You just need the right weapons.....

7:52 am - Sunday - March 15th - Wittmann, AZ - 51° F, 83% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north by northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 71° F....getting back to normal and drying out!  The view this morning......↴

TLE and I were running low on adult beverages so we decided to make a run Saturday morning into the local BevMo in Peoria on Happy Valley Road off the 303 loop freeway....about a 20 minute drive.  We went early to avoid large Saturday crowds arriving there just as they opened at 9 am.  We were in and out of this fully stocked store within 15 minutes, and walking over to the Target to buy a few necessities such as 1/2 and 1/2, some fruit, more Zicam (fully stocked by the way.....virtually every other cold and flu remedy was stripped from the shelves), and yogurt, which were all in plentiful supply.  The other items which have been stripped off the shelves of virtually every market (toilet paper, paper towels, hand sanitizer, latex gloves, Kleenex, etc.) where not available.  Target is now, like many other stores, limiting the purchase of the items to one item each per household.  If you have been unable to find toilet paper, or the other paper products try Office Depot, or Office Max....they stock many of these items and according to one of my daughters are in plentiful supply as of Saturday.  Most people do not associates toilet paper with office supply stores, but they do carry it. After all, businesses have restrooms, and need TP.

All of the shopping malls we passed by, including the one where BevMo is located, appeared to be doing business as usual Saturday, and we saw no one wearing surgical masks, or latex gloves, or any panic buying.  

After returning home I decided to tackle the replacement of the black tank Thetford dump valve.  In all there are four Thetford dump valves in the water bay.....two on the driver side (see below), and two on the passenger side, making it possible to dump from either side, and this has come in handy on more than one occasion over the last 12 years.  The leaking black tank valve is the one on the right in the picture below......↴

......in order to get at the black tank valve I must remove the screws from both valves as they are both glued to the 3" wipe drain pipe in the foreground, as well as on the back side where the pipe enters each tank.  These valves split in two once the screws are removed, and it is just a matter of swinging the 3" pipe outward to expose the internal workings of the valves.  So, after emptying both tanks, and rinsing the black one several times I began to remove the screws.  There are 9 Phillips head screws on the backside of each valve as you can see on the new valve pictured below.....↴

The 'back' side of the Thetford valve

....initially I thought there were only 8 screws on each, and it was relatively easy to remove them, however, I discovered when I had removed the first 8 that there was a 9th one, and a very, very difficult one to reach at the very bottom of the valve.  Keep in mind that when I am removing these 18 screws that I am doing it mostly blind as they are between the dump valve and the tank with very little clearance.  Try as I might over the space of a few hours I could not remove either of those bottom screws.  I finally had to admit temporary defeat, and put the partially disassembled Theftord valves back together so I could fight them another day.  I will need a special tool, or 'weapon' to reach, and remove the 9th screw on each valve (why is there always one screw you cannot remove?), which has been ordered via Amazon.

The rest of the day was pretty much a wash as my other projects are awaiting delivery of additional materials, pieces, parts, etc. to finish them.  I spent more time puttering around in the trailer with the Mecum auto auction on the TV, which just so happens to be in Glendale, AZ this week.

TLE gave me 'breakfast for dinner' Saturday evening.....more proof I am loved.....bacon (no nitrates), and scrambled eggs with spinach and cheese......yummy!

 Love breakfast for dinner

.....while it was clear most of Saturday some clouds moved in late afternoon and provided us with an interesting sunset......

.....still asymptomatic here on Sunday, March 15th....thanks for stopping by!

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