Date:         Tue, 16 Jul 2019 23:42:13 +0000
Reply-To:     Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Stephen Grisanti <bike2vcu@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Rousing the napping van - wasting time on a miserably hot Tuesday
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My wife had some appointments today and that left me at loose ends so I decided to pay some attention to the Westy.  It's the third vehicle (about to become the fourth but that's a story for a different day) and it's been parked for a while due to an ongoing and time consuming landscaping project that somehow has come to encompass several lengthy and labor-intensive components; 330 feet of rock wall lining the inner and outer edges of a U-shaped driveway, a block wall with steps coming forward from the house to define one side of the parking area with a rock wall coming off it to edge a driveway spur, a block wall in the back to define a second area, various drainage trenches with drain tile installments, all the usual stuff you find on a honey-do list.  Never marry a designer.

Anyway, as we sat there next to the garage idling and getting up to operating temp, that one lifter ticking obstinately from sitting, I was going through the log book to see what had happened recently that I'd recorded.  Not much. NO gas purchases this year.  Eighty miles driven this year--by mid-July, you understand.  I won't tell you the last time we went camping. What gas we did use is mostly from the generator's spare five gallon can that periodically gets rotated through a vehicle and replaced with fresh, so I thought to myself, "I'm going for a ride."
The ticking went away within a couple of miles.  Soon after I noticed that the gas gauge was on empty but didn't know if that was accurate or if the gauge was on the fritz as it sometimes is.  Turned around for the last gas station (we were one county over where it's cheaper!) and spent a few bucks.  Tank needs a reseal so I don't want too much in it against the time when I actually will drop the tank to effect that repair.  Gauge registered, then it wouldn't.  Every time I hit a bump the radio would cut off then come back on.  That's new.  Driver's window was really hard to crank down and back up, harder than I recall.  Rolling along I noticed that the A/C wasn't pumping out the cold and when I tried the windshield washers they seemed weak and not up to the task.  Needs real fluid instead of tap water. 
The gas station (a convenience store combo, of course) had several of those windshield squeegee tank things but every single one was bone dry, so the unsparkly windows persisted.  Time for action.  Next stop was an Auto Zone where I got two cans of R134a and two jugs of the blue stuff.  Drove to a nearby Kroger where we usually gas up and used their squeegee things front and back, headlights and mirrors.  Much better.  Drove home and filled the front and rear reservoirs, then dragged everything out of the wayback and recharged the A/C. Lubed the driver's window channels and that helped with the cranking. Did the passenger side, too.
I'd washed the van during our last outing in May but the exterior is somewhat crudded up again from living under our trees and from getting dirt splashed up on it from the driveway which has yet to be regraveled after being recontoured and graded a year ago.  Building those walls got in the way of new gravel that but it's actually happening soon.  Honest.
So, I was just getting things buttoned up again when she arrived home and asked what I'd been up to.  "Oh, nothing."
Incidentally, regarding that camping, we like to go north and would NEVER consider summer camping in Virginia but a friend has long been planning to take his daughter to a new state park nearby and asked me to tag along.  In August.  I think that's freakin' insane but I might just go.  The van should be up for it and the chores might be over by then.
Stephen