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.

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.

Home Sweet Home

Boy, what an eventful two weeks this has been. I started off my fulltiming experiment by going to the December RVing Women Rally at Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring, FL. I managed to arrive in-between rain storms, but the whole area showed evidence of the previous night's storm and the ground was still very wet. As I was hooking up my electrical line, I got what I thought was a minor shock from the park's box. I blew it off as a fluke, since I was wearing flip flops on wet ground. Everything worked fine and I spent the night without any problem. The next day as I was reaching into an exterior side storage bin of my rig my hand touched the metal vent behind my fridge and I got another, bigger shock. Okay, that one got my attention. I went around the rig to go back inside to turn off everything and got yet another shock when I touched the inside metal of the door. And finally I got another little shock when I went over to the camp box to unplug my cord. I notified the rangers and they came and took a look. Sure enough, the box wasn't properly grounded and I was lucky to have lived to tell about it. I moved to another site and although the entire weekend was pretty much a washout weather-wise, we still managed to have a great time.

After that I came back up to the Tampa Bay area and went directly to the RV resort in Lutz where I was spending a week to "practice" fulltiming while living and working my normal routine. The location of that resort was great because it was about 20 miles from work in one direction and 20 miles from my mother's house in another. The site location within that park was also great because I was directly across the road from the bath and laundry building.

Since I had already decided I was going to make this fulltiming gig work, I went to the park office first thing Monday morning to make application to stay for a year. When I had first visited the park about a month earlier, the manager and office gal both couldn't have been nicer and more accommodating. They talked about finding just the right site for me and the ability to change sites if I tried one and didn't care for it. They told me I would need to go through a background, credit and income check but also told me not to apply too soon because the information would become dated. The manager herself told me to apply within a week or two of when I actually wanted to move in. On Monday, I told them I wanted to get the process done so I could sign a lease and stay and not have to move the van and car back to South Tampa again. I provided all the information they wanted and even notified my current landlord and employer to expedite the process. All of a sudden, the manager and office gal didn't seem to be so accommodating. I checked with them every day and my employer's HR contact even told me, "Have them call me directly. I'll give them whatever information they need." Nothing. On Friday at noon I called to see if they had heard anything about my approval and the office gal nonchalantly said, "Oh, I haven't even checked yet today." She really couldn't have cared any less.

My week at that park was up this past Monday, but as I had to go in to work for the first half of the day, I packed up and moved back to South Tampa Sunday night. I left my car at work and got a co-worker to give me a ride to Lutz so I could get the rig home and then Monday morning I had to take a cab to work to get my car. The week before, I had taken a cab from Lutz to South Tampa to get my car and that ride cost me $90. I didn't want to do that a second time, and that was another reason for wanting to just stay at the park. I don't know why the change of attitude, but it had nothing to do with my background check. I have perfect credit, no criminal history, a good job with one of the largest employers in the Bay area and landlords who hate to lose me. At any rate, I figured if this was how they treated me before I entered into a contract with them, how would they treat me afterward?

Monday afternoon I drove to another RV resort I had found on the internet. It's a little further north and east, but not by too much. The rental rates are slightly more ($340 versus $285), but this park is much, much nicer. It's gated and in addition to including water, sewage and garbage service in the monthly rent, they also provide basic cable. It's neater, cleaner and the people who both work and live here have been extremely nice and welcoming, both before and after I signed a lease. And sign a lease I did, for seven months. If I decide to stay longer the average monthly cost will be even lower.

My site is right next to the bathhouse and in addition to the convenient location, the bathhouse exterior lights light up the area on the driver's side of my van. I like that for safety purposes. My neighbors on the other side are snowbirds from Indiana who have already helped me set up my shed and even brought me over a small bowl of pasta salad. I attended an ice cream social Monday evening and this morning I went to the rec hall for the weekly donuts and coffee gathering. Everything happens for a reason and I'm so glad now I didn't sign a lease with that other park. Oh, and that other park did call me on Tuesday and left a voice mail message that I was approved and could come in whenever it was convenient to sign a year's lease. Yeah, I'll jump right on that. When the phone doesn't ring, honey, it's me.

Stuff! It's all just STUFF!

I have HOW MANY pencils? Seriously?! I know, they were 10 cents a pack a couple of years ago at a Staples back-to-school sale so I bought a bunch, but I still have every one of them, unsharpened. And pens! Pens from the Nixon Administration, I swear. Probably all of them are just half full of ink, but do I dare throw them away? Isn't that wasteful?

