Back to the roots...

Having recently returned from a weekend camping trip with Delilah's school to Potrero regional park (which was a great success), I come to appreciate once again how nice it is to have an RV.  In retrospect, most of this blog is about events that transpired in or around the RV - The Big Trip, many vacations, Burning Man, even the time between the houses was spent living in the RV.

It has had folks renting it out, others finding refuge from the storm of life. It has been a haven for kids to play in, a calm place to reconnect, a great place for sleep, a statement of sorts, a framework to attach the bling to... So many things that it has been, and so, this entry is an homage to the RV, and some of the useful things, tips, and realities I've found along the way.

First - a question of "Class"...
There are several "Classes" of RVs. This "class" definition has to do with what the RV looks like, how it works.
"Class A RV" is one that looks like the classic Winnebago, sort of like a bus, with a large window up front that typically goes to the roof. The are mostly front engine, with a few rear engine models. These are usually the largest and roomiest RVs, some of them 40+ feet long. These often have multiple discrete rooms, walls, and partitions, to make something that is very much a house on wheels. Typically have all the amenities of home - shower, toilet, refrigerator, microwave, multiple beds, sofa, TV, etc. Many of "slides" which are sections of the vehicle that slide out like a drawer to expand the floor space in the vehicle once parked.  Mileage is often around 6MPG, due to the large size, but there are also some diesel versions that do a bit better.

"Class B RV" is the "Camper Van" or "Van Conversion". In stark contrast to the class A, most of these are well under 20 feet, with no interior hard walls. Many don't even have a toilet (or perhaps a porta poty). The most minimalistic ones offer little more than a fold out bed, and a small sink and perhaps gas stove. Mileage is typically in the teens to lower twenty MPG.

"Class C RV" actually falls somewhere in between the A and B.  Their definitive mark is that they will have a bed above the "cab" (the drivers seat). Usually, there is at least one other sleeping area, and almost all have basic kitchen, shower, toilet and dining area. They are usually in the 20-30 foot range. They offer many of the comforts of a Class A (including some have slides), while being more easily driven and parked, and typically 10 or so MPG.

"Pop Up" is a small trailer, which has a tent like canvass structure that creates the walls for the top portion, allowing it to telescope up. This makes for an easier trailer to tow, since when down, the driver can see over the trailer through the rear mirror. They are light, and relatively inexpensive, and offer all the basics including in most cases toilet and shower. One down side is the canvass doesn't provide much insulation - either thermal or sound. Thus, they are very much like camping in a tent. Towed with a traditional tow hitch, it can be hauled behind many cars.

"Trailer" such as the "Wind-stream", "Teardrop" or others are a mid sized option. Typically larger than a pop up, and with amenities to match. Range from about 10 to over 30 feet in length. Some few have slides.
"Fifth Wheel" is a larger trailer, typically with lots of amenities, but it is physically so large that it requires a special mounting on a truck to haul it, called a fifth wheel. This is the same basic mounting that is used by Semi-Truck and trailers to hitch their trailer.  These trailers can be quite luxurious in accommodations, slides are standard on more recent ones, and some configurations are made to haul "toys" - off road vehicles for "Desert Rat" type folks.

We chose a used Class C RV, which I feel has the best combination of features - easy to drive, park, reasonable mileage, nice amenities, and don't have to tow anything.  I've been very happy with our choice which was a Ford F-350 based 25 foot Fleetwood Jamboree, with the Triton V-10 6.8L engine. With over 100k miles, no oil drips from the power train, and she still runs like a champ. 2000 model year was just before slides started coming out in the Class Cs, so it has a little less floor space than some of the newer models, and at 25', she was one of the shortest available, but that makes her easy to park - which has been a real blessing, since she is parked in our back yard here in Hillcrest most of the year!

