Monday, 11 through Sunday, 17 May 2020
Hard to believe it's been only 6 weeks since I came here. Feels like it's been months. I'm guessing half the residents of the world feel that way. I still believe the scientists more than the politicians, though, and am only sorry that the politicians have sidelined the scientists. Makes it hard to get trustworthy information, which makes it easier to be worried. The unknown is almost always scarier than the known, which is how incumbent politicians get reelected so often.
Weekly Cleanliness Trip
The trip was reasonably successful but the day itself was a near disaster.
I was only planning 4 stops and intended to start with the KOA in Arlington, where I could dump my tanks. From there I was going to a Target to order some DVDs, then to an Albertson's for groceries, then on to the recycle center and then home. After I'd gotten the whole itinerary worked out and written down, I called the KOA just to be sure they'd let me dump my tanks and they said yes, no problem, but don't come before noon. So I had to rearrange the whole thing, but at least I found out before I'd started driving.
So here's how the disaster day went:
Tuesday started with thunder and lots of rain and upset the dogs, but then that cleared off and it got hot and humid.
I hadn't slept well the night before so I was fighting to stay awake all day.
I was wearing a shirt that kept reminding me I've gained too much weight in the last 2 years, so I spent all day feeling fat.
When I was tying my shoes in the morning, I noticed water dripping from the frig and discovered it really had turned itself off. I'd been suspecting it was doing that but hadn't ever been able to tell for sure, but this was for sure. So I spent all day worrying about how and where I was going to get it fixed. The KOA gave me business cards for 2 mobile RV repair companies, so that was a help.
The manager at Target told me they couldn't order my DVDs online, and I said I don't want to order them online, I'm ordering them here in the store. So he repeated that same thing, and I repeated my same thing. And he got mad at me, and I told him I'd called the day before and the woman I talked to had told me she couldn't do it over the phone, that I had to come in, so I was in. He wanted to know who I'd talked to, but I didn't get her name, all I knew was that it was a woman. So he got upset with me about not knowing who I'd talked to. This is the manager I'm talking to. I finally pointed out to him that I wasn't understanding the words he was using and that all he kept talking about was ordering online which I didn't want to do, so he needed to use other words if he wanted me to understand him. He got really huffy but said I couldn't order the DVDs in person in the store. I thought he said I couldn't order them at all while the coronavirus was still a problem, but that made even less sense than the rest of what he said, so I ignored it because I don't believe it. Of all items that might cause transmittal of the virus, DVDs should rank pretty low on the list for either side of the transaction. But his whole approach was that I was causing problems by asking at all and by not getting the name of the person I talked to on the phone. I almost told him that many stores, including many Targets, assume the customer is not an enemy and they try to solve problems, not stonewall them, but I got tired of dealing with him. Jerk. He almost made me reconsider my policy of never posting an online comment about a business.
After I got groceries, I opened the frig to store the refrigerated stuff and discovered that my bottle of soy sauce had tipped over, the lid had come unscrewed, and there was soy sauce dripping all over everything because of course it was on the top shelf. I mopped up as best I could, but even then opening the door smelled like a Chinese restaurant and the smell was all over my hands.
Sometime about then, I discovered the cabin electricity was completely out - it supplies power for the cabin lights and water pump and anything electrical when I'm not plugged in and don't have the generator on. Gone. At least everything worked when I turned the engine over, but I need to have that independent power. At the same time my radio stopped working, even when the engine was on. It didn't come back for the rest of the day.
On the other hand, I did get the tanks dumped and filled up with fresh water. I did get the recycling where it belonged. I did get the groceries I wanted. I didn't fall asleep at the wheel or have an accident out in the Dallas traffic. So I guess disasters are relative.
Mopping up problems
The next day I spent quite a while cleaning up the soy sauce smell in the frig. Turns out it had dribbled on about half the stuff in there, so everything had to come out while I wiped down all the shelves, pulled them out to clean into the slots the shelves fit in. And the glass shelf at the bottom didn't want to go back in because the door was in the way - the platform my bed sits on is exactly in the way of the frig door opening far enough. I had to take the door off, except the door didn't come all the way off, there was no screw at the bottom that I could access, and I had to hold the half-off door with one hand while reinserting the glass shelf with the other (my left), and it didn't want to go and didn't want to go and it was all pretty hard. I'd had to take it out because the shelf not being porous meant lots of soy sauce had collected in the slot the shelf sits in. The frig was full of food, of course, and I had the contents sitting on every flat surface in the cabin, and the day was getting warmer so I was trying to hurry to get stuff back in before things started spoiling. And I was doing all this cleaning with a water source that was just a trickle. My water faucet has gradually over the 2 years been producing less and less and less water flow, and now it's just a trickle. Really hard to rinse out a sponge full of soy sauce with just a trickle. All very trying. It's not like patience has ever been one of my outstanding virtues but I didn't have a choice.
