Grey Owl 2017

When I was a new Dad, tired, stressed at work, sleep deprived, I had a wonderful elderly patient talk to me about life. In his gentle and friendly way he was imparting his life wisdom on me. In the moment I was unfocused on what he was saying. I was listening, but I wasn't really hearing him, and he could sense it. I had been giving my typical response to the question,," So hows the new family?", which was 'oh good! I'm not getting enough sleep, and I don't have any time to do what I want to get done...but things are good!". To which he responded, "careful, you're going to blink and it will all be gone by..." and then he waited. He patiently sat there and waited for his words to settle. Like snow flakes on a frigid winters day floating down from above, they took time to swing in lazy circles before landing on my head and slowly melting with the heat of my skin, and eventually soaking into my brain. When it finally happened, I looked up to see a glassy eyed husband, father, grandfather with a hopeful grin...he offered in a choked whisper "it goes so fast, enjoy every second!"

I took his words to heart, maybe not every single day, we are all human and get caught up in our stress of the moment, but by in large I remember what he said to me. Thus I am not the least bit surprised that I find myself scrambling around last minute trying to ready Fillmore ready for another trip to Manitoba for the Grey Owl Golf Tournament. Seems to me last year I was doing the exact same thing...a whole year has gone by and you have to ask..."what have I been doing all year and why aren't we further ahead?" Well, life has happened, kids, dance, volleyball, carpooling...and I am totally fine with that. There will soon be days when I long for the opportunity to drive my kids to a practice or a friends house...

On my last minute wish list was the destination sign crank. So I removed the front bulkhead cover, and marveled at how the dominoes started to fall. What I mean is, once I removed the bilkhead cover....I might as well paint it right? So the first coat of paint was applied.

As that dried I set out to get the U-joint all set up to cross the bulkhead.
The issue is the bulkhead is at an angle, but the destination sign is mounted vertically.

So a  U-joint had to be put in place to accommodate the angle difference. The shaft of course has a flat surface for the set screw, but the U-joint didn't have a set screw. So, I drilled and tapped a #8-32 while I waited for the second coat of paint to dry.

While I waited for coats three and four, I installed the plumbing. I have the input being diverted to either the "Fill" position or the "supply" position. Either the supply line or the in house pump (isolated from eachother by a check-valve) can  provide pressure to the sinks and toilet.

With literally hours to go, I had to pull the plug and just accept the condition of the interior. My rough goals were achieved. The front bulk head is reinstalled

Weather strip on the main door, fridge operational....

And while I scrambled to get Fillmore ready, others were scrambling to erect Fillmore's new home!

Everything AND the kitchen sink.

I always pride myself on where I grew up and how it helped shaped me into the person I am today, yes..yes I know that opens the door to all sorts of comments. Truth be told, where we grew up and with whom, and the opportunities awarded to us makes a huge difference in who we become. My intent of the comment was not to get to deep in the philosophical realm, but rather I was just going to say that I have always considered myself a winter person. I love the crisp biting air of a cold clear winters day. HOWEVER! ......Man I love spring time.

There is nothing more wonderful than sitting outside in the early morning sun with a steaming hot cup of coffee listening to all the birds chip and whistle the world from it's slumber. So as much as I love winter, I really appreciate the way the world grows and blooms in the spring!

The weekend saw me pull the bus into the sunshine and work in shorts and a t-shirt for the first time this year. I was able the "finish" the back bench......I mean when is it really finished. I will confidently say finished for now, until I paint, and maybe tweek the design.

But for now ,we have a rear bench that pulls into a bed.

That being done it was time to move to the kitchen, my goal is to have running water for the road trip to the Grey Owl golf tourney in Manitoba....so that my brother can make me fresh coffee while en route!

Started with a basic test fit to see if the counter selection would work. The colour is perfect, it pulls together the colour of the rear bench cushions and the flooring.

I don't like the sharp corners so I cuta radius into them....which means I now have some creative edging to take care of.

All the while I keep trying to look ahead to the next step so that I have all the parts and pieces I need. My last puzzle was to figure out plumbing. I need to be able to hook into city water, so I need check valves to eliminate back flow and manual valves for isolating fill vs pressure....as well as a pressure regulator.

