How to approach someone

[TXiceman]

A couple of years back I could not believe this couple that pulled in.  The sites are all pull throughs, with nice, angled approach, 20-foot-wide drive and 70 feet long.  It took him over 30 minutes to get into the pull through site.

His wife (?) was helping with hand and arm signals.  At one point he had the truck in the frass on one side and the trailer on the grass on the other side.  A few minutes later he had the truck and trailer positions reversed.  He finally pulled out, made a trip around the row and tried again.  after some jockeying, he finally had the trailer in semi-straight. 

They were in the site one night and left.  When he pulled out, he did not swing out and his trailer tracked about 4 feet out into the grass.  It was obvious that the trailer had received more than its fair share of scrapes and bangs from his driving ability.

Ken

[Dutch_12078]

Last summer we watched a fellow backing a ~36 foot Class A into a paved NY state park site with plenty of room all around. I lost count of how many resets he did over about 20 minutes before finally getting it parked semi-straight on the site. I think his partner was doing her best to guide him, but she spent a lot of time with her hands on her hips or arms in the air in an "I give up" posture.

[bruce t]

Remember these same folks are on the highways!

[bobsallyh]

Some of these folks, I get sea sickness from watching them.

[Jinx & Wayne]

On 11/4/2022 at 8:42 PM, RV_ said:

Well the delay was a lady who had made a name for herself in the park for non-stop talking was in his driver side window as he was hitching up and he told me he could not get her to leave him in peace. So he got flustered and forgot to check his hitch was locked, pulled forward and dropped the fiver on his truck doing some significant crushing to the bed sides.

Our solution to these folks is to say quite bluntly that we are in the middle of a checklist and we cannot talk now. Period. Then stop we talking and ignore them, or ask them to step back and then ignore them. I've only had to repeat this once. Usually they just go away. Maybe my rudeness factor is higher than some.

Similarly I never offer to help anyone back in. I assume they have a system. My question was really about how to talk about the safety of the truck/combination. Regarding backing in, they will either get it or not and will continue RVing or not. It is the killing someone in the meantime that has me worried.

On 11/5/2022 at 2:23 AM, bruce t said:

I would never interfere. Not because I fear a punch on the nose. But because it's great entertainment.

Jinx refers to it as the 4 o'clock show.

Wayne

[Kirk W]

3 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

Similarly I never offer to help anyone back in. I assume they have a system. My question was really about how to talk about the safety of the truck/combination. Regarding backing in, they will either get it or not and will continue RVing or not. It is the killing someone in the meantime that has me worried.

I agree with your concern and seem to have a natural urge to help others but I have also learned that discretion is best way in such situations. Most LEO's agree that a domestic dispute is dangerous to become involved in. 

Edited November 6, 2022 by Kirk W

[folivier]

A friend offered this simple way to stop others from bothering him when he's hooking up or working on something. Just say in a loud distinct commanding voice:  standby!

[Jinx & Wayne]

13 hours ago, Kirk W said:

but I have also learned that discretion is best way in such situations. Most LEO's agree that a domestic dispute is dangerous to become involved in. 

I wholly agree. My thought was to ask how it towed a couple of days after they arrived. That may or may not have gone anywhere. I never saw them so I didn't ask.

[JimK]

Never, never, ever become involved when a husband and wife are having difficulty with their RV, especially when backing up is involved.  You will have better results trying to stop a dog fight.  

I would help if asked, but otherwise I don't even want to watch the show.

[Kirk W]

If you want to offer the best time is as soon as you see them having difficulty, but before any anamosity starts. People can be touchy about strangers offering help. As a volunteer campground host I have asked a new arrival if I can be of any assistance when I see them studying a campsite but never would I get into an angry situation. About 20 years ago we observed a couple with a fifth wheel get so angry that the male driver unhooked from the trailer in the site, connected power and water,  then drove away. We saw the woman come out as he was leaving and stand in the road, hands on hips as she watched him exit the park and travel down the highway. When we left about 9 am the following day she was talking to the gate attendent and the truck had not returned.

[RV_]

Wayne even when we are right many folks who buy a big ticket item like an RV and truck combo will never admit to themselves they made a bad choice. Others do admit it to themselves but not to others, and get angry if anyone tries to tell them. And some feel trapped and get riled just thinking how poorly they researched. Others will claim victimhood and blame everyone but themselves, and anyone who brings it up can get the brunt of that inner rage.

