Archives for January 2014

Once upon a time,  two days before a long anticipated camping weekend with friends, complete with bonfires, hot dogs, hay rides, horseback riding and loads of fun was to start, a mom is told this is an “adult only” party, and not appropriate for her son’s 13^th birthday.

I get the call.

“What can I do?  He is so disappointed!  I cannot believe this is happening!  We’ve been waiting for this party for months.  There was no information provided anywhere saying adults only, and I mentioned to them more than once this would be my son’s best birthday ever….they never said anything until now!”

Poor communication?  Hard tellin’, not knowin’.  Bottom line, how rude of “them”.  The kid deserves better, not to mention treatment of mom. 

We talk.  She decompresses from the frustration and disappointment of this turn of events.  We brainstorm.  She tells me what kinds of things he likes.   He likes guns.  He would love to go shoot trap with me.  He doesn’t have a “positive role model” in that arena.  They have a tight budget.  But this year is special—after all, he’s becoming a teen ager.

It’s tough to be a single parent.  It’s tough to raise boys without a positive influence from the male perspective.  It’s especially tough to not have an unlimited cash flow.  It’s even more difficult to work through the unique daily challenges of special kids like hers. 

I have an idea. I make a phone call. 

What a small world it is.  My dear friend Howard is familiar with this family, and is right there to help me make a special day for the boy.  I tell him what I’d like to set up.

“Give me a few hours, and I’ll call you back.  Be ready to go when I say so.” He says, and hangs up.  And sure enough, a few hours later, it’s all arranged.  A day this thirteen year old will never forget.

They arrive to my house right on time, and Brock has no idea what he is in store for.   In only a few minutes I hear from Howard.

“Okay, it’s time for us to go, we’ll be walking for a while.” Brock and his mom are confused.  I’m leading them on a walk through my neighborhood, past a shopping mall, and it would appear we are heading to a restaurant…but we walk right by and instead I lead them into the local Gun Shop.  There we meet up with two of the most amazing men I know:  Howard and Pat.

Howard, my longtime friend in the archery world, has dedicated his entire life to Hunter Education.  The “stick and string” traditional bow hunter has built a life around the beauty and joy of the bow, as well as the beauty and joy of educating others about responsible use of one.  His expertise spills over into the world of firearms, black powder in particular.   Howard may look like a jolly Santa, but he is dead serious about safety, respect, rules and responsibility and doesn’t put up with one iota of silliness when it comes to firearms.  As it should be.

Then there’s Howard’s son-in-law, Arthur “Pat” Patterson.  Pat is an active duty military man, highly decorated and an absolute connoisseur on firearms, and training soldiers on marksmanship and tactical.  Pat’s military career began in 1993.  He was immediately transferred to active duty where he completed Basic Combat and Advanced Individual Training, then completed airborne school.  From there he underwent a series of transfers and promotions as a fire director, onto Chief Fire Direction Computer serving overseas repeatedly.  Then he was deployed to Kuwait as Sergeant of the Guard for Force Protection operations, and again as the Chief Fire Director Computer for the 1/125 FA at the Udari range, Kuwait. Staff Sargent Arthur Patterson was awarded Honorable Order of Saint Barbara.

The man is light years beyond an expert marksman.  He has lead and trained scores of combat soldiers and snipers.  He commands his surroundings with strict discipline, honor, ethics and respect.

What a perfect person to coach Brock through his first experience handling firearms.

 

Needless to say, Brock was initiated into the world of guns via the fear of God, Howard, and Pat to never ever EVER do anything inappropriate with a firearm, ever.  This message, of course, was reiterated by Brocks mom and I.  Wide eyed, hands clutched, and “church face” humble, the boy hung on every word the men spoke to him.  He mimicked every movement and procedure shown to him with exact precision.  His mom was stunned at her son’s ability to pay acute attention.  After almost two hours of basic firearms safety training they were ready to enter the range.  Two hours later Brock came out of the range, smiling, eyes glazed, carrying targets shot up in awesome patterns.

It’s not every day a boy has the opportunity to experience the world of firearms in this capacity, from a military firearms expert and not only see, but shoot nine different models of hand guns, from a simple 22 to a 48 special, 9mm and more.

 All that, plus shoot at zombie targets until he can’t hardly hold his arms up any longer. 

Suffice it to say, this turned out to be a pretty darn good birthday, after all.  Especially wrapping up with a birthday pizza, and a special invitation to join Pat and his family and learn how to reload the ammunition they used. 

 Is this the perfect birthday for every kid?  Heck no!  Was it the perfect birthday for this kid?  Absolutely!  Happy Birthday, Brock!

It’s January 15 2014, almost 1:00 a.m.  I’ve decided to stop and write, hoping to calm down and not go into a crying fit.  Why would I do that at this hour of the morning?  Well, it’s hard not to, since I just happened to notice a fine crack of water along the floor of my cabinetry under the bed of the Toy Hauler.  Curious and somewhat fearful of what I was apparently seeing I pulled the bottom drawer out.  Low and behold, the entire underneath of the bed is wet again.  So I’ve been moving my belongings out of the line of fire—or water, that is.

Yes, I said “again”.

Oh Lord, when does this shit end?

I am too tired and frustrated to deal with this.  Why oh why does this keep happening?  I stuffed bath towels behind the opened drawers to mop up as much of the water as possible.  Weary of the thought that when the sun comes up I’ll once again be pulling bedding away and moving belongings out of the way to entirely remove the bed in order to get to the water heater and pump, I sit down and shake my head.

This trailer will only be a year old in a few days.

Is this normal to have so much go wrong so soon?  I have barely used it.