Stuff that we found particularly useful -

An awning is such a nice thing to have - providing shade from the sun, and shelter from the rain. The thing to watch out for is that these things are fragile - and not to be left unattended unless very well secured. An unexpected wind can bend the thin aluminum struts into mangled masses in no time, making them inoperable or worse, making it impossible to drive the vehicle until they are cut off. At Burning Man we have either lashed our awning to someone elses, so that they support eachother, or covered the whole awning with either sides to prevent wind from getting under, or a parachute around it for the same reason.

An electric water heater element.  The water heaters in RVs are typically pretty small - ours is 6 gallons, which is enough for two very short showers. Typically they use propane to heat the water, which takes about 15 minutes. If you are plugged in to shore power at a park though, it is nice to be able to heat the water with park electric, which both saves you LP (and $$), as well as being much quieter (albeit also much slower).  You can buy the electric water heater elements to install in gas water heaters, by pulling out one of the drain plugs, and then mounting a thermostat to the tank to control the temperature.  After initial fiddling to set it up, ours has worked great for years.  The only down side to this is that you need to either unplug or install a switch for it if you are parking RV powered, but unattended for extended periods.

Storage bins.  You quickly realize that no mater how large your RV is, that you only have so much space.  Finding bins that closely fit to the space you have allows you to easily move the bins around to try to find the illusive thingy, or reorganize on the fly. Some of these bins are available in a stacking configuration which makes easier layering of stuff.

Stove top cutting board. This has a padded bottom, and is designed to go on the stove top. It has serves many purposes - first, it keeps the stove grates from rattling while driving. It also works as both a cutting board, a trivet for hot pans, a small table, a serving tray, even a back seat for the Burning Man Trike Conversion. With limited space, finding things that can do lots of different things is a blessing - this is one of them.

Another such thing is the humble "Salad Spinner". This is basically a large plastic bowl, with a smaller colander that fits inside, and a lid with one of several means to spin wet lettuce placed within it to dry.  Finding one that will fit in an RV provides a nice sealed way of storing washed salad.  But more than that, the large bowl comes in handy for many things, and the colanders plastic is sturdy enough to withstand boiling water to drain noodles and boiled vegies (potatoes, etc), so again, multi-taskers are great things.

Portable Jump Starter/Air Compressor - though we've never had to actually jump start the engine, the self powered compressor, and the portable DC outlet has come in handy many times. Ours also had a lantern function with CFL lamps so a nice source of light.

Fubar - this is a "Functional Utility Bar", designed for demolition, for tearing out 2x4s. But in RV space, it is also a heavy hammer to drive in spikes to secure the awning or ground covers, a high leverage pry bar to pull them back out again, working in conjunction with a hatchet, you have a great wood splitter, tearing pallets apart for bon fires, etc.

Hydration pack with snacks, flashlights, sunscreen, Swiss Army Knife, Water, band-aids, assorted pills, bandanna (also multi-functional), compass, note pad and pen, and calling cards.

And finally, an old school, printed on paper travel atlas. This is still the most sure fire way to get at least the large scheme of where you are going, and how to get there, and to visualize what's along the way, or find alternate routes. Reinforcing the spine with Duct Tape not only makes it last longer, but gives it that certain RV j' ne cest qua...

Ok, I guess that's it for this episode. RV Power Activate!

Life's a trip, and then...

You still out there? Wow, well thank you for your patience... Yeah, I know it's been a while.

So much going on in life, on so many fronts.  One of the core happenings of the last few months has been my mothers passing.  Passing is a good word for it.  It didn't happen in an instant.  It was a slow process. It was like passing a truck on a hill, while you're driving a motor home, with a trailer... Some time around June something happened, she had a fall, broke a vertebrae, and along the way lost of alot of her presence and spirit.  We thought it was the pain, or the meds, or the pneumonia or the infection, or the next pneumonia... But after a while, it became more obvious that however she lost it, it wasn't coming back.

