Two and a half hours.

No breaks. From seven to nine-thirty last night, three other guys and I sat in a small room and disussed the entire process of constructing a building addition. And now I find myself with LOTS of extra stuff to do. Serves me right for not being my usual shy and antisocial self.

Anyway, a long afternoon--Boy to orthodontist, everything looking good, back in eight weeks. Stopped by Sam's and bought gas, stopped by Advance and got my check engine light diagnosed. After several minutes of head-scratching. I figured the counter guy would know where the OBD port was, but he hunted and searched. I kinda thought it might be around where the fuse box is located on the dash, but I didn't see it at first and so got the owner's manual and looked for information. Of which, there was none.(While this was going on, Boy amused himself by running around the parking lot, picking up bits of broken windshield wiper blades.) After the guy expended several more fruitless efforts at finding the thing, and after several more laps around the cars by Jonathan, I finally went back around to the driver's side and decided to take a harder look. We're wasting time, here, guys.

Popped off the fuse cover.

Look.

Look.

Hmm. Wires.

Or as we are wont to say in my hometown, 'wahrs.' There was a small plastic thing in front of the bundle of wires, so I flipped it down and PRESTO. There it was. Maybe now he'll know better when the next Focus comes in. He plugged in and carefully hid the readout from me so I could be surprised, then went inside and printed out a copy for me.

PO125
Clsd Loop Fuel Ctrl
Insufficient
Coolant Temp

"Hmm. I ain't never heard of that before."

Well, luckily for us all, there is Google. The OBD codes are the same for all makes (more or less) and this one is pretty common. Basically, it means there's something wrong with the coolant temperature sensor circuit, or the temp sensor itself, or maybe the thermostat. The engine has to run have a certain temperature for the emissions gear to work right, and if the temp's too low, it will cause an error reading. The engine seems to be working fine, but if the temperature reading isn't getting back to the computer, it'll make it seem like it's running cold. The next step is to figure whether I want to fix it myself.

I have so much free time, you know.

Maybe after I finish the downstairs bathroom.

Anyway, after that I ran home and talked to Reba for about three seconds before she had to zip out the door to take Ashley to her band concert. We'd decided to split up everyone so she wouldn't have to maintain control over all four kids by herself (especially since she seems to have been stricken with a stomach bug), so I made a couple of sandwiches and took Boy and Middle Girl with me to the church building. They brought along their homework, and I put them in separate classrooms so they wouldn't bother each other, which worked pretty well. Although Rebecca didn't finish her homework. Grr.

The meeting was good, and productive, but it was basically starting from ground zero in trying to explain every little step that's required and the decisions that are going to have to be made. I've had to deal with church building committees before, and my aim is to make sure we don't do the same stuff all the other ones who have made ME SO ANGRY over the years did.


FInished up with that, stopped and got myself something to eat, home at 10:00, Ashley still had howework to do, Rebecca still had homework to do, Reba was queasy, Catherine needed to go over her spelling words, baths, clothes for today, and pack an overnight bag. They're all spending the night with Grandmom and Granddad tonight. Yep, Miss Reba and I MIGHT have a date night tonight, if she's not feeling too poorly. We'll see, I suppose.

And then, today. A close friend of our family died Wednesday. She's battled cancer for years and years, and it finally brought her down. She was 68, which was hard to believe, because even when she was so very ill, up until just these last few months, she was always strikingly youthful and beautiful woman. I don't usually talk about such things in a very specific way, but one of the wonders of faith is that despite how much her disease ravaged her in her last days, I know that she's youthful and beautiful again now. Today is her funeral, so we'll be going to that this afternoon.

Anyway, all of that to say that I have a lot to get done today, and not much time to get it done, so you'll please excuse me for the rest of the day, and we'll crank things up again on Valentine's Day.

All of you have a great weekend, and come back again Monday and let's see what we can get into.
posted by Terry at 8:22:00 AM