Gainesville

Wow. I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. Probably because my life has become pretty routine so nothing very exciting has been going on worth writing about.

After Cocoa, I went to Kissimmee. It looked like it was going to be a great set up until the property manager came by and wanted to know what was going on. (!) So I told him and he told the owner who had no idea and from there it was a big circle jerk. Basically what happened was Albertson's grocery store rented the front part of their parking lot to D2W for an event but somehow there was a disconnect when it came to the site plan. AFTER the fence was put up, the manager came out and I showed him the site plan. He said the fence had to be moved because half of it was in front of some other stores in the shopping center which was a no-no. The modification reduced our sale area to about half the original size. We had to move my house and the port-a-potties AND most of the fence. What a job that was. At least it was on pavement so it slid fairly easily but it still took 5 of us to get it done. AND THEN the next day the city code inspector came out and ripped us for not putting things according to the site plan. (DOH!) But he passed us anyway after making us move our truck behind the center (because it was a giant sign) and we also had to take the banners off the fence. Come to find out, Albertson's violated their lease by renting the space to us and the owner faxed a copy with the offense highlighted to all the shopping center tenants telling them to never do it again.

So that was Kissimmee.

Next I went to St. Augustine for an RVW rally. We dressed up our pets for a Halloween pet parade and had a bunch of fun with that. I spent a nice evening with Lynnette where we went downtown to old St. Augustine and had a few beers and checked out all the shops.

THEN, since I still had two more weeks off, I went ahead and made the trip up to Mississippi to see my folks. I really couldn't afford it but it was worth it anyway. My mom got three good results from her doctors and so that was great news. I also got some good news in the form of a job offer from Omarr. It may or may not pan out but if it does, my life will be much easier. Hopefully he'll know for sure by the end of the year.

Mom, Elsie and I made the trip up to Millington to see Eric's memorial. I thought after all these years I'd be able to handle it but I still get emotional when I think of what happened to him and all his friends. Seeing his sister's graduation tassel hanging in his baseball mitt made me lose it. But we had a nice lunch and it was a good trip.

I finally got the nerve to change the oil in my generator. I'd been putting it off mostly because it's very painful for me to get down on my knees to do the work. But I had my house up on pavers at my folks' house so I had more room to work on the generator side and it wasn't too bad. I got the job done and everything seemed to work fine.

However....

When I got to the site here at Gainesville, I arrived a few days early so I had to use my generator for power to cook. I started it up to do some work online and after a few minutes I kept hearing a popping noise. At first I thought it was a motorcycle at the bank next door but it finally hit me the noise was coming from my generator. Eeek! Did I lose the oil? I went out and took off the cover just in time to watch it shut down. Now what. Think....think....think.... I checked the oil and it was fine. The thing is new so it has to be something simple. Then it hit me. I went back into the house and checked the fuel gage. It was about a 16th below a quarter tank. So that was it. I remembered the generator automatically shuts down when the coach fuel tank gets to a quarter full. I'd just spent a half hour in the truck scouting the area out looking for a good way to get to the Shell station a block away. With all the shopping center parking lots at this location, maneuvering a 30-foot RV can get tricky. This event is located in front of a Wal-Mart in a TGI Friday's parking lot. I'd planned on getting fuel when I left Gainesville on the way to Williston but I GUESS I'm going to get fuel now if I want to have any electric to cook and charge my laptop and phone.

After filling up my house, I tried the generator again. It still wouldn't start. NOW I'm getting worried because the trouble light was flashing 3 times indicating that it needed serviced. I went online and found a number for a mobile technician down in Ocala. The man's name is Ray and when he called me back, I told him what the deal was. I mentioned that I'd just changed the oil and just to make sure I didn't screw up I told him what weight I used since it was different from what the book said (I later found out). He told me to get it out, that I'd put in the wrong kind. It was too thick. Back to Wal-Mart I go for some more oil. At least I could walk this time instead of having to drive to a store. So I got down on my knees (ouch!) for another oil change. It didn't take as long this time since I have more confidence and I knew what to do. Ray also told me that I wasn't holding down the priming switch long enough and that's probably why it wouldn't start. I'd only held it down a few seconds. Ray said to hold it for at least half a minute that it wouldn't hurt it. So I did, and it started right up. No more popping noises and it runs fine.

Things I learned:
1. Never use more than 30 weight oil.
2. The genset will make a popping noise when it's running out of gas.
3. I now know at what point on the fuel gage the genset will quit.
4. It takes at least half a minute to prime it after you run it out of gas.
5. Crawling around on the ground is agony.

Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow I have an appointment with a doctor in sports medicine at UF to have a look at my knees to see what is going on. Hopefully, whatever it is will be fixable.

And that's about all my news.