Bring me some wine!

Today being wet and arc welding not being the sort of activity those desiring a long life expectancy should carry out in rain or wet weather, the plan was to work inside the bus. Originally the idea had been to work underneath the counter and fix the faulty wiring on the one socket. The rain and general dismal nature of the day killed that idea though. It wasn't really possible to see. Mind, I am also exhausted after the working week. Driving school busses for a living really takes it out of me. It's the kind of day for a jug of wine and something not too complex.

As the bus badly needed tidying inside, I set to. Rather, I would have set to but needed containers for all the loose bits and bobs that have been floating around in cardboard boxes. The bus looked like cardboard city inside! A trip to Dollar General was in order where they had two packs of three plastic food boxes. Just the ticket! Needless to say, I also had to stop for fuel. My little SUV isn't bad at 19mpg but 18 gallons (which is what I usually put in) doesn't last more than about a week. Thank heavens fuel was only $1.95 a gallon!

I set to, filling plastic boxes with bits. I decided one box would hold metal and wood screws, another metric stuff and another imperial. Most of my metric stuff is M5. I had another box for odd stuff like brackets and hinges and yet another for unsorted random bits that were lying around. After a while, I was amazed. I could actually see a patch of countertop. Well, I threw out a couple of boxes of absolute junk. A couple of dead bugs, plastic packaging, dull razor blades etc.

This tidying lark is definitely not for the faint of heart. Once I've done tidying, I'll have to go through everything in the bus again. I'll have to decide which clothes to keep and which to donate. The same for a lot of other stuff. I'm overloaded with a lot that's just plain junk. It's very different from the day I arrived in this world with not a stitch of clothing or the way I arrived in America with just one suitcase! The aim though is to clear up construction debris at the moment. I need to be able to see what still needs attention.

As far as I know, things I need to do are to add a forced air ventilation inlet and complete welding the ventilation unit together. Then there could be security bars added to the back window. I need to touch up the outside paintwork. The wiper still needs to be wired correctly at the switch end and I need to check the kingpins, steam and grease. The last part, steaming, greasing and checking thevkingpins probably needs to be done by a real mechanic. Not a work mechanic who's doing it as a favor but somebody interested in being paid to do it. It costs more but the results are far more satisfactory. I learned a long time ago people doing things as favors etc do a half assed job - the same as those miserable trade deals.