Is It Apendicitis?

August 24, 2011 By

What a week so far! Getting diagnosed and treated is often a frustrating labyrinth of going from here to there and then back again for something no one told you that you needed. That gets multiplied when you add in a bit of a language barrier and then the cultural differences. But hey! I survived. Praise God for that!!

Entering the Maze

This is pretty long, but I think it might give you some insight into what it’s like to live here, so follow me into the marvelous maze of medicine, Roatán style. Monday at about supper time I started experiencing pain in my lower right abdomen. Moving certain ways or pressing on the area brought a sharp, but not unbearable pain. It was still there Tuesday morning, so I drove over to Clinica Esperanza. With God’s amazing help, our friend, Peggy Stranges (aka Nurse Peggy), has built from scratch what I think is the finest medical facility in the islands — it costs about $2.50 to see the doctor and get your medications, but it’s free to those who cannot pay. It started ten years ago with her just treating a few people two or three days a week in the storage room under her little beachfront house in Sandy Bay. Now it’s huge!

Clinic Shopping

I got to the clinic at 7:30, just as they were opening. There were already what looked like 50 people waiting plus eight or ten in line at the reception desk. So I went across the road to the clinic at Anthony’s Key Resort. It’s not free, but is still very affordable and great quality. When I got there, there were already about ten people ahead of me and the doctor hadn’t even arrived yet. But I had an ace up my sleeve, or maybe I should say in my wallet. At Clinica Esperanza, if you give a donation of roughly $25, you become next in line. They call it “Express Care.” Thinking that if this was appendicitis it might not be wise to loiter, I went back to Esperanza.

By then the line at the reception desk had dissipated and I was soon in an examining room. First, a nurse practitioner examined me and then my friend Dr. Raymond Cherington came in. They both checked me over pretty thoroughly, asking lots and lots of questions. They suspected appendicitis, but the symptoms were not clear enough to send me to surgery over in San Pedro Sula on the mainland. Instead, they sent me out for blood work. Dr. Raymond asked me to go see him at his private clinic when I got the results after four o’clock.

I went back to the AKR clinic and got right into the lab there. I gave them some blood and I was even able to give them the other little sample the doctors wanted. I went back for the results a little after four and then drove to Coxen Hole and found Dr. Raymond at his clinic. He put me on a clear liquid diet, prescribed Cipro, and said he knew a good surgeon that he wanted to have check me out. He couldn’t get her to answer her phone, so he said he’d call me when he talked to her. I thought it would be the next day. Nope!

Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

Dr. Raymond didn’t want to take chances. He called a little after 8:00 last night and asked me to meet him at the municipal hospital emergency room. The surgeon wasn’t there, of course, so we talked to the ER staff for quite a while. They ran some more blood tests. Dr. Raymond saw that we were communicating pretty well, so he went home about 9:30. I’m sure he’d had a long day. Me too! I had gotten up at 4:30 and needed to do so again today.

Well, they poked and prodded and inquired for another hour or so. Then they wanted to admit me for observation. I couldn’t see any reason for that. The pain wasn’t all that bad and wasn’t getting any worse. My white blood cell count was back down to normal. Besides all that, a hospital is a great place to get an infection. So, around 11:00, they pumped about 60 cc of an anti-spasmodic drug into the back of my hand and sent me packing with instructions to come back at 7:30 in the morning to get x-rays and see the surgeon. I asked about how to pay and they said I could pay when I came back in the morning.

Hospital Encore

I dragged myself out of bed at 4:30 this morning to check the early satellite downloads and make sure our programs were set for the first few hours of broadcasting and then went back to bed till six. I noticed that my pain was greatly reduced.

When I got back to the hospital I gave them some more blood and then got my x-ray. This time I had to pay up front. The blood test was about $2.00 and the x-ray was about $2.50. Those are not typos; there is only one digit in front of the decimal points. How do they keep the cost so low? Take a good look at the picture gallery below and you’ll probably figure out one way they save money. Neither process took very long, so I was soon back in the ER with the results. I even got to visit with one of our listeners while we waited in lines together. I think that is when I told them that I was feeling considerably better. The surgeon still wasn’t there, but the ER staff looked things over and declared that I do not have appendicitis. They just don’t know what it is. I asked how and where I should pay for the charges from last night. They said, “You don’t.” “Really?!” “Really.”

