{"id":401,"date":"2016-09-21T15:14:24","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T15:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/?p=401"},"modified":"2016-09-21T15:14:24","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T15:14:24","slug":"10-a-long-mechanical-whine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/?p=401","title":{"rendered":"10. a long mechanical whine"},"content":{"rendered":"

10.A long mechanical whine<\/p>\n

It\u2019s mid-September & I\u2019m still here \u2013 at the moment here is a delightful RV park in Baldwin County, in southeast Alabama.\u00a0 And it feels like I\u2019m the ping pong ball in a swift moving challenge between two mean spirited mechanical gremlins.<\/p>\n

The game began a couple of weeks ago when I drove the motor home into my son\u2019s subdivision (remember I had only the motor home and motorcycle \u2013 no car).\u00a0 I turned too sharp \u2013 my bad \u2013 and hit the curb.\u00a0 The same curb about a million others had hit, breaking large chunks of cement and exposing the ends of multiple pieces of rebar, one of which gave me a side-wall puncture about 6 inches from the ground.\u00a0 My son rattled off the names of several people \u2013 including my son \u2013 who had been skewered on that rebar. A mere $409 later, the wrecker was gone & I could leave, too.<\/p>\n

I was fostering a small dog in the motor home; my German Shepherd Misty was tolerate but obviously preferred being an only child.\u00a0 I had parked the RV under some oak and pine trees, near Blackwater Bay.\u00a0 While I was riding, a nasty thunderstorm blew in. \u00a0Living in a motor home is something like living in an igloo ice chest; the noise of a pine cones and acorns hitting the roof takes on new dimensions and heavy rain sounds like castanets.\u00a0 Now, Misty, aged 10, had lived only in the desert before she came to live with me in June, 2015 and we\u2019ve enjoyed a lot of time in the desert. In her defense \u2013 and she was certainly going to need some defense – she didn\u2019t know much about life in an ice chest in the fierce summer thunder storms of Florida.\u00a0 The insult of being left alone with a fluffy white dog princess only slightly larger than her dinner plate was too much when that storm rolled in \u2013 Misty freaked out.\u00a0 She ate the backup camera, both sun visors, and the windshield wiper knob; she decided the screen door needed no screen and would work better shaped like a chaise lounge.\u00a0 Jeff W, my Geico claims adjuster, has been great — no bad jokes and he even assured me he had seen worse.\u00a0 After my $500 deductible, they’ll cover the rest of the $1,200 in damage. The little dog has gone home.<\/p>\n

\"who

who needs to go backwards?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"This

This was a sun visor, in a previous life<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Misty

Misty thought the screen door would work better as a chaise lounge<\/p><\/div>\n

The vet recommended Prozac. As Misty and I were in route to pick up her meds and newly delivered crate, a man pulled up beside me at a stop light and said, \u201cDo you know your steps are out? \u201c\u00a0 Seems that the electronic monitor that automatically retracts the steps when you start the engine was attached to the chaise lounge, formerly known as a screen door, lying back under the pine trees by the water.\u00a0 Good news is \u2013 I didn\u2019t take anyone out at the knees or rip the steps off on a curve.\u00a0 I went back to the Bay, afraid to drive further but not afraid to ask a friend to deliver Misty\u2019s meds.\u00a0 And then we waited for the Prozac to kick in.<\/p>\n

\"The

The crate just wasn’t big enough for Misty to want the door closed<\/p><\/div>\n

BTW \u2013 Misty first thought the heavy metal crate was an interesting bed or cave, but she obviously never intended to be locked in it, alone, during a storm. \u00a0I left on my bike, in need of some road therapy, relieved she and the motor home were safe, but a storm blew in so she let herself out by bending the door, leaving blood behind to prove her point.\u00a0 Now the folded crate sits on its edge, an effective roadblock so she can\u2019t get into the cab.\u00a0 Neither can I. Three days later, I called the vet\u2019s office because Misty was still swinging from the rafters, so to speak.\u00a0 THEN they said it could take three weeks to see any improvement, so we went to town in the motor home to get her a sedative. \u00a0And decided to move to this lovely RV Park in Baldwin County, Alabama, where I\u2019m parked in the open \u2013 no pine cones or acorns here!\u00a0 \u00a0She is much better, and I\u2019m cutting back on her meds.\u00a0\u00a0 She hasn\u2019t eaten any more motor home parts, and we talk about going back to the desert, where there are no trees and it seldom rains.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to remember, as you read my whine, that I\u2019m by myself, I know no one in this RV park, and I don\u2019t have a mechanical bone in my body.<\/p>\n

