Tag Archives: Ferman Miller (Countertops Plus)

2015/10/12 (M) Countertops Plus

I was up later than usual last night so I did not get up this morning until 8 AM. I fed the cats but did not have breakfast or make coffee. I put the ham radio antenna back on my car and reinstalled the control head and microphone. I then reinstalled the GPS and the cellular booster. I moved the front passenger seat forward, set the back all the way down, and the moved it back until it touched the passenger side rear seat, which I put down last night. I got two 2x4s from the garage that were about seven feet long and set them on the reclined seats to serve as full length supports for the desk/counter top I was picking up today from Countertops Plus in Shipshewana, Indiana.

Linda got up at 8:30 AM and got a couple of blankets for me to use to protect the desktop and the tabletop once there were loaded in the car. I made sure I had my checkbook, sunglasses, wallet, phone as well as the address and phone number for Countertops Plus. It was a beautiful, clear, cool morning as I backed out of the driveway at 8:45 AM.

The GPS predicted I would arrive at 11:30 AM but tried to take me on a different route than the one I actually followed. I followed my usual route, heading west on I-96 to Lansing and then south on I-69. I stopped at the Shell station half way between Lansing and Charlotte but their pumps were all out of order. (We encountered this same situation at our local Shell station on the way home from our ham radio club meeting last night. We presumed they were out of fuel.) I went to the BP station across the street and fueled my car.

I got off I-69 again at the Charlotte exit about 15 miles later and stopped at the Biggby’s coffee shop where I got a toasted bagel and a large coffee to go. My coffee was 40% Biggby’s best (regular), 40% French roast (decaf), and 20% Michigan cherry (regular). I was glad I did not use any more Michigan cherry than I did as the flavor is very strong and somewhat unpleasantly artificial. Biggby’s is definitely not my favorite coffee but the location in Charlotte is about an hour into the trip to Indiana and conveniently located relative to the highway.

I stayed on I-69 as far as Coldwater and then headed west on US-12. At Sturgis the GPS had me turn south on Centreville Road (M-66). A few minutes later I crossed into Indiana and passed the Howe Military Academy in Howe. I went west on IN-120 and then took several county roads before arriving at Countertops Plus at noon.

On the drive down I got a call from our mobile mechanic, Joe Cannarozzi. He is tentatively coming to our house on Monday, November 1, to service the chassis and engine.

The office at Countertops Plus was unattended so I walked around the side and found owner Ferman Miller working in his shop. He had me back up to one of the loading doors and helped me get the desk/counter top into the car and onto the pair of 2x4s. He set the tabletop, which was much smaller, on one of the blankets on the floor in the rear. I wrote a check for the balance (cash or check only, no credit cards) and got a receipt. I set the GPS for home and headed back the way I came.

When I got back to Howe I got on the Indiana Toll Road going east and took it toI-69 where I exited and headed north. I stopped at M-60 to have lunch and then drove across the street to the Shell station. All of their pumps were also out of service so I drove back towards the highway entrance ramp and stopped at the BP station. It appeared that whatever was affecting the Shell stations was widespread. I got back on I-69 north at 1:30 PM and the GPS said I would be home in approximately 90 minutes.

The beautiful blue skies of the morning were becoming more and more obscured by clouds the farther north I traveled. It had been breezy all day and that continued but with reduced intensity. It was almost completely overcast by the time I got home. I did not stop again and pulled in the driveway around 3 PM. I backed the car in front of the bus and unloaded my personal affects. We inspected and measured the desktop and table and were satisfied that they were the correct size and shape. The plywood base was not exactly as I had specified it but the deviations will not prevent the desk from being assembled correctly or be visible.

While I was away Linda had removed the remaining wallpaper in the cockpit of the bus and made a trip to J. C. Penney’s at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi to look for new privacy curtains for the front of the bus. I was not in the mood to change into work clothes and needed to work on FMCA Freethinkers chapter roster and financial statements so I went to my office. After cleaning up my desk and checking e-mail I got down to business.

Linda called me up to dinner at 6 PM. We had a nice salad, Amy’s Spanish Rice and Bean soup, crackers with peanut butter and strawberry preserves, and watermelon. We got a few raindrops on the rear deck while we were eating even though the probability of rain was near zero. The weather is changing this week from mild and dry to cooler and a little wetter, with our first sub-freezing overnight low temperature forecasted for this coming weekend. Cooler weather means more soup, which is fine by me. It also means more mornings with the fireplace on while we enjoy our coffee; also fine by me.

I made progress on the Freethinkers chapter records but did not get done. We watched a few TV shows on the big TV set in the basement; Big Bang Theory, Scorpion, and NCIS Los Angeles. I did finalize plans for our visit with Bill, Karen, Mike, and Catherine at the Jellystone RV Park in Frankenmuth on Wednesday. I also managed to get an e-mail off to Lou letting him know that the new camera had arrived. We went to bed at 11 PM, put on the Create channel from the Detroit PBS affiliate (WTVS), and watched travel and cooking shows while I worked on this post. Around midnight I thought I heard it raining but did not get up to check.

2015/10/08 (R) A Mighty Hose

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Linda was up before 6 AM to drive to the bakery ahead of the worst of the morning rush hour traffic. I was aware of her getting up but fell back asleep. She is very quiet as she goes about her preparations on such mornings, which I appreciate.

I got up around 8AM, fed the cats, and cleaned their litter tray. I made half as much coffee as usual and measured out a bowl of granola, probably a little more than usual. I took my coffee to the living room and turned on the fireplace, expecting to settle in with my cats and work on my iPad, but the iOS 9.0.2 update was available so I started the installation and read the last few pages of Number Theory and Its History by Oystein Ore. I read from screens more than from paper these days, but I still like to curl up with a printed book.

Jasper used to sit next to me on the sofa in the morning but seems to prefer sleeping on top of one of the back cushions these days. Juniper, who never used to pay much attention to me, has taken his place. She has always sought out warm places to curl up but has always preferred Linda’s lap to mine.

My bus project for today was reassembling the plumbing to the two fan-coil heat exchangers that go in the bases under the two desk pedestals. Yesterday I cut new holes for the supply and return hoses. My first task was to remove the hoses from the bleeder valves and install barbed plastic plugs in the ends to prevent coolant from coming out. I then pulled the hoses back and out through the new openings.

The area behind the desk where the heater hoses emerge from the passenger side OTR HVAC duct.