While it appears that the staff has excellent medical knowledge, their system is pretty alien to a linear person like me. The way it seems to work is that several patients stand at the counter while the staff asks questions of one or the other patient, then they discuss things among themselves and then move on to another patient. They sort of grazed among us, and would occasionally go back behind one of the curtains to check on someone in one of the beds. It was all a little mystifying because I was often unsure of whether they were working on my case or someone else’s — and they were talking right in front of me. They got the job done, but I was bewildered most of the time.

Keeping an Eye on Things

Because of the terrible traffic and parking at the hospital, I had parked at Dr. Raymond’s clinic and walked the few blocks to the hospital. Just as I got back to the truck, Dr. Raymond pulled in. He was a little dubious of the hospital’s verdict, but told me to go into the pharmacy and get a few days more Cipro and we’ll just keep an eye on it. So, I think I’m in the clear, but no one is sure yet. One thing I do know, the King of the Universe knows all about what’s going on and He’s keeping a really close eye on the situation.

I can’t say I was worried about  the prospect of having an operation over in San Pedro Sula. I hear they give good care and my friend, Jeremy Dyck, said he’d be happy to come along to help with Spanish and be my hospital advocate. But, with Peter and Sandi in the States for the next two and a half weeks, the timing could not have been worse. It’s always interesting how God works these things out for His chosen ones. It makes it almost fun to be between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea.

Filed Under: Blog, Daily Life, Prayer Requests

Touring a Coast Guard Cutter

August 15, 2011 By

Peter had to drop off his vehicle at the repair shop this morning, so I followed him into town to give him a ride back. There is a Coast Guard cutter in town today and I mentioned to Peter that last time there was one here I’d tried to get a tour, but my timing was bad and they could not accommodate me. I said it would sure be fun if we could get on board this one. Well, Peter is an even bigger kid than I am so, as we were passing the port on the way back home, Peter said, “Pull in here. Let’s give it a try.” When the boss says, “Let’s have some fun,” you go with it!

We had a little trouble with the port guard, but once a friend of ours who works there asked the crew if it was OK, we were cleared to go. The OD gave us a nice tour. We even got to meet the captain, and at the end of the tour, Peter decided to really go for broke and asked if we could come back later with our wives. He said we could, but we neglected to set a time, which caused a bit of a snag later on.

After Mildred finished spending over an hour and a half in line at the bank (She had to go today, but she normally avoids the bank on the 15th because that’s the day everyone else wants to be there.), I met her at the cruise ship dock. The port security guard  was not about to let us out there without someone else’s OK, but she could not get in touch with her boss. Initiative seems to be frowned upon here. On top of that, the crewman who came out to talk to us said that they were about to have a ship come alongside to take away their waste  —  a situation that takes lots of concentration and therefore they don’t like to have visitors while that is going on.

About that time, the XO showed up with a bunch of ice cream and other treats for some of the crew and he said that it would not be a problem to have us on board. But the port security guard still had not talked to her boss and she said we could not pass, even though the Coast Guard invited us and I had been admitted earlier by a different guard. It was starting to look like Mildred would not get to see the ship. The port security boss showed up right at that moment with a little common sense and said that of course we could go across the big, empty dock to the ship. Yay! God even looks after the little diversions that help us keep our sanity.

The XO took us on board and then handed us off to an ensign who gave us an outstanding tour. I won’t mention his full name because one of the things he talked about is how they have to be careful about not letting slip to their families where they are going. Since they are just on R&R and since he let us take his picture, I’ll assume that it’s OK to use it, but I’ll leave out his full name, just to be on the safe side. He explained all sorts of stuff about life on the ship and how to find your way around. He answered a ton of questions about how they schedule their watches, how they organize meals, how they fight fires, how they take on fuel at sea, and so on. Of course, there were a few places that were off limits due to either security or safety issues, like the engine room, combat information center, etc. We were probably on board for about an hour. I didn’t look at my watch; I was having too much fun. Mildred said she really enjoyed it too, even though her feet were hurting from all that time at the bank, walking to the dock, and then the tour.

