RVs vs. Buses. FREE Fax.

And you wondered why I full timed in converted buses? 50 second video:
http://www.rvvideos.com/2010/01/see-how-easily-travel-trailer-can-fall.html

Here is a 6 minute video about a converted school bus:   http://www.rvvideos.com/2010/01/school-bus-converted-to-motorhome-is.html
He shows the differences in the construction.

Even when this bus was righted, it was still all in one piece.

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Send a fax FREE to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada, through the Internet:

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I thought this might be useful to know if you are on the road with just your laptop, or your fax won’t work. 

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Do you need a new shredder?  A 2.23 minute video of a new one out: http://www.ssiworld.com/watch/the_monster.htm

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I wasn’t ready when Ray arrived to work this morning.   My daughter and I had been talking on the phone, and then we tried out my new Skype equipment.  She has Skype too, as that is what our family in England uses.   It worked great.

Today Ray and I re-did the screen on my patio door that goes onto the screen porch.  ‘Patches’ had found a weak spot at the bottom and pushed the screen loose.  ‘Pretty’ the headstrong Siamese, had originally done that.  After it had been securely tucked back in again, with a splining tool, we cut some 1/2” x 1/2” metal mesh and carefully folded over the edges so there wouldn't be any sharp bits, and screwed it to the outside frame.  She won’t be able to do that again.

When I got my RV, my late DH and I did the same thing to that screen door, so that when we traveled with the cats, they couldn’t push out the screen, and get out.

Then we took Ray’s patio door panels out.  First, you remove the fixed one, that is just a few screws, then you can lift up on the slider, and pull it out.  We needed to see what was causing one of the wheels to make a screeching noise.  It has been greased with many products, to no avail.  I had to take a picture of how that wheel assembly looks, as I can’t leave the door off.  Each brand is slightly different, and there are 126 different ones!   http://www.swisco.com/cl/Patio-Glass-Door-Single-Wheel-Rollers   I am just going to buy new wheels for it, as I think they are ‘plum wore out’! 

I bought that door, used, in 1990, so it has been around a few days.

Don't Forget PBS tonight!! My Foster Cats

Today, Ray and I finished up on the yard work. The man across the street was burning something stinky behind his board fence, so we fired up my burn pile of pine needles in self defense. He was up there on his roof, with some swear words, and a hammer, and it might have been his old roofing that he was burning.

My Foster Kitties:


As soon as I wake up, I paddle through to the kitchen, turn on the coffee maker, then the puter, let the cats out of the dog room, and open the blinds and door to the screen porch so they can go out there first thing. Then I have my quiet time reading emails, watching the news, and drinking coffee! Once I am dressed, I feed them their breakfasts in the dog room. Talk about herding cats !! Leading them carrying their food dishes, works! That gets them back in there, so that we can work, and not worry about them getting outdoors.

Mime, the tortoiseshell, (now “Prime”, as she is such a sweet cat), just doesn’t like staying in the dog room. http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=13334871 After she has had her breakfast, she clicks her nails on the glass door, imploring me with her eyes to let her back in the house. This is the only time that she asks for anything. When I let her in here, she just lays down somewhere and minds her own business. If we are not working I let her stay in the house. Sometimes she will just lay quietly beside me when I am working on the computer. When we are working outside, she has to be contained on the screen porch. She doesn’t trample the plants like Patches and Pretty do.

Now “Pretty”, the Siamese, is another story. She is a demanding little kitty. I can’t even check my email while drinking my coffee in the morning without her trying to get on the keyboard, and constantly brushing up against me. I pick her up, put her on the floor, saying “No”. She tries again, but if she doesn’t get down at the third “No”, then I put her back in the dog room for “time out”. She is learning, as usually on the second “No” she goes and lays down somewhere. I know you can train cats! Even a stubborn Siamese! I am still working on training her not to get under my feet in the kitchen, or she will trip me one day. She isn't listed on Petfinder yet, but has been spayed, vaccinated. and had her pictures taken.

