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R TERRY
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 29, 2005 - 4:24 pm: | |
There are some things that just are not easy to explain. For instance, you cannot adequately explain the profound beauty of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. And I am sure you cannot explain—at least to me—how it feels in Minnesota during the winter when the temperature is 20 degrees below zero and the wind is blowing 35 miles per hour. Nor should I presume to explain to you how hot it is in Phoenix during the summer when the temperature is 113 degrees for weeks and weeks on end. For a true appreciation of these things, you have to be there and experience it for yourself. (I highly recommend Tchaikovsky; I whole-heartedly do not recommend Phoenix. Two thumbs up; two thumbs down.)
But I live in the Salvage Yard on Wheels, a bus that is notorious—in my mind, anyway—for taking an ordinary experience and turning it into something… “special”. Or even creating an experience that would not have existed were it not for the fact that it is, after all, the SYOW. The insufferable heat in Phoenix is a case in point.
A common survival technique for assuaging the desert’s gift to its luckless inhabitants—that of being roasted alive—is a cool shower, a revitalizing moment of relief that returns one to a normal state, resets one’s frame of mind for the remainder of the day, and somehow washes away that boiling resentment you develop in Phoenix for being roasted alive!
In the SYOW it works a little differently. First, you get in the shower and turn on the cold water tap. After about a minute or two, the cold water comes out so hot you either have to get out of the shower or… yes, do the most unlikely thing imaginable—turn on the hot water tap.
Oh, yeah, that’s how it works. In my bus, you turn on the hot water faucet to cool down the water coming out of the cold water tap. No, they are not hooked up wrong—please! I said this was the Salvage Yard on Wheels, not a Pile of Junk!
What’s the difference? Hey!
Remember, it’s 113 degrees out here almost every day. The fresh water holding tank is in the rear baggage bay, sandwiched between two baggage bay doors that routinely reach a surface temperature of over 130 degrees. I know—I tried to open one once without putting on my NASA space shuttle gloves. It was a good lesson. Now when I need to cook a hamburger, I just open a baggage bay door and toss on a patty. George Foreman, move over!
During these prolonged endurance trials that last for approximately 6 months—it’s wrecklessly known around here as “summer”—, keeping the bus cool enough to live in is a real challenge. A big part of that challenge is keeping the electric bill within a payable range— not easy to do when the poor, miserable A/C unit on the roof is cranking out cold air 24-hours a day, and full-blast for at least 12 of those hours. To my kids, this is where I turn into an old ogre: “Why is that light on?”; “How come you’re running two TVs at the same time?”; “Shut that door!”; “Turn off that computer!”; “Turn off that other computer!” It drives them crazy. They have no idea that it drives me crazier. None at all.
The one thing that makes a big difference in the Cost of Living is the water heater. It eats electricity—and my utility dollars—faster than my kids can eat all the M&Ms in the world. So, from about the end of January to the end of November—in Phoenix, fall, winter, and spring occur somewhere between November and January—my water heater stays off unless I absolutely need hot water. That would be when I clean all the hamburger grease off the baggage bay door.
Oh, the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to come together.
In my rig, the hot water heater is located in the bus under the sink in the kitchen. Therefore, the water contained in the water heater is usually at room temperature. Whereas, the water sitting in the holding tank is usually at “Old Faithful” temperature. In other words, hot water in the cold water holding tank; cold water in the hot water heater. Absolutely perfect.
Now, as Dana Carvey used to say, “Isn’t that… special?”
R TERRY |
DMDave
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 29, 2005 - 8:43 pm: | |
LOL! Now I know my daughter is not kidding. Shes in Phoenix and sometimes I think she is exagerating a touch. Stay cool if you can. Good luck with the kids. |
Timothy Terhune (Timnvt)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 29, 2005 - 9:05 pm: | |
I lived in TX for a few years. The water feeding my apartment came across a blacktop parking lot. In the summers I turned off the gas Hot Water heater to serve as a cool water storage tank. When I wanted hot water I turned the cold faucet on. When I wanted cool water I turned on the hot faucet. It was quite a long parking lot and it gave me plenty of hot water through all the summer months.
Tim |
Tom Caffrey (Pvcces)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 29, 2005 - 11:07 pm: | |
Did you guys notice the 117 degrees in Las Vegas in the last week or so? The same day, Death Valley hit 129, within three degrees of its record.
Too hot for me.
Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576
Suncatcher |
John Jewett (Jayjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 29, 2005 - 11:42 pm: | |
Yeah, I did a summer in 'Vegas two years ago, and it hit 117 during the day and cooled off to 108 at night, and went 17 straight days and NEVER got below 100F.!!! But it was 104 here in Ohio two days ago and around 122.57% humidity, and harder on my body than 'Vegas or Pahrump ever thought about being. ...JJ |
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