You might want to start one on my S-10 too. I was going to the Dr. yesterday morning and it's dead too. I haven't started it in couple of weeks. The battery is fairly new (less than a year old) and has never given a problem, and the lights were not on . . . there's nothing else on it that can pull power with the switch off, so I don't know what's up with it. I'm too sick and it was way too cold to mess with it. I was going to hop in the Passat and run to the Dr.'s office . . . against my better judgement, since it doesn't have a current tag or insurance, but it's only about a mile and I was in desperate need of a breathing treatment. It's been started once since it was wrecked. It turns over about as fast as I fix Homer. My trusty battery charger I've had for 35 years burnt out a few months ago and I haven't replaced it. Joy got off work early caused they closed her quarry down due to the cold weather, so she got home around noon and got me to the local Doc in a Box. Got a breathing treatment, two shots, 4 prescriptions, blood work and she wanted a chest x-ray . . . and their x-ray machine was suffering from the same thing as Homer, my S-10 and the Passat . . . it wasn't working either. Had to go to Ft. O for the X-Ray. Ended up back home about dark.
Oh, the pipes in utility room are swollen and cracked open in a couple of places. That's not a big deal because, well, they are frozen so now leaks . . . until it thaws. This has happened twice before. The last time I had to replumb it, I had the forsight to add cut-offs in the basement, so with a quarter turn of two valves, I have those leaks stopped . . . They are no longer a problem . . . at least until Joy decides that dropping quarters in the machines at the local landry mat is no fun. I have a feeling I won't be alble to put that job off as long as I have Homer.
By the way, even when the weather is warm, I'm feeling good and board because I have NOTHING to work on . . . I STILL HATE PLUMBING WITH A PASSION!
I don't ever want to have to do this job again. The utility room is on the back porch and is unheated. The pipes that feed the washer and the upstairs bathroom run out of the basement, and up through the floor of the utiltiy room. They are fastened to the back wall of the house (outside our bedroom) so for them to freeze, it has to get REALLY cold and stay that way for quite a while. We've lived here a little over 20 years and this is the third (maybe the forth) time this has happened. The original pipes were copper. I hate working with copper (me, a torch, inside the house. . . you understand). I replaced it with CPVC. I hate it too, but I can work with it without burning the house down. I'm wondering about PEX. I don't know much about it, but I've heard it withstand freezing without busting. Any truth to that?
