Florida Longhorns

I suppose these are descendants of the famed Texas Longhorns, but these are right here in good, ol' FLA. Aren't they cute? But heed the sign, as I did.

Lesson Learned

Last month I took a two-week RV road trip to Hershey, PA. On my way up I was on the road three nights, dry-camping each night at either a Walmart, Cracker Barrel or highway rest area. No problems, nice and quiet, nice level parking. When I finally arrived at the Hershey High Meadow Campground, I registered and paid and then discovered I had been assigned a site so angled and uneven that no number of lynx levelers would get My Way anywhere near level. I complained to the manager, who was nice enough to move me to a more level site for the same price, but it really taught me a lesson. Now, before I plunk down my credit card, I ask permission to check out the campground first. I look at my assigned site, I check out the bath facilities, and I even carry a volt meter so I can make sure the electric box to my site is properly wired and won't fry me or my rig. Overall I make sure it's a place I want to stay regardless of the price. Having spent many perfectly fine nights dry camping for free at different spots in the past year, I now expect quite a bit more from any campground that wants me to pay to stay.

Brand-New Antiques

I hate used antiques. So old and dusty and, well, used. Antique tables made daily. NOW you're talking.

First, I'd Wash My Hands

As we're coming into cold and flu season, I figure it's my duty as a nurse to talk a little about the number one thing you can do help keep yourself from catching something - wash your hands.

The first thing we learned in nursing school was how to wash our hands. It's the best way to keep from transmitting germs from one place to another, like from a doorknob to your eyes, nose or mouth. It's the first thing doctors and nurses should do when they enter a patient's room, before they touch the patient. It's also the last thing doctors and nurses should do when they are done touching a patient and are leaving the patient's room. Frankly, anyone coming into or leaving a patient's room should thoroughly wash their hands. If you are ever a patient, don't hesitate to remind anyone and everyone to please wash their hands.

The title of this post comes from the statement we made as student nurses when we were being checked off on the various practical skills we had learned. Because our classrooms usually didn't have sinks, we'd always start off by saying, "First, I'd wash my hands" and then proceed with demonstrating the rest of the skill.

I actually learned the way the state of Florida wants healthcare workers to wash their hands when I became a Certified Nursing Assistant. It's pretty involved, but it's the right way to do it. Basically you wet your hands, add soap, work up a lather and scrub both tops and palms of hands, scrub each hand's fingernails on the opposite palm, individually scrub around the thumb with the opposite hand, and scrub your wrists up to the width of your hand. Rinse your hands and wrists thoroughly. It should take 20 seconds or the length of time it takes you to sing your ABCs. Then you dry with a paper towel, use the paper towel to turn off the faucet and open the bathroom door (if you're in a public restroom). The thing to remember is that your hands are only as clean as the last thing they touched. Period.

New Closet Drawers

I've made a change in the clothes closet of My Way. I used to have one of those three-drawer plastic storage bins in there, but that left about a foot of space between the top of the unit and the shelf of the closet. I would store my toaster oven and George Foreman grill in that space, but every time I was underway those two items would crash against the closet door. I figured it was only a matter of time before I did some damage to something so I bought a taller, seven-drawer unit. It has the same three larger bottom drawers and four smaller upper drawers all in one unit. It was 41" tall, which was a bit too tall for the closet, so I took the top drawer section off and reattached the top cover (the whole thing comes apart and goes back together). I was actually able to use just that extra top drawer to store my spices and squeeze that drawer on top of the whole unit. For extra security I use a bungee cord to hold it all in place.

Now I've got a real junk drawer for things like my utility knife, duct tape, zip ties, etc. and two more drawers that I can use for miscellaneous papers and who knows what else. The toaster oven and George Foreman are now on the shelf with my coffee grinder and two cookbooks. The stuff that was on that shelf is packed into the old TV cabinet. Somehow, it all fits and much better so than it did before.

Best Iced Tea Ever

I'm an iced tea drinker. In our hot Florida weather nothing quenches my thirst like a tall glass of strong iced tea with a big ol' wedge of lemon. I tried making sun tea once and just ended up with moldy tea. For years I used one of the electric iced tea makers where you fill the pitcher with ice and then brew the tea over it. I didn't like how the tea was immediately diluted by the ice so I'd have to use more tea bags in the brewing process. Then I started leaving out the ice and just brewing a full pitcher of straight tea. I'd leave that cool down a bit, then put the pitcher in the fridge to complete the chilling process.

