Monday, July 1, 2013

Cabinet tops and water sprayers...


I spent an exciting day....... paying bills!!  Well it is the first of the month you know....  And most of my time is spent checking into web sites finding out how much we owe....

We use a bill paying service, so the actual payment is just a few key strokes.... After you know how much to send...

But in the afternoon, I went over to the motorhome...  I can't remember when the last time it was started...  But for sure its been two or more months...  When I opened the door, the steps didn't extend.....!

I thought Oh oh,,  the batteries are deader than a door nail...  So I climbed up the side of the open door and into the coach...  And stuck the key into the ignition....   ......  .......   And much to my surprise....

The dash lit up and the block heater light began to glow....  Diesels crank hard and it kind of sounded slow.... labored and sluggish....  But it caught and went....  They seem to run instantly when its not cold...

With that I went on to take the license plate from the back of the rig and scrape off the old stickers....   There were more than one year, so I must not have been worried about it last year...

I think I did it in the desert last summer, and it was just too hot to be overly particular...    The old stickers came off in a big glob... confirming why I scrape them away....  I know, you all think I am overly detailed... gotta dot those I's...

Anyway we have a top of a counter under the TV that came loose when we were coming back from Az this spring and I need to do something...

Its only about 6 inches wide and covers the back side of the cabinet facing the washer...  If we had one it would be in the bathroom on the other side of the wall, but this side has the pipes and stuff...  It has some spring loaded clips that allow it to be removed for hoses to be installed...

The plastic on these clips has become broken allowing the top to spring free...  But the bad part is that the spring loaded part of the clips in the cabinet are nailed into the front wood before the cabinet was assembled...  Just to remove them, I would have to take the entire cabinet away from the wall and then pull the nails....   This was assembled with a nail gun at the factory...  There was no thought given to ever taking it apart....

While the engine was running charging those batteries, I sat and studied the situation....  What should I do....?  Getting the old clips out doesn't seem to be an option...  without a lot of work..  So I have settled on putting a couple of screws thru the top and down into the sides of the cabinet....  I could glue the top, but then you would never be able to put a washer in...

I hate to drill the top, as its all finished hard wood.  But this is now an older motorhome and not worth the money it was once worth..  And I doubt that two screw heads that will be counter sunk will reduce its value much...

Still I had to mark the underside of the top with the outline of the cabinet and then measure and draw the wood sides onto it, so as to know where to drill the holes...  I will use the drill press here at the house...

I also had the generator running with the AC running as well while I was there...  Exercising all of this should be done more often...  

Later in the afternoon, I drove the car over to the car wash as it was covered with bugs from the Lake Ozark trip...  Biscuit was whining to get out of the house, so I took her along....

She was up on the arm rest looking all over as we went thru the suburb...  And no we don't crate her...  I know, you animal purist folks don't agree.....

But as we drove into the wash bay and the machines began to spray water, she went nuts....  Jumping into my arms going crazy...  I had to hold her as tight as I could hang on to contain her...  I think beyond scared would be descriptive...

Maybe she needs to go over there more often so she can remember that the big water sprayers won't get her......!

Retired Rod

3 comments:

  1. I don't remember ever removing the old stickers from license plates until this March when I put my new ones on. The old ones tried to curl at the edges.

    I never crated my dog either and never had a problem. What's the fun of riding in the car if you can't see out the window - might as well stay home.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with Gypsy, if you can't hang your head out the window why go?? I've never had a dog who liked car washes!

    ReplyDelete
  3. We don't crate Molly and Rylie either - they'd go nuts I think! Strangely, dogs who don't like water very much, ours sit still in the back seat when I go through the car wash with them. It surprises me every time.

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous comments had to be eliminated.... For the most part this has removed unwanted responses.. If you can't post your comments, please email me and we will make other arrangements...