OhCripes.com

Never heard of dashboard gremlins? Well then, you’ve probably never heard of appliance gnomes either right?

My Jetta has or rather had a factory head unit with a 6 disc changer in the trunk. I wanted to be able to connect my mp3 player in some form to the radio so that I could change tunes in a much more convenient fashion then opening the trunk, pulling the cassette and ejecting the cd every time I wanted to hear something else. Plus the amount of music time that can be stored in mp3 with todays monster sized memory cards seemeed to make the most sense. I chose to get an FM transmitter that plugs into the cigarette lighter socket and the mp3 player which transmits the music from the player to my station of choice.
So, I plug the the transmitter into my player hit the power button and wha-waaaa. Nothing. After checking several connections and what not I determined the the cigarette lighter was not hot as in lacking power. So it must be a fuse. I looked up the fuse number in the owners manual and replaced it even though it was not apparently bad. Still zilch. After doing a few quick googles I discovered that there is a second stinking fuse for the stupid thing. So I had to pull the dash apart. (Insert site url here!)
See dash.

Getting ripped apart.

As it turned out, the fuse in question was missing altogether!

Since the specific fuse block was not identified in the owners manual I just put one in each of the two empty banks and taped them up with electrical tape as the sockets were very loose fitting.

So I also pulled my head unit due to a security lockout code from pulling fuses. But I’ll save that for another post.

As I stated some time ago, I have been commuting 200+ miles a day to work and back. While this pretty much kills my free time, I do get to enjoy some amazing scenery as you’ll see below.

Both of these pictures are part of a series which I took along US HWY 41 near Lomira, WI. As I leave for work at 4:45am I get to see the sunrise nearly every morning.

Here is one such example.

Here is a view I see every day on my return home. This is an old hillside farm which has not changed a bit for as long as I can remember. Every time I pass it I think to myself what a great picture it would make. So I finally got a few shots. The best view is from a curve in the highway which also happens to be along a very busy stretch. This was taken from my drivers side seat reaching across to the passenger side with the window rolled down as semi’s and lunatics sped by well in excess of 75 mph only inches away from me.

If you would like a copy of the full size pictures along with 1 additional slightly varied copy of each you can download them in zip format here. If you want to use them for anything of a commercial nature please email me first.

I am always amazed by the cost of jams and jellies in the grocery stores. Most of them taste ok but they Never taste as good as those you can make yourself. I came across a recipe a while back for a strawberry and rhubarb jam which I modified slightly. I don’t remember where I found the original base recipe but I show you how to make the jam here.