I finally filed my taxes yesterday. Between all the things I either had to do, or wanted to do, getting my taxes done was low on my priority list. I’m leaving today for a five day, four night camping trip, so I kinda had to file them yesterday. I spent all of last weekend getting ready for the camping trip. The first trip of the year is always the most difficult to prepare for: de-winterizing the camp trailer, cleaning it and fixing any minor issues that need fixing, and finding and packing all the camping gear that seems to get scattered around the house/garage throughout the winter. After I flushed the water system in the trailer, I took it to the RV dump to empty the tanks and I noticed a small amount of water dripping from the bottom of the trailer. It appeared to be coming from between the sheet metal on the side and the plastic membrane covering the bottom of the trailer, and when I slithered beneath it I found that one section of the plastic membrane was bulging downward with the weight of a considerable amount of water. When I got home I started tearing into the trailer from the inside trying to find a water leak, but everything looked dry from inside. All the plumbing that I could access (without cutting holes in the walls/floor) was leak-free. I cut a slit in the membrane and drained the water, then removed some insulation, and I still couldn’t find where the water came from. The best I can figure is that rain and melting snow had gotten in through a not-very-well-caulked joint on the front of the trailer and pooled up in the bottom. I’ll have to re-caulk any joints outside the trailer that need it and hope it takes care of the problem.
One relief I’ve had recently is that I fixed the cold-start problem with the truck. It started late last year when the weather turned cold. The engine would turn over but not start, and white smoke would billow out both the exhaust and air intake. If I plugged the block heater in for about an hour it would start just fine, so as long as I was at home I could live with it. When I went camping, however, it could be a problem. Last month when I went camping in the Swell I got up in the middle of the night to start the truck just so the engine wouldn’t cool off enough to give me problems in the morning. I finally did some internet research and found that the most likely cause was a bad glow plug relay. I got around to testing the relay about two weeks ago and, sure enough, that was the problem. A new replacement glow plug relay was $75, but again I found out on the web that there’s an identical relay for $35 that simply has a different mounting configuration (I believe it’s for the older non-Power Stroke Ford engines). I bought the cheaper one and installed it in about 10 minutes. The truck fired right up and I haven’t had any problems since.
This year has been the worst for my allergies, ever. They started up about a month ago and have just been full-on horrible ever since. To top things off, I think I have a cold (or worse) right now. I’ve gotten perhaps two good nights of sleep in the past month–I keep waking up with a simultaneously stuffy and runny nose, or having a coughing fit that wakes Traci up as well. My airway is also a bit constricted most of the time, and whenever I exercise it gets worse, so I haven’t gotten out mountain biking as much as I’d have liked to. I’m hoping that this weekend I’ll leave whatever plants are causing my allergies far behind. The place I’m camping is pretty barren–there’s nothing but some sparse, small brush. I normally don’t sleep as well while camping as I do at home, but I’m optimistic that this weekend may be a departure from that.
One relief I’ve had recently is that I fixed the cold-start problem with the truck. It started late last year when the weather turned cold. The engine would turn over but not start, and white smoke would billow out both the exhaust and air intake. If I plugged the block heater in for about an hour it would start just fine, so as long as I was at home I could live with it. When I went camping, however, it could be a problem. Last month when I went camping in the Swell I got up in the middle of the night to start the truck just so the engine wouldn’t cool off enough to give me problems in the morning. I finally did some internet research and found that the most likely cause was a bad glow plug relay. I got around to testing the relay about two weeks ago and, sure enough, that was the problem. A new replacement glow plug relay was $75, but again I found out on the web that there’s an identical relay for $35 that simply has a different mounting configuration (I believe it’s for the older non-Power Stroke Ford engines). I bought the cheaper one and installed it in about 10 minutes. The truck fired right up and I haven’t had any problems since.
This year has been the worst for my allergies, ever. They started up about a month ago and have just been full-on horrible ever since. To top things off, I think I have a cold (or worse) right now. I’ve gotten perhaps two good nights of sleep in the past month–I keep waking up with a simultaneously stuffy and runny nose, or having a coughing fit that wakes Traci up as well. My airway is also a bit constricted most of the time, and whenever I exercise it gets worse, so I haven’t gotten out mountain biking as much as I’d have liked to. I’m hoping that this weekend I’ll leave whatever plants are causing my allergies far behind. The place I’m camping is pretty barren–there’s nothing but some sparse, small brush. I normally don’t sleep as well while camping as I do at home, but I’m optimistic that this weekend may be a departure from that.