Table Of Contents

1. 2009/10/13 - "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"
2. 2009/12/07 - Dave's Bus Saves The Day
3. 2009/12/31 - Crappy New Year
4. 2010/01/25 - State Of The DaveUnion
5. 2010/02/25 - Angry Cops Abusing Power
6. 2010/06/22 - The Scum Of London

1:   2009/10/13 - "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"

Today is the day I leave the world of houses behind.  I am walking out of
my home at 1553 Fulton, which was my home longer than anywhere else, with
nothing but my unfinished bus to move into.

I first leave for travelling for almost two months, mostly in Europe.  I'm
actually heading out to the airport on my last run to the storage unit which
is holding remnants of my life.

I am expecting an adventure.

  (Quote in title courtesy Jean-Jacques Rousseau)


A little parable:

HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH
The American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican 
village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the 
small boat were several large yellow-fin tuna. The American 
complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how 
long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while. 
The American then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more 
fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's 
immediate needs. The American then asked, but what do you do with the 
rest of your time?

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with 
my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village 
each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have 
a full and busy life, senor.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You 
should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger 
boat with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several 
boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of 
selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the 
processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the 
product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this 
small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and 
eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.” The 
Mexican fisherman asked, “But senor, how long will this all 
take?” To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then, senor?”

The American laughed and said that’s the best part. When the time 
is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the 
public and become very rich, you would make millions.

“Millions, senor? Then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal 
fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with 
your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the 
evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your 
amigos.”

  - author unknown

2:   2009/12/07 - Dave's Bus Saves The Day

Monday night is the night I dance at Shades of Blues.  I was getting
ready to head over to Shades when I got a call from Susan letting me
know that a power transformer exploded on the street that Shades is on.

No power at Shades of Blues means no music and no lights which means
no dancing.

My bus has a 10kW generator.

You do the math.

I pull up to Shades and we start running extension cords.  Blues dancers
are die hard, so they are dancing quietly in the dark using a battery
operated speaker hooked up to a laptop.  But we hook up and Shades of Blues
goes back into full swing, whilst the rest of the block sits in darkness.

It turns out my powers can also be used for good!

3:   2009/12/31 - Crappy New Year

There have been some trials and tribulations since moving into the bus, I
still don't have proper heat or hot water, and my battery bank has prematurely
fallen apart.

None of that compares to the trip from hell that I am currently on.

I decided to take the bus out for it's first road trip as a home, going
up to Portland for Blues parties for the New Year.

It's 2010, and I'm still not there yet, I am currently quasi-stranded in
Southern Oregon.

Right before leaving I started having problems with my veggie oil conversion.
I had been meaning to replace the tank heat coils with aluminum since the
copper was reacting with the oil, but after 10 hours of work, I only had
one coil replaced, and the coolant wasn't flowing anymore, and the WVO
electrical system wasn't working.  After much debug, I managed to get on
the road with a full tank of veggie oil and a seemingly working system.

Then everything went to hell.

The veggie oil system stopped heating up properly and on top of that my
'dirty' tank filter stopped working, just as it had when Haley and I made
a bus trip up to Seattle which made the return a costly nightmare.

This time I managed to figure out how to disassemble the filter and got
it unclogged, but it still wasn't heating properly, so I called it a night.

The next day, much to my shock, my generator wasn't starting up.
Turned out that the industrial strength squirrel cage fan that I had
installed behind it had died inexplicably, making it impossible to
keep the generator cool.  Now I didn't have power either, apart from
whatever charge was left in my currently feeble battery bank.

I got the brilliant idea to run some of the extra massive cables I
had from my house batteries to my bus battery, so that I could start
the bus up and use the bus alternator to charge my house batteries
which would power the inverter.  This would allow me to hook up a
bucket heater that I had which I could dump in the veggie oil tank
so that it would finally get warm.  This finally succeeded, and I
was up and somewhat running again - I wasn't sure what to do about
the genset, but I had power to get to Portland.

