I was psyched when I saw that the stock CD player had auxiliary inputs.  I was not psyched to find out that those inputs could only be enabled by buying some ridiculous BUS CONTROLLER or whatever for $200.  If I need a bus controller I’ll rent Speed.

Anyway, to fix this nonsense, I bought a PAC Sony Unilink Adapter from amazon.  It’s an overpriced ($30!) dongle that fakes the head unit into thinking it has a bus controller on, and that CD2 is enabled.  Here’s sortof what it looks like installed:

If you install this, make sure it’s facing up.  I couldn’t get it to connect facing down, though the space is a little tight, so maybe it would’ve worked.  

To actually activate it, hit SOURCE to get to CD, and then hit MODE to get to CD2.  That’s your auxiliary in.  (Make sure you connect to the proper set of inputs, one is actually a preamp out..)

Here it is in action:

There is no good way to run a Y cable out of the cabinet and actually put the cover back on without some cutting or drilling.  Don’t try to pinch a cable – it’s really tight and will cut the cable.  Some minor dremeling should take care of this in the cabinet, but there’s now way to run the cable down to the couch or anything.  I don’t imagine this is a big deal for most people – the cable can just dangle if you’re listening to iTunes at the couch, or just stick the laptop/ipod in the cabinet.  (Screen saver might make for an interesting nighttime effect behind the smoked plastic..)

Airstream

I didn’t realize when I bought the Airstream that it had self-healing properties.

After nearly a week with no hot water, the hot water heater randomly started to work.  Also, after nearly a week with a few leaks in the roof, the leaks seem to have plugged themselves.

I left Magic at home rather than taking him to work yesterday.  I wonder if he worked his.. magic. ?

Airstream

  Magic is usually camera shy, so I don’t get many good shots of him.  Here he is licking his chops — maybe he’s planning to eat the laundry that’s sitting behind him on the couch.

Fulltiming with a dog has been interesting.  I was worried about the cross-country trip, but the crew cab really saved the day here.  With the seats folded up, there was plenty of room for his bed and a few toys, and after some initial complaints, he just went to sleep.  He’s almost 8 (supposedly), so sleeping is basically his favorite activity anyway.  No issues with carsickness or anything like that either.

I’ve had no trouble with him an RV parks, which worried me on the way out here — would people scrutinize him and check for pitbullness?  Apparently not, not so far at least.  Even in Malibu, which supposedly has a very low tolerance pit policy, my brother noticed someone obviously walking two purebred pits.

I’ve had good luck with work too — most of our offices have a pretty liberal pet policy, and it’s nice being able to take him along to work rather than having him cooped up in the Airstream.  This is also a bit difficult in Malibu, as the temperature varies so much from afternoon to evening, it’s tough to set the AC or furnace to keep things comfortable.  (this will be even more interesting when I get back to Malibu for most of May)

Magic is used to living in small apartments, so the small spaces of the airstream aren’t a big deal for him.  In fact, they’re not a big deal for me, either.  It was tight when Tim was still here, but for just the two of us, it’s perfectly comfortable.  

Really, the only downside of all this is that I’m missing out on any evening goings-on with friends or coworkers.  It’s just too much trouble to do a 35+ minute evening commute out to the mountains, and then another half hour or so to get to anywhere people would be hanging out.  Then another half hour to get home at the end of the day?  Not worth it.  Though, this isn’t really a fulltiming limitation, it’s just a limitation of pet ownership.  But, life is better with a dog than without — I’ll deal with the minor annoyances.

Dog

This is my backyard in Saratoga Springs.  After a recent rainstorm, the northern creek somehow turned to chocolate milk.  If I ever get a reasonable weekend, I’ll take some more photos of the area– it’s pretty amazing.  I’ve always been a big fan of woods on the east coast, but the forests out here definitely give them a run for their money.