I worked on the hose for the right hand (rear most) heat exchanger first. I positioned the base, routed the hose to the lower fitting, and marked where to cut it. I put a plastic paint tray liner under the hose before I cut it but more coolant came out than I expected. I got as much of it in the liner as I could and grabbed a bunch of paper shop towels. I got the liner outside without spilling any antifreeze and poured the used antifreeze in a one gallon jug that I keep for just this purpose. I used a funnel that is also reserved for use with antifreeze.

I took the cut off piece of heater hose outside, plugged end down, and set the open end in the tray liner. We already had a bucket of soapy water in the bus as we had planned on hanging wallpaper yesterday. I wrung out the sponge and then squeezed some of the soapy water on the floor and cleaned it up with paper shop towels.

The left and right desk bases and center cover/spacer set in place. The heater hoses are not yet connected.

With the mess cleaned up I slipped two hose clamps over the end of the hose and worked it onto the lower fitting on the heat exchanger. If only it had been as easy to do as that description! The 3/4″ i.d. rubber heater hose did not just “slip” over the 3/4″ o.d. copper pipe even with some residual antifreeze lubricating the inside of the hose and the outside of the pipe. Indeed, it took considerable and simultaneous pushing and twisting to get the hose on. It was also a lot harder than I expected to work with the heat exchangers installed in the bases, even without the desk pedestals in place.

I was interrupting my work as needed to take photographs and as I finished up the first hose the camera refused to trigger the shutter. The LCD screen indicated that the compact flash memory card was full so I went to my office to offload the images from the last few days. My other CF card was empty so I put that in the camera and set it aside. I had not backed up my photos to the Network Attached Storage units in quite a while so I decided to take the time to do that. While I was at it I backed up my blog posts from December of 2014 through July of this year along with several issues of The Gypsy Journal.

As long as I was at my computer I checked my e-mail accounts, logged into RVillage, and logged into my account at B&H Photo. My new Sony alpha 99 and accessories were on their way from New York and due to be delivered by the end of the day tomorrow. I am excited to finally be getting a new digital camera with a full frame (35mm) sensor that will work correctly with all of my old Minolta A-mount lenses.

By this point it was lunchtime so I cleaned up (antifreeze is definitely NOT good eats) and scrounged around the kitchen for something tasty but easy to fix. My “go to” meal is usually roasted red pepper hummus and sourdough pretzel nibblers. We had a little hummus left, which I finished, but I was still hungry so I made a bowl of popcorn. I would probably not make a good bachelor.

I went back to the coach and contemplated attaching the other hose to the left heat exchanger. While I was thinking about it Linda called to let me know she was on her way home. It was 1 PM so I decided to wait for her to get home to help me install the second hose. I had some phone calls to make and used the time for that.

I called Karen at Bratcher Electric to schedule the upgrading of our 60 Amp sub-panel in the garage to a 100 Amp main panel. While I had her on the phone I asked if Mike would itemize the quote. I also mentioned that they had picked up two or three whole house generator customers through my referrals and perhaps Mike could provide some consideration for that in the pricing. Next I called Ferman Miller at Countertop Plus in Shipshewana, Indiana to check on the Corian desk top and table. Ferman answered the phone and said he had called Josh this morning to let him know the pieces were ready for pickup. I then called Josh to see what his plans were.

We originally agreed that he would pick them up and bring them to our house on his way to visit relatives in the northeast side of the Detroit metropolitan area. His plans had changed and he won’t be visiting his relatives anytime soon. He is leaving on Tuesday for a FMCA area rally in the Carolinas and will be gone for a week. Before he leaves he needs to get something to a customer in Cleveland in addition to getting our stuff to us or deciding that we will have to drive to Shipshewana to get it ourselves. One option is that we meet him somewhere on Sunday. Ann Arbor is a possibility but Toledo or Defiance (Ohio) are more likely rendezvous points.

Linda got home around 2 PM and changed into her work clothes. With Linda’s help I was able to avoid the mess I had with the first hose. The second hose was even harder to get on than the first one but we managed to do it. In part because of the arthritis in the joints at the base of my thumbs I do not have as much grip strength as I would like and often need. The twisting and pushing was hard on my hands and the confines of the base and proximity of crisp wooden edges resulted in lots of small cuts. This was not something I anticipated in the design and construction of the bases and the installation of the heat exchangers.

I took a break and drove to Northwest Plumbing Supply to see if they had a bleeder valve like the ones in our bus system. They did not and had never do seen anything like it before. The showed me a couple of things they did have but I did not buy anything. I got a call from Brighton Honda that my car was ready for pickup so I headed home to get Linda. She drove me to the dealership and then went on to Meijer’s for a few grocery items.

I drove to Lowe’s in Howell and was fortunate to find Lars in the plumbing department. The store was not very busy and he took an interest in showing me various plumbing options that might allow me to replace the bleeder valve with something that would do the same thing while also giving me a way to add antifreeze to the system. What I ended up with was 3/4″x3/4″X1/2″ copper sweat T and a 1/2″ sweat ball valve with a waste port.

Bruce works on attaching the heater hoses to the fill/bleeder valve T assembly he built. (Photo by Linda.)

Back home I cleaned some 3/4″ and 1/2″ copper pipe with 120 grit plumbers sandpaper. I cut two pieces of the 3/4″ pipe about 3″ long and one piece of the 1/2″ pipe about 1-1/2″ long. I brushed the inside of all the fittings and test fit the pieces. I then applied flux to all of the surfaces to be soldered, inserted the two 3/4″ stubs into the run fittings, inserted the 1/2″ stud into the bull fitting, and put the ball valve on the other end of the 1/2″ pipe. I used the lever on the ball valve to mount the assembly in my bench vise. I removed the waste port cap to protect the neoprene seal and opened the ball valve so as not to trap heat inside. I then heated the T and the end of the valve and applied the solder.

I figured there had to be an easier way to get heater hose onto the heat exchanger and that Butch was the guy who would know what it was. I called and he said antifreeze can obviously be used and works fairly well but that a small amount of dish soap would also work as a lubricant and not harm the antifreeze or the Aqua-Hot and its components. As long as we were on the phone I caught up on their activities.

They were still there at the RV Park in Bouse, Arizona but only until the 15th of this month. The terms and conditions of their employment as managers of the park had not turned out to be as described during the interview process and they are wrapping up after only a month on the job. They will move their bus back to Quartzsite and spend at least part of the winter at Joe and Connie’s place where we both spent last winter. I know it was a big disappointment to them that the situation in Bouse did not work out, but their situation in Q will be familiar, comfortable, and inexpensive, as well as convenient to the Quartzsite Gem and Mineral Club which they joined this past winter.

