Baby steps

The year was...1993....Assiniboine  Park in Winnipeg Manitoba and the event was an obscure sport called ultimate, a game frisbee/football if you will . We were a bunch of newbie misfits under the leadership of our willie veterans Mike  and Danny. At the start of the season, we wondered if we would be able to move the disk down the field without hurting ourselves or others, let alone score a point or win a game. But we created our own little mantra, and I have used it in my life ever since, "Baby Steps! Baby Steps!" . Don't let the daunting enormity of the task ahead of you cause you to freeze up and prevent you from moving forward. That my friends is exactly what we did, step by step we made small victories, one day to the next.

Now I'm not about to naively think that this blog has a tremendous number of followers, I mean there are some, and those some are a dedicated bunch. So much so that when I have a down time or fall off the blogging wagon, I often get a good humored shot to the ribs. My last enters was a healthy two weeks ago, and I would love to say that I have been working away on Fillmore and have simply neglected to download and post...but that is not the case.

Before the lull in posting, Ron and Verna came out for a visit, a little skiing, a little Fillmore time. Here we are, the boys starting to prep the interior of Fillmore for a visit to the paint shop. Jeff removed the couch moorings while Ron and I worked at removing the wall boards and the inside window wells. I have said this many times, two steps forward one step back, it's just that sometimes the step back is a planned step!

I have faced many challenges in my life, business wise, relationship wise , and even health wise ( insert eye link). But on Feb 12, I got some news I wasn't quite ready for.

My old man sore back that I have complaining about in these pages, turned out to be something else. I have a tumor growing through the bone in the L2 vertebrae, it is degrading the bone and the vertebral body is structurally compromised. As luck would have it, about a week after discovery I had an innocuous slip on the ice and fractured the vertebrae. Since then I have been flat on my back unable to stand or sit, all the while the doctors are trying to figure out the best way to handle it.

In the meantime, my ever resourceful wife has been deputized to take care of all home repairs and maintenance....while I affectionately watch from the comfort of my floor bed.

The doctors have been poking, prodding, irradiating, x-Raying,scanning and testing for the last two weeks. The consensus is that I have a very aggressive atypical tumor that resembles a hemangioma, and it needs to be removed.....breathe...... I have a date on the operating table next week......breathe.....and a long recovery ahead.....breathe......

Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps....start with the small victories.

Fillmore is old, wise and patient....he will wait for me.

510,072,000 km²?......baaaa! That's nothin'!

 In 2009, a man by the name of Jose Martinez was trapped on a ride at Disneyland. Being disabled he was unable to extricate himself from the "goodbye room" on the ride and endured over 30 minutes of the song "It's a small world after all". Ever since last week I too have had the song rolling around in my head, but unlike Mr. Martinez I don't mind!
You see a few weeks ago I got a message on the blog from a gent in Montana, saying "Greetings! I owned your bus for fourteen years, and know a fair amount about its history...". Needless to say my interest was piqued. Turns out what I thought I knew of Fillmore's past wasn't quite the real history.
None the less I had a few emails back and forth with "Robert" and then a wonderful phone conversation. Although we both had slightly different end looks for 'our' clipper we share the common passion/desire to see it done up right. During our talk I learned of the clippers history, and some of the history of the company that Fillmore was originally manufactured for the Intermountain Transport Co. When we finally said our good byes Robert had generously offered to share his collection of history pertaining to Fillmore.

Tuesday it all showed up....

And what a collection it is.

A reproduction of the original company logo

An original return ticket from Butte to the ACM Co. smelter

Oh oh, this might cause some issues with the in laws, and 50% of my quartet for that matter. I guess I'll have to discount their share of the fuel.
There are pictures of Fillmore back in the early 90's , a period license plate from the fleet, bus route brochures and many many other treasures.

Last but definitely not least, Robert had a middle section of bumper, not originally from Fillmore himself but from a clipper. Test fit looks really promising, there are a few bends and dings in it but I'm hoping to find a blacksmith that might help me out with rectifying that.
I have on a few occasions had small world experiences, meeting a high school classmate on the streets of Amsterdam, showing up at a house party in a different country only to find neighbors of friends, and now getting in touch with another person with an obvious emotional attachment to something that I hold dear, all because of consulting "the oracle" - Dr. Google....ladies and gentlemen the earth is over 510,072,000 km²...but it truly is a small world after all.

Moving slower than Molasses in January

 How many times have you said this? I can't even think of how many times for me, but the past week I have said it over and over. Between my newly acquired bum back and the persistent cool temps. I haven't been getting much progress. Don't get me wrong it's not for a lack of trying or even doing! But the trying is modified tasks and the doing seems slooooooooowwwww.
Slow as molasses in January.....but how slow is that really?

