Technology in the Desert

I helped keep runners safe at the Salt Flats Endurance Run held earlier this month. It is something I do every year as it combines off-road driving with ham radio. For some reason crazy people enjoy running out in the desert and a select group of people go out and help make sure they stay safe. Interestingly enough, I think the volunteers outnumber the runners two or three to one. I should try and figure that out next year.

Normally my wife and I drive out to Aid Station 6 and set up camp for the day. We bring lots of drinks and food to help fuel the runners. Once we are done, we drive back the way we came over a very rough road that requires high-clearance vehicles. The runners continue on a trail that we can't follow as per Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rules. It takes us about 45 minutes to make the drive to Aid Station 5, which also happens to be Aid Station 7. There we wait for all the runners to safely make it in. This year we didn't have to.

In the past we have waited as our vehicles might be needed to get as close to the runners as possible before having to continue on foot. This year the radio crew at Aid Station 5/7 had a new toy: a drone. Instead of driving out a mile or two and hiking to look for lost runners, they could send a drone equipped with a camera as well as night vision. That allowed us to leave at a reasonable hour of 9pm and get home by 1am. Previous years has had us sticking around until midnight or later. That makes for a long day.

This year we hung around for a few minutes and then made the lengthy drive back to the start/finish line. We dropped off all of our extra food and some of the remnants of the runners' drop bags that we brought out to our aid station. While checking out with the race officials, we could hear on the radio the happenings at Aid 5/7 and the status of the last runner, slowly making his way to them. We knew he would take time as he barely made it to our aid station before the mandatory cutoff time. They sent the drone to locate him and did so as the marvelous piece of technology reached its maximum range before needing to return or risk running out of battery. On that news, my wife and I jumped into our Jeep Wrangler and drove home. It felt downright luxurious being home by 1am.

Working From Home, Do I Need a Car?

My wife and I used to own 3 cars for the two of us. She drives a Jeep Wrangler, I have a truck that I mostly use in the winter and I used to have a sedan that I mostly drove in the summer months. Unfortunately the sedan started having mechanical problems and so I sold it. Then this last week, my truck has been in the shop with a warranty repair. It didn't need to be in the shop for a week but the extended warranty company wanted to make sure they didn't pay for unnecessary repairs.

I have to be honest, because I work from home, I hardly noticed my truck was gone. I don't really go anywhere and I am fine with that. I do need to exercise and so I go for a morning bike ride and get out of the house. Normally I try to keep that ride under an hour and end up going about 16 miles. Some people I know get a little stir crazy and need to get out of the house, which is part of the point of my daily ride.

Now my wife really missed my truck this week. She wanted to go to the hardware store and pick up garden supplies. Supplies that won't fit in the back of a 2-door Jeep. I got the truck back last night and my son informed me he needed to go pick up more supplies for finishing his basement. My wife interjected and said that he couldn't use it until she was done.

While I don't doubt we need the truck, I do question the necessity of owning 2 vehicles in the summer when I work from home. The cost of a second car is fairly significant considering annual licensing, insurance, gas, and maintenance not to mention the purchase price. That is one area where a lot of people could cut down on monthly expenses. 

Unfortunately that second car becomes very important during ski season as I try to get to the mountain every morning before work. I suppose I could convince my wife to come with me and that would eliminate the need for a second vehicle throughout the year. That didn't work this year though and I doubt it will next. Otherwise I think we really could not just survive but thrive with a single car. I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Fixing an Online Order

Back in March of this year, my wife and I decided to spend the $2300 to get her soft-top Jeep Wrangler a hard top. This required installing the wiring harness, which I did back in October with the help of YouTube. Since putting the hard top on the Jeep I have been trying to figure out if we ever paid for it. Today I discovered that we hadn't and fixed that.

When I originally ordered the parts back in March, it took several tries through an online website. The first time I tried, my credit card got declined. After that, my credit card stopped working and so I had to call my credit card company. It seems that there are a number of thieves that will place an expensive order to an auto parts company on the East coast and have it shipped to the West coast. The thieves then use the long shipping times to rip off online vendors and credit card companies. Noticing this trend, Visa listed my transaction as suspected fraud and shut off the card. I managed to get the card reinstated without too much difficulty.

While trying to purchase the hard top, I found several other online sites selling the parts I needed for even less than where I originally placed the order. One vendor took American Express and the transaction went through. A few weeks later I got an e-mail about how it would take 3 months to fabricate the hard top as it is not a part they keep in stock. I responded that I didn't mind waiting and in May the hard top with associated wiring harness arrived. We left the soft top on the Jeep for the summer and didn't worry about the hard top until the weather turned cold. The whole time I kept expecting the $2300 charge to appear on my American Express. It never did.

In October I started trying to track down if I had actually made a payment or not. I ran through my American Express statements and didn't see anything. I tried contacting the place I ordered the parts from but always seemed to try after they had closed for the day. Yesterday I finally sent them a message via their website (which didn't list a phone number). Today I got back a message saying they had cancelled my order and wouldn't be sending me a hard top. They must not have read my message closely because I already had the hard top and just wanted to pay for it.

I decided that I needed to try a different route and pulled out the paperwork from the original shipping crate. It listed the shipper along with a phone number. I called them and presented my story to a very confused secretary. She passed my call onto the boss and I recounted it yet again. For some reason he seemed amazed that someone would want to try and pay for something without the threat of legal action. He said he wanted to do some research and would call me back.

