It Just Goes To Show You

Nothing ever seems to work out quite the way that you think it might.

A week or so ago, the A/C on the Isuzu began to get, shall we say, warm. In other words, the A/C began to fail by degrees (pun intended). It got progressively warmer in the cockpit. At some point I decided it was no longer functioning, so I turned it off, relying only on the vent and fan.

The girls, Secret and Bela, normally love to go for rides with me. I'm convinced now that the only reason they want to go is so they can sit right in front of the A/C vents and suck up all that cool air. They both began to look at me suspiciously, as if I was purposly screwing up the air supply.

I wasn't, honest. It failed. That's all.

A couple weeks prior, Bruce had told me about a shop on the highway near his house, that recharged A/C units for a nominal fee. I tried to find it, but with the highway construction going on in that area, looking was severely hampered.

A couple of days ago, I called Bruce and asked if he would go with me to try and find this elusive A/C fixit joint. He said "Sure," so I hot-footed over to his place and we went to find it.

Well, it turns out there were a couple of other reasons why I couldn't find the place besides the construction... One, Bruce had told me to look for a white house with a chain link fence. Turns out the house is yellow and white. And two, There's no way to get to the house from the highway. You have to approach it from a side street. Sort of sneaking up on it in a way. Oh, and a third reason - No sign. Not that that's unusual by any means here in Belize. Many businesses have no outer indication that there might be a business at that location.

So, OK. Bruce's directions might have muddied the works a bit. We found the place all right and the proprietor (Nairobi is his name) came out with his gauges and stuff to check out the A/C. Right away, after I started the car, he broke out his stethescope (an old length of green garden hose), stuck one end on the A/C compressor and the other to his ear.

His quick diagnosis was that the bearing in the compressor was about to fail big-time. He gave me a card for a guy (Eustace Dawson, 501-610-2835) in Belize City who makes frequent trips to the states and returns with parts, new and used, for all sorts of vehicles. I don't know if he has a sign out front or not. My guess is... uh, no.

Anyway, I asked if he had a compressor for a '96 Isuzu Rodeo, 3.2 liter engine. He did. All I had to do was deposit the money to his bank account, and head over to BPMS (Belize Post and Mailing Service) sort of the UPS of Belize, pay for the COD freight and pick up my compressor. Which I did. Of course, in reality, that took about two days to complete all the transactions, but it got done.

So then, I went up to Rick's, my mechanic, to see if he could install the compressor for me. He could, and he gave me a ride back to Casa Winjama. Once again, we're without wheels.

In the mean time, while all this is going on, Carlos, our Caretaker, told me that Terrence Leslie, the small engine expert, was next door working on Mike's boat motor. I called Terrence and asked if he would stop by when he was done.

Our generator, a 6.5kW (or is it Kw? I looked it up on the Intertubes, and saw it both ways) wheeled affair, hadn't been started in a year or so (my laziness entirely) and the fuel in the tank was a good three years old.

Terrence and his son loaded the generator into the back of their SUV, and I said, since you're here, I think the pool pump needs new bearings too. He had replaced them about four years ago, so it was time. They took the pump as well. That was on Wednesday.

Friday morning, Terrence comes with the generator and the pump, both in primo condition. The generator fired up on the first pull. So, in that regard, we're ready for the coming hurricane season. I made myself a slew of promises that I would test it regularly, etc., etc.

We then took the pump to the pool pump house where I greased up the 'O'rings for the pump pipe unions and we hooked it up and turned it on. Nary a leak. I think that was a first. And Quiet. Wow! I remember, the first time Terrence replaced the bearings on the pump. Before he worked on it, the bearings were actually screaming. The racket was unbelievable.

Everything I had read about the pumps was that the bearings were very critical and had to be ordered specially from Hayward and all that. Total BS. They run fine on Chinese bearings. In fact, after Terrence replaced the bearings the first time, it ran quieter than it did when the pump was brand new. And now, this time was no different. Quiet. The only thing different was that I got it done before the old bearings could scream. They merely moaned.

Generator's taken care of. Check. Pool pump is taken care of. Check. Isuzu's taken care of. Almost.

Back to the Isuzu. At about the end of the Friday pool party, about 5:00 PM, Rick showed up at the gate with the Isuzu. He said it was a good thing I had bought the compressor. The old one was definitely on the verge of seizing up completely and would not have worked long at all. But, he had run out of time for Friday to charge the A/C system. I had asked him to bring the car back Friday afternoon so we would have wheels for the weekend.

