Batty

Bats.  I can hear them squeaking. They dart by so fast, they are just a blur. I hope they eat all the mosquitoes and gnats.

The other day, well actually a week or more ago,  when my company arrived unexpectedly, so did a ton of gnats. It was funny. When they left, so did the gnats or whatever they were that were bothering us. We kept slathering OFF on our legs and faces.  I even moved a fan outdoors and turned it on full blast.  We bought a mess of food, then fired up the outdoor charcoal grill. It was fun!

Eventually my company left. The gnats left. Very strange.

Later I got to thinking maybe it was the produce from the grocery store since they took me shopping. But I still had produce and no gnats. However, I had chopped up the watermelon, then placed it in ziplock baggies for everyone to carry some of it home since we were too stuffed after the meal we cooked on the grill,  to eat any watermelon.

That night I had my watermelon for dinner. All of it. I couldn't stop eating it until it was all gone. By then I didn't feel like making any dinner, so that was dinner. YUMMY!  I must try that again.

My company was laughing because I kept dropping things, spilling things, knocking things over then cleaning up the various messes. I said "If you wonder what I do all day... well this is it!"

Why do things keep breaking?

I have a super long list of things that are broken or in need of repair or both. Mostly things are hitting the garbage pretty fast. I can't afford a replacement fan anytime soon. Oh well!   By the time I leave this workamping assignment, my load will be severely lightened at the rate things are falling apart.

Inexplicably my fan blade just started flying off in pieces, then the fan began dancing across the table.  I guess the breaking of the fan blade made it unbalanced.  I caught it just as it hit the concrete patio. But the fan blade was already broken.

It looks like a shark simply took a bite out of my fan blades. So much for my electric wind!

The fan motor still works, but now it makes a horrific noise and dances every which way until it yanks it's electric cord out. I guess it's time for the garbage. Sheesh.

I love being outdoors, but when the wind dies, I do need that electric breeze. Now I am using my little old 12volt fan to keep cool. Someone gave me a 12volt converter. It plugs into a regular 110 outlet, then I can plug the 12volt fan into that and it works. YAY!  If this fans dies, then... I might just cry.

I have had this RoadPro fan from Amazon for 2 years now. The oscillator broke some time ago. I never got around to fixing that. But the rest of the fan works like a hurricane. I have used it inside and outside for 2 years now. It is very powerful with a nice long cord. Some of the fans being sold in the stores are just horrible.  I had an oscillating table fan last summer. It was a piece of junk. You could watch the blade turning, but it just did not blow any air. It was maddening!  It broke in under 6 months of use. It would cool you down if the temperatures were below 70F.  I fail to understand why anemic fans are on the market. Should I blame the Chinese junk?  The Chinese do make a few really great products.  But so much of their stuff is pure crap. Why is it imported into America?  So we can over stuff our landfills?  I think we should ship all this Chinese garbage back to them. Let them figure out where to dispose of it.

OK, let me climb off my soap box... um well, just a few more rants, then I will be quiet...

When I moved overseas in the mid 80's, America was stuck on "Buy American".  Now twenty something years later, I come back to America. So where is the Made In American stuff?  It seems we're all buying Chinese now. I am clueless how this came about. I don't mind buying the Chinese good stuff, but every time something breaks in short order, I look for the company name,  so I don't buy their crap again. So often there is no company name, just a "Made in China" imprint on the product.

This 12volt RoadPro fan has been a real trooper. It's powerful. I don't know where it was made.  Originally I bought it for the dog.

OK, that sounds hilarious!  But here's why the dog got a fan...

When I shop for groceries, Harley dog has to stay in the motorhome while I shop. If it's deadly hot, then I am forced to turn on the generator so the air conditioner can run, keeping the dog from perishing. However, if it's not super hot, then I often leave all the windows open (they have screens) for him to have plenty of fresh air.

I turn the oven exhaust fan on high, this sucks the hot air out. I  plug in his RoadPro fan inside our wheel estate. This provides plenty of circulating air. While both are noisy (the fans)  at least I know when I come back outside, my dog is aired out and alive.

He has been taught that touching the window or door screens is a huge NO-NO.  Therefore he has no idea he could rip open the screen to come hunt me down. I don't leave the door open, I lock him inside.

But other times,  it's nice that we can be indoors with just the screen door, and he won't escape as he knows he is not allowed to touch the screen.  He is so smart in some areas, but in other ways he exasperates me.