About 30 minutes later he called and explained what had happened. The original place I ordered the hard top from did not know that it had been sent. After a period of inactivity, the order was cancelled. Because of the cancellation, the shipper was responsible for eating the cost of the mistake. He then went on to politely ask me if I still wanted to pay for the parts. I told him that I did and gave him my credit card number. He continued to be amazed that someone would do all this work. I responded that there are still honest people in the world. He appreciated knowing that.

Sometimes online companies make mistakes. While we should expect these companies to fix any issues with orders, we should also do our part to as well.

YouTube to the Rescue

Three years ago when we bought my wife's Jeep Wrangler we saved a lot of money by getting it with just a soft top. Then earlier this year we decided to pay the $2000 and get a hard top as well. Now as we get closer to winter, I thought I would install all the wiring and plumbing for the hard top.

I ordered the kit from Mopar and it didn't come with printed instructions. It came with a CDROM. I pulled up the instructions a few weeks ago and printed them out so I didn't have to keep a computer near me as I worked on the Jeep. My hands always seem to get dirty when I work on cars and I don't want to get my computer dirty as well.

I started working on the wiring at 9:30 this morning and quickly ran into problems. So I pulled up YouTube and found a video of someone else installing the the hard top kit for his Wrangler. I watched the beginning of the video and found a quick solution to the first problem: use a pre-run wire to pull the wiring harness through the firewall. Going back to my printed instructions, no mention of a helper wire could be found but I did discover that your run the wiring from the inside of the car into the engine compartment. Had I read the instructions more carefully I would have figured out the trick with the wire. The video did help though.

Working on the car took all day. I did stop for lunch, dinner, and to make a run to Home Depot to pick up a T50 bit for my socket set and a siphon hose so I could empty the windshield wiper fluid. At dinner, I thought about calling it a day and finishing up next weekend. Then I realized that I just wanted to be done and so I pushed through. I finished up at around 8:30. Yes, the job took me 11 hours. Any time I got stuck, I would go back in the house, wash my hands, and continue watching the YouTube video.

Having an online resource to help get through the tough spots made my job a lot easier. Unfortunately it didn't solve all of my problems. Both the printed instructions and YouTube video were for a 4-door Jeep while my wife's is only a 2-door. While I had a few shortcuts I could take, there were a few times I stood there scratching my head wondering what to do next. The video also missed a few tricks that I would have liked to know. Ultimately I am glad I had the help.

A Ski Rack for the Jeep

Last month I bought my wife a new Jeep Wrangler. The first addition is getting a ski rack for it since there is snow falling in the mountains around my house. Unfortunately the Jeep Wrangler is a tough car to outfit with a ski rack. You can mount one on the hard top but that involves drilling holes. Besides we don't yet have a hard top as ours came with a soft top.

I didn't want to wait for one to arrive by mail and so I headed to the local ski shop. Both Thule and Yakima make ski racks meant to mount on bike carriers that attach to trailer hitches. We wanted a ski rack that attaches to our spare tire. The ski shop just had ski racks for the top of a car. Next we headed to REI. REI had the Thule racks and we were able see that we needed to get their rack for skis that attaches to a bike rack. We also saw that they have a bike rack that attaches to a spare tire and is compatible with the ski rack we need. Unfortunately the combo was rather expensive at $465 for both.

Being a computer expert and knowing that you can always get a better price online, I came home with my wife and we fired up the computer. Guess what? Everyone wanted $465 for the combo. I couldn't believe that a better deal didn't exist on the Internet. In the end, my wife and I headed down to REI and made the purchase. As I am an REI member, I was able to use my 20% discount on a single item. I used it on the more expensive piece of the 2-part rack. That means the local store had the better price than the Internet.

We brought everything home and looked at putting it together. In the end, we decided that the best option for our ski rack was actually to mount it to a trailer hitch bike rack we already own. Since we bought both pieces from a local shop, we can take back the piece we don't need, save ourselves $200, and not have to pay shipping costs. Sometimes it pays to shop at a local store instead of trying to buy everything online.

Cyberwidows

When the Internet exploded about a decade ago and everyone started putting up Websites, somebody coined the term "Cyberwidow." It referred to wives that were neglected in the evening because husbands were busy playing online games or surfing the Internet. As someone who works in the video game industry, I fear I only help contribute to the problem. Therefore I feel it is appropriate for me to help provide my own personal remedy.

About a month ago I was talking with one of my friends. We were talking about our wives and he mentioned that it is important to get away for a weekend, without the kids, and go do something fun. His recommendation included a quarterly time-frame. I have to say that I agree. My kids are grown and all moved out so it is just me and my wife. Yet we still try to get away once a year. Conincidently we were having the conversation just after I returned from a weekend in San Diego and so I felt like I was doing my part. That was back in September.

Now it is November and a different quarter. This past weekend I took my wife to Moab, Utah. One of my favorite national park is Arches and it is spectacular. I think it ranks right up there with Yellowstone and Yosemite. Arches National Park is located just outside of Moab and has some adventurous hikes with amazing scenery. Moab also happens to be mountain bike capital of the world and at the same time, four-wheel-drive capital of the world. It just so happens that I recently bought my wife a brand new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. We used the trip to do a bit of hiking and break in my wife's new car. It was fun and most importantly, nothing broke.

The whole weekend was very inexpensive. We opted to stay in a hotel where breakfast was included in the price of the room. They had a hot tub and pool that felt rejuvenating even though it was only 45 degrees Fahrenheit outside overnight. Throw in gas for the Jeep, eating at restaurants, and entry into the park for a total cost under $200. Remember that a happy wife equals a happy life. Life is pretty good for me right now.