Rick is a Seventh Day Adventist, so he's closed on Saturday, their Sabbath, but he said if I brought the Isuzu by on Sunday, he would be able to charge it for me. Everything is looking rosy.

Well, almost everything. My computer, hasn't been able to access the Intertubes for two or three days now. I've been trying to do everything through my iPod. What an exercise that has been.

This morning, I fired up my PC, wanting to extract my email configuration data, and, lo and behold, it's connected to the Intertubes! So, first thing I did was jump up and crank out this post.

I have no idea why the PC was unable to connect for so long. Everything else could do it easily. Dianna's laptop, her iPad, my iPod. Who knows?

So, it just goes to show you... what, I'm not sure, exactly, approximately, or even vaguely. You just have to be ready to respond and 'stay flexible, but don't go limp.'

Do You Know Where Your Generator Is?

It's that time of year again. Blow the dust off the old Hurricane Preparedness Plan, Upset all the snakes, spiders, Scorpions, Cucaraches, Geckos, Mice, and whatever else that has been making the hidey-hole under the stairs where the generator has been lurking, their home for the past year or so. Drag the generator out to the light of day and see if it will start.

That'd be a big no. So, I called Terrence Leslie to come give it a swift kick and see if he could get the thing to turn over.

Of course. With one pull by Terrence, the generator fired right up. We shut it down and he departed to help someone who couldn't get their outboard motor to start.

After I re-stowed the generator, I decided to fire it up once again. This time intending to put it under load by hooking up a floor fan and the chest freezer while it ran. Guess what? It wouldn't power either thing. In fact, it wouldn't power anything. It wasn't producing juice, current, or anything resembling electricity. The engine ran like a top though.

As luck would have it, I called Terrence and managed to catch him before he returned to town, so he was able to stop by that same morning and look at the thing. He couldn't make it produce current either, so it was going to require a trip to his shop and a visit with an electrician who specialized in these things.

It was a couple days later, when Terrence brought the generator back. This after a few phone calls to let me know that a capacitor (I hate capacitors) had blown and the electrician was trying to locate a replacement.

For those of you who have been regular readers of this blog, you've seen pictures of the smallish, rectangular capacitors as used in ceiling fans. Well, this capacitor is nothing like that. It's huge. Kind of banana-shaped and prongs and no wires at only one end.

Generator Capacitor - Blown

Anyhoo, it took the electician a day or so to locate a suitable (not exact) replacement. And, so, as I said before, it's back, working, and properly stowed in its cage.

I used to think that it was a huge generator and that it could power the whole house. Well, it probably could, back in the day. Back when we had one fridge, a couple of fans, a few light bulbs, and a well pump. Not now with us using two fridges, a freezer, the well pump, a swimming pool pump, lots more lighting, lots more fans, and a whole assortment of electrical and electronic gadgetry.

If I tried to fire up the generator under a load involving the whole house, why, it would probably blow a capacitor... Oops. I wonder. Could that have been why it blew before?

So, I conducted what is called an energy audit of everything we had. Number of fridges and their power requirements, the power requirements of pumps, etc, even down to the number of lightbulbs used. Not that you would normally turn all the bulbs on at the same time, but you never know. This was all to get some sort of idea of what our electrical load throughout the place is. And it's a lot more of a load than the generator can handle all at once.

Winjama Electrical Load Calculation

So, I've been modifying my 'Switch-On Sheet.' This is the sheet that I keep up next to the circuit breaker panel that tells me what order to bring electrical things back up while under generator power, but what circuit specific items (each fridge, the freezer, fans, etc., are located on, so I can bring critical things back up under generator power and not blow the generator. It also helps me to be able to switch between the various circuits, do do just that.

Upstairs Breaker Switch Chart

I could solve the problem by getting a generator (preferably with auto start) that could take care of the whole place. But that might be something to think about down the road. Like when there's more money laying around not doing anything in particular.

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Now, for something entirely different.

Here's something I've been kind of casually pondering. Trojan - you know, the folks who make Condoms, Rubbers, Cock Socks, Condomus Maximus, French Letters, Gentleman's Jerkins, Raincoats, and at least a hundred other names for the same thing, have come out with a new condom.

Rubbers

I saw an advertisement for them on TV. They're advertised as a 'dual-lubricant' condom - on the outside for her, on the inside for him.

