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Posts Tagged ‘humour’

Customer Service at its Finest, Not

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , , on December 20, 2022| 2 Comments »

There are lots of children in campgrounds. Many of which are noisy and have no respect for boundaries or/and have parents who don’t teach them not to run through other peoples campsites and the rest of us come to accept it as part of rv life . There are campgrounds that are dedicated to family life with mini golf, playgrounds, jump pads all designed with children in mind. All perfectly acceptable and you know what you are getting into when you book your site.

Many a time, when looking through our schedule Denyce and I would joke, what if it is an ‘Adult’ only, as in swingers? One never knows.

There are other options. In Blountville Tennessee, Rocky Top campground claim themselves to be a quiet, peaceful campground for adults. Nobody under the age of 18 is allowed on the premises at anytime. That is how they advertise, it’s on their literature, on the web site, in the rules even on the sign when you enter. We booked a site for a few days, then later decided to book some extra time so we could further enjoy the quiet.

First thing we noticed is that it was alongside a very well used road, lots of traffic noise so the peacefulness was not quite as advertised, but still it was nice, no screaming children. When I was setting up outside Denyce pointed out some deer in the site across from us. So yes, it was nice.

On our third day an rv pulled in right beside us with two young boys. Say what? There was nothing to keep them occupied. No play area, no jump pads, no basketball hoops, nothing nada. So they played amoung themselves. First with a bouncing ball which we had to endure. Nothing like repetitive noise. Once they got bored with the ball they did what most brothers will do. Fight. I watched as the older brother kicked the chair out from under the younger brother. So much for the peaceful adult only campground.

We decided to be one of those people and called the campground office. What I expected from the owner was, ‘I know and we are so sorry, there was nothing available in the area and we didn’t have the heart to say no. I will talk with the parents and make sure they keep the kids quiet. I remembered you booked an extra two days stay because it’s an adult only campground we will be happy to refund two days”.

I’m writing a blog about this so I’m sure you already understand that is not how the conversation went at all.

The minute my wife mentioned the children the owner went on the defensive. “It is not my fault they booked online and didn’t know it was adult only, what do you want me to do kick them out?”

“No, I don’t want you to kick them out, however we did book extra time as you adver…”

“OH MY GOD”, (talking to my wife on speaker phone), “Lady I can’t believe you are complaining about children in a campsite. It wasn’t my fault he booked online so that is out of my control, Oh My God, they booked online I didn’t let them in with children are you seriously wanting me to kick them out?”

“No we don’t want you to kick them out but you don’t have to be rude t…”

“I’m not being rude”

“Well you are yelling at us and keep repeating..”

“I’m not being rude Lady! Oh My God, they booked online I can’t believe you are having an issue with this. Do you want me to kick them out. Is that what you want?”

“Once again, I don’t want you to kick the…”

“Then what do you want me to do, it’s not my fault they booked online, OH MY GOD I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS!”

“You can stop yelling at us and repeating yourself, we are not the ones who”

“I’M NOT YELLING! AND IM NOT UPSET WITH YOU! OH MY GOD! WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO KICK THEM OUT? AND IM NOT YELLING, NOW YOU ARE TWISTING MY WORDS!”

At this point we realized there is no point in continuing. No doubt this guy is a bully and an asshole and has no idea how to treat customers.

“You know what?” I said, ‘forget about it, it’s all wonderfu…”

“Oh My God, it’s not my fault he didn’t know it was adult only and he booked online. What do you expect me to do about it?”

“Well since we booked more time because of you policies we would like a redu…”

“I can’t believe I have to deal with this! It’s not my fault! He booked online!”

“You can stop repeating yourself, I already said it’s all good, please have a nice day, you can stop yelling no..”

“I am not yelling! You keep twisting my words..”

Finally we got him off the phone. My lovely wife found another campground between where we were and where we were going. Only we had to wait a day for a spot to open up, which we did. Our neighbors with the children seemed nice enough but we certainly were not comfortable staying there with the asshole of an owner.

