Hunting Trailer Day: Time To Install A New A/C Unit

Last November a new (used) hunting/camping trailer was bought by our little hunting group.  Here's the original blog post that explains everything.

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2017/11/new-huntingcamping-trailer-day-its.html

When we bought it we knew there were a few things that we needed to repair.  First up, the trailer lights weren't working at all.  I won't go into it, but let's just say it took a while to repair.  The good news, is that, the lights are now working.  That means all the lights; running lights, brakes lights, and turn signals.

After we had bought the trailer I took a closer look at the A/C unit.  There was no doubt about it, the entire thing needed replaced.  The whole unit was corroded and coming apart.  I didn't even dream about trying to repair small parts on the unit to get it working.  I didn't see anything worth saving.

But I had to remember that the A/C unit was over twenty years old at that point.  A/C units are usually good for about ten years.  So that just confirmed that the entire unit needed replaced.

Frankly, it was also cheaper and easier just to buy a whole unit.  So Dad scoured the internet for the perfect A/C unit.  He found one that came highly recommended and the price was right.  It shipped from Texas to Florida in only three days.  That surprised even me.

Now came the fun part, installing it.  I won't go into huge details like I normally do.  I don't know if anyone should follow what we did as a guide.  I would recommend YouTube.  It has a lot of quality videos on how to install one.

The first thing was to take the interior panel apart, and remove the bolts.  Three came out fine, but of course one just had to be a pain in the butt.  Dad ended up cutting it loose with a grinder.  I highly recommend doing that.  Once the bolts were cut loose it was basically picking the thing up and throwing it off the roof.

Here's Dad and his belly thinking on things.

Luckily he's a lot lighter than I am, and the roof is metal.  This was just after he shoved the old A/C unit off the roof.

As you can see it looked exactly like I said it did.  Next up we cleaned up the hole where the unit sat.

Now about this time it was starting to get hot.  As in, Florida hot.  Before noon it wasn't too bad, but once it got past 12 PM it was downright miserable.  Most of our time we spent on this project was spent on breaks.  As in, resting and drinking a ton of water.  During the hours I spent working on this project I ended up drinking over a gallon of water.  

Once we cleaned the roof and hole off we took the new A/C unit out of the box.  We actually read the directions.  We made a (somewhat) smart plan on how to put the new unit on the roof.  One of our ladders was pretty long.  So we put it at an angle and just shoved the unit up the ladder.  Dad was on one ladder and I was on another beside that one.  In the end we managed to get the unit up on the roof, and then took another break.  

The next thing was to line up the A/C unit on the roof hole.  It sounds easy, and I can't say that it's too hard of a thing to do, but it really is time consuming.  Well, it is if you want to do it right.

So the new bolts went in, and the new parts for the underside were installed.  Again, it wasn't hard, it was just time consuming.  Especially when you consider how many water breaks we were taking.  

The next part was to connect the (optional) heat strips and the wiring.  Most of the wiring was just pushing a plug into it's receptacle.  Again, not hard, I just had to see which end went up.  Next we screwed the cover on.

Great news!  We plugged it in, and it worked the first time.  What I liked was that it was immediately cold.  It wasn't one of those units where you have to let it run fifteen minutes, and then it thinks about cooling.  No, it was immediately cold.  Needless to say we were really happy with it.  

Here's what the unit looked like (from the outside) installed.

Not bad for six (grumble, grumble) hours worth of work.  If I had to do it all over again... I totally would.  Have you ever tried to stay in a camper without A/C when it's 95 degrees with 100% humidity?  Like me winning the lottery it just ain't happening.  

Hopefully this unit will last for a long time.  Namely, because I don't want to do all that work again.  But if I do, I'm certainly going to do it sometime other than summer in Florida.  

Get Cha' Pull,... This Floyd Rose Right Off Of This Guitar, Part 2

Here are the previous posts about this guitar so you know what I'm talking about.

Get Cha' Pull:  New Guitar Day: Dixie Rebel

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2017/08/get-cha-pull-new-guitar-day-dixie-rebel.html

Get Cha' Pull,... This Floyd Rose Right Off Of This Guitar

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2018/07/get-cha-pull-this-floyd-rose-right-off.html

So here's where I was at with the Dean Dixie Rebel.  I managed to install the new Floyd Rose Tremolo on the Dean, but I wasn't happy with how it stuck out the back of the guitar.

After some reading on the web, I decided to change the brass block.  (That piece you see sticking out the back in the photo above.)  Everyone tends to sell these giant brass blocks for more sustain, tone, etc.  But I needed a smaller one.  

This lead to a series of really irritating mistakes.  I'll try to explain the best and shortest way I can.

First, I took apart my Gotoh Floyd Rose.  It seems they put extremely cheap screws in it, and I stripped out one of them.  I'm sure they used Lock-Tite on all of them.  I had to use all sorts of tools to get the stupid thing out, but with a drill, extractor, help from my Father, another drill, and an hour of working on it, I finally managed to get the stripped screw out without damaging the Floyd Rose.

I then ordered the smallest brass block I could find.  What I didn't count on was that the outside holes were 1mm off.  That doesn't sound like much, but metal isn't forgiving.  Also, it took 4M screws instead of 3M screws.  

