Honeywell swamp cooler and a $100 mistake

Just before going FT I ordered a Honeywell CS071AE 176cfm evaporative cooler from amazon to help make summer in the desert bearable.  They humidity in the ELP high desert is quite low, a great candidate for evap cooling.  The vast majority of homes here have evap cooling units on the roof instead of A/C units. 

Verizon $5 3G apocalypse

A few days ago Verizon started shutting down flashed devices.  My wifi puck died on the first day of the apocalypse.  Even though my smartphone was still showing $15/mo and was working I started sniffing around. After seeing the excellent coverage of Verizon I decided to stay with them or, more likely, a reseller (MVNO). 

Review: RV Boondocking Basics

[note:  just found this in my drafts from last year.  Going to push it out now in its unfinished state.] RV Boondocking Basics:  Living Well on the Road Less Graveled, Sunny Skye. $3.99 eBook / $0 Kindle Unlimited $12.99 paperback   I bought this eBook from Amazon back when I had a KU account and

Lesson learned: RAM Promaster

This was the trip when I learned what it was like to live in the Promaster.   Did I make a good choice or an expensive mistake? The Promaster nailed it.  I loved it more after the trip than before.  It was great to drive, easy to maneuver, and

Winter RTR 2018: lessons learned

I’ve had time to think about and integrate some lessons learned from the Winter 2018 RTR<tm>.    It’s time to start documenting those lessons. Shakedown cruise I took 2.5 weeks vacation planned around the RTR.  I wanted to have plenty of free time and flexibility to make a comfortable drive between Texas and Arizona. The RTR

review: laundry in a bucket

based on this post, where we were discussing laundry options, including spin driers.  I had mentioned some YT videos wherein people used salad spinners for light drying work.

Review of VanTred by BedRug

based on this CRVL post: One of the first things I did in my van was put down a VanTred mat made by the BedRug people.  I am 100% pleased and would do it again.  This INTJ doesn’t say “100% pleased” very often.    pre-cut to fit the specific vehicle incredibly tough material legitimately comfortable to sit, crawl, or stand on for hours.  I have a bony butt and

Reviews I ignore

reviews written in ALL CAPS reviews with extraneous,,,.. or bizarre,, punctuation!!!!?! single line reviews that use the words junk, trash, crap, or nothing but problems. reviews written by illiterates reviews by people who clearly didn’t read the manual reviews by people reviewing the seller rather than the product reviews from people who bought the wrong