I spent a career teaching others to shoot and coaching competitive teams as well as conducting matches. I would open my ranges for hunter''s sighting in. I have had some of the wackiest beliefs old hunters and young held from filing the sear on an M-16 makes it full auto (Not functionally) to a chief telling me the Vietcong could use our 5.56mm M-16 ammo in their 7.62mm AKs but we could not use theirs and that was an advantage they had?? And he insisted even though I was the weapons repair guy, and that was in 1986!

So the online resources like here are great for them if they try. But some folks won't and would rather double down and refuse to look at facts that disagree with his beliefs.

If you became friends and the question came up maybe. But just look here how folks insisted on sanitizing their Black tanks for years with a cockamamie bleaching system that just destroyed the park septic. No amount of facts could change their minds.

Wayne you are a good guy. Try to make friends first and then see if you really want to help them. Some folks would cut their nose off to spite their faces. Again, if asked . . . .

 

 

[Kirk W]

50 minutes ago, RV_ said:

I spent a career teaching others to shoot and coaching competitive teams as well as conducting matches. .......

And he insisted even though I was the weapons repair guy, and that was in 1986!

I thought that you were a USAF medical equipment tech?

[Ray,IN]

12 hours ago, JimK said:

Never, never, ever become involved when a husband and wife are having difficulty with their RV, especially when backing up is involved.  You will have better results trying to stop a dog fight.  

I would help if asked, but otherwise I don't even want to watch the show.

Exactly!

A side story; many years a good friend and I were in a bar when a man began hitting a woman, my buddy stepped in and tried to stop the man. When he turned his back to the woman she hit him on the head with a heavy glass ash tray  and knocked my buddy out. The man and woman, who we were later told were husband and wife, left together.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Ray,IN

[bigjim]

ow it i

On 11/7/2022 at 11:44 AM, Kirk W said:

I thought that you were a USAF medical equipment tech?

I know he'll com back but if my memory serves he did both at different times and I don't remember the reason for the transition at the moment but I'm proud to have remembered anything.😃

Did this post earlier and just re read your post Kirk, now it is hours later.  I don't believe I remember it being medical equip. tech. More like lab tech but more. Been a little under the weather lately so my recall is worse than usual. It is bad enough when usual.

Edited November 8, 2022 by bigjim

[RV_]

Jim,

A medical equipment tech is different than an Med Lab Tech or MLT. Equipment techs are like the F-16  mechanics, and Med Lab Techs are more like the pilots as we are trained to use the machines to do the job, and interpret the results.

Kirk,

Thanks for your interest.

Medical equipment techs repair the machines when they break or malfunction, and do Instrument calibrations above user daily calibration checks. We can inspect and check them for function, but not repair and refurbish the machines.

As Jim said I held three different military career field AFSCs (Air Force Specialty Codes) which are the same as an MOS in the army, it tells what your job is. I had to go to Tech schools for each - I was:

Medic 90270, Here are descriptions for just three of the areas we worked in:

Hematology, Serology, Blood Banking, and Immunohematology

https://eric.ed.gov/?q=USAF+Medical+laboratory+technician&ff1=subAllied+Health+Occupations+Education&pg=2&id=ED268334

Chemistry and Urinalysis

https://eric.ed.gov/?q=USAF+Medical+laboratory+technician&ff1=subAllied+Health+Occupations+Education&id=ED272711

Microbiology

https://eric.ed.gov/?q=USAF+Medical+laboratory+technician&ff1=subAllied+Health+Occupations+Education&id=ED268336

Much more, and the school was 1 year in classes and then a year OJT with the technologist another 2 year Associates in Med Lab

Combat Arms Instructor 75370 Lackland AFB TX, USAF Academy CO, Spangdahlem AB Germany, Lackland AFB TX for my last tour and retirement Combat Arms - 20 of 27 years active duty

Medical Lab Tech 90470 Barksdale AFB LA  - https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED268336. Three years of 27 active.

Medic 90250 (Barksdale AFB LA) four years of 27 active.

