Author Archive
Project Niagara: Sewer Line Storage
Posted by Michael Livingston in Project Niagara (Camper) on August 30th, 2010
Because our new PUP comes equipped with a sink, shower, and flushing toilet (!), it has both gray-water and black-water tanks. This means, among other things, that when we’re done camping we need to stop by a dump station to dispose of all the waste.
To connect our holding tanks to the dump station we bought ourselves an RV sewage line and the requisite attachments. There were several everything-you-need kits available at our local Camping World to choose from, but we bought the one that was not only very highly recommended by the staff, but also happened to be on sale: The RhinoFLEX Swivel kit.
For very obvious reasons, once this lovely piece of equipment has been used once, you don’t want to store it where it might come in contact with, well, anything. As a result, these kinds of sewer lines are designed to fit in a 4” square bumper, which is essentially the standard size in the RV industry. Pop a little rubber cap on the end of the bumper, and you should be able to slip the sewer hose inside it, thus simultaneously storing the hose away from everything else and making efficient use of otherwise wasted space.
I say “should be able to slip” because, as it turns out, either our 4” bumper is no longer a 4” bumper — due to warping, rusting, or whatever — or the housings in the RhinoFLEX kit will not let it fit, as it advertises, in a 4” bumper. Regardless of the explanation, the fact of the matter was clear: our PUP’s sewer hose wasn’t going in the bumper.
Putting the hose inside the PUP was out of the question. But if not in the bumper, where?
In a vinyl fencepost, of course! It’s the first thing you thought of, right?
Christmas in August
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife on August 28th, 2010
A few years back, we spent an enjoyable few days staying at the Albuquerque home of some long-time friends. One evening, Tom — a stalwart friend since middle school — took me out onto his back patio one evening and hit a switch. At once, the patio was awash in the heart-warming glow of Christmas lights that had been strung around the patio roof.
It was really cool, and I wanted it.
Of course, we don’t really have a patio like they do, and most of the time it’s too bloody buggy here at El Cid to use one if we had it.
The solution? Bring the lights indoors. Into the house. That, I figured, would be really cool.
I’ve been wanting to do this project ever since, but I also didn’t want to spend much money on it. As with the new tent trailer (or the Commander, or …), this was a patience project: we figured out exactly what we wanted (in this case enough commercial-grade white-strand lights to encircle the family room) and then waited, waited, and waited some more until we found what we wanted at a price we could afford.
I’m pleased, then, to announce that the lights have arrived in our house. Install took about an hour (we have crown moulding, so most of it is just tucked up). Now when you flick a switch, you get an illuminated gloriousness that just instinctively makes you happy. Here’s a shot of one corner to give you a feel for the thing (don’t mind the mess):
It's Christmas in August! Happy Hannukwanzmastide, everybody!
Am I the only one who can’t help but smile at that?
Project Niagara: Cubby in a Cabinet
Posted by Michael Livingston in Project Niagara (Camper) on August 26th, 2010
A few days ago, when I introduced our new Niagara pop-up (the people in the “know” apparently like to call them simply PUPs), I concluded the post thus:
Being the kind of fellow I am, of course, I’m now looking to start modifying the trailer. Going to start small, I think, by just cutting apart a cabinet or two.
It’s possible that some people out there thought I was joking. Those people, it hardly needs to be said, don’t know me very well.
Project Niagara
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife, Project Niagara (Camper) on August 23rd, 2010
In the midst of all the other things going on as I try to transition from the “no job” days of summer to the “whole bunch of jobs” days of the school year (like, say, having minor surgery), we bought a tent trailer.
We’d been looking for an RV of some kind for a number of years now: tent trailers, hybrid trailers, and travel trailers. Given my summers off and our love of the outdoors, having an RV suited our style. We just had to find the right one at the right price, which was very difficult to do.
Thankfully, we think we have it now: a 2007 Fleetwood Niagara. I grew up with a couple of tent trailers (around here they call them a “pop-up”), and I can tell you this ain’t much like what I’m used to: it’s got high walls that provide high counters, massive king-sized bunks, a slide-out dinette, and even an interior shower/potty. It’s very nice. Have a look:
Back at El Cid, with New Job
Posted by Michael Livingston in Homelife, Project XK (Jeep) on August 8th, 2010
So I’m back at The Citadel, getting ready for a new year of the old job — medieval literature professor and all that — but I come back from Colorado with a new job, too. The preparation for it has been a big reason for my silence this summer, in addition to the fact I spend a good chunk of my time too far out in the wilds of the West to have internet or even (gasp!) cellular service, of course.
