Some people....

By way of a change, milady and her erstwhile junior companion and I went out for a meal. That, of course was followed by ladies favorite sport - shopping. Needless to say, today Lexington town center was blocked off by a children's parade or something. This meant I could not follow my heart and buy bus stuff. That, as it turned out was rather fortuitous.

Returning to the bus following a lengthy session at Walmart I set to work. The first thing I did was to install the U bend I created last time.

Following that, I looked under the bus and ascertained where to drill the hole for the drain. Reckoning on a good spot, I drilled a pilot hole that I could fill readily if it was in the wrong place. Checking underneath it was ideally placed. Thus I whipped out my masonry hole saw and within a few minutes that seemed like centuries due to my having to lie on my toilet with my head under the sink, I had a very nice hole that I quickly sprayed against rust.

Looking at my plumbing plan, it transpired that if I needed to remove the bend at some point in order to remove foreign objects, I would be unable to. That led to some fast replanning and a decision to use flexible pex tubing and screw connectors. That would also allow me to empty the sink into a bucket if required by simply redirecting the hose.

Needless to say, a trip to Lowes (hiss, spit) ensued. That ended up with my sitting on the floor of the plumbing aisle trying to find bits that fitted together. My mission was somewhat complicated by  customers asking whether I - clad in paint-stained pants, a riped and paaint-stained shirt and torn-up tennis shoes - was a plumber. One would have thought that as I wasn't displaying half a yard of arse crack the answer was clearly negative on that count! Another thing that complicated matters was the seemingly complete failure of Lowes (hiss, spit) to keep the right items in the right containers. At least one box had just one of the items I needed but buried under a sea of things that bore no possible resemblance to the description on the shelf marker. It was pretty much a lucky dip!

Leaving Lowes (hiss, spit) after what felt like an eternity but which could not have been more than a couple of hours, I headed to Walmart. There, milady has tasked me to find her some Mountain Dew. That's when the fun really started....

Walking along the aisles I found Walmart's last five bottles of Mountain Dew. I could carry four but the fifth proved too much of a challenge. Needless to say, I'd neglected to obtain a shopping cart. As there was no point in letting a single bottle of milady's favorite drink escape, I returned hurriedly with a shopping cart.

Having loaded all five drinks on the cart, which was not perhaps the finest in the world, I pushed it toward the checkout. The cart had a misshapen wheel that caused it to bounce in rather the manner of the Duracell bunny on crack.

The first checkout had a line as far as the eye could see The next was the same. I raced along the row of checkouts seeing lines that crossed the horizon at every one of the few that were open. Finally I reached he gardening section and their line was wrapped around several displays. I headed back to the first checkout in the desperate hope the line would have shortened.

Sure enough, there was a checkout available. As I pushed the cart to the conveyer I became aware that my cart was dripping. Checking the bottles it transpired one was responsible. There was a trail of drips behind me. Picking up the offending bottle I discovered it was spraying sticky Mountain Dew very strongly from the bottom of the bottle. It was hosing down the checkout pretty thoroughly. Fair do - the cashier leapt into actio! She quickly scooped up the bottle and stuffed it into a plastic bag then moped up the trail swiftly with paper towels.

Needless to say, if I had left with the four I could carry, this whole incident might have been avoided. The funniest thing though - I messaged to friends that the bottle had been spraying and hosed down the checkout. That's not what their minds expected fro Walmart. Their imaginations went off on the lines of the People of Walmart website The imagined somebody standing at the checkout, urinating. The only time I have seen that is women squatting in the car park to pee.

Returning home I returned to work  on the bus. By the time I had knocked off for the night, the ex tubing was ready to install. Other than that it is time to work under the bus. That has to be done in the daylight however.

Feeling like death warmed up!

