Mesa, Arizona

For the past couple of days, we've been outside the home of Michael and Tami while getting consulting from Michael on our electrical systems and the installation of solar panels.

Miss Doozie on the street by Michael's house.

Preparing for testing batteries. We found that one of the 6 house batteries is not good (when Michael put a load on it, it almost immediately dropped from 12+ down to 6). So, for now, we've taken that battery out of the system, and ultimately we plan to replace it while we are here.

Their kitty "Psy" (short for Psycho) is very sociable and climbed up on the top of the fence while we were on the roof - as if to say, "Hey, I'd like to get up there too!"  Michael's bus is just beyond Psy in the back yard.

Psy adopted Michael and Tami a few years ago. She got her name because she will enjoy attention for a while and then suddenly attack and scratch or bite. I figure that's just "cat" behavior!

The Great Enigmas of Life . . . . .

From a friend's Facebook page...

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

What disease did cured ham actually have?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up like every two hours?

Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.

Why is 'bra' singular and 'panties' plural?

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him?

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

Do the Alphabet song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

Why did you just try singing the two songs above?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Why, Why, Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are going dead?

Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they know there is not enough money?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes? (Stupid question here, but then a lot of them are pretty stupid.)

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a thread a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

The statistics on sanity is that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

"Business" travel

I have a former colleague from IBM - actually IBM UK - who is celebrating his Quarter Century Club induction this year. (25 years of working at IBM) IBM still recognizes this milestone with a dinner for the employee. This friend of mine was able to get his manager to agree to allow him to have his dinner in the US since so many of his colleagues through the years have been in the US. I was surprised and pleased that he invited me to his celebratory dinner.

It is not in a city that we are planning to visit, and it is scheduled during the time that we plan to be in Dallas in April, so I decided to fly to the event and stay one night so I could attend.

Oh my - I need re-training on travel arrangements! Either that, or things have changed a lot! Of course, since I'm on my own dime, I don't have to adhere to IBM's travel policies.

One thing that I found interesting, when I was looking at rental cars, is that Hertz now has something called "Dream Cars":

Various Porsches

and Mercedes

Land Rovers, a Tesla...

Just for grins, I looked up the cost in the DFW area for these - here are the rates for 3 of them - just $128/day for a Mercedes convertible, and a Camaro Convertible is available for the bargain rate of $101/day!

I opted for a Toyota Camry or equivalent in the range of $28/day...

One other interesting thing - to rent a "Dream Car", you have to provide 5 forms of identification! I guess they really don't want one of those cars going out with someone that they aren't sure about!

I wonder whether they would rent one to my friend Mel.... 

Decorations in our neighborhood

On one of the streets along which we pass on our way to and from the RV retreat where we are staying is a house with something that looks suspiciously like a Christmas tree in front. One of our friends here, though, shared a picture on Facebook earlier in February that proved it wasn't a "Christmas" tree...

But rather, truly, a "holiday" tree - in this case, a Valentines Day tree.

She and I discussed that we were interested to see what it would become after 2/14... they were leaving before Valentine's Day, so I made sure to check:

Sure enough, it is now a St Patrick's Day tree... complete with shamrocks on the gates,

...and green bulbs in the lamps on the columns out front!

I guess this way, you never need to take your tree down! Unfortunately, we won't be here after 3/17 to see what it becomes next!

A return to Algodones

A few days ago we returned to Algodones to get the crown for my tooth.

On the U.S. side heading to the border.

 We had a bit of time before my appointment so took the opportunity to check out items in a grocery store...

Economy sized jug of picante sauce (750ml).

Vanilla for frequent bakers!

4L of Vanilla for $9.20 USD

The hawker outside the store said that they had vanilla beans, so we had gone in to look for those (Dwayne has a recipe for which he wants vanilla beans - we found them at Sprouts, but wanted to price compare). If the store had vanilla beans, we couldn't find them...

Ultimately, I got my crown, and it was very easily done! When we were leaving, the US border / immigration / customs guy asked me what I had purchased. I told him "a crown" and asked if wanted to see it. He declined...

Continuation of the spare tire story

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about our contemplations with regard to getting the spare tire onto the roof of Miss Doozie (https://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2018/02/what-to-do-with-tire.html) - I honestly figured that we would just put it in the back of the Jee-rage for a "while" until we were able to figure a way to get it onto the roof and make a secure place for it.

Dwayne had the bright idea to ask Mr Sutton at Sutton's Auto Body if they had a forklift that we might be able to use to help out. He agreed and...

...on Tuesday after the bodywork was completed, he lifted the tire up to "close" to the roof top...

Then he and Dwayne got the tire off of the forklift, over the goat-rail, and onto the roof.

For the relatively short trip from the body shop to our campsite, we tied the tire down to the goat-rails with various straps that we had brought along.

 But we wanted to make a more permanent mounting, so we set about to accomplish that on Wednesday afternoon...

We weren't comfortable with the tire sitting right on the roof - we have quite a few things already on the roof, and the space where there was room for it had two roof supports under the tire, but we didn't want the part of the roof that does not have roof supports to bear any of the weight of the tire.

We looked at several options at Lowes, and eventually settled on treated 2x4s.

They extend across the roof of the bus, resting on the walk-treads over top of roof rails ...

... and are screwed down through the walk-treads and into the roof rails underneath.

The plan was then for the tire to sit on the 2x4s which would transfer the weight of the tire to the walk-treads and the roof rails.

Lots of drilling and then putting in stainless steel screws.

We then put metal angles onto the 2x4s to hold the tire from sliding side-to-side or front-to-back.

The final touch was to put a strap around the metal angles and all the way around the tire and cinch it tight.

We think it is secured well now. Our goal is to get a cover to go over it - we have a piece of plywood that we will cover the center of the tire so the cover won't sink down and hold water. We stopped at a place called "SewMasters" here in Yuma that indicated that they had tire covers. We asked if they had one for a 45" diameter tire and the guy in the shop said, "What kind of vehicle has tires that big?!?!?" Anyway, he did not have tire covers for that size, and although the name was "SewMasters" and I thought that may mean that they woud do custom sewing, they evidently do not. We know of an upholstery shop in the DFW area where we had an awning sewn for Miss Daisy, so we're hoping they will be able to sew one for us. One of our Blue Bird friends told us that he sewed his own cover - which would also be an option I guess.

This was a BIG to-do that I was convinced was *not* going to make it to "done" - so thankful it is completed!!!

Completion of Miss Doozie's body work

On Tuesday, Sutton's Auto Body finished up the repair to the front fiberglass panel on Miss Doozie.

As a reminder, the "before"...

... and "after"... - wow!

Now we would like for all of Miss Doozie to look as nice as that newly repaired and painted section! Maybe next time we're in Yuma!!!