Bert's Musings

Went to the plant for the last time today. I was able to say goodbye to some of the people I missed on last Friday, and get in some billable hours while cleaning up some loose ends. This will be night 3 living in the RV. So far nothing we had not anticipated. I noticed some minor uneven wear on the passenger side front tire so tomorrow I'm taking it to Lafayette to have the front end aligned. Kathy has errands to run in Indy. I think she has everything she wants in the RV. I've got my toolboxes ready and need to do some cleanup yet in the pole barn. before I'm ready. I'd also like to wash the RV before we leave. We are still planning on heading north Sat AM. Time to hit the hay, I want to be in Lafayette before 8 AM, and I am really a SLOW person in the morning.

Our motorhome is now our residence, we moved in yesterday and spent the night in it last night. We still have lots of organizing to do. Actually Kathy has about everything it the coach, but she still needs to do some organizing, something that I am sure will be ongoing for quite some time. On the other hand I have all my stuff loaded and completely organized, NOT!!!! I still have to finish sorting through which tools I intend on taking with me, and getting them stored in the "basement." I'd like to wash both the roof and  the rest of the coach before we take off but I may not get that done. I'm going to T&L's Lafayette South plant tomorrow, it will be my last day as a working man. We had a house full last night. Ed & Cindy (Kathy's sister and her husband), Nancy (another of Kathy's sisters) & Merv (Kathy's Dad) came down yesterday evening. Ed & Cindy bought Kathy's beloved Honda Van. It turned over 188,000 miles Saturday. I think Na...

I have one more week to attend Harvest Community church. The people at Harvet have been a blessing to me. I don’t have the words to describe how thankful I am for the young families who stepped out in faith and started Harvest approximately 10 years ago. At Harvest I have been blessed to be able to participate in “church” similar to what it was in New Testament times. (This is not intended to “knock” other organizations. God did not create us to all be the same. We all are different and He has different niches for us to fill. Each of us has to decide what style of church provides us with the best environment for our Christian service and growth.) I don’t have the words to adequately thank these families for what they have meant to me. I accepted Christ as my Savior in 1982, while attending a small United Methodist church in rural, central Illinois. After moving to central Indiana in 1992 I attended numerous churches. Some helped me in my Christian walk; others I attended just out of ha...

Picked up the motorhome today, after having the generator repaired. Kathy plans on starting the loading process tomorrow. I spent a fair amount of time last Saturday digging around to find some contacts at Onan (the generator mfg) and sent two of them an email Looks like it paid off. Even though the generator is 8 years old, and far out of warranty, Onan is going to eat most (maybe all) the cost of the parts, because the damage was caused by their use of a faulty adhesive. The parts cost was close to $1,500. I think that was a good business decision on their part. They will get a fair amount of good press from me. (The cost of a similar new generator is over $8,000 plus the labor to install it.) I still end paying for the labor, and some other odds and ends I had done.

Changing a belt on the 7.5 KW Onan generator was one of the final maintenance items I wanted to get done before heading out that-a-way. It is supposed to performed by an authorized Onan service center. (It was my understanding that you have to pull the crankshaft damper/pulley to install the belt.) I had Huston Electric, Lafayette, order the belt and took the RV up there Friday AM to have the belt installed. One of the guys started work on it immediately. I watched him, while shooting the bull with him, take the cover off and start picking chunks of magnet from all over under the cover. He said, "This is not a good thing to find." My style of genset has a cylinder with magnets glued to it. That cylinder spins inside a copper winding, which generates electricity. Between 2000 and 2003 Onan used an adhesive that was bad and the magnets come loose, typically destroying the copper winding. Just the parts are $1,500 to fix it. The genset has run only 163 hours in 7 years, whic...