At least the frig no longer smells like soy sauce.
Then I tried to come up with solutions to my other problems. I called the 2 numbers KOA had given me, and got a recording for one saying the mailbox was full and got a recording for the other saying all circuits were busy, which was nutty - what circuits? It was the same area code as the first number so what circuits? Anyway, I kept trying several times and finally got an answer at one number. The guy said he'd call me back within a half hour. An hour and a half later he finally called me back, but he was talking while he was driving (not a good idea in Dallas traffic) and the signal kept breaking up so I couldn't understand him. He said he'd call me in just a few minutes when he got to his next stop. An hour later he still hadn't called back, so I called a company in Rockwall that had a big bunch of good Yelp reviews. They said they'd squeeze me in the next morning for an assessment. Nice folks.
Thursday, I went out there - Luxury Coach Services - sounds like a really fancy company for the likes of me and my little beat-up guy, and it was. They cater mainly to the spiffy Class A bus-type RVs, but they said they're happy to help anybody who needs it, which certainly includes me.
A very nice guy named Alex came right out to work on my RV and I suggested he start with the cabin batteries, because it had occurred to me finally that they're supposed to be the power source for the cabin lights. He looked and said yep, they're bone dry, no wonder they're not putting out any power. He replaced them and cleaned up that whole area and all the connections which had been crudded with dirt and hair (the nest the batteries stay in is under the entrance steps). He checked that everything was getting power and - like magic! - I had power in the cabin. Everything worked again. He said the frig draws some power from those batteries even when I'm plugged in to a power source; he said the frig is a delicate piece of equipment that has to have a reliable source of power at all times, and that's why it was cutting itself off sometimes. The water pump worked, the radio worked, the frig worked, everything worked. It was very exciting.
So I had him order parts for me for several other repairs I've been wanting but not taking the time for before now. Of course, like everybody else, time is about all I've got these days so I might as well get it done. Things like a new TV antenna that I guess got ripped off by a tree branch more than a year ago and a new faucet for the kitchen sink to get more than a trickle of water out of it, and repair to the trim around both sides of the front cab that I've been having to hold up with duct tape and making my little baby look like Frankenstein with braces. So they'll order parts and then we can set up a date for repairs. Nice people. Not cheap - labor is $155/hour - but it seemed worth it and I think that's about in line with other mechanical labor costs. I told Alex I thought the cab trim might be just cosmetic, but he explained its actual purpose was to cover up the screws holding the outside siding in place, and without the trim the screws would get corroded and leak and then the whole thing would start to fall apart. So I'll get the trim and pay to have it installed.
They called me the next day to say they'd found out the faucet company doesn't sell just the spray head, which is what I wanted, that I'd have to order the entire assembly which would cost $120 plus an hour of labor. A far cry from just screwing in a new faucet head that I could do myself. I authorized the buy and now have my fingers crossed that this will actually fix the problem.
Meanwhile . . .
The weather on Tuesday stopped being thunder and rain and started being really hot and humid and stayed that way - on Thursday I saw it had gotten up to 91° in mid-Dallas, and I figure it was somewhere about that here. All that meant it's been hot at night - not even getting down to 70° by morning - so it's hard to sleep very well.
All that changed on Saturday. A little after 7:00 AM it started raining and from then on what we got was rain. All day. Well, it let up now and then, but it was mostly serious rain and often a lot of wind along with it. In the paper today it said they got more than 3" of rain at the Dallas Love Field weather station. I just could not work up any enthusiasm at all to get anything constructive done and instead spent almost all day watching NCIS episodes on DVD. It was all so cozy in here, and the rain was so steady outside, that when I asked the dogs if they wanted a walk about 2:00, they just lay there and looked at me. Actually, Gracie didn't even bother to open her eyes. It finally let up towards evening (and got hot and humid again of course), but it was a pretty relaxing day.
I'm still seeing ants everywhere in the cabin. On my bed (I've killed them walking across me during the night), on the kitchen counter, on the table, on the floor, coming out of the microwave, on the upper bunk. And I still can't for the life of me figure out where they're coming in and why. There simply isn't any food around. I really do have it all sealed up. I finally called a pest control company, and they said they've done RVs before, and we finally settled on a (free) estimate visit next Friday. I want them to take a look at the space they'd be treating before we actually book a visit, and I want them to tell me if I need to move things out before they do it - move the dog beds, for instance, or clear out the storage space underneath the cabin or pack up the pans and stuff in the drawers - like that. They said they'd charge me $125 for an ant-killing visit, which is a lot of money, but I really don't like having ants walking all over me. I've been killing them on my arms. It's just a grotesque way to live.
