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Thursday, December 27, 2012

What To Do When You Have Nothing For The Blog?

Why, make something happen, of course!  Actually, the blog title should be “How Could I Be So Stupid?”  I’d better ‘splain.

I had that pesky leak in my kitchen slide drip some more water inside during a heavy rain yesterday.  With some suggestions made on our blog, it required me to pull in the slide and look over the top to find the source of the leak, a good rainy day project.  I pulled in the slide a little at a time and buckets of water ran off it.  As it was almost in, I heard a clunk and the slide jumped a bit before it came all the way in.  Nothing unusual, the slides are noisy and sometimes jump a bit.  Except this time it was very unusual and I should have known better.

You see, outside, up against the Journey we keep our lounge chairs covered in plastic when we’re at a site, instead of hauling them in out of the inside where we keep them when traveling because they don’t fit in the basement compartments (too wide).  Do you see where this is going, yet?

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Looking all over the top of the slide with a light, I could not see any source of the leak so it will necessitate removing the slide awning and working from the outside. Figures.

I’ll hope for a nice, warm and dry day to do that job.

This morning I came out and found that when I moved the slide in, it caught on the chairs, and ripped the rivets holding the sides to the basement compartment out and bent the metal.

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This is one of those “I should have know better!” moments.  Not the end of the world, but several hours worth of repair work lays ahead.  But in a way, this was somewhat fortuitous, because as the metal bent, some of the paint cracked off exposing the infamous Winnebago rust underneath.  It was hidden by the paint.  I peeled away all the loose paint, got out my wire brush and attacked the rust.

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Once I got all the heavy, scaly rust off and got it as clean as I could I gave it a good coating of rust resistant paint.

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As I let that dry, I had to head out to Lowe’s and pick up a rivet gun, I already have a really good one, but it’s sitting in my son Corey’s garage with many of my tools up in NJ. I picked up some RTV silicone sealant and a punch, yep in NJ, too.  Grrr!

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Tomorrow if the weather holds, I’ll be bending, hammering and riveting the metal back in place, then sealing and painting the seam so it will be good as new.  And lucky me, I just found out I’ll have a couple of helpers as our grandsons are coming over.  A project we can do together.  :c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

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20 comments:

  1. Don't you get so mad at yourself when you do something dumb like that!! I know I do. Cuss a bit, stomp my feet alot, and then the smoke comes out my ears!!!! Fortunately for you, you are handy and looks like you can fix it. Good for you.

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  2. Well I sure do sympathize. Except when I do something careless (notice I did not use the S word), I'm not clever enough to fix it. I can also sympathize with the, "damn I should have have kept that" grumbling as I go off to buy a duplicate of something I didn't think I'd "need". Notice how much sympathy you are getting from me. Guess that's cause I've been there, done that.

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  3. WOW you sure know how to make things happen. That thing will last for several days;o))

    Hope it warms up and the repair goes smoothly!!

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  4. This is the type of thing that gives people flat foreheads as the palm of the hand comes in contact with the forehead while repeating the words 'dumb of me' over and over. This I know because I've been there, done that.

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  5. I was always afraid of closing the slides on stuff I put next to them. I became so paranoid that I stopped putting anything near the slides. Now I see that maybe I was not as paranoid as I thought:)

    Good luck with the rust. That was a constant struggle to keep it under control. Rust proofing was a major issue between me and Winnebago!

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  6. Hmm, I knew there was a reason that I stay inside when pulling in the slides, and George stays outside to watch. Paranoia thing :) Hope you find the source of that leak!

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  7. Hope you find the leak and sorry to hear about the damage!

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  8. Next time we meet up, I want to have a rust discussion. Rust 101??

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  9. I hope Lowe's remembered you're a star customer and rolled out its red carpet for you. Sorry to hear about this latest project for you.

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  10. Ouch ... just the other day I was looking at the chairs we had leaning up against the MH under the slide to keep them dry and thinking we'd better move them out from under there ... now I KNOW we will be moving them.

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  11. Repairs are no fun but at least the two little helpers coming over tomorrow might be able to give advice on how to fix the slide. Maybe they'll even be able to give ideas on the leak. Young minds have young ideas.

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  12. The real answer to what to do when you have nothing for the blog is...not to blog! Don't make all these messes just for us. It's much too much work for you :)

    Seriously, lots of luck. Hope it all works out ok.

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  13. It seems that even though we try to be so careful, a booboo comes along. So sorry. At least you could fix it yourself.

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  14. oh dear...nuff said..have fun with the repairs!

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  15. This sounds exactly like one of my repair job exercises - try to fix one and create two more while doing it.

    Nice job on the rust, I hope the rest of the repair goes as well - so, then you can get back to looking for the source of the water leak (sorry!!).

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  16. I so agree with Gail. It's okay to miss a day of blogging rather than creating something for the blog. The problem is, most of us have been there and done something stupid. And yes, I used the S word.

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  17. Paul, this is Tony Perone. You guys look great! Here is my e-mail please send me a note I'd like to talk to you. perone3@rcn.com

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  18. Paul just think how well versed you will be at fixing everything on your RV if you continue this line of thinking. STOP IT! We would rather have a day without a blog than to see you destroy your rig. LOL

    Steve and Karen (posting from SD)

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  19. We have had way too many of those "should have known better" moments in 3 and 1/2 years of full-timing and many more before that. One of the best advice we ever got was that the first thing you needed to pack for full-timing is your sense of humor.

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