“Soylent Green is people!” — Detective Thorn (Charlton Heston), Soylent Green, 1973
I honestly thought that the Soylent product line was a joke by somebody playing the long-game… a very, very long game from someone familiar with the historic concept of Soylent Green.
It turns out that it is (presumably) not a joke and that Soylent Green does indeed exist:
It seems like we heard about this perhaps a week ago from the blogosphere and even some mass-media types. I dunno. But, this came in this evening from T-mobile:
Uh-huh… and you’re just now getting round to letting customers know?
T-mobile takes the protection of their customers seriously… but not seriously enough to let those customers know promptly and certainly not seriously enough to prevent it happening to begin with.
I haven’t done any woodworking in what seems like ages… not since I finished remodeling the house we sold in Moses Lake.
But, perhaps with one or two of these and a weekend’s effort, I’ll see about finding a purpose for the Purpleheart and Lignum Vitae that I’ve had stashed away for a few years.
First, put a mask on.
Jonathan Pie, provided his own take during his ‘live report’ early-on in this whole fiasco, and I’d have a difficult time arguing with the veracity of his position.
I should get this, or an appropriate rendition thereof, printed on business cards so I can present them to anyone who argues with the realities we’re faced with.
Also, while SCC sent out their own update a few weeks ago about their updated mask/vaccination policy, the current order from Olympia (the State’s source) is more recent.
While we were, I’m sure, looking forward to not wearing face masks when we all returned to school/work this fall as learners or educators — even though we may be fully vaccinated — those various organizational guidelines are overridden by the new orders.
Because it seems many people need to have a picture drawn for them, I’m all out of puppet and crayons, but here’s a picture I’ve found for everyone:
I began troubleshooting the A/C system on TWUCK.
Does the compressor turn by hand? Yep. That’s good.
Does it turn when commanded by the computer? No. That’s not good, but we can override it and see if the magnetic clutch engages. It does. That’s good. Just means that the sensor sees no pressure or too much pressure.
So… what’s the refrigerant pressure? 0 psig. Hmm… not good. Let’s give it some refrigerant…
It takes pressure… and promptly takes 25 psi of refrigerant. Also good. The pressure sensor detects pressure (also good), and the ECM triggers the pump (also good) and… pressure drops. Not good. Within a few minutes, it’s down to zero. That’s annoyingly bad but means there’s leakage in the lines, or condenser, or dryer, or the expansion valve, or the evaporator, or in the compressor*.
There is R134a refrigerant with a UV dye which is well-suited to tracking down A/C leaks. But I haven’t any. So it’ll be another trip out to the parts store to see if I can find a R134a UV dye penetrant. It’ll wait until another time.
Eventually, I’ll have TWUCK’s AC system fixed. Eventually.
Once fixed, in no particular order, it’s on to…
I’ll have to prioritize that list… and include anything else that I happen to stumble across.
Gosh, I mean, sure, some things need to be repaired from wear and breakage over time. But I’m not sure if it’s worthwhile to set right everything neglected on a 23 year old automobile.
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*Knowing that it’s been effectively stationary for a couple of years, I’d wager that the seals in the pump have deteriorated (most probable) and the pump will need to be replaced with an overhauled unit. About $200-ish. Easy enough to replace. Then another $50 in refrigerant. But I’m not going to start throwing parts at it and hope that maybe guesswork pays off and instead work through it somewhat methodically.
