Month: July 2008

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So Close…

Miranda is legally mine. I received the necessary paperwork today to go to the SAAQ and get her plated. Once again, I lucked out with a licence plate that has numbers which are meaningful to me, so I already know the plate number by heart.

She’s legally mine… but I have no keys yet. I have nothing nice and or non-sarcastic to say about that, so I’ll refrain from commenting.

I got Pommette the toad back from having her base plate installed. There is still more to do, and I still can’t tow, but I’m very close. In order for me to be able to tow, I’m missing the plug that would connect the car electric system to Miranda’s. I didn’t know what sort of plug she has, so the mechanic was unable to install it. I went over tonight to ogle my gal, pet her, and take a photograph of the connector. Hopefully, the missing component can be installed tomorrow. After, there’s another thing that needs to be installed, but I’ll be okay to tow short distances until Blue Ox gets the part to the garage.

Finally, my back up camera arrived. I took one look at the installation instructions and blanched, but I’m sure I can get it installed. It’ll just take longer than the instructions say it will.

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Tales from the Legal Code of Quebec

Did y’all know that until April 15th of this year, it was illegal to have a GPS in your car?

I joked with my friend last night that she should have a GPS so she won’t get lost when she goes to my place. She said she has one, but doesn’t use it in Quebec because they’re illegal here.

Turns out, she wasn’t all that wrong since the law only changed very recently.

I do suspect it’s a case of the law not keeping up with technology, though, because the law said that it is illegal to keep a screen of some sort where the driver can see it. An exemption needed to be made for GPS units.

Took them long enough.

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Mobility and Community

I’ve been following the adventures of Sean and Louise, fulltiming in Odyssey, a 40′ Neoplan bus, for quite a long time now.

I remember reading their blog for the first time and thinking “Wow, I’d love to do that… but there’s absolutely no way I could.” I credit Louise for indirectly getting me out of that mentality. I had so many excuses for not getting on the road, one of which was that my cats would simply tear up the motorhome with their claws. She presented a solution, Softpaws, and helped me realise that there was a solution to all my excuses. Flash forward many months, and here I am, a month and a half before my own fulltiming dream begins!

Sean and Louise are presently volunteering for the Red Cross. Their current blog entries have chronicled their mad dash from Wyoming to Texas, and they’re about to be on the move again.

I cannot wait to have this sort of mobility.

When my father was ill, I wanted to move to be closer to him. That wasn’t feasible in the amount of time he had left. How nice it would have been to have the freedom to drop my job for a few months, something I could have done had I necessary mobility, to be with him full time!

Or how about those interesting temporary job postings for which I can’t apply because moving house wouldn’t make financial sense and staff housing wouldn’t work because of the catkids?

How about volunteer opportunities during times of disaster?

Or even cases like this week where I realised just how unsafe is the area in which I’m living?

Most of the people I know in the ‘real’ world are extremely sedentary. They would look at this post and say “Yeah, mobility has its advantages, but you have to give up having a community.”

I couldn’t disagree more. In just a few short months, I’ve learned that RVers form a community unto themselves, partly ‘real’ and partly virtual. I can’t wait to compare that sense of community to that which I’ve experienced in the various places I’ve lived.

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Glimmer of Hope For Next Weekend!

One of Miranda’s current owners will be able to pick up the cheque in Laval in person on Tuesday and at the same time drop off the registration papers. Once they confirm the cheque is good, they’ll call me so I can get keys, which a neighbour will be holding for me. If everything continues to go as smoothly as it has, this will happen no later than Thursday so I should be able to take advantage of the one evening the SAAQ is open late and therefore get Miranda’s plates right away.

Pommette (the toad) is going in tonight to get her base plate installed tomorrow, so she’ll be nice and ready for when I go pick up Miranda.

Of course, picking up Miranda this way will mean that I won’t be getting a crash course in her systems. So, it looks like I’ll be learning the hard way. 😀