June 12,  2003
Stuck in San Jose
~4600 miles

dad,

this morning i got up feeling sick.  sick at the thought of going out to look at the remains of my flambéed scout. i am almost sure that the problem began at one of the cigarette lighters in the dash. one of them gave me trouble on the way back from florida! in all the rewiring i guess i either thought it had probably taken care of the wiring to it, or just plain forgot about it. anyway, i would say that it was 80% likely to be the problem based on where the concentration of burned wires is.

good news: jesse is still a whole and complete scout.  visibly, nothing is really damaged.

good news: if the problem was indeed w the cigarette lighter, then it is likely that there was not a major current draw on wires from other parts of the car (at least initially).

good news: if that was the problem then it gives me more confidence about the rest of our work and our thinking... if i never dealt with that one cig. lighter it is possible some asshole at the stereo shop in florida that put it in, didn't bother to connect it to a fused circuit.... sigh.

good news: also, the fire looks to be pretty localized in about a 6x6x6" volumetric space right near the cig. lighters. the fire did grow from the cig. lighter *upwards* probably into some of the wiring from the starter circuit that we
designed... perhaps even the main umbilical to our central starter relay (which would explain the car starting).

however, in general i am much more optimistic. at most there are 20 or 30 wires involved, all in a single location. it should be easy to cut and paste.

also, when i called my spanish school to cancel for the morning, the woman who runs it suggested that i do all the work there in their garage! she is really quite a wonderful individual and as the school is quite small, it has a very
homey kind of a feel. she suggested that this would be an excellent opportunity for me to learn words about cars! had to laugh.

so, things go better today.

....

later on... hmmm ... seems that though the spanish word for garage is garaje, garajes in these parts do not necessarily come with roofs... or walls for that matter.  in fact, my dear school director's garaje was what in the us we might call a drivewaje...  so i got back in the tow truck and made my way over to a bomba (gas station... literally is the translation for 'pump') near the hotel.

cool guys... let me rent a bay in the station for $20 for the week...  they're a total crackup too... non-stop jokes.  amazing that any gas actually gets bomba'd

...

took out the instrument cluster looked behind the dash... what a mess.   initially it was pretty disheartening-- pulling off the dash and seeing this angry picasso of plastic and copper, melted and fused into a black mess like a long forgotten pot of burned spaghetti ...   and topped off with a lovely light frosting of  lemon-yellow fire extinguisher surprise.

in fact, its still pretty damn disheartening...

logically, i know this is solvable.  its only wire, and all parts are replaceable.... but wiring takes so LONG.  especially when you try and do it the right way....

my neck is killing me... old injuries come home to roost...  ever seen the standard position for car stereo workers?  its upside down and backwards, head under the dash and feet skyward,  through the open window or wrapped around the nearest fixed object...  constantly kung-fu fighting to relocate the head and trunk into a more optimal position.  its an occupation well suited to the young and small.  neither of which i am feeling right now at all.