Last year I read an article about cold tea brewing and gave that a try. Turns out, you don't need any heat at all to brew tea, you just need time. Take a pitcher, fill it with fresh cold water, put in however many tea bags you need for the strength you want (this will be trial and error until you hit on the right number) and put it in the fridge over night. In the morning, remove the tea bags and voila, you have cold, clear, crisp iced tea to enjoy.

Baby Sandhill Cranes

All fuzzy and golden and big-eyed. They've grown up now and you almost can't tell them from the parents, but boy, were they cute when they were little.

You Want Fries With That?

Florida Keys

Back in May, the Florida Chapter of RVing Women (of which I am a member) held a rally in the Florida Keys. I took five days to get down there from Tampa (mind you, it's about a nine-hour drive done all at once) and I had as much fun on the trip down as I did while I was at the rally. I shopped my way down to Naples the first day, buying a few bikinis so I'd be ready when I got to the Keys. The next day I went kayaking at Rookery Bay, down by Marco Island. It was the maiden voyage of the inflatable kayak I bought specifically to take with me in My Way and it worked great. It's not the same as a hard-body kayak, but it works for the RV. It fits nicely under the couch, accessible via the outside rear door.



I then spent two days in Miami. I went to my old neighborhood and saw the house I lived in as a child. I visited my father's and grandfather's graves for the first time in 35 years. I spent a day and a half with my childhood best friend, Donna Jean, and her family. Then I headed to the Keys and spent one night at Bahia Honda State Park, one of the prettiest of Florida's State Parks.




During the week of the rally, I spent two days bicycling around Key West. I'd pack up my RV early in the morning and go get a free parking space near downtown. Then I'd take my bike off the rack on the back and pedal all over Key West.



The rally was held at Geiger Key RV Resort and Marina, about 10 miles up from Key West proper, right on the water. We had, oh, about 20 rigs and some of the nicest weather you could imagine. It was almost too breezy at times, but that same breeze kept the mosquitos and no-see-ums at bay. The camping area for trailers and Class B's at the RV resort was packed with 8 or 10 RV's and we lovingly called our little area the Trailer Trash Section. While the hoity-toities in their 5th wheels and Class A's stayed in their air-conditioned condos on wheels and watched cable TV, we cellar dwellers were swimming, fishing and generally hanging out together. I've already booked my site for next year.

Easter Sunday on the Hillsborough River

We had just had scads of rain and the water was really, really high. I've never seen the river so beautiful. And I love, love, love the big lizards!

Ex-Wives' Club

So, I'm friends with my ex-husband's second ex-wife. Yeah, you read that right. I'm number one, as I always should be, and Regina is number two. We lost track of number three or we would have definitely had t-shirts made up. Brucie-pooh is working on number four last I heard, but it's really not about him, now, is it?

About nine years ago, when I had just moved to Wisconsin from Las Vegas (THAT'S a whole 'nother story), I got a letter from a woman who said she needed my help. She said she was Bruce's wife and they were getting a divorce and he was trying to take their child from her. She said I was the only other woman in the world who knew what it was like to be married to Bruce and would I help her. I did write a letter to the courts on behalf of the child, but I'm not sure it did any good. It did, however, piss off Bruce, so it wasn't a complete lost cause.

Anyway, Regina and I stayed in touch and actually met in person a few years ago when she came to Ft. Myers, FL, to visit her parents. Earlier this year, she and their son came to Florida for a visit and we got together again. The boy thinks I'm just a friend of his mother's who she knows from Florida. He knows I'm familiar with his father but doesn't know I was once married to him. He's only 10, it's not important now and probably never will be. He's a sweet boy. Regina, her parents and I all agree that the best thing to come out of her marriage to Bruce is their son. Since my divorce from Bruce sent him on his way to Regina, we also agree that their son is the best thing to come out of MY marriage to Bruce, as well.



Oh, as for my butch hair cut, no, I'm not a lesbian. I can just pass for one.

Hobbit House

Whew, so a lot has happened in six months. I was living in My Way, my Pleasure-Way Class B RV and things were going great. Then one day I came home from work to find my little tin can infested with little piss ants. Yeah, little black ants just crawling everywhere. The site I was on had a history of ants and although I had blasted the site with two huge bags of ant killer, the ants won. So I moved to a different, temporary site and started to look for a better, permanent site, still in the same RV resort.

