Goodbye to Mammoth

 Thu 9 Nov 2023

Yesterday, Wednesday 8 November 2023, we said good-bye to dear old Mammoth and bought the new thing.

 

We knew it was going to be weird, but had no idea just how weird. First they took us on a walk-through of the new motorhome and demonstrated the features (not nearly all of them) and explained the operation of stuff (not nearly all of it). One significant thing they missed was the engine operation--after all this time, Ed still had never started the thing--let alone driven it--until on Thursday.

While we did the walk-thru a mechanic did a detailed inspection of the old one and noted all sorts of faults we didn't even know about. Some of which weren't faults at all, but just things he couldn't get working. It appears we'd been gradually putting up with idiosyncrasies over time and didn't hardly notice how bad some stuff was.  It was too decrepit for the dealer to put it on his lot--beneath his standards.

But the salesman really wanted to make a sale (of course), so he did some magic with a $10K rebate and applied it to the trade-in value and told us we could go ahead at the stated price. Which only goes to say they were making a significant killing off us with the first price, and only slightly less after they found out that Mammoth was not in saleable condition. Not our problem.

Then they took it over to the camping area and parked it next to the old one. And then we signed a whole lot of papers.  And we were left to move in and spend the night in "the campground", aka a small fenced off parking lot with hookups. The water was probably okay to drink but since the faucet was right next to the sewer faucet, we chose not to hook it up. We were able to flush our toilets, though, and wash dishes from the water in the tank.

 

Since we'd already cleaned everything out of Mammoth and staged our single-night's needs in the Jeep, it was a pretty quick job to load everything into the new one. Then Molly and I took a long walk while Ed started testing all the stuff.

Then we slept.  The bed was nowhere near as cozy and comfy as Mammoth's--it will likely be a long time before I get used to it. Every time I climb on I'll heave a deep sigh of regret.

Next morning it was starting to rain. I made a quick McDonald's run.  Note to self: I don't like the sausage burritos anymore. Go back to the Egg McMuffins or else do the oatmeal.

Then we ate and met with the sales guy again. Went over to get the DEF topped off. And headed out. We'd barely gotten onto I-35 when the driver's windshield wiper started going whackydoodle--flopping all around.  Ed tried to fix it and on the second try, got it put back together.  But we went on back anyway and got a new one, and also discussed the procedure for warranty work.  As expected, we found a couple of little issues. Too bad we didn't find them on Wednesday.

Good-bye, dear Mammoth. I loved you much, but grew to mistrust you so severely...it's a relief to say a sad good-bye. But so it goes.

Catching up on events of November/December

 Wed Nov 1

Today the old Mammoth Motorhome took us to grandmother's house. Pretty boring trip, which is good. Six hours on the dot, and that was with three gas stops. At none of the stops did we have to wait, which probably explains a lot.

This is probably the farewell journey for Mammoth. We'll miss her, a lot. Too many great times, good experiences, good reliability of most of the components. But too many little issues for us to want to endure her declining years for much longer. The transmission; the brakes; the unspecified electrical issue that was probably a coincidence. The flaking surface on the dinette base; the aged and decrepit carpet. And all the little stuff that broke that we didn't fix, like the wiring cover and the chips off the tabletop and counter surfaces. A lot of stuff we did fix, but only about two-thirds of what we should have fixed.

It will all be history soon, but I'll have to make sure I have plenty of pictures.

Enjoyable (mostly) audiobook

 Here Comes Trouble

by Michael Moore

If you're already a Michael Moore fan, you can't help but love this book.  It's full of stories from his life, from childhood up to the making of Roger and me. Some are funny but most of them are sad, although told with the lightness of spirit that keeps you reading. There was only one that was so unrelentingly sad that I seriously considered giving up the audio book right then and there--and I'm so glad I didn't. It got better.

Sorry I can't think of a one to relate. There was the priest who couldn't forgive himself for his actions during World War II, but still insisted on pestering Mr. Moore to return to the church and start praying again. Maybe all the other redeeming acts he did weren't enough to allow him to be forgiven. That was kind of good.  The stories of his early life, such as the gay kid in the neighborhood in an era when kids didn't know from gay, but their bigger brothers did. That one was sad, but it needed to be told. People need to know how things used to be.

The one story I could not recommend to anyone, anywhere, is the story of his mother's illness and hospitalization. It was a complete bummer.

But so much else was funny or funny mixed with with pathos, the stuff of great writing. To me.

Not so great as I hoped. So much she could have chosen

 Butts A Backstory

Well written and well researched, but I think the author got hooked on a theory and tailored her research, and her narrative, to support it. Possibly she started out with an open mind and was curious to let the facts lead her where they might, but I don't think so.  I'm not sure I ever understood exactly what it was she was trying to prove, but it seemed to be something about how white people exploited black people because the white women wanted to understand the fascination their menfolk had with black women's anatomy. But even then, she seemed to dwell on black people (people of African descent) rather than include Hispanics. Very odd.