A few interesting facts. On the day we were leaving the people with the boys were leaving as well. Denyce went to talk to him because we know the owner probably told them that we complained. Denyce explained that we were not upset with him we just wanted to know what was going on.

We learned that he was local, he absolutely knew the campground was adult only. They are fostering the two boys and decided to see if they could take them camping. So they called this campground because it was close and asked if they could bring the boys and were told they could. They were leaving not because of us but because the boys were miserable as there was nothing for them to do.

Denyce always reads the reviews of the campgrounds and this one had all good reviews. After the fact she decided to use google and see maybe somewhere there were other reviews. There were. All pretty much the same. “Lovely campground but will never go back the owner is a jerk.” One reviewer said he stopped at the campground to get some propane tanks filled, (as the owner advertises as a service for a fee of course). But when this reviewer asked about it the owner was too lazy to get up and fill the tanks, the owner, “didn’t feel like it”

I typically don’t do reviews of any sort on this blog, but there is always a first. So if you ever find yourself in Blountville Tn stay away from Rocky Top Rv campground.

The entire trip we did enjoy singing that old classic;

…Rocky Top, you’ll always be my home sweet home to me Good ol’ Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee

Once two strangers climbed ol’ Rocky Top Lookin’ for a moonshine still Strangers ain’t come down from Rocky Top Reckon they never will….

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Ride Sally Ride

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , , , on September 18, 2022| 1 Comment »

Just a picture I took as we were leaving Mustang Sally’s

Denyce and I were sitting at an outside table at the world famous Mustang Sally’s in Deadwood South Dakota waiting for our food. The place was packed and we were at a table which could easily seat six. Denyce kept her eye on the street looking for people who had a dog and might be looking for a table. We were more than willing to share and we know people with dogs have no choice but to eat outside and it was quite busy.

There was an older couple sitting at the table next to us. I was a little surprised when the gentleman got up turned and walked towards us. He looked at Denyce and asked her if she believed in Magic and Illusion. Denyce said yes while trying not to laugh but just smile while not looking at me. Meanwhile I looked at him very carefully. Did I know him? Did he know me? Maybe we were being set up by another magician I did know. I know from Facebook we have sort of been following Trevor and Lorena Watters, (magicians from BC) around this end of the country, however no one was recognizable in the crowd. I certainly didn’t know the gentleman standing before us all prepped to perform the ole’ magical classic, ‘torn and restored napkin’ which he did very well.

After proper introductions and magic heritage explored Ron, aka ‘The Wizard of Wonder’ and his wife Martha joined us for lunch and a wonderful time was had. Ron is quite the comedian. What prompted Ron’s performance is he wanted to add “Performed at the famous Mustang Sally’s to his ‘resume’ Ron also performed for four former Presidents. Yes, he performed an illusion at Mt. Rushmore.

Naturally when I got home I looked up Mr. Ron on the internet and he certainly does not need to add much to his ‘resume’. Not only is he a professional magician, he is a Pastor, an educator, served in the military and has two Masters Degrees. In 1965 (the year I was born) he became a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, ‘IBM’ and he is the founder of an ‘IBM ring’ in his home town. Adding to this he is a member of the Society of American Magicians and a member of the very prestigious Magic Circle of London England.

Well done Ron and it was a pleasure meeting and sharing a meal with you at Mustang Sally’s in Deadwood SD.

Gunfight in Deadwood South Dakota

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Home on the Range?

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , on August 11, 2022| 6 Comments »

Taken at Glacier National Park

I am tired, tired of everyone being offended by everything. We have become so politically correct, so sensitive to each and every comment that we are seriously stunting our own growth. Frankly I’ve given up, If you are offended by something I’ve said, I apologize I don’t mean to be offensive I can’t keep up. Besides I’m beginning to realize if you are offended by something I’ve said, chances are its a ‘you’ problem and not necessarily a ‘me’ problem.

