November Autumn, More Memories

Did I say Autumn or was it Spring?  Yes, it is early November, and there are Roses blooming all over the place.  This house, just around the corner from my sister’s house, is a prime example.  What is going on here????

    

Ok, that’s a bit better.  With some of the trees starting to really show their colors in the Greater Sacramento area, I think it is time to head to my favorite Sacramento Park….William Land Park.

William Land Park is on 165 acres and includes the Zoo, Fairytale Town (above), Funderland, lots of Picnic Areas, Wading Pool, Basketball Court, Softball Fields, Soccer Fields, Adventure Play Area, Lakes, an Amphitheatre, a Rock Garden, Jogging Paths, Village Green, and a Golf Course.  I have gone to this park since I was very, very small, and to the zoo many times.  But one of those memories will be told after a few more Autumn pictures…

 

   

Well, it still seems like early Autumn….not early November.  What I am afraid of is that a quick cold will come in, everything will turn, a storm will come through, and it will all be gone except for the mess of leaves all over the lawns.

       

    

I had an aunt and uncle who lived close to the park, they have both passed on.  It was really my grandmother’s brother and his wife, they both lived good, long lives.  Driving the few blocks over to where they lived and we found many trees which were showing their colors.  It is a nice neighborhood back in there, that is for sure…and it brought back memories of visiting them, the many Christmas Eve parties they threw when all of the family gathered together for fun and food.

If I may, let me share a touching but funny story.  It was Spring 1978 if I have my years right.  I was working at the Madison Avenue Mr. Steak Restaurant as Co-Manager with my good friend Brad.  We had lost the manager of the south area store a few months earlier due to Leukemia.  I was his Assistant Manager for over a year.  Dennis was a big, strong man.  Brad him and I golfed one day…he told us he was a bit tired.  He was diagnosed about a week later.  He was dead just a few weeks after that.  He was going to marry one of the waitresses named Tammie, but they did not have enough time for that.  It was a sad time.  Months later I talked to Tammie and told her that she needed to get out.  I suggested a day at the zoo…with my two nieces and nephew.  Jennifer and Jared are my brother Bob’s kids, ages 6 and 2 way back then.  Katherine (the one who just came out to visit mom and dad a few weeks ago from Missouri) was age 3 1/2. 

We had a nice time at the zoo.  Tammie put on a few smiles…but you could see that she was still  a long way off from ever finding happiness again.  I had just hoped that getting out, being around kids, seeing animals, would at least bring her back to near normal for even just a bit…

After the zoo we walked across the street to where ducks and geese were playing in the water, and along the grass.  There were benches where we could sit as the kids chased the ducks, and played for a bit.

So the scene is set….here is the pond.  The bench is a newer bench, but above it is in the same general area as it was back in ‘78.  I am sitting facing left, Tammie is sitting facing me, and as we talk, all the sudden there is a SPLASH!  Terror comes over her face, I turn….it is Jared, his head just barely bobbing above the water.  I run over, jump in, lift him up and turn towards the shoreline.  I look up….and Katherine is peeing her panties which is running down from her skirt onto her sox and shoes.  Jennifer looks like she just took a big bite of a large cookie that her mother would have told her not to touch…I knew instantly that she had something to do with her little brother ending up in the pond.  All of this and less than ten seconds have passed by from when I was sitting on that concrete bench.  I look over at Tammie….and she is dying with laughter.  What can I say?  Goal achieved, a family legend had been made (this story has been told and told so many times….Jennifer still denies any involvement in Jared’s demise…Uncle Dave was still allowed to take the youngsters on outings but always with the “let’s keep everyone dry this time” message…)   As for Tammie, she did get over her loss as much as anyone could.  But the warmth I felt when she told me later that this incident was the first time she had laughed in many months is still a warm feeling to this day.

Sometimes you have look '”through the trees”, in order to see the wonders that lay beyond.  No matter how hard it might be…no matter how rough the road might be.

