Sunday, July 31, 2011

Under the weather

The rain we are finally getting has been wonderful. It has been desperately needed around here. But Mer and I have gotten some sort of stomach bug. Hers has now taken her voice and we are pretty drained at the moment but still kicking.

Other than this news of dubious importance, not much else has been going on. I am still waiting to hear back from the insurance guy about the rest of the claims for damages from the tornado. So far, I have fronted about $2k towards repairs with another few hundred to go.

We are still aiming to leave here around the 17th of August and heading down to visit with Mer’s brother, Bob, his wife and family.  After that, the plans are pretty open until Dec 1.

Here’s hoping that all this rain means more civilized temperatures.

ttfn,

Budd

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Sweltering!

Ok I said it!  That should be enough! It can stop anytime, now.

This oppressive heat here in central North Carolina is just reminding me of too many summer days as a kid in Central Alabama and Central Florida, BC (Before Conditioning (air, that is)). The phrase that I remember the most was, “It’s a nice day, go out and play.”….. NOW!

Bacd then, I thought it was mean.  Now, I am sure it was just the adults resenting the huge amount of heat generated by 3 kids bodies indoors.  We were dulling their cool space.

This is not Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi.  After all, it “IS” NORTH Carolina and that should count for something at least a little less tropical.

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My Dad used to say that it was all just in my mind and that it really wasn’t all that hot. These are not my numbers but I will play along and pretend I am in, oh, let’s say, Port Orford, Oregon.

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There!  Now I feel so much better…… not!

Maybe I just need some visual aids to help me chill out….

Ahhhh… Now That’s what I’m talking about!

ttfn

Budd

Thursday, July 14, 2011

The night was...... Sultry.

Not much is happening around here because it is just too hot and humid.  Our plans were to just not be here during this typical summer weather..... well, so much for plans.

Being here is accomplishing some important things, though.  The 15k A/C - Heat pump on the roof has been replaced by insurance. It was damaged in that tornado we were in on 4/16/2011 in the Smithfield KOA along with the thermostat.

Still a few little things, like the rear ladder, needed to be dealt with but I have managed to get a few coats of Red Max Pro on the front fiberglass end cap of DaKotR and 1 coat on the rear. This certainly makes it look better, is easier to clean and that should help us with the 10 year age limit on an RV that some parks capriciously enforce. I if an RV looks "spent" it might not be allowed to stay there.  I, also, still need to fill some cracks  that are developing in the caulked seams on the roof but they are not close to leaking and that can be done whenever weather permits. This time, I am going to redo them from scratch and then cover the seams with EternaBond seam tape. From what others have said, this should stop the bi-annual reworking of these seams on the end caps.

The other really big issue has been the generator exhaust coupling leak that has refused, for 7 years, to stay fixed.  Now that we are planning to spend more time off the grid and have a residential refrigerator that will need shore power to cool, we need a dependable generator that will not kill us.

To this end, I pulled the generator out, one more time, and took the offending piece of the exhaust pipe to a welder... and he fixed it, permanently! Fixed in this way will make getting the generator in and out of the RV a bit more difficult but not impossible and now, we should be able to trust the generator when it is running. I am now waiting on some better weather to install it, again.

Along with this, I want to add one of those Generator exhaust extensions that take the exhaust up above the RV.  I played with this for a little bit with a make shift arrangement and it was very nice. It made the generator even a lot quieter when outside and we never smelled any exhaust while it was running this way. That was always an irritating thing to keep getting whiffs of exhaust, especially when outside the RV.

We have always been concerned about leaving our dog, Katie, in the RV for hours and having the A/C go out.  The replacement thermostat I got for the A/C unit has a Wifi remote access capability.  As long as we have access to the RV's Wifi system we can monitor the temperature (and control it) in the RV from our Android Phones wherever we might be.  Eventually, I plan to add a webcam link to watch over her, too.   That would be nice and then, maybe we can figure out why she has to go around when we are away and tip over all the trash cans in the place. She rarely bothers anything in them but just goes over and tips them over and then walks away.

The garbage can is another matter, though, and is usually raided if we don't remember to put it up where she cannot get to it. A different fix is needed for that problem.

ttfn
Budd

Friday, July 8, 2011

Not a happy camper at the moment

We just got word that a close relative has been diagnosed with "C".  Prayers are helpful and encouraged.

Compared to this news, I don't really have much to say, for now.  Please ck Back in a day or so.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Ahhhhh. Cool at last!!!