Today, in a radical departure from the norm, this blog entry is being entered via my smartphone with the task being made easier by a bluetooth keyboard. Now the reason for this is simple - after my Macbook started playing the fool, I switched to using an RCA tablet. Three months after I bought it, the USB charger decided to give out, leaving me pretty much with an RCA branded frisbee. As it appears RCA will simply toss the tablet and give me a "reconditioned" tablet that might or might not last 3 more months and wants me to pay to ship their $50 trash back to them, I'm questioning the worth of throwing more money at RCA. Thus I can either do my blog entries as emailed entries from m'lady's computer (running the heinous Windows 8) or do the via my phone. I choose the latter.

As you might have guessed from the title, I really am feeling quite unwell. This sad state of affairs has been rumbling on for over a week and all I have to say about that is it had better bloody well stop. Despite feeling unwell, wobbly and nauseaus, I did actually work on the bus today. Well, after taking m'lady grocery shopping during which I saw how Walmart's "cleaners" simply sweep trash under the displays rather than actually cleaning. On the other hand, Walmart never has had a high bar!
I wonder whether I picked up a bug last time I was in Walmart. The hygeine there is sufficiently lacking for me to wonder whether Walmart deserved a Z for food hygeine.

So, the upshot is that I only did some of the things I had intended. I climbed up on the hood of the bus, struggling to stand upright and fighting nausea. Realising that falling off the hood would not be advisable, I did my best to stay perched up there. After drilling about 50 holes I screwed in my replacements for the front flashers, slipping copious quantities of silicone goop behind as a sealant.

The screws used are not intended as final fixtures. The final fixtures will be rivets. This is just a temporary measure until such a time as I can test the lights to make sure I have not buggered up any wiring with my drill.

While I worked on the flasher panel I took a look inside the compartment behind and noticed that the rivets used were standard pop rivets rather than waterproof rivets. I had wondered about that. Clearly the individual that had written online in some forum I used to glance at had been writing nonsense. His claim was roof rivets had to be special waterproof rivets. No they don't and I saw the proof! Interestingly, the rivets used all had very long shanks. Carpenter obviously found a standard rivet was the best option.

So, the front flashers are now dealt with. Next I want to replace the bolts with rivets after checking the electrics all still function. I will probably do the same to the back flashers and possibly install my extractor fan at the same time.  

What happened to the Playboy Bunny-girl?

Today was a bit of a mish-mash day that actually ended quite successfully. The day dawned rather too early which was not welcome. In fact, I was probably awake before 5am after having hit the sack about 1am. At 7am the alarm clock kicked me out of bed. That was followed by a rather lengthy trip to Walmart and Lowes (hiss, spit).

The overall aim of the morning's trip was to do the month's grocery shopping. While there, I took advantage of the fact that Walmart's garage was open (on a Sunday) and had them give my car a much needed oil change. While that was going on, m'lady and her mother went to do the grocery shopping and I nipped across the parking lot on foot (shock, horror - somebody in America daring to walk somewhere) into Lowes (hiss, spit) where I managed to get the U bolts I wanted, a replacement drill bit and absolutely no rivets. Lowes (hiss, spit) was totally out of 3/16 rivets!

Returning to Walmart, I picked up my car and then rejoined m'lady and her mother to discover that one of the Walmart minimum wage serfs had been insanely rude to them. Given that both m'lady and her mother are inoffensive people, that was totally inexcusable. No point in complaining though. Walmart's solution would just be to fire the disposable minimum wage serf rather than to fix the demonstrable problem with their staff's attitudes.

While in Walmart, I noted the aisles were full of Easter merchandise. I think this is probably about the closest I'm going to get to a Playboy Bunny though!


Having completed the shopping and returned home, it was time to catch up with my missing kip. So, a couple of hours later I headed to the bus and checked the running lights. Initially one of the tail lights was out but the bulb was OK so after wigglimg the bulb, the light lit. One of the top red markers is out as is one of the right hand amber markers. I'll get to those in due course.

Entering the bus, I looked around and my eye alighted on a small packet in my tool box. Yesterday I had hunted through that tool box several times looking for rivets. Incredibly, there was the packet of 3/16 rivets that I needed. Thus, I set to work.