Now, unless Trojan has invented a new way of rolling rubbers, I've been wondering just exactly how they accomplish that feat - keeping the two different lubricants separate. Know what I mean? It just sounds like some sort of magic trick to me. Kind of a wallet-sized magician's kit.

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Here's something else.

I always thought AA batteries were AA batteries. That they all had the same voltages (well, except the cheap Chinese knockoffs), and pretty much operated the same. Not so.

I learned this thanks to my weather station that I've been fighting with for months now. It seems that AA batteries come in at least three or four or more different versions, configurations, or whatever. Alkaline, Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), Nickel Cadmium (NiCd), and Lithium Ion (Li).

Even Wikipedia has some wrong or outdated material regarding AA batteries. They say that Li batteries are not rechargeable. There is a rechargeable version.

I'm going to concentrate on the Li and NiMH and Alkaline, because that's what I ran into trying to get correct power for my weather station. What I recommend is that you read the instructions (strange thing to say, I know) for your particular piece of equipment and do what it says. it's not that the manufacturer is in cahoots with one battery type or another, but that the piece of equiprment they have manufactured may actually have different power requirements and really needs to use different batteries.

Case in point. My weather station instructions, at the very tail-end of the manual, says to use rechargeable Li AA batteries in the transmitter and Alkaline standard batteries in the receiver. It did come with a couple rechargeable AA batteries, so i lucked out and used the correct batteries in the transmitter when I initially set the station up.

But when it came time to replace those same batteries, did I read the instructions? No. All I knew was that it took AA batteries. I stuffed NiMH ones into the transmitter and had nothing but frustration for months while I was trying to figure out why the damned thing just wouldn't work right. I also put NiMH batteries in the receiver. All contrary to the instructions.

Well, there's a reason they specify those different batteries. it seems they produce different voltages when they're being used. Why? Who knows. It is probably a conspiracy to complicate consumer's lives. I'm sure it is.

Anyway, it wasn't until I was at my wits-end and the virtual end of my rope that I sat down and really read the manual. And that was when I finally found out about the different voltages and such and why they specified the batteries they did.

Which brings us to now. I'm trying to find rechargeable Lithium Ion (Li) batteries here in Corozal. Hah! But wait. There's more. Not only am I trying to find rechargeable Li batteries, but they also take a different charger than the NiMH batteries - unless you happen to luck out and have a charger like Colleen has.

Her charger has a switch on it so you can change from Li to NiMH charging, but only if you charge two of either type at a time. You can't charge one Li and one NiMH. Time will stop and the world will end if you do that. You have to charge two Li or two NiMH. And remember to put the switch in the correct position for the batteries that you're going to charge.

I have access to Alkaline AA batteries with no problem. Those I'll use on the receiver. it's the transmitter that is the problem until I get the Li rechargeable batteries.

I have a whole slew of NiMH rechargeable batteries and a charger for them. The only problem with all that is that I have nothing that needs an NiMH battery - rechargeable or not.

Dies Solis Oriens Carpo Pera (Or something like that)

Thanks to Google Language Services, 'Dies Solis Oriens Carpo Pera' very roughly translates to 'Sunday Morning Grab Bag'. The fact that this is Saturday, now Wednesday, doesn't mean anything. It's just an excuse to clear out the in-box and move on. Well, that, and putting the title up in latin just sounds so official and, umm, pretentious.
So, what is first out of the bag?

Wow! This one is really old. I took this picture of Terence Leslie, small engine repair wizard, on May 31 - just in time for the start of hurricane season. My generator, a DEK 6.5kV gas generator had been on the blink some time ago, so I called Terence to take a look at it.

Terence Leslie At Work

Turns out it was really a minor problem. The spark plug had gone bad. An easy fix.

He's also fixed my gas-powered weed whacker a couple of times, and, here's the really cool thing, he's an absolute wizard with swimming pool pump motors. I burned out the bearings on mine and he was able to find the correct sized bearings, get them pressed on, and now the pump motor really works better than new.

I don't know why it took me so long to get this one posted - well, for that matter, why it takes so long with any of these. Oh, yes. I do too know. We had some sad times to work through for the past little bit. I guess we're past that now, so time for me to get caught up.

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 Early in June, as we were walking the dogs, which we do just about every day, starting at 5:30 AM, to beat the heat (that's the theory, anyway), just as we passed the Social Security building, a large group of bicyclists were getting ready for the start of one of several major road races that are held at various locations around Belize.

