Fulltiming Road Runners

We are 6 days from being here 3 months. It’s interesting to see how my attitude and thoughts have changed. It’s turning out a lot different than I’d expected.

I expected to have an abundance of free time to do my photography, create my note cards, rebuild my website and keep busy packaging and mailing the photos and note cards I’ve sold. I’d also expected to get back into reading a lot and relaxing with a good book. In 3 months time I’ve only read 2 books and only created 1 new set of note cards, and haven’t even gotten out the external hard drive on which my current website resides.

Of course taking two days to volunteer at the contact station cuts into my “free time”, but it’s well worth it. I love being down there and meeting new people and sharing information with the first timers.

It has been colder and windier than the previous 4 years we’ve been here at Christmas and New Years. Maybe it’s relative… the past 4 years we’ve only been here for 10 days to 2 weeks and this year we’re here for the season. I’m a wimp; the cold wind keeps me inside and not out shooting nature & wildlife, or sitting in the sun reading a book.

The other years we’ve been here, we’ve been able to go out for rides and explore. This year our financial situation is pretty limited. We can’t afford to buy the diesel to fuel the truck to go for rides. We limit our treks in the truck to grocery shopping & picking up pallets for firewood.

I still would not want to be anywhere but where I am, it’s just not as carefree and idealic as I’d expected/hoped for.

We’ve had more trials and issues than I think any one couple should have to deal with (would love to hear from those who’ve had similar issues)… our Honda 2000 generator was stolen shortly after we arrived here, had to buy a new one… refrigerator quit working, had to fold up the 5^th wheel and take it in to the repair shop to get fixed. They fixed it, go back to LTVA and settle in…not fixed! Fold up 5^th wheel and take it in to different repair shop and get it fixed. This time it was fixed. Thank heavens for warranties. Water pump quit working. It’s one of those “smart pumps” with a sensor to keep the water pressure even when more than one faucet is running… sensor wouldn’t work and this is the third pump dealing with this issue. This time we had them replace the pump with a “dumb pump”… no sensor, let the damned water pressure drop if more than one faucet is running. Heck! There’s only two of us, we can manage to not run water if the other is in the shower. Pump works fantastic and no issues so far with water pressure, etc… again, thank heavens for warranties, but we pay the bill and submit it to the factory for reimbursement… thank heavens for slush funds.

Out here in Quartzsite we often get heavy erratic winds… a whirligig wind catches our Internet satellite dish (on Christmas Day – Merry Christmas!), pulls the claw out of the ground and tosses the dish to the ground. It breaks the L&B Horn, which cannot be replaced and only, maybe, repaired with duct tape and epoxy.

My attitude is no longer “polyannaish”, but I’m still not a pessimist. I think I can still think optimistic, but leave room for the possibilities of negative happenings.

Thom worked on the Satellite Dish L&B today.  Neither one of us expected it to work.  We were told we needed to bend the horn back a bit and duct tape and epoxy the brackets.  Thom and I duct taped the brackets/horn (no bent horn or epoxy) today and reassembled the dish.  By golly!  We got signal.  Not as strong as before (was 51, now 46), but still a signal good enough to get online.

In the meantime we’ve ordered an automatic system installed on the roof.  It should be here on Jan 15th.  Hope the duct tape holds until then!

Christmas was not so merry this year.  The wind blew quite hard all day long and blew our internet satellite dish over — pulled the stakes right out of the ground.  When it fell the L&B hit the ground and broke.  I’m at the library now using their WIFI.  Scott at Satellite Advantage says the L&B probably can be duct taped & glued together to make it work.  We can’t buy just an L&B unless we go find one on E-Bay.

We did have a good ham dinner which we shared with our single next door neighbor.

Gotta go, battery running low.  Dagnabbit !

Christmas Eve dinner - Hot Dogs ‘n Cole Slaw… Hey! The cole slaw was homemade and we din’t do hot dog buns.  The saving grace was Terry came by with a banana bread… it is yummy!  Having a slice of that made us feel like we did justice to the holiday eve. Tomorrow’s dinner will make up for the rest.  Thank you Ron & Terry!!

Tonight was really fun. Two couples from across the wash came over to sit at the fire, one from Ohio, the other from Minnesota. Shortly after they arrived our other friends from across the wash came over, Mitch & Linda. Mitch brought his guitar and harmonica and sang a couple of songs for us. We chatted ‘n sang (well, Mitch did most of the singin’) ‘n shared stories. We hope to have several more nights of “hootenannies”.

Merry Christmas alla ya! Hope it’s all you want it to be.

I don’t think I got much of anything accomplished today other than welcoming a new neighbor and getting a couple of good photos… but that’s okay, today is Sunday.

Friday we registered a couple who’ve never done the LTVA thing before but wanted to give it a try. They do a lot of camp hosting during the summers. They parked just the other side of the wash from us so as I walked down the wash looking for colored rocks I stopped to welcome them and chat a bit. Their heater died last night (I guess it works off and on — right now is an off-time). They came over to enjoy our campfire with us and stay toasty warm for a bit. Their names are Mitch and Linda. I understand Mitch is an accomplished guitar and harmonica player as well as a singer. Hopefully next time they come over he will provide us with some music/song. I promise NOT to sing along.

