I know you have heard of spring cleaning. Today we seized an opportunity to clean the “basement” of our motor home. We call the cargo bay under our coach the “basement.” The trailer is the “Shop Annex.”
We scheduled this winter cleaning just two days ahead of the winter solstice. That way there would be minimum of daylight. The schedule fortunately coincided with a record breaking warm day here in Nashville Tennessee at 73 degrees. You heard me, 73 degrees.
How do you clean the basement? Well first you break a water line from the main water storage tank and drain about 20 gallons of water into the storage bay. Fortunately we had just arrived at our destination, the Madison Elks Lodge. I walked in to the lodge to arrange our stay, and when I returned there was water pouring out of the hatches and spreading across the parking lot. I popped open the hatch and put my thumb in the water line. Then I called for Judy to turn off the pump.
We assessed the situation, a quarter inch of water flooding over the basement carpet. We parked the coach and moved all of our belonging out onto the parking lot. I dug the wet/dry shop vac out of the Shop Annex and thoroughly vacuumed the carpet to a damp dry state. The warm day and blustery wind is quickly drying the compartment. Most of our “stuff” is in storage bins and thus did not get wet at all.
Tonight will be in the mid 30’s and tomorrow is expected to get somewhere around 50 degrees. The basement will dry out nicely and the carpet will be freshly cleaned. The Shop Annex also supplied the critical tubing connectors to replace the broken strainer in the water line.
The secret to a successful winter cleaning is to pick the proper day. Today is the warmest day we have seen all month. The weather prognosticators are assuring us that this was a record day and we will very quickly return to 40 degree days and 30 degree nights. They are even predicting 15 degrees for Sunday night and a fair probability of snow here in Nashville.
After supper this evening I was able to complete another repair job. The Pfaff sewing machine has been acting up. It would only go if someone held its cord and pushed just right. The conclusion I came to was not that the machine had an inferiority complex but rather it had a broken wire. With a new plug in hand I amputated its little plug and soldered a new one in its place. Judy is now sitting behind me happily sewing on another quilt for the church. Life is always interesting: Especially when this fellow Murphy keeps getting his fingers into things.
From Music City USA we wish you a very Merry Christmas.
Love from Gary and Judy