I started to drive again, only to notice the year switch over to
2010 as I was heading up I5.  I kissed my cat, she's riding as
my copilot and is the number one woman in my life anyways.  :)

Except that I wasn't able to switch to veggie oil without the engine
losing power.  I replaced the engine veggie oil filter and then tried
to prime the line by switching between oil and diesel as I have done
before.  This time it wouldn't get power again, and one of the times
I switched to veggie oil it killed the engine.  I switched back to diesel
and tried to start it and it wouldn't start.

Disaster.

Having a diesel run out of fuel is a bad situation.  Now I had
no heat, no electricity and no mobility.

I had a pump that I had used to prime the veggie oil lines, so I thought
I might be able to find the fittings to get it to prime the diesel.

The pump was dead.  Unbelievable.  I had bought it new and used it once.

Everything on the bus was falling apart, even though most of it was new
and high quality, super industrial equipment.  My luck was in shambles.

I took a break and pondered what to do next.  I heard the bus sink a bit
as the air slowly leaked from the tanks (as it does when it's not running)
and realized that my bay doors would lock shut when I'd lost air, and wouldn't
open again until I could start the bus.  Some of my tools and supplies I need
to fix this were in the bay, and I could get stuck in a catch-22.  I ran
outside the bus and ran around opening all the bay doors just in time,
only one of them ended up locked.

And fortunately I realized that I had my electric collection pump from
my veggie oil system.  It was a bit oversized, but should be able to
pump, and had most of the fittings already on it.  It took a number of
experiments to figure out how to hook it up so it would pull diesel
from the fuel lines and push it through the engine, but I finally got
it and the engine started.

So now I just have a broken generator and a broken WVO system.  Somehow
after looking at the possibility of being totally stranded, this is a relief.

I'm typing this up in a cafe in Southern Oregon, wondering what to do next.
I'm not sure if I'll ever make it to Portland, though I am coincidentally
close to the place that sold me the generator (though I'm guessing they're
closed tomorrow, since it's the first). 

It's difficult to keep perspective when this keeps happening.  I know
that the WVO system is homemade and may have issues, but it should
generally work.  And everything else that is failing should *NOT* be
failing.  I bought the best of components and installed them correctly,
so it just doesn't make sense.  If I believed in a higher power, I
would definitely presume that it was telling me to get out of the bus.

And when I keep getting thrown curve ball after curve ball after curve
ball after.. (repeat 20 times), it gets disheartening, and I start thinking
that maybe a dinky $600/mo SF apartment might not be so bad.  *sigh*

Update - 5 hours later:  WVO is working now, figured out that
it was a problem with the filter not sealing properly and letting air in.
Now I just need electrical power.

Update - many days later:  I stopped in Eugene where I bought the
genset and they forklifted the generator out of the bus and I spent
all day pulling apart the 'doghouse' that I built (the soundproofing
container that the generator sits in) to get to the fan that's not working.

I pull it out and it starts to work.  Comedy.  We can't figure out what's
wrong with it, so we put on a new wiring harness and I put everything
back together - testing the fan every few steps.  It works fine each step
of the way, so I reinstall the generator and hook it back up.  Now the fan
doesn't work.  Comedy.

So I pull it all apart again, and we finally figure out that there's an
intermittent short inside the motor.  This is the first failure they've
ever seen of these fans.  So I buy a new fan and install it into the bus.

The new fan stops working.

What the hell is happening to my bus?

Update - many days later: After four days in Eugene and THREE
removals and re-installs of the 600 pound genset, it's working again.
It turns out that the first fan failure (wiring short) is completely
different from the second fan failure (capacitor fault), thereby encompassing
the only two failures they have ever seen on this fan.  Both
in my bus.  Time to head home.  Yeesh.

4:   2010/01/25 - State Of The DaveUnion

Frequenly asked question:  How is life in the bus?

Interesting point #1 is that it doesn't actually feel that different
from the perspective of being rooted.  I don't feel adrift - it took
a couple of weeks to get used to the idea of not having a specific
address but unsurprisingly my brain eventually adapted.

Interesting point #2 is that while I went into this knowing that
there would be setbacks, just like any engineering job, I never
imagined it could go this wrong.

