Monthly Archives: March 2021
Another Monday, Another Problem . . .
I’ve been running through my head what to check next on my AC problem. But my first question is why the control box shorted out when it did. All I had done was take the inside cover off of the unit, and I was just looking up at the box when it Snap-Crackle-Popped right in front of me.
I knew that this was the first time it had happened since once it burned through, it wasn’t doing it again.
Jan and I have been planning our upcoming trip in June. All of the Texas family are meeting up in Vandalia, IL with Jan’s sister, Debbie and all her bunch. And it takes a lot more planning going by Jeep rather than in our RV.
First off, fuel. With the 150 gallons of diesel in the rig, we could go about 1200 miles. So this 950 mile trip wouldn’t have involved any fuel stops.
But with the Jeep, the 18 gallon tank gets us about 250 miles, so that’s a data point.
And then there’s potty breaks. With the rig, our potty traveled with us, so all we needed was a wide shoulder on the side of the road. Of course fuel stops are also potty breaks, but they don’t always match up.
We plan to spend the night in Jackson, MS going up to Illinois, where, coincidentally a Sonny’s BBQ is located about two miles from Red Roof Inn where we plan to stay.
Then coming home we’ll loop back down through Alabama to catch up with family and friends before finally making our way back to Santa Fe.
Really looking forward to the trip.
Recently the long-awaited trailer for the long-delayed new Top Gun movie with Tom Cruise reprising his role as Maverick.
And what could be better than this trailer?
How about the same trailer, done in Legos?
And even better, how about a comparison of the two trailers.
Really neat, but do you ever get the feeling that some people have too much time on their hands?
And here’s a really amazing video of an artist who paints 3D illusions, on trees. Almost unbelievable.
Thought For The Day:
I Hate ‘Updates’ . . .
After some heavy caffeinating, I went outside about 12:15 to replace the motor/fan combo on our rear Fantastic Vent Fan.
With Jan supervising from the patio, and Karma on the lookout from her travel cage,
I climbed up on the roof (cue The Drifters) and got started.
Jan says I’m not allowed to be up on the rig roof without her supervising. When I asked her if she was going to catch me if I fell off, she said “No”, but she would call 911. Well, don’t I feel better.
And it turned out to be pretty quick and easy. The first thing was to remove the vent cover,
leaving me this.
Then, 4 screws and two snips of the power wires, and the old motor/fan was gone. The quilted foil is from the vent insulating cushion.
And after another 5 minutes the new one was in place and connected up. The new wires already had crimp connectors installed, making it really easy.
So 45 minutes and a couple of tie-wraps, and I was done. Then Jan came inside and tried it out and it worked fine. And it’s a lot quieter than the old one, too.
Taking a break, we headed out for lunch at Denny’s about 2pm, with both of us getting the same favorite, their Ultimate Omelet with Bacon, Sausage, Mushrooms, Onions, Roasted Red Peppers, and Cheese, along with Fruit instead of the Hash Browns, and an English Muffin.
One thing about these Ultimate Omelets is that there’s as much piled on top as inside. Delicious as on every visit.
Back home, and ingesting more caffeine, I started in on my AC problem, taking off the inside cover, allowing me access to the Control Assembly up inside the unit.
And while I was looking up at it, all of a sudden, there was a sizzling, cracking, pop, and an orange glow from inside the case behind the multi-color connectors on the right side. And then some smoke came streaming out.
Now I’ve been in this long enough to know that once you let the ‘magic smoke’ out of a piece of equipment, it will no longer work,
So I removed the two nuts holding it in place and popped off the back and found this.
A wire had burned off the connector to the AC compressor relay, so much so that it had charred the insulation for about 3 inches back up the wire. Definitely an indication of a dead short, without a fuse or circuit breaker’s intervention.
So later this week, I’ll have to start tracing things back.
I hate ‘Updates’, software updates, in particular. I can’t tell you how many times over the years that I had a piece of software ‘updated’ into uselessness. Recently it was Evernote, where I actually had to download an old version to get back to one that worked for me.
Then on Friday, February 26th, Godaddy updated my WordPress blog software with the latest version, and since that I’ve been having a lot of behind the scenes errors, making it hard to upload daily blogs, answer comments, etc.
So now I’m trying to see if I can ‘downdate’ WordPress.
I Hate ‘Updates’.
Thought For The Day:
