Monthly Archives: March 2016

Not All Who Wander Are Lost . . .

But A Lot Of Us Are.

We did walk this morning, a little over a mile, before having our coffee and breakfast outside. And while we were still outside, I bought Karma outside with us for awhile.

She was still kind of wild-eyed, but she didn’t keep trying to run under the rig like before. She did stay hunkered down a good bit, and would let me hold her for a while, but then she’d panic again and flip out. But it seems like she gets a little better every time.

I had planned to take a look at my rig oil leak problem, but as happens sometimes, I got detoured. And it all started with a batch of my Chicken Tortilla Soup.

The last time I made Chicken Tortilla Soup I had leftover broth that we froze, so I got that out and had it defrosting in the slow cooker, while I looked in the pantry for a can of black beans and a can of corn to go along with the rest of the chicken Jan fixed the other day.

But as I was digging back into the pantry, trying to get to get a handle on what we had, I came across a number of things that we’d both forgotten we had. And this led me down a subroutine to come up with a way to better itemize the stuff.

Jan keeps a list on the pantry door, but stuff gets moved, and stuff gets pushed to the back, so sometimes it’s a toss-up. So after I found the the beans and corn and got them in the pot, along with the chicken breasts, I thought a bit and decided this was a job for my Amazon Echo.

Amazon Echo_thumb[3]

Although we mostly use Alexa (the name you use to access the Echo, like ‘OK Google”, or “Cortana”, or “Siri”) for music, iHeartRadio, and to answer questions, it does do more.

But as far as music, we have over 8,000 of our own songs uploaded into Amazon Music’s catalog, as well as access to over a million songs through Amazon;’s Prime Music.  And with iHeartRadio, we can easily listen to over 1500 radio stations around the country.

Yes, you can do this on other devices but not as easily. With Alexa it’s just “Alexa, play songs by Jimmy Buffet”, or “Alexa, play songs from my Oldies Playlist.” Or you can say, “Alexa, play KTRH Newsradio’, or Alexa, play Sunny 99.1”.

And as far as questions, “Alexa, what’s the weather in Houston, TX?” or “Alexa, how far is it from Houston, TX to New York City?” Or even Alexa, what 39 degrees Fahrenheit in Celsius?”, or Alexa, what is 4345 times 16?” (She says it’s 69,520)

In this case I wanted to use Alexa’s list functions, i.e. shopping lists and To-Do lists. All you have to do is tell Alexa to add something to her shopping list. You can then have her print it out, or even go shopping and see your shopping list in the Alexa app on your cellphone.

But here I wanted to use Alexa to itemize the items on each shelf as I called them out to her. Normally Alexa resides up front in the rig, sitting on top of our satellite DVR, and is very good about hearing what we tell her. But to make things easier I wanted to use my Amazon Echo Remote.

Amazon Echo Remote_thumb[2]

About the size of a stick of butter, but only about 1/3 as thick, it allows you to communicate with Alexa outside of voice range, or in a very noisy environment. So all I have to do is press the Mic button at the top and say, “Add bottom shelf left side skyline chili 9 cans.” (If you’re using the remote, you don’t have to say Alexa first.)

Then it was just a matter going through each shelf, telling Alexa as I went. And here’s what I got for the bottom shelf.

bottom shelf right side bush’s grilling beans bourbon & brown sugar 2 cans
bottom shelf right side bush’s country style baked beans
bottom shelf left side ro-tel hot tomatoes
bottom shelf right side canned beef cooked
bottom shelf right side sliced peaches
bottom shelf right side nut cracker spaghetti sauce
bottom shelf right side steel cut oatmeal
bottom shelf left side skyline chili 9 cans
bottom shelf left side cream of mushroom soup
bottom shelf left side hunt’s tomato paste
bottom shelf left side cheese wiz

I’ll have more on this tomorrow, but so far it’s working great, and I plan on using it to inventory other areas around the coach.

Finishing up, the washer is still working fine after four loads so far, but we’ll see if it lasts past the six it did before. I’m hoping.


Thought for the Day:


“Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them.” – Franklin P. Adams

gsdfgsdfg

OOPS!

or I’m getting really good at this.

After coffee and breakfast this morning, I started pulling my washer back out of the cabinet. But the first step was to go outside and loosen the vent deflector and hose.

Then it was just a matter of pulling and dragging, tugging and cursing, until I had it out of the cabinet and onto the floor dolly. Moving it out into the kitchen, I put down some padding and turned the washer upside down.

But even before removing the bottom panel, I saw at least part of the problem. One of the two bolts that held the angle bar in place, the bar that held the new pump, was gone.  And then removing the panel told me the whole story.

Washer Re-Repair 1_thumb[2]

When I originally installed the angle bar, I used a 1/4” bolt on one end, and a smaller bolt on the end by the orange arrow. I used the smaller one there because it was too small an area for where I wanted to put the bar. And the reason I wanted to put it there was so the electric leads for the pump would still reach without having to lengthen them. And that’s what happens sometimes when you take a shortcut.  It bites you in the bottom.

The reason for the leak itself was immediately obvious.

Washer Re-Repair 3_thumb[2]

When the mounting bar came loose, the pump moved, and that pulled the hose loose that goes from the filter into the pump. Thus the leak.

So now I started over by remounting the bar in an area where I could use the larger 1/4” bolt. Then I spliced longer power leads into the harness and moved the pump into position. This let me reconnect the drain hose and tighten down the clamp.

As before, I wanted to give it a test before I put it back in the cabinet, so after I replaced the bottom panel and turned it upright, I plugged it in at the sink, dumped a couple of quarts of water in the drum, and turned it on.

Then after that successful test, I put it aside until we finished dinner, a delicious rerun of last night’s Chicken and Dressing Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, Cranberry Walnut Salad and Grilled Bread. Still really good.

After dinner I reinstalled the washer and got it all hooked back up. Next up was two loads of laundry during the rest of the evening for a test.

Hopefully it’ll last longer than six loads this time. But on the plus side, I’m getting really good at taking the washer out and putting it back.

So with this out of the way for now, tomorrow I’ll get back on my rig oil leak.

Oh, boy!


Thought for the Day:


It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.

ghdgh