I can't even keep track of all the maladies that she fought off - I think there were 4 or 5 bouts of pneumonia, several UTIs, her COPD, Congestive Heart Failure, 3 or 4 visits to the hospital... It was months of her slow passing from here to there - moving "on".  It was hard on all of us. On Dad, with his diminished capacity to remember and understand, the change in schedules was tough; it was hard for him to take care of the dog, mom's dog, hard for him to see mom as she faded.  It was hard on Delilah in more subtle ways - she always seemed pretty happy around mom, but her behavior became so unstable for a while, lashing out, yelling, thrashing at it all - psychically kicking and screaming about the unfairness of mortality.  It was hard on me, for all the time, the energy, the drain of it all.

Towards the end there was only the family Christmas for her to live for - one final gathering of the family.  Christmas was her holiday - and she held out for that last hurrah.  So, we put it all together. A little Christmas Tree in her room in the care facility, little lights, flowers, cards, reminders.  The whole family came together to celebrate a few days after Christmas - the clans from LA, from Oregon, and San Diego, all gathering for her, all spending some moments with her.

Strange the things that trigger.  Delilah's counselor suggested that I help Grandma make some hand prints on paper - which we could then give to all the family and grand kids. I happened to go in towards the end of the day, after mom had exhausted her energy, in hopes of having her make hand prints.  But I was alone with her, just randomly, no one else was there to help me. So I started trying to get a palm print, but mom was passed out - nearly lifeless even then - and I couldn't manage to control her hand and the pad at the same time.  So I settled for a finger, and repeatedly inked the finger, then stamped it on a sheet of paper. Her finger was so frail, and her skin so cracked; and the process of stamping the paper required moving so many things at once, that this simple, silly task reduced me to tears. I didn't want to get the ink on her new pajamas, but she couldn't help me - she wasn't home. I know she would have loved the idea of the art, but she wasn't there to give it, so I had to move her like a puppet...

She died a week later. She had been put under hospice care just a few days before, and had been fading quickly. Jan, my brother's wife, had come to spend some time with her. Suzie, my sister, was flying down from Oregon to be here. Barbara and Delilah and I went up to visit mom, and spend some time with dad.  I visited mom before dinner, and she was barely there. She was gurgling, working so hard to breathe. We ate with dad, and returned to his condo.  Soon thereafter I got a text from Jan saying that we should come soon.  I told dad that we needed to go now.  During the 5 minutes or so that it took to walk from the condo to the care unit, I felt sort of an upside down waterfall of energy and wondered to my self if that was mom leaving.  When we got there, sure enough, Jan and the hospice nurse were in the hall - "She just passed".  We went in to her room, and apparently dad hadn't heard that she had already passed.  He put a hand on moms chest, and after a moment said "I don't think she's breathing..." We explained that she had passed, and he slowly walked to the other side of the bed so he could reach her face, and planted half a dozen gentle kisses on her face - the most passion that I had ever seen them share...

For a few weeks, I was her Attorney in Fact, then co-trustee to the trust, and now executor to her will. There are things that you think are going to be hard, things that you simply don't know, and things you think will be easy. Some times you're right. There are things that should be easy but aren't, things that shouldn't be bearable, but some how are. There are things that you wish you could ask for help for and can't, and others, you find magically done before you needed to worry about it.  All of this is my life right now.  There are things that are just tough - just taking so much energy, and others that just flow. There is love, and there is frustration. There is wonder and there is disdain. And this is in so many aspects of my life - opening my self up to a full spectrum of possibilities of how things may be.  I am trying to just be, to just take this moment - study it, be in it, wonder at it, and know that it will pass to the next.  To be in a relationship with each moment as a seperate thing.  Each moment, passing into the next, on this grand trip of life...

Burning Man 2011

People ask me "What is Burning Man", and it always takes me a moment to even try to answer it - what do they really want to know? What aspect of it would resonate for them? What is it that they would see as remarkable, so that they might glean a little of what Burning Man "is"...

