Update
| April 26, 2010 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
Update #1: I have poison oak on my face. It’s right by my ear, where I imagine I didn’t get technu. As I recreate my rubbing technu on my face, it seems to me I miss that spot. Darn it. Did I mention today was picture day at the office? I was hired as part of the college recruitment program at my business and they want pics to present to the board of directors…..
Update #2: My vet is able to get me in this afternoon for an ultrasound! I iced and surpassed Farley’s leg today. Feels better, but still ouchy.
Update #3: My boss texted message me Sunday morning to fly to Alabama Monday morning. I got that message approximately 60 minutes ago. Oops. Could NOT have come at a worse time – a friend has offered to do any Farley rehab this week, I have to cancel my PT this week, ignore my laundry, and explain to my trainer why I’m such a flake and I have to postpone my dressage show AGAIN.
This has got to be one of the worst weekends in recent memory. There’s a bunch of personal stuff going on too that I’m not going to get into here.
Regarding the trailer story…..On Saturday evening, as my Dad was driving me to Marysville after the ride (thanks Dad!) we noticed my running lights weren’t working. We got home before dusk so not a problem, but peculiar as they had worked last time I drove in the dark……which was the end of February.
What ever happened, I didn’t have them now.
We replaced the non-working running lights (2) on Sunday afternoon to see if there was a short somewhere. Still didn’t work. We checked the plug. Inconclusive results. No idea what’s wrong. I’m frusterated because I take my trailer maintenance seriously. I’m not one to drive without lights, I get running lights fixed in a timely manner, get it serviced once a year, etc.
Crap.
Now it’s six o’clock.
I have physical therapy at 7:30am. I can’t drive home in the morning, because I would STILL be driving in the dark, and the traffice will be worse in the morning.
The decision is made for me to drive home as fast as possible and try to beat sun down. My flashers, brakes, brake lights, and turn signals work – it’s just the running lights and the tail lights that are out.
I know I’m not going to make it. It’s a solid 2.5 hour drive which puts me home at 8:30p. It’s dark by 8.
I drive as fast as I dare. Yes, I’m speeding.
It gets dark.
I turn on my emergency flashers, pull into the slow lane and start going to the speed limit (55mph). I pray that my flashers still work. I can’t pull over to make sure because I will lose more time.
I white knuckle it for 30 more minutes praying that no one hits my trailer and injuries my horse, that I don’t get pulled over and given a ticket I can’t afford.
I get to my stable and unload my horse.
I find the ouchy spot on her RF.
I put her away.
I jump in my truck and prepare to back my trailer into its spot.
My fuel light goes on.
I hadn’t even noticed I was almost out of gas.
Fuse?
If your dash lights are out, then your tail lights are out–they are purposely wired onto the same fuse so that drivers will KNOW when they’ve lost the tail lights.
A state trooper told me that. Wanna guess why we were having the conversation?
Trooper also told me that it was perfectly acceptable in this situation to drive home with the flashers on.
Good to know.
Everything on my truck is working….just not the trailer. I did tell my Dad that the lights the last time I DID use them seemed to be dimmer. He said that’s sometimes indicative of a faulty ground…..
I guess I should be grateful it was ONLY my tail and running lights (and interior lights on the trailer). Hopefully this can be fixed fairly simply…..*crossing fingers*.
Hehehehehe. Nice to know it isn’t just me having these adventures! I was hoping that whoever saw me would at least recognized I was doing everything within my power to be safe on the road and just get home and maybe cut me some slack??????? I’m so glad it’s over.
I’ll deal with getting it fixed AFTER I find out what’s wrong with Farley and AFTER the poison oak clears off my face (has spread to the side of my lips and down my jaw line and now has blisters and scabs….*sigh*)
Ok, ARR sounds like a completely terrible ride. Mud, rocks, hills, and poison oak? F that. I don’t even know what poison oak looks like – I am from the land of poison ivy, and I’m verrrry allergic.
Aww…man! That all just sucks. I hope that whatever is going on with Farley turns out to be okay. Keep us all posted. I am thinking about you.
Funder – you are hilarious.
I’ll post shortly, but everything with Farley is A-OK! 🙂
As you can imagine from my last post, I have a lot of experiance with trailer wiring. Hehe! You might have a loose wire somewhere on the trailer, thats what I would check fist. Then I would check all the connections at the connecter on the trailer and on the truck. If you have an amp meter you can find out what is going on really fast because it will tell you where power is going through or not. Very handy.
Good luck with Farley!