Tag Archives: DIY

Day 142 – Monday – Wash Day

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The first thing I did this morning, late this morning, was bundle up and go to work on the 7-pin to 5-pin wiring that connects the car to the bus. I may have mentioned that, since we’ve only been making short little trips as we head north, we were OK with driving both rigs. So, I didn’t both with the plug. Here’s what happened …

While hooking everything up prior to leaving the Bone Yard, I must have tried plugging the 5-pin end upside down. As a consequence, all of the pins inside were pushed through the back of the plug making it impossible for any of them to make contact. Therefore, there were no lights on the car while towing. So, we didn’t tow it.

Yesterday Diane let me go to an auto parts store off base and I found exactly what was needed so I was obligated to make it work.

My main concern was pulling the old plug apart in such a manner that I could copy the proper order of how the wires were to be attached.

Then, this happened.

At this point I was a bit concerned that I’d never figure it out, but there were only 5 wires, right? Since it wasn’t plugged in to the bus, the only hot wire was red, and I had already disconnected it at the battery. So, what could go wrong if I got them mixed up a few times?

After giving it a little bit of thought I figured I should probably look at the wiring diagram that came with the new receptacle. After doing that the first thing I noticed was that the diagram matched all the colors perfectly. Originally, I thought it was different. but I’d mistaken a green wire to be blue. After studying it a little while I decided that it was definitely not blue. Believing it was green made me brave, so I just went ahead and wired it up, reconnected the red wired, and plugged it into the bus.

It worked perfectly. The first time. Amazing.

Tomorrow will be the test because I’m hooking it up to tow so my bride and ride shotgun with me. We’re only going to Barstow, a couple of hours away, so it will be a good test, both for the car, and for how well we get along with each other.

I don’t think I’m color blind.

I hope I’m not color blind.

I’ll let you know tomorrow if I am.

Day 86 – Monday – The Toilet Has Been Fixed

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Almost.

This afternoon we went back to La Mesa RV to pick up the part they got from Phoenix to replace the one that broke in our toilet. We’ve been toiletless since Friday, so we were excited to get the replacement part.

On the way back, as we got close to the base, we saw a couple of A-10 Warthogs were doing touch & go. They’re flying around here all the time.

This is what they look like when they are little dots flying over the highway.

I went right to work as soon as we got back to the RV even though I had to go to the bathroom. There’s something about working on a toilet that manifests that urge. Just like washing my hands, all that running water requires my bladder to relieve itself. Weird.

As I was getting everything positioned to put in back together, something slipped and magically dislodged one of the flange bolts that hold the toilet to the floor. As luck would have it, it did a double back flip into the holding tank, well out of reach if I had a notion ‘to go diving for it. Which I didn’t. It can stay there forever as far as I’m concerned. I figure one bolt will keep things in place for a little while. At least until I can get a replacement tomorrow. Losing that bolt was kind of the topping on the cake, so to speak, after all that waiting.

After hanging my head in dismay for a little bit, I bucked up and put the rest of the toilet back together with no more incidents. It is fully functional and when you sit on it, the small gap on the side missing the bolt is compressed to the floor as if the bolt was there. That means nothing is going to leak out. I’ll still get a replacement bolt tomorrow because one of us might get a little antsy about not having the base firmly bolted to the floor. But it looks normal.

The weather is changing a little at a time, getting cooler. We hear the coyotes more at night, too. Perhaps the weather is their que to get more aggressive. Whatever the reason, Max is going to learn how to hold his water a little longer because I’m a little wary about going out with him in the dark. It was OK previously, but now you can hear them yipping not too far away. Why take a chance?

That’s about it for today so I’m going to quit and take a shower. It’s my turn.

G’nite.

Day 56 – Saturday – Nothing Scheduled

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Nothing scheduled but we had things to do so we did them.

The big item was to visit Camping World to get a new faucet for the kitchen sink. The old one leaks, and it irritate me immensely. A car trip was right up Max’s alley. He loves going anywhere because he always gets to meet new friends. He’s like a dog ambassador.

We got the proper faucet that looks exactly like the one that leaks so that was a plus. All I had to do was turn the water off, disconnect the old faucet and bolt up the new one. Easy-peasy, right. During this process we learned that Jerrie can still get on the floor and insert himself into some pretty small places. I had to get myself under the kitchen sink because his arms weren’t long enough to do it otherwise.

Surprisingly, he managed to get it all done without wounding himself and none of the four water lines he touched leaked once he declared the task complete. And the faucet worked.

Since we were already out and about, we stopped by our favorite Freddy’s Steakburger joint. It’s our favorite because . This time Diane had a patty melt and really liked it. I had double steak sandwich. It was good, too. Max liked getting inside out of the heat.

I forgot to share this photo from our trip to the RV show at the fairgrounds a couple or three days ago. This is as class C that Diane said, “I can drive this.” Then she pointed at the logo in the middle of the steering wheel, “but it’s a Ford.” I presumed that was a deal killer. Looks pretty comfy, though, don’t you think?