If you watch the news, where 30 second sound bytes is how everything is conveyed, Burning Man is about partying, lots of music, drinking, drugs, some art, and lighting things on fire.  Each of these things is an aspect of Burning Man, which some people find important, and help to define their "Burn".

There are those people that go with expectations - they want to "See Everything" (good luck...), want to try this or that experience, find romance, or whatever.  That can be part of Burning Man to. 

But for me, most of all, Burning Man is a series of individual experiences - each unique, each remarkable - strung together over a period of days... It is a moment by moment existence, of fully appreciating and consuming each moment - living IN that moment while it lasts, and moving on to the next moment - to live it in, as it lasts... It is about being wide open to experience - to sights, sounds, tastes, talking, discovery, being ok with emotions and letting them flow through you.  It's about absorbing experience without judgement, but more in wonder of the diversity of humanity - of what people find interesting, what drives them, what is their passion...

Every year is different.  Every day is different. If you go with an open mind, and a child's wonder, with a healthy dose of adult reason and planning, you will have a remarkable, even for many people, life changing experience.

For me, this year was the best "burn" ever for a number of reasons:
  * The weather was cooler in the days, and warmer in the evenings than most years.  Though there were some sand storms (really, more like dust storms - since the playa sand is more like talcum powder in consistency), there were no "white outs" this year.
  * The ground was "hard packed" - a rain relatively soon before the arrival made for a mud crack consistency to the ground, which was very easy to push bikes over, compared to the deep sand of some previous years.
  * The Temple was absolutely stunning this year. This is only our 4th year, but this structure was by far the most amazing Temple ever.
  * We had no significant technical glitches.  Even the blown bike tire (and wrong size spare) didn't happen until the last full day.

  Some highlights of the experience - moments that bubble to the surface...

Line on the road

Line in the sand

  Though officially, Burning Man doesn't start until 12:01AM on Monday, for the lat few years, and again this year, they let people in early - starting about 6PM on Sunday night.  We anticipated this, and so arrived a bit after 7, and made it through the entry line in just over 3 hours - another record.  They added additional radial roads on the outer ring roads, so it was easier to find our preferred camping location this year at 7:30 and the outer ring - this year "Liminal"

 Monday, wandering around, in our early explorations, we wandered into a Bar (a western getup, complete with the swinging gate doors, etc), and found us a bunch of interesting folks - including a gal that seemed a little down. Being the friendly folks that we are, we started chatting with this gal, found that it was her first Burn, that she couldn't find the camp that she was supposed to meet up with, was missing her boyfriend, etc - also found she was from San Diego, and especially since the folks that were going to come with us didn't this year, we decided to offer to adopt her.  She promptly accepted, and Rachele became our camp mate for the burn.

From there, a ride on a double decker art car and some of the fun sights:

View out from near center camp

And environmental pictures

 Some of the camp space - stretching for miles.

Our camp, on the outer ring - note the new "Green and Yellow Sunflower Parachute" that worked nicely as a shade structure.  Rachelle set up her tent under it.

Our neighbors at 7:46 - they kept at least one of the pilot lights on their flame bikes on all night, which made for a very nice "street light" for us in the evenings.  They came in from New Jersey...

And the view to the West of camp, what we call the "Exo Play". People head out here to find silence, to meditate, or for some alone (or in some cases, together) time.

A stunning sunset

One of the few structures with enough light that I could get a good pict with my cheap digital camera. Cheap cameras are good in dust. Not so great for night shots - but that said:

You can just make out Barbara's Cowgirl hat as the character in front and to the left of the flare.

One of the "big" parts of Burning Man is the Art Projects.  There are many significant installations - if one wanted, they could spend their week just touring the art.  For me, the art is a lovely flavor of the whole experience.  A few highlights:

Aliens on the far Playa

Pool, anyone?

A typical (whatever that means) Burner at an "Art Plant" installation

Many of which you could walk inside of, climb on, ride, or otherwise interact with.

This one was sort of a "prison" that you would lock your self up in.