Patches, the calico, http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=13461962 doesn’t interfere with the computer at all, in fact she hardly ever comes in here. All she cares about is her dinner, watching the world from a corner on the porch, and sitting on top of the recliner. Even she has learned to stay away from under my feet in the kitchen, not like Pretty. Patches lays down where I can see her and makes little noises to let me know she is ready to go back into the dog room for her dinner. She likes to be petted on her head, but she still hates to be picked up, so she positions herself so that is difficult to do. If she is picked up, she will struggle, but not scratch or bite. I think she taught Prime to click her nails on the glass of the dog room door when she wanted something. They are crafty.

Bobcat, my 15 year old Manx, (no tail cat) is doing better with her terrible elbow arthritis. After the beginning first five days large amounts of Metacam they prescribed, she threw up blood. Thank goodness I had trained her to throw up in the tub. Poor old gal, she was trying to get there, reaching. So I picked her up and put her in there. Scared the daylights out of me. The vet told me to discontinue it and buy something else from them. Now, I wasn’t convinced that the Metacam had caused it. By then she was supposed to be on the small maintenance dose, 2-3 times a week. I waited a couple of days and gave her that. Another couple of days and another small dose. Then she stopped limping, so the inflammation must have gone down. But I had also done another thing at the same time. She had been on Royal Canin Indoor Mature 27 dry food, and her Special Diet canned food. I switched to Royal Canin Active Mature 28, which also has Glucosamine, Chondroitin, and Omega 3 in it, for joint health. She even liked it better, so she might have been gluttonous, and that could have made her throw up. Now she just needs Metacam about every 3-4 days to stop her from limping. She even gets up in her bed on my wide bathroom window sill, to watch the traffic, something she hasn’t done for a long time. See picture. When she first started to limp she would lay in my late dog’s bed, under my bed, and couldn't get up in her favorite window. Maybe she won't have to have her bad arm amputated, after all.

Don't forget to watch PBS today.

Striping Done! Fishin' With Old Guys!

It was warmer today, but we finally got the striping on the Mirage finished.

The little Siamese, "Pretty", can finally come out of her post-op cage since her spaying and run a round a little bit. Her stitches look good, she had a good appetite, but she sure does get under foot. I changed the name of "Mime", the tortoiseshell cat with half her face orange and half black, to "Prime". She is the most laid back, quietest, unassuming, undemanding, nicest cat to have around, that I have come across in a long time. If I were younger, I would keep her. She is prime, as far as I am concerned.

I came across this article in RVLife, and thought it was funny, and appropriate for Labor Day:

Fishing With Old Guys.

""Most of my life I’ve been pretty helpless. I’ve been able to make a living with my ability to speak and write but have no real world skills. With barely enough coordination and hand-eye skills to tie my shoes, and no mechanical talents, I find myself asking buddies for all kinds of help. In an effort to pay them back, I’ve had a big boat for years and love to get my old friends together for a bit of fishing. At first that was no big deal, but over the years the old crew became more difficult to assemble. True enough, most are retired now and have more time to play. But now I have to gather a boatful with an eye toward that old manufacturing principle that Emile Durkheim and Adam Smith defined, the “division of labor.” As we age, some of us have shaky hands and can’t thread the bait; others lose the ability to raise the anchor, and some are too slow to swing the net!

This last weekend—our last chance to chase sturgeon—a day of fishing was lost because we couldn’t line up a guy to pull up the anchor. One of us was recovering from shoulder surgery, I had back surgery a few months ago, and my buddy Bill was going under the knife the next week. Jim, our only healthy back, had other plans so we had to postpone the adventure.

Finally on Sunday we signed on all the necessary crew. I ran the boat, Jim handled the anchor, Milford was doing the bait work, and James brought some food! We actually got out and anchored at a decent hour and before long were getting some action.

