Is it a rule?

I'm wondering if it's a rule that all trailer and RV shops must keep Airstreams at least three or four days or a week before they even look at them. It seems that way.

Although Esmerelda has given us many surprises, I think I'm more surprised to learn that no shop can keep her less than several days, no matter how simple the job.

Do they like, want to keep her until they've called their friends over to see the "real" AS in their compound? Maybe they just think she looks cool sitting in their compounds What???

Esmerelda has leaks. Not her fault. It doesn't appear she's had any sealing or caulking in many, many years. Sadly, we've come to the conclusion she was an abused child who didn't get any TLC for years. There are weeks of cleaning, sealing and interior work to do. But somehow all that ever happens is Esmerelda is either stuck in a shop or it's snowing and freezing.

I really would like to USE this trailer someday, but for now, I'd be happy just to get opportunity to work on her. Good grief.

Now I know what all the experienced people in the forums meant when they told me I couldn't depend on much from various RV dealers and service shops. The first stuff we had done is wrong so it has to go back. The second stuff we attempted to have done looked like it was going to result in Esmerelda sitting on the RV lot until summer.

It reminds me of doctor's offices. That's another place you wait an eternity, spend a lot of money for little to nothing, and maybe come out worse than you were before.

I'm with the 100 year-old lady I recently read about. They asked about her longevity and she said, "Well, honey, most important, don't take any pills and stay away from them ole doctors!"

I've learned so many things, but one of them is definitely "if it ain't broke, don't mess with it, and surely don't let any RV shop mess with it!"

I may have to hire us a helper. We can't imagine ourselves on top of the traylah. We both get scared walking on high curbs, for cryin' out loud. So we need some skinny foot-sure kid for a helper. He can walk around and do our bidding while we stand in the bed of our truck (I think we can manage that) and boss him around! But the grandkids aren't old enough and all the other skinny handy young dudes around here seem to work in trailer shops, where mostly they whiz around the compound on a tractor with one's beloved trailer in tow!

Also, Mr. B., my very smart husband who had a stellar career in Information Technology, doesn't care much for mechanics or carpentry, and he doesn't tinker much. He will, and he can figure out anything, and he has done carpentry, mechanics, etc., back when he had to. But he's accustomed to working with his brain, not his hands! And having other people just do what he tells them to do. He'd prefer to hire work done. But that doesn't seem to be working out too well for us! I asked him if he was excited, like me, to get to work on the trailer, and he said, in his Mr manner, "not really." Imagine! NOW he tells me!

I like fixing stuff, and enjoy doing things with my hands, but sometimes, well....I get a little carried away. Or maybe my "want to" kind of exceeds my "know how." I think Mr would agree with the last guess.

Like last night. I was irritated with the slow sink in one of our bathrooms. So I goes and gets me a coat hanger (I've had much success over the years fixing things with coat hangers). I sticks it down in the sink drain to unclog a hairball or something. I guess I stuck it just a bit too hard, cause the danged thing came out the bottom of the pipe! Oops.

I went to tell Mr. B. that I made sort of, er, a hole in the bottom of the U trap. He wasn't really excited about my "breakthrough". And today, he got a new fitting. Turns out that trap must have been there forty years and it ain't going down alone without taking something with it.

I noticed how thin and brittle the metal was and told the Mr I bet our trailer's frame looked something like the bottom of that pipe. But it didn't seem like he much appreciated my observation.

Anyway, he has to get a plumber now, and if trailer shops are bad, let me tell you about plumbers.....oh, well, not now. Another time. I have to go to bed so I can go fix something on the trailer tomorrow. Mr. B. is watching carefully to see what I'm going to "fix" next. He hasn't let me go play with Esmerelda alone. I can't imagine why - after all, I have my universal coat hanger tool. What could go wrong?