More projection

One thing many men do is collect stuff, but that does not translate very well to the nomadic life.  I used to collect watches, the 'self-winding' type, but that takes up too much room.  I had to find something to collect that would fit my lifestyle and not take up any additional space.  First I began to collect license plates from each state we visited (I am only missing Maryland and Washington D.C. now) and fastened them to the drivers side wall inside the trailer as I have written about previously.  I started collecting coasters from the various micro breweries and brew pubs we have visited, but only recently decided how to display them.  If you have been reading my  blog for any period of time and see the number of coasters in the picture above, you know I have not always remembered to get a coaster from every brewhouse of which we have darkened the doors.  I did, however, have a sizable collection accruing in a cupboard inside the coach until TLE called me on it and suggested I needed to find a better place for them, so I did, and the picture above is the result.......I stick them to the wall over the workbench in the trailer!

Wear and tear occurs in an RV just like it does in a 'sticks and bricks' home, and when I turned on the fluorescent lights in the trailer on Real Saturday to put up my most recent 'coaster acquisition' I noticed the middle fixture was not lighting up.  I was pretty sure the tubes had not gone bad, so it had to be the ballast, which was over 4 years old.......so, just when I was wondering what I was going to do to keep myself busy a new project lay right before my eyes.  To be sure it was the ballast I removed one of the fluorescent tubes from the non-functioning fixture and installed it in the fixture over the workbench, and discovered it worked fine, so it had to be the ballast.  I removed the faulty ballast so I could take it with me to ACE hardware to get the right one.

TLE decided to come with me because she wanted to stop off at Bashas' to pick up a few things in preparation for our departure on Tuesday.  Naturally, just as we arrived at ACE I realized I had left the ballast sitting on the steps of the trailer......just as I was setting it down I had this momentary thought.....".....you should just put it right in the car, so you won't forget it....", but I didn't.....I love how optimistic I am after 65 years of forgetting one thing after another.....:-)

As it turned out ACE did not have the one I needed in stock anyway, so after we finished at Bashas' I drove TLE back to the coach, got the ballast, and then drove solo up to the Home Depot in Cottonwood where I did find the correct one.  The one thing I did remember about the ballast I had removed is that it was for T8 fixtures, and all ACE had were T4 and T5 ballasts.  I was pretty sure Home Depot would have T8's, and they did......having the failed ballast with me helped me narrow down the correct T8 ballast and I was on my way back home within minutes.  

I did stop off at the weekly flea market in Camp Verde on the way home, and managed to find a couple of tools I could not live without.....yep there is still room in the tool bag!

While I was working on installing the new ballast, and straightening up the trailer I had a couple of NCAA basketball games playing in the background......March Madness begins next week, so many teams are jockeying for position by doing well in their end of season conference tournaments, and the result is a lot of good games.

After fixing the light fixture I continued putting things away in the trailer in preparation for lift off Tuesday morning......oh, by the way, I did re-schedule our 'lug replacement' at Interstate for first thing Tuesday morning so that will be done before we head north.  Additionally, I found out the local Chevron station has their diesel at $2.59/gallon so we will top off the tank before jumping on the Interstate.

TLE had me BBQ two skinless chicken breasts she had acquired at Bashas' for dinner for which she prepared two sides of yellow rice and corn (off the cob).  Following dinner I watched the SEC conference final between Notre Dame and North Carolina, which was one by Notre Dame.

Thanks for stopping by!