Life is good at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. I haven’t posted much lately, but we’ve kept busy. Last weekend, I missed the pickleball tournament – the start time of the event was changed from 10am to 9am. I didn’t get the memo and forfeited. There will be another 3.0-3.5 level tournament in a few weeks and I’ll make sure I make it to that one.
I mentioned in a previous post how a Gila woodpecker visits our hummingbird feeder and drinks the nectar. Ozark the cat gets really animated when the woodpecker is outside the window next to her cat perch.
Gila woodpecker
sweet nectar
Last weekend, I watched the NFL Divisional playoffs – the final game of the weekend was a real barn burner. Minnesota pulled off the winning touchdown with 10 seconds to go and time expired during the play. I enjoyed the game with a bottle of Chimay Belgian ale.
Chimay Belgian ale
I’m continuing to work on my pickleball game and Donna took an advanced lesson last week to sharpen her skills. We went to the court on Friday at noon and worked on drills for her to get more power and pace on the ball. I played five days straight and took this weekend off. My left knee and right foot were sore by Friday.
We’ve made a few new friends here in the park and renewed friendships with people we met here last year. One of our new neighbors are a couple from Alberta, Canada – Geoff and Cynthia. They are in a Winnebago Class C coach called an Aspect. Last week, they mentioned to Donna that they were having electrical problems and needed to find a shop to take it to. The problem was a loss of electrical power to the radios – both the in-dash radio and one mounted in a bay outside. They also smelled a burning odor coming from the fuse panel. Geoff shut off the switch for auxiliary power to the radios.
I went over to their coach to take a look at the problem. I found a loose connection at the fuse panel. A 12-gauge wire was connected to the fuse panel with a screw that clamped the wire to the panel and that screw was loose. I measured the resistance before I did anything with my Fluke multimeter and found over 200 ohms of resistance between the panel connection and wire. This resistance had overheated the connector and left a black burn mark on the fiberglass surface of the panel. It also melted the insulation on another wire that was laying across the connector. Geoff had discovered this and taped over the insulation of the wire and just left the circuit switched off.
After I tightened the screw and firmly clamped the wire in the connector, I measured 0.3 ohms at the connector. I told them that all was well, I didn’t see any real damage, just the cosmetic black mark and the tape over the wire insulation. Geoff was surprised to find that a loose connector could create that much heat. When a connector is loose and poor contact is made between conductors, resistance rises. In this case it was over 200 ohms. Electrical current flowing through resistance creates heat. Here’s a photo of our 12-volt fuse panel to illustrate how the wires are clamped in place with screws.
Our 12-volt fuse panel
It’s a good idea to periodically switch off the 12-volt power and check the connectors. Ours use small torx head screws – Geoff’s had a flat slot screw.
Yesterday Donna attended an introductory performance arts workshop class in Phoenix hosted by Showstoppers Entertainment. Her classes included aerial silks/lyra, hoop dancing, strength and conditioning, dance movement and lines, and hip hop. The program ended with open gym time to practice skills. She was most interested in the hoop dancing lesson, but enjoyed the day.
The weather was great all week here in Mesa – we had highs in the mid to upper – 70s. Yesterday that changed. A cold front moved in and with it came clouds. We had a few rain showers and the temperature only reached 60 degrees. Today we have clear skies but the temperature will remain cool – about 60 degrees today and tomorrow before we warm up again. The overnight low was a chilly 40 degrees. I have the heat pumps running this morning as I peck away at the keyboard.