixed. I got there and was told I didn’t have an appointment. I didn’t take the e-mail confirmation with me. The service writer said appointments weren’t available until the 26th. I repeated that I got a confirmation e-mail and was told that the reservation system has been malfunctioning. The service writer did check to see if they had the parts in stock, they did and she made me an appointment to have the installation done on Saturday morning. I thought of contacting the General Manager and complaining, but am convinced that would result in my being punished by the discovery that the parts weren’t in stock after all.

Yesterday Gerri had opened one of the over the dash entertainment center and a screw fell out of one of the hinges. I found the screw in the entertainment center after I had taken the other screw out to see if I had one like it in my supply of junk. I didn’t. Now, these are machine screws about ¼” long with a head about 1/8” across. You know what’s coming don’t you? When trying to reinstall the screws it takes two people, one to hold the door in place and the other to get the screws in. Getting the screws in requires contortionism. The second time I dropped one, we never found it. It fell by the driver’s seat and must still be down there along with other small things that have been dropped in the area. I digress; after leaving the Jeep dealership I went to Ace Hardware to try to match the remaining screw. It took two clerks about 15 minutes to find a match. I bought two. At 20 cents each and the time to find them, how does Ace make a profit?

While on the east end of town I did eight caches.

When I went back to the coach the saga of entertainment center door continued. After about 45 minutes and dropping the screws a couple of times, I tried taping to the screwdriver, but that 1/16 threaded hole is hard to hit the screw. I resorted to removing the door hinges from the wall. I assembled the door and hinges and reattached the hinges to the wall. Why didn’t I think of the easiest way first?

There are several caches in the area that I was unable to find. After other cachers posted finds I sent e-mails for a further hint. I found five of the six I had asked about, plus another, for a total of 13 today. I may find 100 caches this month, a record for me. One of the caches was along the river and I saw a huge white pelican in the river so I took my camera with me. I took a couple of pictures and realized I need a longer lens, by the time I got to the car the bird had swum around behind an island.

Tuesday is Bingo night at the Missouri River Manor. Gerri and I went at about 6:30 and played with Glenna. Between the three of us we had seven Bingos, replenishing Glenna’s chocolate supply. I also signed her up for a bus ride on Friday. The bus ride sounds like the same thing Gerri and I paid twenty dollars each for a couple of weeks ago.

Sean had called earlier and we planned to play World of Warcraft at 9 PM, 8 his time. He got really tired after about an hour and a half.