Once the overwhelming task of replacing the faucet was satisfactorily completed, Jerrie called it a day, took a shower, and went to bed. He took the shower under duress, but he should have done it willingly because it was Saturday. That’s his shower day. Actually, that’s only one of his shower days.

See you later

Day 43 – Sunday – The Base Exchange (BX)

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The base exchange is like a super-duper Walmart. It has all the essentials anyone who lives on the base might need. Additionally, like Walmart, it has a ton of other stuff that no one needs but usually wind up buying it anyway.

We went to the BX today and got stuff Diane needed. I needed something, too, but forgot what it was so I bought something else. I think. Maybe I actually bought what I needed. Diane won’t tell me.

Another thing we got, a small air fry thing, that served us well for supper to crisp up some french fries to go with the hamburgers I cooked.

While lounging on the couch after dinner, Kristina (I think) knocked on the door to alert us that our water connection was spouting water all over the place. By the time I got out there she had turned it off. What I found was the water filter had unscrewed its top. Interesting. I screwed it back together and went back inside to rest from that arduous repair job. I didn’t get much rest before another knocker reported that water was spouting again.

I found the same problem – the top of the filter unscrewed itself. To simplify the correction, I just took the filter out of the equation and put it away. We use a Brita inside anyway so it’s OK. I think tomorrow I might put the filter back to work and I’ll just sit there and watch it to figure out how it unscrews itself. Maybe I’ll video it because surely it must be fascinating to watch.

We watched a pro football game today between the Chargers and the Broncos. The Chargers are an all favorite because when we lived in San Diego we went to as many games as we could. It only cost $7 a ticket. Very reasonable. The game was doubly interesting because the quarterbacks for both teams are ex-Oregon Ducks who, I might add, are currently #2 in the nation. Justin Herbert plays for the Chargers and Bo Nix is a Bronco. The Chargers won, just so you know.

Now it’s 2115 and I must retire. Diane made a list of things for me to do tomorrow and I’m going to need my rest. The first stop will be the VA Hospital so I can alert them to a problem they have in the Pharmacy Department. The bottle I got during my first visit said there were 28 pills in it but there were only 18. That’s enough to keep me going, but I want those missing 10 pills.

That’s it for Sunday the 13th.

Twenty-Fifth Day – NAS North Island

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Today we made a trip to the commissary on NAS North Island to replenish our dwindling cache of various kinds of protein, vegetables, and other kinds of sustenance that we like to eat. There are times when I kinda wish we didn’t like so many different kinds of ‘things’. Shopping would be a lot easier. We wouldn’t have to walk up and down all those isles. It could be confined to just a couple of them. Then, however, we wouldn’t have any fun eating like we do.

On the way out of the RV park we were greeted with a whole line of new Seals watching some other ones duke it out on the beach with some automatic weapons. The troops on the beach were not visible so I’m only guessing about who they were and what they were doing, but I do know that the Silver Strand Beach belongs to the Seals.

While Diane went to the commissary I went to the Navy exchange at the other end of the building. My mission was to get a sewing kit for Diane and a sketch pad for myself. I brought a large container of art supplies but forgot my sketch pads. I think I know exactly where they are. At home. In the computer room. Near my computer. Dang! Guess we’ll visit Walmart tomorrow.

Oh ya! With the help of a nice lady, I managed to get a sewing kit. Diane needed it to sew up Max’s toys that have mysteriously sprang leaks allowing bits of cotton to invade our living space and somehow wind up in some little dog’s poop. Very odd, don’t you think?

I took the sewing kit back to the car and went to the commissary to accomplish my other mission – select some vegetables. Which I did. I got an avocado, some tomatoes, and a head of lettuce. Now I can make a proper salad.

While leaving the base Diane spied the gas station so we pulled in and I filled it up with $4.30 a gallon fuel. That’s not a bad price considering the higher prices all over town.

About the fuel thing – though the prices are elevated they aren’t nearly as high as we thought they would be. For that, we’re thankful.

After the gas stop, we continued to the exit gate, passing the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70). It’s got here before we did, and it’s been here the whole time. We had to drive right past it to get off the base.

Last week, on our first trip to the exchange, the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) was also here but she up and left without letting us know. We know a couple of people who used to be stationed aboard the Nimitz.

We made it ‘home’ without any notable incidents, and I took Max for a long walk because he’s such a good puppy. He’s actually amazing.

Here’s another photo I took this morning, or yesterday afternoon, of one of those Sea Hawk helos the Navy uses. It zoomed over the ships on the Naval Station side of the bay then dropped to a hover and just stayed there for a while. They do that once in a while. I mentioned this before. It’s pretty amazing. We still don’t know what they are doing but we can appreciate the skill needed for the pilots to do this for so long at a time without getting the wheels wet.

Gotta go. Stay safe.