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no key & uncrossed wires

Monday, January 02, 2006

wheel locksWent to mass. Then went to the tire store to get a slow leak fixed. Waited an hour before they put the car into the service bay. Then they said, "We need the key to the wheel lock." Oh *bleep*! I forgot about that. We had cleared out the car some months ago due to reasons not detailed here. So I take the car back home thinking I'll be back in just a bit. We dug and dug and that wheel lock key just can't be found. Parts store is closed today, so can't inquire about buying a new set with same key today.

Since this is a safety issue, I am grounded until we get this resolved. I am supposed to volunteer tomorrow, as well as go for spiritual direction. I'll have to see what happens tomorrow.

On the positive side, thanks be to God that we've not had a flat all this time that we've been without the key. We would've been up a creek without a paddle, or more precisely, on the side of the road without a key.

Having given up on the key, Kermit now complains about the static on the phone. "If I ask so-and-so to help, do you think we can get this fixed?" Arggh. My button has been pushed. I work well with others, but loathe the "let me get you some help."

splitterI had wired the two individual lines into a single two-line jack years ago. ("How-to" abound on the web.) It caused a great deal of crosstalk. That single jack spiders out to four devices. I spent some time undoing the rigged up jack, and then re-routed the cabling to the devices. There is a two-line phone out in the living room that is actually a two-line phone: it has one jack wired for two lines. I now run two cables out to the living room (one for each line) and then rigged a one-to-two splitter to convert one of the "line 1" into a "line 2" so that I can plug both lines (through the splitter-turned-coupler) into the single jack of the two-line phone. Kermit is now pleased with the phone lines. It would probably help me much with my dial-up as well (less data errors).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must admit my naivete -- I have never heard of a wheel key/lock. Maybe that's another good reason I don't drive anymore ;)

seeking_something said...

Oh, sorry. I added a picture of typical wheel locks. They replace one lug on each wheel. Because they are round on the outside, they cannot be removed with a regular wrench and thus make wheels harder to steal. The frontmost in the photo is the key; it fits onto the wheel locks and has a regular hex head on the end that wrenches can grip.