Randy’s random musings

So I purchased an ‘98 Accord recently, but didn’t realize until after I was driving it home that it had a problem with the horn. It worked, sometimes–as long as the keys weren’t in the ignition, or the wheel was turned a little to the left or right.

After a few guesses and part replacements (relay, “clock spring” AKA “cable reel assembly”), I realized I was going to have to bust out the multimeter and really trace the problem. I figured out that the horn switch is supposed to get a ground from the steering wheel, and when the switch is pressed, it passes that ground through the cable reel assembly to the horn relay. It turns out that the ground on the steering wheel itself was intermittent. And it got its ground from the center of the steering shaft, which was also intermittent. (more…)

Lately, I’ve had more opportunities to cook, since I’ve been home more. It’s exciting! I like to grab a few items out of the pantry or fridge, and then “perform a Google search” for the ingredient(s) + recipe, and try new things.

Actually, just about everything is new to me, since I only really know how to make a very few meals… Mac ‘n cheese, spaghetti, grilled cheese, fried eggs… Recently, I learned how to make hash browns, as well as chili. It’s a lot of fun when it ends up being tasty!

Today, I decided to make falafels, and was pleased with the result. We didn’t have pita bread, so we ate it with tortillas and tsatsiki. Mmmmm!

Since we need to save money nowadays, I’ve tried to compile a “menu” of sorts, of tasty, healthy food that’s not too expensive. That’s a bit hard to do, so some of the meals on my menu only satisfy 2 of the 3. If you’re interested in seeing my menu, you can find it here.

So today, I wanted to mail off my claim for educational benefits to the Dept of Veteran’s Affairs. I’ve got the GI bill, so I might as well use it, right? Anyhow, the application ended up being about 10 pages, so I wasn’t sure if one first-class stamp would cover it. I also didn’t feel like going to the post office to find out, so I scoured the house searching for more stamps, and all I could find was a sheet of one-cent stamps we purchased when the rate for first class stamps went up. So I decided to have fun with it. Here was the result–for a total of 68 cents, if I count correctly.

At first, I thought that whoever handled this piece of mail might get a small chuckle out of it, however: I just realized that some poor post office employee is going to have to cancel all of those stamps! I feel guilty, but still can’t help but smile…