I have something new to add to my resume...installing fish finders on boats.
Hubby bought a fish finder with a color screen last summer to replace the one on the boat I got him for his birthday last year. It stayed tucked away in it's little bitty box all winter long. When Spring arrived, I figured he'd install it. He didn't. Too busy doing other stuff. Yesterday, I installed it except for all the fancy-schmancy wiring stuff (which I totally could have figured out if the instructions had been printed in color).
I got the instructions out of the box on Sunday and read them 4 or 5 times. Then I did a little research on the net. It didn't look too hard. Phsshhyeah.
I went to Lowe's and bought some epoxy to glue the little black thingamajig on the transom. (New word, transom. Means back of the boat by the motor.) I also bought a new barbeque grill and a couple of pots of flowers. Not for the boat, but wouldn't flowers look awesome on a boat?? I could have that boat looking like a Better Homes & Garden showplace if he'd let me.
I glued the transducer (thing that looks for fish) on the boat and ran the wires to the front where all the other wires end up by the steering wheel. That was the hard part. If my arms had been 6 inches longer, it would have been almost easy. So far, so good.
I was trying to figure out where the screen needed to be when hubby woke up and came outside looking for me. He thought I might be outside watering my flowers. He brought me some fresh coffee with him. I took a break and showed him what I'd done.
He didn't faint, but he was doing that man-breathing through his nose. Maybe it was the new flowers I bought. They do smell good. I probably should have told him what I was doing from the get-go, but he was sleeping so good that I didn't wake him.
Boy! Was he surprised! And thankful! He was thankful that I hadn't cranked up his big old drill and poked holes in the boat. Geez, I knew better than that. Water could get in the boat if I drilled holes in it. Duh.
He was mightily impressed by my ability to run wires through tight, cramped spaces. Of course he went over everything I'd done with a fine tooth comb and declared it "done purty dang good".
I showed him where I wanted to mount the control head (screen part) and he said that's where it needed to go. I got my roll of blue paint tape out of my tote bag (I don't have a tool belt...yet) and masked off the area where I was gonna be doing all the drilling of holes.
He poo-poo'd that idea. He said he didn't think I needed to do all that. I told him it was to keep the fiberglass from chipping off. He got that blank stare that all hubby's get once in awhile, so while he was busy staring over the top of my head, I asked him to fetch me another cuppa coffee. Heh. That right there was empowering.
I got the bracket and marked all the holes with a Sharpie. Then I got his big old drill and drilled those holes while hubby got me another cup of coffee. Not one little bit of fiberglass chipped off either. I had to change the drill bits to make a bigger hole for the wire to hook up to the screen. That one made me a little nervous, but I did it.
Son screamed out that the phone was ringing so I sent the little hubby to go answer it. I don't know why Son won't answer the phone. Most kids love to. Not him.
While hubby was yakking it up with one of his friends, I ran the big wire up through the big hole and then I mounted the bracket on the boat and put the screen in the bracket. It was all over except for the electrical wiring. I had two little bitty wires that I had no idea where to hook them to. Red and black. I remembered that red was hot and needed to be hooked to the battery, but the dang battery was at the back of the boat.
I looked up under the steering wheel where all the other wires are and figured the red one had to go in there somewhere. I had to think about it, so I busied myself gathering all my stuff up and putting it back in my tote bag. I put the drill bits and drill back in the shop. Still had no clue. I got that goop stuff and sealed around all the holes I'd drilled.
I picked up the box and the instructions to put them in the shop. I read the wiring stuff again. Might as well have been written in Japanese. I kept looking at the pictures. I decided that I needed one of those amp thingies to put in the fuse box. Why do they make this electrical stuff so hard?
I dug through hubby's electrical stuff and found some amp thingies or are they fuse thingies? I dunno.
I crawled back in the boat and got my screwdriver out and took the panel off to the fuse box. AHA!
Now it all made sense. I saw how they wired all the other things up and just kinda found an empty spot and did the same thing. (The black wire was a ground wire.) I wanted to check it so bad but I was scared to death that it might blow the boat up.
I put the panel back on and stuck the amp (or fuse?) thingie in it and waited. Nothing happened. No fires. No smoke. Nothing smelled funny.
Hubby finally came back outside and told me to hop on out of the boat and let him check things out. It didn't take him long. Less than a minute. He got out of the boat and went inside.
Oh lord. I was so scared that I'd screwed stuff up. He came back outside and was on his phone with our next door neighbor. Our neighbor came running across the yard to the boat.
The two of them whispered back and forth while I secretly died a little on the inside. Then our neighbor asked me how much I'd charge to "rig his boat" with a fish finder. Woot!
I told him to buy one just like ours and I'd do it right then. He laughed and told me I'd done a good job. Looked professional.
I told Hubby that I wanted a pirate flag for the boat. That's when he rolled his eyes at me. I told him that he had his choice: a pink flamingo flag or a pirate flag. Heh. He ordered me a pirate flag last night.
The lady who wrote the bad check never showed up. I called her last night to find out why. Said she got lost. Anyway, she's bringing the cash to the shop this morning. We'll see.
Hubby told me to charge her more since we didn't get paid on the day the services were rendered. Nah, I'm not going to do that. I should...but I won't.
Cheater glasses - November 20, 2008 Don't mess with my iced tea - November 18, 2008 Happy Birthday Danny DeVito - November 17, 2008 Mrs. Beasley - November 13, 2008 foot ailment - November 12, 2008
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