This was the first time either Twyla or I had seen the BERT ambulance. That's the Belize Emergency Response Team. Makes a nice acronym. I have no idea where they're from or anything. Like I said, neither of us had heard of them before.

Belize Emergency Response Team Ambulance

 A necessary part of these events always seems to be the need to pass through several dozens of cyclists and officials and other folks gathered for the start of the race. Of course the dogs tend to get a little excited while we're doing that, so we try to shepherd them through without them gnawing on somebody's bare leg.

Twyla Running the Gauntlet

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This photo, while not exactly a prime shot by any means, does show a few inches of water in our parking area shortly after a late June rainfall.

Just a Little Rain

I still have a couple drains that I need to put in to encourage water to make its way to the canal. Still, even with all that water, within about 15 minutes or so, our parking area is pretty much dry.

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Hurricane damage? No, it's the Corozal Town Council in action. After several ;years of decay, the old Corozal Museum is being rehabbed to become the Corozal Visitor's Center. It's nice to see something finally happening with this building.

Corozal Visitor's Center

If you're not familiar with it, it's located right in front of the Thunderbolt pier.

Now, if they just add a Customs booth and build a small visitor's marina to go with the Visitor's Center, I think you'd really begin to see a change in the way downtown Corozal looks.

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So, what's next?

Well, there's this one. A while back, Jim Voris, a published author (http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/voris) and former resident of Corozal, more especially, our neck of the woods, came back to visit and to have some dental work done at Dr. Glenda Major's office, which is just up the road from us.

Jim stayed with us and took frequent advantage of the pool being just outside his door. Here, you can see Jim (on the left), Dianna, myself, and Stan (on the right). Stan's wife, Regina, took the photo. I'm glad she let me use it.

Pool Life and Jim Voris - by Regina Allen

It was nice having Jim here. We've kind of picked up one or two of the things he and Melanie used to do - hosting happy hour and the lady's pool exercise sessions. It almost felt like old times while he was around.

While Jim was here, he was able to take part in another activity that he was instrumental in forming, the Corozal Men's Group. The photo below shows the group in fine form at Charles' house.

Proposing a Toast

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Now, for a bit of a change of pace. Stan, who until today, lived with his wife Regina, just across the street from us. They've now moved to a house in town. Still a short walk or bike ride away.

Stan Fishing On Our Dock

Stan's an ardent fisherman and appreciates fine whiskey. This day he caught a smallish barracuda, which made a nice meal for the two of them.

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And now, the last bit for this edition...

The patio project continues. Carlos, who works for us on Fridays, is doing an excellent job with this project. The seating bench is pretty much done. He's now started on the BBQ area (on the left, where the rebar is sticking up. Fairly soon, now that too will be done and then he'll start on the small palapa in the middle - roughly where the umbrella is now. Then comes pavers in the central area, a foot or so of black dirt in the planting bed, and lots of plants. Then it's done.

Patio Progress

By then, it'll be time for the next project. Hopefully, for a while, just maintenance of the homestead.

Now, you're up to date, except where I'm behind. That'll have to wait for a future posting. Enjoy!

Dark Nights Ahead

Uh... Dear, Where are the candles?

As Snoopy once said, "Five minutes before the party is not the time to learn to dance."

So, since I got the following email yesterday afternoon from Loreta Randall (She's the U.S. Warden for the Corozal District), I figured now would be a good time to begin reviewing preparedness things in and around the home. Since this talks about current (electricity, for the unknowing), that's what we're concentrating on today.

"Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) made an announcement today that will have
an effect on us over the next 4 months or so.

BEL buys electricity from a hydro-power company in Mexico. The
Mexican company announced that due to problems with their own power
plants, they will suspend the sale of power to Belize for 4 months,
starting now.

BEL advises customers to be conservative in their use of electricity.

An unexpected interruption in the supply of electricity from Mexico
caused a brief country-wide blackout last week. Both Belize and
Mexico rely heavily on water in dams to make electricity. Water
levels in reservoirs naturally drop at this time of year, making for
difficulties in generating power under "normal" circumstances. This
is also a time when brush fires tend to disrupt things in Yucatan, Quintana Roo (the state Chetumal is in), and Belize. If Belize has no power at all coming in from Mexico
for the next 4 months we may want to anticipate and prepare for
frequent and prolonged lapses in power.

Once again a good case for a back-up generator and well-placed surge
protectors."

It's a good thing I test my generator weekly. Here's where my generator lives, sort of the creature with foul breath, who lives under the stairs. This is the door into its cavern.

