Oh No Virus

I was alerted that I may have a virus on the website. I checked everything out and found that the virus appears to be on the site that I store my photos on. These are the photos that the Thumbnails in the left column link to so I removed the links for now. Fortunately when I clicked on one of the links, my virus scanner alerted me of the virus and quarantined it from my system. I have notified Webshots (the photo site) and am waiting to see if they respond. If they do find a problem and correct it I will bring back the links. Otherwise I will use another photo site.

Unexpected move

We are now in Vista California. This was an unplanned trip and was decided just last night. Susan’s mother is going in for surgery tomorrow and Susan wanted to be with her. Since our house has wheels I said, “Let’s go.” We had a good drive here with perfect weather. The rains stopped and the sun came out. Along the way we saw plenty of evidence of the storm. Lots of highway signs were blown down and we saw a blown over Big Rig that they were trying to upright. We also past through an area that was flooded. Fortunately the water had subsided away from the road when we went through.

There is also plenty of snow in the mountains. Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer but more rain is coming next week.

Lots of water

We had lots of rain and it it’s over yet. I know some of you are thinking this is no big deal, you’ve seen worse. Well this is unusual for Lake Havasu City in the middle of the Arizona desert. The wash as I mentioned in the last post did not fill up. There was water in it from the rain falling but no runoff. My neighbor took a drive through town yesterday and said some of the washes in town had lots of water in them and some roads were closed as the water made it’s way from the hills to the lake. There was a tornado reported in Blythe about 90 miles south of us that turned over 3 trucks and uprooted a few power polls.

Our golf course here at the resort has a new water hazard in it and our path has turned into a small river. We are supposed to get a reprieve from the rain this weekend but there is more coming next week. So far we are cozy and dry inside the motorhome.

All hunkered down

We are hunkered down awaiting the big one. We have been having rain off and on since Monday. So far it hasn’t been too bad but a lot for Havasu this time of year. The weather is supposed to take a turn for the worst about 8:00p this evening. They are calling for lots of rain, wind and even thunder for about 24 hours. We have a wash for water runoff that runs through the middle of the resort. I have never seen any water in the wash in the 4 years I have been coming here but might this time. We shall see…

Another repair

Our Convection/Microwave oven has been giving us fits for a couple of years now. The convection fan has been on the outs and I have been able to revive it through out the years. One reason I have been procrastinating is because I could see no way to get to the fan to replace it. I have scoured the Internet with no help. I even emailed GE and asked how to go about this. Of course they didn’t respond. Well I decided I need to do something so I ordered the part. $44.00 later I had the part in hand. Today I got the nerve to tackle the job. I got part way through and gave up and put everything back together. After pondering over it I couldn’t let this thing get me so I tore into it again.

It took dismantling 11 assemblies and removing a number of panels to finally access the fan.

I carefully noted all the screws and where they go for reassembly. Well it looks like all went well.

The new fan is in and the oven is back together and mounted in its place. Susan even cooked dinner in it tonight and all came out well.

4 wheel fun

Full of dirt

Stop and re-group

Which way from here

A little air adjustment

We took off about 9:00 this morning and didn’t return until 3:00 in the afternoon. What a fun day. There were 3 Razors, a quad, and a dirt bike. Eight of us in all. I never realized how many trails there are in the hills above Havasu. We covered about 36 miles today and haven’t even covered a fraction of them. Can’t wait till the next time.

Bees

Seem the bees are out in full force but the flowers aren’t. Therefore the bees have taken to artificial means for their nectar. As in artificial flowers or better yet humming bird feeders.

It is amazing how fast these little critters can suck a feeder dry. I think it only took 4 days to drain a half-quart of fluid from my feeder. Today I chased away the few bees that were sipping the last drops from my feeder so I can refill it. After refilling the feeder those little buggers were on it before I even got it hung back up. The poor little humming birds have to fight for a flower to get their share.

With the weather so cold in most of the country, I am glad we are in the Southwest right now. The weather has been great here.

Drip Drip

The pressure relief valve on my water heater has leaked since the motorhome was new. I finally added an expansion tank a few years back that cured the drip drip. However lately it started dripping again. Following the instructions in the manual, I tried re-establishing the air pocket at the top of the tank by turning off the water supply, opening a faucet, opening the relief valve until the water stops flowing, closeing everything up and turning the water back on. The only thing this accomplished was making it drip worse. I opened the valve and let it flush for a while, no help. I opened the valve and let it snap shut a few times, no help. I tapped on the valve, no help. It was time for a replacement valve.
Well I went ahead and replaced the valve today. It went a lot easier than I thought. The hardest part was finding a replacement at a reasonable price. One place wanted $30, I got one for $15 which is still robbery since they are only $9 at the hardware stores. The hardware stores just didn’t have the right model. The old one came out easy and there was enough clearance around the door latch to get the old one out and the new one in. After cleaning all the white stuff (calcium/lime) from around the hole and wrapping Teflon tape around the threads the new one went in just as easy as the old one came out. No leaks and no more drip drip.

A new decade

Well we have officially entered into a new decade, 2010. I hope everyone made the journey OK. We did. The last decade was good to us. We had good jobs and paid off the house in the first half, then sold the house for a BIG profit and started our fulltime journey in the second half. It’s hard to believe we have been fulltime for ½ decade and still love it. So far our investments have kept up with our spending even through this tough economy. We have always come out with a positive balance in our portfolio at the end of the year. Granted we spent a lot of money this year building our casita but I conceder that as an investment rather than an expense.
Havasu tried a new thing this year for New Years. They closed off most of down town and charged everyone (adults only) $15 to $20 to party in the streets, one drink included. There were 3 bands spread out through the town. As far as I know it was successful. I say, As far as I know, because we did not participate.

Instead we stayed close to home and went to a New Years party here at the resort. It was a lot of fun. We didn’t have to fight crowds, or brave the cold. The music was good, good friends, and good food and drink. Today was a typical New Years day. We did absolutely nothing. After a morning walk I sat on the patio all day and watched TV. Susan did the same after doing some laundry. The rest of our friends played golf in the morning then went to the Clubhouse to watch the game.

Well I hope this coming year will be a good one for everyone.