The name of the ship, by the way, is the Tahoma. She and the USCGC Mohawk were among the first responders to the Haiti earthquake last year. I was really impressed by the professionalism, esprit de corps, and hospitably of everyone we encountered. And they all said they were impressed by West Bay Beach. ;-)

While I’m at it, here is this week’s HRGS Audio Update. I don’t usually get a chance to bring it to you this early in the week.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:36 — 7.3MB)

Filed Under: Blog, Daily Life, Events, Photography, podcasts

A Trip Not Taken – and Other Tidbits

August 12, 2011 By

Mildred and I had big, big plans for this week. Now we have the same big, big plans for next week. Why? Well, I’ll explain. Mildred needs to buy some medicines over on the mainland where they are not as expensive as on the island. I have an item to look for for the radio station, and we both want to shop for a real computer desk to replace this plywood contraption I made about 8 years ago. So, after getting four hours of sleep Tuesday night, I rolled out of bed at about 4:30 on Wednesday to take care of my morning routines. Mildred and I left the house at 6:00 to catch the 7:00 ferry to La Ceiba. I have no idea how she can leave so soon after waking up! I swallowed a Dramamine just before we got to the ferry as a precaution and, when we got out of the truck, the guard walked up and told us that the ferry was not going to run that day. You would think that, working for the biggest radio station on the island, we would know about that. Nope! Gotta watch Spanish TV news at just the right time. Like that’s going to happen! :P

Then we decided to splurge and go to the airport. But by the time we got there at just after 6:30, all the early flights were gone and we didn’t want to hang around for a later flight and wind up having less time in La Ceiba. So, we headed on back to the hacienda and I hit the sack right away. Dramamine on top of sleep deprivation had done me in for the morning.

After an early lunch, I went back to work on our new locking system for the container door I built a while back. By supper time I had it to the point where it might not be pretty, but it looked formidable. I might be wrong, but it looks to me like anything that would get past that door, other than the correct key, would generate a pretty large mushroom cloud. :lol: Take a look at this short video so see what I mean.

Peter and I talked a little about the door project during the HRGS Update, plus some other matters like Christmas in August and water conservation. That’s at the bottom of this post. As usual, we had way too much fun. In fact, I sometimes wonder when the men in white coats will show up to take us away.

Two of the fuses at our transformers.

Two of the fuses at our transformers.

The epic saga of transformer fuses blowing continues. RECO came earlier this week and performed some maintenance on the primary lines they said they would do. The key word in that sentence is “some.” The fuse held for about four hours after they left. They only replaced the wire that takes the high voltage from the power line to the fuse holder and then the one that takes it from the fuse holder to the transformer. They did nothing about the corroded clamp that holds the wire to the main line or the rusty fuse holder itself.

The wiring feeding our line doesn't look so great either!

The wiring feeding our line doesn't look so great either!

On top of that, there is another connection that looks just as bad on the next pole before ours. I have not yet called to tell them about it. For one thing, I need to do some praying to be prepared to tell them as gracefully as possible what a half hearted job they did. And, for another thing, I just have too many other things going on right now.  I hope to take care of that next week.

Yesterday was our day off. Mildred had such a bad headache that she didn’t feel like going out for lunch. We were OK for groceries, so there was no real need to go anywhere except that the truck was overdue for a bath. I really like to take it to Mark Elwin’s place. His guys do a more thorough job than I would. They even put it up on a big, high ramp and use a pressure washer on the bottom. That’s really important when everything is covered with either salty dust or salty mud. And it gives me a chance to visit with Mark, which I always enjoy.

There was another friend I wanted to see, too, so I checked with him to see if he could get away from work for lunch. He could and so he and I went to Munchies and had some great fellowship. The food wasn’t bad either! He is a strong believer, but feels very alone in his church. He hasn’t left because he wants to maintain as much godly influence there as possible, but he really needs someone to support him in encouraging the congregation and leadership to live Godly lives. I won’t name him or his church, for obvious reasons, but please pray for him. He has a tremendous burden for the people of his church.

I hope that next week I’ll be able to tell you about our trip to the big city — and that there has been a solution to our months-long electrical problems. Wouldn’t that be great? In the meantime, we press on.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:37 — 7.3MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Daily Life, podcasts, Video

Something new from Mildred

August 5, 2011 By

It seems that it took me forever to finish it, but now it’s ready to be shared – my first ever video project!

