Not a great deal of progress perhaps?

Today with my neck muscles hurting badly from the strained posture I have to achieve while under the bus, I didn’t do much of what I set out to do. Certainly by the end of the day I had got the cable fully secured all the way to the back of the bus. It needs to be secured to the inside wall of the bus which is where I was held up. I wanted to use the existing torx screws but could not find my torx screwdriver bits until I had stoped work for the day. The blessed things are sitting right beside my keyboard (I use a Bluetooth keyboard to do my blog entries).

It took forever to get started today. Not just because I was procrastinating due to a neck that felt really sore and uncomfortable but due also to a bad stomach. As I’ve noticed before, I get a bad stomach going underneath my bus and lying on the sandy soil. I think there must be mold allergens or something in the soil to cause this.

So I did get the cable through the floor. As I had suspected the 28 feet or thereabouts of cable wasn’t quite long enough to achieve cable Nirvana but it’s pretty close! I can extend cables with no great problem and since I found my correct solder, soldering will be easier.

I had a mammoth task today trying to find either pair of safety glasses. I have two pairs and couldn’t find either. In desperation, having hunted the bus three times from end to end for the sky things I was going to the store to buy another pair. That was when I found both pairs (fortunately before I left) and while I was at it, I found my missing solder. They were all out in the open exactly where they should have been but I just could not see or recognize them.

I’m going to say my mind is still processing my recent resignation and the events that led up to it. I’ve heard various people mention nepotism as the main factor and others mention racism. Both suggestions have a good deal of evidence to back them up. Unlike those that brought my mind to it, I have severe reservations as to whether it’s wise or even worthwhile to pursue a discrimination case. No wonder my mind hasn’t been where it should be!

I had planned today to get the cables up the bus wall ready for a fuse box which should be arriving any day from Amazon together with a 12v shower pump. I had also planned to complete my plumbing under the bus as well as installing my solar input. I never got to either though. I did get as far as making up a cable to go to the solar input though.

That has two 14 gauge and one 16 gauge wire. The two 14s (red and green) are for the solar input. The blue will be an extra cable (you know how I like my extra cables). There’s a vague plan to use the extra cable to charge the bus battery but since I have a fairly good idea that the short circuit might well be a 15A relay in the control panel (it should be a 20A relay), I rather suspect I’d be best changing that out and then checking for my short circuit. With no short circuit I can just couple the solar panel and charge controller straight into the console and leave the battery connected.

Feeling a bit at sixes and sevens I looked at the original stair rail. It’s way too long for what I need and as it appears to be stainless steel, it’s going to be both expensive and hard to weld. As it is, it’s way too long.

In the end, feeling like doing some welding, I found the old seat back handrail. To that I welded a steel brace that I’d bought a couple of years ago, intending to weld a socket to it to use for my underbus excursions. I found another solution that time which was probably best because the socket is covered in chromium and chromium fumes are toxic. That’s one reason I have not done any stainless steel nor aluminum welding - the fumes are toxic and I don’t have the correct gas mask.

On the other end I welded a steel bracket that I cut to fit the seat rail. I still have to drill a hole in it but it’s coming along nicely. My next task with that will be to paint it with rust killing primer and then to drill the hole. The handrail will be of use only to steady somebody getting onto the first or second step. Being horizontal you’d have to be a Barbie doll to make much use. Putting it at an angle involves complicated welding, cutting and positioning that I just don’t feel like doing. What I’ve done already is quite complicated enough!

Tomorrow, if I feel up to it, I might put my solar input into place, complete my plumbing and take the cable up the wall. I’ll have to head out to buy rust killing primer though. One of the things I did with the open end of the steel tube was to run around it in concentric circles with a 7014 welding rod. That built up the metal all around so now the tube has a sealed end. That’ll stop any nasty critters from hiding in it!

As for the racism/nepotism arguments, I’m not sure. The South is so racially charged that it’s literally a tinderbox waiting for a spark. I hear such extreme views on both sides that I often wonder where tolerance went. It’s really strange - I’m in the Bible Belt but there are an awful lot of people claiming Christian values (tolerance, turn the other cheek) that exhibit anything but tolerance. In fact I am reminded of the ethnic conflict between ethic Russians and Ethnic Latvians from when I lived and worked in the former USSR. I would always claim neutrality on account of being British but would be told by Russians I could not be friends with Latvia/ns and by Latvians that I could not be friemnds with Russians.

I think I’ll be alright now. Nurse... where are my meds?