Our RV Adventures

Since I got rained out yesterday, about 1pm today I went outside with my Karcher Pressure Washer to wash and wax the rig. It’s been awhile since I’ve have had a chance to do this. In fact checking back in the blog, it’s been exactly a year as a matter of  fact, so it was about time I guess.

I really like this unit. It’s easy to put together and get back in the box, and it’s got a lot of power. It comes with two separate wands, one high power, and another one with variable power,  and a method of adding wash/wax to the spray.

The only problem with this is that tank that comes with the system is too small. Although its probably large enough to do a car or a pickup, I have to refill it 3 or 4 times to do the rig.

So I came up with a better idea. The hose that goes into the tank from the washer is long enough to reach a separate larger container, so I used a half gallon pitcher to hold the wash/wax solution.

You can see the difference in size, and how it works above.

I first use the high power wand to wash down half of one side of the rig, sometimes stopping to scrub down a particular tough spot with a brush. I’ve found that the power of the spray is enough to clean the dirt  off without using any type of detergent.

I go back and forth getting it as clean as possible. Next I swap to the waxing wand and using a mixture of Zip car wax, I hose down that area of the rig. And then I just let it dry. Zip Wax dries without streaking so this works out fine.

I just work way around the rig, doing each side in two halves, and the front and the rear caps.

It took me about 90 minutes with a couple of breaks in there. It was in the 90’s by then, so I occasionally  would hose myself to keep cool. Well, one time I forgot which wand I was using, so I waxed myself instead.

But on another note, my head is especially shiny now.

Besides the usually nicks and chips, the rig’s 17 year old paint job still looks pretty good. The only visible problem are some patches where the clear coat is flaking off. It almost looks like it’s a patch of sunburnt skin peeling off.

I’m going to check and see if it’s possible to lightly sand the edges of the peeling and then overspray with new clear coat to seal it and stop it from spreading

About 4pm Jan and I headed into Katy to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for dinner.

And of course this was the perfect time for my AC fan problem to rear its head again. I thought I had it fixed, but now I guess I’ll have to take it completely apart this time. The drive into Katy without AC wasn’t bad at all, just very noisy doing 70 with all the windows down.

We were meeting up at one of our favorite places, Torchy’s Tacos. A couple of their friends, Shantal and Eric and their son, joined us also. And we had a great time with everyone, not leaving for over 2 hours.

On our way home we stopped off at the Sealy Wal-Mart for a few things, and to pick up the prescriptions we called in yesterday. Then coming through Columbus, I checked out the Brookshire Bros. gas station to see the best way to get in and out Sunday morning for diesel. Shouldn’t be a problem, and we’ll hook up the toad when we’re done.

Tomorrow I’ll go down to the office and settle up on our electric bill before we leave early Sunday morning.

Thought for the Day:

What do people do with all the extra time they save by writing ‘K’ instead of ‘OK’?

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For the 4th time since we started full-timing in 2008, and became South Dakota residents, Harris County, Texas has sent me a jury summons.

So I guess for the 4th time, I’ll have to contact the Court and explain to them once again, that although we still own a house in Harris County, we haven’t lived here in 8 years.

Now in the past, I’ve never tried to get out of jury duty, well except the time it come up in the middle of Shuttle mission, and in fact over the years I think I’ve ended up on 4 or 5 juries out of maybe 8 to 10 times I’ve been called.

In Harris County,  unlike a lot of places, they just get one shot at you. You’ll called in on a certain date, and if you don’t get picked for a jury, you’re done.

You’re called in for either the morning session (8am) or the afternoon session (1pm). Afternoons are better because to get there by 8am,you need to leave  the Clear Lake area by about 5:30 if you want to find a parking space anywhere near the Courthouse. And as you all know, I’m not  really a happy early riser.

But I have been on some interesting cases – a crack house murder (12 – 0 guilty), a cocaine possession (11 –1 innocent/mistrial), and a civil suit against an apartment complex whose hot water was supposedly so hot,  it burned a baby being bathed in a bathroom lavatory.

This was a interesting case due to the particulars. A family was suing because they said a 6 month old baby received 2nd degree burns when the hot water was turned on in the lavatory where he was being bathed, and instantly scalded.

The defense produced pages of complaints from people about lukewarm hot water in this apartment building because it was at the far end from the central water heater system.

And as far as the burns, the baby  had burns on his lower back, bottom, and the back of his thighs. Not on his stomach, crotch, or upper thighs like if he were burned from the faucet being turned on while he was in the lavatory.

During the course of the trial, it was discovered that the baby’s 12 year old cousin who was bathing him with no adults in the home, had just put water in the lavatory and set the baby in. Then she went off to watch TV for 30 to 45 minutes. The cousin said the baby was crying, but he always cried, so she didn’t pay any attention. 

As it turns out a baby can get 2nd degree burns after 30 minutes in 105° water, cooler than most people would find comfortable. Another thing that was really telling was the fact that if you folded the baby up like you were sitting him in a small lavatory, the burn mark was a straight line across his body, following the water level in the sink.

I was the foreman on this trial, as I have been on several others. And what I normally do, if everyone is agreeable, is to ask for a show of hands, guilty or not guilty. Then if we don’t have a consensus,  we start talking it over, going around the table, letting each juror have their say, hashing it out back and forth until we all agree, or don’t as the case may be.

And in this case, like the crack house murder, we all agreed on the first vote. (12 – 0 for the defendant).

And as with the murder, it took us longer to fill out all the paperwork and for everyone to sign off on it, than it did to decide the case.

Tomorrow we’re going to Katy to have dinner with Brandi, et. al. and pick up our Amazon stuff. Then on our way home we’ll stop at the Wal-Mart in Sealy for our prescriptions we called in today, and a few other things.

Thought for the Day:

I Saw That – Karma (That fate thing. Not our cat.)

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