Haven’t been accomplishing much of anything the past few days. I promised myself that in this post I wouldn’t complain about the weather, so I’m not even going to mention why I haven’t been outside working on the bus.
I started calling around about tires today. The tires themselves are a pretty standard size, but the rims on this thing are a 60s nightmare. They are split rims, which frankly doesn’t mean anything to me, but apparently they aren’t a lot of fun to work with. Like so not fun that many places, including the big name tire franchises, won’t touch them.
So we were googling and calling up different RV tire places when I had this conversation.
“Hi, I’ve got a ’66 Dodge Travco RV with split-rims and am just wondering if you guys work on those?”
“This must be the Bumfuzzles,” came the reply.
“Ha, yeah, this is indeed. How’d you know.”
“Word travels fast,” he said.
Actually it turns out his wife is a longtime follower of ours, and upon checking Facebook we discovered that she had in fact already mentioned this shop to us. And best of all, they’d do the work for us.
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We had Chinese food for dinner tonight. Ouest’s fortune said, “When it gets dark enough, you can see the stars.”
So after I turned out the lights on her and we were into our first song she stopped me abruptly and said, “Ooooh, I forgot my piece of paper (the fortune). I have to go get it. It’s dark now and it is going to light up.”
She thought after dark tonight stars were going to appear on her fortune’s piece of paper.
We also had a conversation in which she explained that she was never going to get married because she loved me. That was the answer to me telling her that we couldn’t get married because I’m her papa, but that she would meet someone she loved when she got older and would marry that person instead.
I love the mind of a four-year-old.
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Lowe hasn’t been much of a talker until recently. We carry on full conversations with him, in grunts and noises and charades, that no sane person would even begin to understand. So it’s a pretty exciting time for us to see him working so hard at actually saying words that make sense. Today Ali and I got very excited when we were driving along and he started asking for gofsh. It took us a minute to piece it together, Goldfish! Of course. Once you figure it out you realize how perfectly he’s saying it.
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This was Ouest this morning at 7:30 after being told that she could not knock on her Aunt Katy’s door.
She sat there for about five minutes before coming up with the great idea of writing her a note and slipping it under her door instead. She wrote out, Ouest Katy Play, and then as she walked out of the room and turned the corner to make the delivery she walked straight into Katy. A happy girl indeed.
Katy has a job which is something that Ouest is having a hard time coming to grips with. Nobody else in her everyday life has a normal get-in-the-car-and-go-to-work job. They’re either retired grandparents, slacker friends of ours, or us.
“Why does Katy have to go to work?” Ouest asked.
“Well, she needs to make money.”
“Why Katy needs to make money?”
Ouest of course has two dollars in her wallet that she’d be perfectly happy to share with Katy if money is an issue.
I can see that explaining this lifestyle of ours is going to require some forethought.
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Two minutes after these were taken, and all of the fun they were having, the two of them were screaming and crying because Lowe had tried to take Ouest’s piece of tupperware away from her. Moods change in an instant around here.
13 Comments on “Life Around Here”
“Why Katy needs to make money?” Priceless!
It is sunny and warm Mexico….. just saying.
That’s really too funny about the conversation regarding the rims. Fame and fortune win again.
Mark and Cindy
actually, Mark and Cindy, I want to be where you guys are because here in the Yucatan the weather SUCKS. It has been a horrifically wet year with rain and then occasionally showers and then some periods of chispi interspersed with cold and DOGS AND CATS FALLING FROM THE SKY.
Oh, and it is cold! I broke out all the down coats night before last for the kids to wear to school (and me to wear during the day). I’m wearing TIGHTS to run in!! What kind of nonsense is that? yesterday I wore a hat on my run and it wasn’t to shade the sun.
speaking of sun, we may have seen something resembling such an object for about 15 seconds yesterday..
i wish i had a freezer i could shoot a hole in…
I can hear Ed McMahon…”how cold is it?”
Mark and Cindy
For safety sake, I would investigate switching the rims for normal rims. My brother lost his finger due to a split rim exploding while trying to repair.
Since you will be traveling in remote areas it might be go also.
A really big +1 on switching out the split rims. Fingers are one ting, but too many people have been killed working on/around those grenades! The force with which they explode off of the tire rim is absurdly awesome!
Having had an older 40′ land yacht for 17 years now, I am looking forward to the Bumfuzzle’s new learning curve and hunt for obsolete parts! I feel your (new) pain!
Oh! That is so true about the parts. We had a classic car for years. We almost bought a second one just for the parts. Junk yards became a monthly family outing 🙂
Lose the split rims!
google ‘split rim explosion’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2exMOT0-9M
Split Rim Death, band name!
Those rims have a reputation for a reason.
The picture of the thermometer says 1000 words about how cold it is. Nice.
Yeah, I worked at a truck stop in Arizona changing big rig tires during summer break while I was in high school. The guy I worked with was killed by a split rim two months after I went back to school. We even had a steel cage that we inflated them in, but apparently he was killed while placing the tire on the rim with only 5 psi.
Hy,
great looking bus except but huge front bumper.agree completely on your rv opinion, so I had to do my own expedition vehicle.
if rims are a PITA change them for commercial rims with commercial tires which will give you less problems because they can take lots of load without getting tired. great mileage on those also.or go Michelin ltx m+s which has good reviews.maybe just need wheeladaptors some companies in the Usa
put a 12v Danfross compressor fridge like Nova kool some solar panels
6v batteries and you are good to go.make a solar shower from black tubing on the roof and you will have free hot shower in the middle of the day till 4pm.some insulating curtains for all windows, good insulation all around for chili nights, or too much heat will keep the van cosy
also oldies but goldies engines tend to overheat so I would change all oils to syntetics which doesn<t cost much in the Usa, maybe add put a fan ,check if transmission is good and if has a oil cooler.repairs cost too much these days so good maintainance is key. also check rubber brake hoses,etc
good luck
what did you do whith a boat, sold it?
mihai
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