Page 4 - CMA PROfiles Spring 2015

????????
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
An Amazing Time to Be Alive

by Matt Krig, President
hortly after arriving at work the other morning, my wife called,
looking for the 200amp battery charger, as her van wouldn’t
S start. I began my inquisition of the usual sources of the oc-
casional dead battery. Our four year old son is the first person who
came to mind, as he loves to slyly turn dome lights on in the back
seat as he’s getting out. My wife, who was in a hurry, cut me off
and said, “I just need to know where the charger is so I can drop
the kids off at school and daycare, get to work, and make it to my first appointment.” I
was curtly told the ignition didn’t even click and the dome lights would not give even
the faintest glow. I told her which cabinet the charger was located in and asked her to
let me know when she got it started. It bugged me all morning, and I sent the portable
jumper pack with her as I was concerned about her getting caught with a dead battery
across town, or with our kids in the van. It was cold out, but not below zero like the pre-
vious week, so I was perplexed as to why the battery was suddenly stone dead without
any previous signs of weakness.

That evening after the kids were in bed, I went out into the
garage to get a screwdriver to make the ten millionth repair to
one of my kid’s toys, and heard a sound: almost like the van was A person can type
idling! It’s a pretty eerie feeling standing at the tool chest with
your back to a car and suddenly, without warning, it sounds like their vehicle’s
the van is running and revving up. I thought for sure my lovely,
patient and tolerant wife had finally had enough, and was going problem into a
to run me down in the garage! Well, I figured, at least I’d get out cell phone and get
of repairing those little remote control helicopters that we got for
Christmas, so it wasn’t a complete loss! a diagnosis and
A few seconds later the van shut off and I got the courage to illustrated repair
simultaneously check and see if I had wet my pants and if my wife
had had a change of heart. She’s pretty smart, so I figured she’d instructions …
probably decided to wait until after all the RC helicopters on the
flight line had their annual nightly inspections before doing the
deed, otherwise she’d have to do that herself in addition to hiding
my body. My pants were surprisingly dry and there was no one in the van! This was
a relief and also a reason to panic. Were the radio controllers for the toy helicopters
somehow starting the van? I was completely bewildered, so I went in the house and
pretended like nothing happened, keeping one eye on my wife while finishing up on
the helicopters. I cleaned up and returned to the garage to put the tools away, and the
same thing happened! This time I was composed enough to jump out of the way, only to
realize that the van was not running. Upon further inspection, I discovered that the two-
speed cooling fan on the radiator was running on high, which sounds about the same as
a running engine.

I decided to put the van outside for the evening and disconnect the battery for good
measure; my company had recently completed an entire house full of cabinets after
a faulty fan in a car had started a fire, so I was taking no chances. I went inside and
forgave my wife for thinking she was attempting to kill me, and proceeded to put fresh
batteries in all of the smoke detectors. I also looked up the symptoms and deduced that
it was indeed the fan relay that was malfunctioning. It’s quite an amazing time to be
alive when a person can type their vehicle’s problem into a cell phone and get a diag-
nosis and illustrated repair instructions with a Youtube video, as well as part prices and
availability all in the palm of their hand. ❖

The Cabinet Makers Association is fortunate to have qualified leaders. Associations need excellent leadership in order to remain
healthy and grow. The Board of Directors has been established not only to direct the course of the Association, but also to meet
your needs, act as a point of contact and answer association related questions.

4 PROFILES • Volume 15 • Issue 2, 2015 • www.cabinetmakers.org