RV Toilet, & Tom Selleck

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

It’s late, I’m tired, and shouldn’t be doing this. My mind is furry and not reliable at this time of day. But, I have an obligation to report my activities, no matter how insignificant they may be from my perspective. Perhaps someone else will benefit, in some small way. I seriously don’t know how, but it could happen.

I slept good last night. Diane did too. The night before, she left her window open and woke up congested so last night she closed her window. I was allowed to leave mine open, for the fresh air, which really doesn’t matter to me because I have to wear my crummy CPAP machine. That means that I, like many others, breath filtered, not fresh, air. Every once in a while I have an urge to wash the mask and hose, but somehow that never happens. Other things get in my way. Oh, I thump the dust out of the foam filter once in a while, but that’s about it. If Diane knew, she’d have a fit. So, I suspect I’ll be washing those parts tomorrow sometime.

Today I delivered Cedric’s phone to him. He left it on his alternate night stand at our house after spending the night. He said he knew right where it was, all the time. I took the phone back on my trip to retrieve my cut-off saw from Daniel & Jennifer’s garage. It’s been used quite extensively during The Bathroom overhaul. Today I had a need at our house.

The need was for cutting trim to go around the ceiling in the RV bathroom. The new ’79 RV. Not the old ’73. This is a piece of work that’s been hanging around, needing to be done, for a long time now. Since we got the rig, actually, but I don’t remember when that was. Diane could tell you. She remembers stuff like that. It’s not a square bathroom, which is why it’s taken me so long to do it. It’s actually a square, with one corner cut off, so it takes 5 pieces of trim to make it all the way around. I had to make four 22.5 degree cuts, and 3 cove cuts, to make fake 45 degree joints. Sounds odd, I know. You have 5 pieces of wood, each has an end, but only 7 ends out of 10 were cut. I don’t know how it works, either, but it did. I hope it did, anyway. Tomorrow I’ll glue them all up and see what it looks like. They seemed to look fine laying on the floor.

Then it was time for a late lunch. Diane went to get her Mom, Jean, to join us. We had more chicken, potato salad, and baked beans. Sorry, no picture. If you’ve seen one chicken, you’ve seen them all. It was still good. I predict that a future meal will be chicken salad sandwiches. That will be good, too. One chicken sure goes a long ways for us.

It rained today. Not real hard, but enough to get the road damp without leaving puddles. It was refreshing. The first rain we’ve seen in a couple of years, it seems. Sounds odd for Oregon, doesn’t it? It is, actually. I’m sure it’s rained within the last couple of years, but I can’t remember when. Maybe last fall, sometime. Or February. Seems like it rains in February once in a while. March and April, too.

After lunch we settled into our chairs and began watching Tom Selleck in “Jesse Stone” movies on the Hallmark channel. We watched 3 in a row and they are 2-hour shows. Since they were on live TV, not recorded, it was grueling because we had to sit through all the commercials. Brutal. We’re not used to that. But, they were interesting, low stress detective movies with Tom as the scotch-drinking police chief in Paradise Cove, Massachusetts. A few people got shot, but nothing blew up and there were no car chases which is usually a deal-killer for us. Those things normally need to happen in movies we watch or we quickly lose interest.

Oh, yes … this morning, before delving into our day, we sat on the porch and watched the birds flit all over the place. Most entertaining are the hummingbirds. They are just plain fun to watch. Sometimes they buzz right up to Diane and look her in the eye from a couple of feet away. They’re getting brave, we sense, because Breezie has apparently either retired as the neighborhood assassin, or she’s just lost her touch. She doesn’t bring them to us any more. Mice, or moles, either. We miss the mouse and mole gifts, but not the cut little birds.

It was 2200 before Diane got her Mom home. I had to wait for her to leave so I could put my saw in the garage. It’s on this holder thing, with wheels, so I can maneuver it around a little. It was still under the RV awning, which I opened when it began to rain. The RV door was open all afternoon, and evening, too. I made sure there were no raccoons hanging out before shutting it up.

That’s it for today. Hope you had a good one …

The $66 Bowel Movement

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

OK, here’s the story. Probably not a popular topic, but it’s about constipation. It’s not about normal constipation, either. It’s about a constipated dog. A little dog who, on his last visit to the vet weighed in at 6 lbs. Ozzie weighed over 7 lbs when we got there. He had quit eating, and wouldn’t leave his kennel, so he had to go to the dog doctor.

After a nice long talk with Dr. Brooks, we all agreed that Ozzie, our victim, probably needed an enema because there was no evidence that he’d had any activity of that nature in the past four days, or so. Since there was no way in hell I was giving him one, we took him to her. When he’s testy, like today, he bites.

Upon hearing the latter, the good Dr. backed up a little and said, “but he so cute and looks so friendly.”

“It’s a trick,” I said, reaching down to touch his side and said, “he gets a little testy when you touch him here.”

As if to prove the point, Oz reached around with his lightning fast teeth and chomped a hole in my right hand pointing finger. It bled considerably so the dog Dr. got me cleaning solution with which I scoured my finger, and an assistant got me a band-aid to staunch the flow of blood. It’s been six hours and it still hurts. Why do dog bites hurt for so long? Especially little dog bites?

