December 26, 2005

December 26, 2005

Yuma, Arizona

YEAR 2 DAY 192

 

Today was another sunny, very warm day.

This morning when I did preventive maintenance, I lay down under the back of the truck to check the air pressure in the spare tire. I noticed a leak from the rear differential cover. Gee ... Aamco in Yuma just drained and refilled the rear differential 2 weeks ago. It sure is hard to find good help, chew no ? ( That's a local Mexican expression. ) I phoned Aamco, told them about the leak, and they told me to bring the truck in tomorrow morning. No ... I'm leaving Yuma tomorrow morning. It has to be repaired today. I'll bring the truck in at 1:00 P.M.. See you then ! I dug the ladder out of the basement pass through storage compartment ( again ! ) and took it into the trailer. I relocated and reattached a Damp Rid container with Velcro on top of the cupboard over the living room window behind the recliner. I put away the ladder and the lawn chairs, then folded and put away Teddy's tent. I dug out my magic tool box and put away 2 of the 3 new magic tricks I received for Christmas. I kept the most difficult one out. I haven't yet tried it. I'm somewhat intimidated by the complexity of it. But ... if I learn to do it, it will be, without a doubt, my best magic trick. Wish me luck. This one will take a lot of slow, meticulous practice. But good magic is like good flying. A magician and a pilot both learn complex, complicated procedures, and practice them over and over until they look easy to an observer. I gave the truck a quick wash to get rid of all the desert dust. Horizontal surfaces like the hood and roof particularly get a thick coating of dust out here in the desert.

I had lunch, then left for Aamco. While the technician was working on my truck, I walked into the shop yard ( many automotive service businesses here work on vehicles outdoors ) to find out what the problem was, and how were they going to solve it. It seems that when they changed the rear differential fluid 2 weeks ago, they didn't have the correct gasket in stock to reseal the rear differential cover, so they reused the old gasket, hoping it would be adequate. It wasn't. They still didn't have the correct gasket in stock today, so they resealed the rear differential cover with a silicone sealant, like a liquid gasket. They assure me that is a very common way to reseal a rear differential cover. I have to assume that a national chain of transmission shops knows what it's doing. On the way back to Kofa Co-op, I stopped to fill Dee-Dee with diesel, in anticipation of our departure tomorrow. HMPH ... the price of fuel has just increased here. I wonder if that's just for the holiday season ? ! ?

Joanne wasn't in the trailer when I got back, so I put Bo's training collar on, and we went off for an obedience session, and to "find" Joanne. We found her at the laundry building. Good dog, Bo. I did today's accounting, and began work on today's journal entry. I wrote some e-mail. I spent about 45 minutes trying my new magic trick. I was able to understand the concept. My attempts at execution were a dismal failure. I even had to recruit Joanne to assist me. Two hands weren't enough. I was a bit disappointed that I had to reveal the "magic" to her. Even with her assistance, I failed. It's going to be a long, arduous road from understanding the concept, to execution. Oh, well. I'll keep trying, and hopefully will be able to get it. I'll try not to get discouraged and give up, although I did do that once many years ago with an expensive magic trick that I just couldn't master. When one purchases a magic trick at Houdini's Magic Shop in Las Vegas, the purchaser is taken into a back room, and the trick is demonstrated by a staff member. Obviously, the staff member who demonstrated this for me made it look easy. I sat outside and read until the sun set, enjoying our last afternoon in Yuma. Joanne undecorated the little Christmas tree we bought when we arrived in Yuma. We've decided to keep it. I helped her put it into storage.

We had supper. Joanne baked cookies while I did some trip planning. We were planning to go to Casa Grande tomorrow, but I've decided at the last minute that I want to go to Organ Pipe National Park. We've seen Saguaro Cacti, but we've never seen Organ Pipe Cacti. I want to go.

DSK