thanks to all who offered possibilities and advice.  i can find no leaks, and the dometic now fires up and cools just as it always did before.  as someone suggested off list, i now believe the appliances themselves, due to their design, allow lines to take in some air when unused for a time.

btw, my weekend trip was aborted part way through after spending several hours in a small town hospital emergency center to have a strained left wrist attended.  i do not recall injuring it, but it seems that exercises that i have done for time immemorial with small weights suddenly became more than the wrist wanted to bear.  it did not so inform me at the time, however, but some 12 hours after the last exercise session, it ever so gently whispered something about not liking to rotate.  by the time another 12 hours had passed, i was incapacitated with pain, with no idea at the time why.  now here i sit, typing these missives with one hand, not bothering with capitalization, wearing a splint and a sling, and gobbling ibuprofen.  i'll take hydrodone to sleep tonight, as i did last night, per sawbone's prescription.

bonnie had to drive home 280 miles, no help from me.  nice trip.  left yesterday morning, little twinges in the wrist.  did most of the driving, pain increasing.  early evening, decided to get a hotel, hoping a night's rest would overcome the now considerable pain, and we could go on to the 3 day riverside camp we'd planned (my birthday present).  checked in, ate dinner in increasing misery, returned to hotel, finally realized something serious was wrong, and i needed attention, since my wrist had ballooned to 2x normal diameter, and i could not rotate, flex, nor move it any other way.  got x-rayed, got splinted, got doped, slept fitfully, came home.

mcneely