For dinner Linda made a blend of onions, garlic, mushrooms, and power greens and served it over a baked potato topped with Daiya cheese. It was very yummy, and the potatoes kept the dish warm all the way to the end. The weather had turned cloudy through the afternoon and we got the first raindrops during dinner.

The fill/bleeder valve T assembly with the heater hoses connected. The assembly is located between the bases at the floor and will be hidden by the center connector/cover.

I had really hoped to have the hydronic heating system reassembled today so we went back out to bus after dinner to hook up the heater hose that runs between the two heat exchangers. This was actually two pieces of hose with my homemade bleeder/fill valve half way between the two exchangers. Even with dish soap the two hoses were very difficult to get onto the heat exchanger fittings and the bleeder/fill stubs, but I got them on. Linda took pictures while I grunted, groaned, and moaned and I took a few more when I was done.

It was 8:45 PM when we finally quit working, secured the bus, and went inside. I cleaned my hands as best I could but I could not get all of the black from the rubber hoses to come off. We sat for a while in the living room and had the last of the frozen chocolate torte that Linda made a couple of weeks ago. We finally turned in around 10 PM and watched Rick Steve’s Europe, Travel in the Americas, and a couple of cooking shows while I worked on this post.

2015/09/29 (T) Bus Windshields

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Today was windshield day. A week or so ago Chuck made appointments for both us to have windshields replaced on our buses by the local Safelite franchise. Chuck knows Scott, who now has a management position with the company, and arranged the work through him. The appointment was nominally from 8 AM to noon so Chuck was at his shop before 8. We figured it would take a while for the crew to do his two lower windshields so I got up around 7 AM but did not have coffee or breakfast. I finished yesterday’s blog post and then went through my final departure tasks starting at 8:30 AM. I texted Chuck at 8:45 AM and pulled out of our driveway at 8:50 AM, figuring that was late enough to miss most of the morning traffic headed into the northwest corner of the Detroit metropolitan area. Chuck texted back that I could take my time as the crew had not shown up yet.

The first raindrops came as I was pulling out of our driveway. As I pulled out onto Hacker Road I had a clear view of dark clouds to the northwest. Although my destination was 20+ miles to the southeast I headed north towards M-59. The shortest route would have been south, and gotten me quickly onto pavement, but there are some low branches before the road ends at Grand River Avenue so I do not go that way. From Hacker and M-59 the shorter route would have been east to US-23 and then south to I-96 but that interchange is a left exit, left entrance in the middle of an extensive construction zone; not the sort of thing I wanted to deal with in the bus. So I waited patiently for a break in the traffic and then headed west on M-59 towards the storm clouds. A guy heading east had to slow down while I pulled out a flipped me off as he went by. I hope he had a nice day.

I encountered heavier rain as I traveled west for about four miles. I turned south onto Latson Road and drove away from the rain, reaching I-96 about four miles later. I headed east on the I-96 and had an easy drive all the way to Beck Road with only an occasional raindrop. Even at this hour of the morning there were traffic slowdowns along the way but no parking lot traffic jams. The Beck Road exit was easy to navigate going south and it was equally easy to position myself for the left turn onto Grand River Avenue. About a mile and a half later I pulled into the parking lot for Chuck’s shop and phoned Chuck to let him known I was there.

I knew in advance how he wanted me to position my motorcoach but there were enough vehicles parked in various places that I wanted him to spot for me. I lifted the tag axles, pulled up to the building, and then turned hard to the right. I backed around to the driver’s side to get somewhat parallel to the building and then started angling towards the passenger side. There is space next to the building in front of Chuck’s shop directly across from his large (bus size) overhead door. My objective was to back around into that space and then pull forward steering hard to the left to get lined up with the door. I have done this before and managed to do it again with Chuck’s assistance. Our Prevost H3-40 VIP conversion is surprisingly maneuverable with the tag axle lifted off the ground.

There were two Safelite vans there when I arrived and Charlie and Eric were already busy working on Chuck’s lower windshields. Chuck had backed his coach into the shop so I could pull in nose first and get the front end out of the rain if needed. Since there were only two guys, and the removal and installation of one of these windshields is a two man job, I just parked my bus outside and shut it off.

I called Linda at home but did not get her so I tried her cell phone. She was at Kensington Metropark walking with Diane. She said we had heavy rain at home before she left and that it was moving towards the shop. I could see the dark clouds to the WNW and it eventually rained bucketfuls, albeit for only a brief time.

A couple of years ago Chuck and I went together and bought five lower windshields from Prevost for our H3-40 VIP coaches, two for him and three for me, for the ridiculously low price of $125 each. They were shipped to his shop in a big triple set of cardboard boxes with foam spacers on a pallet and have been sitting there waiting for us to find someone to install them. Chuck decided to use both of his, in part because there were stone chips in the current ones, and in part because he is vacating his shop and needed to reduce the amount of stuff that has to be moved and stored.

The existing windshields on Chuck’s coach both cracked rather badly when they were removed, as in multiple dozens of fractures, but did not shatter. Safety glass is a wonderful thing. He was not planning on keeping the old ones but it was obvious that removing a windshield in order to install a new gasket with the idea of reinstalling the glass was probably not possible. Charlie and Eric removed the old gaskets and then cleaned off the frames. Chuck’s old gaskets had been slit at the corners by a previous installer, probably to make it easier to get the gaskets over the glass, but should not have been altered in that way.

Chuck had new gaskets and spline material so the guys got one of the new gaskets installed on the frame. It looked like it would be too big but by the time they got it pressed fully into place it was a perfect fit. They lubricated the gasket and set the new windshield in place. After working the top of the gasket over the top edge of the glass they slid the windshield from the outside edge all the way towards the center pillar.

Chuck and I were both hungry and thirsty. Since Charlie and Eric were working on his coach I took Chuck’s suburban to Panera for coffee, a muffin (for Chuck) and a bagel (for me). I made the trip twice. I was almost there when I realized that I did not have my wallet and went back to get it.

The guys finished installing Chuck’s windshields and went to lunch. We did not leave as we had no idea how long they would be gone. It turned out to be about an hour. When they got back I had Charlie look at my two lower windshields. The passenger side was cracked and definitely needed to be replaced. The driver side had two small rock dings but they were not directly in front of the driver’s seat and not near an edge so I decided to only replace the passenger side lower windshield at this time.