This is the 3^rd time since I hooked up to water on December 17^th that I’ve had water seeping across the floor of the trailer, causing the framing to become soaked, my stuff to become soaked, and me to be completely “put out”  with a water crisis.

I think back to when I first arrived to Secret Spot on the 16^th of December.  I had not been hooked up to water since leaving Secret Spot that previous April.  Before I left for home back then, everything was winterized and I dry camped all summer, up until now.  After innocently hooking everything up and expecting no issues, I walked into the trailer to discover water instantly came spraying out from the bathroom sink due to the faucet being accidently turned on.  I assumed all the water on the floor was due to that, but it seemed to also be coming from behind the wall under the bed—or maybe it just seems like it?  I decided to wait a day for Boy Scout Buddy to check things over before turning the water back on. 

I mopped up the water using every towel I have, turned on a fan to dry the floor and walls, and with a heavy sigh, tried to relax. 

The next day we inspect everything. All faucets are off, and Buddy says “go turn on the water”.  We test the hot, the cold, the bathroom sink, the kitchen sink, and everything seems fine.  And then I look down, to see water creeping across the floor from under the bed.  I open up the drawers located under the bed.

Sure enough it didn’t end there.  Water is gushing from under the bed where the water pump and hot water heater is (by the way, the bed is screwed in place and there are absolutely NO access panel to get to the area without completely removing the bed), filling the entire end of the trailer with over an inch of standing water, including the cargo storage area, and reaching all the way to the fridge. 

Everything in the drawers is soaked.  My $500 camera is soaked.  Clothes, shoes and all sorts of personal stuff–all soaked.  And in a gallant but unsuccessful effort to stop the madness, every towel I have is now soaked. 

Thankfully several neighbors come to the rescue with a Wet Vac and mechanical expertise.  Thankfully one of the neighbors, Greg, is in the business of working on RV’s.  They discover that not one, not two but three fittings need to be replaced from the hot water heater.   My bed is out on the picnic table.  Buddy has gone to the store for parts.  Greg is explaining to me how it’s crazy that there is no access panel to make investigation and repair easier, and I need to advise the manufacturer about this issue because it just plain shouldn’t be happening to a new unit.  And I am sucking up gallons of water with the Wet Vac. 

 

Buddy returns with parts and the two guys get to work while I am wringing out towels and belongings.  With fittings repaired, we’re good to go.  Buddy goes to turn the water back on.  Hmmm. It all looks good, no moisture coming from those new fittings!  I will have to keep fans on and air everything out at least a few days to prevent mold and rotting wood.

Then, I look down to see water coming from under the bathroom door, and into the kitchen area.  I open the bathroom door.

“Stop!  No!  Noooooo!  Turn it off!  Turn it off!”  I cry, as water is spraying from the connection behind the toilet.  Water has filled the bathroom floor and is spreading across the floor once again, and I am out of towels.   We discover that the fitting where the hose and the main valve is connected to the toilet is cracked—even though it’s a pinhole crack it has created monumental damage–neighbor Greg says that should never happen, it’s poor quality parts.  When they worked on the water pump we had no idea there was also an issue with the toilet.  After all, I don’t even use the toilet or shower, that room is my closet!  Now even more water is seeping across the trailer, even from under the kitchen sink.

“I can’t do this anymore!”  I cry, and ask them to create a permanent fix to not have to worry about this ever again.  We turn the water off, Buddy is back to the store for parts, and off comes the wood grill under the kitchen sink to mop up water.  Upon Buddy’s return, he and Greg cap off the water connection to the toilet, leaving the bad parts intact.

Problem solved, for now anyway.  Both men are advising me I absolutely must alert the manufacturer about these problems.  Yes, yes, I will, after I get things cleaned up, put back, and get through the holiday.  I don’t want to bother them over the holidays.  Why, oh why aren’t there shut off valves for every source of water into the trailer, anyway?

It was several days of a Wet Vac mess.   It was several days of fans blowing, trying to dry the floor, the walls, the framing.  It was several days of chaos in the trailer, until I could finally put things back together, find things, get things in order and settle down, now with virtually no time left to prepare for Christmas.

And now, January 15^th, here I am in the middle of the night, standing in water once again.  But at least nothing is spraying.  And I have a bunch of new towels to work with.  But I am now exhausted. Time to get some rest!  Is that the sunrise?

 

Mid-Morning January 15^th, 2014

Sleep deprived, I’m feeling like death warmed over.  Boy Scout Buddy saw my email from the wee hours of the morning, and has just arrived.  We pull the mattress out, unscrew the bed and take it apart, and examine the water situation.  I did a great job of sopping up the water under the bed. I became an expert in December, after all.  He notices a fitting to the water pump — pulls it off and then snaps it back on. 

“Go turn the water on and let’s see what we’ve got.” he says.  I do, then we test the water to the sinks, and everything looks good.  No water leaks around the water pump or water heater.  So far, so good. With everything taken apart more water seepage is exposed for me to wick away.  We’ve discovered the leaking made it into the cargo storage bin again so now everything stored there is out on the grass airing out.  There is mold forming on the inside wall that I will need to remove today.

We’re guessing the water pump fitting came loose and started a slow leak, but it’s hard to say.  I do know it’s time to contact the manufacturer.  The holiday is over.  In two days it will be a full calendar year since writing that first check toward purchasing my Riverside 25RPM Toy Hauler.  Not sure if I’m going to celebrate or cry.

It’s partly cloudy and 67 degrees.  We’re giving it a day or two to keep an eye on things, leaving my home in an upheaval for now.  Who needs comfort, access to things, or a bedroom, anyway? 

Good thing I have tents along!