Life-Changing Events — CAMERON ASA

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a buildup of a few different days posts.

I'm still alive. I'm still in Reno. I'm still freezing my ballz off (though it is finally getting above 20º during the day).

I've spent the last few days in anticipation of my friends here in Reno having their new baby girl, Adelaide. Much to our surprise, yesterday they had their new baby... BOY!!! That's right! They thought they were having a little girl and out came a boy. So crazy, and so awesome. Their little boy now has a baby brother.

Although it has been really cold here (and I've head it's been just as cold in my home state of Texas), the Magnusons have been keeping me safe and warm in their home.

Thorondor Update

Thorondor has been fighting the weather well, but the cold may have finally gotten the best of him. My battery died the other day, and a few other weird power issues are pointing fingers at a bad alternator. My next project will be replacing that bad boy. I've never replaced an alternator before but I'm pretty excited to give it a shot!

Westie and I were at the grocery store when my battery died. Our plan was to run some errands, including dropping off a broken dryer at the dump which we had loaded into the van. We tried to jump it with my external battery jumper thingy, and that failed. We walked back to the house in the cold with the groceries for lunch. One of the bags ripped, breaking a jar of jam we had purchased, and somewhere along the way we lost a can of tomato soup. It ended up being quite comical with the amount of things that kept going wrong. We eventually drove the car back to Thorondor to give him a proper jump.

Because we were afraid of getting the van started back up again, we ran the rest of the errands by leaving the van running constantly. We would just lock it up as we went into stores, went to the dump, shipped packages and finally drove it back to the house. Ridiculous. Fortunately the next day we got it charged up and got my alternator tested.

Further Thorondor Update

Today I replaced the alternator!!! So far so good. I also found hose that has a bad clamp and is leaking coolant now, but I'll be fixing that tomorrow. I am SO excited that I successfully replaced the alternator. I was so nervous about doing it and had my dad praying for me all day back in Texas haha. I also had a lot of moral support from Dean here in Reno, making sure I didn't screw anything up and running back and forth to the auto parts store with me. Such a great day.