For Van: Entertainment Center

[boxcarOkie]

Here it is Van.  Just finished the Entertainment Center for the bus.  With the current round of brutal weather and the high price of fuel, staying home and working on pet projects seems to be the order of the day.  Having wanted to do this for quite some time, it has for the most part, got done.  The next part of it will be to dress up the bay where it is going in, passenger side, first bay.  High dollar coaches have outside entertainment packages, so after checking around, I decided why not one for us?  The poor man's version of the rich mans coach I guess you might call it.

I have a background in work that was mainly outdoors (retired railroader), and my wife, she is a stay inside kind of girl.  So consequently, I spend the majority of my time outside of the coach, whereas she prefers to stay inside.  (We have one of those "made in heaven marriages" which incidentally is the same place that they make "thunder and lightning" but that is a different post altogether.) 

A great deal of the time, we are into our own things, in our own space when it comes to the bus.  This is what spawned the idea to begin with, my discovering the great outdoors and her being locked down in her lair.  It occurred to me that there are some days it would be nice to have an outside entertainment center so we spent a couple of bucks and threw one together. 

The setup is a 31 inch flat screen, Phillips television, Kenwood CD AM-FM Radio, Sony speakers and a Sony DVD Player (the DVD player is not show, it is a Sony product also).  The cabinet itself is made of Oak and stained to match the rest of the wood works in the bus.  As I said, "it will be mounted in the first bay of the coach permanently" so that I can sit outside, watch a movie, listen to my tunes or just while away the day.

Kind of strange, when you get to thinking about it. 

As I am not a big television fan, it is somewhat ironic that I have three of them in our coach.  One up front, one in the bedroom and now this.  We have Sat. television (King Dome) and three DVD players.  We also have a subscription to the Dish Network.  All of them are set up to stand alone and operate independent of the others (except for the sat dish) and the bedroom has a headphone setup for private viewing.

That is a lot of television for someone who is not all that endeared with it to begin with. 

Our last trip out we never turned on any of it, not one day that I can recall was spent watching television.  The grandkids are big on it, but because of the noise factor, I do not allow them to watch while I am driving.  Too many distractions and I don't care for the noise in the background above and behind me.

So why so many of them in the coach? 

Beats me.

Make no mistake about it, television is here to stay, it is even in 3-D if you want it.  It isn't my thing, but it could be yours.  It could be because television in this country has reached a point where it is an addiction instead of a amusement.  Our children are placated with it, our grandchildren are baby-sat by it.  We have it in our homes, in our coat pockets, and now, even on our telephones.  It goes where we go and there seems to be no separation from it.

For me, it is for the most part a vast American Wasteland and there just isn't a whole lot of anything (of substance) on it most of the time to begin with.  I cannot for the life of me figure out why we have so many of them, but I am fairly sure why I don't watch them most of the time.  Television has a profound tendency to bore me.

So as you can see boys & girls, I have been busy trying to find something to do with my time, and of course, trying my best to stay warm.

Whadya think Van, is my hole too big?

BCO

[Rick59-4104]

 Looks good, I like it, my son-in-law is wanting to build a pull out/folding chuckwagon style outside kitchen in one of my bays on the '04.  He does custom audio and video installations for a living maybe we will have to add a flatscreen in the kitchen somehow..

Rick

[boxcarOkie]

Looks good, I like it, my son-in-law is wanting to build a pull out/folding chuckwagon style outside kitchen in one of my bays on the '04.  He does custom audio and video installations for a living maybe we will have to add a flatscreen in the kitchen somehow..

Rick

That is a good idea Rick, we have this Obache' (sp) portable thing, seems to work well, but a gas fired jobbie, now that's cooking.  The TV setup is pretty straight forward, all you need is the bracket for a firm mount, they wobble too much if you use the factory mount.  I made this one rock solid.  Lot of folks switching over to flat screens these days, they are immensely popular.

BCO

[Van]

Nice work Don! Where ya storin' the cold ones?

[boxcarOkie]

Nice work Don! Where ya storin' the cold ones?

I am working on that right now as we speak, funny you should ask.  When it is done, i will give you a peek as to what it looks like, gonna be pretty trick.

BCO

[Dreamscape]

Any brand will do as long as it's a Pepsi!

[boxcarOkie]

Any brand will do as long as it's a Pepsi!

It is really good with a little Vodka in it Paul, kind of like a real sweet screw-driver.

Uh huh ... Sure.

BCO

[Singing Land Cruiser]

Very Cool , M&C

[boxcarOkie]

Nice work Don! Where ya storin' the cold ones?

Right cheer (Okie Talk).


Weather finally has warmed up enough to do some paintwork and some staining.  I have been hitting about $200 a month in diesel (heating the shop) and I sure could use a break.  This is where I will put "the cool ones Van."  It is an old ice chest from WalMart, built a box for it and it will hold about 24 bottles if I remember right.  

The lid is attached so it comes off when you open it, and I plan to install a perm. drain on the right side (small hole located toward the bottom) so the ice will last longer.  Dreamscape says to fill it with Pepsi ... Whadya think?

Also working up a small box for DVD/CD strorage and remotes and all that other associated garbage.  Most of it is coming together nicely, the time factor seems to be the only snag right now.

A guy can never have enough boxes eh?

Say man, you never told me who it was that was singing in that video you posted the other day.

Whut's up with thet?

BCO

[Van]

Don that is Micheal Hargis, AKA Singing Land Cruiser. Nice cooler Don, +I need more room for beer thou, maybe turn the center bay into a walk (crawl) in cooler with TV for those summer cabin fever months to hibernate in .