As far as Electronics I did do a correspondence course in 1973/4 paid for by the VA with Bell and Howell Schools - Devry Institute. I built the Heathkit GR2000 electronic tune 25" TV when you could not buy one in any consumer stores - only mechanical channel changers, I also built my O-Scope, and my digital multimeter. That had nothing to do with the military but served me well later when we got Zenith Z-100 PCs to replace our IBM Selectric typewriters. I had to learn resistors etc. color codes and do component level repairs for practice but the TV etc. came in modules as we stopped doing component level repairs (Desoldering and soldering the new transistor, capacitor, etc in place. Printed Circuit boards were too small to de-solder without destroying adjacent components at that point in time with new manufacturing. Like now we replace the whole motherboard not the failed cap or transistor or resistor. 

The Basic Electronics course was civilian and had nothing to do with the military Kirk.

Military Medical Lab

Combat Arms Instructional Technology AD From Community College of the AF:

Kirk, If you want copies of my Sociology BS, Psych BS, Industrial engineering BS and International relations MS just email me I'll be happy and can send you a resume too.

The last time you asked me a question about my investment portfolio you said that anyone can say that. And I invited you here and said I would show you online but you dropped it then.

So this time it is easier to just post the answers and the links to the actual jobs.

I have a two year certificate in electronics, not medical equipment military or civilian. That was what you likely thought was military electronics. That was when I found I hated bench work except for personal repairs of my own computers stereos etc. I also installed car audio and built/upgraded my laptop/desktop/AIO computers and now the SSD on my latest Surface Pro 7+ system.

Does that clear it up?

Edited November 9, 2022 by RV_

[RV_]

Or if the medical terms are intimidating here's a country song I wrote with some poetic license to make the story interesting as to how I got there. I used to sing it with my guitar and it got some laughs even though I was never oil field nor a country boy, and joined active duty first and was only AFRES for a break in service for college, but funny songs work best country style. I am also not a bacteriophobe, nor quit smoking and drinking beer until 24 years later in 2010. The MLT descriptions are accurate albeit in the vernacular.

Just for fun since the topic seems to be done.

The MLT Song

 I got laid off from the oilfield, so I joined the Air Reserves,

‘Cause I thought it was my duty, my country to preserve.

So I signed up for the training, I was prepared to do my bit,

‘Cause if my side got in a fight I was gonna be part of it.

 

I was hopin’ to get a good job, Gung Ho and elite,

And become a silent killer, Boy was I naïve!

Well they said I scored high on their test, so it kind of tickled me,

When they said that I’d be training, to be an MLT!

 

Well, I didn’t know just what that was, but it sounded kind of tough,

And I didn’t know that the job I had involved all of this stuff.

But here I am, and now I know, because the job is this,

I’m the guy, that does the tests on all that Air Force p . . s.

 

Well I gotta test the darndest stuff that I have ever seen,

Some of that stuff is brown or red, but most of it is green.

So two days, out of every month, this is where I’ll be,

Drawing blood and stools and phlegm and playing in the pee!

 

Well after all that training, I gave up smoke and booze,

‘Cause now I know how bad they are, but that wasn’t all I’d lose.

‘Cause now I can’t stop sweating, all of those little germs,

They’re livin and growin all over me and boy they make me squirm!

 

Even my wife has left me lord, she took the car and kids,

‘Cause she didn’t like me garglin’ after every time we’d kiss.

And I can’t even eat the food I buy at the local Kroger Store,

Knowing there’s critters in every bite that they call “normal” flora?

 

Well, I used to be so happy, I used to have some fun,

But now I’m on the night shift, and I don’t see anyone.

Now friends I’m sayin’ that it just ain’t true, that ignorance is bliss,

Cause that’s how this ol’ country boy started playing in p . . s.

 

© RV Roadie / Derek Gore 1985, All Rights Reserved Three Rights Is Left

 

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by RV_

[sandsys]

4 hours ago, RV_ said:

Or if the medical terms are intimidating here's a country song I wrote with some poetic license to make the story interesting as to how I got there. I used to sing it with my guitar and it got some laughs even though I was never oil field nor a country boy, and joined active duty first and was only AFRES for a break in service for college, but funny songs work best country style. I am also not a bacteriophobe, nor quit smoking and drinking beer until 24 years later in 2010. The MLT descriptions are accurate albeit in the vernacular.

