Fish-Sitting?

If there is such a thing, I guess that's what I'm doing for the next week or so.

I went over to see what was going on at Sarah and Teresa's house yesterday. I hadn't been there since like Wednesday or so of last week! Wow... Time got away from me there apparently. Anyway, she and her boyfriend and Teresa were all there. She and Teresa are going over to visit her friend over near Chewelah on Wednesday, so I offered to watch their goldfish until their return on the following Wednesday or so. Yep, call me a fish-sitter.

I went to drive the truck to work yesterday morning, and it wouldn't start again. I drove it off and on all weekend, but now it craps out on me again. The Neon wasn't "quite" ready to drive, but I was already a tad bit late to start gathering up Harley riding apparel, so it was my choice. It just barely turned over--Apparently I left the dome light inside on all day and night. No matter... At least it started.

I noticed right away that it shifts a lot easier. One of the little things I fixed was a missing bushing on the shifter cable. Without the bushing, there was a big hole for a little linkage pin to slop around in. That meant the cable had to move farther than normal each direction to get the required movement out of the shift linkage.The missing bolt I had on the coolant bottle mount didn't give me a problem either.

After work I stopped by the two junkyards in Kent that are situated right next to each other. I did a thorough walk around in each of them, finding all the Neon's they had and checking them over. I got the missing retainer nut I needed easily, but not the blower motor. I just happen to have a Neon with NO air conditioning, and I must be the only one in the world. The blower motors on AC-equipped cars are different. Oh well, for my troubles, I pocketed a couple of lighted heater knobs from a slightly newer Neon. Mine is a first year model Neon, and although the panel behind the knobs is lit the heater control knobs are not, so at night I could never see which direction the knobs were pointing. Now I can.

I left the stereo out of it when I put it back together too. It had been acting up for a few years now, and sometimes I'd have to bang on it to get sound out of it. After I got home from the junkyard I put the new heater control knobs on, attached the coolant bottle, and reinstalled the OEM AM-FM cassette that came in it (lucky for me I kept it). It was super easy to install because I didn't modify any wiring when I put the CD unit in a number of years ago. Unplug one, plug in the other. It sounds great, but has no CD player. Oh well... I hardly ever listen to them anyway. My commutes aren't long enough.

All I have to do now is track down a source of a blower fan motor. I've already placed a wanted ad in Craigslist for one. Now I'll just keep looking.