No Joy

Well, summer is over and we're well into fall and Pumpkin still sits.  My surgery recovery is going very very slowly.

I did get Coors back from the shop.  It runs well again.  Thank goodness something went right.

The boys are coming the end of this month to help us get some things done around here that I've not been able to handle.  They will help me winterize Pumpkin as well as lots of other chores that have fallen behind.  I haven't mowed since before surgery.  But, one good thing that came out of the drought we had was that mowing was not needed - until now.  So, one of my guys will mow and probably mulch leaves in the process as the leaves have started to turn and fall.

We Want To Hit The Road..But

Here it is, the end of July, and we're still stuck at home. This danged neck surgery has grounded us for waaay too long. But, we're shooting for somewhere around Labor Day to be able to get going again. In the meantime, Pumpkin sits idle (behaving, I hope).

Coors sits at the shop where I took it way back in June. The mechanic says he has is fixed. I sure hope so. But, as of last Friday, I'm not able to drive. So, Coors will have to wait, too.

No Stopping Us Now - Oh, Wait...

Ever since we bought Pumpkin, the front brakes have been a bit dodgy.  If I had to ride them much at all, they would cause a front-end wobble or shimmy.  Last year I replaced the calipers because one of them was sticking.  That helped, but didn't fix the problem.  So, we bit the bullet and I took Pumpkin to the local Ford dealer for some front brake work.  About $800 later, Pumpkin has the best brakes it's ever had since we bought it.

The reason for the high cost was both front rotors had to be replaced.  The wobble was due to warped rotors and when they tried to turn them, the metal was sort of crystallized.  It left the surface rough like sandpaper which would eat pads pretty fast.  So, we had to replace both rotors.  Actually, I think they (Ford dealer) ran into this problem on the rear brakes as well when we had them rebuilt shortly after buying Pumpkin.  The mechanic ran into a problem turning one of those rotors.  Now that I've seen what happened to the front rotors, I suspect the rear rotors had much the same problem because the mechanic described the problem has "chattering" when he turned one of the rotors.  It could be Pumpkin's brakes had been ridden enough to cause extreme overheating of the rotors.  Anyway, I'll have to keep an eye on the rear brake pads just in case the rotors are rough.

Today, I'm finally trying to finish up the overhead bunk project.  I installed two of three plywood panels to cover the front and the the area where the clearance lights wiring runs.  I wanted to make these panels easily removable like I did the bunk floor so I could inspect for water intrusion periodically (paranoia, remember?).  I wound up removing the two panels I had already installed and redoing the entire area.  Everything has been cut and fitted and just received a coat of polyurethane.  Once that's dry, I'll stick the panels in and, hopefully, that's that.

Only one last major project to do before we head to the family reunion in July and that is to service the generator.  I'm contemplating tackling that one myself, but because of its location and poor access, it might be more than I want to do - or can do.  But, it needs a new oil filter and the oil changed at the very least.  We don't use it much, but I sure want it to work when we do need it.

Oh yes.  Our bed in Pumpkin has never been very comfortable for me.  It kills my arthritic shoulders.  We had a 1 1/2" foam topper on it that helped, but still didn't fix it for me.  A couple of weeks ago we bought a new 4" memory foam topper for our bed in the house.  It had a 2" memory foam topper that we removed.  I'm putting it on our bed in Pumpkin  along with the regular foam topper already there.  I'm hoping it will help.