I'm always amazed at my inability to keep pace with the progress schedule for the day when I am working, having said that I will take it and say...not bad for a days work...

Long Long Ago in a garage Far far away...

I am ashamed at how long it has been since I posted in this blog. Having said that I have not been sitting on my hands, there is plenty that has happened...just not all bus related!
This year proved to be another busy and fruitful year for the kids. Anna, once again, blew our minds with her commitment and talent on the stage, she truly is radiant when she performs and is able to break through, what in the biz we call, the fourth wall and easily and concretely makes a connection with the audience. This year she rocked it out in front of Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, cousins her parents and her little string bean nugget (brother) took home a lot of bling and very strong accolades from the judges!

Jeff, although battling some health(back) issues was determined to have as successful of a year on the volleyball court. He demonstrated skill,commitment, team work, and overcame physical and mental challenges to help his team hit the podium once again taking silver in U15 Boys Tier 1.

I think it's probably pretty apparent how proud I am of these kids, they are good students, good athletes and good people...frankly makes me wonder what genetics they got from me.
Needless to say when the choice was between watching ,( I like to think of it as helping-even if it looks like I'm just drinking coffee on the bleachers talking to other parents) or working on the bus. The kids won out.

To complicate matters even more. Jeff has acquired a 1970 Datsun 240Z, and as you can guess...when the choice is between working on my car or his....I tend to prefer to be rubbing shoulders with my boy rather than working solo in Fillmore. Although I did propose we should alternate vehicles but continue to work together!

None the less, the cabinetry moves forward...all be it at a snails pace, we are still making progress.

I redesigned the back rest for the rear bench/bed area. Moving the back support forward and in the process creating some areas for storage.




















I'm trying to squeak out as much storage as I can, every nook and cranny, every useable space gets a drawer. I have become very aware that we have another journey to Manitoba right around the corner and I am nowhere near where I wanted to be in terms of level of finish...but as my daughter says when faced with a potential road block stressor......Meh!

And proud of it

Michelle and I have come to the conclusion(many years ago) that Anna is a performer. She admittedly isn't the most flexible dancer in the studio, or have all the acro tricks, but (pardon my language) holey shit can this girl turn on the stage presence and rock out a performance. So when Michelle came home with my very own "Dance Dad" swag....I was a happy man. I am a dance Dad, and I'm proud of it...because of her.

Now on to more mundane things, I am still working on cabinetry.

I am afraid not much has changed in the last month, I have made progress on the new rear bench back, this past weekend I was trying to run the 110v wiring through the bench back.

Notice the language I use...

I managed to run the wires with no issues, then I started on creating the top cap for the bench back. All was going along swimmingly. I was cutting the tops with a modest bevel, when tragedy struck.

The table saw busted. To be more specific, the threaded rod responsible for putting a tilt on the cutting blade gave way and I could no longer change the pitch of the blade.

So my 1 hour project turned into a multi hour repair as I had to dismantle the table saw, remake the wood dust skirt(it broke after I took the above pic when I attempted to remove the PVC dust attachment.

I was afraid that there was a weld that busted or something more serious. In the end it turned out to be a retention ring snapped. The bad news was I didn't have a spare....so necessity is the mother of invention. A little picture wire and a few scrapped knuckles, and we were back in business.

El Ramate

There are a lot of pros and cons to what I do. A big con is most people really don't want to see me. Sure maybe in the mall to say "Hi" or from across the stadium at a football game, but in reality most people actually say to me "I'd rather be anywhere else that here." Don't get me wrong, I get it and I don't take it personally. A big pro of what I do is that it is a skill set that is needed and can help both at home and abroad. I have been a member of the charitable organisation Dentistry For All for many years now, and we travel to Guatemala and Nicaragua to provide dental work to remote areas where the need is great and the access to care is none. I recently just returned from another trip to the northern region of El Ramate in Guatemala, and it proved yet again to be both exhausting and rejuvenating. I had the pleasure to travel with some absolutely wonderful, hard working, dedicated and compassionate   individuals

We worked hard and helped a lot of people

Saw some unique scenes

and worked in hard to reach areas,

Making sure we savoured every moment

Made new friends, and fortified relationships with old ones...

And found no problem getting out of bed at 5:30 every morning for a coffee and a beautiful sunrise before heading out to put our drop in the bucket of need.

