Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park, San Antonio NM

Screenshot, NOAA Weather, San Antonio NM, February 2, 2011

Sorry I'm a bit preoccupied

Two degrees above zero and lower temps to come - that'll grab an RVer's attention. There's not much to report, all is well, but I gotta go. Once I feel comfortable that I have the rig running stably I'll come back and fill in some details of my recovery from getting caught yesterday with my systems down by this huge winter storm sweeping the continent.

Later - a quick stream of consciousness update

I'm putting this up without polishing it, mainly to get the chain of events down before they get fuzzy. It might be useful as I plan forward toward making the rig more resilient to these weather "events."

I wake up, it's 2 degrees and blowing a -20 degrees wind chill. My new heater has been cranking, radiating heat right at me all night. I've been toasty warm and not paying attention to what's happening in the rig. The balky heater up front is set on low (it kicks out after a while if set on high - I think the high temp cutoff may not be working right) so it's a bit chilly up front with the wind chill but that's ok - I can live with that.

I go pee and, surprise! the toilet won't flush. Pipe's frozen. Lav sink flows cold fine but hot side is frozen. Same at kitchen sink. Water going to the water heater passes the toilet then under the floor to cross over to the curb side water heater then back again. My first guess it was frozen under the floor but then why is toilet supply frozen?

I take the access panel off the cubby under the kitchen sink where the water pump lives to let a little heat in there.

Now I gotta get some more heat in here and think out a strategy to get me and the rig through this cold snap. I'm reluctant to run the Wave 6 catalytic heater too much and dump moisture in the air only to have it condense on every cold surface. That can lead to mold & mildew and frosty windows. I turn it on anyway as a stop gap while I think about which 110 outlets are on which circuits and how best to deploy my new 1200 watt heater and my two old, balky, and now limited to 750 watt, heaters.

Ah, it's inefficient but maybe I should run the furnace. I have a full propane tank so that might buy me some time. I reach over and flip the switch on the thermostat. Nothing. I wait. Nothing. I flip again. Nothing. Well gee.

Ok, how about turning on the heat strip that I installed in the roof A/C that Tessa gave me out of her defunct A/C? That works - it's noisy and blows warmish feeling air, but it works.

I get the place warmed up and turn off the A/C heater and, ha! the furnace is running. Go figger.

Ok' I'm warm & I got time to think & plan & make breakfast & get a quick post up here.

I bought a beef tongue yesterday when I was out stocking up for this blow and today I'm going to boil it a few hours. That ought to help heat the rig on this cold afternoon (it's still only 7 degrees at noon). I have a couple butternut squash here too; I might try a version of The Ancient New England Standing Dish I've had in mind a while as well.

Bulletin! This just in! Billy, proprietor here at the park and a lifelong resident of the area, says this is the coldest he's seen here in his lifetime.

Night camp

Site 10 - Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park, San Antonio NM

This is a basic, small Mom & Pop RV Park with full hookups.
Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are available here with a strong signal.
Locate Bosque Bird Watcher's RV Park on my Night Camps map
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Check the weather in San Antonio NM

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.

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