Some updates - Day 1371 (Year 4, Day 276)

Williamsburg, VA

First, about the truck.... spoke too soon in my last post, as they fixed something but not the right thing.  When Mitch took the truck out the next day, he got to his location and then couldn't get it started up again.  However, after about nearly 2 hours of waiting for a tow to arrive, he was able to restart it.  So apparently, the problem actually lies in a part (sensor?) that controls the fuel flow and temperature, and it's telling the truck that when the engine is warm to shut off the flow.  So this part needs to be replaced.  It was explained the reason they didn't diagnose this the first time is because the engine was cold, so not only couldn't they get a diagnostic code, but couldn't recreate the problem (since they didn't take it out for a test drive).  When Mitch got it restarted, he drove straight to the mechanic, where they were able to get a code as the engine was now warm.  So the truck is driveable as long as you don't shut the engine off, and if you do, you have to wait about 2 hours until it cools to start it up again.

This happened last Thursday (March 7th).  Mechanic allegedly ordered the part either Thursday or Friday, allegedly had it overnighted.  We dropped the truck off on Sunday night (he needed to work on it with a cold engine).  By Monday afternoon, the part still had not arrived, so Mitch picked up the truck so he could at least work on Tuesday.  Long story short, today is the following Friday (1 week, 1 day later) and still no part.  Allegedly it was shipped on Wednesday and should arrive today.  So we'll see how that goes.  Mitch has been working but has been leaving the engine on the entire day (taking an extra set of keys so he can at least keep the doors locked).  Frustrating not only because of the air pollution it's causes, but who knows what it can do to the engine (we will have the mechanic give a run thru to check for any potential clogs or lack of lubrication).

One other problem we experienced this week was part of the refrigerator door broke off.  It was a little plastic piece on the inside door flap.  It's all one unit and would cost about $400 to replace the flap that attaches to the hinge (the piece of plastic where the screws go in).  So Mitch took it off, used superglue and duct tape and put it back on.  That kept for a few hours but broke off again.  He tried once again, this time with special epoxy and an added layer of tape.  It's been 2 days and so far it's holding.  Hopefully it will continue to hold.

On a more positive note, last Sunday was a milestone birthday for me (#60).  For over a month, I have been trying to figure out how I wanted to celebrate.  Ideally, I would have liked to have a party surrounded by family and friends, but alas, due to everyone being so spread out and we in the middle of nowhere, that wasn't meant to be.  So I explored several local indulgences such as going to a spa, or staying in a fancy hotel for the weekend.  At the last minute, however, I decided it wasn't worth the expense and decided instead to treat myself to 2 meals out and a movie in between (the major indulgence here being going off my low carb diet).  The plan was for an Indian buffet for lunch, seeing Jumangi (there was nothing playing in the theaters that we really wanted to see; this was kind of the least worst), then going to Food for Thought - a literary-themed restaurant with a huge vegetarian selection.

Realize, however, that the truck still hadn't been repaired.  We went for lunch, but of course, the truck didn't start so we had to sit in it for about an hour (we anticipated this and thus brought along our phones and tablets for entertainment).  Suddenly, Mitch realized that we had Jumangi already downloaded, so I suggested that rather than spend $20 in the theater, we should just go back home and watch it there (maybe even put up some popcorn -- which we didn't after all).  Then we could decide if we wanted to go back out to the restaurant or perhaps just order something in.  Of course, the movie had not been fully downloaded so we just hung out and did computer stuff for about 2 hours.  (I'm also glad we didn't see it in the theater; it was not that great a movie!)  By the time it was over, I was no longer in the mood to go out but I still wanted to indulge, so we ordered some pasta (baked ziti and eggplant parm).  Also shared a bottle (or 2) of wine. All in all, not a fantastic celebration but a mostly pleasant day anyway.  Monday it was back to work and back to the diet!

One other note: there have been 3 Nor'Easters in the past 2 weeks, most of which hit with feet of snow further north.  One day, however, we did get a little snow (here's a video).  It was actually quite beautiful to watch falling.  Fortunately, it only covered the grass and trees - no accumulation, although Mitch had a weather day off as the ground was too wet to work in.

Truck back - Day 1361 (Year 4, Day 266)

Williamsburg, VA

Finally got the truck back today.  Thankfully it wasn't anything major.  I don't really understand exactly what it was, but something to do with a cut off switch that sends signals to the fuel system that needed to be reset.  Such a simple problem, but still cost a few hundred $ for labor and 3 days of missed (no pay) work.  But again, could have been a much worse problem or could have happened while towing.  So still counting blessings.