Political correctness is not what this blog is about. So we can all take a collective breath and I’ll keep writing while you keep reading. So what is my point? We should be correcting the things in society that is actually wrong, not perceived to be wrong, not to try to erase or rewrite history. But change the wrongs that we can actually change. Who is with me?

Taken just outside of Yellowstone National Park 2022

In 1870’s Brewster M. Higley wrote, ‘Home on the Range’ to celebrate the beauty of the Great Plains of Smith County, Kansas. Home on the Range was actually a poem which Daniel Kelly set to music.

I’m sure you can all sing along as I type;

“Oh give me a home where the Buffalo roam Where the deer and the antelope play Where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day”

These lyrics are simply wrong, and nobody seems to care and frankly that offends me. So lets get the record straight. Buffalo are not found naturally anywhere in the USA. Buffalo’s never, ever roamed the plains in Kansas. If you are seeing Buffalo you are either in South Asia watching water buffalo or Africa watching the Cape buffalo. What one finds in the Western states are Bison! But it doesn’t end there my friends, oh no! Antelope don’t live on the Western plains either. Like the Buffalo, Antelope live in Africa. There are people who call the pronghorn an American Antelope but those people are wrong. Pronghorns are the one and only living member of their family. Their closest relatives are goats and antelope but alas the pronghorns are on their own.

Pronghorns in Custer State Park 2021
Custer State Park 2021

So where does that leave us? In keeping with current trend we must eradicate the old song, burn every copy wipe out any existence of poem or song in all its many renditions and rewrite.

Everybody now!

“Oh give me a home where the bison roam and the deer and the pronghorns play. Where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day”.

Doesn’t take much does it?

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Oh Black Water Keep on Flowin’

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2022| 6 Comments »

In the RV world, (and perhaps other worlds as well) we talk about waste holding tanks in terms of Grey tanks which holds water from the sinks, shower and washing machines. We also have the dreaded black tanks which hold the waste from the toilet. There is a sewer hose, often called the, ‘Stinky Slinky’ you hook up from an outlet on the rv to the dump station in the campground. There is a valve you need to open so the stuff in the holding tanks can flow down the sewer hose and into the dump station.

And now you know everything you need to know to follow the following story.

Before we even purchased the RV I read a ton of articles about black water screw ups. All written under the guise of helping the newbie avoid the same fate. I laughed, I cried, I shivered in fear and disgust. In the end I came away with a wealth of knowledge and a vow not to make those same mistakes. I am proud to say that after four years I have not made any of those mistakes. Instead I created my own.

Knowing you are only supposed to dump your black tanks when they are full we didn’t even bother to hook up the stinky slinky at our first two sites. Talk about a good reason to procrastinate!

After several successful sewer encounters I found myself getting a little cocky because the only ‘issues’ we were having was positioning the rv correctly. We have two black tanks and positioning the rv so we could connect both tanks to the dump station proved to be tricky. I’m always able to reach one with the slinky but the other is almost always just out of reach. But we always figured it out.

Eventually, as promised by many blogs, the fateful day came. Once again I could easily reach one black tank but not the other. I just needed another half an inch if even that. I really didn’t want to get out another 10 feet of sewer line for half an inch. They are called slinky’s because the accordion out. Certainly I could make up a half an inch!