Dr Google tells us that : "It was a balmy 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) in Boston when the Great Molasses Flood happened on Wednesday, January 15, 1919 .  On that day, the low-lying section of Commercial Street between Copps Hill and North End Park was flooded by the contents of  a 58-foot tank that had contained no less than 2.5 million gallons of molasses .  The container stood just behind the Boston and Worcester freight terminal. 
When the tank split wide open at around 12:30 p.m. that day, a 30-foot tidal wave of molasses tore the steel supports off the nearby elevated train structure.  In the end, it was determined that the molasses of the Great Molasses Flood ran at between 25 and 30 mph (40 to 48 kph)."

So I suppose I stand corrected....I have been moving SLOWER than molasses in January.
  By Manitoba standards for this winter -23C is nothin', but for us as of late it seems cold. Especially when you are trying to squeeze your bare hands into a super tight space to evaluate the block heater.

 I know Fillmore has a mind of his own and can be stubborn but even in this temp. after being plugged in I should be able to get him turned over.

 Notta! 

I tried the old farmers trick of plugging in the block heater, then putting a metal pipe against the block close to the heater and listening for a "hiss".

Notta!

Chris gave me ther advice of putting the ohms meter on it to see if I was getting a reading...

Notta!

 After wrestling with removing the power chord, I was hoping it was fried.....nope
Just for good measure I got a new chord and installed it.....still nothing. Looks like I'm going to have to drain some of the fluid and replace the block heater itself. (NOT looking forward to that!)

 In the meantime I continue on with modifying the wheel well and placement of the passenger chair. First thing first was to heat up the inside to a comfortable temp. Thank the good lord for construction blast heaters!

After scouring a junk yard or two, I found nothing close to what I wanted for the seat base, so I ordered one. Cost me a few $$ but I have to make sure my lovely co- pilot will be comfy on those long road trips! Making progress.....just slow...about as slow as Molasses in...never mind!

Opening a hornets nest

Most of the time you use that phrase, it's figurative but this time it was literal. Work on Fillmore has been slow the last two weeks, mainly because I did a real number on my back. I'm not exactly sure what the issue is but bending and twisting are not good. So my activities have been severely hampered. In the last week things have been improving with regular physio/acupuncture and exercises. Finally my back has been good enough to very carefully work.

Keeping myself in a good body position, I was able to continue to remove the roof vents and evaluate what danger lies beneath. And there was some danger beneath. Thankfully they were from days of yore and it was -16C so there were no wasps hanging out in the nests.

Next on the to-do list was bite the bullet and commit to the placement of the passenger chair. I knew that in order to do that I would have to really open the hornets nest and modify the wheel well. Consulting with some photos of other jobs from other Flxy owners I decided where I wanted the chair, how far over I would need to be and then....

Cut away! I had to allow for the air ride base, the riser and then the rotation of the chair if the passenger wanted to spin the seat around to face the crowd. The only bad part is after all the metal cutting, the sweet smell of the new wood is a bit tainted!

Test fit after mods looks good!

Now that I like the position, now I have to recreate the wheel well!!

Out of sight and on my mind!

Some would say it's cursed, over the past year and a half, just when things get going well WRT Fillmore progress, disaster strikes. Maybe it's Fillmore trying to slow progress because he loves the attention, maybe it's a curse from a voodoo witch that had a bad ride in Fillmore back in the 60's, or mayyybeeee I'm just getting old and my body doesn't like all the crap I throw at it while at the same time I seem to refuse to dedicate time in my week for proper exercise to keep my body on the right track.
Last post found Randy drilling away the outside window panel associated with the fridge placement and me up in my attic trying to manage a leak from an ice damn.












Well the good news is that the window well was removed, surfaces cleaned and primed

Then using the old outer skin as a template I drilled,prepared and primed the new piece of skin for transplant.

Test fit required a tiny bit of tweaking...

And the final product riveted into place with plenty of seam sealer.

Last item of business was the roof air vents. I have no idea what is underneath, but as I quickly approach prep for paint, there is no better time than the present to find out, it's out of my sight but its definitely on my mind.

Lunacy

We see it all the time at work, we have a day that goes off the rails, things just don't seem "normal", procedures are harder, patient management is more challenging and upon investigation we see it's a full moon! The ever present scapegoat for a day gone wild, when the occurrences are pure "lunacy".
The term comes from the Roman Goddess of the moon "LUNA", and there are many cultures which attribute bizarre behaviour or happenings to the super natural and the full moon.

