2 April 2010

An uneventful 9 ¾ hour trip back to Virginia, which left Chree unable to either walk or sit down. She looks quite statuesque, propped up there in the garage. Next time, she says, we’re taking two days for the trip, going via Connecticut both ways…

1 April 2010

A cloudy / foggy morning that slowly cleared into a glorious day… until the mosquitoes came out. Don’t they know they’re supposed to wait ‘till the end of May?!?! Discovered the coffee maker had quit after brewing only one cup of joe… hardly sufficient for those of us recovering from a day of rebar cutting and bending. Investigation showed that four electrical outlets were suddenly inoperative… and that electric line runs right through the area where THE Mouse (or mice) had been feasting all winter. Potentially BIG trouble! After breakfast, used the van to jump-start the Ford Ranger… which immediately revved up to 5,000 rpms (above the red line on the tachometer). Needless to say, engine shut down followed engine ignition within nanoseconds. Looked under the hood to see if the accelerator cable was somehow stuck or something else obviously was amiss. Boy can they cram a lot of “stuff” under a vehicle’s hood these days. Wish I recognized more than six of the items. Guess they must have stopped making accelerator cables in 1968. Only thing I could deduce is that the Ranger caught the runaway acceleration disease from being hooked up to our Toyota. Called Leicester Service Center, who promptly dispatched Jim Currie’s son to our locale. He said the truck needed to be towed to a shop with electronic ignition diagnostic equipment. Can you spell “mega-bucks”? However, Jim’s son did jump start the RV again. I somehow neglected to mention, while he was doing his battery booster-pack magic, that when showing him where the RV batteries are located I discovered that I HAD disconnected the coach batteries last fall and the reason they weren’t working was because they were STILL disconnected. No bigger April Fool than yours truly. As soon as the RV started the hydraulic system fault alarm went off. Grrr!!!! Only cure (because Chree was shouting, as she and the dogs exited stage right, “Don’t turn off the engine!!!!”) was to retract the slide-out and raise the leveling jacks, the later action causing Delores to lean over a few degrees. Unfortunately, Chree had Lynne’s birthday cake in the oven while all this was going on. Even though Chree rotated the pan every 15 minutes, the cake ended up quite lopsided. Junction Auto Center sent their tow truck down to get the Ranger. The list of repair items for the Ranger numbered 14 by the time we got to the shop… whose manager was positively beaming as we went over the list together. He was mumbling something about Christmas in April… Meanwhile, back at the RV, when Chree tried to dry her hair after showering, she found the GFI outlet in the bathroom tripped . Resetting the GFI outlet restored the coffee maker to operation. (Don’t you just love the magic of modern electricity?) Sometime today the back to my cell phone fell off and went missing again! Alverta and Lynne came over for a delicious dinner that Chree concocted… and a birthday cake that definitely was in keeping with the Delores mystique. Only needed a cigarette to be perfect. While cleaning up after dinner, pulled down the grease filter from the stove vent fan to see why the fan wouldn’t operate. The reason was a king-sized mouse nest… or maybe more like a mice condo... made out of Kleenex. To be dealt with later…

31 March 2010

Weather still cold and showery most of the day. Rented a rebar cutter / bender from Taylor Rental in Middlebury. A manually operated cutter / bender. Accent on the word “manually”. But, in 6 ½ hours of steady, hard work, Chree and I cut and bent 1,500 pounds of rebar that will be used in the shed foundation. Don’t expect either of us will be worth much tomorrow. The dogs, usually quite good about staying within eyesight range, suddenly disappeared mid-morning. The good news is that they came back reasonably quickly when we called / whistled. The bad news is that they had been down to the lake for another swim… Marty Lapidus stopped by to say howdy, saw the truck tire situation, and lent me his 12 volt air compressor. About noon, Chree tried to go back inside the RV to warm up, only to discover that the safety latch on the main cabin door had, once again, somehow gotten thrown. Locked
out! The van keys and the key to Lynne’s house, of course, were inside the RV. Lynne, bless her heart twice over, came to our rescue, driving to her house and then bringing the spare RV keys to Fern Lake during her lunch hour on a day that was completely bonkers at her office. At least no windows were broken to regain entry this time around. After returning the rebar cutter / bender to Taylor, stopped by Carrara & Sons Concrete Company to find out about their capabilities, costs, and get an account application. Returning to Fern Lake, used Marty’s air pump to re-inflate the dead truck tires. Big tires, small pump = a long time pumping. When done, was going to move the truck to more level ground in case the right tire went flat again overnight. Found out the old fashioned way that now the truck battery was dead, too. A thousand milligrams of Motrin washed down with some more Pinot Noir helped ease the physical and mental distress.

 

30 March 2010

As expected, Delores just laughed (silently) in my face when I tried to start her this morning. A great start to a thoroughly cold and miserable rainy day. Bruce Baldwin, carpenter and house builder, came by for an interview and to take a preliminary look at our house plans and building site. An excellent, very promising conversation. Went down to the waterfront to retrieve sundry items stored in the dock shack over the winter. Tree stand / photo platform still standing! Ditto shed turnaround area retaining wall built last fall. Lake water temperature measured 44 degrees… though that may have been a high reading as I didn’t keep my hand submerged for very long. The dogs, OF COURSE, dove right in and thoroughly enjoyed paddling around. Goodro Lumber delivery early afternoon. Took the tarp off the Ford Ranger and discovered the right front tire was completely flat and the left front tire weren’t far behind. On a positive note, after reconnecting the battery, the truck started on the first turn of the key.