So \u2013 I decided I needed to buy a truck for my dog.\u00a0 This idea of driving the motor home when Misty needs to go to the vet, or when the weather is \u2013 or may get \u2013 bad \u2013 well, it\u2019s just too much.\u00a0 So I did tons of research and identified a truck that is not too heavy, that will flat tow behind the motorhome and hold my motorcycle. I found a good one on-line \u2013 arranged a pre-purchase inspection, and am now the proud owner of a 2009 Chevy Colorado extended cab, 4WD, automatic (all required to flat tow) But the gremlins were still restless.<\/p>\n

I bought this 2017 Jayco class C motor home in June and had noticed sporadic water puddles but couldn\u2019t figure out there source.\u00a0 I took it back to the dealer; they couldn\u2019t duplicate the leak.\u00a0 This week I finally realized the hot water heater was leaking.\u00a0 OK, I can handle this. I\u2019m fully covered by the Jayco warranty.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So I arranged for a mobile RV mechanic to come to me; he pronounced it was not just a loose fitting – that the hot water heater was bad and had been leaking since new, and that I would also have to have some flooring repaired, something he couldn\u2019t do from his truck. He ordered the new hot water heater and installed it on Monday.\u00a0 I paid him $1,200 (\u201ccheck, please, ma\u2019am, no credit cards \u2013 then you fax my bill to Jayco and they\u2019ll reimburse you\u201d)<\/p>\n

Next the mechanical gremlins tried to trash my truck. I bought it on Wednesday. On Saturday, water began pouring from under the dash on the passenger side; then as I drove back to the RV after dark, down a narrow country road \u2013 my head lights went out.\u00a0 I turned the knob and they came back on, on bright.\u00a0 Only on bright.\u00a0 Several people on that quiet road seemed irritated with me, but there was nothing I could do but trudge on.\u00a0 Several lights on the instrument panel came on. No choice but keep going. Then Sunday morning, the truck wouldn\u2019t crank.\u00a0 By that point, I was doing my best impersonation of a rational adult, but it wasn\u2019t pretty.<\/p>\n

Monday morning, while the RV tech was changing out the hot water heater, the wrecker came for the truck.\u00a0 Of course, when the burly wrecker man turned the ignition, the damn thing started right up.\u00a0 I said, \u201cI don\u2019t care.\u00a0 Load it up and take it to the shop!\u201d\u00a0 And so he did.<\/p>\n

The truck repairs were a mere $500.\u00a0 The positive post on the battery had broken; the vents to the AC were stopped up; the fuel sensor was bad.\u00a0 It\u2019s still the truck I want.<\/p>\n

In 10 days I have an appointment to have the slide removed on the motor home so they can repair the flooring.\u00a0 The following day, I\u2019ll take it in for repair of the dog damage. I\u2019m still satisfied with the motor home.\u00a0 And Misty is still the dog I want.<\/p>\n

OK \u2013 the rational adult in me says — it could be much worse.\u00a0 I could be a mother with children in Syria. I could have lost everything in the recent flooding in Louisiana. I haven\u2019t been attacked by a shark or mauled by a lion, but I\u2019m tired<\/span> of dealing with these mechanical gremlins.\u00a0 They are not life altering but about as much fun as a siege of fire ants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10.A long mechanical whine It\u2019s mid-September & I\u2019m still here \u2013 at the moment here is a delightful RV park in Baldwin County, in southeast Alabama.\u00a0 And it feels like I\u2019m the ping pong ball in a swift moving challenge … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gypsyjudge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}