Hidden Treasure

It's a little bit funny this feeling inside
I'm not one of those who can easily hide
I don't have much money but boy if I did
I'd buy a big house where we both could live

Every now and again when I'm working on Fillmore a song will pop into my head, it might help express the frustration or the joy of the moment. Some time ago I took these photos and shamefully, I lost track of them. I usually try to keep things in chronological order but this time.....it fell through the cracks......it was supposed to be back in February.

NONE THE LESS! 

The point of this rant is that I distinctly remember the song playing in my head when I was removing the roof vents Elton John believe it or not. I think it was the line "Its a little bit funny this feeling inside" mainly because I was a wee bit scared as to what I would find. Now if you remember the Feb post you remember there was a surprise under there, but the reason for removing the vents was to evaluate my options for the air flow.

So off the came...

I was pretty sure the original design had the air flow coming back into the passenger area of the bus, giving the people some fresh air as they trundled along in the heat of July. Unfortunately for me, after after modification upon modification, my own not with standing, the openings dead ended in the engine compartment.

"So what's the problem?" you ask".

Well my own modifications now in the lime light.....my fuse panel resides directly underneath one of the vent holes. And although the system is designed NOT to allow water to flow into the bus....

I wasn't willing to risk it.

So after consult with my fabrication shop about custom making a special flanged tube that would extend down so I could re-pipe it elsewhere, Phil, my welder, said "Go to Home Depot and look in the air duct section, it will save you some $$"
Sure enough, as simple as it sounds, a regular dryer vent did the trick. Now at least I have some pipes to play with.


All the while Randy was turning up the heat...

Well not really, but it was time to install the furnace/hot water tank from Webasto called the  
'Dual Top'




After much talk and deliberation, we decided the best place was passenger side just behind the storage compartment(spare tire area)

Poor Randy, as I am still on strict "no bending, and no lifting" restrictions, he must have placed and removed this sucker at least a half dozen times. In the end it was mounted with vibration dampeners and all. I'm quite excited about getting it all hooked up, as it is diesel fired thus running off the main fuel tanks!

"The grass is always greener over the septic tank."

There are plenty of literary giants, and then there are some whose stature perhaps isn't as noble as others but they hold a special place in my heart. Good ol' Erma Bombeck who passed away in the mid 90's, much to early at 69, had many little life lesson gems. Including "A child needs your love more when he deserves it least." a bit of advice that I am sure my parents took to heart and as my kids approach teenage drama, I too squirrel that tid bit of parental advice away.

The other day as I was walking through the back yard I had to chuckle at the obvious presentation of my lawn. Which is when another one of Erma's gems came to mind, "The grass is always greener over the septic tank."I snickered and thought "All the years we waste getting caught up in  'the grass is greener on the other side' trap....when truth be known they are just wallowing in the stuff too!!"

The nice thing about bathroom humor, is there is no where to go but up, so upwards and onwards. Lets go all the way up to the ceiling! I spent a little time drilling the pieces Randy had cut the other day, then a simple drill and rivet with a flat head pop rivet.

Now we have a surface that we can place the aluminum extrusions to hold the ceiling panels in place.

I have altered the ceiling line a bit, the original ceiling panels came to the outside edge of the "little shelf"you see in this photo. I want the panels to hug the outer surface, then I will use the shelf as an electrical wire chase,and build a little outside wall so that we have a valence for some indirect lighting options........which brings up another issue.....lighting!!

Where's your happy place?

 But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.
Thomas Jefferson

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.

Thomas Jefferson

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/sunshine.html#GMHeSFPQAhkoGy8Q.99

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.

Thomas Jefferson

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/sunshine.html#GMHeSFPQAhkoGy8Q.99

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.

Thomas Jefferson

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/sunshine.html#GMHeSFPQAhkoGy8

There are many times in life, at least for me, where I sit back and am dumbfounded at my good fortune. Most recent health events excluded of course, but perhaps we are faced with adversity to help us to appreciate the good times. This evening while I sit at the computer sipping a glass of red, trying to think of something interesting let alone witty to say, CBC radio's 'Vinyl Tap' with Randy Bachman was playing. My sweetheart and I listened to music from 'days of yor' feeling the warm feelings of memory recall that only sounds and smells seem to evoke. Michelle paused from baking biscuits (I know this is sounding WAY to set up, but you can't make this Sh*8 up!) and said " Just so you know.....this is my happy place, we are all home, we've had a great day together, I got Jazz and red wine (and me of course). The point is, it made me think what is your happy place?
Lets start by saying, I'm a man with many needs and many interests.....so I have many things that make me happy. My family, love, creativity, .....red wine of course.....and it struck me that I feel these feelings all the time with sometimes simple things, sunshine on my face after a long winter, or walking in the woods with my love, but sometimes it can be complex.......like working on Fillmore. The blog is way to short to talk about them all, but the other day I felt one.

Working on Fillmore is definitely the journey not the destination. So I get great pleasure from working with Randy, as you can see our pace of 'play' is pretty laid back.....sometimes we sit down on  the job.

