The Adventures of Me & My Shadow #33 in MD,DE &VA 6/17/99
356 miles this trip, odometer now 42,780. Total miles this year
11,345.
From Delmar, MD, Hi Everyone!
Got to Jeff & Alexis' place, backed into the shed and went
to work. First thing was the refrigerator, in the last few miles
it would sometimes fail to light. This was a problem when it was
new but after cleaning the burner orifice and the flame rod it
had been lighting all the time so I cleaned every thing again
and hope it will give me no more trouble for a few years. Also
have been having trouble with the rectifier that supplies power
for the computer, took it into Radio Shack and found out it was
still under warranty and they gave me a new one, I hope it does
better than the old one. When I was in Myrtle Beach, SC Darcy
Moses showed me a simple device he made to lift the windshield
wiper blades off the glass when they are turned off. I made me
a set of them and then I thought that it was about time to lubricate
the wiper blade shafts, GM did not allow for it so I had to improvise,
I drilled a 1/8th inch hole through the upper side of the shaft
housing, pumped some oil into the hole and then re-sealed the
hole. I expect them to last another 20 years.
I had an interesting adventure that had nothing to do with the
GMC. Jeff had installed an alarm system in an old (1908) house
for Richard & Dominique Isaacs. They had retired in New York
City and came to Salisbury, MD and bought this old house. They
were favorably impressed with his work and his manner and asked
him if he would be interested in doing some more work for them
to bring this old house back to life. In its early life it had
served some of the upper-crust in the city. It was a beautiful
old home and like a GMC Motorhome , it was in need of some TLC,
The Isaacs wanted to give it this. Our first assignment was to
replace the dishwasher with a new one, then came the kitchen sink.
Next came the great adventure. There was a personal elevator that
used to take the occupants up and down from the first and second
floors, it no longer did this. Richard asked us to see if we could
get it to work. Now I have worked on a lot of things but an elevator
that was five years older than I am was not among them. It was
stuck at the second floor and the cables that got it there looked
like spaghetti wrapped around the drum. First we had to block
the elevator at the second floor, then we had to unwind the cables
and rewind them onto the drum in the proper fashion. We were able
to do this by overriding the brake and turning the drum with a
crank. After we got tension on the cables and reset the brake
we were ready to test it. We unblocked the elevator, Jeff pushed
the down button as I watched the cables. Every thing went well
till it got to the first floor, the switch shut the power off
but the brake did not come on, the drum coasted and the cables
went slack, we had spaghetti again but not so much this time.
It was evident that the problem was with the brake, after some
adjustment and testing it was good as new. Jeff has figured out
a brace for the brake, when he installs that it will be better
than new. We now count the Isaacs among our friends.
Made a short trip to Virginia Beach to a family reunion and birthday
picnic for my granddaughter Rebekah, now a teenager at 13. Had
a great time and took two carloads of people across the bridge
tunnel in the motorhome for $26 round trip, it would have cost
$40 for two cars, on the return trip the attendant took my $13
and offered no argument so I guess they finally got it right.
I went back to work on the motorhome, giving it an annual inspection
and a thorough lubrication, looking for any thing that could be
a problem out on the road. I have also been getting a lot of work
done on my self, Hearing aids, dental work and will eventually
get a false upper plate. The dentists always tell me I have good
roots and don't want to pull any of my teeth. I told then I can't
eat with roots, pull the damn roots and make me some teeth. I
hope I have enough money left to buy fuel for the motorhome.
I also have another GPS program to test when I get on the road
again, it is called Co-Pilot, It has a male voice that gives me
directions. I found out about it from Gertrude's Boss when I was
in CA. While I was talking with her, I said something about not
having a co-pilot (meaning a person in the passenger seat to read
maps for me), she thought I was talking about this program and
she started bad mouthing it as a competitor to the Gertrude program.
In fact she bad mouthed every program except the Gertrude program
so I knew it must have some merit and I will find out for myself,
how it compares with the Gertrude program. I know it is all on
one disk, and it has all the roads & streets like Gus has,
so far the voice seems to have a worse head cold than Gus has.
I will wait till I test it on the road and see what kind of attitude
it has before I give it a name. It has a voice recognition program
on the disk that will let me talk to it if I can find a microphone
that will cut out the background noise. I think a throat mike
like the fighter pilots in WW2 used would work but I have been
unable to find one. I may have to try to make one.
This last paragraph is for everyone who gets this letter via e-mail.
As you all know I have had a computer virus and I do not want
another one. I do not know how anyone who sends out computer viruses
thinks but when I see a message that says "This is important,
please read it and pass it on to all your friends". The first
thing that comes to my mind is computer virus. So when you get
a message of any kind and you are asked to forward it to all your
friends, I ask you to "please do not count me among your
friends". I will enjoy receiving a personal message from
you at any time but if you forward anything to me via e-mail I
will delete it without reading it, I believe you would be wise
to do the same. It can be a joke, a news item, a warning about
a virus on any other message. I am not interested in it, and I
will delete it without reading it. You can say I'm paranoid, stupid
or whatever you wish, you now know where I stand.
Till next time, Dallas or Dad if it fits. 6/17/99