29 March 2010

In spite of pouring rain and having to contend with rush-hour traffic, made reasonably decent time to Fern Lake from the Boston area, arriving about 1 pm. Our plan was to quickly unload the van’s overloaded roof, untarp Delores, and then drive the RV over to my sister Lynne’s place to fill up the water tanks. Unloading plywood and untarping the RV took but a few moments. Noticed that the main entry steps were partially deployed… not the way I had left them. Hmmm… Went to reconnect the coach batteries… and was sure I saw that they still were connected. Uh, oh!!!! Put the key in the ignition, turned the switch, and (you guessed it!), deafening silence. Tried cross-connecting the RV starter motor to the coach batteries (there is a switch on the dashboard for that purpose). No joy! No problem, says he, foolishly over-confident. Pulled the van into position, hooked up the jumper cables, revved up the van engine for a few minutes, turned the RV ignition switch… and, again, nothing. Did I mention that it was steadily raining on this parade? After an hour of fiddle-farting around trying everything I could think of, Chree announced that it was time for some warmer, drier surroundings, a working toilet, AND a hot shower. So with that decided, we went over to Lynne’s office (only about 5 miles away) where she MOST graciously gave us the key to her house. While Chree was attending to warmth, etc., the dogs and I went to Goodro Lumber to set up a credit account, as for some reason they were refusing to take our first-born male child in payment for the ton (literally) of steel rebar (special steel rod that you put into concrete to give a masonry structure strength in both compression and tension) and assorted other building supplies I had ordered last week. Returned to Fern Lake, I called the 1-800 number for AAA Roadside Assistance… which connected me to our “home” office in Virginia… who decided that dead RV batteries were covered by our “policy”.  So they called AAA in Vermont, who called Jim Currie at the Leicester Service Center, who arrived on the scene, battery booster pack in hand, all within 45 minutes. Booster pack connected, the RV started on the first try. Hallelujah and pass the Scotch! Arriving at Lynne’s, I turned off the RV engine in order to prove that the batteries had recharged sufficiently to restart the now-warm engine. BIG mistake!!!! Did I mention that the whole day was raining on my parade? Fortunately, Lynne’s neighbor, Bob Hillman, had a fully charged battery booster pack in his shop, which proved to be just the ticket. Water tanks full, we returned to Fern Lake, DETERMINED NEVER TO SHUT OFF THE RV ENGINE EVER AGAIN!!!! Deployed the hydraulic leveling jacks, then extended the RV living area slide-out. As soon as the slide-out was out, the hydraulic system fault alarm went off. Two choices: listen to the alarm scream for the rest of our lives or… A quiet dinner with a delightful Finger Lakes region Pinot Noir finished off a day that deserved for me to be shot. Discovered that mice (THE Mouse????) had been using the utensils drawer as a restroom as they (he??) sheltered from the elements all winter. Also, only the handle was left of a Rubbermaid pot scraper in that drawer. Perhaps they needed something to aid the digestion after eating all the Kleenex?

28 March 1010

Other than getting lost within a block of their apartment, an uneventful trip from Connecticut to Tasi & Kristen’s abode in Massachusetts. Their friends, Rick and Rachel Collins, graciously took the two dogs for the evening (in return for a case of Yuengling), as Tasi and Kristen live in a no-pets place with newly refinished hardwood floors.

27 March 2010

Loaded nearly every tool I own, 5 sheets of plywood already cut into widths for shed footer concrete forms, all the “stuff” for the RV, a few hundred dollars worth of food, two sawhorses, two dogs, and a wife into the van for the long trip north. Went about 50 miles until the tarp protecting the plywood on the roof started flapping in the breeze. Four stops and a half roll of duct tape later, the tarp was secured… and then a severe pounding noise started emanating from on high. Stopped again. Nothing amiss. Pounding resumed as soon as we did. Stopped again. Nothing amiss. Was the roof rack so severely overloaded (answer: quite likely) that it was about to part company with the car?!?!? With that thought in mind, we finally made it to the Baltimore Harbor tunnel (a one hour trip that had taken two looooong hours). Entering the tunnel, the pounding stopped. Very strange! Started again as soon as we left the tunnel. Very, very, strange! A large truck passed us; the pounding almost stopped. Tail-gated another truck (purely in the name of science); the noise almost stopped. Finally, Chree suggested that cross-air currents had something to do with what we were hearing (and feeling through the roof liner), a much happier thought than that 200 pounds of plywood was about to fly through someone’s windshield. Continued on to a pit stop on the Jersey Turnpike. Stuffed a couple of rags between the tarp and the roof in the area where the pounding seemed most severe. Underway again, the noise was completely gone. Many traffic slowdowns later, we finally reached Fran & Frank's house (Chree’s parents) in Connecticut, 8 ½ hours after leaving Virginia… a trip that normally takes about 6 hours. A nice walk and some adult beverages soon took the edge off the fanny fatigue.