Got into Richmond Friday morning and promptly got horribly lost. Drivers in Richmond are nuts! I swear!
Mom made the executive decision to stop at the Econo Lodge by the Arthur Ashe stadium. Big mistake. Welcome to Dive #2. Graffiti on the walls, lots of broken things in the room, the door would barely close, and a stench that made us sick for the rest of the night. We made it 2 hours before asthma and allergies drove us from the place and to a much much more expensive hotel across town.
As we’re racing to figure out where to go before we fled the room, I decided to fire up my computer to find something. It turns on and right back off. Turned it back on, it gets to my desktop, and shuts back down. Turned it back on and it immediately shut right back down. Finally, the computer made a long string of beeps and gave me a non-helpful message saying the CPU was out of temperature range.
So if I wasn’t already wheezing and gasping like a fish out of water, now I’m bawling and my beloved computer is out of commission.
Mom finally located the Comfort Inn Conference Center in Richmond and yes, they’d take the girls. So, we threw our stuff back in the car and got lost all over again. We finally found it and settled in for the night.
We called our cousins to report in and Dave did a little digging for us. He found an online coupon for the Quality Inn. They not only accepted the online coupon, but beat the price.
Spent most of Saturday with our cousins, Dave and Jane, and got a small tour of area near the hotel after dinner. Cross your fingers, we’re not getting as lost as we were before. We actually located a Radio Shack and a Kroger all on our own. The clerk at Radio Shack didn’t give me a deer-in-headlights look when I asked for Thermal Compound which totally amazed me; and, even more amazing, they had canned air and didn’t card me for it either!
Got the computer back up and running. My guess was either too much dust, the thermal compound had dried out and become brittle, or the heat sink had died on me. I decided to try the two cheapest solutions first. I cleaned it real good, scraped the old thermal compound off the processor and heat sink, and put fresh down. Good as new. ^_^
It’s in the 40s here today and raining, supposed to be in the 60s and sunny by Tuesday. Michigan, eat your heart out! (It was amusing running around in a tee and my puffy vest yesterday. Yes, stare in wonder at the Northern girl! “Whadaya mean, it’s cold!?”)
Luna, once again, seems to have forgotten her training. We think just too many new things or she’s reading our mood or something. She’s decided she’s got a burning case of separation anxiety. She’s also decided she loves riding elevators. While she’s supposed to be okay in all situations, I suspect I’ve been conned when she was asking to go potty but wanting back on the elevator right after we got off. Goofy dog! Echo and Kaze seem to be fine, aside from the fact they’re cuddling with each other, which they have never been prone to do.
Tomorrow I go job hunting and we see if Richmond or Henrico County DHS will be able to help us. Our cousins can offer emotional support, but they already have a house-full of people and pets. We’re running out of money fast. I want to make this work and I’m confident I can find a job…. but we’re beginning to question our sanity. Hell, we even contemplated seeing if Sheba could help us and continuing south to Florida. We also have thought about going back to Michigan. We’re running out of time on the rental car and aren’t sure we can afford to keep it another week.
I’m not sure what to do. Please, pray for us.