No Flux, No Luck

The past couple of days have just been hell on earth. Almost as bad as our losing Miss Blue and Mr. Midas.

"What was it", you ask?

Well, let me tell you. Our beer fridge went on the fritz. We would open the door to the fridge, you could hear the compressor running, and grab a cold one... Wrong. Grab a room-temperature one. Man, there's just something wrong with that - especially at this time of year.

Anyway, I went immediately to the computer and sent out an email requesting that anyone in the local area knowing of a good refrigerator repairman to forward me their number. A couple of folks told me to contact Alberto Coyoc and Sons. I knew where they were located. I drive past their shop every few days, if I need to pick up something from D's Market.

Anyway, they came the following day, at the crack of 10:00 AM in the morning and proceeded to check out and work on the fridge.

Their Truck Sign

Alberto (age 71) and his son, Alberto, Jr., (who lived in Queens, NY for about 19 years) are very professional and very pleasant to deal with. They quickly found the cause of our fridge's problem and started to work on it.

Alberto & Alberto, Jr.

 Altogether, it took them a few hours to fix the problem. There was a leak in the capillary tube that runs up the back of the fridge, and another small leak in a filter near the fittings they installed. They had to come back this morning to fix that one, hence the title of this posting, coined by Dianna, as they had forgotten their flux yesterday and the second leak was a result of that.

We spent most of the time they were here having very interesting conversations with them as they worked. They are very proud to be members of the Association of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians, Belize. The association provides an on-going training program for its members.

Members In Good Standing

After their visit this morning (with flux in hand), the fridge is working well. The icebox is busy getting quite cold and the beer, I'm glad to say, is becoming downright chilly. Just perfect. A major tragedy averted without a doubt.

Can't Get Much Closer!

Well, let's see... Where to start, where to start?
Hmmm, Oh, I know. We got our new refrigerador (Spanish again) this morning. The reason we wanted a different one was this had an ice maker. I probably should have looked a tad closer to see what that meant.

In Belizean terms a device named "Easy Ice" is something of a modern convenience of the first order. What that means is, there's two small icecube trays set in a fancy rotating plastic frame with a bin to collect icecubes directly below.

All you have to do to get delicious ice cubes is pull out the contraption holding the two trays, hold it under the water faucet of your choice, fill both trays with water, and return the contraption to its holder in the freezer. Then, when the water has frozen into ice, you simply turn the handles to dump the newly minted cubes into the bin below and repeat the process as often as desired.

Yessiree! The twentieth century is speedily catching up here. Dang, and I thought we'd have to make icecubes the old fashioned way. Just goes to show what a little dose of technology will do for you. It is a pretty gray.

Fridge With "Easy Ice" Maker in the Freeze

So, just in case you missed it, here's a shot of the poop-chute. I know it's something everyone is just dying to see. Well, that's why I shot it. A lot of work went into putting it together to make sure it worked correctly, so just appreciate it for what it is - a shit-pipe.

Fresh From the Commode

Entering the Septic Tank

On a lighter note, we now turn our attention to the parking area just adjacent to the sewage treatment facility. In fact, you can see the overhead pipe run in this picture too.

It just seems so strange to be able to park in the shade. Something I could get used to in short order.

The Parking Area of Casa Rider

I spent about three hours or so this morning sorting out the reverse osmosis system. Pancho, the plombero for Franz and Jose's company, wasn't real skookum on reading English - as in directions. Still, all in all, he came close. I just had to read the manual and reposition about half of the tubing. Then it was working fine.

And it does too. it'll make and hold about 14 gallons of clean, pure, drinking water. It takes about 3 hours to make the 14 gallons which are stored in a pressure tank under the RO filter. Our system also has a UV light to zap the microbes still in the water.

Reverse Osmosis At Wor

Just a quick note - we still don't have the water softener hooked up. I haven't had the time to peruse the manual to figure out what it needs.

Next up, the on-demand water heater. As far as we know, it works fine. Of course, the only thing we've done with it so far is to turn on the shower and stick our finger under the stream till it gets warm, then turn it off. I guess the real test will come when we jump into the shower.

On Demand Water heater

Next up is our Butane gas tank. I think it's a 20 gallon job. We bought it at Cinty's - completely filled with butane. I also bought the regulator, hose, and clamps there.

Trusty Butane Bottle, Always On The Job

And last but not least is another shot of our gate area and gate lights. This afternoon, I bought a gate motor (made in China) from Capital Steel, up north of Corozal on the Northern Highway. If the gate gets delivered tomorrow, it might just be a short piece of work to get that installed. It even comes with a couple of easy-to-use remote controllers.

Gate Minus the Gate

Oh, and as far as getting closer, we're going to start by moving the big truck, our sectional, and probably just about everything else. So, I guess tomorrow's the big day.