So far the setbacks have been a bit more than I think could be 
considered "reasonable."  Lots of bad luck has come along with many 
pieces of equipment failing.  This is new, high-quality and 
industrial strength equipment that is failing, and after a bunch of 
failures like that I think it's safe to say I have hit a run of bad 
luck.  The last entry (above) in this history is a fine example of that.

So be it.

That means things are not currently ideal, I've been fulltiming for
almost two months and the current major issues are:

1. No Heat
   Initial heat plan didn't work, and backup heat plan didn't work.
   Diesel furnace on the way, though that's a big project.  Hopefully
   it'll be done before summer.  ;)
2. No Hot Water.
   Initial plan became less feasible, so switching to using diesel
   furnace, though this means borrowing showers for another month or so.
3. Batteries Not Holding Charge
   It's not clear what happened here.  The batteries are working at
   about 1/5th capacity, and I kept them properly charged while stored.
   I'm in talks with the battery manufacturers about what might have happened,
   but until then I need to run in low power all the time (this is why the
   backup heat idea isn't working)
4. No Kitchen or Cabinets
   Because of #1-#3 above.  Only an issue because it means I can't unpack
   a bunch of storage boxes which means I can't clear out or organize my
   storage unit which means I can't sell off the excess junk I have packed
   away.  So it goes.
5. Toilet Quasi-Functional
   I have to cut a vent in the ceiling to be able to use it at 100%, but
   at least I've gotten somewhere on this.

So that's how things are in the bus.  Not perfect or pretty by any means,
but I'm getting by and I keep reminding myself that I'll have comfort soon.

It's amazing to see how much we take for granted.  Something as simple as
a heated shelter is a powerful thing that we don't generally notice.  It's
been an interesting lesson.

5:   2010/02/25 - Angry Cops Abusing Power

I have a feeling I'll use that title for more posts in the future.

It turns out that owning a very large vehicle, such as a bus, is grounds
for police harassment.

I'm working on my bus, and they start pounding on it as they are getting
a tow truck ready to tow it.  Not that it's parked illegally, but it seems
that the police enjoy harassing 'troublemakers' such as myself.

They claim that it's been parked in the same location for weeks now, which
is probably false because I had just moved it there the night before, and
if it *had* been there for more than 72 hours, then I would have had
street cleaning tickets, which I did not.  I pointed that out to them,
and they were uninterested.  So they started yelling at me that they had
proof that I had been parked their for more than 72 hours (not true)
and that they had proof proof that I was living in my vehicle (both
nonsense, they have no such proof, but cops like to claim and demand
things plenty).

I tried to explain this to them, when one of the officers said she wanted to
look in my bus and she walked over towards it.  I asked if she had a warrant
and was ignored.  She stood by the door and asked me if it was a bus or
motorhome.  I told her it was registered as a motorhome (as they should
know).  She asked again.  Cops are confusing and fail to listen, near
as I can tell.  She kept asking this and telling me she wanted to go inside,
which I refused.  Then she threatened to call the "Office of Commercial
Inspectors".  I told her I didn't know what that even meant.  My gut
feeling is that it was just a ploy to trick me into letting her into
my bus, because she gave up on getting into the bus and yelled at me
some more about how the street is private property (also not true.)

Cops are great source of fantastical information, and in this case I'm
using the root of 'fantastical' which is 'fantasy'.

What a day.

6:   2010/06/22 - The Scum Of London

This is yet another entry my mum probably shouldn't read.

I'm off dancing in London, and it's time to head back to Zurich.

I get to the bus stop early morn in a fairly decent neighborhood with 
my dancing friend Ursi and all of our luggage when three gentlemen 
(and I use that term loosely, if not sarcastically) come up and one 
of them starts asking me where I'm from.  His eyes are bloodshot from 
whatever.  I tell him lots of places, but he keeps asking, so I tell 
him San Francisco.  It isn't until much later that I realize he's 
trying to figure out if I'm from around this neighborhood, my guess 
is that he's a local.  They tell me to give them my phone and my 
money.  Actually, they mumble it a few times, and I have to keep 
asking him what he's saying.

That's a bit displeasing.  The mugging part, not the mumbling part.

