September 6, 2024 - October 11, 2024 - Homer Repair and Florida Hurricanes

 My Blog Reflection

We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.

Calvin Coolidge

September 6, 2024:

The transmission shop finally got Homer to act up on a test drive. He has been to three transmission shops in the last last three years and this is the first time it has acted up while they were driving him. It is definitely an issue in the transmission. Time for a rebuild. This will not be cheap.

September 25, 2024:

I had to go to BJC Hospital in St. Louis for a bone scan and CT scan. Upon leaving the hospital parking garage, at the pay booth I accidentally hit the button to roll down the back passenger window rather than the driver window. The window went down but would not roll back up. After getting out of the garage I pulled over and tried to get the window up from the rear door switch but it wouldn't work either. We had to drive home with the window down. Luckily it wasn't raining. For a long time I have had trouble with the master driver window switch not activating a couple of windows properly so I ordered a new switch for $29.00.

September 26, 2024:

I called the transmission shop and the transmission is out of Homer and on the bench for a rebuild. There are three transmissions in front of him so I was told it will probably be another week to week and a half before it is rebuilt and reinstalled. UGGGH!

We anxiously watched the news to see how Hurricane Helene might impact our home in Florida. Thankfully, it appeared to be going Northeast but we would still get lots of wind, rain, and flooding. 

September 27, 2024:

Hurricane Helene hit land in Florida with a vengeance. Luckily for us it hit in the Big Bend area of Florida North of us. A neighbor reported that we did not receive any visible damage. A couple of homes in our park lost parts of their roofs.

October 4, 2024:

John and I took apart the passenger door panel  on the HHR to diagnose the power window problem. On occasion we were able to get the window to go up and down. We concluded the problem was the switch, not the motor. The window on the rear passenger side acted up at times as well so I ordered two new switches. They were $9.95 each and came the next day. 

Upon receiving the switches I installed then and both windows work fine now. The master window switch on the driver's door hadn't arrived yet from a different vendor.

October 7, 2024:

The window master switch arrived for the driver's door. I got to work taking the door panel off and installing the switch. I'm an old hand at getting the door panels off now but getting this switch out of the armrest was a major pain. I was only able to get it out after breaking it in half, prying on the tabs, and breaking the plastic mounting in several spots. Once the new switch was installed and tested, it did not appear that the broken mounting spots on the armrest were bad enough for the switch to not stay in place. Now all window switches work perfectly. They should outlast me.

October 9-10, 2024:

Hurricane Number Two - Milton.

Hurricane Milton was predicted to hit land in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday. Our home is in Pinellas Park, which adjoins St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is on one side of Tampa Bay. A major hurricane had not hit Tampa Bay for 100 years and it was predicted this one would be the worst hurricane ever to hit Florida. 

We could do nothing but watch and wait. Landfall was pushed back until after midnight on Wednesday. Our agony was prolonged. When we went to bed we didn't know if we would have a place in Florida when we woke up. Storm surges were predicted to be a record fifteen feet high followed by 100 mph hour wind, and unprecedented heavy rainfall. If the surge didn't get you, and the wind didn't get you, the flooding would. As luck would have it the eye turned to the South and hit the Siesta Key area, about sixty miles to our South. The predicted storm surge of fifteen feet was only three feet. What a relief!!! Nonetheless, being on the outer edge of the hurricane our area endured 100 mph winds and received eighteen inches of rain in a little over an hour. None of this is good for anyone, much less those with mobile homes.  While still dark Thursday night my neighbor left the shelter and drove back to the park. He found that the streets were flooded and he could not get to his home. 

After daylight some of our park residents returned from shelters to assess the damage. By this time the flood waters had receded but the electric was out. One lady was kind enough to spend the afternoon driving around in her golf cart and videoing all the homes so people could see if their place was damaged. Probably 90% of the park residents are winter residents only like us. They come to Florida from all over the Eastern U.S. and Canada. Thus checking on your property is not easy.

The lady posted the videos on the park's Facebook page for all to see. In watching the videos it appeared to me that at least twenty homes had awnings and carports torn off, etc. In the meantime our neighbor, John, called me and advised that he couldn't see any damage to our place. He had no damage either. What a relief! He said we lost two palm trees. His comment was interesting because we only had one palm tree. Apparently if it fell we were lucky it didn't hit the house. I think he was confused on that. It remains to be seen if there was any interior water damage. Last year during a small hurricane a downspout became blocked and water backed up the wall and caused the wood paneling to bubble out in living room wall in a two-foot area. I called the roofing company and hopefully they fixed it so that it didn't happen again this time.

October 10, 2024:

I once again called the transmission shop in Indiana about Homer and the response I got was that they were working on him. He has been there since August! I am concerned about getting him home and winterized before the weather turns cold and pipes freeze. While he is there he is inside the shop so that is good. 

October 11, 2024:

As of now we are on track to head to California in the truck on the 20th to deliver some items to the girls and grandkids. Our plan is to stay and enjoy Halloween with them and then head back on the 1st. It's 2,000 miles out there so it makes for three long days of driving each way.  About November 15th we will head to Florida, two more days of driving. LOL