The strangest thing taken out in the storms

As everyone in America knows, huge swaths of the East coast were struck by a series of really intense storms in the last two weeks, combines with record high temperatures. Here in Richmond, VA we were without power for three days followed by record and near-record highs for the last week. Yesterday it was 105. The AC simply can't keep up, and during the hottest part of the day the only room that's tolerable is my office, because it is closed up, has two AC vents, and is shaded by a huge old tree.

As if all of that hasn't been annoying enough... the backup battery on the security system is dead. The security system is wired into the house power, but it has a backup for power outages. It ran dry during the power outage two weeks ago. It is supposed to recharge when the lights come back on, but this battery didn't recharge and won't recharge for whatever reason. So it beeps every four hours, all day, and keeps beeping until you disarm the system. Since we haven't ever actually PAID the security company for monitoring, we didn't want to call them to replace the battery. Plus, I searched online and they charge like $100 for the service & battery.

So, Google and YouTube and Amazon to the rescue! Did a search to find out the battery number, found a video showing how to open the box and replace the battery, and ordered the battery online. It should be here in about 2 hours. Yay me!

Also got a new overdrive pedal... used on Craigslist, so I didn't spend a ton of money on it or anything. I feel sort of bad owning something endorsed by Zakk Wylde, who used to play guitar for Ozzy Osbourne and fronts his own band as well. He's a dirty-looking, loudmouthed assclown, and he endorses everything from amps and guitars to hot sauce, but he's a decent player and the pedal is surprisingly good, given that I'm not using it the way he uses it. He's going Les Paul into a cranked Marshall stack for brutal heavy metal. I'm using it with a Stratocaster into a clean combo amp for smooth progressive rock lead tones.