I started up the bus, pulled the nose into the shop, and lowered the suspension to make it easier for the guys to work on it from the outside. I pulled in far enough to make sure the front part of the roof was completely inside the building as it is lower than the rest of the roof and slopes forward. I lowered the rear more than the front to make sure any rain that hit the portion of the roof that was outside the building ran to the sides and rear rather than forward and down the windshields.

To remove my windshield they removed the spline that locks the glass into the gasket and then managed to get the glass and gasket out as one assembly. The glass already had a 10″ crack when they started and was fractured in 100 places by the time it came out. They cleaned off the frame, which had a lot of crud on it, and then put the new gasket on. The gasket for the lower windshields is reversible and is used on either side. It is not rectangular, however, with the vertical edge by the center pillar being longer than outside edge where the glass wraps around into the A pillar.

With the gasket in place they installed the windshield by using large suction cups to pick it up, front and back side, and setting the bottom edge into the gasket with the right edge about four inches from the center pillar. The passenger side mirror was in the way so I had to loosen one of the set screws and swing it out of the way. They used a hard plastic stick with a rounded tip and edges to get the gasket over the outside of the top edge of the glass. Using glass cleaner as a lubricant they then slid the glass towards the center and into the gasket channel. The glass did not slide easily but Charlie and Eric were big, strong guys and it eventually was in place. They then used the plastic sticks to get the gasket out from behind the glass and over the edge all the way around. The last step in the installation was to put Sikaflex adhesive caulk between the frame and the gasket and between the gasket and the glass, all from the outside. They masked off the frame to protect the paint but did not mask off the glass. Gasketed glass installation was not something I knew anything about so it was informative to be able to watch every detail of this process.

They had our invoices with them but had to have the office redo mine and e-mail it since I only had one windshield replaced instead of the two we originally scheduled. Chuck and I each wrote them a check. Eric had us sign on his Note tablet and printed our receipts on a portable wireless printer. It had been six hours since they arrived and they had spent five of those working pretty hard. We gave each of them a $20 tip.

Charlie and Eric loaded up our three old broken windshields and left. I then backed my bus out and parked it. Charlie wanted it to sit for at least an hour before driving it to let the Sikaflex cure a bit. Chuck locked up the shop and we went to Panera (again) for a late lunch. We both had Black Bean Soup and Chuck had a half sandwich. Barb called as we were finishing our meal and said she was her way to the shop so we headed back. She arrived at the shop just ahead of us and inspected the new windshields on their coach. I then showed her the work we have done on the interior of our coach. We sat around in the shop talking while I waited for the worst of the rush hour traffic to pass before driving the bus back to our house.

I called Linda around 5 PM and then left for the drive home, reversing my route from this morning. Traffic was heavy but moved along. Linda heard me pull in the driveway and helped get me positioned. It’s hard to sneak up on someone with a Detroit Diesel 8V92 engine. Once I was parked I shut off the accessory air to the engine bay, disconnected the chassis batteries, and plugged in the electrical shorepower line. Back in the coach I noticed that the refrigerator had come out of the alcove about 12 inches. It had not budged on the drive to/from Edwardsburg and Elkhart but I will obviously have to secure it after all.

Dinner was reheated chili and Saltine crackers. When Linda makes chili she always makes extra and freezes it to have on hand for easy heat and serve meals. It is a one pot meal the way she makes it and is as good, or better, left over as it is fresh.

Ferman had called while I was gone and let Linda know that he had the Sandstone Corian he needed to build the small table for the bus so after dinner I texted Josh to let him know. I then checked e-mail but did not respond to any. We watched NCIS and NCISNOLA on the big TV in the basement and then went to bed.

2015/09/28 (M) Connected

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I was up at 8 AM, got dressed to work, gathered up the laundry, and started a load in the washer. I was getting ready to grind the beans for our morning coffee when Linda got up. She did not look at all well, having come down with what appeared to be a bad cold late last night. But she’s a trooper and washed our breakfast berries, as she does most mornings, and got our granola ready.

Bus work notwithstanding my first task this morning was to figure out what had gone wrong with the thermostat in the main floor hallway of the house. This is our “main” thermostat; it controls the heat to the living room, entry foyer, hallway, and kitchen/dining room. It also controls the air-conditioning for the entire main floor of the house. There is no air supply or return from the basement and the library has its own HVAC system.

I used my VOM to check the voltage at the secondary of the transformer on the furnace, at the input to each of the five motorized valves, and the voltage coming out and going to the five thermostats (four for space heating zones and one for domestic hot water). Everything looked OK. I pulled the main thermostat off of the base to check the wiring there. I also got out the installation manual to make sure I knew what I was checking.

The wiring of the base plate matched the diagram for a 1H/1C-2T system, i.e., one heating system, one cooling system, and TWO transformers. The manual was also very clear that the common wire had to come from the cooling system transformer. The voltage from Rc to C was just under 15 volts when I expected it to be ~26V. All of this pointed towards the air-handler. I shut off the circuit breaker for the air-handler and reset it but that did not fix anything. The evidence was confirming my suspicion that something happened while Rebecca was in the attic on Friday. That meant I was going to have to go in the attic to figure out what it was.

Getting into the attic meant I had to empty the hall coat closet of all of its hanging contents and most of the stuff sitting on the floor and remove the wooden hanging rod, which fortunately lifts up and out easily. I then had to lean a 6-foot step ladder against the back wall, climb up, and unscrew the 1/2″ piece of foam insulation that we use as a temporary cover until I can fabricate something more permanent (hopefully something that involves a self-storing ladder and hinged, spring-loaded door).

With the cover removed I was able to get my waist to about ceiling height, set my flashlight where I could reach it, and hoist myself up into the attic. I do not have any permanent/switched lighting in the attic, but I plan to install some at some point. What I should do is install a hatch in the hallway so I do not have to empty the closet to get into the attic, but that probably won’t happen. I did this in our previous house and it made working in the attic much more convenient. Flashlight in hand I crawled the 15+ feet over to the air-handler on plywood set across the roof trusses on a slope. I was reminded than another attic project will be to rig up a walkway (crawlway) that is level and does not compress the insulation. The insulation in this attic is a mess and needs to be straightened out, so that is another project for our “to do” list. But I digress.

When I got to the air-handler I saw a surface mounted switch box on top of the unit partially obscured by one of the flexible ducts. The switch was in the “Off” position so I flipped it to the “On” position. I did not see a transformer so I presumed it was inside the enclosure. I also presumed that Rebecca had either accidental moved the switch while checking/measuring the unit or had turned it off as a safety precaution and forgot to turn it back on. It did not really matter as the result was the same either way.