I always start from the dump station and work towards the rv. First the fitting to the sewer, then a ‘Y’ connector and then the slinky’s to the Y connector then the other end of the slinky’s to their respective tanks. First side wasn’t a problem. The second tank I stretched the sewer hose really tight and was able to snap it into place. Success! We had not dumped at the previous site so I knew we needed to dump the tanks and while I was bent down at the outlet anyway I went ahead and pulled the valve to let the poop fly. Feeling quite pleased I looked down along the sewer line to the dump station and much to my horror the other end of the slinky was no longer attached to the Y connector! Luckily there was no four foot poop geyser as one blogger promised, nor was there a quickly forming lake Pooperior. There was however, a small poop pond beginning to form. I slammed the valve closed and made a heroic 10 foot leap grabbing the free end of the stinky slinky and held it high in the air stopping the flow of poop. I’m here to tell you it didn’t smell great. And I realized that the ‘pond’ was going to grow a little as I still had to re-attach the end of the hose. I took a breath, (not a deep one) assumed the Super Man pose and slammed the end of the hose to the Y connection spilling only a little more poop. Now what do I do? I looked around, we were the last RV in the row, nobody was around, nobody saw. The proper thing to do was inform the campground who would asses the situation, I have heard that they can charge you if they have to clean it up, or call a company to clean it up. I decided it wasn’t that bad, I didn’t see any lumps, sometimes having Crohn’s disease has its benefits, (some of you will understand). I disposed the rubber gloves and put on new ones. I hooked up our extra garden hose and started to flood the area. It only took a few moments for the gravel to go from brown to clear. Again I looked around, there were no cries of dissent, no fits of laugher, not a face peeking out of another RV. I started to relax even the smell was fading quickly. The whole incident was coming to a close without anyone the wiser. I stood there water hose in hand, I was satisfied I got through this unscathed when I heard my wife’s voice coming through the open window, “Did we have a toxic spill?”

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Thinking About Things

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , , , on July 16, 2021| 4 Comments »

Recently we were re watching Tombstone. When somebody was itching for a gun fight Doc Holliday would say, in a very casual laid back way, “I’ll be your huckleberry”. Ominous music would play there would be a close up shot of his opponents gun hand, then a close up of doc’s eyes, and the would be ruffian would walk away. For days, possibly weeks, when anyone looks at me, including the dogs I’d say, ‘I’ll be your huckleberry’. Okay I won’t actually say it, but I’ll certainly think it even without understanding what it means. I know it’s a plant and Tom Sawyer’s friend Huckleberry Finn. But in Doc Holliday’s context I had no idea, more importantly I don’t care. But I’m thinking about it, and then thought about you. Yes you! What if you care? Don’t I owe you an explanation? No, I don’t owe you one, but because I’m a kind generous person I thought, out of the goodness of my heart I’d look it up and share my findings.

Turns out when Doctor Holliday is saying, “I’ll be your huckleberry’ what he means is, ‘I’m the man for the job’. Or, “you looking for trouble? I’ll be that trouble”.

So now you know. You are welcome.

So what else am I thinking about these days?

Driving down a two lane country highway (one direction each way) we came upon a sign which made me wonder what catastrophic event happened that this particular town decided it was necessary to use this particular wording, ‘Do not pass when opposing traffic is present’. Sure makes sense, some may say even logical. Is the usual, ‘pass with care’ to gentle? I guess so.

Public restrooms. I am 56 yrs old and have Crohns Disease I have been in my share of restrooms, yet I’ve never been able to rest in any of them. In fact they fill me with tension, apprehension and dread. We should come up with a better name.

We have noticed that in RV parks very little deters people from having a campfire. First time I noticed this I was sitting in our kitchen looking out the window just watching the pouring rain when I realized the people at the site next to us, (also in a large fifth wheel) were sitting outside in their lawn chairs in the rain. Not under their awnings, just sitting around a smoldering, smoking campfire letting the rain pour down on them. One or two were wrapped in a towel. I thought to myself, ‘freaks’. But I’ve seen it quite a few times now in different campgrounds. Why would you invest so much money, time and effort to be comfortable while camping and then sit in the rain? Could have saved a ton of money and bought a tarp and a rope and make a shelter between two trees.

Speaking of campfires. The woods are safe from me, I can have the best weather for fire the driest wood, plenty of paper and kindling and yes, lighter fluid. We even made our own fire starters. I use the tepee approach leaving plenty of gaps for air to get through and I can usually get the fire started and it lasts until the igniter fluid burns off. Takes a lot to keep it going. It is frustrating when I see people with blazing fires in a rainstorm.

Shouldn’t the word, ‘ambiguous’ have more than one meaning?