As I was chatting with the gals at the RV park office, I told them what I really wanted was the cute little green trailer in the center of the park, the one under the beautiful live oak trees. One of the gals, Karen, said, "That's MY place." I said, "Oh, it's so cute! I just covet it." She said, "I'm selling it." "Get out!" I screamed. "No, seriously, I'm selling it and moving to Arizona," she replied. That was in July. Well, I immediately went to see the inside of the trailer and we shook on the deal that very night. I moved into my little Hobbit House, as I call it, in early August.

I would have continued to stay in My Way and would have been perfectly fine, but buying the Hobbit House was a deal I could not pass up. Now I have a real couch, a real kitchen, a real refrigerator, a real shower and a real bed. Since I'm not planning on leaving Tampa any time soon, it just makes more sense for me to have a more permanent place. I paid cash (an incredibly small amount of cash) for the trailer and still pay just $250 a month site rent. I still park My Way and my Saturn right on the same lot, so I can easily take off in either vehicle whenever I want. And I have great neighbors. Although I only moved two streets over in the same RV resort, now that I'm in the permanent section, I've been accepted as a "homeowner" rather than a more transient "snowbird", even though I considered myself permanent before.

Honey, I'm ho-ome!

Wow, it's been, like, a gazillion years since I've posted here. Okay, so it's only been six months. Still, it seems like I've fallen off the face of the earth when I've actually just been enjoying life. I started this blog to serve as more of a diary for myself, but soon realized others may read it. That kinda cramped my style since I also realized nobody gives a rat's ass what I do on a daily basis and frankly, I don't necessarily want others knowing what I'm doing. I'm on Twitter and Facebook and feel the same way about those social media outlets.

At any rate, I would like to keep track of some things I do and this seems to be the best way to do it. Yeah, I could just keep a private online diary, but this blog seems to nag at me more than a Word document would (or a Pages document, since I'm an Apple girl). Even if no one else reads this blog, just knowing someone might read it is enough to keep me thinking about it. So here I am: I'm back. Can't promise I'll be all that regular about posting, but we'll see what happens.

TV Table/Clothes Hamper

The TV tray table that I rescued from the trash at my old apartment and used for a TV stand in My Way has been replaced. It had been getting wobblier and it was a pain to fold up and stow every time I wanted to move the van. I had been trying to find the right setup to replace it when I was in Walmart the other day and saw a clothes hamper that seemed like it would fit the bill. It's lightweight, it's color matches the rest of my decor, it's big enough to hold the TV, and it stays right in place when I pack up and drive away. I still have to stow the TV, but I just put that on the bed and cover it with a pillow. Now that I have a real hamper for my dirty clothes, the passenger side footwell is freed up for my inflatable kayak.

The blue roll in the background is my Travasak sleep system rolled up for the day. And yes, that's an ashtray in front of the TV. It's vintage Anholt melmac.

Cheese and Spinach Casserole

I dug out this recipe today and wanted to post it for posterity (and to make it easier for me to find next time). I found it several years ago on some low-carb website, but I don't eat it because it's low-carb. I eat it 'cause it's just plain good. It's better if you make it the night before you want to serve it and let the flavors meld, but I can't ever wait. I wanted to grate my own nutmeg, but couldn't find any whole nutmeg at the two local grocery stores I went to so I used ground. And you can't leave out the nutmeg because that's what really makes it. Well, that and the cheese. And the butter. And the eggs. And the spinach.

Cheese and Spinach Casserole

10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 c. melted butter
1 pt. cream-style small curd cottage cheese
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 tsp nutmeg
croutons

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 1 1/2 qt casserole. Mix all ingredients together. Place in baking dish. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Sprinkle croutons on top during last 10 minutes of baking time.

Thrift Store Bulletin Board

I found this bulletin board in a thrift store the other day for $1. I figured it was worth every bit of that. The two pics I stuck on there are of the campsite in the Keys that I'll be staying at in May. The weather's cold and rainy today and supposed to be even colder tomorrow and through the weekend, so I'm keeping those pics front and center to keep me going. Gee, I almost sound like I'm back in Wisconsin instead of here in Florida.

Stash the Cords

I don't know about you, but I have so many different chargers for all my electrical stuff, I was going crazy trying to keep track of them. I've gotten a handle on them by gathering each one with a twist tie and stowing them all in a plastic storage box. I keep the box on the rear shelf above my bed, making it very easy to reach up and grab the box when I need one of them. There's also room up there for another box in which I keep maps, brochures, and other information on campgrounds. The shelf has just enough of a lip to keep the boxes from flying off when I'm under way.

