Sunday, December 12, 2021

2021 - 2022 Trip To The Southwest, Day 53

 Sunday, December 12, 2021, La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 4

I was up at 6:30 listening to the puzzle on Sunday Morning Weekend Edition. At home it is a decent time - 8:30, but 2 hours earlier here. They do repeat it at 8:30, but somehow I'm not listening that late. Actually, the Quartzsite internet is not all that dependable by then. It improves around 10:00, and again around 2:00; slow, but usable. By dinner time it is gone.

I baked a batch of Annie's Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast. The package makes 5 large rolls - I'll have 2 1/2 tomorrow. After breakfast I read for a bit. Last night I finished Diane Gabaldon's An Echo in the Bone, #7 in the Outlander series - I have read all of them up to #7, and while I have #9 on reserve at the NY public library, it is a 12 week wait. I just added #8 to my hold list, and it should be available in a week or two. Currently reading Lee Child's Better Off Dead, his latest Jack Reacher novel. I don't know if I'm getting tired of the series, or this one is not up to his normal witting standards, but the previous books in the series were better.

I drove into town to buy some 6" nails from KB Tools & drove by the Bad Boy Cafe. A sign on the door says it is closed. Two of my favorites are gone - I am going to have to find new ones. 

Back at the trailer I rebuilt the 3/4" PVC frame for the portable solar panel. Only a moderate success. It went together OK and since there are no eyelets, and only an 1/8" fabric border around the panels, my use of parachute cord to tie the panels to the frame almost works. The idea was to run the cord at the seams so it doesn't shadow the cells. The problem is the frame bends enough that the cells bow out from it, making shadows. Even a small shadow drastically cuts the output of a panel. I need to get some vertical supports at the panel joints, however the nearest place I know I can get 3/4" PVC is at Lowes in Lake Havasu City, about 90 miles from here. 

I hope you can see the pictures, but neither AT&T or Verizon will upload them as a group so I tried doing them individually. The webpage itself is smaller than the photos, and appears to have uploaded.  I did manage to check the webpage and it is all there.  I can't upload the larger images here at Blogger, so if you want to see the higher resolution versions, you will have to go to the webpage.

The Frame

The Problem

I called my son in Oswego - they had a 12 hour overnight power outage - he was glad for the 15K whole house generator, although my gas bill will be a bit steeper than normal. I also talked to Dick & Anne in Golden, CO. They are getting much less snow than normal - Anne is glad she is retired from working at the Cooper Mountain Ski Area. 

After that I went for a walk (I made coffee at the trailer this morning & didn't do my 2 mile walk for coffee) then sat out enjoying the sun & 63°F weather.

Dinner was the leftovers of the Chinese meal from last night.

Until Tomorrow - 

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