If you know me only as a writer or a professor, the new job surely will sound strange. My brother and I — and our saintly patient wives — are for at least a while slipping into management of the family business that our dad started as a “hobby” in his retirement: 4xGuard.
Super manly logo.
We’d already been doing some work for 4xG — redesigning its website and logo, working through new product design, and just generally talking through issues as they came up — but things are much more official now. Yes, I am now collecting a paycheck to help design and sell skidplates and other off-road accessories for Jeeps.
Strange for a specialist in medieval literature, I suppose, though it does sort of make sense when you think about it. After all, what 4xGuard makes is simply the modern equivalent of this:
Medieval skidplates, baby.
The new job means a bit less free time in my life, obviously, but it’s also something I really enjoy doing. Plus, well, it gives me a good excuse to build new goodies for my Commander. It’s work, right?
Still Wandering in the West
Posted by Michael Livingston in Uncategorized on July 29th, 2010
Life is grand. We’re south of Montrose, Colorado now, in the last gasps of our western excursion for the year. Tomorrow we begin to drive east.
Not sure how long it’ll take to get back to Charleston (and thus back to some normalcy in my life and around this website). A week, maybe?
In the meantime, I’m taking as many deep breaths as I can. Good clean air up here!
The Sound of Silence
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics, Adventure, Homelife, Teaching on July 10th, 2010
Wow. It’s hard to believe it’s really been a month since I posted anything here, but, well, on the other hand, I have been pretty busy.
I’m in Colorado at the moment. That begins to point toward the reasons for my quiet. My month of June was greatly discombobulated by a number of things, the first of which was my banishment from my office to (gulp) the cadet barracks. Wasn’t just me, mind you. Capers Hall, which houses several departments in addition to English, is shut down for the summer, undergoing some serious HVAC renovations. So our offices were summarily moved to an open building: Murray Barracks. It’s been quite strange.
In the meantime, I taught a rather intensive 2-week creative writing course. Pretty much an all-day affair.
In the midst of teaching that class — which went great, by the way, and thanks for asking — I got some requests for alterations for the Brunanburh Casebook. That blew out days at a time, because I had to get it turned around with all speed to keep it in the publication queue. Plus, I had to get ready to leave for…
Colorado! I’m in the midst of my annual pilgrimage to the Rockies. Got out here around the 1st of July, and it’s been great. Seen family, deer, elk, and even took a trip into Denver for a day at the Natural History Museum where we saw dinosaurs. The only downside so far has been one trip to the E.R. to have part of my son’s left middle finger reattached after it was summarily ripped off (nail and tip) in a door. Pretty gruesome, but the lad is in good spirits. When I have better internet connectivity and time — I can’t tell you how busy I’ve been for a man on vacation — perhaps I’ll share pictures. Lotsa blood.
Anyway, that’s where I’ve been and where I am. We’re heading out for even higher climes (current elevation 7700 feet above sea level) tomorrow to test some new Jeep parts. Research and development is a good thing.
David Brooks Promotes the Humanities
Posted by Michael Livingston in Academics on June 8th, 2010
David Brooks, who writes for the New York Times, has been one of my favorite social and political commentators for quite some time. I first came across him on PBS’s wonderful Newshour, where in political commentary he’s the conservative counterpart to the liberal Mark Shields.
One of the things I’ve always liked about both Brooks and Shields, however, is that it has always appeared that to them being “conservative” or “liberal” does not mean being a part of a “team” that’s engaged in a win-or-lose competition. Thinking like that is what got us into the disgustingly polarized politics we’re in today. Rather, they seem to understand that these terms are general philosophical positions upon a multi-axial spectrum of governance. As such, they are not exclusive categories.
In other words, Brooks is an “old” conservative. He’s far more in line with men of Reagan’s ilk than are all the current Mad Tea Partiers and wingnutters who fall all over each other in the crazed dash to grab ol’ Ronnie’s fallen standard.
Anyway, I bring all this up because his most recent column is pretty darn perceptive. Most of them are, of course. Indeed, his previous column pointed out the fact — uncomfortable though it is for the ignorant “Obama-is-a-liberal-socialist-fascist-etc” crowd — that the sitting President has thus far been very successful in pursuing a much-needed “light but energetic, decentralized but forceful reform approach” to education in this country. That should be music to conservatives’ ears, but most of them (Brooks obviously excepted) are too busy shouting nonsense to actually listen to what’s being said. (Much of the hard left of the liberal party ain’t doing a whole lot better, though ironically they, too, are yelling at Obama, which actually speaks much to the truth of him.) This most recent column from Brooks is particularly close to my heart, though, since it essentially defends the humanities.
Go us.