There is a car that has a safety feature that alerts when the driver’s eyes leave the road. The problem as I see it, my eyes are going to leave the road as I try to figure out why the car is making noises at me. It doesn’t sound like its a cycle that ends well.

Aspen Dental, they say they take walk ins, they don’t. If you miss your appointment by 15 minutes…forget about it and embrace the pain.

Now if you want to read more posts…I’ll be your huckleberry.

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Dog Poop

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , , on July 1, 2021| 6 Comments »

After my last post, ‘Then and now…and a fart machine’ I received some requests to tell the story of how Tony Eng fooled me with dog poop.

Writing this sort of story is difficult because more often than not ‘magic’ happens in the moment of surprise. Without that surprise the magic is anti-climatic and now, dear reader you already know the surprise.

It ends with dog poop.

Thirty years ago I walked into Tony Eng’s Trick and Joke shop on Vancouver Island. There were a few people milling about and after a few moments Tony tells me he will demonstrate one more effect and then we will go to lunch.

Tony brought out a ceramic bowl and a ball and started performing. The ball would vanish from under the bowl only to reappear moments later. Sometimes it would change color, sometimes size. Everything he was doing was standard magicians flair. He performed in mesmerizing style which was always a pleasure to watch, his performances were flawless, brilliant and most importantly entertaining.

“Brian” he says, “I’m going to lift the bowl on the count of three, when I do you reach in as fast as you can and grab the ball.” He would count, I would tense up, “One…two…(I’m ready to pounce) and hey nice weather we are having.” The tension breaks and he says “seriously this time, at the count of three…One…to those of you watching….hahaha”. By the time he made it to three I was a tightly wound spring ready to be let loose. This is how a Master crafts his routine. Nothing was going to stop me from grabbing the ball once the bowl was clear. “One…two….three!” The bowl is lifted and I sprang into action. I saw my hands forming to make an upside down cup so I could trap the ball onto the table. I also saw it was not a ball! My brain and hands were already working in unison, fully committed, I heard the laugher and gritted my teeth as my hands taking on a mind of their own, wrapped around the pile of dog poop, now fully exposed.

One….Two….Three…. and my right of passage into the British Columbia magic circle was complete. BTW, I never said if the dog poop was real or fake. You decide.

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Then and Now…And a Fart Machine

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , , on June 23, 2021| 9 Comments »

Perfect Magic has always been a store for magicians. We did not carry gum that tasted like garlic, cigarettes which exploded or the ever popular fake dog poop. Although I have seen dog poop used with great success in magic effects. The late great Tony Eng really fooled the crap out of me (pun intended)with a dog poop effect, but this is a story for another day.

So it was quite shocking when my father decided that carrying a remote control fart machine in the shop would be a good idea.

Turned out to be the best idea ever.

I snuck into the shop a little early, hid the fart machine near the cash register and took control of the remote. It was agonizing having to wait for the first customer and then the perfect moment. I hid in the office, eyes focused, thumb on the remote. I heard Gordon Lightfoot’s voice in my head, a line from The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald. “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn minutes to hours?”

Finally the planets lined up. The customer decided on his purchase, mom punched the sale in the register then she bent over to get a bag. And in that moment I pushed the button. For some reason the fart sounded even more realistic than in my test run. My mother stood for half a beat and then started laughing. Laughing so hard she couldn’t even get my name out, although not for lack of trying. We laughed until mom, myself and the customer had tears rolling down our faces.

It was a very good day!

And we sold our first of many fart machines.

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Learned on the Road

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , , on June 14, 2021| 5 Comments »

We have been enjoying roaming the country in our 42’ fifth wheel for two seasons and heading into our third. Our Maiden Voyage in The Mothership was August of 2019, which was a month after we retired. We took three months and traveled from Pennsylvania to Southern California. In 2020 we planed to be on the road for 6 months but, you know, Covid. So we had a late start and did another 3 months. This year we plan on 5 months and we started Tuesday June 2 2021.