For those who are interested, here’s the recipe for the Orange Sauce:

1-1/2 cups water
2 Tablespoons orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Put ingredients in sauce pan, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool. Thicken with cornstarch, if desired.

When making the stir fry, I use whatever ingredients I have I on hand. This usually includes onions, carrots, and peas and then I add other items I have. Sometimes I use leftovers, or sometimes I open a new can, even if I’m only going to use part of the can.

I fry the onions first and then add the carrots. The other ingredients don’t have to cook, only be heated. Because I use leftover chicken, it can be added last.

I mentioned that the fried rice in the video was leftovers, but I didn’t give the full story. It was leftovers from Real China Palace, our Chinese restaurant here in Roatán. When we eat there, we order a huge meal (intended for 5 people) and bring home more food than we eat. The fried rice freezes well for future meals.

Don’t hold your breath for my next video; I’m not sure I’ll ever do another one :)

Filed Under: Blog, Daily Life, Video

I Like Hash, But Not in My Wires.

August 2, 2011 By

Our electrical woes are not quite over. The new wires sure seemed to make a difference, but we were getting voltage sags many times per day on one of our three phases ever since the wire got connected. So, yesterday I set up a multi-meter and an oscilloscope on the phase in question and I caught it in the act. The quick & dirty video below shows some of what I saw. Electricians call it “hash.” It’s not good.

After throwing that little video together late last night, I put it on my laptop and told Peter I was going to take it up to RECO (Roatán Electric Company) the next morning, which would be today. At 4:30 I woke up sweating. No A/C and no ceiling fan. Grrr. But we did have partial power. It took about 1 second, even in my groggy state of mind, to figure out that we’d blown a fuse again. It was the 1st time since RECO replaced the wires 16 days ago. This is the same fuse that gave us trouble before, but on a different phase on our side because two of the phases were crossed and either I or RECO straightened that out when we hooked up the new wires.

So, I did my first-thing-in-the-morning stuff and, by that time, the generator was running. I then went back to the shop to rearrange wires like we had been doing before RECO replaced our service entrance wires. And then I was able to shut off the generator to save fuel. After that, I had breakfast and took my laptop to RECO for my little dog and pony show. Lots of head nodding, chin scratching, and rapid fire Spanish between the engineers. They said they would get out today to replace the fuse and see what they could see without killing power. Then they would come back either Thursday (our day off) or Friday to either investigate further or fix whatever they might have found today. As of now, the fuse is back in place, but I have not put the wires back. I want to watch it a bit without a load on it to see what it does.

I’ve been so wrapped up in multiple critical and mysterious issues that I forgot something this week that I’d never forgotten before. On the way up to RECO at about 7:20 this morning it dawned on me that I had not voice tracked today’s program log, which would become public knowledge in about 20 minutes if something wasn’t done about it. That meant no song or program introductions. Not good! I called Peter (PTL for blue tooth!) and he scooped up my fumble and I was soon hearing his voice on the truck radio. So, after I got back and got a couple chores out of the way, I went right to the studio and voice tracked Friday just in case I have another bad day. ;-)

Sunrise over Coxen Hole, Roatán

Sunrise over Coxen Hole, Roatán

But it isn’t always all work. Every time I leave the house, I look to the east — partly because that’s the way our door faces and partly because that’s the direction our weather generally comes from. This morning, when I looked to the east I said to myself, “Self, I don’t care if there’s a fire in the studio. Go back and get the camera!!” Here’s what I saw. For the photo buffs, I shot this at ISO 100, 1/2 second, f/5.6. I didn’t have my tripod, so I sat on a rock and made one with my knees.

OK, here’s this week’s HRGS Update. You’ll get to find out what some of our new Christmas music is.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:04 — 7.6MB)

Filed Under: Blog, Photography, podcasts, Scenery, Video

One of Mildred’s projects

July 28, 2011 By

Someone asked us recently what I’d been doing while Jerry was occupied with a trip to Utila, painting the new mower, making a door for the container, installing our new house A/C unit, and all the electrical problems. So here I am writing a post for our blog.

