Friday the Thirteenth and no Jason!

Instead, after painting the brackets last night, I decided to paint the unpainted parts today. That plan changed slightly. I'd been expecting my new drill bits to arrive this afternoon but when I checked the eBay tracking number, I found they'd been delivered yesterday.

Yesterday, work ended quicker than normal as I didn't have to deliver children to outlying areas. Instead I was off at 4:10 as opposed to my normal 4:45. That meant that instead of being home about 5:30 I was home about 4:40. Ironically, I'd checked the mail at 4:40 on my way into the trailer. Then I'd gone to feed the chickens which must have been where I was when the mail arrived (at 4:52, according to the tracking website).

Thus, today I started drilling the remaining 10 holes. After going very slowly with the first 5 I remembered what one of the rednecks in my circle told me. He'd suggested oiling the holes and drilling at any speed. After a long hunt it was down to gun oil or wd40 so I chose the wd40, squirted it where I needed to drill and started work. What a difference. I'm a convert! The drill went through the steel like a hot knife through butter.

So, having finished the drilling and wiping the oiliness off on my overalls (as all good mechanics do, I'm told) I slapped on some more primer. Today being a very hot day at some 70F outside apparently, the primer dried quickly.

Inside the bus, my digital thermometer read 93F and my charge controller read 27 centigrade. So, quite warm. Sadly my expensive fancy atomic clock updated digital clock, temperature, hygrometer thingy committed suicide so now I only know temperatures in some sections of the bus. Indeed, given the way these electronic things fail, I might go for an upgrade and get some real thermometers. I gather they cost about a dollar and it would seem they last longer than the $10+ fancy electronic garbage.

After taking a break to do some more demolition on an old trailer extension, I returned to my brackets. The paint was now dry enough to take topcoat so the very first coat of topcoat was applied. I'd bought a can of white paint but remembered a small can. Having located that, I set to work. It was sufficient for today's task and quite possibly for tomorrow also.

Tomorrow should see the painting done. If the weather holds, Sunday could be the day some of these brackets get installed. The paint is white in contrast with the black of the underside of the bus in order to show up rust if any dares to show its ugly face. 

There are definite signs of progress. In an about face, I rethought my plans for steel bars over the back, side window panes. I believe with a small baton and some plywood, I could do the job with plywood. That would be faster and easier to work with and would render extra insulation. The drivers window, however, needs a different approach. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that yet.

I'm thinking about putting a plumbing inlet so I can connect a fresh water supply. It need not be any more complicated than a floor level faucet supplying water to a hose with a gun on it. That would allow me if I was plugged into water and electricity at a campsite to refill my jerry cans without stepping out of the bus. For the moment I'll stick with jerry cans for water. I don't need more than I have which is about 19 gallons. On a road trip that should last a week. A new U-Line 15 gallon barrel would be $40 plus shipping etc. I certainly would not want a used barrel for fresh water.

I've been noticing some tiny ants in the bus. Not many but where there are a few, there are many more. Time, perhaps to fumigate the bus again. I also need to reduce the quantity of stuff in the bus, much of which is probably irrelevant trash. Receipts from 10 years ago fir things I no longer own, for example. Clothes that no longer fit since I'm not as svelte as I used to be. And of course, construction debris. Lots of construction debris.