Walt's Corner

We’ve had some pretty harsh rains here lately, so when I saw a puddle on my front porch I thought nothing of it.

Even the next day. I came home and noticed the porch was still a bit damp with a small puddle. OK. No worries. It must have rained a little during the day.

Day three. There’s that pesky puddle. Pretty sure there was no rain. That shit should have dried by now. Closer inspection showed that it was coming from the seam of the garage on the sidewalk.

My first thought was THE ROOF! The roof is on fire! No. Wait. That’s something else. The roof might be leaking and the water is making its way down the inside of the wall separating the garage from front porch. Some bad news, indeed. The wall felt… normal. Wasn’t gushy or damp. I went inside the garage to have a look. That’s when I noticed the drip. Coming from one of the connections at the water shutoff inside the garage.

That’s some pretty good news! I don’t have to work on my roof! Simple pex and shark bite connectors. Say… I wonder if I wiggle the pex tube a little if it would settle into place and stop dripping? BAD IDEA! BAD IDEA! Now the water is spraying out. I’ve made a huge mistake. Note to self: never wiggle a dripping water line.

I run out to the water box at the edge of the driveway, pull the top off, reach in with a pair of pliers and turn the water off to the house. The spraying stops. A quick check of the time – 9:04PM – tells me that Lowes is closed. Fuck. Guess this is going to have to wait until tomorrow.

For fear of loosening up the other connectors tied to the same area as a result of me yanking the old connector off, I figured I’d replace the entire set up in that box.

Problem solved. But not before going a night and morning without running water. I can’t tell you how many times I reached for the faucet to rinse something out. Carol went to the store that night to get 6 gallons of water to hold us over. It was almost like camping. Well, tent camping. Not like our RV camping. Where we have actual running water.

Putting the exciting news up front (I do hate clickbait), we accidentally bought our Retirement RV a little sooner than expected. An Airstream Rangeline! Which also means we’ll be selling the Lance (sad face).

Picking out our Lance was about a year-long process. Innumerable visits to many RV dealerships. Walking around them. Walking in them. Picturing us camping in them. Getting kicked out by security because “you can’t sleep here overnight.” Bitch, please. I lie down on that bed before I buy it!

Taking our time to pick that Lance out was almost as fun as buying it. What we (I) really wanted was an Airstream but back then there was no way we were going to afford that. We could barely afford the Lance, but at least it was the next best thing in my opinion. So the Airstream dream slipped into the back recesses of my mind and sprouted roots that dug deep and held.

The retirement RV was going to be all metal construction. No more applying sealant to the seams as a cyclic maintenance routine. No more wondering if this would be the time the slide decides to not work. Is it going to start leaking around the slide? How long is this frame and plywood sheet house going to last?

It was a major compromise from the both of us. Carol wanted a motor coach. Something she could comfortably drive. I wanted an Airstream – the classic bullet shaped aluminum riveted trailers. The Rangeline is our compromise. All steel construction. No slides.

We initially went to the Airstream dealer to just have a look at the touring coaches. See what they looked like inside. Would we think we’d be able to downsize that much? Dude made us an offer we couldn’t refuse and we bought it on the spot.

This will certainly be a huge learning curve as we transition from camping in what essentially was a mobile home (trailer) with walk-around queen size bed, full kitchen with oven, stove, full-size fridge and freezer, table that seats six, walk in bathroom with shower and full vanity over the sink to store all my assorted sundries, separate closets and wardrobes, and food pantry.

Transitioning to what’s basically a cargo van. But Airstream does find a way to maximize what little space it does have. Definitely a 2-person only RV with a full-size bed that folds up and out of the way for maximizing cargo space when traveling. Could have opted for a pop-up top. Nope! Just another place to worry about leaking later.

Due to its much smaller footprint, we will be able to fit into a ton of more spaces than what we have been accustomed to. It is hard to explain the anxiety one gets when rolling into a camping area, knowing that out of the 30 different spots available, your rig will only fit into 5 of them, and let’s hope there is at least one of those 5 available. This van will fit just about anywhere.

All of the usual places we repeat camp? I can think of all the spots that are available to us now. City of Rocks. Aguirre Springs. Oliver Lee Memorial. Bryce Canyon. Zion. Joshua Tree. Fort Davis.

Sad to see the Lance go, but we will be selling it. The Airstream dealer graciously offered to sell it on consignment, with no fees.

This is going to be a wonderful next chapter in our lives!

I had purchased a couple of these lights when I installed a new cabinet in my bathroom. Small. Easy to mount with magnetic plates that mount under your cabinet via two-sided tape or small screws. I opted for the tape. It has held up well for the last several months. The light just snaps into place and easily removes when needed for charging. This model is 8 inches long and super thin. Easily fits into the shallow side pocket of my toiletry bag when I’m packing for the trip or packing to leave. It is so thin that mounted where it is, unless I’m looking for it, I won’t see it and will forget to take it home with me after our trip.

The light has 3 brightness levels to choose from and can be set to turn off after a few seconds of no motion or constantly on.

The light charges using the included USB-C cable, but any will do. Chances are you arleady have plenty of USB-C cables laying around. In my house the single charge lasts longer than 2 weeks but will be dead by 3.

You can check it out on Amazon.

I had never heard of this one before but it sounds absolutely amazing! No fool, not the name, the actual recipe. I came across this from one of my tech-friends on Mastodon. You can read about it here and even see a cool YouTube video.

Being the ordained minister that I am, always doing the Lord’s work, I’ll give it to you here so that you don’t have to deep dive into another website full of pop-ups and ads.

First layer is coffee liquor. 2nd layer is Irish Cream. Top layer is whiskey. Serve in a tall 2oz shot glass. I love coffee. I love Irish cream. I love whiskey. What’s not to love about this shooter?

Early last month (July) I wrote about May’s Energy usage and how much longer our air conditioner had to run to maintain 73-74º inside the house during our days of 100-110º weather.

Since our air conditioner was over 17 years old now and the fact that Freon for this old system is much harder (if at all possible) to find, we decided it was time to replace it. Replace it while it was still operating and not replace it because it broke down. That would probably force us to take whatever is available in stock to minimize the downtime of cool air.

We decided on a Trane Premium system. 2-stage variable system. It did take over a week to come in and then another week to where the authorized Trane dealer’s and our schedule lined up to make it happen.

In our area, there is only one authorized installer – Dynamic Heating, Cooling, and Refrigeration. They did an excellent job. Nothing but praise from me. They had the new system installed and running by the end of the day, with cosmetic finishing touches completed by lunch the following day. They even put in an extra return vent at my request.

When they realized the three of them were not going to be able to lift the massive new condenser over our wall for placement in the back yard, they called in a crane to handle the task.

Now our house can get down into the 60s should I choose to do so. Typically I enjoy 72 at night and 73 during the day. With the 2 stages and variable condenser, it can be barely running at 30% if that’s what it takes to maintain our temperature, or it can be like a blasting fan when more oomph is needed. Love it!