Walt's Corner

Netflix has released their statistics for viewership from January through June of 2024. At the bottom of that page is a link to get the spreadsheet version.

Number 1 show was Fool Me Once: Limited Series with 107,500,000 views. Number 10 was One Day: Limited Series with 39,400,000 views.

I haven’t seen either one of them. 3 Body Problem: Season 1 clocked in at number 8 and that is the only one I’ve seen out of the first 103! None of the others enticed me enough to give them a shot.

I’m trying to think what I watch on Netflix. Loudermilk. Big Mouth. That’s about it for now. Anything else I’d be interested in watching has already been watched. Like Stranger Things. Mind Hunter. None of their newer shows are seducing me.

Currently we are re-watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to fill the show-hole of waiting for the next big show we watch. Like – Severance. New Star Treks.

Carol bought me a surprise the other day. The KeenPower 21 volt portable air compressor.

Works pretty good. You can charge the battery via a wall plug in, or you can operate if off your vehicle’s 12-volt port. What you can’t do is charge the battery off your car. Why you ask? Because your car is a 12-volt system while battery of this compressor is 21 volts. You do the math.

There’s a convenient 4-bar LED indicator informing you of the battery’s current charge state. There are 4 settings for it with predetermined air pressure settings that you can adjust. Select Car and it starts you off at 36 pounds. You can adjust up or down to your liking. After charging the battery I used it on my truck. All the tires were at about 36 pounds. They should be at 40. I chose the car setting, increased the pounds up to 40, secured the hose to the valve stem and pulled the trigger. The compressor brought them up to 40 pounds and turned itself off. Next I used it on the motorcycle setting – 35 pounds. Good enough. They were both a little low and this brought it up to pressure much quicker than the truck tires.

The other two settings are for bicycle tires and balls. No, basket balls you pervert. There is also a flashlight function to it that is intended to light up the tire for use at night.

The compressor comes in a handy zippered carrying case for convenient storage and travel.

In the words of Agent Doaks on Dexter, Surprise, mother fucker! Surprise, indeed. And a good one.

Remember that shower wand replacement I ordered not too long ago? It did arrive and looks exactly like I thought it would. Consisting of a reducer valve taking your shower water line down to a standard gardening bubbler type tube that mounts into a sponge via a proprietary attachment method that is ingenious.

I won’t get a chance to properly test it out until Christmas, but I have no doubts as to whether or not it will conserve water. My main concern is if I’ll be able to use it in lieu of a shower wand and still be happy. I’ll update you when I find out after the annual Big Bend Ranch State Park trip.

TLDR? This is your paragraph. Drill out the old rivets. Fill in holes with some type of sealant – I used regular old kitchen/bathroom silicone caulking. Mark your new pilot holes, drill and enlarge holes to fit your well nuts. Secure latch to the RV. You may want to bend the arm of the latch so that it is not resting on your RV wall when not being used. The bumper stopper that prevents the door from slamming open into your wall may need to be shortened to reduce stress on your wall when catch is being used. Links to parts are listed at the end.

The latch that holds the RV door open finally finished disintegrating. That cheap, white plastic that just crumbles after a couple years of being exposed to the elements. It did last longer than I thought it would. 9 years. I’m not complaining.

I chose a more sturdy catch for the replacement. Amazon link to it at the bottom.

Original catch was riveted to the door and wall. Thought I might get away with simply drilling out the old ones and putting in new rivets. Nope. Admittedly I am no rivet expert. Matter of fact, I have only used rivets once before and that was for the metal slide rails under the slide-out. Turns out the rivets I had were too small.

A trip to Lowe’s gave me much larger aluminum rivets. Those worked but not really. Any heavy load and they began pulling out. Last ditch effort was to use some well nuts. I knew they would work. I used them to secure the solar panels to the roof and I had a fresh stock pile on hand to install the 4th and final solar panel. If I ever need any nuts or bolts that I can’t source locally, Bolt Depot is my go-to website. These worked perfectly.

You may want to unscrew the rubber bumper that prevents the door from slamming open into your wall and make it a bit shorter. The shorter length of the new catch means the door will sit closer to your wall putting some pressure on that bumper. What’s really going on is that bumper is pushing the door open even harder, causing unnecessary stress on your RV wall and door.

One more note – these well nuts provide a great seal, no need to seal more around IMO especially since they are on the side. If using them on my roof I’d throw some self-leveling sealant over them as a general precaution. If you feel better throwing a line of sealing around the edges, by all means seal that baby up.

Parts list:
Stainless steel, spring loaded self closing
Well nuts, EPDM rubber with brass insert, #10-32
Flange bolts, Full thread, Serrated, Zinc plated grade 5 steel, #10-32

I saw this replacement for an RV shower head called the Geyser Systems RV Shower Wand Replacement. Being an avid boondocking RV’er, I’m always looking for ways to extend my battery and water use and this system promises that you can get a full “shower” with .8 gallons of water. Naturally, I was intrigued. It reduces the water flow from the already water conserving shower head to an even more restricted flow using what appears to be low-flow landscaping tubes for soaking your shrubs or plants. Instead of pressurized water coming out of a shower head, the water comes out this small tube into a hollowed-out sponge. Clever idea. Something anyone with some DIY skills could create. But why re-create the wheel when someone already has one for about $40?

For my friends who camp in tents, you might want to check out their full shower system including water tank/pump/heater. That costs a little bit more.

First attempt to buy was met with a “not in stock” message. Boo. No way to be notified when back in stock. Double boo. My mind started thinking about what parts from Lowe’s could be bought to make one myself because this was an outstanding idea. And I could put my wife’s sewing skills to use by sewing a couple sponges together to mimicking the hollowed-out sponge.

I revisited the website today to learn that they are back in stock. Shew. No need to make one myself. Ordered. Most weekend and long weekend trips we don’t need to worry too much about conserving our water. Our 45-gallon fresh-water tank and existing Oxygenics RV shower head conserves enough water to not have to worry about this. But our annual over-a-week-long camping trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park requires us to either cut back on shower usage or make sure to bring along extra water and portable gray-water waste tank. We’ve gone both ways.

I’m looking forward to giving this a shot and writing my review here on my Corner. I’ll post pictures once it arrives but it won’t be until after our Big Bend trip before I put it to the test. You can expect to read about our experiences and thoughts on it at the end of the year or early next year.