In my last post, I said we were planning to drive over to Lotus International Market in west Mesa to buy some odds and ends I needed to learn how to make yakitori. My memory was faulty though. Lotus International wasn’t the store I thought it was. It had mostly spices and ingredients for Indian cuisine. We went to Asiana Market about a mile west on Dobson at Southern Avenue.

By then, it was after 1pm and we hadn’t eaten lunch. Asiana Market has a small food court where we found excellent Korean style noodle dishes for lunch. I also found what I was looking for in the store. Getting in and out of the Midget didn’t do my back any favors, so I took it easy over the weekend.

Speaking of favors, RV Parts Center did me right by shipping out the TriMark door lock right away. It arrived intact on Monday. The broken entry door lock assembly was bothersome. I had it rigged so I could get it to open the door, but I was a little worried about it not working and locking us out of the coach.

Removal of the lock assembly was quick and painless – it only involved two circlips and one mounting nut.

With the old lock in hand, I could see clearly how it failed. The pivot point for the mechanism was cast into a pot-metal housing. The metal fatigued and a piece broke off, allowing the mechanism to slide out of the housing rather than pivot as designed.

Installation of the new part was a breeze. The outer handle surround is a little different shape on the replacement part – it’s a more modern look.

I had one issue though. The part that clamps the lock assembly to the door has an arrow and is marked “Keyplug this end.” When I tried to put the clamp in place, it wouldn’t sit right. I flipped it so the arrow was pointing down and it fit perfectly. I assembled it this way and it worked fine. But it bothered me.

I got on the Internet and searched through TriMark’s site until I found engineering drawings of the lock assembly. I found the nomenclature they use for the lock. Keyplug refers to what I would call a lock cylinder. For reasons I can’t fathom, they want the mounting clamp oriented with the arrow pointing toward the lock cylinder. I took it back apart and flipped the clamp – it took a bit of fiddling, but I got it in place. Job done!

Tuesday turned out to be a breakthrough day for me. My back was much improved – I still had a lower back ache, but that’s the thing. It was a dull ache, not the sudden, sharp debilitating pain I was experiencing up until then. I cancelled the pickleball coaching session for Wednesday and I’m hoping another week of resting my back will do the trick.

I was outside reading a book and monitoring radio traffic on two local repeaters when a Jeep stopped in front of our site. The driver called out “CQ…CQ…CQ.” That’s ham-speak meaning “seeking a contact – any station.” It turned out to be Dave and Shannon – fellow RVers we met a few years ago in San Diego. I didn’t know Dave was a ham, but he is. They’re currently at Usery Regional Park, but need to move in about a week and they were checking out Viewpoint. We chatted for a few minutes before they left to look at another RV park.

Our friends Dick and Roxy Zarowny arrived from Spokane, Washington on Tuesday afternoon. They’re two sites down from us. Yesterday, Dick was having an issue with his generator. Previously, he had a carburetor problem and a shop replaced the carb. He was trying to run the generator, but it wouldn’t start. I went over to have a look. What I found was a voltage drop at the generator when he tried to start it,. I suspected high resistance or a bad battery.

We found a lot of corrosion at the chassis battery terminals. Dick took them apart and cleaned them with a baking soda solution. The generator still just clicked without turning over. Dick made a call to someone in Spokane and was told to switch the 50amp connection off. The generator started. I can’t make sense of this – the transfer switch should have all loads disconnected from the generator until the generator is running. It’s puzzling. I’m afraid I wasn’t much help – I was concerned about bending and reaching while checking it over – I didn’t want my back to start acting up again. I still have a dull ache in my lower back.

My current obsession is Japanese style cooking and Japanese kitchen knives. It all started when I bought a set of Japanese kitchen knives for Donna. Japanese knives tend to be specialized for specific tasks. They’re also elegant – my set of J.A. Henckels German kitchen knives seem clunky in comparison. A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a Japanese bunka knife, thinking it would be just the thing for trimming meats for the smoker. It turned out to be a good choice – it makes trimming fat and silverskin easy.

I spent about a week looking for a Japanese boning knife. I settled on a honesuki – a Japanese knife specifically made for breaking down and boning chicken. It also works well for pork ribs and any task other than actually cleaving through bones. After much reading and comparisons, I ordered a Misono 145mm Honesuki made from Swedish carbon steel.

All of our previous kitchen knives have been made from stainless alloys. This Swedish steel is a low alloy steel often referred to as carbon steel – a misnomer as all steel contains carbon. Carbon steel can take a finer edge and be hardened in way that holds the fine edge for extended use. It also is easier to sharpen in most cases than stainless steel which has a high chromium content.

Steel made from iron ore mined in Sweden has been a choice for sword and knife makers for centuries. It was known to have a finer grain and great strength. Now we know why – the iron mined in Sweden has trace amounts of a magic ingredient – Vanadium. Nowadays, vanadium is routinely added to many alloys for greater strength. The big drawback is corrosion resistance – or lack thereof. Carbon steel will corrode and rust fairly quickly if not kept clean and dry or oiled. Since the intended use of this knife is parting and boning chicken or separating rib bones, I wasn’t worried about corrosion. It would be different if I intended to use it on acidic fruits and vegetables. With the intended use, I don’t think keeping it in good condition will be an issue.

Remember the troubles we had with the US Postal Service? Here’s a contrasting delivery story. I ordered the Misono knife from Japanese Chef Knives (JCK) in Tokyo, Japan. I placed the order late Sunday afternoon which was early Monday morning in Tokyo. The next morning, I had an e-mail from JCK telling me the knife had shipped via DHL. Tuesday morning I had tracking info from DHL and expected delivery was between 2pm and 6pm Friday. Wednesday morning I had an e-mail with updated tracking – the knife went from Tokyo to Cincinnati, Ohio on Tuesday. Wednesday morning it arrived in Phoenix. Then I got another update advising delivery would be Wednesday afternoon! I received the knife around 3pm Wednesday. Tokyo to Cincinnati to Phoenix to Mesa – it left Tokyo Monday and I had it two days later!

I also ordered some accessories from JCK. Donna’s santoku knife doesn’t fit in our knife blocks, so we’ve been keeping it in a drawer with the blade protected by a cardboard cover. Keeping knives loose in a drawer is less than ideal. Not only can it be hazardous to have sharp blades exposed, the blade can also suffer damage when the edge is jostled against another hard steel knife in the drawer.

Japanese chefs often store their knives in a wooden saya – a sheath made from wood. I ordered three sayas of different sizes from JCK – one for the santoku, one for the bunka and one for the honesuki. They’re made from magnolia, are light weight and will protect the blades from damage or unsuspecting fingers.

I also bought some camellia oil on Amazon. This oil is food-grade and comes from Japanese camellia seeds. It’s often used as an antioxidant for skin and hair, but it’s favored by chefs and wood workers for preserving blade steel.

The great weather has continued with blue skies, light winds and afternoon temperatures in the low 70s. The highs are forecast to be a little lower over the weekend – high 60s – but we should be back into the 70s next week. The overnight lows are very cool. The cloudless skies means the temperature drops quickly at night and last night, we had a low of 35 degrees.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!