TS Fay & Dixie...

[Page Britt]

Well Tropical Storm Fay is making her away across North Florida today
still moving very slowly. We're not too far from the center of
circulation now so the winds have died down and the rain has slowed
appreciably. It looks like we'll most likely be getting even more
water as it moves on this afternoon and the bands sweeping up off the
gulf unload. Lost power here yesterday afternoon around 5 so we
retreated to "Lady Bird" for the night and enjoyed the comforts of
electricity, AC, water and hot showers courtesy of the reliable Kohler/
Perkins as needed and the Xantrex. Along about 1:30 AM we are
awakened by the strains of Dixie emanating from the salon...
repetitively. Ahh the doorbell! Who can it be at this hour in this
weather? Up I jump, fumble around, fund and successfully don my
shorts, make my way forward through the darkened coach, retract the
curtain, turn on the porch light and look out to see... no one. I
open the door in a minor gail and stick my head out, not a soul, just
our rural neighborhood pitch black dark. Shut the door, turn on the
landing lights (night turns into day) and Lynda I look out the windows
at the blowing rain while Dixie plays merrily on. We see nothing.
Apparently the sheer amount of water sheeting down the sides of the
coach has found it's way into the doorbell button switch and
temporarily shorted it out. I open the door and push and release the
button several time to no avail, nothing gained except I got another
bath courtesy of Fay and I now know that the switch is not stuck but
most probably is waterlogged.

Dixie is starting to get on my nerves now, even a southern boy can
only take so much. H'mmm, how to effectively disable the doorbell
(entrance chime) in a gentle and easily reversible manner.... Opened
the right front load center and peered in (after all it is closest to
the rather loud speaker) no joy, don't see any circuit for the
doorbell on the schematic in side the cover. Dixie plays on. It
occurs to my sleep fogged mind that perhaps something has gotten
crossed between "the horn" and the doorbell so I check the horn
switches on the dash and inadvertently serenade the neighborhood with
the first bar of "The Gang's All Here," the neighbor's (all without
power) no doubt really appreciated the 1:45 AM wake up call! Well I
have proved that the horn is behaving properly and has not corrupted
the morals of the doorbell. Dixie plays on. Out comes the Blue Book
and I peruse multiple schematics...Ah Ha, there it is! If this should
happen to you in an 84 PT-40, just open the left front load center and
pop out the fuse for circuit #23 and enjoy the sound of silence, we
did! Power was restored sometime around 4 AM, went out again around 6
and was back on by 7:30 or so.


Page & Lynda
1984 PT-40 "Lady Bird"
Greensboro, FL