Often, when you view Jerry’s videos, I’m the one who shot the video. He usually shoots the video himself, unless you see him in the video. Occasionally he asks Peter to be the videographer, or he uses a tripod for the camera

One Saturday a few weeks ago, I decided it was a good day to work on a sewing project. The headphones we use at the radio station are getting very worn. The thin vinyl covering is cracking and flaking. Each time we use them, we end up with black specks in and around our ears – yucky!

I found some suitable fabric in my collection and started in. It’s a black, double-knit fabric and it’s very soft, which is important for what we have over our ears. After cutting the fabric into circles, I turned and stitched under the edges, allowing space for inserting elastic. Once the elastic was in, they were ready to go. It all sounds so easy when it’s reduced to those few sentences, but making eight of them, four pairs, took about 4 hours total, I think.

In case you’re wondering from the photos, my Singer sewing machine is a 1960 model 401A – just like my grandmother had when she and my mom helped me learn to sew for my 4-H projects and home-economics classes. I love this sewing machine!

Filed Under: Blog, Daily Life

Glad That Week is Over!

July 25, 2011 By

It’s been a week since the last blog post. There has been so much going on that I’ve been wanting to get on here to update you, but there’s been so much going on that I haven’t had the time or energy to do so. It’s been an unusually stressful week, but not without accomplishment.

Duct work is done. Time for the wires.

Duct work is done. Time for the wires.

Back in mid-June, we broke down and ordered a new air conditioner for our house. The old one was running out of cooling fins and was running about 12 hours a day or more. When electricity is 42 cents a kilowatt hour, that is way too much to be running an air conditioner that many hours a day, especially when you sweat all day anyway trying to keep the electric bill as low as you can. The month before we came back from furlough, the electric bill for our 1,000 square foot house was about $500. I fixed a few things, but there was only so much that could be done for it. The new machine finally got here Wednesday and it is a very cool machine – literally. Thirteen SEER isn’t all that fantastic in the States, but it’s near the top of the line here and way better than the old one. The coldest air I could squeeze out of the old one was about 72°. This one cranks out air at about 56°!

Our house was not the only hot spot. The split mini A/C in the audio shop quit this week. We figured out that the compressor had seized. After comparing the cost of just a new compressor, along with labor (since I had too many other things on my plate), and replacement freon, we opted to spend a tiny bit more and have Cool Wind just install a new outdoor unit. They did that on my day off, Thursday. I’m sure glad Peter was willing to get them started and make sure stuff was locked up when they were done. It’s working great now.

Thursday was also the morning I learned that someone had gotten into our shipping container that we use for storage. I knew I needed to do some enhancement to the locks on the new door/ramp I had made, but was praying God would protect it until I got done with the air conditioning and electrical emergencies. Well, He did and He didn’t. They got in, but someone must have spooked him or them. They left my very expensive cordless hammer drill sitting right in the open and absconded with an old (but sentimentally valuable) circular saw and a right angle grinder that didn’t work anyway. The good one was sitting right next to it. Day off or not, something had to be done. Thankfully, I’d been too busy to grind off the old doors, so it was a fairly simple matter to get the new door off its hinges and out of the way of the old doors. I hope I can get back to that this week.

On Friday I bought the parts I needed so that RECO could come hook us up to the new electrical wires they ran down the hill. In order to pull that off, I needed to move the meter box to the right a couple feet. So, even though I was feeling pretty rotten with a stomach bug, I asked them to come Saturday morning. They said they would be here at 9:00. They got here at 12:00. Sigh! We finally got it all done as the sun was setting at about 6:30. The jury is still out on whether it’s truly fixed. The problem phase looks good after almost 48 hours, but one of the others takes occasional dips that were so low and frequent I had to move some breakers due to the batteries running down on the UPS powering the on air computer yesterday.  Here’s a very brief video about that part of our adventures last week. Below that is this week’s HRGS Audio Update. Peter and I finally spill the beans about our special August event at Inspirational Radio. Have a great week.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:38 — 7.3MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, podcasts, Video

What a Surprise!!

July 18, 2011 By

I had a pleasant surprise this morning. Last week on Tuesday I talked to the manager of our electric company, RECO about the possibility of getting a new power feed to the radio station. He said that he would have his engineer look into it and I should call him back the following Tuesday, which would be tomorrow.