We landed a couple of little guys with no problem and were enjoying the flat water and sunshine when Milford’s rod pulled down hard. Stumbling back to the transom, Milford set the hook and held on for dear life. It was a pretty good battle, a tough old man and a lumpy, crusty gray slab. It was nip and tuck for about ten minutes, and then Milford’s shoulder got wimpy. No longer able to hold the weight, he passed the rod to James with the admonition, “Don’t you dare lose my fish!”.

James was really set up for failure now. We were all yelling instructions to him. Milford was pleading pitifully, pointing out that at his age this might be his last chance at a big fish! As the fish slowly emerged from the depths we could see that this was one we actually might be able to take home. Most seasons that was no problem, but this was only the second keeper we’d had near the boat and our season was ending. The battle was determined, but finally the fish succumbed to nearly a century and a half of angler experience! I slid the net under the big diamond sides and we stretched out the tape. From the inside of the tail to the tip of his prehistoric nose, he went a bit over 46 inches, a nice fish by anyone’s standards. Stringing the fish through the gills, James yelled at me to take Milford’s picture.

These days there is no excuse not to get photographic proof of any angling success. While bringing a camera to the boat always portends bad luck, we all had cell phones that were more than capable of recording the catch. These days if you see a creature from Mars or catch a lunker fish, you have no excuse for not documenting the event. We all had cell phones stuffed in our pockets. But remember, we were a bunch of old guys. Lots of cell phones but nobody ever actually used the photo feature! Our grandkids take and send them out hourly with their text messages, but we didn’t have a clue. Since I had done a little shooting with mine, I got elected. As you can see from the picture that comes with the column, it wasn’t the best of efforts. For one thing, someone should invent a cell phone surface that doesn’t reflect blinding light. I couldn’t see a thing till I got under the canopy. Even then I couldn’t get the whole fish framed. While the photo didn’t set the world on fire, it looked just as clear as the one we saw at the dock where someone had tried to get a shot of a 10-foot-plus monster. All you could see was a smiling angler, the side of the boat, and a hole big enough to eat a basketball!

We split up Milford’s fillets and all vowed to practice with our phones before the next trip. After all, we might run into a bunch of aliens getting off their flying saucer and that shot would be worth money! ""

Bob Ellsberg’s column, Fishin’, appears monthly in RV Life and at rvlife.com.

I hope no one got sunburned today.

Water Leak. Pretty's Surgery. Ted Kennedy.

Another morning that was comfortable to be working outside.

Ray backed up the minivan out of the RVport to prevent it getting over- spray, as he was spraying some white paint on the Mirage.

Jay and I were going to move the rack of landscape timbers and 4x4s, when I noticed a damp spot in the RVport, where the van had been. There was obviously a water leak. Jay dug down and found a leaking coupling. We cut out that stub-up where there was a faucet at one time, when I lived in my 40' travel trailer here, and so that is no more. After repairing the line we put some hard concrete that had been split in half around some posts, in the hole under the pipe, to support it. The post's imprint in the concrete was just right to cradle the pipe in place. Shay's Blackie was watching all this. Good 'Watch Cat', she will watch work by the hour, just like some folks I know!

I picked Pretty up about 6.15 last night, from the other foster mom who had taken her to the vet yesterday. Even though she was still groggy from the anesthetic, she still tried to claw out of the carrier. Thank goodness she tested free of FIV and Feline Leukemia. Well, we saved the world from another 400 cats in the next 10 years. As skinny as Pretty is, when they spayed her, they found out that she was a little bit pregnant. I got her settled in her newly sanitized cage, and she ate her dinner with gusto. She has to stay locked up for a week, to make sure she doesn't jump up on anything. I watched her through the glass door to the dog room to make sure she wasn't interfering with her stitches. I didn't want to put a cone on her neck, but I would have, if needed. She had a pretty good night, even though I didn't. (Due to my sinuses).

