The Best Laid Plans

How Does the Rest of That Go?

"..Gang aft a-gley." Which means, I didn't do exactly as I'd planned today.

It's still not midnight, though and if the winds have died down, I still may long line Chance. It all depends on whether I can convince myself to go out in the dark and get something useful done.

In the meantime, I had to take the horse trailer to get the wiring plug replaced. That is a good half-hour plus drive to the trailer place, depending on the traffic, which was a nuisance. The guy there is great and we had a bit of fun replacing the plug since the trailer wiring color code has nothing to do with the standard truck/car wiring color code. My plug was badly corroded with several wires off, which explains why the trailer brakes were not working...almost...more later...and he had nothing to go on once he'd pulled the wires off the old plug.

As I stood there about a half hour into the enterprise, getting ready to write the trailer code down for the next time I'd need a fix, something nagged in the back of my brain that I had been through this before. Sure enough, in the glove box of the truck I found a paper with a list of what each color wire on the trailer worked. Had I remembered that paper early on, we could have saved ourselves at least 15 minutes of confusion.

The guy plugged in the new plug and everything worked just fine...except the brakes. Sure enough, there was a damaged prong on the receptacle on the truck, and like the last time I was there, he didn't have any Dodge replacement sockets in stock. Apparently Dodge has its own unique receptacle unlike Chevy and Ford, so I needed a new one from Dodge.

Now, here's the rub. This is just what happened last time and I had bought two receptacles from eBay. I had already used one on the truck and that one had the broken prong. When I'd left the house, I thought, "Gee, maybe I ought to take that other receptacle." Then when I wasn't 100% sure of where I'd put it, I left without it. I was kicking myself at the trailer place. The guy told me I was welcome to come back if I had any trouble swapping it out on my own. So, I paid him--very reasonable rates--and headed home with all the trailer lights working and no brakes again.

Back home, it took me all of 2 minutes to find the replacement part. Yeech!! Before I tried intalling it, I searched back on eBay, found more parts, ordered three--always want lots of spares at this point--and then went out to struggle with the plug. Fortunately, this is actually an easy job with the newer, factory wired trucks. You just unscrew four screws on the faceplate, pull out the old part, push a holding clip out and then, with a bit of effort, unplug the thing, plug in the new one, put the clip in place, and then put the four screws back. When the parts cooperate, its a cinch. I only scraped one knuckle and said four curse words before I was able to complete the task.

By the way, I have rewired both the trailer and truck plugs from scratch more than once in my life, using ameters, and test lights to figure out which wire is which, so none of this is rocket science to me anymore. I comprehend the need for ground wires and how the direct current works and all that kind of stuff.

Still, I was quite delighted to see the brake confirmation light on in the truck when I hooked things back together, so I guess we are back to optimum. A good thing as I need to trailer Tucker again on Friday and may well be driving him back after dark. As well, my next lesson will be at 9 PM so I will be going both ways in the dark. And, having properly working trailer brakes is a special plus. If they don't work right, I can still stop, but I must be super careful to anticipate well in advance which can't always happen in traffic.

That done, the next plan for the day was to get my hair cut as Wednesday is $8 off at my salon. That headed me out to East Brunswick, not far from school. What a bummer to go there on a vacation day! (Off this week for Columbus Day, Election Day, Veterans' Day, and Convention.)
Got the haircut deal and made the mistake of deciding to drop by the mall on the way home in hopes of finding a Christmas present or two. This time for my cousin and my Aunt whose house I go to for Christmas Eve.

Why is it that when I need a medium in something for me all I can find are smalls and when I need a small for someone else, there simply aren't any? And, did I get sidetracked trying on bargains for me? Of course. Fortunately, I only found one thing I liked and did manage to get two nice gifts. I have a plan for most of the other gifts I need, so that I can take care of in short order.

Well, when I got back home it was nearly feeding time for The Boys, so that's what I did. An hour later it was dark. I keep forgetting the quick coming of darkness this time of year.

I have tomorrow and Friday yet to get some horsey work done. Tucker would have had today off anyhow as he always has the day off after a lesson. Toby and Chance? No excuse except that the darn wind was pretty strong and my ring is right at the edge of the woods. Taking a hack would be hazardous as well since that too is woods and this time of year all kinds of things blow off the trees.

How's that for an excuse? Not bad, eh?