When I got back this morning from an errand, what did my wondering eyes behold but two white RECO trucks parked by the shop? And one of them was sporting a nice new utility pole on the top. When I went around back to see what was up, they were almost done digging the 6-8 foot deep hole for the pole. So I called Mathew Harper, the RECO manager, and got the full story. It’s not all that we’d hoped for, but it’s still great news to us. We had hoped they would run new primary (high voltage) lines to the station and put the transformers behind the shop. Not quite. But they are running new secondary lines down the hill to the new pole right behind the shop, which should fix our problem with blowing fuses.

Good as the news is, it leaves me a little nervous. I am solidly convinced that the fuses are blowing because of a bad connection buried in the conduit coming down the hill from the pole. I presented the evidence to RECO and they agreed. Jim Avella just got here today from the BBI headquarters to get our new file server on line and fix an esoteric problem with our firewall/router (along with some other geeky chores) and he is a master electrician. He also agrees with my assessment. But if they hook up those new wires and the fuse blows again, not only will I be mortified, but all of us will be at a total loss to explain the problem. Which, I guess, is a good sign that we have the right solution on the way with the new wires. I’ll be very interested in examining the old wires when we can get access to them.

Now, lest you think that putting in a new pole here on Roatán is anything like at home, check out this little video. ;-)

Filed Under: Blog, Events, Video

Stopping a Drip

July 17, 2011 By

It’s been great having a shipping container (kindly left behind by the Henderson family) in which to store and protect our lawn mower and many other things. But, if you’ve ever operated the doors on one, you know that they are not all that convenient. They are designed for security, not ease of use. Add to that years of salt exposure to the hinges and latches, and it becomes even less convenient. Then you have to set up the ramps to drive the mower in and out, and pretty soon, you find yourself postponing the mowing, because it’s such a hassle just to get started. Keeping those castor type front wheels from falling off the planks is not an easy trick either. It’s not a catastrophe, but more like a steadily dripping faucet that accumulates aggravation.

My available time and level of annoyance have finally reached the tipping point. I just spent the past week making life easier for Romel and me. Romel does most of the mowing and I do some, plus maintaining the mower and getting other stuff in and out of the container.

I haven’t finished the project yet, but I think I’ve essentially removed the aggravation. I still have painting and other refinements to wrap up. I also need to cut off the old doors. But now I actually enjoy getting things in and out of the container — especially the mower! And if we spend less time getting in and out of the container we have more time for ministry — or for rest, if that’s what we need. ;-)

Filed Under: Blog, Video

Always Something To Do

July 14, 2011 By

We have a bit of a multimedia extravaganza this week. I’ll start off with a short video that shows a little more about my adventure in Utila last week. Pictures are fun, but so are movies. ;-) It’s in hi definition so don’t be afraid to click that little full screen button in the bottom right of the player.

Our intrepid leader, Peter Silseth, had his own travel adventures this week. He had to go to the mainland for the annual renewal of his resident visa and also for his annual physical. He was going to come back on the afternoon ferry yesterday but, when he got to the ferry, the doors were locked. By the time he got to the airport all the flights to Roatán had left. So he spent another night in La Ceiba and I got up really early on my day off to handle Sunrise Serenade for him. He got back this morning a few minutes after I was done with Sunrise, so now I have the whole day in front of me.

We are still waiting on the arrival of our new air conditioner. It was originally supposed to have been here Friday, the 1st, but the dealer in Miami didn’t have one in stock and had to have it shipped from Missouri. It missed the boat, but they assured us it would be here the following Friday. What they didn’t know was that the boat was taking the week off for the Fourth of July, so now we hope it will finally get here this Friday – tomorrow.

I’ve talked to the manager at RECO, our electric company, about the fuse blowing situation. He was aware of it from his reports. He agrees with us that the right thing to do is to run the high voltage lines right down to the station and put the transformer there. That reduces maintenance and cuts down on transmission losses for them. He is sending out his engineer to come up with a plan. I’m supposed to call back next Tuesday to see what’s happening.

Making handles and locks for the new door.

Making handles and locks for the new door.

