Cooler night again. 🥳
Got up and started working on organizing my van with all my personal stuff inside. I wanted to get all of the yellow and black bins off the ground today and inside.
First I started measuring things to get a better idea as to what might be able to be put inside.
Then I grabbed the truck and trailer backed it up perpendicular to the woods, so that I could move all the storage bins onto my trailer and not have to worry about ticks getting onto the storage bins while I was going back and forth to pick them up.
Then I moved Rover right alongside the trailer, so I could step directly from the trailer into Rover without having to touch the ground–again, ticks. 🙃
So I pulled the mattresses out And set them on the corners of my truck bed, so they weren’t in the dirty bed. Then I moved the stuff that was inside that was in the way out of the way, some of it going on the trailer, some of it going in the front seats, etc.
Next, I cut out the seat belt that was left over from some previous time. I didn’t unbolt the top part of the seat belt because it made a nice sturdy place to hook to if that were ever necessary.
One of the reasons I took the seat belt out was that it was attached to a large bracket bolted to the floorboard which was in the way of being able to put stuff there.
Cutting out the seat belt proved to be easier than getting that little bracket out. Of course, it was my fault that it turned out to be more of a challenge. Somehow my brain got crossed, and I wedged the ratchet up the wrong direction. I don’t know how it didn’t work because I did the same thing I always do, but whatever. I ended up having to take a video of the upper side to realize the mistake. Once understood, it was a piece of cake, gratefully.
With that bracket out, I started going through bins, consolidating and figuring out which ones to put where in the van.
I managed to consolidate three bins into two, so that was good. I can still do more consolidating but I’m not going to worry about it just yet.
I put all the yellow and black bins in the van, other than the ones that are full of stuff that I’m selling. Those are in my pickup truck and in loaf.
There are three of those. To have tree Service equipment in them, and one has computer business equipment in it from when I was trying to help Thomas start a computer repair business.
Since I had the side doors open, I took the opportunity to fix the side door latch cables. The old Fords are made out of sort of a rubbery plastic, or something like that, on the ends of the cables, and so over time, the plastic hardens and breaks, and then you can’t open the door anymore.
So I took everything apart, realizing as I took it apart that it looked nice on the outside, but the inside was a chewed up mess with little holes drilled all over from failed attempts to install everything.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but when I went to put everything back together, it was an absolute nightmare to figure out which holes everything went in. Some of them were stripped. Some of them were… Yeah. It probably took me an hour just to get the door panel screwed back on.
😶
I also failed to notice before I took it apart, how the rod attached from the upper latch the exterior door Lock assembly.
Which made putting that back together a nightmare because… Well, I wasn’t sure how it went. I actually got it right the first time, but thought I didn’t, so I spent probably 30 or 45 minutes trying to get it right, only to go back and do it how I had originally done it and have it work.
Ugh.
I wasn’t doing well. I didn’t have A full breakdown, but I had a small one, and then a lot of very loud very angry cursing fits.
…maybe I did have a full breakdown.
😅
I eventually got it all back together, after… I’m going to guess 2 hours? of working on it. Maybe longer.
Ugh.
After that, I started messing with the generator, the $4,000 or $5,000 generator. 😁
…but… Let’s just say that it’s not worth $5,000 anymore. 😅
When I cranked it over while I was next to it, it had a really really loud rattle/knock to it. I don’t know those little engines very well, but it didn’t sound good to me.
So I drained out the oil, and there were a couple little metal chunks in the oil, along with metal shavings and what not.
Blown generator. 🙃
She did say it wasn’t working, and now I know why. 😅
I spent probably the next hour or two, probably two, removing the generator from the vehicle. If it wasn’t going to be working, I want the space that it’s in to be able to store stuff. Heck, even if it were working, I’d probably take it out and sell it.
Anyway, after fighting electrical connections, and house wiring connections, and fuel line, and power and ground lines, and a very stubborn exhaust that I had to beat on and work and work and work at to get off, I finally was able to get the generator out of the van.
Since it was broken, I just sort of pulled it out and didn’t try to lift it because it’s so blasted heavy. So I just got it to the edge and then pulled hard so that it could come the rest of the way and then just fall to the ground.
Son was gratefully starting to go down by then. I was foolish and didn’t didn’t wear my hat, nor did I put sunscreen on until probably the last hour of sunshine of the day.
I was just so focused I didn’t want to be bothered.
Not very smart.
After getting everything cleaned up, van loaded down with everything, all the bins off the ground and in in their various places, A grabbed a pair of shorts a little mini microfiber towel about the size of a washcloth, the normal size that I have, and headed over to the creek for a nice little bath.