So I searched the web and found a shorter brass block for the Gotoh (through Philadelphia Luthier.)  It wasn't as short as I wanted (33MM) but it was the shortest I could find for the Gotoh.  

Here you can see the difference between them.

I know some folks say to just cut the brass block, but I don't have that kind of metal machinery.  I'm also scared of screwing this up more than I already have.  But I managed to change them out without too many problems.

Here I am trying to keep all my brass blocks straight.

The original one still has a piece of screw stuck in it.

After a little finagling I was able to put the Floyd Rose back on.

But this lead to a problem I've never had.  The springs kept popping out of the brass block.  I've never had to use screws to hold one down, but it looked like I was going to have to do just that.  So back to Ace Hardware for more screws.

The good news, is that, it managed to hold the springs down.  But now it came down to, "Did all this work pan out?"  Kinda.

If I wasn't using the Floyd, it would stay behind the back plate.  If I used the Floyd, it still stuck out the back.  If I didn't have the screws in there I would be close.  But for now I'm going to have to play it without a cover on the back.  But at least it plays pretty good.  And I can still do all those Dimebag squeelies.   

Laser Eyes!

I have needed corrective lenses to see correctly since I was nine years old.  As I have gotten older my vision has become even worse.  Let's be honest, my vision sucked back then, and has really sucked these last ten years.  I wore contacts for a long time, but gave them up in 2006.  I still wasn't happy having to wear glasses if I wanted to see anything that was more than six inches from my nose.  So in 2006 I started looking into LASIK.

You know all those, "Get LASIK now for $250 advertisements?"  Yeah, I don't know anyone who would qualify for those.  Back in 2006 the estimated cost for having the procedure on both eyes was around a total of $5,000.  There was no way I could swing that back then, so I never thought about having the procedure done until recently.

Lately I have become more financially stable, so I visited a doctor affiliated with Lasik Plus+ to see if I still qualified for LASIK.  Long story short, yes I did.  So after talking to the financial side of Lasik Plus+, I found that the prices had come down quite a bit from over a decade ago.  We agreed on a price, so it was time for me to receive, "LAZER EYEZ!"

Now here is the official version of how LASIK works.

But I'm going to tell you what happened to me.  First, they give you a valium to calm your nerves.  I'm someone who strongly reacts to medication so I was worried about taking 1 MG of valium, and having it mix with my other medications.  The doctor said there would be no interference.  So I took the valium, and... I got dizzy.  

No, I did not calm down like I was supposed to.  I just got dizzy.  It didn't really take the edge off.  In fact, it didn't do anything other than like I said before, make me dizzy.  I guess I'm used to stronger stuff like, I don't know, Benadryl.  

The next thing they do is put numbing drops in your eyes.  Again, I really think they should have doubled up on the numbing drops because while it made my eyes feel funny, it didn't really numb them that much.  If the machine is going to be drilling into my eyeballs with a laser I really think I should at least be afforded some really strong numbing eye drops.  

So I always wondered how they kept a person's eyelids open during surgery.  Remember the movie, "A Clockwork Orange?"  Yeah, it's exactly like that.  It's also as painful as it looks.

Next, the machine vacuum sucks your eyeball to get a grip on it.  Believe me, with the grip the machine has on your eyeball, your eyeball isn't going anywhere.  And yes, it hurts as bad as you think it will.  

Luckily the procedure doesn't take long.  They like to say, "You'll be seeing halos for a while."  What they mean is everything looks like it has a milky finish on it.  If you imagine life like a photograph, look at that photograph and pour milk over it.  That's what everything looks like. 

Note:  It does get better over time.  Certain things like TV, smartphone, and computer screens are tough to look at for a while.  Just remember to constantly use your eyedrops like you're told to.

After the procedure they recommend sleep.  They say, "There will be discomfort."  What they mean is it will hurt way too much to even open your eyes.  I came home, and slept for six hours straight.  After that I felt much better.  The worst of the pain is in the first four hours.

Note:  When they say you will need someone to drive you to and from your appointment they are not kidding.  Again, I couldn't even open my eyes.

But they do give you some nice looking 80's sunglasses sit tight against your skin.  That way it keeps out a lot of light.  They look kind of like this.

The one thing they didn't tell me about was "bruising."  Okay, they did mention there "might" be some.  What they didn't say was that it was going to look more like this.

It's been a week, and I still have bruising on both eyeballs.  It will go away eventually.  I just wish I had known a little more about it than I was told.  

The other story about my bad eyesight was this, I knew I needed reading glasses even before LASIK.  Now, I really need them to see anything up close.  So, I've done away with my regular frames, and have upgraded (downgraded?) to old man reading glasses.

Overall I am happy I had the procedure.  I suspect I'll be happier as my eyesight clears up.  I am seeing 20/20 our of both eyes, but everything is still somewhat milky.  Although it's not as bad as it was a few days ago.  I still keep trying to push my "not there" glasses up my nose.

My main goal in posting this blog post was to fill in some of the gaps of information potential patients would want to know.  So I hope this helps out a few folks.  Just remember two things.  It's going to hurt (they do call it surgery,) and see if they have a special on the lifetime LASIK plan.