Thursday, December 3, 2009 - Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad NM
< previous day | archives | next day >
Wiring and water pump under the sink, Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad NM, December 3, 2009
Mixing water and electricity
I guess the scenario you see in the picture above is ok if the water pump doesn't leak too long but, as I said yesterday, the idea of strapping wiring to the floor in company with one of these notoriously prone to leaks water pumps doesn't seem like a great idea to me. If I can come up with an easily implemented alternative to this arrangement I'll do something. It might be easier to move the pump, maybe into the open area under the toilet in the bathroom, than to move the wiring - but that still leaves the wiring vulnerable to other plumbing leaks in a compartment not often accessed. It might be better if I can elevate the wiring off the floor - even a half inch would do - just enough so water can drain away from the wires.
[later] On second thought, sitting here looking at that picture, it occurs to me the wires themselves should be insulated with waterproof jackets and I might be over-reacting. Maybe all I need to do is be sure any connections are elevated and in the picture it looks like they already are.
The pump has shipped and I should have it Monday. That gives me the weekend to mull this over. In the mean time the leakage is minimal if I turn the pump off between uses and open a faucet to relieve the pressure in the system.
Night camp
Site 37 - Brantley Lake State Park, Carlsbad NM
- Verizon cell phone service - Access is via Extended Network, roaming
- No Verizon EVDO service - access is via the Extended Network and service varies with many drop-outs.
- See a list of the nights I've camped at Brantley Lake State Park
- Locate Brantley Lake State Park on my Night Camps map
- Go to Brantley Lake State Park website
- Locate services on my Resources map
- Check the weather here
Writing From the Inside Out
A young writer, if he is unknown, can be at a party and watch what everyone is doing. If he has a marveluos ear for dialog, he can wake up the next morning and remember all that was said and how it was said. He is a bird on a branch. Sees like a bird and writes books that are extraordinarily well observed. But once he is successful, especially if that happens quickly, it's as if the bird were now an emu. It cannot fly. It grows haunches and foreshoulders and a mane: lo and behold, it is a lion. And everyone is looking at the lion, including the birds. But it is a lion with the heart of a bird and the mind of a bird. So there is a terrible period when the transmogrified emu is trying to live like a lion and has little talent for it. Then the beast begins to experiment. When it runs, it now sees other animals scamper. It takes a while - often years - for the writer to get to appreaciate his effect on others, and even longer to begin to understand human beings again. In the old days, he could write about friends, enemies, and strangers by intuition, by induction; now he puts it together by deduction. Of course, he does have more material on which to work his deductions.