With the weather having been in the upper ’90s, it feels great to relax a little bit in the creek.
The little fishies love me, because they love to breathe the little bubbles off my leg hairs, but I’m not sure what to think about the crayfish. Normally, they keep their distance, but today there was a large one that kept coming over to my leg, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it, and I didn’t want to get pinched by his big Pinchers, so I kept shewing him away. 🙃
Oh, I didn’t move Rover over over to the other side of the field until close to the end of the day, so it got baked in the hot sun for most of the day. 😅
Hopefully, I won’t roast tonight. 🤞
Headed over to my mom’s place after that, putting a few more bins in the little stack that I have down there.
While I was in the basement, I noticed that one of the sticky traps had a very very large wolf spider in it, a wolf spider that was still very much alive.
So I took the sticky trap outside. The huge spider, probably about the size of a silver dollar with its legs spread, actually, probably bigger than a silver dollar, had six of its eight legs stuck, along with its two little antennae as well.
😞
I grabbed a little twig outside, and very carefully and very slowly so as not to pull his legs off, tugged until I was able to get his rear leg out of the sticky. Then I put the stick under the next four legs, and very slowly and very gently pulled just enough to have constant tension on the sticky, but not enough to pull the spider’s legs out.
At first, the spider was fighting me, wanting to attack, but after a while, he settled down and seemed to understand what I was doing.
He had super large fangs, or whatever they are. I would guess they were maybe an eighth of an inch long?
Definitely not something I would have been excited to get shoved into my skin. 😅
Anyway, once I got one entire side free from the sticky, I rolled the stick underneath his body to keep his four passenger side legs from re-sticking in the sticky, and he hung on and I just gently pulled straight up and out. It took a while, he restuck his legs a couple times, but eventually I was able to get all but one free. At that point, I was confident I was going to have him out, so my thoughts turned to being able to get him out without getting bitten, not that he would bite, but… I still wanted to be careful because he had been aggressive at first.
After turning the sticky trap upside down so gravity was with me, And with the spider having calmed down completely, I gently pulled until the very last leg let go of the sticky. The moment it did, I dropped the spider and the stick on the ground, to avoid those fangs. 🙃
Once on the ground, the spider didn’t move. I wanted to make sure okay, so I grabbed a twig and gently nudged it, and it moved like it was fine. So I left it alone right where it was, and I started unloading more things from the van. Each time I walked by, I would look to see where the spider was. At first, it didn’t move, but then it moved a little, and then on the next pass it was a little further away, and then on the next pass I didn’t see it anymore at all.
Cross my fingers. Hopefully, it’s good to go. 🤞
Anyway, after unloading and arranging the bins inside, and adding some things to One of the bins that my mom wanted to move from her room down there, A grabbed my amplifier and guitar out of the van because I was having trouble getting it to work in the van, and I wanted to see what might be the problem, whether there was an issue with a amp, or my cable, or my guitar, or If it was just that the power inverter couldn’t put out the necessary power to allow my guitar to play through the amp.
Once plugged in to the wall, it still wouldn’t work at first, and then I filled with everything, and finally it started to work. So I brought it back to the Van, plugged it in again, and it did work That time, although there is a loud buzzing through the amplifier, I think because it needs to be grounded. When I touch the amplifier in a certain spot, the noise goes away, so I may grab myself a little wire and ground the amplifier to the body somewhere And see if that does anything.
I found out my mom’s internet has been out since yesterday, so I tried to help with that, and We were able to figure out that there’s a problem with the power supply connection. Fiddle with it just right, and it works. She had bumped it yesterday from its normal spot when she was moving some things on the counter, and just that little nudge apparently caused the break and the connection.
I’m guessing it’s all under warranty, since she just bought it, so she’ll get in touch with him tomorrow, and I would imagine they’ll send out a new power supply.
🤞
Stopped off at the neighborhood market on the way home, grabbing some regular food and some comfort food. 🙃
Oh, man, I’m hoping that I don’t roast tonight since the van baked in the sun all day, and so did the storage bins that are inside. There’s a whole heck of a lot of residual heat that needs to get out of those bins and out of the van.
Cross the fingers.
My back is also killing me, and the accompanying nerve issues are on fire right now.
(sigh)
Tired of pain. 🙃
I’m back in my temporary homestead down by the greenhouse as I write this. I’m getting ready to take off my water shoes and my tick tape, rearrange things so that everything that’s on my bed is no longer on my bed, and then I’ll hope I can sleep.
Well, actually, I’m probably going to vedge out on a few different websites and maybe watch something on YouTube or prime. 🙃
But that’ll do it for this post.
Love and hugs.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 