An amazing Human Powered Skeleton Zeotrope. At night, a strobe light fires to Sync the skeletons which is the River Boatman on the river Styx, pushing along with a stick... Amazing, mesmerizing and creepy.  I spent quite a while staring at, and interacting with this, night and day.

A stork made out of petrol products

Another significant aspect to Burning Man is the Art Cars, which dot the playa, provide transportation for goers, and create their own themes on the fly.  Some of them provide other services, such as drinks (I had a "Homohito" from one rolling bar that included fresh picked mint - the finest Playa drink ever...) or food (a hot dog stand, or roast your own s'mores), or mobile dance party...

A favorite returns - the cupcakes

The Nautilus

A Land Speeder

A Conestoga Wagon

Various art cars creating a micro traffic jam

The "Homohito" Stand was actually two cars - one for the fine drinks, and one was their DJ.

Unicyclist. Obelisks, and Trojan Horse (which was like 4 stories tall)

Another aspect of Burning Man, is the Burning.  It's intended as a cathartic process - of letting go of stuff. Grief. Expectations and dreams that didn't go. Relationships. The Temple is a structure that is built, with the intent of receiving these messages - either written on the structure by hand, or pieces of paper shoved in the cracks, carvings left to burn, pictures pasted to the wall.  In The Temples brief life (remember, it only exists for one week), it receives these, it is so imbued with feeling, with intent, that it is a holy place... It is profound how much feeling - love and loss and hope and wonder - is pushed into its walls.

This years Temple was spectacular. It had elements of many cultures, wound aesthetially into one stunning structure.  It had many elements - different towers connected by bridges, each tower multi level, and each level ornamented.  It had dozens (perhaps a hundred) laser cut pieces depicting different aspects of life "Right of Passage" was this years theme. 

This years temple was the largest temporary structure ever constructed...

Inside, was an e-gamalan that played music on dozens of cymbals, bells, gongs, and drums. As each instrument played, an LED would light up - it stayed lit for the duration that the instrument contributed sound to the performance.

View from the second story of the temple. Note one of the wires going down. This was part of the "Earth Harp" - they designed the Temple to also be a Resonator for a giant harp that sounded like a cello on a grand scale...

This was the "head" of the Earth Harp, where the fellow played it from

And here you see some of the wires going from the head to the temple, with weights on them to tune.

A detail of the center tower.

And of course, Burning Man is about the people.

Matching his and hers propeller pasties

Sunset

Our camp mate Rachelle being modest, as usual

And of course, me :)

Summer in the Complex - 2011

Summer in San Diego is pretty hard to beat. And I've got to say, our particular spin on living here is definitely a plesant one.  We have been so fortunate to have lovely souls that have connected with us, and frequently visit, our periodic potluck dinners, and so many activities in the area to enjoy.

We joined the zoo again, after a few year hiatus, and have enjoyed visiting there - particularly during summer evenings, during their extended hours where you can see some of the nocturnal critters doing thier thing.  The "new" elephant exhibit is great, and we look forward to visiting more often.  With our little electric car/golf cart, it's an easy and amusing trip there as well as the adventure of the zoo. That is, when it's operating properly! Going to convert it to full solar charging soon here...

We've had lots of activity in the 'hood. The house next door had fallen into sufficient disrepair, that when the renter of the front unit moved out, they were unable to rent it.  Later, the back unit, which had no security lighting, was broken in to, and the theives took laptops and gear of the student renters - they moved out as well.  With the place unoccupied, it quickly became a gathering spot for neighborhood vagrents. There were several advenutres with having to call the police, with the finally being the 5 cop cars, and a chopper over head, doors broken in, and the whole thing.  That finally got the landlords attention, and they proceeded to renovate and tweak the place up, as we took maters into our own hands, and installed security lights to light their house! Our friend Kaiko later rented the back unit, and another friend Jon also moved in just a few houses up - we're glad to have them in our growing microcosm of community here.