And that stuffed animal on the side is my new cat. No litter box, no coughed-up hair balls, no midnight wake-ups. My kinda cat.

Now I Really Am Homeless

I am finally done with the apartment. For the past two months I have been slowly - and I do mean slowly - clearing out my apartment. The lease is up the end of this month so I've taken my time, but today I finally took the last batch of donate-able stuff to the thrift store, cleaned the whole place and turned in my keys. I will not miss climbing up and down three flights of stairs every time I leave and come back home, but I will still kinda miss that view. The last thing I carried out was the red step stool.

Ta-Ta, Toaster

It pretty much goes without saying that living in a small space requires some serious adapting. I'm not known for my creativity, but I am pretty good about learning from others. Case in point, the toaster. I used to have a toaster taking up space because, well, real kitchens have toasters, right? It's the American way. Never mind I hardly ever used it, and when I did, it was simply to toast a muffin or bagel. I mean, there's not much else a toaster can do, right? And everybody knows when you're living in a small space, the things you have with you have to do at least double, if not triple, duty.

Last week at the Escapees rally, they had morning breakfast and bagels and they had set up a George Foreman grill to toast our bagels. Brilliant! That particular model was one of the higher end models with a thermostat that was set on Medium, but it turns out I can do the same thing with my little uni-temp model. So out the door went the toaster and now I feel even better about having my little George Foreman grill. Like I said, I'm not the brightest bulb in the box when it comes to creatively figuring out the obvious, but when it smacks me right between the eyes, I get it.

Mardi Gras 2010

Every year Dunedin, FL has a Mardi Gras parade and party. It's usually a pretty big deal, but this year's was kind of a dud, probably due to the extremely cold weather we had. I spent the earlier part of the day hanging out on Honeymoon Island State Park and I took a few pics. The bad weather didn't keep the sea shell hunters and the surfers away at all. And that city you see in the distance in one of the pics is Clearwater Beach. At least we don't have any snow :)

Red Tootsies

I'm still getting used to how convenient it is to live in a tiny home on wheels. Last month when I was driving to a rally I was thinking, "Gee, did I remember to pack {something, who knows what}." And then I remembered, oh yeah, everything I own, pretty much, is right here in this van.

Today I went to Walmart and did some grocery shopping. As I was checking out I saw the nail salon and remembered that I had planned on getting a pedicure. Oh well, I thought, I'll just have to do it another time since I have all these groceries that need to go into the refrigerator. After I checked out and got to the van I realized I could just stay parked right where I was, put away my groceries, then go back into the store to have my pedicure. Done deal.

Laundry Day

Today I did my laundry at a different laundromat. The laundromat here at my park has all front load washers and frankly, I just don't believe they get clothes as clean as the top load washers. I know, I know, the front loaders are "greener". I don't care, I want clean clothes.

I think one of the smartest things I do is to hang my uniforms from the handles of the storage bins at the front of my rig. This way they stay clean and out of the way. I also make good use of space by having a shoe bag hanging on the outside of the closet door and I use the pockets to hold washcloths and underclothes. I have way too many washcloths (and probably way too many panties), but those are holdovers from my roomier apartment days. As they become worn, I'll turn them into rags and stow them in the back of the rig or in the shed. The washcloths, I mean. The worn panties get tossed :)

As I spend more time living in My Way, I'm finding that although I have downsized quite a bit, I still have a lot of things I could probably do without. I'm going slowly, though, realizing that until I've done this for one full year, I won't really know what I do and do not need.

Walmart camping

After reading so much about Walmart camping, I finally decided to give it a try. This isn't really "camping" so much as it is just overnight parking. It's for those times when you just need a safe, convenient place to park overnight while catching some z's. With camp sites in private campgrounds and even in state parks costing $25 and up per night, the opportunity to park somewhere for free just to sleep a few a hours sounds like a good deal.

Turns out, it's great. For example, yesterday I worked an extra shift from 11 am to 7 pm. This gave me enough time in the morning to pack up My Way and drive it to work. After work I drove to Seffner to gas up (Flying J over there has the cheapest gas in the area) and then drove down to Arcadia, FL, about an hour and a half drive. The Escapees Chapter 15 is having a rally down here and I wanted to come down and join them for a couple of days. But at $29 per night for a campsite at the rally campground, I really didn't want to pull in at 10:30 pm and pay that much money just to fall into bed and sleep. Walmart camping to the rescue.

