The weather has been very summer-like all month with highs in the very high 70s to high 80s pretty much every day. Lately the humidity has been high as well making those high 80s days pretty uncomfortable in the afternoons. Thank goodness for air conditioning! My kids will laugh at that one since we never used or had an AC during their growing years ... they remind me nearly every time they visit and the AC is on!
We started off the month with a Birthday Bash for grandson Aiden as he turned 2 on the 4th of July. That kid is really growing now and Gramma and Papa have fun trying to keep up.
I have spent most of my time this month working on various projects. Most of the work was on my projects but some was helping Peggy with her project getting one of the bedrooms upstairs emptied, painted, and re-assembled in preparation for the New Jersey Evringhams visit later in the month. She did a great job and the work was completed on schedule and under budget (there was a budget?).
My early July project was to prepare the Colorado for towing. I completed installation of the supplemental braking system which applies the trucks brakes when I apply the motorhome brakes ... and then I moved on to installing the brackets that attach to the truck frame that are connected to the motorhome's towbar when we are traveling. Installing the brackets involves removing the front facia from the truck which is time consuming ... but not really that difficult ... except when it is super hot and humid outside ... that adds to the difficulty factor! With the front facia removed this was also the time for engineering and installing brackets for the breakaway switch and wiring connector that plugs in to the motorhome. It took me a two days to accomplish all this but I like the way it turned out. The brackets are easy to get to and you hardly notice they are there!
Finally, I had to accomplish a couple of additional electrical modifications to the Colorado in preparation for towing. Modification number 1 was to install a battery disconnect feature so that the Colorado's battery could be disconnected with a simple push of a button (necessary to remove power from the electric operated steering when towing) and number 2 was to add an additional brake pedal operated switch to send a signal to the motorhome to let me know when the braking system has actuated. I know ... it sounds complicated ... and I suppose that it is ... but all these mods will make it much easier and faster to prepare the Colorado to be towed each time we must "hook up." This was my fifth time preparing a vehicle to be towed and I'm hopeful it will be my last!
With the Colorado project behind me I moved back to restoring my latest motorcycle project. I have been working on restoring the parts I started with and procuring the ones I was missing ... as well as the ones I found needed replacement for a multitude of reasons. While Brian and the Gang were here I decided to get the frame painting accomplished so I could start the reassembly ... including installation of the engine into the frame ... which was a whole lot easier with Brian helping!
These last few days I have completed most of the reassembly and the bike is ready to be moved out of the basement and into the outside world where I can complete the reassembly. That winch system I used to get the previous bike out will definitely come in handy for this move as well. This bike is "small" by many peoples standards but it still a relative porker when it comes to weight.
I'm looking forward to hearing this one start up!
While Brian, Nicky, Alyssa, and Emily were here we had our almost traditional summer cookout and group Birthday Party covering my birthday (July 19th), Kaj's birthday (July 28th), Nicky's birthday (July 29th), Eric's birthday (August 4th), and Brian's birthday (August 9th). This years' get together was over at Kaj and Stacy's place and included lots of great food (lobster, pulled pork, green and potato salads ... and of course ... cake and ice cream. Add to that some slippin and slidin, a little croquet, some cornhole, and a walk downtown for a little Richmond Days activities and a great time was had by all!
Perhaps things will slow down a bit in August ... but I doubt it!
