We Got It !

We got the call today that we got the job we interviewed for almost two weeks ago. We will be full-time roving managers for a storage company that has 90 facilities in 10 different states. We will be filling in for site managers who are taking vacation or if there is a change in management at a facility, we will cover the facility until a new manager is hired. We are excited! This job is ideal in that we can do what we love most....travel and see different parts of the country...but also work all over the country. Each of the sites has a little store, kind of like a U-Haul store where you sell moving supplies....tape, boxes, packing supplies, etc. and hundreds of self storage units in all different sizes. We will stay on-site as most of the facilities have power and access to water. Even if there is a slow period of time, when there isn't a need to cover a facility, we are guaranteed a base rate each month.

Linda has a doctors appt next week so they are working out when and where we will train. Trying to finish up projects around the rig before we head out. Tonight we ran to Lowes and got the supplies we needed for the toolboxes on Bertha. When the guys built the bed and installed the tool boxes underneath of Bertha, they didn't secure the tool boxes enough. They are attached on the bottom but not at the top and there is too much flex in them. They do not lie flat against the I-beams that the guys welded up underneath the bed so if we hit a bump the boxes would shimmy and shake really bad. So much so that it has created stress cracks in the metal bottom where the bolt goes through. We bought bolts, bumpers to take up the slack in space between the I-beam and box,rubber washers and locking nuts to pull the whole thing together. It was really tough drilling through the tool box and I-beam.....my arm muscles are really fatigued tonight from bearing down on the drill to get it through the steel. Whew !! But two hours later, we had the four bolts through and everything finished up. Much better ! Hardly any play in it now. Will seem good not to have guys pull up along side of us, going down the highway, and point frantically at the tool boxes cause they think they're gonna fall off. Wouldn't have been a pretty sight to have our tool boxes fall off onto the highway as we're driving.

Tomorrow I have another project I'm gonna tackle on the rig. I have found some soft spots in a few areas under the slideouts where it appears to be starting to rot and I've bought some sealant that I will inject into the screw holes on the end of each slideout. The supplies arrived today and it should be a fairly straight forward job. After reading the test results of this product and it's penetration ability, I'm anxious to see the final results. More on this later...

Junk in the Trunk....

Last week I had started a "to do" list, of projects around the rig, and one of those was to clean out and organize the tool boxes on the truck. Since Linda didn't need to go into work until six, we decided that today was the day to cross that item off our list. One by one Linda and I took everything out of each, threw away the junk and organized the remaining items. After coming to the last toolbox(there are 4 total) we thought about the way everything seems to bounce and move around more in the rear boxes than they do in the front ones. So, back we went and reversed the items that we had in the boxes. Put the heaviest items in the tool boxes closest to the cab to see if that jingling, we hear every time we go over a bump, would decrease.

I also decided to remount in the basement of the RV an under cupboard style AM/FM CD player that also has a weather radio. It had been hanging in there using a sling type of device I rigged up but every time I need to get in the basement to work, I seem to hit my head on it. Having found my roll of pipe strapping in one of the truck tool boxes I figured I would hang it up next to the ceiling, using the pipe strap. This is one of those DIY projects that goes well if you have 3 hands but since that isn't the case I needed Linda's assistance. Being bifocal impaired, for me it's impossible to look up at something like a screw head and have it in focus well enough to line up a screwdriver to it. I decided the best tool for the job was my cordless drill, with phillips bit, instead of a handheld screwdriver. Lying on my back in the basement of the rig, I had the screw in one hand and the drill in the other. I needed Linda to hold the radio up so I could fasten the pipe strap on each side of it. It was a rather space constricting predicament which was resolved by me putting my legs up over Linda's shoulders so she could get close enough, to the rig, to reach in and hold the radio. Looking like a set of circus performers, there I was trying to look up and get the screw aligned with the existing holes....Linda struggling to hold the weight of the radio out horizontally and then I kept dropping the screws. For those bi-focally challenged RV'ers out there, you can appreciate how challenging this small task was. After I dropped the screws about five times we both got to laughing so hard at the way the whole thing must have looked, that it was all I could do to get those screws anywhere close to where they needed to go. I told Linda that it looked like something from America's Funniest videos....Finally, after multiple attempts and Linda retrieving all the dropped screws, we got it installed. Now that's teamwork....

Linda was scheduled to go in at six tonight but got a call at four and they said they didn't need her. She is supposed to work there Wed and Thursday also so we'll see what happens. Great weather day....started out cool (50's) but then was in low 70's with a light breeze. Calling for a few more nice days before the threat of rain again over the weekend.