Something strange happened on Friday afternoon. Donna and I were inside – she was working at her laptop and I was surfing the Internet. We heard a loud “pop,” but didn’t know where it came from. The next thing I knew, I lost my wifi connection to our Verizon Jetpack. Donna said she was kicked off as well. I went to re-connect and found the Verizon Jetpack was offline, it didn’t appear among the devices available.

I got up and looked at the Jetpack. The pop we heard was the back of the Jetpack being blown off as the lithium-ion battery exploded! I don’t know if the battery overcharged or overheated, but for some reason, it blew apart and wouldn’t fit in the Jetpack anymore.

Back cover blown off our Jetpack

Battery expanded and cover split

Profile of distorted battery – it’s normally a rectangle

I don’t know if this is a function of an internal disconnect for an overheated battery or some kind of defect. Lithium-ion batteries have a safety disconnect feature to prevent fire. A burning lithium-ion battery is not a good thing – it’s impossible to extinguish a lithium-ion fire. Donna set her Samsung Galaxy S5 as a hotspot and we had Internet access.

With the sink project still underway, we decided to head out to Red, White and Brew for happy hour and dinner. Donna had her usual mussels vin blanc and I had the Meet the Meat stuffed pizza roll which is basically a meaty calzone.

RWB Meet the Meat stuffed pizza roll

Around 9am Saturday morning, we heard techno dance music blasting outside. We weren’t sure where it was coming from. I went outside for a look. There was a lane closure on the north side of University Drive with a blow-up arch in the lane and lots of orange cones. At the arch, there was a big speaker on a stand pointed at the back of our coach which is on the south side of University Drive. The music was so loud, it completely drowned out the sound of traffic on the road. There was a 5K run coming down University Drive – the two-mile mark was across the street from us. Apparently the organizers thought blasting dance music at 9am was necessary at the two-mile mark.

I rode the scooter south on Val Vista to the Verizon store with my Jetpack and blown-up battery. The guy there wasn’t very helpful. He took the Jetpack and battery disappeared into the back of the store. Fifteen minutes later he came back and said he could order a new battery for $60 and have it next week. I asked what caused the battery to blow up. He said I probably overcharged it. He said not to leave it on the charger, to run it on the battery and recharge as needed. Are you serious? The battery will last three to four hours. We have the Jetpack on all day. If I cycled the battery four times day, it wouldn’t last a year. Also, after 21 months of use plugged in, why did the battery blow up now? He had no answers. I declined the $60 battery.

I stopped at Batteries Plus to see if they had a replacement. No luck, but I bought some fluorescent light tubes I needed while I was there. I also rode over to the farmers’ market on Power Road and picked up more local honey.

When I returned home, I searched online for a Pantech BTR291B lithium-ion battery. I found it on Amazon for $22.99. With my Prime account, two-day delivery was free. At checkout, my Prime account is linked to my Chase Freedom Visa card. I had more than enough cashback points to cover the cost of the battery. It’s like getting it for free and it’ll deliver here on Tuesday.

With that done, I set into my next project. I used a sharp plastic scraper to remove the old caulking from the kitchen sink. Once I had all of the old caulking out, I cleaned the sink and the counter top area that joins the sink with rubbing alcohol. I laid a new bead of caulking and it’s looking good. The caulk needs to cure for 36 hours before contact with water. With that in mind, we didn’t want to create a lot of dirty dishes, so we went out for dinner again.

New caulk on the sink

This time we decided to try a Thai restaurant called 5 R Cha Thai Bistro (we learned that 5 R Cha means five horses in Thai). Donna had a green curry with shrimp. She said it was excellent, it would rival Lanna Thai in San Diego.

Green curry with shrimp

I went with my old standby, Pad Thai chicken. It was good, but the chicken was overcooked. The sauce on the noodles makes Pad Thai, and this had great flavor. I enjoyed a Singh Ha Thai beer with my meal while Donna went for a Japanese Sapporo beer.

Pad Thai chicken

I think I mentioned Donna’s trip to the dentist on Wednesday. She broke a molar and had a temporary crown put on. Last night, Donna woke up with a toothache. Her temporary crown came off. This was probably due to her retainer – she didn’t think about the temporary crown when she put her retainer on. Hopefully she can have the temp reset today.

We’re planning to go out to Baja Joe’s for dinner tonight with Lana and Joel. That will make three nights in a row eating out! That’s unusual for us. By tonight, our kitchen sink will be fully functional again and we can get back to our usual meal schedule.

The rest of the country sprang forward as of 2am this morning. Here in Arizona, daylight savings time isn’t observed. The clocks neither spring forward nor fall back. That makes Arizona time equivalent to Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) now.