Snowy Range Pass

Snowy Range Pass

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Getting rid of stuff







Since it was a nice day outside and I had absolutely nothing planned for this morning, I felt compelled to tackle one of those maintenance jobs that is not difficult, but never the less disliked. The hot water heater is suppose to be flushed every six months or so for best performance and reduced risk of failure. It would be an untruth to say that I stuck to this schedule, but try to get it done whenever I fail to come up with a reasonable sounding excuse. Clearly, it was due based on the amount of deposits that I flushed out. It looked like I was starting my own beach with its own miniature sea shells. Eventually, these deposits trickled out and finally stopped emanating from the tank and I was ready to put it back into service. One of the reasons I dislike this particular task is that it often develops that I am not able to reinstall the drain plug without it leaking. This can be very annoying and time consuming to correct. I lucked out this time (so far) with no apparent leak on fire up of the water heater.

While I was working on this project, Anneke was making her own difficult choices inside the coach. When we were getting ready to go full time and disposing of our stuff, we ran across a small coffee maker in the basement from Melita. We think it must have been deposited there by one of the girls upon return from college. Since our home coffee maker was quite large and unsuitable for the motorhome, we tried it out and found it made great hot coffee. So into the motorhome it went. It provided great service. Since it was already well used before it started its journey with us, after a couple of years, we looked to replace it with a new one.

We discovered that this model is still in high demand because it is not made anymore. A number of them are still being offered on the internet new in the original box. So we hung on to this collector’s item. In any case we kept using it for another two years, despite the fact that it was looking very worn. We were a bit embarrassed by it, but it just made the best coffee. Since arriving here, our SIL showed us his new coffee maker and it also produced good hot coffee. We bought one of these, but for the last month have not been able to part with our still working but shabby looking machine.

Today, it went the way of all things and landed in the campground dumpster. I am only hoping Anneke does not have a change of heart before the dumpster is emptied, because I have absolutely no desire to go dumpster diving.

11 comments:

Donna McNicol said...

Thanks for the reminder...Stu is way overdue on flushing our water heater. LOL!

Gypsy said...

I love coffee made in a Mellita, but mine is the kind that you pour boiling water through to a cone shaped filter that sits on a carafe. The only problem is that it doesn't stay warm, so usually I just brew one big mug at a time.

Kathy said...

Sad day for "ye 'ol coffemaker" but hopefully you can break in the new one to give you that same goodness! Cheers! K

Along the Way with JnK said...

We are settled in for a week here in Florida before moving about the rest of the state. While we are here, getting rid of stuff is part of our plan. We try to purge regularly.

Paul and Marti Dahl said...

I bet there were days you wanted a cup of coffee so badly you wouldn't have given a dumpster dive a second thought... ;c)

Thanks for the laugh!

Sue and Doug said...

nothing like a good clean up to make you feel like you actually did something today!..good for you!!!

Travels with Emma said...

Come on, Chuck. Dumpster diving could give you a hobby while you're sitting in one place for a while. :) (When you're not busy with baby showers)

Can't relate to the coffee thing, but just had my tank flushed yesterday at the repair shop. Better them than me!

Rick said...

Thanks for the reminder about the hot water heater. I'll be taking care of that as soon as our snowbird vacation is over!!

A good coffee machine is hard to replace!

Al Bossence said...

Know what you mean about that hot water task. Not my favorite thing either because that plug thingy can definitely be a problem sometimes. Drained it last summer & will have to remember to do it again when we get home.

Rustedgranny said...

Tank flushing? oh dear! Looking for the flush handle..oh, and that plug thingy too.

Margie and Roger said...

Yep, some thing are hard to part with. We've been told that 'old' coffee makers work better with inverters. We bought a new one and it was ruined while running on the inverter. Maybe I should go diving in your dumpster.