Continued woes - Day 1357 (Year 4, Day 262)

Williamsburg, VA

First the truck:  recall on Wednesday it broke down at a gas station and Mitch was lucky enough to be at a place where they could fix it.  A fuel filter was clogged, which they replaced.

Well, yesterday, after going to work, Mitch went to the supermarket for our Shabbat groceries.  When he got out of the store, the truck wouldn't start.  He was down in Hampton (35 miles away), so had to have it towed back to the mechanic in Williamsburg.  As of noon today, they said the batteries were completely drained so they couldn't diagnose the problem until they were recharged.  Could be a starter, or could be something with the engine.  Who knows?  Hopefully we will by this afternoon, although we probably won't get the truck back today.  Thankfully, we're going into Shabbat and didn't have any major plans on Sunday.

Next, there is a huge storm across the entire east coast.  It's hitting the northern and mid-atlantic states in the form of a Nor'Easter with heavy rain and snow.  We are getting the tail end of it -- no precipitation but gale force winds (45-50mph with gusts up to 65).  It is extremely scary with the rig shaking and rocking & rolling.  We're also in a heavily wooded area so there's the fear of a tree falling.  So far, many branches are coming down.  Slide toppers could possibly be torn off and who knows what else.  There's a little bit of a fear we could be knocked over (yes, it does happen to big rigs), but I think having all these trees and other trailers next to us makes it a lot less likely than being in the middle of an open field with nothing on the side for the wind to go around.

Meanwhile, we just lost our power.  It's in the entire campground, possibly the entire area.  Office said it could be a limb that fell on a power line.  Interestingly, since the power went off (about 10 minutes ago), I have seen at least 5 fire engines roar past on the road and if it's related, it could be something big. 

Will keep you posted.

Purim & truck - Day 1356 (Year 4, Day 261)

Williamsburg, VA

Purim is a holiday which commemorates the Jews' salvation in Persia (feel free to Google "purim" for the details and history).  In effect, it is an extremely joyous (and sometimes raucous) celebration, in which people are suppose to dress up in costume (Jewish Halloween) and do all kinds of crazy, fun stuff, including get drunk.  Of course, the most important part of the holiday is to be in synagogue and hear the "megillah" (scroll, which contains the story of Esther) being read aloud.  Whenever the evil person, Haman's name is mentioned, the entire congregation needs to make so much noise that you can't hear the name being read.  It's a lot of fun, celebrating the end to a potentially terrifying tragedy.

Another Purim tradition is to bake (or eat) special cookies called "hamentashen" which is a triangular shaped cookie (to resemble Haman's 3 corner hat), filled with pretty much anything.  Most traditionally it's poppy seeds or fruit, but you can use whatever you want.  I spent many hours yesterday researching a keto-friendly recipe (which, to my delight, I found) and then preparing and making them.  I was so excited, even though for the dozen I made, it was by #10 that I finally got the hang of folding them so that I got 3 corners instead of 4.

I BURNED THEM!!!!  I was (and continue to be) absolutely devastated by this.  So much time, energy and love went into making them and I set the oven 5 minutes too much.  They tasted like ash and I had to throw them out.  Way too much trouble to make them again today.  Sigh.

Although there are no shuls nearby where we are comfortable attending for Shabbat services, there is a place (reconstructionist) not too far from here.  We made the decision to go to their services to hear the megillah and enjoy the festivities.  It was to start at 7:00 pm.  Since Mitch gets home around 4, it was doable.  But.....

Wouldn't you know - he stopped for gas on the way home, and the truck wouldn't start again.  Very fortunately, he was at a station that also had a mechanic shop and a mechanic who knew about diesel engines.  He took a look and determined there was a clog in the fuel line (he suggested that one of the tanks probably had some rust or something in it that was putting out sediment and we should avoid using that tank).  Fortunately, he was able to fix the problem and Mitch was able to return home, although he didn't get back until nearly 6:30, by then too stressed and tired to go back out.

At that point, we decided to try to find a synagogue that offered a live streaming of their services.  We did find one, but of course, our internet connection sucked big time and it was nearly impossible to watch, being that we'd hear 1 or 2 words and then it would buffer for about 2 minutes.  We just gave up and spent the rest of the night watching our downloaded shows.

