Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Hot and Sultry



Our company left. My little dog was so enamored to have his buddy around that when he finally drove off, Harley sat at the end of his long tether in the driveway, watching the road, listening for his  car to return.

By evening he was inside, laying around looking totally deflated. Above, he is in his favorite perch, staring out the window, still watching the road and driveway.

I am  still pretty busy with maintenance and repairs plus my usual workamping duties. I got up at 4am, so that in the cool of the morning I could defrost the freezer plus make and install new air conditioning filters. Oh boy.  Isn't that exciting. Being on an efficient budget, I don't buy the manufacturer's pricey air conditioning filters.  Beside's their brand isn't  made to be cleaned and reused. At Amazon I found this Flanders/Precisionaire Cut-To-Fit Air Conditioner Filter last year.

It washes up beautifully and can be cut to any shape. I have been washing mine almost every week, as my medical equipment clogs them up faster than normal. But after a year or so, they are ready to replace.  I had plenty of leftover material from last year to cut new ones. So with the AC and fridge turned off, the coffee pot turned on, I had a terribly exciting morning.

Suddenly I thought it was raining really hard as the window was just soaked with water. Then I realized my water hose had split a gut.  It was furiously washing the side of the motorhome. I ran out to turn it off.  Thank goodness I had not opened the window yet, as I was about to let the morning air inside while the AC was off and the freezer was thawing with the aid of this tiny 200 watt ceramic heater.



Well, the water hose is just  one more thing to repair. You see how my list gets longer instead of shorter?

Now I have to saw  off the bad part of the water hose, put on a new hose fitting.  And learn to  live with a shorter hose. Seems like it broke last summer too. I think the heat of the water gets so hot in the sun, that it just finds a weak spot to split open. I might have a fitting, got to  go search the toy box.  Looking inside the toy box jumble,  made me want to organize that better, so one job blends into the next.

Didn't find a hose fitting yet, but the toy box is well organized now.

In case you are wondering, my toy box is the cargo carrier on the aft hitch full of parts and tools. Since getting the big toy box, my life is a lot better organized, especially for maintaining and repairing a 17 year old RV.



By late morning, the heat wave had chased us back inside. But the freezer was spotless and silently making new ice. During the heat wave, we were making ice in two trays three times a day to keep the shoe box more or less full. When I was measuring my freezer for a rectangular container to hold ice cubes emptied from the trays, a plastic shoe box without the lid,  fit in there perfectly.  That way I can accumulate ice, as the trays make it.

In case you are wondering, it's never had shoes in it, I bought it new for $1, then bleached it out for good measure. It's great to have a bucket of ice on these hot sultry days.

Matter of fact, by later afternoon I was outside hanging up laundry to dry. It was so hot, I took an outside  shower behind the RV fully clothed while washing my hair. I was hoping no park visitors would drive up with questions, but if they did, I was  soaking wet in my summer dress with my hair lathered up.

Amazingly, that felt so great, that I continued to work outside while dripping wet but the dress is drying rapidly, as is my hair. This feels pretty nice.

As a kid, I grew up in suburbia with no air conditioning but we had a water sprinkler. We would play outside getting soaked in the sprinkler, then when we dried off and felt hot again, we would rinse in the sprinkler again.

I felt like a child today, playing with the water, cooling myself off.  I still haven't repaired the water hose, still looking for the part. I got busy playing with the puppy dog, washing dishes, washing laundry.  Oh what fun.

Now I am pooped out and ready to sneak back indoors to the cool air conditioning.


3 comments:

  1. Doing it yourself can sure save a bunch of money:)

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  2. I've forced myself into learning all sorts of new things to save money. My biggest problem when I fix things myself, is my strength is not up to par these days, so I have to think outside the box.

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  3. It was a excitement locating your site yesterday. I came here right hoping to learn something new. And I was not dissatisfied. Your well thought out ideas for new events like this. Thank you for this idea and sharing your knowledge.

    ReplyDelete


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