Unfinished Jobs (or: How not to iPod your Mercury)

Several months ago I purchased a wired FM modulator so that I'd be able to listen to my iPod in the car like all the cool kids with the white headphones. I finally got around to breaking my car hooking it up this weekend. After a little mix-up purchasing antenna adapters (who knew that my Ford/Mercury factory radio used Volkswagen/Audi antenna ports instead of Ford antenna ports? Silly Ford of Europe), I spliced the 12VDC lines from the cigarette lighter and had CCR pumping through the Cougar's speakers. Sweet. So, being the lazy geek, I had everything working, why try to clean it up? At this point I had:

a non-functioning cigarette lighter

console panels only partially reattached

a bunch of wires running out of the console to the passenger-side footwell

the fm modulator sitting in the footwell and power switch jammed between the seat and the cupholder

It was nice listening to something different on the drive to work today. Even though I do enjoy Splinter from The Offspring, it got a little old after listening to it for about the last 8 months. What? I already said I was lazy.

Then this afternoon after work I settled into the driver's seat for a nice round of music on the trip home. Unfortunately, the modulator no longer worked. I know electronics have become disposable, but wasn't 16 hours a bit fleeting? I then realized that in the rat's nest of wires in the passenger footwell, 2 cables that were touching were the spliced 12VDC and ground cables going to the modulator. Oops. Looks like someone's gotta go grab an automobile fuse... and possibly some electrical tape to seal stuff up. Maybe this'll be an impetus to actually finish the job.

Nahhhhh.....

cougar, modulator, ipod