Last Day of My Work Life

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Went to work at 8 a.m. for the last time.  Got off work at 1 p.m. and now my working life is over.  I think I am mentally prepared to be retired now.  Almost 70, so I think I have done my stint.  No fanfare, just said goodbye to a few folks and said I would stop by for a visit next Spring when I get back from my winter journey.

Yesterday, I removed the lenses from the two Jeep rear lights and checked to make sure the bulbs were in properly and they were.  I knew the turn signal switch was okay because the Jeep signals worked properly when not attached to the MH.  It was cold out and I knew I was over my head, so quit for the day and called Evan to see if he could look at them on Saturday, and he could.

Stopped by Evan’s house with the Jeep at 2 p.m. so he could look at the blinkers.  He did a lot of testing for continuity and also checked the wiring diagrams on the Internet.  The short of it was this; the wiring harness that runs from the MH to the Jeep was wired for a trailer and the Jeep was wired to be towed by a MH.  I did not know that the wiring setup is different when towing a trailer and towing a Jeep.  He opened the wiring harness and switched a green wire and a brown wire around and all worked properly.  Evan is a smart guy and I am lucky to have him as a son-in-law.

I bought the wiring harness and tow bar from an individual who used them to pull a truck behind a MH.  Evidently, his wiring setup must have been different.  What is funny is I checked the lights when I first hooked them up and thought all was okay.  I guess I didn’t look to see if both blinkers were blinking when I tested the right blinker. 

We checked the lights each time we hooked the Jeep to the MH last winter but it wasn’t till the trip home last year, that I noticed the problem.  I think the spare tire and bicycle blocked our view as we checked each light.  We couldn’t see both lights without stepping further back from the Jeep and we evidently didn’t do that.  Fortunately, we did not use the right blinker very much, since we didn’t pass too many folks at our slow speed.

This day has significance.  It was the day President Kennedy was shot in Dallas fifty-one years ago.  I can remember the day vividly.  I was a senior in high school and sitting in my English class.  Ms. Shields was the teacher.  The only teacher I remember in all of my high school classes and it is because President Kennedy was shot.  The next class was the last class of the day, my Journalism class.  The class was cut short because the school shut down for the day.  That’s how traumatic it was for everyone.

Played cards tonight and was beaten for the fourth day in a row.  Dolly has no mercy.  After all, I have just retired for the last time!

See you later.