(written on the 28th)
Today…
Ugh…
😞
Rough day that didn’t even end.
Did some morning routine stuff and then started trying to help Heather and Hans with stuff they needed to do, trying to lighten super heavy loads at least a little bit.
It started by changing the oil in their Jetta, which went slowly but decently.
Then I went on to the rear brakes, and it… was a reminder of how much I hated brakes. It’s a 30-minute pad slap, right?
Heck, the rims even had big enough gaps that I didn’t even have to jack up the car and take the wheels off!
So… it’s a 15-minute pad slap, right?
Except I’m Stephen and just want the brake pad snugness to be even to be absolutely sure that it won’t wear unevenly, which is what happened last time, but ugh… the way they designed the brake hardware, you pretty much can’t install it without deforming it, so it’s trial and error, again and again and again when again, for long something like 3+ hours.
This is a 4-bolt, 4 clip, 2 pad job. Easy freaking peasy, but no… I think it was 4 hours altogether in the end.
Really frustrating, and a fair bit discouraging to see myself melt down again. 😕
Still fighting to rewire the brain that I trained so dysfunctionally during the dark years that, hopefully, just ended.
Oh, and for the first time I think in my life I compressed one of the pistons without opening up the master cylinder reservoir.
Some people say it’s not necessary to open up the reservoir, so don’t bother. Some people say that you can do damage to the system if you fail to open it up first… and I… just always have, so I haven’t worried about it.
So I was stressed about that, angry at how super easy things can become marathon nightmares, and I was discouraged to see myself slip back into that awful anger place.
Uncomfortable blessings.
😅
And… the day didn’t get… more comfortable from there. Having picked up my solar panels from the post office, and having had the parts to assemble and install them starting to arrive, I started the project of adding the new solar panels to my roof.
I did some measuring and found that, if I covered up my StarLink satellite location and the vent cutout with solar panels, I could get 4 panels on the roof on the same configuration, doubling my output.
But then I began reworking the problem and the design in my head, wondering if I might be able to fit even more panels on there if I were able to figure out how to double them up. I hadn’t done it before because the roof was angled, and it was just not seeming possible, but I decided to give it a look again.
So I removed the panels that were up there and started testing to see if they would dry fit ok, which would allow me to put eight panels on my roof, getting me to the point of not having to work about power regardless of what I’m running (within reason, of course).
I brought two solar panels up and did a little proof of concept, and felt like it was going to work!
Realizing how much trouble we had getting the last solar panels properly tightened, I thought that maybe it would be better for me this time to remove the interior paneling to give me direct access to the fiberglass roof.
I knew that was going to be challenging to put back together, but I’d learned from so many other experiences that sometimes it’s just easier to go the “longer” route of taking everything apart to make access easier for everything than to try and fight with a super challenging circumstance that’s pretty much a guarantee to be a pain in the butt.
So I started taking everything apart, interior panels here and there, I’m doing screws and wiring and removing lights and all sorts of things.
What I didn’t count on, however, was that underneath the paneling was really really old fiberglass bat insulation, like the kind that they put in houses.
And if you know much about fiberglass insulation, when it ages, it crumbles. So as I pulled the panels off, I ended up not just with gazillions of tufts of fiberglass insulation, but also with clouds of fiberglass dust–covering everything.
I had piles of clothing out, blankets, bedding, all sorts of stuff that just got covered in tons of fiberglass tufts and dust.
Which pretty much necessitated me needing to remove just about everything from the van in order to clean out the mess of fiberglass that was now all over everything including clothing and bedding.
Ugh.
It was… brutal.
So I started pulling everything out of the van, piling everything on the ground everywhere. It was an absolute disaster and a mess everywhere.
I wasn’t close to finishing by the time the sun went down, I put on my headlamp and kept going.
And going…
And going…
With everything pulled apart, there were projects that I had wanted to get done and fixed for a long time, so I went ahead and worked on those as well. I removed most, if not all of the house wiring. I removed electrical boxes and all sorts of other stuff related to the RV side of the van.
I worked and worked and worked…
And then it started getting light outside again. 🙃
And I guess that’s where I leave this particular entry, since the day was over, even though for me, it never ended.
Gratitude:
- I’m grateful that I was able to get the fuel line issue for the line that went to the generator squared away.
- I’m grateful that I was able to get rid of most, if not all, of the house wiring cable.
- I’m grateful that I was able to remove the brackets on the underside of the rear support without losing much, if any structural integrity, which allows for the bins and other things to slide underneath without getting stuck. 🎉
- I’m grateful that eventually, I was able to get the Jetta brakes finished and that there don’t seem to be any uncomfortable consequences from accidentally forgetting to open the master cylinder reservoir cap before compressing one of the pistons.
- I’m grateful for my headlamp that was an absolute beast. I think it probably lasted something like 7 hours before I had to switch over to another one!
Success:
- Hmmm… On a day so filled with seeming failure… that’s a tough one. Ummm… I kept going and didn’t give up. That’s something.
Improvement:
- Maintain perspective. Let go of expectations. Focus on effort given and lessons to learn.
Thought of the Day:
– Artist Unknown to Me –
Hand of God In My Life Today:
I was angry and frustrated and don’t even remember my morning, at this point. So… I’m not sure what to say here.
Lift the world.
Bring it on.
~ stephen
Lift the World 