A few happy lesson’s I’ve learned or are reminded of while motoring across the country in THE MOTHERSHIP.

1. Life is full of twists and turns. Sometimes you don’t know its happening until you are floundering around up to your neck in the brown stuff. Figure it out, deal with it and move along.

2. Mistakes happen. Some are painful, some are costly, some are both. At the end of the day they are accidents. Learn the lesson dump the guilt and keep on moving.

3. Life is both the journey and the destination. Don’t get so caught up in one you forget the other.

4. Laugh. It is okay to be upset, frustrated, angry even scared. But when you look at it in the rear view mirror. Laugh.

5. There are times when hitting the brakes gets you into more trouble, know when to tap.

6. Some roads are less traveled for a good reason and you do not have to take them.

7. The United States is really absolutely stunning.

8. Most of us want the same things out of life, we just find our own roads. Be tolerant of those traveling a different road.

9. Don’t be a know it all, it gets old fast.

11. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, or offer to help others. There is a debate in the RV world about offering to help others without first being asked. For some reason straight out offering to help somebody is taken to be offensive. I don’t see how being polite and decent to fellow living creature can be taken as offensive.

12. Find the balance between butting into someone else’s business and being helpful.

13. Don’t overthink everything, it is not always complicated.

14. When things go south ask yourself, “but did it kill you?” If the answer is no you are okay, breathe. If it did well then you are checking out the dead center of town.

15. Just Breathe, laugh and hold your partners hand….take your time….well all the other crap I told you above.

16. Yup…..breathe or you will pass out get in a fiery crash and die (again with the death) so yeah…..breathe.

17. Okay done for now, I think I see someone who needs help!

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RV Fridgeagedon

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , , on May 8, 2021| 3 Comments »

While on the road with our fifth wheel we noticed water on the shelves and vegetable bins of our fridge. Along the back wall there is this trough like thing with some rubber tubing attached. The other end of the tubing goes through the back of the fridge to only God knows where. A closer inspection revealed that the tubing was not really attached to the aforementioned trough like thing. Finally an easy fix, just reconnect the two. I needed a little more room to maneuver, easy enough, just have to remove the shelves. Guess what? Nothing is easy! Shelves in the fridge are screwed down. Fortunately we own a screwdriver.

Much to my horror the tube was too short to properly connect to the thingy! Yanking on the tube was a scary prospect because I didn’t know where the other end hooked up. I certainly wasn’t going to pull the fridge out, if the shelves are screwed in imagine how the fridge must be attached to the wall. I was not about to find out. Nor did I want to mop out the fridge every day or worse have it start to leak outside the fridge. Water and rv’s don’t go well together. Ever so gently I started pulling on the tube. I was able to gain another inch before I met any resistance. I secured the hose to the thingy and put the shelf back in. Monitored it closely for the next few days and the problem seemed to be resolved. Go Me!

But the water came back. We didn’t need to build an Ark but it was definitely back. The hose was still affixed to the thingy but the thingy was full of water to the point of overflowing. Obviously the tube was blocked, I tried squeezing the tube but that did nothing. Faced with the end of my knowledge of all things fridge I did the only thing left. Google.

Google, in all its web hive wisdom told me the tube was blocked. Google told me to go outside the rv and remove the panel behind the fridge and check the end of the tube. Sounded like a plan. There, amongst a bunch of wires and something that looks suspiciously like a motor was a tube that looked exactly like the one in the fridge, it traveled up the wall and vanished. I surmised that what I was looking at was the other end of the tube. There was a black plug wedged into the opening of the tube. Using my knife I carefully worked the plug out of the tube. What I did not do was step out of the way and in seconds the tube was peeing fridge water all over me. Still holding the black plug I went back and checked inside the thingy and now it was empty of water. The question now, ‘why is there a plug in the end of the tube?’ It was obviously there for a reason but the tube could not do its job with a plug in one of its ends. I asked Google. I found two articles on the plug at the end of the tube in an rv fridge. Both said to keep the plug in place. The first reason made sense, it kept ants out. The second reason said it regulated the temperature. I do not have any faith in the second reason but I was not about to take any chances. Nobody is going to blame me for climate change because I failed to replace the dreaded tube plug. With great regret I put the plug back in the tube but didn’t jam it in, just a nice loose fit, perhaps the water is supposed to ooze around the plug?

