No Blood Today

Rockport, Texas

What a weather experience!!! It was beautiful in the low 70s, bright sun, a gentle cool breeze and had a great feeling to the day. The weather was predicting rain and low sixties. All day the weather for tonight was supposed to be rain and low thirties. That did not seem right. Well at 9pm tonight as this post is being written, it is rain, plummeting temperatures and strong winds. What a change from two hours ago!!!

At least the roof work got a good start with the usual minor mishaps. After all the tools and parts were gathered on the roof, the work started. The old connecter had to be uncovered and removed.


That roof caulk used on RV roofs is tough stuff. It took severe knife work and lots of effort to get it down to near the roof fabric. Then the screws were still covered with goop and proved ornery to remove. But it was all accomplished and the new connector box installed.

Notice the black connector on the near side of the new box. That one is for the wire coming from the new panel. The existing wires showing from this panel need a connector that is identical but lost in the Castle somewhere. This evening it poked me in the backside when the couch called me for a rest. The connecter had slid between the cushions.

Now when the opportunity arises, it will be back on the roof to install this part. The wiring from the old panel is very stiff and difficult to work with. When the missing piece is put into place, the stiff wiring will be replaced with “shipboard” wiring that is a lot more flexible. So another sunny warm day is needed to totally finish the roof work.

The critical areas have been recaulked and are ready for tonight’s rain.

Here we have the final locations of the two panels. Notice that there are no shadows on the panels. That is critical to the production of electrical power. A side effect of the solar panels is the extra shade they provide for the Castle's roof.

If a third panel is deemed needed, then the one on the left will have to be relocated forward to even with the right side panel. The third panel would be installed just to the rear of the relocated left panel. Hopefully this will be the end of the solar expenses, except for building tilt bars for the new panel.

The battery was connected and the system actually worked. WOW.

The cramped and difficult positions required to get to things on the roof caused some severe knee and hip pain for my body. So tonight and likely tomorrow will be heavy ibuprofen days as the soreness vanishes. To my surprise there was no blood letting at all. That is very unusual for me.

Tomorrow is time for donating blood again. It they are open, then a trip to Corpus will be needed to lower my blood quantity and get a new T shirt. Usually it is fun to run over into Corpus and look around in the stores. Add in donating blood and it makes a great day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM