Rockin' RV - new stereo idea

If this RV's a'rockin - please come a'knockin'

It's party time!

Heehee, I'm into music today.

I've never figured out how the dash radio is wired up. To the coach battery or engine battery? It's one of those things that baffles me. But then, it doesn't matter anyhow since it doesn't have a CD player, nor is it ipod capable or anything like that. It's an old radio that came with the rig in 1996. Only plays radio (poorly) or cassette tapes, when it's not eating them. 

 Well could be worse, it could be an 8 track huh?

One day, I'll get a new radio & new speakers installed. On each side of my sofa are nice big speakers that are also connected to that system. They need replaced too.

So today's music is being presented by my new cell phone!

Pretty clever huh?

Last year, I bought this set of speakers. It has the regular type of plug that you plug into your head set plugs. Pin type, not usb type. I was thrilled when I found them.

When I watch movies on the computer, I hate the poor quality sound of the computers speakers. Just doesn't add to the movie experience. So I got these speakers to use with the computer. And I've used them with my small CD player. Downside, they do take electrical power, but that's ok. My computer's battery is getting old anyhow, so I watch movies with it plugged in too.

I ripped all my CD's into my computer, then uploaded them into the phone. Another alternative to music lovers is to go to the library & rip music into your laptop to save for your electronical devices. I just take my laptop along & do it there. The program I use for this is itunes. I always hook my headset up to the computer too just in case. Of course, with uploading the music, it's silent, but I don't want to annoy anyone in case my comptuer decides to "speak".



Hold on, one of my favorite songs is on now: Duran Duran - Ordinary World.

That songs' meaning changed profoundley for me when I used it for a video of Hurricane Ike.

Hurricane Ike Extreme Destruction, San Leon, Texas from Cyn Najera on Vimeo.

Course, that steers far, FAR from their version of the song!

But this storm changed my life....forever.

On another note.

Who wants to start an RV repair park?

I swear, I think one would be fantastic!

A central place where RVers could meet & help each other with issues of their rigs.

Could be fun too!

Kind of like Homes for Humanity. We'd have to pitch in & help each other with our rigs.

I found damages in a corner of my kitchen wall from an old leak.

Goodie. Grrrrrr - just another thing to address in this RV lifestyle I guess!

I'll just enjoy the music for awhile while I clean in here instead of worrying about that small part of my wall for now.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

New Tab - Motorhome Upgrades & Repairs

Today's post is to let everyone know that I've added a new tab to my blog.
My Motorhome Upgrades & Repairs.

I thought perhaps this page could be useful to others. It's a page of what it suggests, upgrades & repairs. I've also added the urls to references I've put up there from my blog when I blogged about them so folks can find these items as well.

I've missed some things & as I think of them, I'll add them on.

The things I missed would be things like awning items, refinished items, stuff like that. I've not missed any of the mechanical issues.

I just want to be as honest as I possibly can so if others come across this page, it may be of some aid to them on their own issues.

Now for today. I got caught in my jammies!

Yikes!

Not that there's anything wrong with my jammies, but there's just something weird & vulnerable feeling about getting caught in them.

A male friend knocked at the door, I opened it, invited him in & rushed off to change my clothes!

We visited for awhile, then he left & I ran to the store to get some items.

I left my RV windows open to to try to keep it from getting over 100 in there since I have food items in there, fridge is still on, etc. I have it plugged in, but only to run the fridge, a couple of fans & keep the battery charged up. Once I empty the fridge, then I can shut down the battery.

So anyhow, at the store, I pay for my purchases & leave. As I'm walking through the parking lot, the skies break loose! I get my items into my van before it really pours.
The moment I get them in, put the cart where it belongs, I open my door to get inside & the skies break loose!

OK, so now I'm thinking, OH NO! RV windows are open!! At least I did close the vents & put the reflectix back up over them. But that was to help block the sun & heat. Whew!

It's absoutely pouring buckets. I'm rushing back to the RV hoping it's ok. I get halfway home & the black cloud that burst over the area I was in, hadn't burst in my area yet.

Whew.

I get my groceries in the RV, then the skies break loose!

How I got lucky twice is beyond me.

So I'm now inside of the RV, it's 96 in there, but the humidity is 55, so I was actually not too uncomfortable. BUT then I thought, hmmmmm....why not get more comfortable.

So I had a bowl of ice cream!

As you see, I am a clever survivor! :-)

Here is a photo of a Texas Lizard that I saw not too far from where I live.

What is a Texas Lizard? An alligator of course!

And look, it was a teen. How do I know that? Check out the beer it was trying to hide...

(that's how they cool off)

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Shells of a different kind

One shell bites, the other just rips off.


One is easier to fix than the other though.


If one falls off, nothing really dies (although you think you just may have!).


The other, if it falls off or even cracks, it dies.

One snaps.


One bites.


One eats, pees & poos.


The other one just eats people & well, ok, it kinda pees & poos too.


One you don't want to embrace.


The other you do  - especially in a storm!


From ya'll - "OK enough already, what in the Sam Hell are you talking about"? (And who is Sam Hell?)


Ok, here is what I'm talking about:


This shell

VS this shell:

This is the final finish on this shell. It's done now. They cleaned up the edging too, which I'm glad they did! This is the passenger side. I spoke of this the other day, but was asked for pics. I finally got them uploaded to share.

Drivers side. All properly lined up now. Thank goodness. Note the lack of decals on the passenger side. I'm planning on stripping all the striping off the RV eventually anyhow. There's just not much attraction for me on faded, cracked decals. So I will remove them. I will probably save that project if I ever make it up to Pa this summer. It will be much cooler weather wise for a project like that up there than down here in Texas.

Front all done now. Window was taken out, glass removed, the entire thing resealed & reseated. All clearance lights were taken off & properly sealed under them, then caulked around them. We've only had one rain storm since. It only lasted about 10 mins, but so far, so good. It didn't leak then.

~~OK, so enough about that shell. Back to the snapping shell!~~

This thing was smack on the other side of the dog yard. With it's head buried into the bottom rail on the fence. The dogs were going insane. I thought it was the neighbors dog barking as he likes to come over & have a bark-a-thon with my friend's dogs. Then my friend told me there was a snapping turtle hanging out on the fence. (?!?)  He didn't think much of it. They can bite & hold & rip & tear skin & break toes & eat your house & pee on your roof & ...ok, just checking to see if you are still paying attention.

So me being the responsible kinda soul I am, I go about removing & relocating the snapper. Last year, I bought one of those BIG Pooper Scoopers. But I've never used it. It's jumbo sized. It's the perfect size for a jumbo sized turtle. Especially if that turtle bites. So I take the scoop part, roll the turtle over, then scoop it onto the shovel part of the scooper. Or something like that. Then I drag it, or rather give it a ride away from the dogs. It's pissed. It's on it's back. It's helpless. But the dogs are now safe, the roof is safe, the house is safe (just checking again). BUT WAIT! I can't do this deed without a camera! So I have to go grab both cameras. One that does video & one that does pictures. Poor turtle. Laying there, belly up. Nothing to hide it's "southern side". No wonder it's pissed...well, it did do that too while I was giving it a ride to the back pasture. Where there are no horses. Just birds & snakes. And crickets. And fire ants. And bugs.

So I took it back to the pasture, took pics of it, took video of it. Let it eat a stick. Let it eat the scooper. But I didn't let it eat me. At least I didn't have to run away from it. I could have crawled away from it if I wanted to! But I didn't want to.

I will eat your blasted scooper! Never do that to me again! I am going to be laughed at by the entire turkle community! You mean person you. Just wait, I will be sleeping under your bed tonight! Yep. I am. So there. What? You have video? Ok, that does it. I am sleeping UNDER YOUR SHEETS!!