Just for fun since the topic seems to be done.

The MLT Song

Hilarious! Thanks for sharing this.

Linda

[RV_]

YW Linda, glad you liked it, thanks for saying so.

 

[Jinx & Wayne]

On 11/7/2022 at 12:52 PM, RV_ said:

I have had some of the wackiest beliefs old hunters and young held from filing the sear on an M-16 makes it full auto (Not functionally) to a chief telling me the Vietcong could use our 5.56mm M-16 ammo in their 7.62mm AKs but we could not use theirs and that was an advantage they had??

In very early 1969 my army drill sergeant claimed they could use our M-14's 7.62/.308 in the 7.62 AK. Like offering couples advice in the middle of an argument, I decided perhaps I wouldn't mention that the AK ammo was a significant amount shorter. I cannot imagine how far I would have low crawled had I mentioned the problem.

Wayne

[RV_]

4 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

In very early 1969 my army drill sergeant claimed they could use our M-14's 7.62/.308 in the 7.62 AK. Like offering couples advice in the middle of an argument, I decided perhaps I wouldn't mention that the AK ammo was a significant amount shorter. I cannot imagine how far I would have low crawled had I mentioned the problem.

Wayne

Good one Wayne! Oh yeah I've heard that one too. 😏 For those who don't know it, if you want to have fun ask someone how long a 2½" shot shell is. Then tell them it isn't 2.5" Be sure to measure one yourself first though. The Chamber in a 2.5" shotgun is that length but that is to accommodate the shell's crimped top when it opens on firing. If the crimp overlaps the forcing cone of the shotgun it ,  the easy answer is the shotshell when the crimp opens on firing will then fit in the chamber without obstruction. The definitive answer is here: https://www.brownells.com/userdocs/documents/Inst-100.pdf

Bullets don't rise, leaving Magazines loaded does not wear them or their springiness out, Bullets don't spark so you can't fire one at a gasoline spill and set it on fire because they are usually made of lead or lead covered with copper with some few exceptions that are never carried in personal guns that I have seen.

There are lots more gun mythconceptions out there. Many very dangerous if tried.

[RV_]

10 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

In very early 1969 my army drill sergeant claimed they could use our M-14's 7.62/.308 in the 7.62 AK. Like offering couples advice in the middle of an argument, I decided perhaps I wouldn't mention that the AK ammo was a significant amount shorter. I cannot imagine how far I would have low crawled had I mentioned the problem.

Wayne

For those who aren't firearms familiar here is a pic of the 7.62 x 39 = AK-47 round and the 7.62 x 51 = NATO round side by side. The smaller rounds on the left are the AK, on the right ours, much bigger!

https://www.ammunitiontogo.com/lodge/7-62x51-vs-7-62x39/

 

 

[Jinx & Wayne]

7 hours ago, RV_ said:

Magazines loaded does not wear them or their springiness out

For years army firearms instructors taught us that you only load 18 rounds in a 20-round M-16 magazine or the spring would wear out. I suspect that saved the government thousands millions of dollars from that 10% that idiots couldn't fire off into the blue on rock-and-roll (full automatic fire).

[jamtracy]

On 11/7/2022 at 10:44 AM, Kirk W said:

I thought that you were a USAF medical equipment tech?

Thanks for popping off and stirring the pot Kirk. Just when this was a decent post.

[Pat & Pete]

3 hours ago, jamtracy said:

Thanks for popping off and stirring the pot Kirk. Just when this was a decent post.

FYI :

This page contains a THREAD . Your response is a POST in that thread . 

Just thought I'd stir the pot , too .

Edited November 11, 2022 by Pat & Pete

[RV_]

16 hours ago, Jinx & Wayne said:

For years army firearms instructors taught us that you only load 18 rounds in a 20-round M-16 magazine or the spring would wear out. I suspect that saved the government thousands millions of dollars from that 10% that idiots couldn't fire off into the blue on rock-and-roll (full automatic fire).

I didn't know some Army Instructors bought into the spring thing. Good point on the monies saved.

Happy Veteran's Day Wayne, thanks for your service and to all my fellow vets and active duty and reserves.