Cross it off!

7:13 am - Wednesday - April 15th - Wittmann, AZ - 51° F, 31% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north by northwest......clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this day in 2012 we were in Savannah, GA walking along the Savannah River......

....TLE's hair was much longer than it is now.

I crossed a  few more items off the 'TO DO' list after a few listless, mostly directionless days....hmmm....maybe it was more like 10 days.  I am sure many of you are like me since we closed down the USA......you have the news on in the background most of the day, and are kind of mesmerized by it all.  Okay, maybe not, but I have been until the last couple of days as I have been attempting to ween myself off the news and focus on other things.  

A year ago when we arrived here in Wittmann at Newell House I spent a day fixing the throttle linkage on our Kohler 7.5 kw propane generator.....I wrote about that here.  As you will recall, the linkage was 'frozen', and needed a little lubrication to work properly again.  I discovered after I pushed the generator tray back in and buttoned everything up that I was only getting power on one of the two 50 amp legs meaning I was only getting power to half the outlets in the coach from the generator.  It was quite difficult to pull the generator out to work on it, and I did not want to do that again, so I just kind of put that issue on the back burner for another day.  Well, a lot of 'another' days have come and gone since then.....about 14 months of them to be exact.  

Just the other day I was thinking about what the issue might be since fixing that issue was on my 'TO DO' list.  It suddenly occurred to me that there are two switches on the back of the generator.....kind of like breaker switches......and I wondered if one of them had 'blown', or if I had inadvertently turned one of them off when I was working on it last year.  Well, Tuesday was finally 'another' day, and time to check out my theory.  I only had to open the top hinged panel to look to the rear of the generator, and what did I see......

.....yup, there are two switches there, and one of them (the one in the foreground of the red circle) was flipped to the right, not to the left, which is the 'ON' position.  That was easy!  I flipped the switch back to the left using a long PVC pipe I have in the trailer, and what do you know?  I had power on both 50 amp legs once again.....doh!

The next item on my 'TO DO' list was to call Sirius/XM Radio and negotiate a lower monthly subscription price.  I have three XM radio receivers....one in the Newell, one in the VW and one in the trailer.  I had kind of lost track of how much I was paying, but discovered a month ago that I was being debited $49+ per month for those radios, or about $15/month each.  I tried to call, but their lines were busy, so I utilized their 'LIVE CHAT' option.  Within 10 minutes Danielle responded to my message, and we began our negotiations.  Her first offer was to lower my monthly by $10/month.  I countered that it was not enough, and that I wanted to pay $15/month.  There was a long pause, and then the winning offer was tendered.....$60/year per radio, or $180 total for the next 12 months.  The catch was I had to pay the year in advance.....easy choice for me.  Within minutes I had email confirmation that I had paid the required $180, and was renewed until 4/14/2021.  This is an annual savings for me of almost $420, and I had to give up NOTHING.  It just goes to show you all you have to do is ask.....amazing!

Just as I was finishing up my 'LIVE CHAT' I saw the UPS truck arrive, and went outside to see if he had the solar panels, etc. Glenn and Laureen had shipped here from A.M. Solar in Springfield, OR.....yes he did.....

....there were six boxes in all....the big boxes are, obviously, the solar panels, and the smaller boxes contain everything else needed for the installation.  And on that note I am happy to report that as of 1 pm Central time Tuesday Glenn and Laureen were on the road in their 1984 Newell heading for Wittmann, AZ.  They covered 345 miles Tuesday, and spent their first night in a Walmart parking lot in Ft. Stockton, TX......

First night 'Wallydocking'

So, after crossing two more things off my 'TO DO' list I was on a roll, and decided to finally replace the very dim light over the stove with one of the new ones I have had for over a year for just this purpose.  Within 30 minutes the old was replaced with the new.....

....and now we have more than enough light in that space......

......so I am now down to 2 things left on my once lengthy 'TO DO' list......get my Elks Lodge renewal membership card, and call Kool Filtration to find out what filters I need to service our reverse osmosis water system.  Usually we have Ruben come out and service it when we are in Fontana, but we are not there this year, so I need to do it myself.  I'm finishing up the 'TO DO' list just in time for the arrival of Glenn and Laureen and their '84 Newell.  We will have two big projects to complete on their 1984 when they arrive......1) install solar, and 2)  find a big leak in their air system.

TLE and I spent what was left of daylight Tuesday on the 'lido deck' reading, and listening to 'Classic Vinyl' on our suddenly much more affordable Sirius/XM Radio.  TLE and I continue to be asymptomatic for the Wuhan Virus.....all is well in our Wittmann social distancing compound.

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