So, since everything seems to be on hold, I started another project. When the Hendersons moved to Switzerland, they left behind the old shipping container that had carried their household good here from South Africa back in 2003. We use it for storage and keep many thing in there, including the lawn mower. The doors, latches, and hinges are getting pretty rusty and the latching mechanism is hard to operate. Additionally, backing the new zero turn mower down a pair of planks is a slow, nerve-wracking procedure that usually ends up in the front wheels coming off the planks no matter how hard you try to keep them straight. They are castors like on a grocery cart and they tend to wander. I’ve been wanting to replace the container doors with a new door that would be easier to open and serve double duty as a ramp for the mower. So that’s where I’ve spent most of my time this week. I think I can finish it Friday or Saturday. I sure hope so because I expect to have a new air conditioner here to install on Friday or Saturday.

Next up in the multimedia parade is the HRGS Audio Update. Peter and I are still teasing the listeners about what is coming up in August. Feel free to guess if you want, but I can’t and won’t reveal the answer until the last week of July.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:38 — 7.3MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Daily Life, podcasts, Video

Murphy Was an Optimist, but God is Sovereign

July 7, 2011 By

Well, our electrical mess is still a mess. Peter and I were going to get in touch with the electric company (RECO) on Monday, but that didn’t work out. It’s crazy how seldom things go according to plan here. I found out on Friday that our AM signal was off the air. Since we cannot receive the AM at the station, we can only check it when I go someplace in the truck. Peter and Sandi’s truck radio got stolen and it didn’t receive the AM very well anyway. I called the remote control system that Frederick had installed in Utila and it didn’t answer the phone. Next, I called our friend, Lance, to ask if they had electricity over there. I couldn’t reach Lance, so I called another friend, Frank. Frank said they had “lights” and that Lance was on the mainland for a couple days. Since Lance has the keys, Frank could not check anything inside the transmitter building for us. When Lance got back, he went out to look things over. That was Saturday morning. Based on what he described, it sounded like we had lost one leg of the incoming power. Lance said he would get with someone from their power company to see if it was on their side of the electric meter. By Sunday, he hadn’t been able to do that so, figuring the problem was most likely in the breaker box outside under the electric meter, I started preparing for a trip to Utila. I had a notion it was in that breaker box based on previous experiences here in Saltville. But I wasn’t sure enough to spend the money on a new unit until I saw it myself.

Meltdown!

Does the problem look as obvious to you as it does to me?

I called another Utila friend, Ronnie Ramone to ask if, by any chance, he would be traveling between our islands on Monday. He said he would and that I could meet him in West End Monday morning to ride back to Utila with him. This was great! I’d leave later, get there earlier, and be able to get back the same day. But then he called on Monday to tell me that all his passengers from Utila to Roatán had canceled and he was not coming. By then it was too late for the morning ferry leaving here, and I had to take the afternoon ferry. I didn’t arrive in Utila until about five pm. Lance set me up with an ATV and I boogied out to the transmitter as quickly as I could. My telephone diagnosis was correct.

But by that time all the stores were closed. The sweet folks at the Utila Lighthouse had a room for me, so I ate, showered, and hit the sack. The next morning I went hardware store hopping. There are three of them on Utila and no one had Square D breakers or boxes. I needed to replace the melted down backplane and get a new breaker since the meltdown also ruined the right pole of the breaker. I spent most of the day bouncing from store to store asking if they had anything that would let me implement my next workaround idea to get us back on the air. I couldn’t put the new wire in the old terminal because the old wire was welded in place. Eventually, I got it working by removing the terminal from the part that goes into the back of the breaker and clamping the wire to that part with a ground rod clamp, using another piece of wire to take up the extra space. The picture shows it far better than I can describe it. Then I taped it all up and jammed it in the back of a not quite perfectly fitting breaker I found. I hooked it all up and it worked. Hallelujah! But it had a distinct “not for long” look to it.

I talked with Peter about the situation and we agreed that the most expedient plan was for me to go to La Ceiba by ferry and buy the correct breaker box. So I closed up shop and took another ride on the Utila Princess. I went to a store that I knew carried Square D products and soon had what I needed. It was within walking distance of the hotel I was going to stay at. So, after checking in and dropping off a backpack that seemed to be gaining weight with every step, I went out for a treat from Burger King. The next morning, after a light breakfast, I was back on the water. I got back to Utila before 11:00 and had it all fixed up by 11:30. Just time for lunch and get back on the ferry. So, Murphy (who I’m pretty sure is actually a demon) did his best to keep the Gospel off the air, but God didn’t let him do so for very long. In the process, I got to see again how God always helps and saw some interesting scenery along the way.