~As always, be kind to your pets (& turkles), clean up after them on your travels (not necessary for the turkles) & respect your neighbor (& turkles)~

Repair woes & bracelets

                               Hi blogger friends, I hope all is well with everyone.

I've been on the phone lately trying to get ballpark estimates on the overhead repairs. So far, the range has been from $4.5K to um, $12K! Wow, was I shocked over the $12K quote!! For now, I will refrain from mentioning what place that was. I plan on calling in the morning as I was having issues with the guy that gave me the quote. He copped a bad attitude with me & was rude about it. I guess the big city RV places don't need business enough to even be pleasant anymore!? Not to mention (well I am, aren't I) the absurd price they quoted me. I also found a review site & they were not very favored. To be honest, I've used them before & sustained damages to my RV from them. I called one of the managers & they made good by offering some free work & a discount on the work they did, but still, the damages should never have happened to begin with. They seem to view my RV as a piece of junk because it's not a newer model. That to me is RUDE. This same company also made me feel bad about living in my RV because of losing my house after Hurricane Ike. I should NEVER go back there! I was scolded by a certain person of this company for living in my RV with DOGS! ::shudder::!!!
He spoke of how his house is perfect, how inconvienced he was when he had to evacuate for Hurricane Rita (which didn't turn out to be a big deal here, except for the zillion fire ant bites I got during the clean up), blah, blah, blah....well, as you can imagine, I could not seem to dig up any sympathy for such a person. Especially since the person was dissing me! Wow. Amazing. So now it looks like my woes are turning into a rant. Sorry. I tried to take issue while I was there, but all the people of importance were out to lunch. Just my luck. I started to tear up, so had to leave asap. I just could not face anyone anymore.

I am considering on doing some of the repair myself, but not sure if I can do that or not. I just don't have a big expense account. Due to my injury in 2010, I got caught up in red tape & was told by my specialist that I should not work. Well, I could not walk well & had pain, lots of pain, every day, so driving was hard, & I had to let go of a good driving job before I could even start it. Anyhow, I digress. I'm just looking for a way to make my way through all this mess right now. I am on the right path towards healing & am getting stronger each day, so am grateful for that.

My RV is not just a motorhome. It's my home. The place I park my boots & hang my hat. The place I lay my head down at night & raise it each morning. (well, the rest of my body follows too because that would be weird otherwise). I've maintained this RV through the years I've owned it. I've done more than many women will do with theirs. I have to do most of the work myself. But I don't mind. I do mind those that judge me though & take the simple things of life for granted. I can't afford to take life or money for granted. Life is a gift & money is to be earned. I take pride in what I am capable of doing with my house on wheels.

So for now, the RV remains parked in a driveway, plastic still staying intact. I've called many RV places so far, one is supposed to come to take a look at it & give me a quote. Oh yes, then there was the guy that told me to trash it....that was nice huh? He kept calling it a trailer. I finally said it's not a trailer it's a motorhome & it's my home! He instantly changed his tune after that. But still ...oops, again, I digress.

I probably should not post any of this at all, but I am going to anyhow. It helps when we all have to get things like this off our chest. It helps others to learn through our situations. I've been looking at repair blogs to see what I can find & learn on taking on the task myself if needed.

And of course, if anyone has had any RV repairs done in the Houston, TX area & were happy with the results, please let me know of them as well.

Thanks.

This is Roper, one of those ::shudder:: dawgs!

Here is what I did over the weekend. It was nice to have the time to just sit & create. The pics aren't the best. I can take better pics of each item, which I usually do, but a friend wanted to see them, so I took a quick shot of what I had done.

These are called ladder bracelets. They are fun to make & I am hoping to make a bunch for a craft show. The two above have swarovski crystals on them. I like using glass beads, but do use other beads as well. I just love the brilliance of glass beads though. So pretty!

The detail just doesn't really show up well in these photos. The tan one with the peace beads are man sized, the others are woman sized.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~