I look at them for a while.  I've thought alot about what I would
do in this situation, and it has occurred to me that in many cases
they are uncomfortable and scared, and if you can figure out how
to get them to bail on the situation, then you can avoid losing out.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your perspective), my
fight/flight response is fairly undeveloped, so I don't get very
freaked out in threatening situations.

So I look at them for a while.  I've discovered that tends to really 
unnerve people who are expecting you to be scared.  I figure it 
probably won't work in this case, since there are three of them, but 
I decide to give it a go.

I calmly suggest to them that they don't need to have any trouble.  
One of the guys reaches his hands out and gets a lighter from another 
guy and then pulls out something that looks like pepper spray and 
ignites it to get a little burst of flame.  They ask for my phone and 
money again, and so far they've pretty much ignored Ursi.

Fine.

At this point, with Ursi there, and with our laptops, our luggage
as well as a huge wad of cash which is fortunately stashed away 
elsewhere, so I figure it's better to just get rid of them.

Amusingly enough, my iPhone had just broken a couple days before back 
in Zurich, and I happened to be travelling with an extra phone that I 
brought to London, which I actually find quite useful, if old.  So I 
take it out and ask if they really want this 'piece of shit' and they 
tell me to give it to them now.  They want this over with so they can 
get out of there.  I ask if I can take out my sim card so I can still 
keep my number.  I don't actually care about the sim card since it's 
just my prepaid swiss number, but it helps to slow them down.  They 
tell me they'll take it out, so I give the phone to the big guy and 
he starts to open it.  It's kind of funny, because the phone has a 
loose charge connector and probably isn't worth anything, except to 
me.  Every once in a while the mini-flamethrower guy shoots of a 
small flame.  I guess it's supposed to intimidate me, but it really 
just keeps pointing out that he's got a small penis.

They demand my money.  The big guy with the phone is having trouble 
getting the sim card out, which turns out well for me, because he's 
the one closest to me and he's not paying much attention.  I take
my wallet out - it's a little metal cigarette case.  I just got some
money for teaching, and I know there's a fold of bills on both sides.
So I open it quickly and slide out one of the folds of money and close
it back up, with about 60 pounds showing on the other side.  
Fortunately they're too hopped up or nervous to notice me closing the 
wallet with half the money inside, and I hand them what I took out 
and put the wallet back in my pocket.  The big guy can't get the sim 
out, so he gives it to me and demands I take out the sim.  That's 
nice enough, I suppose.

They turn to Ursi and start asking her what kind of phone she has.
She just bought an iPhone, so that's unfortunate, and she tells them
she doesn't have a phone, that I had been carrying it.  They ask her 
again but then the big guy says something like "No, she's a lady" and 
they leave her alone.  I guess they don't know Ursi.  They don't even 
ask her for any money, which is great, because her wallet has money 
from all the countries we dance in.  They start to run off, and the 
big guy turns around and says "A piece of advice, cut your damn hair" 
or something to that effect, and then says something about "if you 
don't want that advice.." but I didn't catch the rest of it.  Maybe 
he wasn't such a nice guy after all.  Or maybe he just doesn't like 
long hair, and wanted to give me some fashion advice.

We watch them take off, then we move Ursi's money to a safer spot and 
I take her phone.

Due to an earlier tragedy, I had learned that the number for the police
outside the states is generally not 911.  I had been collecting the
emergency numbers with each phone sim I got, and so I tried 112, 
though the UK number is 999 - somehow we got connected, probably because
Ursi's phone is Swiss.  The police showed up, but there wasn't much 
that they can do, they admitted, and so it goes.

As poor as I am (probably poorer than these punks), I don't mind
losing the money that much, I mostly mind them gaining it.  And I
mind actually bringing two phones on a trip to Europe and ending
up with none.  That's annoying especially since I was planning
on buying a used iPhone when I got back, and now I have to figure
out how to make calls for the next month.  Aggravating.  If only
the cell phone they had taken had a "remote explode" option, that'd
be nice.  Fortunately these guys are almost guaranteed to end up
getting raped in jail, or else in the gutter begging for money.
Either way, it's pretty funny.

And I think I'll keep the long hair.

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