A hard days work.

I should surely go get a job, so I would have some place to go that I wouldn't have to work as hard as I seem to around here.  On the road, I can kick  back and not feel that I have to worry about the yard and the house and all the maintenance stuff.

I say that, but I remember sawing up the palm tree that was at the back of the lot we rented in Mesa.  It had been left go for several years, and it was gangly and all over the place.  So I started in cutting it back.  That's when I met the neighbors for the first time, as they came right over to encourage me.  Seems as thought they had cut a few fronds off too, on their side, but felt they didn't have the authority to really clean it up.

Well I didn't have the authority either, but after three months, no one ever said a thing about the tree.  Kind of makes you wonder if they even knew I cut it all back, or cared about it at all.

So today I had to work, as the motorhome needed to have all that road dirt washed off of it.  It stormed from Oklahoma City all the way back to KC, and the roads were all sandy from snow the weekend before, so grit and grime was embedded in all the cracks.

After bringing the beast home from the storage lot, I set about the power washer and the big brush on the long pole.  It took several hours.  Nothing too fun, just scrub with soap and the brush on the pole and then run the power washer until it rinsed clean.  I did the curb side, and then turned the rig around and did the other curb side. LOL.

Mid afternoon, I worked to get the recliner that I put in for the winter back out of the door.  It just barely fits after you take the back off.  It is back here in the hearth room tonight, and the euro chair that is not too comfortable, is back in the coach.  Oh, its OK for weekend adventures and weekly vacations, but not when you are going to live in there for months on end.

Then I tackled the Kingdome that only sometimes works.  After much wiggling all winter, I had decided that the wire from the selector switch to the direct TV receiver was intermittent.  So late in the afternoon I carefully fed a replacement wire up thru the cabinets above the windshield, and put new ends on with the tool I bought over at Lowes the other day. 

It worked instantly!  Man I messed with that setup for hours not knowing what made it work.  Suddenly it would be just fine, but then in a few more hours it would loose its brain again.  As it turns out, the wire has a broken shield.  The woven metal wire mesh that is on the outside of the center conductor was not making contact all the time.  I have never seen a broken shield right in the middle of a coax before.  I have been wiring electronics stuff for years and have never seen a shield open up.  Boy that must be some really cheap coax that Tiffin put in the rig.

I replaced it with double shielded expensive coax.  But the trouble is you can't get to the wire from the dome down to the switch.  I can only hope it doesn't break its shield too.

The direct tv box found its satellite instantly, and loaded all its configuration right away.  The picture came right on and all the channels were there.  That is the quickest it has ever worked.  How long have I fought this and didn't recognize my problem?

Tonight I worked on some of the Ham radios and computers in the basement.  We are having a public service event here in April, and one of the organizers had asked me to program the digital Automatic Position Reporting system differently so they could use it.   Of course I couldn't remember how I had set it up originally, so study was in order to refamiliarize myself in order to make the requested changes.  I think I got it, but they will be right back at me if it needs more work.

See I need to go get a job so I wouldn't have to works so hard around here for nothing.

Retired Rod