CalFire & KPOP

What do CalFire (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) and KPOP (Korean Pop music) have in common?

Nothing.

It’s just that both are on my radar now.

CalFire

These are the folks who put out all those CA fires. We’ve only been in CA two summers, but there are a lot of fires — big ones — out here.

In the Midwest where we grew up, it was tornadoes. Out West, it’s fires.

The latest is the Owens River Fire just north of us in Mammoth Lakes. A few days ago it was a 500-acre fire, now it’s 5400 acres. We typically don’t learn about local fires from the news, but from our nose — we smell smoke. Last summer the smoke was as thick as fog from one fire. So far this year, not so bad.

This photo is of several CalFire vehicles in the parking lot of a Bishop hotel and restaurant.

KPOP

Black Pink is the name of a KPOP group I’ve been following since 2012. They just debuted and they’re killing it.

They released two music videos — Boombayah and Whistle — both of which have multi-million YouTube views.

We Sold Our Jeep

Boo hoo!

However, the thought of driving it back to Arizona from Bishop definitely played a part in our decision. 1993 Jeeps aren’t known for their comfortable drives. Plus, we really hadn’t been using it for a year. C’est la vie.

It was great fun! A moment of silence.

Since we sold the Jeep to a Californian, we had to go through the state-mandated SMOG testing. Argggh! Ask a Left Coaster about this. The test took most of a day, but luckily we didn’t need to have any “upgrades”.

When we ditch our Honda CRV in a few years, then we’ll look at another Jeep (something newer than a 1993).

Ariston Washer and Dryer Install

We’ve been spending about $80 to $100 per month doing our laundry.

That expense combined with the inconvenience of lugging baskets of clothes into funky laundromats made us investigate re-installing a washer/dryer in our RV.

Remember that we removed our non-functional Splenide washer/dryer a short while back (See Splendid(e) Deconstruction).

We found that there are not many washer/dryer options for RVs. Since most RVs only have 110 VAC, that rules out using household 220 VAC dryers. Also, we didn’t bother looking at propane dryers (or converting a natural gas dryer to propane). In addition, RVs don’t have a lot of space and that means many household units cannot be used.

Anyway, we finally settled on an Ariston washer and dryer which are designed specifically for RVs. Ariston is a Splendide brand. Our old Splendide was a combo washer and dryer — it washed and dried clothes. However, after checking around it seemed like a better idea to get a separate washer and dryer . . . and we had the space:

INSTALLATION

The new Ariston washer could fit in the same space as our old Splendide. Plus, the space was already plumbed for a washer.

The new Ariston dryer could fit in the space above our old washer. This space used to have shelves and we used it as a linen closet. However, the floor under the new dryer was not strong enough. It was just 1/4” Corian.

So we reinforced the floor under the new dryer with a sheet of 3/4” plywood:

Also, we installed accessible hot and cold shutoff valves to the washer. Otherwise, we would have to shut off all water in the RV in order to service the new washer. We used SharkBite to connect to our RV’s PEX plumbing. Though SharkBite fittings are expensive, they are far easier to use than PEX ring fittings.

Next, we had to relocate the previous dryer vent hole. So we plugged the old vent hole and drilled a new one:

New and Old Dryer Vent Holes

In addition, we secured both the washer and dryer to the RV using special “anchors” available from Ariston:

Finally, both dryer and washer were connected to power and water:

RESULTS

We’ve only had the new Ariston washer and dryer up and running for a few days, but it looks like we made the right decision.

We’ll have an update later on how it’s working out.

New Water Pump Install

Recently replaced a failed ShurFlo 4008 water pump with a Remco Aquajet RV pump — Check It Out

Letter To The Editor

Sent this to the local newspaper, The Inyo Register:

On Saturday May 28th, my wife and I plunked down $30 for two Mule Days Main Arena bleacher seats.

We were looking forward to seeing the Team Pack Scramble . . . but then the event announcer started talking.

First, let me say that as a veteran, I avoid Memorial Day events. To me they are often celebrated by politicians who attempt to wrap themselves with an American flag or by speakers who never wore a military uniform yet who speak as if they led the charge off the beach.

Unfortunately, the speaker at the Mule Days Main arena didn’t disappoint.

He started the event by describing the mountains as “The government says they own them. We’d like to think we own them. They belong to god.”

This was followed by a short prayer to “our savior Jesus Christ,” admiration for all the “true Americans” attending Mule Days, and then lavish praise for California’s 8th Congressional District Representative Paul Cook who gave a short speech.

The speaker also said that Mule Days was trying to become more international this year. Really?

Has the speaker taken a look at this year’s Mule Days audience? Besides those who may have been of the Jewish faith, I saw a fair number of visitors from Asia whose savior may not be Jesus.

Finally, I didn’t know my $30 was going towards supporting local politician Paul Cook’s re-election this November. Were the other candidates in the 8th Congressional District invited speak at Mule Days?

Let’s keep religion and politics out of Mule Days.