Today was one of those really odd days. Rain was forecast so the plan today was just to go and do some shopping. As it turned out, the rain never materialized so though nothing major was achieved, progress was made. To be honest, what with feeling yucky because of a stomach bug and yucky because of (probably) eyesight issues, I didn't get as much done as I could have.
The first order of the day was shopping. That started with my heading to Harbor Freight, Walmart and a Lowes (hiss, spit). I had intended to pop into Hancock Fabrics since the entire chain is closing but didn't get to it, which was rather unfortunate as I was right by the store when I went to pick up my eyeglasses. I didn't because I wanted to get m'lady's bank deposit completed before I got side-tracked. There's also the little matter that I really hate being responsible for other people's property just in case something untoward happens. I'd be really upset if something happened to my property but if it happened to somebody else's when it's in my possession, I would be incredibly shamed.
So, after picking up the glasses, I made the bank deposit then headed to Harbor Freight. There, for the first time ever, I managed to exit the store with only the things that were on the list. Those were grinding disks for my angle grinder (I had to hunt the entire store to find them), a replacement paint-removing brush for the pistol drill, some 6013E 1/8th inch welding rods and the free flashlight m'lady desired. Harbor Freight has some nice freebies!
After Harbor Freight I headed to Lowes (hiss, spit) where I had to hunt and got the two hose barbs I needed plus some connectors. I didn't find the handy all-in one thing I found last time but Lowes (hiss, spit) is a bit like that! Needless to say I did forget to get the blanks I needed for the hand-basin - to cover the holes normally occupied by faucets since there will be no faucets in the bus.
While in Harbor Freight I perused the solar section and found a solar charge controller for $30 and the connectors that connected it to things for $10. Solar panels were strange prices. I'd say that because today was one of their fake sales days, they had raised the prices in order to have a fake sale - a bit like Kohls but Kohls always has a fake sale going. Harbor Freight had a pricey deep cycle battery that claimed 35 amp hours. That might actually be useful if my solar panel can produce enough surplus power. I doubt that my panel will produce the 5w promised. Having said that, even if it produces 1w then over 8 hours that'd be 8 watt hours a day. Heaven knows how much the fan uses. It'll be interesting to work that one out. I'm not a great believer in solar power having seen the specifications on solar panels etc and how much complete nonsense is claimed by the manufacturers.
Speaking of solar, in the middle of the day I connected my solar panel to the little fan that I bought. This time, it actually worked. The fan buzzed away madly. Playing with it, it transpired the fan has a higher startup current than the running current. It seems the best position for the panel is actually horizontal. I'll put the fan into the back of the bus to suck out heat. Buzzing away like it did, it might actually work as planned!
Having got home, albeit without the hand-basin blanks, I set to work and installed hose barbs on the two existing waste tanks. Tomorrow, if it's still fine, I'll slip under the bus, put the extra nuts on the barrel supporting bolts and finalize the plumbing under the shower.
The next thing did was to clamp the two blanks that will be attached in place of the school-bus flashers together, back to back. Then the top right corners were trimmed simultaneously to the same curve. Then holes were drilled all around the edges. Now the original plan has been to rivet the panels in place. That might yet happen. For the moment I shall use self-drilling screws on the basis that I might want to employ the wiring behind the panels for something though I have no definite plans at the moment.
No sooner had I done that than m'lady's sister's dog made a break for freedom as did her mothers dog. That led to a mad dash down the dirt track to recapture them lest a trigger happy neighbor decided dogs were in season. Having successfully recaptured the aforesaid four-legged miscreants, m'lady rang the dinner gong. By the time dinner was completed the daylight had all but gone. It was so dark that it was hard even to see whether m'lady's chickens had left any eggs. Definitely too dark to work!
Tomorrow is a shopping day and if the rain holds off then after returning with the month's food supplies I intend to complete some if not all of the following tasks. First - the blanks over the school-bus flashers. Second the nuts on the waste tank supports. Third I want to complete the plumbing under the shower.
And finally, the exciting news. Just as I was completing this blog entry, there was a very loud explosion that shook the house. It was by the sound of it, several hundred yards away. In this neighborhood that means either a meth lab explosion or somebody had a gas leak and blew up their trailer. Alternatively it could have been a still that blew up. Like the shooting next door, there will probably be no news about it. The news media rarely ventures out of the safety of cafes and places where the journalists are spoon-fed.
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