And I have an appointment for Dexter to get his annual shots. When I called the nearest Banfield I explained that they'd have trouble getting his records because their computers ate them last year and a second file had been started up in Michigan or somewhere, and I told her the IT people had blown off both the Banfield person who'd tried to recover them before and also me when I'd called to ask. The woman I talked to at this Banfield said she'd try to track down them down, and she called me Saturday to report progress. She says she's one of those who believes persistence is a virtue (that's not the way she put it) and the squeaky wheel gets the grease (that is how she put it), and she wouldn't take no or later for answers. She says they're trying to come up with a work-around. The system insists Dext is actually in one of the Banfields right now - has been in there continually all this time - that the system had a glitch while he was there way back when and never logged him out and won't even allow that Banfield to log him out - they tried. She thinks if they have to, they can get that Banfield to fax his records to her. I'm still not sure where the second file is, though I have some records myself now. But it's really nice to find someone who's willing to put in so much effort for me, and I said so. She said she and the IT guy both enjoyed it - she said she felt like a detective doing all that tracking down. Very nice of her.
Other comments
Despite the stupid virus, nature keeps on going (thank goodness). I saw a pair of Cardinals and their 2 babies when the dogs and I were out walking the other day. The babies were fledged of course but following the parents around to get fed. Very sweet.
The magnolias have been blooming for a week or two. So pretty, though they don't smell as strong as I remembered. Probably it's my memory that's not as strong.
I heard on the radio (once it started working) that accordion sales are up during the sequestration. There's a company that makes them in Dallas and the owner said they'd sold as many in the last few months as in all of last year. Who woulda thunk it?
When I was out on my two drives this week, I passed a large group of buildings labeled Texas A&M Agrilife. I learned that, among other things, they do research on turfgrass breeding, looking for something suitable for this climate.
In Richardson I passed a business called Qorva, no "u", so I looked it up and learned they're in the semiconductor business. They're right down the street from a Texas Instruments facility, so I guess Richardson's turning itself into a high-tech center.
Arlington has car manufacturing plants - I passed a Ford plant and heard about a GM plant that's the only one still producing GM's large SUVs.
Apparently both Arlington and Grand Prairie have large Spanish-speaking populations, based on the signs and businesses I saw driving through there.
All day I noticed how high the gas prices are in this area. I saw $1.39 - $1.49 at most places and at a Shell station saw $1.69. That seems crazy to me given that Texas is full of oil wells and oil refineries and the price of oil is still rock-bottom and I was paying $1.19 in Arkansas a couple of months ago. I asked David and his best guess is the amount of tax different states tack on. I imagine he's right but I never saw Texas as being big on gas taxes.
I passed a billboard that said, in big letters, OOPS. And underneath it said DallasDivorce.com. And that was it. So I looked it up and found a lawyer named Kimberly Pinkerton. I don't know - "oops" just seems like an odd word to connect with divorce. I mean oops isn't how my divorce felt.
And I'm back in Texas where drivers refuse to let me merge or change lanes and speed up to keep me from moving in front of them. And all the time I've been driving in other states wondering if I've been fair to Texas drivers or maligning them in retrospect. Now I find my memories were pretty accurate.
I passed a highway sign saying "Monday - Friday, Various Lane Closures." "Various?" Really? Does this really alert drivers to a danger?
I passed another sign that said "Heavy Load Must Exist." And my tired brain finally figured out the sign had said "Heavy Load Must Exit." But in the meantime I thought it was funny.
In Garland I saw a huge facility labeled Epiroc. They manufacture mining equipment.
The Nabors Family Roofing Co. in Rockwall has paid for at least a half dozen billboards on I-30 that all say "Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." I'm sure it's a nice thought but can't figure out a context for it - not for roofing or for this stupid virus or for driving down the highway, for that matter. Wonder how they came to pick that particular verse. I mean, billboards aren't cheap.
Next week I'll make a higher priority of finishing that Civil Rights Museum post. The last time I worked on it was last Monday. With all the problems I had on Tuesday that I was still dealing with the rest of the week, I just couldn't dredge up the motivation to fit civil rights in. But now I don't have to worry, I just have to keep my appointments, so I'll get my work done more expeditiously.
Hope everyone's staying healthy and safe.
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