In addition, it is one of our wedding anniversaries.  We exchanged our vows (eloped) on 11/11/78, and then had a formal exchange in front of family and a rabbi on 2/29/80 (leap year).  We always celebrate in November (this year will be # 40 and we hope to be able to do something really special, including a renewal of vows).  But we do try to have a little acknowledgement during the twilight zone between 2/28 and 3/1.  Sadly, because of the mood, it just didn't happen.

On another note, a milestone (new decade) birthday is coming up for me in 1 week and a few days.  I really want to do something very special, but can't think of what.  Ideally, I'd love to have a party, be pampered and be the center of attention (I know that sounds selfish), but we're just too far removed from everyone to make that happen.  I'm thinking of maybe finding a spa with good rates and indulging in something I've never done before -- maybe a couples massage so Mitch doesn't feel left out and have to wait outside for an hour.  But can't find anywhere local that offers that for a reasonable price.  I do know there's this fancy restaurant with lots of vegetarian options.  It means going off my diet but I've been planning to go there for my birthday for a few months.  So I suspect it'll probably be going to the movies and then out to eat.  Who knows, maybe if the weather permits, since my birthday is on a Sunday, we can have a campfire on Saturday night and invite some of the neighbors here.

Anyway, PIBE (play it by ear) as I always say.  And remember that plans are always made in bubbles anyway.  For all I know, we'll get our marching orders in a day or 2 and need to be out of here before March 11th.

Water pressure, finally! - Day 1352 (Year 4, Day 257)

Williamsburg, VA

Not a real exciting week.  Mitch was home twice this week due to rain or mud. Something tells me that this assignment, which is supposed to end by the end of March could extend through the summer, with all these lost days.  I'm not happy about that, as this is not one of my favorite places.  It's very hard to get around the campground due to the constant mud, and the walk to the office (the other campground) is about a mile away, up a steep hill.  It's also a very narrow, winding road so riding my urb-e there isn't a safe option (an aside, we're putting the two urb-e's up for sale as we're hardly using them and they're just taking up space in the truck these days).  Also, although I enjoy history and going back in time (Colonial Williamsburg), we've been there plenty of times now and I'm kind of "CW'd out."  Lastly, once again we're in an area that's nowhere close to a shul and we miss being part of a community, especially with Passover right around the corner and the anxiety of where we can attend a seder (but we have a month to worry about that.  And fortunately, the first 2 seders are Fri & Sat nights so if we need to travel, we can spend the weekend out of town.

Anyway, about the title:  for over a month now, the water pressure in the kitchen has been pretty poor.  We thought it was just a function of the new faucet Mitch installed before we came here.  Last week, however, we noticed a huge drop in the bathroom sink and shower, all of which were just about down to a trickle.  Mitch checked all the hoses and connections and cleaned out any screens (there were no clogs).  We decided to test another hypothesis:  we ran the water via the water pump (taking water from our fresh water tank instead of from the outside hose), and lo and behold - the pressure was fine.  This led us to conclude that the problem was definitely somewhere in the city water system. We thought maybe there was a leak in the outside hose which brings water into the rig (since there's a little stream running along side the trailer, but we later learned this is all from the rain) so he bought a new hose and replaced it.  Still didn't solve the problem.  Today, just for the heck if it, we decided to remove the water pressure regulator which is connected between the water source and the hose (as it's name says, it's supposed to regulate the water flow and ensure we don't get a blast that blows out the lines).  Well, being the cheap model that it was, the darn thing was broken (probably happened when the water froze, which thinking about it, was about a month ago, when the pressure started to drop).

So now we have beautifully flowing water again.  And as soon as he's able, Mitch will buy a new regulator, and this time spend a little more money and get a good quality one (this is the 3rd regulator we've had to replace).

The rest of the day (after troubleshooting the water pressure problem) was spent cleaning out the truck, which was in severe need of cleaning and re-organization.  I then did some baking (my keto crackers and scrambled egg muffins to last the week) and Mitch is creating a new shelf organizer for the bathroom closet (he was so pleased with the job he did in the coffee/tea pantry and his underwear drawer, so now he's in major organization mode.  Which is rather odd since he's so oblivious to clutter and I'm the one who gets bent out of shape if a paperclip is out of place!  He calls it OCD but I think I'm just a neat freak).