Note:  We drove through my old neighborhood, and I decided to stop at a neighbor’s house.  My good friend David was my next door neighbor…we have not seen each other for 25 years or so.  What are the chances that any of the family still live there?  Well, his mother still does, along with his younger sister.  I now have a phone number and hope to catch up with another old friend.  Would not have happened had we not broken down, which, by-the-way, will be fixed by next Monday.  More of both of these to come….

Problem Spotted, Fix Comes Later

 

All of this electrical stuff is found under the bed, under a this board which offers space for storage between this electrical stuff, and the mattress / pillow area.  To the far left you can see a lot of wires which lead to to a black panel along the side….this is the back side of the 12V and 120V breaker box.  In the right side of the left picture you see a black box, this is our Inverter.  In the middle where the two pictures split you can see a silver box, which is the the converter (which charges up the house batteries).  And in the middle of the right picture you see a black box, well, that is the transfer box.  To the far right you see a bunch of wires.  These wires are either coming into this electrical compartment, where most enter into the transfer box, or they exit the electrical compartment, headed for various places such as light sockets (all of ours are 12 volt), power plugs (all 120 volt), power to the slide, the tank heating pads, to the batteries, etc.  None of this has anything to do with powering the engine area, or the steps, which all get their power from the battery in the engine compartment up front.

Here is a close up of the transfer box.  Essentially it decides if the motorhome is hooked up to power (like at a RV park), or is it using the Generator.  More sophisticated ones will even decide if it is running on the inverter…but with ours we are told to not turn on the inverter unless we are not plugged in and the generator is not on.  Our inverter only runs two plugs up by the TV, while some inverters will power just about anything on a motorhome outside of the air conditioner.  So when I took this cover off today….

…this is what I found on the other side of the lid….that can’t be good!

This is the inside of the box.  You can clearly see the melted wires right there at the bottom.  Told you it couldn’t be good.

With this picture I turned it 90 degrees so that you can see a good blow up picture.  What I have read is that these special electrical screw connectors, for lack of the official name, need to “tightened” at least yearly, and checked two or three times per year for any signs of discolored wires leading into them.  “IF” the wire is loose, then the electricity “arcs” which causes extreme heat which will melt the wires and plastic that the connectors set in.  Hmmm….I did not know that.  I know I have read that Howard of RV-Dreams has talked about tightening his connectors from his solar panels…but I did not relate that to a transfer box which is found in most trailers or motorhomes which have built-in generators.

    

Above are two other transfer boxes which had major (left) and minor (right) meltdowns.  

Above is a transfer box which does not have meltdown problems…but was just waiting to happen.  Notice the thicker wire to the right, compared to the thinner wire to the left.  (Note: these were other people having problems with their transfer box, they published warnings to others just as I have.)

Above you can see the various amp loads of the different wires.  In the previous picture it looked like they were using size 8 or size 10 wire where they should have been using size 6.  It was for an IOTA 50R Transfer Box, which was recalled back in 2009.  However, they did not recall the IOTA 30R, which we have because the size 10 wires are rated for the 30 amp we can use.  However, if the connectors comes loose, then the heat build up on the size 10 wire creates the heat which melts.  Not a great feeling knowing this is right under our heads…..and especially since I was awake at 4:00 am when the power went out.  Marcia, earlier in the evening, had smelled a faint smell which attributed to the oil filled heater.  She has a great sense of smell…which I do not have.  Now we know that she had been smelling the transfer box.  Why it gave out at 4 am, who knows….perhaps my rolling over in the bed gave it just enough of a shake to get it to arc one final time.  As for the fix, that will wait until next week.  It should not take very long as long as they can find a compatible transfer box.  I do know that it won’t be a transfer box by IOTA Engineering, L.L.C, of Tucson AZ.  And the warranty company said that it is covered, so our cost will be no more than $100.  A new transfer box is around $130 plus labor to remove and install.