Richard Roehm Memorial Ranch Blog for January 26th, 2016

Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 8:15p.m., 44°, partly cloudy.

Good evening folks!

Yesterday and today have not been good days for me at the ranch. It’s too much for me and it’s stressing me out again!

Yesterday I woke up freezing at 7:15 am.  I made some coffee with the Solo-Stove, checked out our eBay Store and found we sold 3 items.  I went to the trailer to pull out the orders. I was putting stuff back into the trailer when I banged my head and almost knocked myself out cold.  I fell and remained lying on the ground for a few minutes. It hurt like Hell! I was very dizzy.  When I got up, I had huge headache and ringing in my ear. I managed to put one more thing back in the trailer before I closed and locked the side door.  Still feeling woozy, I walked back to the RV, pulled out my smartphone and called Beth.  I took my shoes off and lied down on the bed.  Beth didn’t return my call, so I decided to nap off the pain.

After a three-hour nap, I was still in a lot of pain, but I managed to get around okay.  I checked my smartphone and saw I had one message.  It was from Beth.  Her message read “Yikes!”  I fixed my last package of beef flavor, ramen soup on the Solo-Stove without any trouble — that it is until I poured my soup on a plate instead of bowl.  Oh, darn it!

So anyway, after I finished my meal, I headed back to bed to sleep it off again.

This morning I woke up at about 7:00 am.  It was 38° and windy — still too cold for me. I brewed my coffee on the Solo-Stove. I ran out of my favorite hazelnut creamer and Sweet-N-Low, so I had to drink coffee plain black.  Yuck!

I called Beth back.  She asked me if I was ok.   The pain and swelling were gone, but I was tired and a bit weak from all the sleeping I did yesterday.  While I had Beth on the phone, I went online and checked our eBay Store.  We sold two more items.

I pulled out the two items, took a quick bath, shaved, and dressed. I packed the order and got them ready to be labeled.  I tried to fire up the generator, but it wouldn’t turn over — twice. I am like “Hmmm, it was working fine last Saturday morning.  I only used it for 20 minutes.  I know it has half of a tank of gas left. I haven’t use it since Saturday morning and today is Tuesday. That’s so strange.”  I opened the gas tank and saw it still had a half tank of gas in it mixed with oil. So I tried again.  You need to pull the cord to start it  (just like lawnmower) but it wouldn’t let me.  The pistons were stuck.  It wouldn’t won’t roll over. I just don’t understand why it did that! I know it!  It was made in CHINA!!

Hopefully, Beth will be here soon to get this generator exchanged. We’ve only have it for three weeks.  I contacted Beth about that, she like “Oh, crap!”

My idea was to try to take the power pack to the solar panel area and get it charged up.  It has been charging for 20 minutes and the red inverter was tripped. I turned it off for 30 minutes, then turn it back on.  The inverter tripped again after another 15 minutes of charge.  GRRR!!  Yes, white printer is so old, it needs lots of power.  So I need lots of power for the power pack.  As I waited for the inverter for the solar power battery charge up via the solar panel, I had to handwrite the addresses for the braille magazines to get them ready to go to the post office.

I went back out to the solar panel again, and tried to get the power pack charged up.  Again, it tripped after 21 minutes of charging. I’m thinking that the adapter needs at least 12 volts to charge up, but the battery is 12 volts max. I’m like “Ah! Forget it”

I contacted Beth again for another issue. We hate too many issues in one week, instead of once a month. She didn’t respond right away.  Okaaaay! Back to my RV again to get my smartphone  solar charged for an hour. Finally fully charged, I unplugged the phone and plugged the Chrome laptop in and charged that.

I took a quick nap and got up — perfect timing for me to reply to Beth. I’m only supposed to spend on food, not the company car.   Beth mentioned she would get food for me.  Soon I am going to give her shopping list of what I need.

Anyway, Beth and I had a short chit-chat.  She’s becoming “Irish” (LOL!) talking for an hour while my Chrome laptop charged up. Ah! Finally I saw the light on my Chrome turned from orange to blue  — it’s fully charged! It took close to four hours to charge with 65 minutes left on the Chrome battery as was I shutting it down. Yikes! Compare 1¼  hours of generator charge-up vs. 4-hour solar powered battery!

Anyway, I am now a sitting duck until someone who really can support us comes along to cover the roughly $150 in gas. We also need to pay our phone, storage fees and upcoming expos this Spring.

Well, that’s about it for now until further notice.

Have a great day folks!

Bobby Fleener

General Manager, Richard Roehm Memorial Ranch
Vice President, Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center

More information on the Richard Roehm Memorial Ranch: http://www.deafadvocacy.org/the-richard-roehm-memorial-ranch
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