I worked my way back to the hatch in the closet ceiling, lowered myself down onto the top of the step ladder, and climbed down. The thermostat, which is on the wall across from the closet, now had information showing on the display. The upside to all if this was that I now knew something about our HVAC system and Wi-Fi thermostat that I did not previously know, so at least I learned something in the process.

This thermostat is 7-day programmable model so I set the day and time and then went through the programmed values but could only access the settings for the cooling mode. I activated the setup menu and walked through all of the settings, changing only one that had nothing to do with the programming. I finally got out the user manual and saw that I had to select a mode in order to program its schedule. I manually set temperatures for heating and cooling that would not cause those systems to come on and then programmed the times and temperature set points, four per day for each mode, for all seven days.

Keith showed up late morning while I was working. We agreed to let the grass go for another week. It has been dry and a little warm during the day for the last week and the grass has not grown much. There is, however, a real possibility of rain latter today and into tomorrow. Also, Phil is supposed to start tomorrow on the French drain and driveway work and with a little luck in the weather department may be done by next Monday.

With the thermostat issue resolved I turned my attention to the bus. I thought about priming the walls but decided against it. I would need to move the desk pedestals and bases, unscrew the sofa seat platform and move it on top of the pedestals, and then mask everything with painter’s plastic. All of that was work that was much more easily and quickly accomplished with two people and Linda was sound asleep taking a nap that she obviously needed.

The other reason for not getting into the priming was that I have to take the bus to Chuck’s shop in Novi tomorrow morning to have the two lower windshields replaced. That meant the bus had to be ready to move before the end of today and there were two things I had to do in that regard. One was to reattach the desk pedestals to their bases and to the wall. The other was to connect the loose ends of the two Aqua-Hot heater hoses together. It had only just occurred to me that once I start the main engine the Aqua-Hot will heat up and the coolant will expand. If these hoses are not connected the supply line will have coolant coming out of it and the return line will suck air into the system, neither of which would be good things.

I took care of the desk first. I reattached each pedestal to its corresponding base using the existing screw holes. I set the two assemblies in place with the connecting cover and then reattached each pedestal to the wall using the existing screw hole. I thought about trimming down the temporary plywood top and reinstalling it but decided there was no point in doing that. I cleaned up the rest of the interior making sure there were no loose items on counters or elsewhere that could fly around while the coach was moving.

The two bleeder valves were still clamped inside an old piece of heater hose that originally connected the two front heat-exchangers together with short stubs of hose on the other ends. Working in the garage on our temporary workbench I unclamped and removed the hoses. One of the valves was very badly corroded on one end and was not reusable. The other one needed to be cleaned up but appeared to otherwise be serviceable. Some of the inside of the hose was stuck to the metal of one of the pipe ends and was surprisingly difficult to remove.

I washed my hands, which were filthy, checked my e-mail, sent a message to Bill Gerrie, replied to an e-mail from Butch, took the dried laundry upstairs, folded it, and put it away. Linda woke up while I was finishing the laundry and heated up some Amy’s mock chicken noodle soup for our lunch, which we had with sourdough pretzel nibblers and roasted red pepper hummus. It was 2:30 PM by the time we finished lunch. I called Josh Leach at Coach Supply Direct to see if he had followed up with Ferman Miller at Countertops Plus regarding our Corian tabletop. I got his voice mail and left a message. It felt like the day was slipping away and I had not done much but I had, in fact, accomplished quite a bit and all of it was stuff that needed doing.

I worked on this post for an hour and then completed the task of connecting the two heater hoses together. I cut the ends of the old hoses off so I had clean material and square ends. I slipped two band clamps over each hose and pushed them over the pipe ends of the bleeder valve. They were very difficult to get on but I got them on far enough to put two clamps on each connection. I did not turn the Aqua-Hot on as I would rather not refill these hoses with antifreeze at this time but I did start the main engine to air up the chassis and then let it run for 30 minutes to get it up to temperature. It did not have any noticeable effect on the coolant in the Aqua-Hot in that short amount of time.

While the engine was running I closed the roof vents and made one last check that the interior was secure. Once I shut the engine off I closed the various air valves, disconnected the batteries, locked up the coach, and was done working on/with the bus for the day. I changed out of my work clothes and went to my office to edit blog posts from early August and get them ready to upload.

Linda called me up to dinner at 7 PM. We had vegan cheeseburgers with leftover vegan potato salad and collard greens Cole slaw (inherently vegan). It was yummy. I went back to my office to edit more posts but got involved in e-mails from/to Bill Gerrie and Gary Hatt. Gary sent me the BCM logo he is using for business cards and I spent over an hour trying to use Microsoft Publisher, and then Word, to layout a BCM business card that says “Freelance Author/Photographer.” I did not care for the result and really want a card with the cover of the February 2013 issue as a full card photo. The cover of that issue is our bus.

I came upstairs a little after 10 PM and watched the end of NCIS Los Angeles with Linda. She did some online research and concluded that she did not have a cold but is suffering from an allergic reaction to something. She went straight to sleep while I played a few games on my iPad before turning out the lights.

2015/09/24 (R) Blood Work

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Linda got confirmation yesterday that our lab orders had been put in by our doctor. The blood work requires a 12 hour fast (minimum) so we finished dinner last night before 8 PM and did not have breakfast this morning. We headed out around 8:30 AM for the Henry Ford Health System Columbus Center in Novi, the nearest HFHS lab to our house. We would not normally get on I-96 at that time of day due to rush hour traffic but we wanted to get this taken care of early and then get something to eat and drink. We got to the lab at 9:15 and it only took a few minutes to get our blood drawn. We then headed to the Panera on Novi Road at Grand River Avenue for bagels and coffee and some down time to sit, relax, read, research, and write.

Linda spent some time last evening researching wallpaper installation but found conflicting information. I got online and looked at some of the same websites. Wallpaper is a little out of style at the moment and some of the website information was over 10 years old but still seemed relevant. The interior walls of our motorcoach are finish grade plywood that is firmly attached to the structure of the bus with spray foam insulation underneath. The issue is how to prep the plywood before we hang the wallpaper. Some sources indicate that we need to size it, some say to prime it, and others say to use a liner material and then prime, all before hanging the paper. Other sites, however, say to just hang the paper directly on the plywood and be done with it.

We left Panera and were headed west on Grand River Avenue. We noticed that Chuck’s truck was at his shop so Linda made a U-turn and we stopped to see if he was there. He was, so we visited for a while and got to see their new refrigerator and discuss the installation, which Chuck somehow managed to do all by himself. Even with the use of his forklift, that was quite an accomplishment.

We got back to the house at 12:45 PM, changed into our work clothes, took care of a few chores, and had a light lunch of fresh apples, pears, and hummus with onion on rye bread. I then called Josh Leach at Coach Supply Direct and left a message asking him to follow up with Ferman Miller at Countertops Plus. If Ferman does not have any more of the Sandstone Corian I want to make sure Josh gets the 30″x48″ piece from the other supplier before it disappears.

The entrance landing with the floor removed revealing the pneumatic linear actuator that operates the slide out stepwell cover.

When we finally got to work on the bus around 2 PM Linda focused on stripping the old wallpaper and I started preparing the entrance for tiling. She taped off all of the wood trim where she is working, spread painter’s plastic to protect the floor, and wrapped the two living room captain’s chairs. I removed the existing vinyl tile from the entry platform, removed the plywood cover, and uninstalled the step well cover. I then removed the tile and treads from the stairs. I also moved the passenger seat forward and determined that I can probably get to the swivel shaft retaining nut from the back. Removing the seat by removing this one nut will make it much easier to tile that part of the cockpit. Ditto for the driver’s seat.

Although we got a late start on the bus today, and worked on it for less than four hours, we were satisfied with what we accomplished. The old tile came up more easily than I thought it would which bodes well for getting the entry/cockpit tiled with the new Armstrong Alterna Luxury Vinyl tile.

I called Phil Jarrell to verify that he had called Miss Dig and told them to mark the gas main and not just the utilities running to the house. He said he did and expected that they will be here on Friday. I will keep an eye open for them and intercede if possible. Phil expects to start our job on Tuesday. If he does he will probably be finished by the end of the week or over the weekend.

The entry stairs into the bus with the bottom riser cover plate removed to reveal one of the two air-conditioner compressors installed in the spare tire compartment. This is how the ports are accessed for service and recharging. The other compressor is accessed through the bay under the driver’s seat.

Linda let me know that our lab results were available so we each logged in to our HFHS MyChart accounts to look at them. Linda’s lipid profile showed a higher total cholesterol than she expected and she was not happy about it. Dr. Vangel had seen the results and commented that they were OK, but Linda was perturbed about it none-the-less. My total cholesterol was also higher than I would like but not as high as Linda’s. Her LDL and HDL numbers and ratio looked good and her HDL, in particular, was much better than mine. This was no doubt a consequence of her almost daily exercise walking. We apparently do not fully understand the lipid profile numbers or what we still need to change about how we eat to bring them in line with the guidelines put forward by people like Drs. Neal Barnhard and Caldwell Esselstyne.

Linda made a nice salad to start our dinner, served with a small glass of Moscato. The entrée was a mock chicken scaloppini that she picked up at Whole Foods. For a side dish she steamed kale with mushrooms, onions, and garlic. After dinner we sat on the back deck and enjoyed a second small glass of Moscato.

I went to my office and edited the blog posts for July 23 through 31 and hope to upload those posts tomorrow. I had an e-mail from Molly Pinner with Linda’s invitation to work as an office staff volunteer at the 2016 Escapade in Essex Junction, Vermont. I replied to that and cc:d Linda. I then e-mailed Lou and Val Petkus to let them know. I was wrapping up for the evening when I got an e-mail from Ed Roelle with the September CCO Newsletter. He develops the newsletter in MS Word and I convert it into PDF for him. I took care of that and sent it to him and then went upstairs to watch a PBS program on scenic train rides of North America.

The program was interesting but PBS was fundraising again, and the fundraising segments were longer than the programming segments. It seems like this has been going on all summer and we are, quite frankly, tired of it. After clicking around the other channels I turned the TV off and went to sleep.

2015/09/21 (M) Back to Bus Work

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We were up a little after 8 AM. I showered while Linda prepared our breakfast fruit–blueberries, raspberries, and peaches–to go with our granola. I made a pot of coffee, using up the Costa Rican half-caff, and then sat down to eat. After breakfast we sat in the living room enjoying our coffee to the warmth and glow of the fireplace while Linda downloaded and installed iOS 9 on her iPad. The download was 740 MB so I waited until the installation was done on her machine to start it on mine.

When we finally got to work our first task was to unload all of the wood from the car and store it in the garage. My next task was to call Ferman Miller at Countertops Plus in Shipshewana, Indiana to make sure he got my message on Friday with the dimensions for the Corian top table. I got his voice mail again and left another message. I then called Josh at Coach Supply Direct to bring him up to date, got his voice mail, and left a message.

Linda planned to get a few things at Whole Foods Market as she needed to drive to Ann Arbor anyway to pick up our wallpaper from Delux Draperies and Wallcoverings. While she took care of that I started figuring out what parts I needed to reconfigure the heating system. Before making a run to the store I found all of my plumbing tools and supplies. I got 20 feet of heater hose and 10 band clamps from O’Reilly’s and various copper fittings from Lowe’s. I also got a drain hose and a clean bucket to catch/hold antifreeze.

Back home I removed the seat and back cushions from the sofa and stacked them on the chairs. I removed the temporary plywood top from the desk and stored it in the garage. I then uninstalled the desk pedestals from the wall and from their bases. There wasn’t much else I could do without Linda’s help, so her return soon thereafter was timely. We had a light lunch and then moved the pedestals to the sofa. That left the bases free for me to work with. I still did not have all of the parts I needed to install the fan-coil heat exchangers in the bases. I also needed to remove the heater hoses in order to mount the heat exchangers and replace the hoses with different lengths and angled fittings.

As I was contemplating all of that I got a call from Chuck Spera. He was in the process of setting up an appointment to have the lower windshields replaced on both of our rigs and wanted to make sure I was still interested and check my availability. He called back a little while later to let me know we were set for next week Tuesday in the morning.

I then got a call from Joe Cannarozzi. Joe has done a lot of work on our bus over the last five years, especially the chassis. He called to confirm that I still wanted him to stop at our place on his way back to Chicago around Halloween and discuss what I needed done. Yes, I did, and what I needed was routine maintenance; lube, oil, filter(s), brakes, and possibly axle hub seals.

When we first started working with Joe he had an active, full-time mobile bus repair business, specializing in Prevost chassis service. The last couple of years he has worked a regular gig in upstate New York from April through October. He still services a few buses, like ours, starting in the north in the late fall and working his way to Florida for the winter where he tries to get to the Keys and take 4 to 6 weeks off before working his way back up to New York in the spring. When we wrapped up the call I texted Chuck to let him know that Joe would be coming this way.

I called Ferman again and this time he answered the phone. He had gotten my two previous messages and I was correct that there was not enough material in the large sheet of Corian to make the table. He had not had a chance to check his stock to see if he had any more of the Sandstone. I mentioned that Josh had another vendor with a 30″ by 40″ piece. Ferman indicated that if he doesn’t have another piece he would be willing to work with that piece if Josh got it. I called Josh and he answered this time so I walked him through the current status. He called the other vendor and called me back. The piece is 30″ by 48″ and he was willing to sell it for $175. Josh and I agreed to give Ferman a couple of days to check his stock before pursuing it.

Linda was working at her desk on a proposal for the bakery and preparing a bank deposit for our GLCC chapter. I went to the garage and began soldering 3/4″ copper plumbing fittings. I need to route the 3/4″ rubber heater hose around corners that were too sharp to just bend the hose so the copper fittings will take care of that.

Linda called me to dinner at 6 PM. We had a nice salad, vegan Italian sausage with onions, and Brussels sprouts as a side. A small glass of Moscato made a nice accompaniment. After dinner I checked my e-mail and took care of the cats’ liter tray. I then drove to Lowe’s for two more 45 degree street elbows. On the drive home I talked to Mike (W8HX) on the South Lyon 2m repeater. We discussed getting me back up our tower sometime in the next 9 days if my work on the bus progressed to the point where I could afford the time. We went to bed early enough to watch a few TV programs and then fell asleep.

2015/09/18 (F) RBus Anniversary

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The predicted thunderstorms came overnight with heavy rain and lots of lightning and thunder. I was aware of the rain but Linda seemed to be more aware of the lightning. Based on the radar just before going to bed the strongest storms passed north of us. Even with furnaces and air-conditioners we are more intimately connected to the weather in our RV than we are in our house, especially during storms, but we like that aspect of the lifestyle. If we wanted to live in a climate controlled bunker we would build one at the house.

Our bus at the GLCC Surplus Salvage Rally at Elkhart Campground in Elkhart, IN. We bought it six years ago today. We are the 4th owners as best we can determine. The older GM buses behind ours are also members of the FMCA Great Lakes Converted Coaches chapter.

We bought our bus six years ago today. It is an H3-40 VIP motorcoach that was manufactured by Prevost Car Inc. in Quebec, Canada in August 1990. It is powered by a Detroit Diesel 8V92TA diesel engine manufactured in April 1990. It went directly to Royale Coach in Elkhart, Indiana in September 1990 and the conversion was finished in October 1991. Because of the timing it was titled as a 1992.

In Michigan vehicles have to be at least 25 years old to qualify as “historic” so we are still a couple of years away from that benchmark, but she is a grand ole gal none-the-less. Technically historic license plates, which carry an inexpensive registration fee, are only supposed to be used on vehicles that receive limited use, such as in car shows and parades, but people routinely put them on everyday use vehicles to avoid paying higher registration fees. We, however, do not intend to do that. It’s the kind of thing that some bureaucrat in the future can decide to do something about and end up imposing retroactive penalties. It’s just not worth the risk of having to deal with that hassle.

We spent an hour after breakfast figuring out the required dimensions for the Corian table that will go between the two captain’s chairs in the living room of the bus. I then called Countertops Plus and left a message for Ferman Miller with the dimensions. It turned out that the table needs to be 22″ wide and 38″ long and I doubt that he has enough material in his 96″ by 30″ sheet to make both the desktop and the table. I will follow up with him on Monday if I do not hear back from him before then.

We left late in the morning to visit two of the surplus and salvage businesses on US-12 in Michigan. Johnson’s is just west of White Pigeon and Bontrager’s is east of White Pigeon but not as far as Sturgis. I found two switch plates at Johnson’s that might fit two small 12V DC switches I need to mount. At Bontrager’s I found a 1-1/2″ Bristol blade valve to replace the one on our fresh water tank. We also bought four packages of small 12V DC LED rope lights. Each pack is 5 meters (16′) long and has 60 warm white LEDs per meter. They are rated at 4.8 Watts per meter and are very bright. My intention is to use them around the inside of cabinet openings in place of the incandescent light fixtures that are original to the coach. The will give a brighter light and illuminate the entire inside of the cabinet rather than shining light from a single location.

We looked at a powered fresh water hose reel with a 40′ hose and a powered 50A shoreline reel with a 33′ cord. They wanted $200 for the water reel and $400 for the cord reel. Linda looked them up online using her phone. The asking prices were certainly less than retail at Camping World, but not enough less to make me shell out that kind of money for something that might not get installed for a year or more, if I could figure out a way to install them at all.

We stopped at Martin’s on the way back to camp and bought two Amy’s frozen vegan lasagna entries for dinner. The other rally participants were having regular lasagna and we wanted to fit in. 🙂 Salad was also being served and Vickie was making it without cheese, eggs, etc. so we could have some.

Pat and Vickie had a Nutone Food Center years ago and still had some of the accessories plus a replacement motor. They brought all of it over to see if it would fit our unit. It did, but was missing one piece, a right angle drive that was needed for some of the accessories. Vickie was pretty sure they had it somewhere at home but would have to look for it after the rally. They also did not have the food processor, which is the accessory that interests Linda the most, but it was nice to get what they had. Linda can start checking EBay now that we know the other accessories fit our recessed power base.

I helped Pat with the wiring for an LED replacement bulb for a fluorescent light fixture. They have 12 of these fixtures (with 24 tubes) in their 1987 Prevost XL conversion. Pat found LED replacements that can be wired directly to the switched 12V DC supply, completely eliminating the use of the electronic ballasts. It turned out that the pins at each end of the tubes were also electrically active and we had to cut all of the interconnecting wires.

Ed Roelle stopped by to find out what we were doing with all of the food equipment. Apparently someone thought we were “giving it all away.” Not true, of course; it belongs to the club and isn’t ours to give. What we wanted was for different people to take the things that will be the most useful at the rallies they host. Linda and I do not make it to all of the rallies, and next summer we will miss two of the big ones; Back-to-the-Bricks in August and Surplus & Salvage in September. We plan to attend the Escapees Escapade Rally at the end of July in Essex Junction, Vermont, and then the FMCA rally in early August in Massachusetts. We will then head for the Canadian Maritimes and work our way back down through New England over the course of the early fall.

Pat Caverly stopped by to see the bus. Linda showed her around and then we all sat down to visit for a while. After they left to help with dinner preparations I finished the posts for yesterday and the day before, e-mailed them to myself, and started working on today’s post.