Hawley’s Camping Center in Garner, NC has been extremely helpful in getting my A/C replaced that was killed in the tornado of 4/16/2011.  The A/C came in on tuesday evening and I got a call Wednesday morning about it. Although their service dept is scheduling about 3 weeks out, they were very accommodating given it’s July and we live in the RV.

The service Manager, Wayne, really bent over backwards to work us in and Robert, a great RV tech, did the same to get it swapped out and running.

In two hours, exactly, from when I pulled on Thursday Morning, I was driving out of their driveway, once again, a cool and happy camper.

Kudos, Hawley’s.

I still have to get settled with the insurance folks but that is just paper work, now. I still have to fix the rear ladder but that ,also, can be worked out…. now that we can get up and move about the RV without slipping in our own sweat.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The waiting game… Again

Tuesday, I went to Hawley’s Camping in Garner, NC to see about a few things including scheduling the AC replacement.

When we were hit by the tornado on 4/16, it is likely that some electrical surge that was not completely handled by my surge equipment managed to get through to my AC, my UPS on the computer, my cordless phone and the thermostat on the AC.  Unfortunately, proving this was the cause is limited to the simultaneous timing of the failures of these separate items.

It took 3 days for us to get power back but a small generator kept our refrigerator cold.  The rest of the electrical stuff was off until full power returned. Even then, I only noticed the UPS was bad when the power dropped a day later for a few minutes.

The cordless phones, while powered on are only used when I have a good enough broadband connection to run my Magic Jack and the Wi-Fi service in the Smithfield KOA was just not solid enough to make that usable.  I did not try to use it until we were in the Zooland Family Campground in Asheboro, NC some weeks later.  It turns out that the base unit is now dead.

As for the thermostat and AC, those were not discovered until a few weeks later than the tornado and we needed the heat pump up in West Virginia and all it would do is hum for a couple of seconds and then shut off.  I figured that the compressor is frozen, maybe due to the hole in the condensing coils on the roof from some flying debris during the tornado.

So, I need a new AC, Thermostat, UPS and Cordless phone.  I have contacted Progressive Insurance and though it has already gotten complicated, I am still trying to arrange a meet with the appraiser and the Hawley’s service tech later this week (I hope).

I am certain that the AC is not repairable and in a leap of faith, I already ordered a replacement 15k heat pump ($1000 – prepay) so it will hopefully be here be installed before the weekend.  I hope the Progressive guy comes through so we can get back on the road next week.

Meanwhile, I need to focus on fixing the exhaust connection on the generator and cleaning and glossing the rear fiberglass end cap of DaKotR.

ttfn

Budd

Saturday, June 25, 2011

RVBudds Newest Blog Hub

I have tweaked and twiddled with the prototype pages I previously showed and have found more things that I would like to be able to do with it.

Though something of a programmer in my previous life, I am no HTML whiz so I look for higher technologies than the original hammer and chisels to create web pages.  I still like Windows Live Writer and still want to use it to maintain most of this new format.  So far, I have been unable to find a way to use it on the Google Sites platform that the previous prototype is built on.

I feel it is vital that readers can leave anonymous comments if they want.  I will deal with the spam that comes through that window just so it is easier to use for most of you. Google Sites still does not have a reasonable way to let readers post anonymous comments so that is strike two for Google Sites… for now.

So, back to Blogger.com to see what I can weld together to get something close to what I am aiming for.  Some of the private comments I got about my original Hub page were about how uncomfortable it was to look over the main page and I agree.  Even after a lot of tweaking, it is still not as easy on the eyes as I would like so I have worked up another version of a hub page where all of my blogs are anchored.

What I have come up with is this: RVBudds.blogspot.com/

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It is less complex to the eye and flows better. It lacks a lot of the borders, framing and fine tuning flexibility of the previous design, however, it does support commenting and I can use Live Writer to maintain it.  That will save me a whole lot of time.

It also allows me to continue to use this blog as my DAILY blog so I don’t lose the continuity and my archives of posts and comments will continue to be available and grow with the site.

As before, one can get to any of my other blog sites from this one page but each of the other blogs it references can be individually “followed” if desired.

I will be adding a few features, like a SEARCH box for all my blogs, An archive list, Followers and much more but I really don’t want this hub page to get out of control with bells and whistles.  I tend to over build when I get enthusiastic about a project and some of my wonderful wants turn into “why-in-the-worlds?” really quickly.

Please check it out and please leave comments (now that you can).

ttfn

Budd