A Difficult Day

We have been spending the days over at the apartments. We have one to rent and a good prospect for it, so we will just have to see how it all pans out.

Thursday I spent time on the roof of the little motorhome, aka Minnie Me, and that was not fun. It has a rubber roof which is in good condition, but the roof cap is domed and it is shorter and more narrow than Phaeton Place. Just a little bit scary. I donned knee pads because I feel safer when I am closer to the surface and scrubbed the roof with Dicor rubber roof cleaner. It appears to be in pretty good shape and I did not detect any tears or bubbles. Then yesterday I got back up there and wiped it down with Dicor rubber roof treatment. It is to help keep the UV rays from causing premature deterioration. I am certainly glad those jobs are done. I did tell Terry, however, that the next time we do this job, we are going to park it in the yard. I don't fancy falling off of it anytime; but if I fell, I would rather land on grass instead of concrete. We have a storage place lined up for it and come September, it will be stored for the winter.

I just about have everything for the little one that I need. I have even started packing some clothes in it. I decided that since we will be using it in the summers, I intend to have it stocked so I don't have to drag stuff from one motorhome to the other. I am finished with the kitchen and bath and only want to find a crock pot to put in it. We didn't have a towel hook for a hand towel in the bathroom, but I found just a single hook that would work. Not a lot of places to attach it, but Terry found a solid place on the wall. I made two buttonholes on the towels at the middle of the sides on the edges and the towel hangs from those holes. I put one on each side so the towel can be rotated and not wear out in one place. They look very nice hanging there and I thought that was a cool way to fix that problem. It was actually Terry who thought of it.

Terry did not have a good day yesterday. The yard at the condo needs attention and we have a yard man who is working at getting it back in shape. But it needs to be watered regularly. The problem is that when the sprinkler system was put in, it wasn't placed deep enough and no matter what we do, there are always places where the pipes have developed leaks from water freezing in them over the winter. The only thing we haven't tried is antifreeze in the lines and after yesterday, I think we will try that. Terry worked all afternoon fixing leaks in the system. After he started working, he threw the lever to turn on the sprinklers and heard something in the basement. We have a 100 gallon pressure tank in the basement which feeds the system and a pipe running to it blew apart. Water immediately started flooding the basement. He ran down and started the sump pump but there was no shut off on the tank, so he had to shut down the water to the house, which included the attached apartment. With water still draining from the tank, he made a run over to Lowe's to buy some fittings to repair that with. He made those repairs, but still has a slight leak and will have more work to do when we go back over today. He was able to repair the sprinkler leak, but there is another as well. If we didn't need to get the yard in order, we would be forgetting it. The system really needs to be totally re-done, but since we don't live here and don't ever plan to, we don't really want to do that. It probably is worth messing with every summer.

Yesterday we closed up Phaeton Place in the wee hours of the morning and were at Sam's Tire in Bristol at 7:15 a.m. to get four new tires put on. They are really nice people there and we were really pleased to give them our business. We didn't even know they were there, but we are buying our tires on the FMCA Advantage program and they are the only dealer in the area who works with them. Very good experience. They apparently do quite a bit of work for the RV industry because while we were there, a couple RV's pulled in to get specialty wheels, etc. We were done by 9:30 and they were apologizing for the delay. They had originally put the wrong valve stem extensions on and had to re-do them. No problem.

I have been busy with cleaning Minnie Me and chasing down parts with Terry. I also have been cutting out an outfit for Aenea and hope to get working on that today. I spend my "spare" time reading my Alaska travel books in anticipation of the big trip next year. What fun that will be.

Today before heading over there, we are going to enjoy a visit from former fellow fulltimers Janice and Dean. Dean has developed some health problems which necessitated their getting off the road. They are here for a friend's wedding and are going to stop by for a visit! It will be great to see them.

Till next time. . .

Dale