The pictures are to show why our SPCA uses Dr. Angel. Can you believe that Pretty had a hysterectomy through that little hole? Also we use Dr. Angel because we know that they clean and sanitize everything between patients, especially the anesthetic face masks. ( A lot of vets don't)

Ted Kennedy's Legacy of Social Change:
""It's rare that a person touches the hearts and minds of so many activists across so many causes. This week, people around the globe honored the life of Sen. Ted Kennedy, the third longest-serving U.S. Senator in history and a champion for many of the issues that many believe in so passionately.

There was global warming, and Kennedy's pioneering work to curb climate change. He was among the first legislators - more than 30 years ago - to sponsor legislation to establish fuel economy standards, and up until his departure from the Senate helped shepherd legislation to cut greenhouse gas pollution.

There was global health, and the Senator's drive to combat global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and to make sure that the U.S. was setting the standard when it came to preserving the power of antibiotics.

There was women's rights, and Kennedy's tireless efforts to push the Equal Rights Amendment, and his support for legislation that created family and medical leave time, equal pay for equal work, Title IX equal access for women, and more.

And of course health care, which will perhaps be the cause for which Sen. Kennedy leaves the biggest legacy. Sen. Kennedy's main priority these past few years was to make sure everyone had decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege. That work remains unfinished. It's now up to us to complete it.

Whether it was these causes or other such as homelessness, human rights abuses, immigration, or poverty, Sen. Kennedy taught us that no issue was too small when it came to defending what is right. """

Jay and I finally got the rack of 4x4's moved today.

No AC Needed!! "Pretty" Goes to Vet.

I knew that I would be in a rush mode this morning, so I didn't even open the patio door going to the screen porch to let the cats out there. I didn't even let them out of the dog room. Patches can be difficult to 'herd' back to where you want her. I knew I didn't have the time to fool with that this morning.

I was going to meet another SPCA foster mom at 8.00 AM in the next town with Pretty, the little Siamese, for her health check up, and possible spaying. The foster mom was taking some other animals to the vet in another town even further away. As one cat wasn't going today, that left an opening for Pretty. She will have to be here in "Post-Op" for a week, if she gets spayed today. I say IF, as we don't know if that has already been done. Kittens can be spayed and neutered when they are over 2lb.

Pretty, obviously, hasn't spent much time in a carrier, and was clawing frantically trying to get out. But as long as I reached back to the strapped-in carrier in the back seat, while driving, touched the door of the carrier, she would rub my hand with her little face, as if to say, "I just want to be out there on your lap".

When she was transferred to the back of the other foster mom's SUV, she looked at me as if to say " Where am I going? I want to stay with you". She is going to be a very loving little pet for some forever home.

It seemed so strange, I had to keep on turning up the AC temperature in the van, and finally put it on Vent. We didn't need the AC, it was cooler today than it has been for weeks.

On the way home I got the Aerostar minivan inspected. No problems, passed with flying colors, and we have to have emissions test in this county. I don't mention this, but every time I drive it, I like it more. It has been one of the best vehicles I have had.

I had the gas cans with me, in a newspaper lined metal tray that I use for transporting gas or batteries. The Puddle Jumper is not street legal, so I don't even drive it around the corner to the store for gas. My three gallon can full, will last along time in it. The other can is for the lawnmower.

Ray had also got his car inspected, and had to buy a new catalytic converter ($250). The readings on his car computer had been knocked out, so he was told he had to drive it for at least 60 miles to make it come back on?? He did help me carry Pretty's cage outside to the wash bay first, so that I could have it all sanitized for her return.

For once, it was a lovely day to be outside. Cooler, and low humidity. I even had all the house windows open until noon. I sanitized and hosed down the cage, got all new fresh dishes, pillow, box, scoop, and blankies ready for the little patient.

Just waiting for Ray to help me carry it back into the dog room now. I will be picking up Pretty later today.