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Borrego Springs, CA

Sunday, June 29, 2014

A few of life’s little defugalties

The last couple of days, I’ve had some challenges to deal with.  They were not overwhelming, but life for me isn’t one long vacation.  Every fulltime RVer knows that.  Late Friday night, I noticed another brown tinge to the water here.  I’ve had great water for the last two weeks, and staff felt the problem had been solved. 

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A wild rose bloom with some pollinators.  Tonight’s pics are from one of the trail checks I did last week.

I don’t know why the water always seems to go bad on a weekend when no staff are around.  I’ve asked that I be taught how to get the softener machine to recharge.  No ice or drinking water is a real pain in the neck.

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I wrote a post a while back on Petco vs. PetMeds.com.  Well, I’ve had nothing but problems with getting Emma’s flea and tick stuff shipped.  It’s been about 12 days now, with four calls by me to get it straightened out.  Each time I’m assured things are taken care of.  Ha!  My latest call on Friday resulted in my order being sent to accounting for a decision.  They’ll supposedly get back to me tomorrow.  They don’t work weekends you know. 

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In the meantime, July 1 is fast approaching, and the first of the month is when I always put the medication on Emma.  I’ve got a six month supply from Petco for a large dog, but I hesitate to use that.  I’m frustrated with both companies.

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I had today off, so I had time to take care of some routine chores in between the rain showers and blasting high winds.  It was time to exercise the generator.  I shut everything electrical down inside the rig, and then disconnected the power.  Came back inside to start the generator, and got nothing.  None of the 12 volt lights worked either.  Absolutely no power inside the rig.  Before disconnecting, the power pad showed that the house batteries were fully charged.  What the heck?

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I tried turning on the engine of the motorhome, and it worked fine.  I just didn’t have any power inside.  I was stymied. 

I waited until Bridget and John got home from working the VC today, and posed the problem to John.  He came over with his volt meter measurer thingy, and checked out the house batteries.  They were fine.  Then he checked every electrical panel in the rig, both inside and out.  Everything was good to go.  He asked for my Winnebago owners manuals, and I sent them home with him to study.

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A few minutes later he returned and asked if I had a 12 volt power switch somewhere.  That’s when I thought of the auxiliary battery switch by the entrance door.  He asked if I could have bumped into it by accident, and a light went off in my head.  Yep, I had bumped that switch about a week ago when coming into the rig trying to escape another sudden downpour.  I was so thankful for an easy fix to this problem.  (so was he)  Thanks, John, for teaching me a lesson I won’t soon forget.

With any luck, the brown water and flea/tick solutions will be resolved tomorrow.  Minor defugalties, but a pain in the neck never the less. 

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

21 comments:

  1. As I tell "dreamers," full-timing is not a vacation, it's Life with all its peaks and valleys. I know how frustrating the water issue is; we had it at a park in MO. Not only is there no drinking water or ice, but the thought of that brown icky stuff in my RV's system . . . well, icky. Power here in the office just hiccuped a few minutes ago and the one parking lot light that was working now . . . is not. Looks like we're not out of the woods with power issues yet. Hang in there!

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  2. Hi Judy I did the same thing with my switch by the door
    I was in a panic for a few minutes until I figured it out
    As far as the flea and tick meds go they have a veterinarian service in Florida
    Called Florida aid for animals ... that is where I get Maggie meds. maybe they have something like that where you are...

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  3. You have had more than your share of brown, yucky water!

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  4. Defugalty? I had to look that one up...

    A great difficulty; a quandry. It is not located in any modern dictionary, and the references to the word are, for the most part, quite obscure. However, this word remains in common use and most individuals who use it say that they have used it since they were young.

    The roots of this word are uncertain; some claim that it is a deformation of "difficulty" (which would be quite grievous for a typographical error) while others maintain that it is a derivation of "fugue." (However, "defugue" then becomes a nonsensical abstraction, as TheDiscouragingWord.com has pointed out.)