The Cavern Under the Stairs

Here's the creature, asleep in its cavern and quiet for now. It usually roars to life once a week year-round. Does it ever need Listerine. Thankfully, it's exhaust fumes, which are quite pungent are taken away from the house by the prevailing easterly breeze.

The Creature in it's Lair

I check the oil in the generator and make sure to have plenty on hand.

Some of the Creature's Food

Finally, I rotate my gasoline supply (through the generator and the Isuzu) just to keep it fresh since gasoline stabilizer is all but impossible to obtain down here. Shopkeepers know what it is, but they can't get it (One of the joys...).

The Creatures Primary Food Source

This was a good habit to have developed. It does give one a nice, secure feeling.

There's one other thing the email mentioned "... well-placed surge suppressors." Here's what I have. A whole house surge suppressor. I also use surge suppressor power strips (extension cords), but they will offer nowhere near the protection for refrigerators, ceiling fans, stereos, TVs, etc., that this does.

The Little Grey Box at Left

And, if you had a hard time seeing it, here it is a little larger.

Whole House Surge Suppressor

Coming up in a few days, I'm going to revisit hurricane preparedness.

Hey, I take all this seriously. It's what I did for a living for thirty-some years. I still believe in hurricane parties - only after you've properly prepared, evacuated, survived and returned home. That's when you throw the party.

Big Test - Fail Yesterday

What went wrong? What could possibly go wrong? There was no way anything should have gone wrong, was there?

The Beast in Its Cage

Arrrgghhh! The big test yesterday, where we actually put the generator under load for the first time, didn't go quite as planned. I followed the diagram below religiously.

Diagram Was Followed

I let the generator warm up for three or four minutes and stabilize itself before switching the big transfer switch.

Inner Workings of the Great Switch Box

I carefully followed the correct sequence to bring the breakers on line starting with the heaviest load one of the main house upstairs. I thought it was a little odd when after throwing the No. 1 switch to bring the upstairs on line, I didn't hear any lugging down of the generator, but, I dutifully went through the rest of the checklist - all with the same result. There was no current crossing the transfer switch.

My immediate thought was that there was a failure in the wiring, but I remember Anthony Watson specifically checking with his multimeter, the terminals of the transfer switch and pronouncing it good.

So, what could be the problem? This morning, I went through the generator manual, looking for something I might have overlooked. I think I found it. I'll test it tomorrow and see.

Each part of the generator, the 110-volt side, the 240-volt side, and the 12-volt side, each have a GFCI breaker that you're supposed to push to make sure it's functioning... before you start the generator. I didn't do that particular activity.

I'll try again tomorrow morning. If that doesn't do it, I'll be calle Mr. Watson to come and check it out for me.

What was that about two steps forward and one step back?

On the vehicular front, Rick Magaña, my mechanic, came by and got the big diesel truck started again. I let it sit too long and it lost the vacuum or the prime. Whatever, anyway, it wouldn't start till he worked his magic.

Now, I can put a "$" in the window and sell it. That will be sweet when it's gone.

Alternate Power Scheme Ready For Rollout

After months of work and some worry, I think we're finally ready to actually put the generator under load. We got the generator rehabbed with a new battery (for the electric start), the cable from the generator to the power panel has been completed and is hooked up, and finally, we have functional diagrams of 1) the upstairs power panel, which controls everything electrical for the upstairs, and 2) the downstairs main transfer panel, which controls everything downstairs and outside and handles the feed from Belize Electric, Ltd. (BEL), or from the generator, depending on how the transfer switch is thrown.

I mentioned the electric start, a nice feature to be sure, but while the battery was inoperative, the generator, for as big as it is, was very easy to start. One or two pulls was usually enough to get it to come to life.

Here's the generator in its cage, showing the cable connecting it to the power panels, which are actually located in the utility or laundry room.

Generator Just Rarin' To Go

Just figuring out what each breaker did was a major effort. We had great help from Doug and Twyla. Without them, I think Dianna and I would still be trying to figure out the wiring. Of course, like many houses I've seen everywhere, the power panels had no descriptions saying what a particular breaker controlled. We do now.

The Generator Locked In Its Cage

The diagram below is a compilation of those descriptions and the process to switch from BEL to generator power. It's really fairly simple. It just needs to occur in a certain way to make sure the load is balanced for the generator when it comes on line and conversely, when shutting down the generator to go back on BEL current, to make sure the generator is shut off before switching back.

Our House Generator Transfer Diagram