Another nice day out in CW - Day 1345 (Year 4, Day 250)

Williamsburg, VA

For a change, this was the first nice Sunday we've had in a while and one in which we didn't have a long "to-do" list (well, we do, but nothing absolutely critical that we couldn't take the day off and enjoy ourselves).  It was bright and sunny and temps in the 60s so we decided to return to Colonial Williamsburg.  We started out at the museum and visited a few exhibits which we missed the last time we were there.  Today we viewed mostly antique furniture and fabrics.  Truly fascinating stuff.

Afterwards, we learned there is a Tea & Spice Exchange in the Merchant Square section.  We had visited one in St. Augustine and Savannah and love the chain!  I'm running low on tea so we decided to go to that section as well.  On a whim, we decided to take a little time off and visit here:



I had the red wine sampler and Mitch had a glass of cider, plus we shared some goat cheese mixed with fennel and lavender.  Yum!  (Note: this is not the actual winery; that's a few miles away.  This is just a store front which lets you sample their wares and entices you to visit the premises.  Or just enjoy some wine and cider).

I also took a little video (360 degree view) of the area (can you spot Mitch?)  It's a large file, so here's a link.  Not sure how long it will work though: https://s.amsu.ng/PVl8noOLNxfN

We did a lot of walking through the area and saw this very interesting classic car parked:



After this, we went to the tea/spice store and purchased some Earl Grey tea, beet root powder and "everything but the bagel" spice (we were going to buy it at Trader Joe's but they had some here so it saved us a trip).  Afterwards, we returned to the visitor center, picked up the truck and headed home.  We were going to go shopping (need more vitamins and wanted to buy a new Shabbat tablecloth) but we were both, as always, way too exhausted.  From now on, if we have any shopping to do on a day we want to have fun, do the shopping first!

My "exciting" life - Day 1334 (Year 4, Day 239)

Williamsburg, VA

Another 2 weeks have passed since my last post.  Hard to believe; it feels like I just posted a few days ago!  How do we keep time from flying by?

Obviously, not much exciting has happened as it's been work, work, work.  Mitch has had quite a number of days off due to the rain and very muddy conditions (very thankfully, not more snow or ice).  At least this gave him an opportunity to catch up on a number of back burner projects he's been meaning to accomplish, and I also gave him some work for my company (A-Z Admin Solutions: www.AZAdminSolutions.com, in case anyone's interested!).  We both agree that it would be wonderful if I could hire him full time, but alas, the workload isn't enough right now to warrant that.  Although, admittedly, a huge project has come in that I don't have (1) the desire, or (2) the time to complete myself and have hired a really awesome subcontractor to help me with.

My "excitement" of the week has been discovering a bald eagle!!  Very sadly, I don't have a camera that could zoom in close enough to get a good shot, although I was able to clearly identify it using binoculars and various bird identification tools.  Here's the best I could do photographically zoomed (it is really majestic when it's flying):



One thing I do find disappointing is our lack of seeing wildlife.  For example, this campground is divided into the front and back sections.  There are loads of deer in the back section (we're in the front) and I have yet to see a single one.  Mitch said he saw baby bears in Asheville (I didn't) but other than many different kinds of bugs, we haven't experienced much.

Regarding synagogue services, we have not gone for quite a while.  I guess we both sort of decided that it just wasn't worth the 25 mile schlep.

This past weekend, as seems to always be the case, the weather was miserable.  We ended up on Sunday just running a bunch of shopping errands (including a trip to Michaels to buy a replacement clock mechanism) and then spent the remainder of the day watching downloaded movies.

Regarding next steps for travel:  it was suggested to Mitch that our next assignment will be in Salt Lake City, Utah.  On one hand, this sounded really exciting as we haven't been out west before.  On the other hand, it's a 5000 mile round trip.  Three out of four parts of our cursed Ford 6.0L engine have been replaced to date but we were warned the last part (the head gasket, the most expensive of all) is due to blow at any given time.  Since the trip would take us 50% of the way through "fly over country" -- the Midwest with nothing but farmland and tiny cities hundreds of miles apart (kind of like our travels in the Dakotas), and then the rest of the way through the mountains and steep grades (towing 20K pounds), we decided we didn't really want to take the risk of this kind of travel at this point.  Mitch asked his supervisor to please keep us on the east coast, which he agreed to.  We will most likely be here until some time (end?) of March but it's unclear where we'd be going next.  So far, it seems like the highest possibilities are either NJ, or Asheville or Raleigh, NC.  Will keep you posted....