The last two of my cheap self-adhesive paper blinds were stuck up very well. They took quite some pulling to remove. Given that the other 3 had simply fallen down under their own weight, I don't for one instant believe that they would have withstood the test of time. Thus, the two blinds in the bathroom were replaced. 

The caribinas made moving the shower curtain very easy. It was just a case of unclip, reclip and done.Sadly the caribinas were too small to use with my lantern. That's not a problem though - I can always get a bigger caribina.

Slowly, things are coming together. I need to put the water tanks underneath, themain breaker box in, a method of securing items in the back closet, a method of opening the front door from outside and to secure the lower window of the back door. 

I braved the Black Friday hoard!

Well, not really. I didn't leave the house until 4pm. By the time I arrived at Lowe's (hiss, spit), the car parks were pretty clear and the roads about as busy or quiet as normal. It was pretty mundane in actual fact.

In Lowe's I found the Nema TT 30R that I was looking for. I looked for an adaptor to turn it into a standard household socket but they didn't have one. I would have left it at that but I spied a stand with 60W equivalent LED bulbs for 99 cents each. As bulbs are dying in m'lady's bathroom, I added four and then a flashing LED necklace to spice things up a bit at work over Christmas. I got out for $16.

Next stop was Walmart where I got the Nema 30TTR to Nema 5-15 adaptor and a can on black spray paint they had for 96 cents. I got out of Walmart for about $8.

Returning home, the mail still has not brought my cooling vanes for my Peltier cooler. This looks a bit suspicious! I ordered it on November 8th and the seller provided a tracking number that doesn't state the vanes actually arrived at the carrier. I'm suspecting they're hoping I won't notice they haven't supplied the product.

Tomorrow I hope to complete the wiring for my RV power socket. The adaptor I bought says "don't use for more than 15A" yet looks to be solid brass connectors. I'm putting 20A through it and will just watch to see what happens. I suspect they labelled it conservatively. Worst case scenario, it melts and catches fire. Not a big deal, where its located.

Maybe Sunday I can do some welding!

As far as the heatsink is concerned, I suspect I'll have to buy another elsewhere and try to get a refund off eBay!

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping!

As I had to work today, at my voluntary job, I took the opportunity to do some shopping on my way back. What a day!

The first stop was Lowe's where 14, 5 inch lag screws and a 6 inch drill bit cost a stupendous $32. After picking myself up off the floor having heard the price, I completed the transaction secure in the knowledge that though my toilet will have cost the same to build as one I would have bought, I have a much better toilet. Of course, no trip to Lowe's is without entertainment. Today that entertainment was provided by having to play hunt the checkout.

Ignoring the extremely long lines at the checkouts, I hunted along rows of unattended tills seeking one with a shorter line. The self checkouts that never work each had irate customers busily cursing because the things were not working. I learned my lesson long ago that the self service check out should only be used if you have too much time on your hands! Eventually I did find a checkout and once I'd attracted the clerks attention, checked out. The hard part was attracting his attention as he was engrossed in his mobile phone.

The next stop was even more hilarious. That was a food stop at Walmart where upon finding only two items on the shelf and I needed four, I asked the closest Walmart employee. Their answer really summed up Walmart's attitude to customer service: "that's not my job" and the dentally challenged moron went back to shuffling cakes on a shelf, trying to look busy while studiously ignoring me and offering no further service!

After that, I went to BiLo around the corner, got everything I needed, was served by happy staff and exited the store. Right outside was a car with the trunk open and a pair of rough looking individuals trying to attract people to buy whatever it was they were selling - if it wasn't indeed a mugging they were offering.

Returning home, I found one of my eBay orders had arrived. This is a bead curtain for the end of the bed that has come all the way from Thailand. Sadly I was too tired to examine it thoroughly but it does not from first glance seem to be much more than netting with half a dozen beads attached! It looks like a $6 scam but I could be wrong.