But now that I've said that, please ignore it and read the book anyway.  It's very interesting a lot of the time, especially in the first half or so. I got a little bored near the end, but that's because she was dwelling on modern performers such as Miley Cyrus. I enjoyed the historical parts more (personal bias!)

Just a recipe book

  The Blue Zones American Kitchen: 100 Recipes to Live to 100

I know you don't really "read" a recipe book, but I scanned a lot of words in this one. The recipes are grouped in chapters according to culture or social group they were represented in--Okinawan, South American, African, that sort of thing. And the chapter introductions plus the head notes for each recipe made up a lot of interesting reading.

And a lot of interesting recipes. All vegetarian, too. I have not tried any of them yet, so no promises.

Farming, family and food

 Good Husbandry

by Kristan Kimball

Was the title a pun?  The book is about a farm and the man and wife who own it, told by the wife. But a good bit of her struggles are with the husband she loves as much as the work that she learns to love.

It's lovely. Very much. Throughout. A little sad in the struggles they have with modern farming methods that threaten to overwhelm their little operation as they try to grow it. But they stay true to themselves and their beliefs, even while they compromise with "progress."  Such as this--they tried to use draft animals for plowing and hauling, and did so quite successfully for some time, but they kept having to train new teamsters to handle the horses. The new people, once trained, would eventually leave and go on to start farms of their own. Eventually the tractor took over more and more of the work around the farm--less learning curve.

But still, very, very lovely. If I lived there, I'd join their CSA.

Fluff, and some serious stuff.

 Kappy King and the Puppy Caper

by Amy Lillard

Well, golly. I wanted to love this but didn't, but then I didn't want to like this but I did. The kapp maker of the Amish village, oddball "Kappy" King, is an amusing and likeable character. She is pulled into detection only to help a neighbor, jailed for suspicion of murdering his mother. So she's not a dedicated detective but she at least keeps her mind on her job and does a decent job of noticing clues and following them down.

Which is in great contrast to a lot of cozy mystery detectives, who seem to stumble and bumble around until they're hit on the head with so many obvious clues that they can't help but notice them. And then they usually get attacked by the murderer and duh! Now they know!

Not so here. She's a good solver. I'll probably read another one, especially if I can get it at the library for free. But her romantic interest is a real loser, and I sincerely hope that the danger signs that the author keeps sprinkling around his feet are real and not just something that irritates me. Frankly, if as smart a person as Kappy ends up with a loser like him, I'll quit reading right then.

But we can hope not.  Oh, and a quick warning--I'm not so sure the author knows a lot about Amish people. Some of the stuff she puts in seems off kilter to me, but I'm not the expert.  (NOTE: according the the review, she does know a lot. So I guess she just has a good imagination.)

The End of Craving
by Mark Schatzker

Once again I managed to forget to make notes of a book's good features at the time of reading. So all I can remember is that his theories were intriguing, and if even a few of them are established as science (demonstrable, testable, repeatable, and all that), we know a whole lot more than we ever knew about human obesity.

And, sadly, we are hopeless to overcome it. The theories I remember are (1) artificial sweeteners or fats cause the brain to become confused and overeat to compensate for the sugar or fat it was expecting to receive based on the sensory cues it received, (2) the modern practice of over-fortifying foods with vitamins is providing the body all the parts it needs to layer on the pounds even if you eat relatively "normal" food. That particular theory is well demonstrated by animal foods that make it easier for pigs to layer on the pounds even when they're eating a diet high in the cheapest and least nutritious grains, and (3) any kind of food uncertainty, even if we don't recognize it, tricks the brain into overconsumption.

He has some good research backing these up. Plus I may have missed some other points he made. So read this for yourself and see what you think.

More Ellie Dwyer! And a pretty good YA. And a really unexpectly good mystery series.

 Ellie Dwyer's Unexpected Ally
by Diane Winger

I'm liking these better and better as they go along. I don't know whether it's her writing that improved or just that I like her people better as I get to know them. In either case, I loved this to pieces. I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone--it's not deep, or extremely thoughtful, or heartwrenching or laugh-out-loud funny. I can't say that I had trouble putting it down at bedtime. But, next day, I was very happy to pick it up again.
 


Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry

A pretty good YA, even for a grownup reader. I was a little bored at first, but I was very glad that I didn't give up. It kept getting better.

The main character Quinn keeps lists of everything. I understand that--I like making lists as well as the next person.  But for her, only after someone steals her "list notebook" and blackmails her to do the things on her very, very private to-do list, does she realize how the listmaking was confining her ambition and keeping her stuck in a frightened world.  Nothing like having your deepest and darkest secrets out in public to make you free of fear. 

 

 

The Sound and the Furry
by Spencer Quinn

Before I started reading, I didn't realize that this series was narrated by the dog. If I had known that, I probably wouldn't have read it. And dang! I'd have been sorry!!!

Somehow he makes this work and it's funny as heck. And the mystery was pretty good, too.