Month: January 2013

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The Days Are Getting Longer

It’s lovely to be sitting here just past 6PM and for the sky to still be light. It gets dark very fast, but at least I don’t eat dinner in the dark any more! It also gets light earlier; the solar charge controller clicked on just before 7:00 this morning! And what a beautiful sound that is, might I add. The click off in the evening isn’t so nice. 🙂

The rain promised for today never came and I had a moderate charge coming in all day. I used my computer a lot, so my batteries are sitting at about 88% right now. Not great, but it’ll be sunny again tomorrow and I need to run errands, so the batteries will have a chance to get a good soak while I charge the computer in the truck.

One thing today made me realise is that buying a keyboard for my iPad wouldn’t be a frivolous idea. Most of today’s computer power consumption was spent on the writing of what might end up being my next ebook. I could have typed for twice as long on my iPad and still had plenty of juice left on it.

I’ll be heading out for a walk soon even though it’s windy and chilly out there. I didn’t get out much today, but an after dinner stroll to the trash bins is always pleasant. 🙂

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More Paint Touch Ups

Today, I decided to push ahead with the paint touch up project. The green in the office was the most pressing as there was a lot of damage to the walls from the installation of the new desk. I gently sanded the worst of the marks, then applied a couple of coats to the bad spots. There is still visible damage, but at least the colour is uniform.

Then, I pulled out the pink paint for the dressing room. Incidentally, that’s the pink that made me fall in love with pink. Until I fell upon that colour, I loathed pink. You’d never guess that now! I would love to repaint the dressing room in a shinier finish paint, but I’ll never be able to match the current colour exactly, so I prefer to do touch ups, most of which involved painting some of the new trim my mother installed. Most of the trim in the rig is brown, but if it’s on a coloured wall, then I paint it to match the wall.

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Muuuuuuuch better.

The next colour I’m pulling out is the golden brown. That will be a rig-wide job that will warrant taking out a roller. And then priming the new wall. And then, the biggie, which is the yellow. I want to completely empty the front room, wash the walls really well, and do two coats over what’s already there and four coats over the new wall. I’m not touching the loft, however!

It’s only 1:30PM, so you’d think I could take the brown out today, but it’s just too dark in here to do a good job. The rain hasn’t come and I doubt it will, but the sky is very overcast. It’s windy out and quite cool. My after lunch beach walk was short!

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The clouds were very dark this morning, but have lightened up.

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I don’t think I’ll ever find anything more random washed up on a beach anywhere.

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More Dreams RVers Have

I’m still having trouble with my battery monitor and I’ve isolated the problem. What finally solved the mystery were the readings I got when I came in yesterday afternoon. I had left nothing on but the fridge when I left for Port Lavaca and there was full sun. When I came in, my solar monitor was flashing that my batteries were full while the battery monitor claimed that not only was my battery completely depleted, it was drawing over 100 amps!

Looking at the wiring diagram, I was able to figure out where I have a bad connection so I don’t have to remove all of my electrical tape and start over. The plan is to disconnect the monitor, fix the bad connection, and then reconnect it. I don’t think that will happen today as they’re calling for rain and big black clouds are rolling in, but I might have time…

So last night, I dreamt that I did the rewiring. And all the while I was contorting myself into a pretzel trying to get all the wiring done correctly, I was thinking, “You moron, you’re dreaming. Wake up. You don’t want to do this twice.”

Instead, I got up (in the dream) and went to check on my windshield. It was covered in a giant spiderweb of cracks. Again, I thought, “Wake up, stupid!”

So dream me headed back to bed, idly noticing a faint, “Beach parking limited to 12 hours sign” placed in front of the rig. I snuggled back down to sleep and was just dozing off when I felt my RV move as it was getting towed.

And that’s all it took to wake me up. Sheesh! 😀

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Generator, Augh!

My Colorado neighbours seem to be gone for good 🙁 and have been replaced with tent campers who have been running a very loud and smelly generator for several hours! It’s going to drive me to drink!

The class A on the other side of me also runs a generator for several hours a night, but it is a small portable Honda model that you only hear when you’re right next to the rig. I really should get rid of mine and get one of those little portable models as a backup. This is not the first time I’ve seen them in action and they could change the reputation of generators as obnoxious peace destroyers.

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Local Cuisines

I like to think I have a pretty diverse palate. There is very little I absolutely won’t eat, but there are plenty of cuisines that just don’t tickle my taste buds.

Folks get all excited about the Cajun and Creole cuisine New Orleans way, but it just does zip for me. That’s why I didn’t go out of my way to find any when I was in Louisiana. The spices don’t do anything for me, I can’t digest green peppers, and okra makes me gag. I also have a hard time with deep fried foods and anything cooked with a lot of grease. Once in a while is fine, but I’d rather have sushi. 🙂 I know I give off the impression that I have a poor diet and eat lots of junk food, but the fact is that I balance the not so good stuff I eat out by eating very well at home.

Anyway, so now I’m in Texas. And in Texas they eat what I know as ‘Tex-Mex’ food but which they call ‘Mexican.’ I don’t think I could ever get enough of Tex-Mex. I could probably eat fajitas every day at a different location and not get sick of them. When I was in Scotland, I ate a veggie burger almost every day because they were ubiquitous and I never had two the same. I should do a similar exercise with fajitas while I’m here!

The fajitas I had today actually weren’t quite as good as those at the Lone Star Texas Grill in Ottawa, which I’m sure is blasphemy. But they were otherwise the best I have eaten anywhere else. Fresh tortillas, lightly seasoned chicken, toothsome shrimps, loads of grilled onion (my favourite part), and great mix ins that included beans, rice, pico de gallo and guacamole. I didn’t think I’d be hungry enough to touch my leftovers tonight, but I found room for a small one for dinner and have enough left for a nice lunch tomorrow!

Today, I was taught how to eat jalapeños, which is about time! Oh, I have consumed them before, in salsa and nachos and such, but it was always with trepidation because I don’t like hot stuff. A bit of heat is fine, but searing off my taste buds seems pointless to me. Anyway, I learned that if I remove the seeds from the peppers, they are very tasty! I have been advised to try poblanos as well. I know I’ve had those before, but I can’t remember in what context. I suspect I will be less afraid of hot peppers by the time I leave Texas if I end up eating out a lot here.

And the same goes for avocados. I’ve never had any use for them (I’ll eat them, no problem, I just don’t see what the fuss is all about), but I think it’s just because I’ve never had a truly fresh one made up into real good guacamole. Quick, I need a distraction so I don’t go raid the fridge!