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Murphy strikes the Jeep – again!

Northstar Ultra High Performance AGM batteryWell, I’m just about to pull the trigger and buy a new bumper for the Jeep, and this past Friday I go out into the torrential downpour only to find the Jeep is dead. Completely dead. No dash lights, no odometer, nothing.
Over the weekend, I pulled the battery (a Northstar ultra high performance one that I purchased a year or so ago from Battery World – read -“not cheap!”) and hooked it up to a charger, and after a few hours, the charger displayed “bad”.  Tested with a multimeter and something discharged the battery down to nothing – but no idea what.
Hopefully can get the battery replaced and all will be good in the world again!  If that doesn’t fix it – then I’m afraid my bumper budget will get swallowed up in troubleshooting and fixing an electrical problem!
Update:
Things are looking promising I think – Battery World has the battery now and are testing it, and recharging it.  In the meantime, they gave me an Optima Red Top to throw in the Jeep and see how things go.  With the Optima, the Jeep fired up – which is encouraging.  I ran the Jeep a little while – checked the voltage while running – which came out to 13.8 volts – which I think is in the right neighbourhood.  Tried this morning, and the Jeep fired up again as well.  Fingers crossed – hopefully Battery World calls back soon!

New closet

Moved back up to our bedroom now that Tracey’s foot has healed up and gotten much better – we’re not sure that we’re thrilled about the upstairs/downstairs routine again, but the space is definitely nice!
One thing we decided to fix right away was the lack of closet space – so I made up a couple cabinets that I mounted along the length of the bedroom, added some 1.5″ dowelling between them, and we now have about 15 feet of closet!  Everyone’s happy!

A new favourite?

A couple months back, I picked up my first bottle of Aberlour A’bunadh.  This is a single cask single malt that is unbelievably tasty and smooth – even without knocking it back with a bit of water.  Received my fourth bottle – (I’m not drinking any of this by myself , I have been sharing :^) – this past Father’s Day, and I’m enjoying it as much as ever.
Last night, myself and a few friends visited The Bothy, and each tried a couple new whisky’s that we haven’t had before.  None of us have been a fan of peaty whisky’s since we tried a bottle of Laphraig Quarter Cask. Hideous stuff, and just too funky of a taste.  Feeling adventurous, I thought I’d give the peat & smoke a second chance, and ordered glass of Highland Park 18 y.o, and another of Jura Prophecy.  The Highland Park was a sweet glass – a touch of smoke and peat.  The sweetness was almost a shock.  The Jura Prophecy was most impressive.

Improving the factory sound

jk sound barI read about this trick a while last summer or fall, and just now finally got around to trying it out.
Materials required:  a cheap fibre fill pillow (i bought one from Walmart – cost $4.97.
Tools required:  a small torx driver, sorry I don’t recall which #
Removed the 3 screws from each speaker in the top sound bar just behind the front seats, and let the speakers hang by the wires.  I then ripped open the pillow, and pulled out chunks of fibre fill, and stuffed it into the holes – not too loose, but not too packed either.  Mounted the speakers and grills bak in place.  Did the same with the rear sub woofer.
Amazing the improvement in sound without spending a small fortune in new electronics!
I didn’t do the front lower dash speakers – but I think I’ll take a look another day and see if the fill would be contained – otherwise, I might just see about some foam cones to mount in behind them.