Even though I was in scurry mode the whole time I was on Utila, I did get to visit with a long time listener and met a new listener. He is a street preacher and said he really appreciates the truths he here on HRGS in contrast to many stations who claim to be Christian, but just seem to be interested in getting money from the listeners.

Before I left for Utila, Peter and I spent some time talking about the electrical issues we’re facing here at the station as well as a fun idea we have for next month. Listen to the HRGS Update and see if you can guess what that yet-to-be-announced idea is. In addition to the electrical puzzles, Mildred and I are still waiting for the replacement air conditioner for our house. I found out yesterday that the shipping company decided to not run their ship this week because of the holiday for the Fourth. So the new A/C gets delayed yet another week. Sometimes it feels like we almost never get our hands on the stuff we buy before the warranty expires. ;-) But so far the old A/C is hanging in there.

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:31 — 7.2MB)

Filed Under: Blog

Uff da!

July 1, 2011 By

That’s one of many spellings of one of my favorite non-English phrases. It’s a Scandinavian catch-all term for anything overwhelming. It can be a good thing or a bad thing and the speaker’s tone makes it obvious which it is. In this instance, it’s an expression of exhaustion after being thwarted in many attempts at getting our electrical system back to normal.

While we were in Colorado in May on our furlough I started getting phone calls from our station manager Peter about blown fuses on the utility pole. Ken and Peter did some digging and found a loose connection underground at the base of the power pole way up on a hill above the radio station. You can see from this video made by Peter that they thought they had fixed the problem. Wrong! It’s a blessing that we have three-phase power. That means we can move around some wires and circuit breakers and keep running without the generator. On the other hand, it’s not so good because the power goes down a lot here and every time it does, we have to move those same wires and breakers around again before we start the generator. And, then we have to keep checking to see if “the lights” are back so we can reverse the process. Normally, the generator starts and stops automatically, the transfer switch switches automatically, and we go on with only a few seconds interruption.

My first work item when Mildred and I returned on June 6, was to check all of the relevant wiring on our side of the meter to make sure there wasn’t something shorting in the system before the generator. If the short was after the generator, obviously the generator would not run. Next, the electric company checked the cables between their pole and the meter. That looked good, but they only tested them with a regular multimeter. That’s not really a definitive test for buried cables. More on that later.

That left two possibilities to look for. First is the one that I’ve been suspicious of from the start. I’d been trying for four years to get RECO to attach the conduit to the power pole. It’s been flopping in the wind for at least that long and I figured there was a good chance that the wires had been rubbing on each other and finally wore through the insulation. This would cause an intermittent short that would come and go with the wind. The other possibility would be yet another loose connection underground. No one knows anymore if there are more underground connections or where they might be if they exist. That’s why underground connections are always a bad idea.

The little video below tells about our adventures on Wednesday as Peter and I, with some help from two RECO linemen, checked the condition of the wires in the conduit coming down the power pole. You’ll want to see that six-minute video before you read on if you don’t like spoilers. The video shows much of what we did, but one important part of the investigation didn’t get filmed. I mentioned that testing underground cables with a regular multimeter isn’t reliable. So, while everything was disconnected at both ends, I used a megger to make sure the insulation had not soaked through with water, which can happen with underground wires. A megger measures the resistance of the insulation by applying 500 volts to the wires. No shorts. ;-)

And now for the part you don’t want to read if you don’t like spoilers, unless you’re finished with the video. The fuse did not blow as long as I left the wire disconnected on our side of the main circuit breaker. I connected the cable from the problem phase and it blew the fuse in less than a half hour. I monitored the voltage and current on that leg and the current stayed where it belonged, but the voltage took several dips before it slid to almost zero and blew the fuse at the transformer on the pole. Grrrrr. That almost certainly means there is a bad connection buried somewhere on that long, steep slope. So, Lord willing, we are going to talk to RECO next week about replacing the entire electrical feed from the power pole to the electric meter. Since everything before the meter should be the responsibility of the power company, please pray with us that they will see it that way as well.

Now for this week’s HRGS Audio Update.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:22 — 7.1MB)

Filed Under: Audio, Blog, Events, podcasts, Prayer Requests, Video
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »