Approaching Completeion

Saturday: (11/25) I visited the hardware store for a couple of items for the RV. After lunch, I started work on the RV wiring. I made some progress on the wiring to the Inverter and wiring the battery switches. Not near finished yet but probably past the halfway mark. PBJ toast for breakfast. A chicken, avocado, cheese, and hummus sandwich for lunch.  Leftover Thanksgiving items for dinner.

Sunday: (11/26) Just relaxed, enjoyed the Sunday morning shows and computed all day. Lou and Dawn were out shopping/walking at the mall. A rainy day. About ½” today. Boiled eggs for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch. Chinese noodles for lunch.

Monday: (11/27) Dawn and I had an appointment in Campbell first thing in the morning. At home, after an early lunch, I got busy on the RV. I made up and terminated some cables and wiring. It’s almost ready, just the solar connections and the AC in the rear compartment.  Soft boiled eggs for breakfast. Ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Black beans with rice and some of Lou and Dawn’s homemade sausage. In the evening I started binge watching a Netflix series Marcella. Very interesting mystery drama. Twist after twist.

Tuesday: (11/28) I slept in having continued my binge TV watching into the early morning. Lou made strawberry waffles for breakfast. I relaxed watching part of the Live with Kelly and The View TV shows. They were interrupted by a ridiculous press conference by the idiot president.  It was supposedly called to talk about the new North Korean missile launch but he almost didn’t even mention it being too busy touting his other destructive efforts and blaming others for his gross failures. ABC actually televised the whole diatribe. When I switched to CBS, they had left the conference and pointed out the failure to discuss the topic of interest. I left and got to work. I needed to move some concrete that was piled up at the rear of the RV. I moved it into the front yard with the dirt pile. Hope the neighbor don’t complain too much. To move the concrete I needed the big wagon. It was in Lou’s shed. No problem, but her door hasn’t closed for a while due to the building settling too much. I trimmed the door and adjusted the lock so it all worked and would shut and lock. Eventually, I completed the concrete move then laid some concrete pavers next to the driveway then placed some rubber mats down to make working in the rear compartment easier. I then diverted to working at the battery compartment by hooking up the old batteries through the new switches and sensors with some of the new wiring I installed. That activated the battery monitor for the old house batteries and the starter battery. I added some cable protection and secured all the wiring under the coach. Getting closer to the end. I still need to complete the solar charger wiring and install the new batteries for the inverter and do the input AC wiring in the rear compartment. I get the wire for the charger Thursday so tomorrow may finish the AC wiring. We all went to dinner at Cecelia Mexican restaurant.

Wednesday: (11/29) Lou’s apple pie for breakfast. I worked on the RV, as usual. I got the inverter connected. I started work in the back compartment and got the power return from the inverter connected and then was able to start the rest of the transformation with no power present. I found that the 30 amp connectors I have are not suitable so new ones are on order. I should finish everything this weekend. I did make a quick run to the hardware store midday. Lou made hamburgers for lunch. We had leftovers for dinner.

Thursday: (11/30) Lou and I were off for the day shopping just for fun. We stopped for breakfast at A Good Morning restaurant in Los Altos. We then headed South on El Camino Real stopping here and there. In the process, we looked at some things we’d passed for years, bought all the things on our shopping list and more. We had lunch at King Noodle house in Santa Clara. We made our way down to Eastridge Shopping Center in East San Jose before heading back. For dinner we had a cup of soup at Nob Hill market in Mountain View. I then dropped Lou off for an appointment. Busy day. While out, I got an Amazon delivery of the parts i need to finish the solar hookup. I have a hike tomorrow so that won’t happen until Saturday. I hope to have all the electrical done Sunday.

Joseph Grant Park Hike

Friday: (11/24) I fixed an egg, cheese and ham sandwich for breakfast.

I picked up Alex and we headed up to Joseph Grant Park for our hike. We had 11 hikers from the San Jose Mid-Week Hikers.

We hike 12.5 miles over hill and dale in the East foothills of San Jose. i was back home by 1630. Leftovers and chili for dinner.

Lou and Dawn spent the day in San Francisco at the Exploratorium.

Work, Work, RV Prep

Saturday: (11/18) A sunny day. I got an email and phone call about the heater not working in San Jose. I tried to get by with telling them I’d have it looked at next week but was persuaded to replace the thermostat even though I knew it was more than that. About 0930 Dawn had me leave and drop her off in Sunnyvale at the library for a book sale. I visited Orchard hardware looking for a simple thermostat but they had none. I then stopped by Target and got some items for Lou. Next stop was Home Depot where I found a nice simple thermostat. On the way to San Jose I stopped for a couple of egg rolls at House Of Eggroll. I got involved in a Johnny Dollar radio episode so I had to listen to it all before going in to replace the thermostat.

I also went and took photos of the furnace and the information panel. At home, I had more lunch. Lou had picked up some dim sum for me. About 1500 I finally got to my planned activity for the day. I fit the final pieces of the shelf support above the new drawers and then I cut some molding to reinforce the corners of the drawers. Leftover pork, sauerkraut, and potatoes for dinner.

Sunday: (11/19) An easy Sunday morning watching the morning TV shows. I also spent time preparing the announcements for hikes at the Pinnacles with my hiking group and making our campground reservations.

I finally got outside and worked on the RV closet drawers and drawer frame. It’s all finished now except for the finish. I only need cut some holes in the front of the drawers to act as their handles and to varnish or oil them tomorrow. Ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Chili sizes for dinner.

Monday: (11/20) Granola for breakfast. I spent most of the morning on the phone and scheduling some Meetup hikes for the San Jose Mid-Week Hikers. Not the easiest task with all the problems with the Meetup site currently. Next, Lou and I were off shopping at Orchard Hardware. At home, I sprayed some varnish on the drawers and drawer box. Should be ready to install tomorrow. In the evening I worked with Meetup for the hikes.  Lou and I had lunch at Los Altos Taqueria. Dawn made Toscano soup for dinner.

Tuesday: (11/21) I quickly installed to drawer runners on the now dry drawers and installed the drawers in the closet. Then I needed to go to San Jose to meet the furnace tech at 0900. I Stopped on the way at Cash And Carry to get a cutting board for the RV. Next, I got breakfast at La Victoria Taqueria. I arrived at the San Jose house just before 0900. A couple of minutes later the furnace tech from OC McDonald arrived. He tested the furnace and determined it needed a new control board. It wasn’t sending power to the gas valve. This all took about 20 minutes then he was off to get parts. He returned about 45 minutes later, installed the new control board and gas valve and was off at 1145. Nice on time and quick fix though it won’t be cheap. The house now has heat. On the way home I picked up lunch at the Dim Sum King in Sunnyvale.

At home, after a nap, I cut the carpet for the new bottoms of the closet and the drawer bottoms. Finished. I had a little time before dark to tinker in the new battery compartment improving the component layout. For dinner, macaroni and cheese with roasted green beans.

Wednesday: (11/22) Lou and Dawn were off grocery shopping early. I tinkered on the RV electric until they returned and Lou made biscuits and gravy for breakfast. I spent the rest of the day installing components, making cables and generally trying to complete the installation of the solar, batteries and inverter.  I did make some progress but still lots to complete. Ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. I made a shopping run in the afternoon with Dawn. I was trying to locate some specific sized connectors but couldn’t find them.Cottage cheese and fruit with leftover rice for dinner.

Thursday: (11/23) Thanksgiving Day. Lou’s birthday. Granola for breakfast. I relaxed and stayed out of the way as best I could until dinner. We had a potluck dinner with our neighbor Meili, brother Ernie, and Cecelia. We have managed to minimize the quantity of food. Still way too much.

Exploring Upper UCSC Campus And A Loose Sock

Friday: (11/17) Up early to drive to Santa Cruz for my hike today. Dawn joined me for the drive. I prepared ham egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches for breakfast. Nice no rain day. Traffic was light. I dropped Dawn off at Peet’s Coffee and proceeded to a trailhead on Highway 9 about 2.5 miles North of Highway 1. I was joined by 15 other SJMW hikers for this exploratory hike led by Bob. We proved the naming correct as we hiked through upper Pogonip Park into the campus and wandered around trying to locate some points of interest.  

The Buddha Hut, Totem Pole, and Cat Shrine. The Totem Pole and Cat Shrine are evidently Wiccan coven circles known as Caer Ellillon. Very interesting. A number of other points of interest are hidden in the forest of upper UCSC campus so future hikes will need to be undertaken. A total of 6.9 miles for the hike.

After the hike, I returned to Santa Cruz and met Dawn for a late lunch at Zachary’s Cafe. Then we returned to the Santa Cruz Bookstore for dawn to finish examining before we returned to Palo Alto about 1630.

At home, Lou wasn’t feeling well but still had started pork sauerkraut and potatoes in the slow cooker for dinner.

For the past few months, I’ve had an extra sock with no mate in my drawer. A couple of days ago Lou found an odd wet sock on the garage floor after having done the socks the day before. I had already matched them up and put them away. No missing socks. My socks are all Darn Tough of two colors. Most are tan but I also have three pairs of dark gray.  One of those dark gray socks was what was missing and the wet sock was a dark gray sock. So I now had all my socks again. This morning when I dressed for my hike I put on my Injinji toe socks then the Darn Tough hiker socks. I always wear two pair of socks for hikes. Later I noticed a dark gray sock on the bed. I thought that Lou had found another and I was back to being out of sync again. This evening, when I peeled my clothes off for a shower I discovered I was wearing two socks on one foot and only one on the other I only had the Injinji sock on one foot. I had forgotten to put the second Darn Tough sock on. It’s amazing I didn’t walk in circles all day. So the socks are actually happily paired after all.

New RV Setup

Saturday: (11/11) I started my RV prep efforts by installing the new 7way trailer light connector on the umbilical cord. Next, I started installing the fuses, shunts, and switches. I cut and crimped lugs on some cables until I ran out of both. More are on order. In the evening we went to a storytelling event. A day of low fiber. I made corned beef hash for breakfast. Ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Mashed potatoes and chicken for dinner.

Sunday: (11/12) A little grocery shopping run first thing in the morning, after the Sunday morning news shows. At home, I installed the power cables that go from the rear left compartment, where the power enters the RV, to the new mid right compartment where the inverter and batteries are going to be. Lots of crawling around underneath the RV on my nice new crawler. Now waiting for grommets and clamps. The clamps arrived later in the afternoon. Cecilia came by in the afternoon. She’s been back East for a while. She and Dawn took a walk. When they returned I had finished up and we all chatted for a while in the RV/ Hobbs, our neighborhood cat really wanted to join us inside. Yesterday he convinced me he should take a nap in the RV. I had no problem with it but when Lou found out, she quickly convinced her to exit the RV. Leftover corned beef hash for breakfast. A chicken sandwich for lunch. Chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Monday: (11/13) I had an early 0800 dentist appointment to start my day. In addition to cleaning, I had a filling repaired. Fortunately, they can be repaired sometimes now rather than replaced so no painkiller to have to wait to stop numbing and no drooling after the visit. After that, I stopped by the REI in Campbel to browse around while I waited for a noon appointment at Normandin Jeep to have the start/stop feature looked at. It stopped doing that a couple of months ago. It had to stay so they gave me a rental and I returned home. At home, I began installing the cables for the AC power to and from the new inverter. I also got the table saw out and started building the drawer compartments in the bottom of the closets. They will be drawers and leave plenty of space above for clothes. I glued up some pieces before stopping for the day. Today I was fasting for a procedure tomorrow so no meals for me. Lou and Dawn ate out so they wouldn't tempt me.

Tuesday: (11/14) I was up really early to get ready for my procedure. Lou went with me as my driver. She got to do some shopping nearby as she waited. All went well. I finished my procedure about noon. Lou took me to Applebee’s for lunch. I enjoyed a chicken wrap and French onion soup. Lou made beef stroganoff for dinner. Lou’s strawberry shortcake for dessert. Nice to be able to eat again.

Wednesday: (11/15) Lou and I headed off to Normandin Jeep in San Jose to pick up Tigger, our jeep. We stopped for breakfast on the way at the Country Inn in Cupertino. The jeep wasn’t ready yet. In fact, they had trouble locating it. They finally found it, no charge for the “repair”.  They replaced the battery. The error showing on the screen was Start/Stop disabled due to battery charging. This, I told them when I scheduled the appointment. This battery replacement took over two days to complete. We had not turned in our loaner car until we knew our car was ready. We left and stopped at a couple of thrift stores and a restaurant supply store looking for a cutting board for the RV. I noted that the Start/Stop hadn’t worked since we left and the error was still showing on the screen. We returned to the dealer and complained about the fact nothing was fixed. The service adviser said it may take the IBS (Intelligent Battery Sensor) a couple of days to know the battery is OK. Sounds like a story to me but we’ll give it the 48 hours to see. They did replace the battery which, when I checked it when I saw the code at first, was OK. I’m not going to be happy if it doesn’t magically start working. Unfortunately, this problem doesn’t generate any error codes, just the message and disabling the function. At home, Lou made chicken salads for lunch. I worked on the closet shoe drawers. I installed the runners, took measurements and cut out the drawer parts and glued and nailed them together. Leftover beef stroganoff with Brussels sprouts for dinner.

Thursday: (11/16) Heavy rain all day. Busy day though, just not working on the RV. Lou and i visited three Lowes stores. I wanted a couple of more pieces of birch plywood and Lou was looking for carpet for the closet bottom and shoe drawer bottom.  The first Lowe’s only had two 2’x4 sheets left. When i got the other pieces last week, there were a dozen. These two were not the best. We visited the Coleman Avenue Lowes and they only had two sheets as well but they were good. We did have to visit the Brokaw Lowes to finally find the carpet and also find what we needed to know about the new flooring we need for the RV. Finally sucess. We also visited the San Jose City Hall to get a business license which they now require for home rentals. We also visited a couple of restaurant supply stores looking for containers and cutting boards. Still no luck there. Lunch at Super Taqueria. Grocery shopping at Sprouts on the way home. Still raining. When we arrived home we noticed our neighbor’s cars lights were on. It turns out they were not turned on just on. The flashers were on but not flashing and turning on the flashers did nothing. Then we discovered there was about two gallons of water on the floor of the left side of the vehicle, source unknown. Vacuumed that out but couldn’t find a fuse to kill the lights. Ended up disconnecting the battery until tomorrow. Breakfast at Bajis Cafe on the way South. Lunch at Super Taqueria in San Jose. Lou made potato soup for dinner.

Windy Hill OSP Hike

Friday: (11/10) I enjoyed a fall hike with my San Jose Mid Week Hikers at Windy Hill OSP. 9.5 miles with the last half in rain showers. Actually a great hike. When I got home showered and had some lunch I check with Lou who was down in San Jose at the rental watching the neighbor's tree being trimmed. It’s a huge tree. The tenants mentioned that their heater wasn’t working. I checked it and it was working fine. I did notice they had installed a smart thermostat. I gave up on them many years ago due to the inability of most people to know how they work. I had reinstalled a simple thermostat many years ago. May have to do it again and replace the one they installed. While there I replaced the filter. Lou and Dawn went their way home stopping at thrift stores. I did some grocery shopping on my way home stopping at Grocery outlet for cheese, lunch meat, and hummus and again at Sprout’s for my ciabatta bread. Breakfast from Happy Donut, an egg cheese, and bacon croissant. Some fruit and yogurt for lunch. Tater tots and shrimp with carrots for dinner.