Down the road from Saratoga Springs are a number of redwood parks — Big Basin among them.  Most of them aren’t dog friendly, but I pulled a list from bahiker.com of the few that are — luckily, one of them has a trailhead only 100 yards from here.  Hopefully blackdog and I can wander around there this weekend.

NorCal, Randomness

I didn’t expect water issues to be the bane of my existence on this trip, but it’s definitely shaping up that way. The rains have started again, but with them brought a dead hot water heater.

I’ve spent most of the day with a bottle of contact cleaner, a voltmeter, and my leatherman, but no dice. The only culprit I can think of at this point is a bad circuit board, which seems unlikely, but I guess anything is possible.

Will be showering at work for a little while I guess..

Randomness

I’ve never really been that into mexican food (it sucks on the east coast), but Nils had the great idea to get a bunch of people together for a taco crawl.  Head to the Mission in San Francisco, head to various taquerias, and drink various beers.  Sounds good to me.

As I can count the number of times I’ve been to SF on one hand, I was somewhat out of my element.  The Mission was described to me as being similar to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (where I used to live), which is somewhat accurate if you’re talking about the shady part of Williamsburg that nobody wants to go to.  It seemed like a less bustling Spanish Harlem to me, but whatever.

I don’t know why it’s called the Mission, but we were on a mission to eat lots of mexican food, and we succeeded.  You can poke through my yelp reviews (http://beer.yelp.com) for the places that we went, but I must say I’m now a fan of west coast mexican food.

While SF is quite a ways away from Saratoga, the ease of getting in and out of the city is something that you don’t normally find.  In the DCs and New Yorks of the world, it’s a disaster getting in and out.  In SF, the 101 is really well integrated into the city, and the suburbs are such that you’re not having to blast you way through a mess to get where you’re going. (I assume this is different during weekday commutes, though)

The food was great everywhere we went and actually tasted somewhat healthy (maybe I’m kidding myself..), but the highlight as finding real glass bottle coke imported from mexico — made with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup.

Enjoy the pictures:

NorCal

One from the archives — pile o’ airstreams, october 2008.

Airstream

The rain finally stopped, and the campground emptied out.  Just me and one other fulltimer in the transient lot.  (There’s a “permanent” lot in the back which seems to never empty out — not sure if some of those rigs even run..)

A number of airstream updates:

- MUST replace the stove with a convection microwave.  Need counter space.

- Either need to rip out the dinette or lower the table by 4″, the ergos suck.

- Need to replace the plywood under the couch cushions with something springy.  

- When it doesn’t stop raining for a week, there are leaks.  I’ve counted 5.  Not severe, but in weird places that are difficult to caulk.

The campground upgraded to a T1 last week.  The auth portal is still a POS and forces you to reconnect every now and then, but it’s much better.  Not reliable enough for vidconf or voip though.

Also, I’m happy to report jrand (motorcycle in the january photos) made it back to New York safely.  Chain and sprocket needed to be replaced in Virginia, but other than that and a few random stops along the way, no trouble.  Photos here.

NorCal

My attempt to skip winter by coming to California has officially failed.  Temperatures in the low 30s at night, barely breaking 50 during the day.  Even in propane-conservation mode (short showers, water heater only on in the morning), I’m burning a tank of propane every week.  Magic seems to have realized that we’re goign to have to wait this one out, so he sleeps all day.

Tomorrow the forecast includes some hurricane force winds and 3″ of rain.  The plan was to do some hiking this weekend and explore some state parks, but, so much for that.  (The alternative plan was to go to LA, but packing up the rig for a three day weekend and 700 miles didn’t seem worth the trip.  Will head down there for a month later this spring)

But, there are certainly worse places to be than camping in the woods, next to a stream, with a funny eared dog.

NorCal

Trading my million-dollar view on the cliff overlooking the pacific for a secluded, forested valley has been an interesting change.  There are several other RVs here, but the high-end snobbery of Malibu is gone.  It’s possible that some of these people are semi-fulltime, trying to avoid the high costs of living in the bay area, I presume.

NorCal