    Since this word is not located in modern dictionaries, it is often mis-spelled. (See Defugilty.) However, the spelling found in all the internet references available (most of which are located on university webservers) is "defugalty."

    Sorry for the defugalty; your paperwork went to three different offices and still didn't make it to the director's desk.

    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  5. It is horrid to have a 'pain in the neck'!!! I was so smug in my bounce sheets and irish spring working & having no mice.... well.. NOW I have mice leavings.. so that means they are getting in and doing heaven only knows what... in the kitchen towel drawer, is the only place I can see. ick. I am miffed....

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  6. LOL... I did the same thing as Kevin ... I looked it up and was about to paste it here .. glad I read his comment! fun word... sorry about them for you though .. .I don't like defugalties...

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  7. Whew! Glad the electrical fix was simple! Easier than dealing with a screwed-up order of medication for Emma.

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  8. Defugalties---what a great word to describe unfortunate incidences. ;-)

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  9. Do you keep waster in your fresh water tank? We do that in the winter so we don't have to rely on water tasks that freeze easily. It gives us a couple of day's worth of water if the supply is cut off for any reason. It might be an idea since this appears to be developing into a chronic emergency. Hope they did it once and for all, though.

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  10. Hi
    I had the same switch in my coach. Had because there is a solenoid connected so the “salesman” can turnoff all the twelve volts on his way out. My solenoid failed, and I transferred the second cable to the other (first) post of the solenoid so the switch means nothing anymore. Full timers do not need the switch.

    Then where is the solenoid (hidden in the coach’s compartments), another problem, that consumes time.


    George

    http://busterstravelsgeo-bon.blogspot.com

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  11. Could you use a part dose of the big dog stuff? Is it the liquid you put on the back of the neck?
    I had a large ?lab and a small shepard and used the samedose on both, just didn't use the last bit on the smaller dog.

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  12. We did the same thing you did. When we had our motorhome, I would accidentally hit a switch with my foot. It would take us hours to figure out why something didn't work. We finally learned...we made note that said....Check panel next to door. It saved us lots of frustrating time.

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  13. We use that switch when putting the rig in storage. Helps to minimize the battery drain.

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  14. Don't you just love it when those problems have an easy fix?

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  15. Welcome to the ranks of those who have turned off their 12v power switch and scared themselves into thinking they had a serious problem. I think we need to have a badge of honor for those that have done that.

    You should have seen the look on my face recently when I tried to put in a slide that was already in. I had visions of all kinds of expensive issues until I realized it was in. Duh, simple things (mistakes) happen to the best of us.

    Good for you exercising your generator. One thing that won't give you a problem in the future. :c)

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  16. When we had two dogs, I always bought the 4ml size flea and tick poison. If recommended dosage is 2ml and the container is 4 ml, use a syringe and needle to remove 2 ml, take the needle off and apply the two mls using the syringe (needleless) to Emmas back. Put the top on, tape it if you feel better, then use the other half next month. It was cheaper too. Rinse syringe and needed, flush with clean water and let dry.

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  17. As long as you don't use a larger size dose than Emma needs, you can just use a part of the bottle. I wouldn't worry too much about getting it exact. There were a couple of times that I forgot to give Lady her dose for a few days into the month. I do that with one of my own meds too - sometimes forget until the 3rd or 4th days of the month. I like to be accurate and on time but not such a stickler that I worry so much about missing a dose of anything. I'm sure that flea & tick stuff doesn't shut itself off at the end of the month, so Emma probably has some residual from the past month. I wouldn't worry for a few days if I were you.

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  18. You're welcome. Just holler out the window if you need anything.

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  19. Sometimes the problems while fulltiming are a little more difficult to resolve which gets frustrating.

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  20. My switches are right by my door, too. I burned out the water pump because I had bumped it before driving for a long period of time with no water in the tank. I tried one of those outside boxes that cover electrical outlets, but it didn't work. So, my solution was to tape the switches into the off position. Not pretty, but it works.

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