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You really can find anything on the Internet.

A couple weeks ago my dome light in my truck went out. Hardly a crisis, but annoying as we’re getting to the season where it’s dark more often than not. Of course it wasn’t anything as simple as a door switch or a light bulb. When I finally got a chance to do some diagnosis, it became clear the ground wire leading to the light was nearly, but not completely broken. The question was, where? I really didn’t relish the idea of trying to trace wires through the headliner and try to figure out what path they took to the underside of the dash.

So I post my dilemma to the alt.chevy.trucks newsgroup and ask if anyone knows the path the wires take or where a likely trouble spot would be. Within 2 hours, a guy posts a follow-up saying that I should pull the drivers side door sill panel and look for the harness with the orange and white wire. The white was my troublesome ground. Well, darned if the guy didn’t peg it dead on. I pull the panel and there’s the harness. A tug on the white wire and it breaks clean in two. Bingo. A simple wire repair and I’m basking in the warm glow of incandescent dome shine. Cool.

So while I’m feeling good about that, and watching my kids zip about on their scooters, I hear a woman’s voice ask the kids if they want the box she’s holding. My parental radar goes immediately on alert, and when she sees me she comes and offers the box to me. She says she was just gonna throw it away and that it belonged to her boyfriend. So now I’m thinking that they had a fight and she’s gonna get even by trashing his stuff. But about then, the boyfriend pulls up in the car and sticks his head out the window. He says it all works and that he really just doesn’t want it anymore. So with all my reasons to be suspicious put to rest, we gratefully accept the box and thank our new friends. We then go inside and hook up our “new” Sony Playstation. I’ll be damned… it really does all work.

It’s a good day.