Van is back! Sailing, baseball and soup night

Happy Sunday! It's been a week of sunny sails, rainy reading, and fixing things.

The big news this week is that the Van is finally back, and it looks great. We took the opportunity to make some improvements to the interior while it was all torn apart, so we now have power at the head of the bed. All Victron charging equipment was relocated, and the fuse box is now accessible. And we had a rear-view camera hardwired in so we can see directly behind the van while driving.

The next job for the Van is to help Alex and Victoria move into their new house this coming weekend. So until we get done with that, I won't be installing our equipment back in there.

I took the rainy days as an opportunity to read Stuart Brand's latest book, "The Maintenance of Everything," which I really enjoyed and reinforced many of my existing opinions about maintenance. The most significant one is that it is a constant activity, and needs to be just as important, if not more so, than building things. Anyway, it has inspired and motivated me to take on two maintenance tasks this past week:

1. Replaced the motor on our old Singer industrial sewing machine. The motor that came with it when I bought it some 30 years ago was a big, heavy clutch motor that provided no control at all. The new service motor makes it a brand-new machine.
2. Repaired the fuel leak on the motorcycle and inserted some quick disconnects in the fuel lines from the tank, so that maintenance will be easier in the future.

Both projects came out well and filled me with a sense of accomplishment. I am eyeing the next ones.

The rest of the week was filled with the regular Sailing, Soup night, Happy Hour, and a Mariners Game. This coming week will be about getting Alex and Victoria moved, and then reclaiming the garage from all of the stuff that has been disgorged from our boat, Airborne, and Big Air, the van.

Love ya all

Dan W