Delilah has found new friends at school, including Sophia, whom lives near by - and we've enjoyed both their play, and also the ability to swap overnights, which has let us do several fun weekend adventures.

One such adventure was an anniversary escape for Barbara and I up to Monterey area. We did a power drive up, stayed in Carmel area, enjoyed walking at the beach and staying at some cute bungelow sorta places.

One of the folks with a "Birdhouse Backpack" out taking his feathered friend for a walk

Barbara at Carmel

My niece Melissa got married, and Delilah played Flower Girl in her wedding - as Melissa did in ours. Just days before the wedding, my mom had an episode where she tripped, and though she caught her self, there was a "crunch"- which was a vertabrae breaking... She was eventually able to have the surgery for the disk, but has had subsequent complications, including pneumonia - so still not back to snuff.

Delilah turned 8, and we had a fun party for her also - both kids and adults in attendance enjoyed the festivities.

A few pictures from the July community dinner - thanks Chrissy :)

The Piano Project

People know that I play piano/keyboards, and also have an aesthetic sense. The problem is that "digital piano"/keyboards/synths have an aesthetic that works better on a stage, or on a space ship, than in a 100 year old house.  So, somewhere along the way, I came up with the idea of converting an old upright piano into a music workstation.
Originally, I was going to find and buy a piano through Craig's list, take the company truck and a few helping hands to heft the 600lb beast into the truck, take it to work, pull out the keyboard, the hammer assembly and the harp (which ways 200-300lb all by it self) with the crane at my work, somehow dispose of the assemblies, then transport the piano case to my house again, with more helping hands.
Well, beyond the obvious "what a pain in the rear", there are also problems like that in removing the harp, there are somewhere around 7-9 tons of force across the harp - if it breaks, people get hurt.  To remove the harp, you need to de-string it. If you do it in the wrong order, the harp breaks. If a string breaks, it's like a flail.
I started thinking my way through and in searching on Craig's List, found an interesting ad that read "If you don't want your piano any more, we'll remove it free".  I immediately groked that they were doing restorations and reselling the pianos... Hum...
So e-mailed and got in touch with a really nice and piano knowledgeable fellow named Aaron, who found a suitable piano which they would then pull the guts out of, and deliver the piano. POOF! problem solved! Ok, at least some of the problem...

The piano - in it's original glory. Keys were damaged and would have needed significant restoration, which made me feel better about tearing it apart. It was probably from the 1920s.

The harp and keys, with the hammer assembly removed.

 The gutted piano with panels and key cover removed (below)

Key cover, bottom cover plate and top cover plate.

Removing the keyboard plate. My keyboard was too thick, so I had to router out 3/4" of the plate to make it fit in. Two hours later...

Routing out the cutout on the keyboard plate. About half way through the multi hour process.

 Mounting the LCD for the computer to the back of the piano, where the Harp used to be.  This is the hardest, most dense wood I've ever worked with.  Harder than some metals for sure...

 

 In order to fit the speakers in each side, I had to remove many of the tuning pins.  These are amazing little pieces of steel - tiny little threads, like 60 threads per inch or more, and threaded into the very hard wood in the back.  The first pin I took out by hand, and it took over 5 minutes. I needed to remove like 50 of them so quickly figured out how to mechanize... Ended up using a pair of bits back to back, with the 1/4" drive being the "socket end" to pull these suckers out.

 To fit the key cover over the keyboard, I had to router out a few compartments for the knobs and sliders that sat up on top of the keyboard.

  The "almost" finished music workstation in a piano all closed up above.

A pair of detail shots, showing the music keyboard, the computer keyboard, the speakers, LCD and mixer.  I still need to finish reconfiguring the pedals.  I already have the left one toggling the power to the keyboard and amp, but need to finish up the sustain and volume pedal mods. Otherwise, it's a pretty nice little setup! For normal use just playing as an instrument, I don't need to flip the front panel up at all - just kick the power switch. I only need to lift the panel if I'm recording or mixing stuff.