What else

What else? What else can go wrong? Talk about another week from Hell…

Tuesday was my fourth chemo – it went smoothly. That evening, after another nice dinner, we heard a couple pops from the bedroom and went in to find that my air conditioner had died. It was still 94 at about 8pm – not my idea of a cool enough night to sleep without air! But I survived the night.

Called my favorite RV repair guy, Robert, in the morning – he checked it out and determined that it was only the fan that had crapped out, and that it needed a new circuit board. An air conditioner without a fan is useless, but at least it wasn’t something really major, like the compressor. So, OK, a circuit board shouldn’t be that hard to find. He took off to find one.

Then, surprise – my Silver Fox’s gorgeous daughter dropped by for a visit, with a lovely little red rose bush for me. What a delightful treat! And then, surprise – we all heard a couple more loud pops and all the power went out throughout the coach! I hurried back to the bedroom to find pungent smoke billowing out from under my bed!

Luckily, there was no fire with all the smoke. But boy, was there lots of that nasty electrical smelling smoke! We opened the windows – it was already 100 degrees out. I made sure the freezer and fridge were running on propane, and then called my RV guy again.

Timing being everything, we had to get out of there. Wednesday was my favorite day of this poison process – the day of the Neulasta shot that destroys my strength and stamina and body while it supposedly keeps me healthy! (And it is still keeping me healthy – I received another gold star for very good blood work!) Plus I had a second doctor visit scheduled to remove a squamous cell cancer from my leg – only five stitches for this one, thank you very much. Plus it was already too damned hot in the coach for man (woman) or beast (Misha) – so we packed up a cooler with champagne and chocolate, a few necessities and took off (after calling my pal Hugh, who I knew to be out of town, to see if we could stay at his place for a couple nights while we figured out what the hell was going on!).

Robert checked in a couple hours later to say that he had examined everything he could think of, and then discovered it was the power pedestal I plug into for electricity that was surging which had caused the problems. It was my power converter, under the bed, that had been fried by the power surge. And most likely a previous surge had burned out my a/c the night before. He asked me to come by the next day to use my generator for power to check out all my electrical equipment to see what, if anything, had also been destroyed by the surge.

Great – Thursday, the day I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck and then backed over again just to make sure I feel like shit, I have to go work in the heat of the day to see if anything in my coach is working. Can’t wait.

Robert had left a message for the RV park owner describing the situation, suggesting he get my power pedestal repaired.

So Maggie and I drove to town to inspect for damage. It was only 104 that day. But at least my forward air conditioner would work while running the generator, so we had a little break from the heat. And it appears that only my entertainment system and my modem for my wi-fi, plus the bedroom a/c, are dead. Only.

So far, neither Robert or I had heard anything from the park owner. Several phone calls and voice messages later, I learned he was going to bring in his own electrician to take a look at things at 2:30 on Friday (two days after our initial contact).

Goody – that meant even though I still felt gawd-awful from the effects of the shot, we had to make the 135 mile round trip, again, to be there when the other electrician showed up. At that point, though I truly appreciated the hospitality of my good friend’s home away from home, Maggie was very generous in setting us up in a suite at the Radisson, closer to home, for a few nights while we try to get this mess squared away. (my poor puppy is really getting upset by all this turmoil – she’s having a harder time with it than I am! That first day, and second, I was feeling over-whelmed – by Friday I was just MAD!)

No sign of the electrician until almost 3:30, and then it was pretty obvious he intended to find nothing wrong with the park’s hook-ups. I called Robert and asked him to speak to this other guy to explain what he’d done and what he’d found, hoping that we’d at least get some open communication. After a lengthy conversation, he told me he’d do his best to get to the bottom of the problem.

By then, I was totally beaten down by the oppressive heat and had to get out of there, so we checked into the hotel. Several exchanges of phone calls later, I received word that the electrician had found nothing wrong with the power pedestal, but that my power cord itself was at fault. My power cord, which showed no signs of burning or melting or stress. And that will be $200, please.

Robert is simply appalled at that conclusion. So now it looks like I’m going to be in a pissing contest over repairs and whatnot, with the park owner who I really have liked. I do not need this stress right now!

Oh, and that circuit board for the air conditioner? There are none available, anywhere. The manufacturer said they will begin making them again early in July, so I might get one in about 2 weeks. And the power converter? It’s on order – should be here Monday or Tuesday. But I’m really concerned that even though we do those repairs, that bloody power pedestal will continue to surge and will burn something else up. And I’m still too damned sick to do anything about it!

The hotel has been pleasant – free breakfast, free wi-fi (that works about 1 hour out of 24) and no cell phone signal, but otherwise quite lovely.

Hopefully by Monday, I’ll be in fighting shape and can take up battle. Again. Damn, I hate to have to fight to get things done right!