An overabundance of pencils and pens is just the beginning. I have a couch I shopped for like crazy, finally settled on buying, and now I don't use it. I sit in a chair to watch TV or use the computer and if I'm doing neither of those activities, I'm not sitting anyway. I could entertain, but I don't. Martha Stewart I am not. See, this is what happens. We have a little apartment, then we grow up and buy a little house. Then it's a bigger house and a still bigger house. And of course we must fill every square inch of these houses with furniture and STUFF. And all this stuff just adds to the stress of our already stressful lives. What exactly is the point again? Somebody please tell me.

When I lived in Green Bay, WI, I bought an 1800 square foot, 100-year-old house. It was cute, cute, cute. Two stories with a basement, three bedrooms, formal dining room, living room. Hell, I filled every square inch of that place. Had my ironing board permanently set up in one corner of the basement, my clothes all nicely organized by season, style and color in the various bedroom closets. I felt like a queen. Bought a nine-foot-long inlaid wood dining room table with two leaves that seated six. SIX! It was beautiful and it filled the room, but what the hell was I thinking? One time I had a boyfriend and another couple over for dinner and that was the extent of my entertaining. Again, not Martha Stewart. And those damn HGTV shows make it look like you can make a house a showcase in a half-hour. Not true. I just had a big, ol' house full of STUFF.

If I had a dollar for every trip I've made to a thrift shop donation center over the past several years downsizing from that time I could retire today. Downsizing is not for sissies. Some stuff I was able to sell (for a fraction of what I had paid for it) and some I had to just bite the bullet on and let go. It has gotten easier as I realize I totally forget about everything I ever donate. If I can't recall it, how important was it in the first place?

Today I took an old crock pot out of a high cupboard. I haven't used a crock pot in years. I don't dare use one now with Eddie roaming around the apartment while I'm away at work. So let me understand this: I'm renting an apartment big enough not just for me and Eddie, but also for things like this crock pot that I haven't used in years and have no intention of using. What the hell...? I guarantee I will never think of that crock pot again after this writing. If, lo and behold, I later discover that I was born, BORN, to be a crockery cook, then by God I can get another one. I know I can get a good deal on one at virtually any thrift store in any city in this country.

The Final Straw

Yesterday morning sort of iced the cake on this whole "moving into the RV" project. While I have dreamed of living in an RV full time for a while, this current endeavor really began as a result of being woken up too many times in the middle of the night by noise from my next-door neighbor.

I live in an 80-year-old three-story walk-up on Davis Islands (DI) in Tampa, FL. I live on the top floor and have a great view of the Port of Tampa. The building is very well managed and has been updated, but it still has 80-year-old insulation between the units (or at least, very thin insulation) and voices seem to travel all too well. The only common wall is the bedroom wall and for some reason my neighbor likes to talk and entertain in his bedroom all night long or come home drunk and start calling people on the phone in the middle of the night. I was also disturbed by the loud living of the previous tenant, so I admit I'm part of the problem. I sleep at night, it's that simple. And I am a light sleeper, so it doesn't take much to wake me up. I can live with the white noise of the port, even the train whistles, but voices on the other side of the wall seven feet away wake me up and keep me awake.

So I go to bed every night with earplugs because I never know when my neighbor may start talking, etc. in his bedroom. The problem with that is even the squishy kind aren't the most comfortable things to wear. And they tend to fall out in the middle of the night, which completely negates their effectiveness. Finally, and this was the clincher for me yesterday morning, I overslept my alarm clock because I couldn't hear it. I had turned it down so low because HE, my neighbor, had responded to my complaints of his noise by saying my alarm clock was loud. I wasn't late for work, but I am not going to risk oversleeping my alarm again because of all this.

I've considered the pros and cons of this apartment and the single biggest pro is the view. I have loved that from the beginning and still do. I will miss it, but as I've said in an earlier post, I can always come back to DI and hang out down by the channel. Other positives about this apartment include the privacy of being three flights up, the relative safety of DI, the great apartment management, and the proximity to my work. The thing is, I've lived in other places that have been private, safe, have great management and been close to work, so all those things aren't unique to this apartment.

Regardless of where I go, I just cannot see staying here - with any view, at any price. Nothing this apartment offers me will offset the fact that I cannot count on getting a good night's sleep here.