Last week Lunacy hit the Sinclair house, Michelle was away for a girls trip to Arizona,hiking the grand Canyon, and a little recoup time in Sedona. As I got home on Wednesday night and was starting to prepare dinner, my daughter Anna emerged from her bedroom to announce"Dad, it's raining in my room!"

Sure enough her roof was leaking, quick investigation revealed water from the attic space, the culprit?....An ice Dam. For my southern American friends, an ice dam is when you get a heavy snow load on your roof that blocks your ventilation in your attic. This results in a rise in attic temperature, thus melting the snow in contact with the roof. The water runs down the roof until it reaches the edge where is cools in the sub zero temp and forms ice. This process repeats and repeats until the water cannot easily drain and instead backs up the roof and seeps under the shingles, thus leaking into the attic space-onto the insulation and down into the house.

So I spent Wednesday night, Thursday night and a very good part of Fillmore Friday crawling around in the attic, hand bombing wet cellulose insulation out small bag by small bag.

Randy, steadfast but shiftless as ever, came out to pay Fillmore the attention he deserves. After making one of the final mock up pieces for the fridge we concluded the general floor plan. Which meant we decided on which window would be eliminated from the passenger side. Randy set out on drilling rivets!

Once I emerged from the attic I spent some time looking at an air shock for the passenger seat. Unfortunately it is too tall and I cannot use it, so back to the wrecker I go.

A place to set and gather your thoughts.

 A quote from a play I was once in. The quote was said by Marcellus Washburn, in Merideth Wilson's "The Music Man" I do believe played by my good friend Darren. The quote seems to sum it up. Randy came out for a day of Fillmore and we set to getting some exciting stuff done. Randy was tasked with creating some building blocks, very rough mock pieces that mimic the size of some of the components of the interior. Nothing like the mock ups done by Paradise coach for Ben Willmore's  Creative Cruiser , but this isn't going to be my full time home either.

As Randy puttered away with the wood, I continued to grind and weld. I continued to work on the couch mounts.

The old adage measure 16 times weld once is a good one!

 Once the mounting Brackets were fabricated it was time to place the couch into position.

The placement to allow for the couch to fold down into a bed required us to leave a bit of a space behind the couch. I have an idea of how we can use the space effectively for blankets and bedding.

At days end we have a few counter tops in place, and the pillars for the bathroom position. Next will be the mock up for the fridge and bench/bed in the back. Once they are in place we can "shuffle" the pieces around to best use the space where we need it the most.

Last fall my mom had a close call, a heart attack. We were lucky and her stubbornness was her greatest gift this time. She managed to pull through none worse for the wear, perhaps when it's all said and done she's better for it. Better lifestyle better choices which often happens when one faces a near miss. Anyway she was finally well enough to travel so she came for a visit. Saturday was a beautiful day of +5C and  I managed to get her up into Fillmore. Mom got the first ride on the properly mounted and stable couch that won't tip off it's temporary legs during the journey.....sorry Sharon/Leslie/Verna!!

The good, the bad and the ugly....

I know, I know the temptation here would be to question what is good, what is bad and who is ugly....but no. I WILL NOT stoop to that level of bathroom humor in this blog, well not today anyway.
Harold tirelessly worked away on finishing the paneling, making templates for the rear wheel wells and cutting the plywood to fit.

Good looking results!!

 Meanwhile I started to map out the mods I will start on the front passenger wheel well that will hold the front mounting plate of the fold down sofa bed.

Now for the bad and the ugly. I'm not sure which is which but, as I moved some plywood sheets away from their place of storage I noticed that the side wall of my shelter was looking.....hmmm.. shall we say odd? To paraphrase Mr Shakespeare 'Something is not right in the state of Denmark!'
We has a few days of pretty heavy snowfall in the last 48 hours, the snow load is taking it's toll on Fillmore's house. Designed as a temporary shelter, it has already lasted longer than I thought it would be up....but I need it for a while yet. And right now I need an immediate fix that is more than temporary.

A few minutes to think and problem solve and presto! We have a winner! I changed the set up to allow for slight movement of the tree in the wind but the jack is bolted to the shelter wall and putting pressure on the tree to keep the wall vertical. Just needs to last the winter!!!!

Good Friends, Good Times

Christmas is a great time to get everyone together for a visit. My Buddy Harold and his family made the monumental trek from Thompson Manitoba all the way to Bragg Creek to come see us and get away from the Manitoba deep freeze. We spent some time visiting, skiing.....and of course a bit of bus time.

Harold, never being one to shy away from a task was given the job of finishing the wall panels on the drivers side while I finished reinforcing the bottom lateral supports on the passenger side wall.

After Harold made some good head way on the wall panels, he started to play around with the destination sign.

Houston we have a problem, a large plug for a small hole, we'll see what sort of creative problem solving we can come up with!