Sunday, August 20, 2017

Sewer Entertainment ...

I was a rookie at this RV stuff at one time and I'm sure people watched me and laughed.  Hahaha, a lady having to dump her black tank.  Now, I always try to help out if someone is having difficulty, or maybe doesn't even know what they are doing.  Sometimes that results in lots of thank you's ... sometimes not so much, so I've learned not to offer, just walk by .... maybe they'll ask.  He didn't.

It seemed there were two gentlemen in this rig since I saw two different trucks come and go.  I was surprised to see this guy left by himself to move the rig out.  Yes, it's very damp next to their trailer because they unhooked the sewer line from the trailer ONLY, the day before.  It's laying UNDER the rig, right up against the 4 x 4 tire block under the tire.  

Yeah, I saw this one coming too!!  He backed up his truck to hitch up and left it running, entirely blocking the roadway for over an hour (yes, I'm serious) while he jacked up the front, not with the trailer jack, but with a tiny car jack and a too short handle.  Jack it up, set wood block.  Jack it up again, take out wood block.  I'm not really sure what the problem was there, but he couldn't seem to get the jack OUT once he got the hitch down.   I quickly moved my car.  Then he tried to drive off.


The block of wood and the sewer hose (see the red by the front tire?) stopped his forward progress.  Ten minutes of trying to get the block out from under the tire, he finally decided to back up.
Free at last, he left his truck running (with the trailer now attached) STILL blocking the entire road, while he tried to figure out what to do with seven sections of sewer hose ... NOT empty by the way.  He just wasn't quite tall enough to raise it so it would dump.  After three tries, he dropped it, allowing even more water (or whatever) to roll out on the ground.  

Finally, he went to the OTHER end and picked up the last two sections to drain into the sewer.  You KNOW what happened to the middle sections, right?  Even MORE water came rushing out.  By the time he was finished, he was more than a little damp around the edges.  He then proceeded to wash each individual section under the water faucet he was previously connected to.  UGH!!!
About 95 minutes later, he finally jumped in his truck with tires WAY too low in pressure to be towing this rig, and took off.  I hope he doesn't go over any big bumps because the trailer jack remained in the almost down position, about three inches above the ground.  This is an accident waiting to happen!!
With the excitement done for the day, I worked on my solar eclipse camera lens.  Why do I need this?  Because looking into the sun through several pieces of thick glass is worse than staring at it full bore.  I previously ordered some lens material to make a filter, but none of the instructions worked for the size lens I have.  

With spit, duck tape and construction paper, I made a tube to fit over my lens.  They said to attach the material with rubber bands.  As you can tell by the wrinkled edges, that didn't work.  I'm not good at this sort of thing ... not good at all.  My only solution was to glue it on, but the only glue I could find was wood glue.  Don't ask me why I have wood glue ... I've NO idea.  Amazingly, it worked -- sort of.  Thank goodness the wrinkling won't affect the picture at all.
I went outside for a test shot.  The filter material is so dark I couldn't see anything in the viewfinder.  I'll just look for a second to know where to point the camera ... YIKES!! DON'T DO THAT!!  Even one second hurt my eyes.  I thought I better get some glasses.

Timing is everything.  Here I am in a tiny beach town ... who is going to be selling these?  Then I saw on Facebook that Stormin Norman's had some.  I raced to the store just in time to hear the salesgirl tell a lady they had none left.  PLEASE OH PLEASE!!   So the Manager went in the back to see if there was just one more box.  She came back with five pair from the Owner's personal stash.  How lucky was I??  I thanked them profusely and bought three just in case some of the kids here at the park don't have any.
Here are my test images with the jury-rigged lens I made.  Not too bad ... so hopefully I'll have some eclipse pictures when the time comes tomorrow morning.
Keep your fingers crossed there's no fog.  As of now, it supposed to be quite windy.  If not, all of this will have been in vain.  
There's been lots going on around here, including the salmon derby, the eclipse and the kite festival which starts tomorrow morning, just in time for everything to go black from the eclipse.  I won't be on the beach ... I'll be right here in front of my rig with my tripod set up for some eclipse images.




2 comments:

  1. If you take your cell phone camera and turn it on as to take a selfie
    hold the camera down to use to look through the view finder not your eyes
    If you have a Tupperware cover put the cover over the top of your lens
    as soon as you get it lined up and only take the cover off to shoot your picture and then put the cover back on
    It's the length of time of re-fraction that does the damage
    My understanding Amazon had a problem with those eclipse glasses were not certified
    When we were kids we used to take a magnifying glass ๐Ÿ”and cook ants ๐Ÿœ๐Ÿœ๐Ÿœ๐Ÿ˜ฉ
    In the yard
    Maybe that's what mother nature is going to do ๐Ÿ”Žfrom Salem Oregon to Savannah Georgia 12 million people ๐Ÿ‘พ๐Ÿ‘พ๐Ÿ‘พ๐Ÿ‘พ ๐Ÿ”ฅ cook them right up

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    Replies
    1. The cell phone trick sounds like a good one!!! Yes, many of the glasses are not safe to use. Hopefully these will be okay ... they have the correct rating on the inside.

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