Other times we are racing against the clock.

I spent the day welding, normally for an experienced welder this would be a 20 min job. For me a good hour, in my p[resent condition....an all day event. Baby steps!!
For Randy, he was working on creating some mounting plates for the eventual installation of the ceiling panels.
A happy feeling of spending the day in the sun, puttering away and getting a good dose of vitamin D.

Ahhhhhh, Alberta in May

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."

 -James Joyce

I am not sure I was nearly as poetic as Mr. Joyce when I awoke to see a brand new batch of the white stuff. Jeff on the other hand was delighted.....sort of. First, like I he was bitter and heartbroken that spring, like the girl who stole my heart in high school, was so warm one day and then dumped my world into a pit of ice and misery the next. Thankfully I was a teenage boy and I got over that pretty quick, as did Jeff. His forgiveness to the fickle heart of mother nature was quickly granted when we asked our local lord and ruler of all things related to back recovery (Michelle) if I was allowed to use the snow blower.
Her judgement was swift and unwavering....."What are you crazy?? NO!"
Which then opened the door to Jeff to "pack down" the snow with the quad.....fair trade. He gets to ride, and the cars don't get stuck. I momentarily thought of questioning his technique of 'packing', it seemed more like 'ripping it up'.....but who am I to judge in my present condition.
Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.......that's my motto.

While the weather didn't co-operate Jeff and I decided to play with the LED lights for Fillmore!!

BEEEEEEEEAUUUUUUUTIFUL DAY!!!!

 In everyone's life there are a few things that really make them happy, for some it's being curled up on the couch reading a good book with a cup of tea, for others they get that feeling when they are creating like painting or singing. For myself there is a certain primal happiness when I can feel the warmth of the spring sun on my face and still feel the cool air from the cold ground. To me that is spring, a rebirth of life for the year. It really doesn't matter what I'm doing in those conditions(which is good considering my present condition) but just as long as I am outside in the sun, doing something, doing anything!

Everyone needs some vitamin D....including Fillmore.

This past Wednesday Randy came over to help work on Fillmore. I decided that being so nice outside, it would be a crime to work in the shelter of Fillmores garage. So I moved him out to the driveway. The plan was Randy would putter and I would advise.... and that is kind of how the day progressed. I may have done a little more than I had intended....and I may have paid the price for the aforementioned increased activity, but thats' another story. Randy's first job was to refine the window fit in the wells. Most were really good but there were a few that required some adjustments. Randy (always being preparred, brought his own Lee Valley tools German made safety goggles) I would tease him about them if I didn't have a pair myself. None the less everytime I looked over at him working in those things I got a funny feeling of déjà vu, but it took me a while to put my finger on it.

 Randy?......Dr Nafario?....seperated at birth?...you be the judge........just sayin'.....

After the windows we(the royal 'we') moved on to the passenger wheel well, to finish mods to allow the co-pilot seat to be installed.

Finally, a little roof work. The vents originally designed to give air flow to the passengers had been modified and butchered over time. I removed the roof vents to evaluate underneath, now we have to figure out what to do with them.

The lost art

Technology is awesome, it's truly amazing. Now I don't claim to understand it all, nor do I have it all. But the possibilities out there are truly mind boggling. I can unlock my car doors with an app from my phone. There is technology out there to control lights and heat in your house while in a remote location, remote surgery, remote access to anything. How many times do we whip out an iPhone and say " Lets consult the oracle!"? With the risk of sounding old, at least to my kids, I can actually say..."remember when we had to go to the library to look things up?" or not sure if you should answer the phone on an afternoon that you skipped school because there was no caller id?.....I actually remember being crowded around a computer in our university computer lab while someone 'showed us' the internet.
But.......and there is always a but, to what cost? Three times this week I was reminded of the loss of personal touch, first I received a letter from my aunt Julia, via snail mail. She sent a get well card, followed up by an anniversary card a few days latter. It gives you pleasure to get a piece of physical mail, to feel important enough for someone to spend the time and foresight to get a card then sit down and write you a letter. The second was much the same story, a friend of mine George, sent me a small parcel with a book of poetry, wonderful stuff. I'm not a professed literary giant but I like to explore, and if not for George keeping the art alive I'm not sure I would have taken the time and effort to get a book of poetry, I likely would have fallen in to the easy entertainment and said "ehh, I'll just watch another episode of Breaking Bad"
The third and final example was when Brad returned from Guatemala, the trip that I was supposed to accompany him on with my nephew Riley and my assistant Leanne. While he was there Brad commissioned a piece of art, a carving from Rosewood to help me stay motivated to get better and then get moving on Fillmore.

It touched my heart to be important enough to any to warrant the effort, but to be important enough to all three makes me burst with gratitude, and makes me think in today's world we need to take the time to reach out to people and let them know how important they are. Something that seems to have been lost in the age of gadgets. 

The personal touch seems to be a lost art worth finding