Today was sunny and warm when the breeze was calm. I sat out in the sun a few feet from one of my hummingbird feeders, with my camera in my lap. A male Anna’s Hummingbird came up to my face, chittered at me as if to say “get the camera ready lady”, then flew over to the feeder and hovered in this pose and that. I got several good shots… here’s one.

I hope tomorrow will be a busy day for me. I want to make some peanut brittle, figure out a dessert for Christmas dinner and clean house. I hope to catch our other neighbor tomorrow long enough to ask him to join us for Christmas dinner, he’s going to be alone, and although my dinners are always easy and simple, & no great thing, I don’t think anyone should be alone on Christmas day.

Friday was fierce! There was a severe weather alert for high winds on Friday - 35 to 45 mph steady with gusts 45 to 55. Thom took the internet dish down Friday morning before we went to work. The wind howled all day long. It was really nasty.

We had a guy come in with a question on Friday that I couldn’t answer, so I went to Phyllis’ trailer to ask her. She came outside to walk to the station with me and right in front of us, not 10 feet away, loped this coyote. I didn’t have my camera with me, but was looking out the window a bit later and saw her coming back toward us, so I grabbed my camera and went outside and got several very nice pics.

In spite of the nasty wind on Friday, we got 9 registrations, only 3 today.

The weather today was much nicer, not a lot of wind and warmer.

Think it’s time to shut down the inverter.

It was a decent day weather-wise, but I spent most of it inside organizing files and trying to gain extra floor space by doing so. I’ve still got 1-1/2 drawers to go thru, but should be able to get down to just 2 drawers and get what I want. It’s too difficult to explain, suffice it to say I need a drawer’s worth of files to be able to put away, not easily accessed, and two drawers in some semblance of order and accessible.

It was cloudy today, and we have weather alerts out for high winds starting tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. That means steady winds from 30 - 45 mph, with gusts of 40 - 55 mph. Actually, I kind of like sitting in the contact station (at “work”) and listening to the wind howling. It did look like they had several new campers come in and register today… If tomorrow’s the same, I doubt Thom will enjoy going out to sticker permits on windows several times tomorrow if it’s super windy.  Lucky me… I get to sit in the station, filling out registrations ‘n eating English Toffee all day. *snicker* (while sitting in front of the heater)

I posted a comment on Sandy’s blog “Colored Outside The Lines” that she should post pics of her inside decorations… here’s mine: (I also have Santa sitting on top of my fridge) I love Christmas, but don’t do a lot since we retired to the 5th wheel.

Well, I’ll probably be back in a couple of days.  I sometimes find it difficult to post on the evenings of our work days… but if anything exciting happens, I’ll be sure to post as soon as I get home.

I got a lot accomplished today for not feeling up to par. As long as I tell myself I’m not sick, it’s just allergies, I can keep on truckin’.

I got my Christmas cards printed, written ‘n sent off.

I also got my candy “packages” put together & most of them delivered today. Still have a few left to go.

I even took a short walk today and found a few more colored rocks for my “color garden”. When I have it the way I want it, maybe I’ll take a pic and share.

Thom started looking at metal detectors today. He’s looked in the past and had been convinced White’s is what he wanted, but today he was shown another one he thinks he’d like better. I’m sure he’ll do a lot more research before deciding what he wangts. He’ll probably talk to Bob and others who have metal detectors and get input as to why they like or don’t like what they have. Wonder if Terry has one?

I’m tired and ready to put in a half hour or so of reading before calling it a night. Hope ya’ll have a good one.

P.S. It supposed to get cold again Friday and Saturday… Highs in the mid to high 50’s and lows in the freezing numbers, 30 - 32.

I’m feeling better and, nope, not gonna say any more re. neighbors ‘n complaints. I’ve probably said more than I need to, but am too lazy to go back and erase/change it.

Today I felt a bit better other than sneezing ‘n sniffling a lot. Still no energy.

I did manage to get a batch of English Toffee worked up today. It turned out just right. Since I’m diabetic, we’ll be sharing it with several friends.

The weather has been great. Warm enough to sit out in the sun and read, very little breeze.

The guys dumped the black ‘n gray tanks today ‘n brought back 75 gals. of fresh.

We’ve been having real issues with our water pump. We got our 5th wheel in Aug. 2007 and are currently on the 3rd water pump they’ve sent us. They’ve all had the same issue… this latest one worse than ever. We have to wait until this coming Monday to get anyone out to work on it (under warranty). In the meantime when I turn the water on, I get a couple of cups of water then the pump waits 2 or 3 minutes to deliver any more. I’m developing a good bit of patience.

I still haven’t got my Christmas cards printed and mailed, but did buy stamps today… does that make me a better person? I hope to print cards tomorrow and get them mailed tomorrow. I did get a 2008 calendar made and printed and put together for Mom today. I’ve used photos I’ve taken of our campsite and the birds that have visited us while she was here.

Time for me to sit back and read my book. Happy Tuesday ya’ll!

My sinuses quite misbehaving, didn’t have to blow my nose every 30 seconds, but sure have a fuzzy head and low grade fever. I hate feeling poopy!

The BLM gun totin’ ranger ‘n a QZ cop came visiting our next door neighbor. Poor guy got ticketed for a dog off leash. That was legitimate, the dog got off leash for about an hour, but it frustrates me that a neighbor has an agenda and sicks the gendarmes on someone to benefit themselves. I’m not gonna say any more, not until I’m healthy anyway.

I made a very simple potato soup for dinner & it turned out pretty good.