Boltzmann was a wise cookie

 Entropy may be understood as a measure of  disorder

Ludwig Eduard Boltzman,An Austrian Physicist and philosopher, (wow! there is a career path the guidance councilor didn't talk to me about in high school. )This guy studied the statistical  mechanics of atoms, which in coles notes for dummies would kinda explain that all things, if in a ordered state, will eventually degrade to a state of chaos....or what scientists like to call "thermodynamic equilibrium, the state with maximum entropy"!

The change in entropy (ΔS) of a system was originally defined for a thermodynamically reversible process as
${\displaystyle \Delta S=\int {\frac {\delta Q_{\text{rev}}}{T}}}$







Soooooooo, a pictorial way to say this would be, from neat and tidy to:

In very short order!

As most of the ducting work has been handled(note I said most, and by most I mean some)

It was time for me to be a little creative with a two fold problem.
1. I need to run the 120V electical wires to the AC panel.
2. I need to rectify the fact that the seat portion of the rear bench is too deep.

So I am bringing the seat back forward by 4". This will allow a electrical wire chase, as well as solve the seat depth problem, as well as give us some extra storage behind the seat back for blankets and sheets.

It took a few trips up and down from the woodshop to the bus but we eventually got what we were looking for.
I will now bid you farewell for a few weeks as I am off to Guatemala to do some volunteer dental work in some remote areas of the country. Hopefully by the time I return the grass will be showing....or not....at least not as MUCH snow?

Interupting Cow

 Now... we' are all different and we all have our own ways of communicating and concentrating. As such I have found that I don't like to be interrupted. It's not because I don't value what others have to say, I really do! It's just that in a discussion, I have learned that my form of effective communication is more of a 'case presentation' format rather than a group brain storming discussion. I think its safe to say my wife would agree with that sentiment.
I find the same rules apply to when I am mid project, I get into a groove and sometimes it's hard for me to change directions.

Just the other day I was working on the furnace ducting....still.

I was having issues with effective design. Not just design of delivery but design of  retrieve ability. I want the option to remove a section or two of the cabinetry to access other system components like, oh I dont know the battery bank perhaps. So the ducting has to be able to be disconnected at various points to allow cabinet removal.

 I would like to say easy enough, but the truth is I was having issues moving from a 90mm diameter duct to two 60mm ducts. The reducer I had, but the orientation of it created a "bundle" of pipes which ended up getting in the way of the drawers. So, I had to re-position the reducer...to behind the fridge.

 So once again the fridge comes out(I'm getting good at this now), drilled another hole ran some more pipe!

 Next was to cover all the ducting with insulation sleeves. This will help with heat loss in non critical areas.

 I was just finishing up the ducting on the rear bench cross over, when I got my interruption.
My kids learned at a very early age that they should never come to me and say "I'm bored!" The unwritten rule is, if you are bored and are coming to me to help entertain you, I will find you something to do. The catch is, it may not be what you want(work). But that unwritten rule sword has two edges. So if a kid comes to me and says(paraphrasing here)...." I have an idea, and I need some help", then I have to respect the ingenuity and creativity and try to facilitate the process. Sometimes that means "here are the hammer and nails, have fun!". And sometimes it means it's time to drop what you're doing and help make the dream a reality. The decision to stop what you are doing all happens in a split second and the feelings that run through you are akin to the old Knock-Knock joke:

Knock-Knock
Who's there?
Interrupting Cow!
Interrupting Cow wh-
"MOOOO!"

For the briefest of moments you are annoyed at the interruption, but in the next instant you are smiling and so glad for the opportunity.

 Jeff came to me and said, " Dad? I want to build a snow bike!" I stopped and ran the scenario through my head, and after a brief moment realized my schedule for the afternoon was about to change. After my initial immediate reaction of being put off by the interruption in my perceived chain of events, in truth I got quite excited about the process. Jeff had a plan and a pretty good idea of what needed to happen. So truthfully my input was as shop runner, advice and safety officer!

 Frankly Jeff ,at the tender age of 14, can lay down quite the weld!

 Many of his welds were better, and prettier than mine!

 A wonderful afternoon of creativity

 And in the end something he is proud of and his mother is scared of!