After proving his point, I showed the Dr. how Oz could be picked up without injury to either him or her, and she carried him away to the back room where all the fun stuff happens. She returned in about five minutes to report all was good. Putting a muzzle on him was the only motivation he needed to evaluate his bowels. How nice. No enema. He was right there when we were talking about it so it’s obvious he heard everything. I would have covered his ears, but he doesn’t like it and shows me his teeth when I do that. Dr. Brooks added that by him doing that, he saved us a few bucks.

I’m sure Oz was more than humiliated by having a BM while being watched by a group of attractive women. It doesn’t get much worse than that, unless you have a severe case of epididymitis and your female doctor calls in another female doc to have a look. What fun.

So, it cost $66 for Oz’s office visit, a distemper shot update, and a dose of worm meds, and it was worth every penny, even if it had only been for the BM.

We should have weighed him before exiting the office because I’m sure he pooped a pound, at least.

Before and after all this I worked on the ’73 Blue Bago. You may recall that when I left it, the mechanical fuel pump was giving me fits because I couldn’t get the bolts in. This morning, it dropped right into place, and the bolts went in simple as can be. It was wonderful. I actually got that done before taking Oz to the doc, and getting bit. It worked perfectly. The engine ran and everything.

After returning with Oz, who promptly ran to his kennel, I put his morning bowl of pouch food near the opening and he gobbled it right up. I suspect that after not eating much for a few days, he was a bit hungry. It was good to see him eat something besides me.

Then I returned my attention to the ’73 BB. The final quest for success involved connecting both fuel tanks to the switch to ensure the engine ran off both tanks. It seems to work just fine, but I honestly don’t know if the switch works. I does, indeed, make a satisfying clicky kind of noise, when I move the switch, but I do not know if it’s actually switching tanks. Both fuel gauges read empty, but I know I poured a few gallons into one of them. It will become evident one of these days when we take it for a ride and run out of gas somewhere on Highway 30.

After playing with gas, I turned my attention to the water pump that failed. On Sunday, after church, I glued it all back together with super-duper silicone sealant. After drying for well over 24 hours I installed it and cranked it up.

It still leaks.

I ordered a new one on eBay and it should be here by the end of the week. Until the new pump arrives, it will remain waterless.

Now I’m tired.

The Cat, Ants, & The Blue Bago

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Jerrie Cate

Yesterday afternoon Jeff appeared with Gilligan and Baylee in tow. His goal was to move the play set to the back yard. The girls objective was to ignore him, and run all over the yard as fast, and as often as they could. They would also stop and pick apples and plums once in a while, but they wouldn’t eat what they picked so we had a discussion about that. Then they picked flowers. They had a great time.

Before putting the play set back together, Jeff power washed some of the pieces and parked them for drying. Breezie found it and conquered the climbing wall. Here’s proof:

Now she can look over the rhoddie that she usually sleeps under. Funny cat.

In case you’re wondering about the yard, the only thing green are the dandelions I planted. According to the guy I got them from, in a couple of years the lawn should be green year round. I’m looking forward to that. So are the dogs.

Good news about Tom – he’s breathing well on his own, the hiccups are gone, and he wants me to bring him a bed pan. I plan to do that tomorrow. Linda and Coleen both reported that Tom now remembers Linda so she’s going to have to cancel that trip to Mexico. For a while there she didn’t think he would miss her. Now we all suspect that not recognizing her was a ruse, a ploy, messing with her head. That’s the Tom we know and love and it’s good to see him doing so well.

Today I worked almost all day on the Blue Winnebago. Did I tell you that it’s blue? No big deal, but it’s just wrong that someone did that. It will, one of these days, once again be Winnebago Green. The task for today, however, was to get the mechanical fuel pump issue resolved.

Toward that end, I was able to definitively determine that the old pump was, indeed, faulty. I ventured to Car Quest to see about getting a replacement, but they didn’t have one in stock. They had to order it from their warehouse. I was there around 11 am, and they had the part in hand by 3 pm. I don’t know where the warehouse is, but it can’t be all that far away for that kind of service.

While I was waiting for that part to arrive I discovered that I was competing with a rather large group of ants for space under the Blue Bago’s engine. Some of them made their presence known by looking me directly in the face as I sat under the rig with my back against the inside of the right front wheel. It’s pretty roomy under there, but the ants wanted it all. I did my best to ignore them, but it was difficult. This is what they looked like after most of our conversations …

… and, in case you haven’t seen it, here’s the Blue Bago …

I had to stay outside all day because Diane was cleaning the house, top to bottom. It’s the most thorough cleaning the house has had since she had her major battle with shingles. Up to this time, I did the vacuuming, which gives her fits, but I only did it when she asked me to. And, I never did it as good as she normally does. But it was my place to help her because that’s what partners do. It’s taken me a really long time to understand that when she starts doing something that I don’t have to jump in front of her and do it for her. Sometimes she likes to just do things herself. I made that difficult. That’s why I spent all my time outside today. She knew where I was if she needed help. If I had stayed inside I would have taken the vacuum away and made her sit on the couch. Instead, she collapsed on the couch.

Now she’s in the hot tub. It still has issues, but it warmed up the water nicely, to about 107 degrees, and the chemicals are stable. I don’t like using the hot tub so much for reasons I’ve stated in previous blogs. Simply put, hot tubs should be enjoyed naked but our neighbors don’t agree. Actually, neither does Diane.

Tomorrow I have PT w/EB @ the VA again. I don’t think the PT is helping much, but tomorrow’s trip will serve another purpose by getting us close to Tom’s hospital so I can deliver his bed pan.

It’s after 9 pm, now, so I must go.

Jerrie’s tired.