The Walmart Supercenter in Arcadia is right on SR 70 and has a nice, big parking lot. There's a Subway sandwich shop right next to it, so I grabbed a $5 footlong Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sub and parked in the back of the parking lot near two other RVs who were obviously parked for the night. I closed the curtains, turned on a little light and ate my sub while listening to the radio. Then I hit the rack. It was very quiet at this Walmart; they didn't even have a noisy parking lot cleaning truck come by at 3 am, like some other Walmarts I've stayed at. At 6:30 this morning I awoke to the sweet sounds of birds chirping in the trees. I got up, got dressed, walked over to the store and bought some veggies for tonight's pot luck dinner. Then I drove over to the campground where the rally is and joined the group just in time for coffee and bagels.

This is now the third time I've camped at a Walmart and every time has been just great. I agree with suggestions I've read at online sites to try to be as unobtrusive as possible, meaning I don't put out any chairs, put up my Winegard or run my generator. I don't look like I'm camping, because I'm not. I'm just parking for a few hours. I pretty much show up after 9 pm and am up and at 'em by 7 am. With a Class B, it's even easier for me to blend in, but I do park right among the other, larger RVs, so it's obvious I'm not just parking while shopping. I didn't check with this Walmart's manager for approval to park, but I did so with the first one I stayed at. I figure if there are already a couple of rigs there, it must be okay to park overnight. And I do always go in and spend money in the store the next day. It's not something I'd do every night out, but for those times when I really just need a place to sleep for the night, I'm all for Walmart camping.

Craigslist Scammer

Against my better judgment, I tried selling my sofa on Craigslist. I had tried selling a table a year ago and got nothing more than three spam messages, but since Craigslist is still around I figured it must be working for somebody so I gave it another shot. I listed the sofa the end of December and got one email that never materialized into anything. Then I re-listed it yesterday and got the following email:

On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 10:45 AM, Barry Johnson ddddstone@gmail.com> wrote:

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

--
Hello
I wanna know if you still have this item for sale.What is the final
buy it now price

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my Black Berry®


------------------------------------------------------------------
this message was remailed to you via: sale-yqrr7-1580525979@craigslist.org
------------------------------------------------------------------

The guy's name was Barry Johnson and while I thought he sounded a bit over-excited I figured he just didn't want to deal with coming to see the sofa if I wasn't willing to deal a little bit. I could appreciate that so I responded with my bottom-line price. Later in the afternoon, I got this response from "Barry" (note his different email address):

From: Barry Johnson mywaytowork006@gmail.com>mycraigslist777@gmail.com>

Hello,

I am ready to purchase it asap.I anticipate that I'll have a Certified Bank Check issued out to you from my bank (Bank Of America). It will clear within 2 to 3 business days.I'm in no rush with you till fund's are cleared in your bank. I'll instruct a Shipping Co Agent to come for pick up,when check has been cleared. Kindly e-mail me back with your physical address such as Name,Address (NOT P.o.box) City, State, Zip-code, Phone Number.I will be sending the payment via USPS Express Postal Service .

You can delete the advert asap!

I will await your response with details, do have a pleasant day!.

Sincerely.
Barry J
Jacksonville,FL 32207

Argh! Another piece-o'-crap scammer. I was pissed and I shot back this reply:

From: Sue mycraigslist777@gmail.com>mywaytowork006@gmail.com>

Well, talk about timing. Right after I got your first inquiry email I got an email notifying me that I won a huge Nigerian lottery. Needless to say, I am no longer in need of selling that sofa and have instead donated it to a local charity. I am now independently wealthy.

You do have a pleasant day as well.

At least I gave it a shot. Now I'm going to sell the sofa and a bookcase through a local consignment shop and just be done with it. It's just not worth the aggravation to try to sell things on Craigslist.

Travasak Sleep System

I have broken my back making my bed for the last time. Every week for the last two months I have crawled over my bed and fought with the fitted sheet and the mattress. Even getting at the back corners from outside via the back door was torturous. And forget about actually making the bed during the day, so my home pretty much looked like a disaster (by my standards). I finally gave in and bought a Travasak Sleep System.

