I Learned About RVing From That: Winter Preparation
When we bought our first new and more up-to-date travel trailer, it came with a whole-house water filter – the first time we had had one. It was located under the queen-size bed in the front of the unit, right next to the fresh water reservoir and the 12-volt water pump. After the first winter of owning it, we loaded up for a three-hour trip to Charlotte to attend a trade show. We arrived at the RV park and got set up. The last thing I connected was the water hose, and then I walked over to the park office. After a few steps, an odd noise made me pause and look around. Looking back over my shoulder I saw the source of the sound – water was pouring out from underneath the front end of the trailer right under where the water reservoir was located. I sprinted...
Read MoreThe Thrills of Covering and Storing the RV
Doing things single-handedly seems to be a theme with me. I’ve done everything from build sheds to cabinets to patio roofs solo simply because I’m impatient and don’t want to wait for someone else to show up and help. Usually, everything works out alright, and putting the cover on the new RV recently was one of those occasions. And, like other projects, it was not without its challenges. Right after I started pricing the model RV I wanted last Spring, I also began pricing custom RV covers. I was tired of big unwieldy tarps and tangled up bungee cords. I was sold on the look and full-side protection offered by actual covers designed for fifth-wheels. So, I finally ordered one through Walmart online and it showed up at the Apex store...
Read MoreAT&T U-Verse, Part Deux
For those who have read my first blog post about switching from the cable company to AT&T U-Verse, and even those who haven’t (though you should), here is the next installment beginning a week and a day after installation. We were backing out of the driveway late in the morning of day eight and had to stop because there was an AT&T truck blocking us. The driver walked over and told us that he was there to connect the wire which had been buried two days before, and that he didn’t need to come inside. (We had been operating to this point with a wire lying on the ground from the post at the street to the house.) He then moved his truck out of the way and we left. Within thirty minutes we were back and began putting the groceries away. The...
Read MoreThinking About Switching To AT&T U-Verse? Read This First.
I thought Ellen was talking to a new neighbor at the front door. I was on the third floor and they were on the first, so I couldn’t hear words, just two female voices talking animatedly. When she called up to me to come down, I was right in the middle of some online search – I forget what – and wasn’t particularly excited about taking the time to meet and greet someone new at that moment. When I reluctantly descended the stairs to the entry, I saw them in the living room, perched opposite one another, and I thought the visitor looked waaaay too young to be a new homeowner in the neighborhood. And I was right. She was a door-to-door solicitor for AT&T U-Verse, the telecom giant’s answer to cable tv/highspeed/phone packages. These two...
Read MoreObservations on the Airline Experience
I get a snicker out of some of the ‘airline speak’ I hear – saying stuff like “illuminated” instead of “lit,” and “in the off position” instead of “off.” Who doesn’t love, “…tampering with, disabling or destroying?” I think a simple, “Don’t f*** with the smoke detectors!” would suffice. And have you ever really listened to the nonsensical random voice modulation flight attendants use when reciting their canned speech? I can only figure that they’ve repeated it so many hundreds of times that they aren’t even listening to themselves, and vary their voices randomly to make it sound as though they are. Thinking about it while sitting and waiting for takeoff, it occurred to me...
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