Day: May 19, 2012

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Remember to Check Outlets Before Plugging In

This afternoon, my mother changed the exterior outlet she wanted me to plug into. She’s very electrically savvy, so she knew that would have to be done since the outlet was more than 40 years old and only half of it worked. While she was out getting parts, I tested the existing outlet to see what kind of shape it was in.

The left side of the outlet claimed to have an open neutral (white) while the right side registered as being correctly wired. I then tested the outlet with the multimeter and it only registered 90 volts!

My mother removed the existing outlet and gently sanded the oxidized copper wiring to improve connectivity. We retested the wires with the multimeter and got a voltage of 122. Now that we knew the wiring was good, it was a simple matter to wire in a new outlet and double check the connections with the tester before I plugged in.

This exercise reminded me to keep checking outlets before I plug in and this advice goes to both RVers and hosts. If you want to offer someone a connection while they’re parked on your property, make sure that it’s on its own circuit, that it’s wired correctly, and that it registers the proper voltage.

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Stuff Is Just Stuff

I’m working on tidying up the rig this morning and keep finding little shards of china and glass in the far flung corners of the rig.

Every single cup, bowl, and saucer in the cabinet over the fridge came out of the cabinet and broke when I was rear ended:

There might not seem to be much in that box, but almost everything broke into pieces so small as to be unrecognizable from what they were.

This china was collected over almost 10 years of travel. I have never broken a piece as a direct result of RV travel. Heck, it flew cross-country and arrived unscathed. I couldn’t even begin to value this collection but I know that ‘several hundred dollars” is not an exaggeration. But, truly, it was priceless and utterly irreplaceable.

You’d think I’d be pissed off right? Well, it’s just dishes. I cannot believe that I am at this point in my life, where stuff really is just stuff, and my reaction was “What a mess, I’m going to step in broken glass for weeks, and one less think to declutter down the road!”

I’m going to find out the price of a nice Corelle set and will be claiming that amount on my insurance.

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More Words To Live By

This morning, I added a few more decorative items with inspirational quotes:

My friend sent me a funny little magnetic button that fits nicely on my stove hutch:

Close up:

I hope you’re wearing comfortable shoes because today is going to a frickin’ ADVENTURE!!

I loved the sign that I had above the microwave but it fell during travel (not sure how that happened, with the amount of velcro 🙁 ) and got wet. I am on the lookout for another one just like it, but in the mean time, these two plaques work nicely:

“Live the life you always imagined” and “Faith is being sure of what you hope for.”