Dinner was scheduled for 6 PM and most folks were gathered by then. Rain looked imminent so I closed the three roof vents in our bus, gathered up the bag of chapter T-shirts and flags, and went to the meeting room. I conferred with Pat, Vickie, Tami, and Linda and decided to hold the brief business meeting before dinner. It took all of 10 minutes. Dinner was salad and lasagna. Vickie prepared the salad by keeping all of the ingredients separate. That allowed us to build our salads using only things we eat, which we really appreciated. Linda heated the frozen Amy’s vegan lasagnas that we bought at Martin’s for our main course.

Linda was helping clean up in the kitchen and I was sitting at a large round table swapping bus stories when Michele Henry of Phoenix Paint came in. She was on her way home, which is not far from the campground, and knew from talking to Josh (at Coach Supply Direct) that we were here for a rally. She stopped in to see if she could find our coach, which of course she could even in the dark, since she is the one who painted it. Linda and I excused ourselves and went back to the coach with Michele, retrieving her kids from her car. We showed her the interior remodeling and had a long chat.

While we were talking Juniper caught a small house mouse. We knew there was one around because she had been focused on the bathroom most of the day exhibiting stalking behavior. Something got my attention and when I went back to the bedroom it was immediately obvious, even in the dark, that she had a mouse on the bed and was “playing” with it. I got a paper cup and went to the bedroom to try and catch it. It was very small, clearly a very young mouse. I made Juniper release it and it hunkered down on the floor by the HVAC duct. When I put the cup down it started to go the other way but Juniper was there and it turned around and ran into the cup. Although the cup was not big it was big enough, and slick enough, that the mouse could not climb out. I put a paper bowl over the cup to make sure it did not escape and we continued to chat.

It started raining while Michele, Raven (her daughter), and River (her son) were visiting. At one point the rain was very heavy and the lightning was intense and frequent so they stayed long enough for the storm to pass. It was getting late and we were all a bit tired so they prepared to leave. I took the bowl off of the cup and placed a plastic zip lock bag over the cup and zipped it shut. Raven carried the cup and Michele said they would release the mouse about a mile down the road near an area of fields.

Linda turned the front TV on and we watched an episode of Gotham, which we will not have to watch again, and American Masters (on PBS). The American Masters episode was on the photographer Pedro Guerrero. Although known as perhaps the best photographer of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, he had a far-reaching and distinguished career. As always, it was a well done program on a fascinating individual who made important cultural contributions. Linda was dozing at the end, went to bed, and fell asleep. I tried to write for a while, gave up, and went to sleep.

2015/09/17 (R) Counter This

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I went to breakfast before Linda as she was still asleep. I wanted coffee but it wasn’t ready so I toasted a blueberry bagel and ate that. Eventually the coffee was ready and I had some. Linda showed up a little while later with our granola and fruit and most of the rally attendees arrived and had breakfast. I got a call from Josh regarding the Corian desktop. He indicated that Ferman Miller of Countertops Plus in Shipshewana had a piece of Sandstone Corian big enough to make our desk top and was expecting us to call or visit.

After breakfast we gave Vickie a tour of the bus and visited for a while. We then drove to Countertops Plus, located east of downtown Shipshewana, and met with Ferman Miller. He had a piece of 1/2″ Sandstone Corian that was a perfect match to our existing counters. It was 96″ long by 30″ wide. He needed a 72-3/4″ by 25-3/4″ piece for the desktop plus a 72-3/4” by 1″ piece and a 25-1/4″ by 1″ piece for the front and left edge returns. It looked like he might have enough Corian left to make our dining room table so I made a quick sketch but left off the length and width dimensions. We ordered the desktop and the table. He figured out the price and we gave him a deposit. I need to determine the length and width of the table and call him in the morning with those dimensions.

We set the GPS for Jarel Beatty Cabinetry and headed for Logansport. I called Jarel to let him know we were on our way and verify that it was still OK to come. We drove through the pleasant Amish/Mennonite countryside on small count roads we had not previously traversed and passed a school where the children were playing softball dressed in their plain, traditional clothing. It was an odd yet delightful sight. Once we were on US-20 we were on familiar roads. We stopped along US-20 for fuel and a break and bought some peanuts and water. We arrived at Jarel’s place at 2:11 PM.

We brought a 60″ long piece of 1/4″ walnut veneer plywood and had Jarel rip two pieces 4-3/4″ wide. He actually cut them slightly wider and then trimmed off a small edge to get the long edges clean and square. We loaded the half sheet (96″ by 24″) of 3/4″ walnut veneered plywood in the car and then loaded the half box cover for the forward passenger side OTR HVAC duct. There were other pieces of plywood and hardwood left so we loaded all of those as well. We only realized after we left that we forgot to get the drawings back from Jarel. I sent him a TXT message and asked him to hang on to them until I could get them from him and he agreed to do that.

We stopped at the Martin’s supermarket about a mile from Elkhart Campground and made salads for dinner at their excellent salad bar. It was 5:30 PM by the time we got back to the campground. Dinner was nominally at 6 PM but was ready to eat closer to 6:30. Linda reheated seitan stroganoff (vegan, of course) for our main course.

After dinner we gave Charles and Connie Martin the tour of our interior remodeling project and chatted for a while. There were thunderstorms in the overnight forecast so I rolled up the two driver side awnings. We then joined Scott and Tami Bruner at the fire pit by their bus. I took a couple of folding chairs over and Linda brought our glasses of Franzia Moscato. Charles joined us and so did Dan. Tami had interviewed for a new job this morning, gotten the offer, and accepted the position, so it was a big day for her. She and Scott have also been successful finding things they need for their bus conversion projects (they own two buses) so it has been a very good week for them.

Tami was tired and headed off to bed and Linda had the same idea a short while later. There was a fairly high probability of rain starting at 2 AM with but we got occasional drops starting at 10 PM. By midnight we were all getting tired and the raindrops were becoming frequent enough that they gave us an excuse to call it a night as we needed to put our lawn chairs away so they did not get soaking wet. I wrote for a while in bed but I was too tired to work efficiently and went to sleep around 1 AM.

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Tag Archives: Ferman Miller (Countertops Plus)

2015/10/12 (M) Countertops Plus

2015/10/08 (R) A Mighty Hose

2015/09/29 (T) Bus Windshields

2015/09/28 (M) Connected

2015/09/21 (M) Back to Bus Work

2015/09/18 (F) RBus Anniversary

2015/09/17 (R) Counter This