It's basically a sleeping bag, but a more high-tech version of one. It's made up of two comforters, one a heavier winter weight and the other a lighter summer weight. In cooler weather you put the summer comforter on the bottom and the winter one on top and when the weather warms up you flip the sack around. These two comforters have zippers on three sides so you can zip them up to create a sack or zip them completely apart for washing or zip them anywhere in-between. On the inside of each comforter, along each side, are continuous strips of velcro which are used to attach the one long flat sheet of the system to the insides of each comforter. This velcro holds the sheet in place while you're sleeping in the sack, but makes it very easy to remove the sheet for washing. I bought the twin size (42" x 80") and the blue matches my quilt perfectly. At $125, it's a pricey sleeping bag, but I like the entire system. I washed all the components yesterday and they all washed and dried nicely (the instructions say to line dry the comforters and just fluff them on Air for 10 minutes, but I actually dried mine on Delicate for 45 minutes and they came out fine). I had plenty of room to sleep in the sack with the sides zipped up and when I got too warm overnight it was easy to unzip one side and throw the cover back.

Now what I've done is I have the bed made up with just the quilt over the mattress and topper and use the bed as a sofa for seating during the day. At night I'll just unroll the Travasak and slip right in to sleep. In the morning I let the Travasak air out a bit and then roll it up and use it as a bolster on the sofa. A nice, neat home and no more broken back.

RV post-Eddie

All's well that ends well. I took Eddie to my cousin Sabrina's house on Monday evening after work to live with her, her daughter and their two cats. Sabrina is disabled and is generally home most of the day. Her daughter Heidi is also disabled, mentally retarded and non-verbal, but is the sweetest, smilingest kid you'll ever meet. Whenever you see her, she runs up to you to give you a hug and a smile. Monday evening, though, she didn't even notice me. All she saw was Eddie. She was so excited she couldn't stand still and she couldn't take her eyes off him. She wanted to introduce him to the other cats and Sabrina told her, no, just wait and let him get adjusted to the new surroundings and then we'll let him meet the other cats, slowly. Eddie, in his true form, was busy snooping around the apartment. As I was leaving, he was already climbing into one of the existing litter boxes to check things out there.

My first cat-less night in the RV was heaven. Nobody woke me up, nobody climbed around the RV and pulled on draperies all night long. I slept like a baby. And waking up Tuesday morning was just as nice. No hairballs to clean up, no litter box to empty. Yeah, I'm diggin' it.

I spent some time in the morning cleaning and vacuuming and then went out and bought new rugs and bedding. I figured that was the best way to get rid of most of the leftover cat hair. Here's some pics of my new things.

So Far, So Good

I've now been fulltiming in my Class B for one month and it's going very well. This past week we've had a record stretch of below-normal temperatures here in Florida and I've actually been quite comfortable. I use my little electric space-heater when I'm home in the rig. When I leave, I unplug the space heater and turn on the LP coach furnace (with the thermostat set at 70 degrees). I was having a bit of a problem with condensation in the storage bins above my bed, but a friend suggested I leave the doors of the bins open when I'm stationary and that has solved the problem. These past two days, when the overnight temperatures have dipped below freezing for several hours, the water from the campground has frozen, so I've been without running water in the rig until the weather warms up, but beside that I haven't had any problems related to the weather.

I use the campground bathhouse for my baths and believe it or not, I've been enjoying some fabulous baths. I put on my long, zip-front robe, grab my towel and washcloth, take my little plastic basket of toiletries and scamper over to the bathhouse right next door to my rig. Oh, I also slip on my shower shoes, which I keep right outside the door of my rig. Each shower room is private, with a toilet, sink, shower and bench to stow your stuff. The shower is worked by pushing one of those buttons right in the middle of the wall in front of the shower head. It's on or off - no regulating the temperature or flow. Push the button and the water runs for 60-90 seconds and then you need to push the button again. Sounds awful, right? I was concerned at first, too, but boy does that shower work great. The water warms up quickly and it's almost too hot until it settles out to a perfect temperature. The whole room steams up and I take a nice, long, hot shower every night. I enjoy them even more knowing I'm not paying for the water or the water heater.

Eddie is slowly getting used to fulltiming in such a small space. I am, however, open to finding him another home. He's a good boy, but he's still a cat and he likes to prowl around in the middle of the night and he likes to snoop around and climb up on things. In such a small space this means he can wake me up when I really need to be sleeping and he can potentially get into places he shouldn't be. My mother is asking around her church for someone who may want to give him a good home and I'm going to check out some local vets. I'll miss him, but I'll feel better if I know he's in a loving home with some room to be the cat he is. I know there are a lot of cats out there who need homes, but Eddie's de-clawed (front only) and I know some people prefer a de-clawed cat. It will all work out.