#116. or, What's the good news?

 I've been looking back over the last few posts and it occurs to me that I might be a tad negative. As much as, oh-woe-is-me, makes for a decent post, I think I need to make an effort to be a little bit more positive here.

  That being said, the alternator crapped out in my combine on Sunday. I called the after hours parts line at my dealership and had the fellow go in and get the alternator for me. (Which costs extra on Sunday.) My kid ran in and picked it up and when he showed up with it, it was the wrong one. So, I kept going with the one that was failing. All the while, feeling a bit like the astronauts on Apollo 13, trying to figure out what I could turn on and still have enough amps to actually run the computer that runs the combine. I had to turn off the A/C and the GPS! It was getting pretty old school. Until the pitman arm broke on the wobble box  and shut me down completely. That's the thing that makes the round and round motion of the belt and pulley into the back and forth motion of the knife that cuts the crop.

  That positive part is still coming.

  Monday morning, first thing, I run into the dealership to return the wrong alternator, get the right one, and pick up a new pitman arm. Turns out, that the alternator for my combine costs a Thousand dollars! Also, it's been replaced with a different Thousand dollar alternator that requires a four hundred dollar update kit to make it fit in the hole that the original one fit. BUT there is still ONE old style alternator in the city that will bolt right in. They also have my pitman arm there, (which costs $500.) so my parts lady sets it up so I can run in there and pick it all up. The city is an hour away, so it's after lunch when I get home and start putting everything back together.

  Now! Here's the positive part. I got my workout in!

  I started with the wobble box and that bitch weighs about 40 pounds so I got a little weight lifting in, struggling to get that thing into place. Also, my heart rate SOARED when, for a few seconds, it was looking like the last piece that was left to put on should have been put on in the first couple steps and I though everything would have to come back apart to put that one piece in. Luckily I was wrong and it indeed, did go on last.......but still? Raising your heart rate is good, right?

  Then I worked on the alternator which involves packing it up the back ladder into the engine compartment, up over the engine, through a trap door into a crawl space behind the engine. Then, you do an arm extension, holding the 10 pound alternator, past the radiator fan, bend your arm at an impossible angle and put the alternator onto the bracket. Back out of the crawl space, over the engine, into a different trap door, wiggle in past the rad hoses and put the long bolt into place to hold the bottom of the alternator. Then back to the first crawl space to install the upper bracket. Which for some reason doesn't fit. So I take it home to modify it.

  Once I got that all bolted in, I tried to put the belt on. Except it doesn't fit. The alternator, that bolts right in, has been beefed up at the lower bracket and won't tip far enough over. That's why the upper bracket wouldn't fit. Everything has to come back out, taken home, and have a bit of the bracket ground away to let it lean over to where it should be. Then back into the combine to be re-installed again.

  It took all day! I think I was up and down that ladder and back and forth over the engine about 400 times. I worked up a pretty good sweat. By supper time, I was rolling again.

  It's week 4 of the Pish Posh 8 Week Challenge. and I started it out with a full day workout, baby! So far so good!

   ..............except I can't help but feel that a gym membership might be somewhat more affordable that the $1500 it cost me to get my workout in?