So, I've set up shop at Dreamwidth...

and am testing out the cross-posting capabilities between it and LJ.

They make it easy to set things up so that each post on DW is automatically posted to LJ.

It also makes importing your LJ into the DW archives a snap.

I will need to poke around some more, but so far I am impressed.

So yesterday was fun...

I was scheduled to take my next exam, Building Systems, at 9:00 a.m. yesterday. No problem, I was fairly well prepared for it, and think I did O.K.

The fun part was getting there. We had a SEVERE thunderstorm push through the Knoxville area around 8:30 ish yesterday morning. I wasn't having much of a problem at all getting through it, as I had the windshield replaced (thanks to insurance coverage) on Wednesday, and I had fixed the wipers using C clips. (Or so I thought).

Well, the C clips were noisy, and ultimately did not hold under the stress of wipers on full for extended periods of time. I found this out as I was getting off the interstate at Cedar Bluff on my way to the Prometrics testing site. (which is luckily right by the exit)

I believe the clip on the passenger side went first, as that wiper stayed at full wipe so to speak while the driver's wiper arm started back towards the stowed position. This cause the two to cross over one another and get caught on each other.

At this point, they stopped, while the rain continued to pour down in buckets.

Talk about pucker factor.

I immediately put on my emergency blinkers and moved my head in all directions trying to make out something, anything, through the sheet of water on the windshield, preferable before I hit it.

I discovered that the top 1/2 inch of windshield, right by the edge was somewhat conducive to vision, and so I limped the rest of the way to the testing center using that. (It was only about 1/8th of a mile total, 1 right turn, and a right turn into the parking lot.

At that point, I decided to deal with it after my exam, so I went inside and hoped the storm would blow over by the time I was finished.

Luckily, it did.

Once I got home, out came the tools and I tore into the wiper system to figure out what was wrong.

What I discovered was that when the linkage for the passenger side went, the stress caused the bushing at the wiper motor to fail, thus rendering the entire system inoperable.

Well, I called the dealership, and the closest one was out of the bushings. Then, I called the dealership in Alcoa, south of here, and they had them. So we piled into the car, put the top down as the day had cleared up and was beautiful, and made the trip to the dealer. The factory replacement bushings were expensive, with 3 of them adding up to just under $20 with tax. But I had the proper bushings.

At this point it was noon-ish, so we decided we needed food. Since Jessica wanted to browse through the Goodwill store in Bearden, and wanted Taco Bell, we drove to the Taco Bell on Kingston by the mall, then headed to Goodwill.

While she was in Goodwill, I stayed out in the parking lot and fixed the wipers.

Almost.

It turned out that I put the linkage arms on the wrong sides, causing the driver's side wiper to over extend past the windshield, and the passenger side wiper to not cover the full range it needed to.

So, in a few minutes, I get to go out and rework it all, and switch the linkages to the proper sides.

But, I am still chipper and upbeat, as I received my test scores for my third exam today and can notch up another pass, for Building Design and Construction Systems.

:-D