I trouble shoot a parasitic battery drail and fail. Also don't like cities and go off topic several times

 I am not becoming more tolerant. 

Yesterday I made an hour and a half trip to work on my daughter's roommates car. There are three friends from college living in a big old house in Eugene. They are just off I-5 and behind them is an old hippie Co-OP from the 1970's that has been renovated into a shithole.

Actually Eugene is pretty much a shithole. 

I propose that shithole be included into Websters this year. It would be a proper noun describing a place infested with dirty hippies, hookers, homeless, meth addicts, strip clubs, porn shops, used record stores, crappy food trucks, medical marijuana shops, and bitchy old white women with stupid sandals and boyish haircuts holding up anti Trump signs. Probably could change the pronounciation to Shitehole' and it would give it an illegal immigrant feel.

Eugene is a desert island of commie shit heads in an ocean of people who work for their living. The landscape instantly changes. I never thought I would be saying Junction City or Coburg would be a better place to live. But as soon as you are out of the smell of Medical Marijuana dispensaries you see less trash and people working for their living.

We walked down to the Thai restaurant down the street. She does live in a handy location with a bus line and food with in walking distance. Also, meth and weed and a liquor store. The Thai food was good. I like noodles. I got my Pad Thai a little warm and broke out in a sweat to everyone's amusement. 

But, I digress...

The car is a 2004 Honda Accord and it has a parasitic draw on the battery. I unplugged the alternator and still got a spark connecting the ground. I started unplugging fuses but that was a fools errand. 

Some "friendly" car bros stopped with their Hellcat Charger Orange hot car to see if we needed help. I briefly reconsidered by reluctance to get a concealed carry permit. Sometimes I would feel more secure with a 19ll. As usual a little cheerful banter changed the day.

I changed the battery and gave daughter a voltage tester and said if it dropped below 12 volts by Sunday to call me.

I have a friend from College who lives a little south of Eugene on the way to Mt. Pisgah. Mt. Pisgah is a sore subject for my buddy. Apparently it used to have private access and somehow the county or state got a hold of it and now charges access. 

My buddy likes to fish near there and forgets/ignores parking passes and got a $150 fine. He was pissed and refused to pay. He confided, "I think my sister secretly paid it because she was afraid I would go to jail." 

I had called him before going to Eugene and he stopped by to offer help. He has been having tractor issues and I have been promising to help him. So I went to his place to see if we could figure out why his tractor wouldn't start.

It was a physical relief getting out of town... 

He has a John Deere 3038 compact tractor with a loader that his dad bought years ago.  When you turn the key to run position the solenoids activate and the fuel pump starts. Nothing on the start circuit. 

We check the jumper wire under the seat, still connected. Checked the electric PTO. PTO circuit supplied power to the dash when on. We found the neutral safety  switch buried under the floor boards. There is no brake switch with this model.

It is probably the starter switch as this is a known issue.

He wanted to take me to dinner and introduce me to his new wife. 

We went to McShanes Bar and Grill which is right at his access off of I-5. He said he discovered it when he had to exercise last winter. It was the mid point of his walk were he could have a Coors Light and turn around for home.

We had a pint of Guinness  and Fish and Chips. The newest Mrs. D is very nice. We also got to witness sex trafficking and a drug deal. There was a cute barely legal cowgirl hooker in a white leather mini and a lace top and cowboy boots. Straight out of the CMA awards and a nasty methed out girl who had obvious bruises and a twitch. The pimp was a 30 something Bro-looking sort of hispanic guy with track pants and sandals. We got to see the hot girls underwear or lack there of. 

You just end up feeling unclean. So we started talking about college... 

I found it even more depressing to talk about George Fox. He stays in touch with all our classmates and I don't. My daughter and roommates are all George Fox graduates or at least were there until COVID. There is a certain institutional cynicism that runs just below the surface of everyone but the five percent who met their perfect spouse (and didn't almost fornicate with her in the Penn Lobby) or who got actually got a real job.

Of the five friends I have from Fox I think I am the only one who is still married to the person they dated in college but we got married years later so I am not sure we even count. 

I am also not sure any of my friends still even make a pretense of attending Church and I am even more convinced that their kids do not. I don't know if this makes more of a statement about us or about Christian Higher Education. 

When I contrast this with people I have reacquainted myself with from High School I find more permanent marriages and higher genuine relationships with God. Christian Colleges attract a lot of dumbasses. You get cynical. 

Second day my daughter was at GFU this lady approaches her and calls her by name. She says God has something special for her. She gives her a bubbly speech about having a special purpose and calls her by name. So this lady was a couple years younger than me and apparently never left GFU. When we were signing in I had one of those talks with her but I didn't quite remember who she was.  I had laughed about it with my daughter. So when she was approached with a personal speech my daughter thought maybe she figured out who we were and was kind of expecting some connection. The lady hands her a pink Bible and did not remember her dad. In fact, after a week she didn't remember my daughter. 

To some people this fills them with happiness and a feeling of acceptance. To others it is the start of cynicism...

Speaking of cynicism. I need to go spread fertilizer.  

While I was attempting to extract myself from parking I see this truck pull into the street. This is a two way street but not really. The thing is, there really is no good outlet. This was a typical GoogleMaps misadventure and he was there for quite a while. There was just enough room for me to extract myself without using excessive amounts of sidewalk space. I am probably not going to move to the big city anytime soon...