A few days later the thingy in the fridge was overflowing. I ran around the rv, took off the panel looked at the motor, wires and took the plug out of the end of the tube (standing away from it this time because sometimes I learn) and fridge water came peeing out of the tube. I figured that this wasn’t right, but wasn’t the end of the world and every few days I’ll just pull the little plug.

While it wasn’t a difficult task it did get annoying after a few weeks. So I went back to google and all the Googlemyster could suggest was that the drain tube was plugged. Arrrgh! Of course it is plugged there is a plug in the end of it that I’m not supposed to remove because it may alter the temperature. My lovely wife suggested I ask about it on an RV web site we belong too.

Must have been 1am when I started to pose my question on the web site. When all of the sudden it hit me. Maybe there was supposed to be a hole in the plug itself! Could it be that simple? I jumped up tripped over the dogs, which woke my wife, I explained that I had to go investigate the plug. By the glow of my flashlight I opened the panel that housed the motor and wires and removed the plug and brought it inside the rv and began my investigation. The plug looked solid but there was also a slight recess inside it. I took a tooth pick, and this folks, is the most amazing part of the story, the part that we have all been waiting for, the part that inspired me to write this long winded story about a drain tube in a fridge. (Drum Roll) Not only did we have toothpicks, I actually knew where they were!

And you know what? With that toothpick I found a little piece of fridge debris inside the plug that was blocking the tiniest of holes. A hole just large enough to let water seep though. We have not had water in the thingy since.

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It’s Easy

Posted in Lifes Observations, tagged , , , , , on February 22, 2021| Leave a Comment »

My wife says to me, “You should get a picture of the bush outside the bedroom window”

I looked out the window and yes, it would be an awesome shot the way the branches are encased in ice. I also knew the picture would never be great because there is a screen in the way. I know what you are thinking, move the screen. The problem is we don’t have screens that slide up and down, removing the screen would literally mean me removing the screen entirely and I am way to lazy for that so I snapped the picture. Of course it came out like crap.

“I tried, the screen makes it looks like crap”

“Remove the screen” she says, “It’s easy!”

I knew it wasn’t worth the shot. But you know what they say ‘Happy wife, Happy life’. The fact it is 16 degrees out didn’t bother me, we sleep with the windows open year round however, the screen is metal and freezing! But with an inward sigh I unhooked the little latches and pushed the screen out. In order to maneuver the screen into the room I had to tilt it outside the window and pull it inside. I quickly realized the fly in the ointment, the poop in the sugar, the snarl in the yarn was the screen could not be maneuvered properly due to the beautifully ice encrusted bush. Breaking the branches would have nullified the whole point of this now increasingly frustrating project. After a few moments I decided it just wasn’t happening and started the process of putting the screen back in its place. The screen was not co-operating. My frustration was mounting.

“I did it with the bathroom window, it was easy enough” came my wife’s voice from behind me. While this tidbit of information was fantastically useless I did find it funny and we both started laughing. It was somewhere around this point where I dropped the screen outside the window. My wife immediately says, “Well we can get it in the spring and now you can take the picture! Whoohoo”. Yeah…..whoohoo.

In that moment I had a memory of another incident that happened at this very window 11 years ago almost to the day. Perhaps some of you long time readers will remember, for the rest of you or if you want to refresh your memory click here, https://bmat10.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/rude-awakening/?preview=true

“Nope, I’m going to get it right now”!

“Well be sure to take the photo first”

“Yes dear”.

Okay the hassle, even running around the house and slogging through two feet of snow to retrieve the screen was well worth the effort.

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