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After finishing my morning coffee, and the delicious Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit that Jan made for breakfast,

I started right in on getting the washer out of its hidey-hole. Since I had prepped everything last night, I just moved the floor dolly into place, grabbed the straps and started pulling.

Back in January 2013, after the first time I had to pull the washer out to replace a thermal fuse on the dryer heating coil, I installed these canvas straps down the rear of the dryer and out along the bottom to the front.

Otherwise you have to open the door and pull on the washer drum, not really a good idea. There is only about a 1/8” clearance along the top and sides of the cabinet, so there’s nothing else to get a hold of. But with the straps I can just grab hold and and start working it out.

And out it came,very quickly in fact. Getting it down on the small dolly, I pushed the washer aside to let me unhook the drain and turn off the water supply valves. Then after unscrewing the water hoses and pulling the metal vent hose out,  I was free to roll it out into the kitchen.

And the new small dolly made it much easier to maneuver around, butt that would come back to haunt me later.

Once it was in the kitchen, I turned the washer on its side and removed the bottom plate to take a quick look at the pump. And my luck was holding. This is what I found.

One of the wires to the pump had come loose.

Pulling off the spade connector I found that the wire had broken off in the lug, so I must have nicked the wire when I stripped it, and 9 months of vibration broke it off. Just to be on the safe side, I redid both of the connectors this time using strippers that won’t knick.

At this point I was ready to reinstall the washer, a new record after only about 30 minutes, but I decided to hold off. The dryer vent hose looked pretty crushed and beat up so I decided to get another one before I reinstalled the washer.

But that meant going out, so Jan and I headed out about 2pm to Home Depot coupled with another errand, before coming back to have a late lunch at the Culver’s in Conroe. Always delicious.

Getting back to the rig, Jan said that she wanted to take a nap, so that meant that I couldn’t work on the washer right then, and would have to take a nap too.

DARN!

Post nap, I got ready to get the washer back in its hole, and the new small dolly came back to bite me. It was not only smaller in size, but it was also shorter due to having smaller wheels, which meant it was not up high enough to let me slide it in. Even with the bigger dolly, getting it started in the opening was always the hardest part of the job. But with the smaller one, it was just impossible for one person.

So every thing is on hold until tomorrow when I can get some boards to build up the dolly to the correct height, and then hopefully it will just slide right in.

Hopefully.

Unfortunately with everything going on today, I never got a chance to install the new screen door catch that my son Chris made for me.

Tomorrow for sure.

“Just because you can’t dance doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dance.” 
— Alcohol

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Before we left for Brandi’s this morning, we spent a few minutes playing with Apollo the Dobie next door. He has a big enclosure out under the awning, but he was out with his owner  when we walked over to say Hi.

He and I had a good time playing tug of war with his green furry froggie while Jan talked with his owner. Apollo had this trick where he tugs hard for a few seconds and then stops, just freezing for about 15 seconds and then jerks really hard, trying to lull you into relaxing your grip.

Smart dog.

We were on our way by 11:30 with a Flying J pit stop along the way. Then right before we got to Brandi’s, I made a quick stop at the Tractor Supply to pick up a #2 Phillips extension bit.to make it easier to get the washer out of the cabinet.

We had a great time at Brandi’s with Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper, as well as Landon. Landon’s Aunt Sherry was also there, and we got to meet her friend Neil. Lowell was out working this time.

Brandi had fixed a great meal of pulled pork and sliced brisket, along with potato salad, shredded Brussel sprout salad, and mac ‘n cheese. We used Hawaiian Bread rolls to make sliders with the BBQ, and a delicious meal was had by all.

Since we are washerless for the time being, we took all our laundry with us to do at Brandi’s in her nice big machines. So we’re good to go on the laundry front for a few more days. Or at least until I get the washer fixed.

Leaving Brandi’s we got back to the rig about 6:30. Later, while I worked on website stuff, Jan went next door for a last get-together with Janice Evans. Janice and Dave are heading out for other parts tomorrow morning so we won’t see them for a while.

Two things while we were at Brand’s. I’ve shown some of Landon’s artwork before, and here’s something new today..

I noticed him sketching this with a ball-point pen, and when I asked what it was, he gave me that ‘look’, and said, “PaPa, it’s a dog at a birthday party holding some balloons.”

And he’s right. Note the birthday hat on his head and the birthday cake in front of him.

The second thing is that Chris finished my screen door catch for me.

This is the drawing I gave him.

and this is was what I got.

Great job, and he even painted it. I’ll install it tomorrow and try it out.

Tonight I went ahead and remove the washer cabinet doors and the retaining bar, and then unplugged the washer. So now I’m all ready to pull it out tomorrow.

In the past I’ve used a full-size 30” x 20” floor dolly to slide the washer out on to work on it. But that’s too big to lug around in the RV so it stays at our son Chris’ house.

But then I found this smaller one, 12” x 18”, at Harbor Freight for $10 and got it to have in case we have washer trouble on the road. So that’s the one I’ll use this time. It says it’s good for 1000# so it should work fine.

But, as usual, we’ll see how it goes.

Thought for the Day:

“To lose 
one parent may be 
regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” —Oscar Wilde

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