Wednesday, February 24, 2010

EBay and the Radio




A few days ago I participated in my first EBay auction. I found new radios, like my old, stabbed one, being auctioned on EBay. After much drama my bet was NOT the highest. I did a little more searching and found the exact same radio available to purchase, not bid on, and so I purchased one for $10.00 less than my highest bid on the auction one. = ) Someone bought a bunch of these radios from an RV manufacturer that went out of business and is auctioning and selling them on EBay. I'm tracking my purchase. Yesterday afternoon my radio left Indiana!! I'm so anxious to get the new radio installed. I should be able to do it myself. Whatever I disconnect from the old one I'll connect to the new one and, PRESTO!! The new one will work!! I hope!!

Check back soon for the next chapter in the Saga of the Stabbed Radio.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

"Stabbed With a Letter Opener" & "Up On The Roof"

The only way I seem to be able to keep my trailer radio playing is to stab the on/off button with the letter opener. That keeps the button pushed in, making contact with whatever it makes contact with. I am on the hunt for a new radio. And an installer. = )






I was up on the roof the other day adding a little caulking here and there. I noticed that the radio antenna (no relation to the on/off button problem inside the trailer) didn't seem secure. When I wiggled the antenna the whole glob of dirty caulking wiggled the rubber roof around it, lifting it up.






I decided a little surgery was in order.
I assembled my tools, removed all the old, dirty caulking around the antenna and inspected the three little screws holding the base of the antenna in place. Or rather, the three little screws that were supposed to be holding the antenna in place. Two of the three screws seemed to be stripped out.



So, I searched draws and tool boxes and found two larger, hex head screws. I tightened up the one remaining little screw and installed the two new larger screws. It seemed to be holding pretty well so ....



I used some leftover caulking with my newly purchased caulking gun, and caulked the heck out of it!! It's supposed to be self-leveling, so I'm hoping when it's done self-leveling the new glob of caulking will be a nice flat glob just like the old flat glob of caulking. Only the new glob will be clean and white, at least for a day or two I suppose.



With my antenna project completed I decided to look around a little at my view from the roof.
I'm parked at a neat, not so little, FREE county campground.
Oh look, there's Marlene's motorhome..


That's the view behind me, to the west.



Looking over the front of my trailer, there's Nelda's motorhome. I pulled in behind her, hoping she wouldn't mind sharing her spot with me. Actually, she was glad to have me there to keep an eye on her house while she was away visiting a friend for a few days.


And those long, flat, white things way off in the distance are cattle feed lots. The unpleasant odors haven't wafted to the campground, but when you drive by, on a motorcycle, you know where you are!!!

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Woo Doggies!! The Cactus Cairn Round-Up

Woo Doggies!! Annie, Murphy and I attended The Cactus Cairn Round-Up in Cave Creek, AZ on Saturday Feb. 6Th. at the beautiful home of Allan and Florence.

Here's the views from their back patio.




There were probably 20 or so pooches - mostly Cairns who were one way or another connected to the wonderful Colonel Potter Cairn Rescue Network. Also in attendance was my Westie, Murphy, 3 Schnauzers and one Australian Terrier.

There was a lot of sniffing and frolicking going on!!!

RUN GEORGE RUN!!!




Tony was very popular with most of the dogues, especially my little Annie who wanted Tony's water bottle.

He wasn't handing it over so Annie thought she could just jump up and take it.




She almost made it!!


When lunch time came for the humans, the canines happily retreated (hahahaha!!) to exercise pens and crates for some quiet time (hahahaha!)



Murphy and Annie are there on the left. Annie spent most of the time trying to figure out how to escape.




After lunch there was lots more sniffing and frolicking.



This is George, the youngest at only 8 months old.



Murphy is wondering where the rest of the Westies are hanging out. He says there's just too many of those crazy corn dogs, er, Cairn dogs!!









Starry Night and Annie are sharing secrets.



Karen and Tony, Annie's Foster Mom and Dad, give a grooming demonstration on their little adoptee Bree. The proper way to groom Cairns is by "hand stripping" their coat. I bought two little hand stripping tools, called McClellans. Annie loves it (hahahaha!!).




After the grooming demo it was time for the costume parade.

Here's Molly (I think) sporting a cool Valentine Day dress.



A few friends are checking out Annie's stylish dress.







Here's Andy looking very dapper and tropical. ALOHA!!!


Here's McDuffy looking like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.



There's a glimpse of Bree the Mermaid on the right, and Starry Night the Scottish lass on the left.


Annie in her very stylish "Born With Style" dress. It was Christmas gift from her niece, Torey.


Starry Night in her Scottish Kilt outfit, complete with a bagpipe and tam. There's Bree's Mermaid tail again.


After the costume parade, it was time for the wienie dunk contest.

McDuffy is going to demonstrate how it's done. But first he wonders why he has to work so hard for wienies when it would be so much easier to just get them out of the bag.








I think this is Andy


This is Bree.



Murphy didn't quite get the hang of putting his nose under water.





Annie tied for first place with Andy. Notice the air bubbles coming out of Annie's nose. She didn't let a little water get in the way of eating her wienies.





The wienie dunk sure got everyone's attention.


Shortly after the wienie dunk the party came to an end. Everyone left with great memories and hopes of meeting up again next year for another great time of sniffing and frolicking with old, and new friends. WOOF!!

PS I apologize for any misnamed or mistaken gender reporting.