Mama said, Mama said

"Yes, Operator, I'd like to report a flood."

I had such great plans for the day. So many tasks I was going to complete. Then I met Mr. Murphy.

I did get some cleaning done. Pam's working three consecutive days and the fourth is Sunday so I thought I'd be a good husband and help with some housework. I vacuumed, mopped and dusted.
I should have stopped there.

I went out and ran some errands, including a stop at the auto parts store to get a new tail light. I struck up a conversation with an old guy in the parking lot driving a 1970 Beetle in fair condition. I learned more, including a place in Phoenix that's a huge junkyard of nothing but VW parts. Jan Blair took over the operation from his dad and from what this guy said there's more than two generations of stuff there.

I spent the next three hours trying to install a new programmable thermostat at our house. I'll spare you the details, but I will tell you that nobody I talked to, including an ill-tempered tech support guy for Honeywell who I think was in Bangladesh and whose English was almost impossible to understand, had ever heard of a six-wire system.
Note to self: Do NOT buy Honeywell products if there's any other option.
The guy from RiteTemp (cheaper than the Honeywell) spoke English as his first language. He patiently walked me through several steps over three different phone conversations. He also couldn't begin to guess why I had six wires or how they should be connected. At his suggestion I took the cover off the AC unit up on the roof to try to figure it out, but that didn't help either.
Note to self: the roof is a hot place to be in the middle of a June afternoon in southern Arizona. And a metal ladder gets really hot!
I finally gave up. I'm too cheap to call an AC guy, especially to install a stupid thermostat. So I did what I should have done in the beginning. I went on-line and found a PDF on the thermostat we have and figured out how to program it. I still think it's a piece of junk but at least so far this evening it seems to be following instructions.

Did I mention that the best part is the people?

Here's a video montage from a traffic cam in a tunnel in Russia. Scary.
Crash!

Sad, about Tim Russert. We watched him every Sunday morning before leaving for church. He was good and we liked his show.

If you were to make a list of the five dumbest things you've ever said, things you wish you could take back and permanently erase, what's one of the things that would be on that list?