Author: Rae

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New Toad Starting Battery

My issues with the toad battery that started in December worsened to the point that I could no longer get a full charge and the battery was going flat every few days. Today, I finally had enough time to a) charge the battery enough to get the car started and b) get to the battery place.

Three people told me to that the car to All-Tra Battery on 3rd Avenue South, so that’s what I did. Service was very speedy! I came in and said I needed a new battery. A tech came out, determined what kind I needed, and went inside to get the new one. He told the person at the till what I was getting and I was able to pay immediately ($89.20, including taxes and installation). When I went back outside, the work was half completed. Sum total, I was out in less than five minutes!

I probably could have gotten a cheaper battery at Canadian Tire or Walmart, but when three people who don’t know each other and are in the automotive industry recommend a local business, I prefer to go there. I also know that going to a place that only deals in batteries, I’m going to get a fresh battery.

I thought of inquiring about prices for a couple of 12 volts for Miranda’s house battery bank, but decided to wait until the fall. I’m going to monitor how my new solar panel works over the course of a month’s travel to see if I have I have any surplus charging that I could apply to a second battery. This won’t even have to be scientific; I can just make note of how many mornings my battery is fully charged before noon and whether or not its overcast (if it’s overcast and I get a full charge, then I’ll know for sure I have a lot of waste!).

I can’t believe I only have two to three weekends left in Lethbridge and that before I know it, I’ll have to worry about things like battery and holding tank capacities again. Can’t wait!

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A Little Soggy

I was up in The Apartment this afternoon doing some transcription when I got an email from the new manager that said, grosso modo, a tenant has a broken tap and it’s spewing water everywhere and I can’t get a hold of maintenance. Did I any chance know where the shut off valve was?

Nope. So I raced downstairs to the other building, turned off a couple of taps in the boiler room until I got the water turned off for the building, and then pretty much waded into the tenants’ apartment. What. A. Mess. A bathtub tap had come right off; I’ve never seen anything like it and I have more than a casual acquaintance with plumbing issues. I used the tenants’ phone to call the office to find out that maintenance still wasn’t picking up. Thankfully, now that there wasn’t water pouring out of the tap and filling the tub faster than it could drain, I could turn the tap off manually.

So I handed the tenants a wet-dry shop vac and went back to the office to get a screw driver. When I came back with the tool, the apartment was a lot drier and I had no trouble turning the tap off. I can’t remember if all house-style plumbing has this, but all our taps have a metal cover below them, behind which is a pipe with a screw that can be used to turn the water on and off if the tap fails. That done, I was able to turn the water back on to the building.

Back at the office, I told the new manager to add to her to-do list, “Ask head office what to do in case there’s another plumbing emergency, maintenance won’t pick up, and Rae is gone!!!”

Such fun. 😀

I have made the switch in my brain and consider myself to be in a supporting role now. I’m putting in some face time at the office, but it’s a better use of my time to be upstairs doing transcription or other work for myself. I am in the pay period that will produce a mid-April pay cheque and will Friday fall into the first of May pay cheque period, so I am motivated to work my fingers to the bone in these last few weeks in Lethbridge. It would bring me peace of mind to know that I have income coming in during my trip east.

That said, my rig is nowhere near ready to go mode and my toad needs a new battery, so I need to start drilling down my list of priorities!

 

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Resting Before Departure Mania Starts

I’ve had a fairly calm ten days that included two full weekends and five weekday evenings off. The weather has been crappy and I decided to just coast. I have been working very hard this winter and it’s been good to just breathe and immerse myself in a new-to-me TV show and let my mind quiet itself in preparation for how much work is ahead of me. I’m transferring management of the apartment complex to the new manager, so the work day has been full. Soon as she’s up and running, I’ll start focusing on getting back on the road. I don’t expect to be able to breathe again until I’m across the North Dakota border!

This weekend, I met some folks who read Full-Time RVing in Canada and wanted to talk to me about it since they were coming through Lethbridge. Gary made another one of his great dinners last night. And, quite exciting, there are half-packed boxes in The Apartment!!! I’ve got a box per room in the rig. As soon as I complete work in each room, I’ll be able to start bringing things back in. I can’t wait to be home. 😀

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Safe Arrival of My Passport

(not my passport, but a reasonable facsimile thereof)

I had a notice this morning that there was a piece of registered mail waiting for me at the post office.

It took me a minute to clue in and realise that, hey, my passport had arrived! Other than the fact that my picture looks like a booking photo after I’ve had a hard night of criminal activity, all is good with it. They even returned my old passport!

The simplified passport renewal process has been a long time coming and I am delighted that it lives up to its name.

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I’ve Had Better Road Trippin’ Weather

Movin’ through the Rockies by way of the Crowsnest
These rocks are cursed, thrown up by some god
Who turned his back on a word called love— Paul Gross, ‘Angels’

I set off for Fort Steele at about 8:30 yesterday morning. I’d been following the forecast for a week and knew that I could expect some flurries through the Crowsnest Pass, but expected good roads since that forecast kept improving day by day. HA HA HA HA HA. By the time I hit Fernie, the roads were pretty slick. But I knew I was heading downhill from there and had a better chance of hitting good weather quickly if I kept going west than if I turned back east.

I was right. The first 50 or so klicks out of Fernie were abysmal but, without warning, the pavement became dry. It was really quite amazing. I pulled into a turn off to let an idiot race past me only to discover that half of the turnout had several inches of snow and the rest of it was bare! So it was smooth driving to Fort Steele from that point on.

I arrived at 12:45, only 40 minutes ‘late’ as per my GPS’ initial arrival estimate. So that just goes to show that slowing down for the conditions really doesn’t add that much time to a trip when compared to having to wait for a tow truck because you spun out into a ditch!

Donna wasn’t home from work when I arrived, so I had a few minutes to snuggle my favourite dog in the universe while Ken brewed me a very welcome cup of coffee. Donna arrived with vittles and we had lunch and gabbed for most of the afternoon.

We went into Cranbrook for dinner, all enjoying a very satisfactory dinner at ABC Country Restaurant. This is a BC chain of casual family restaurants; I ate at one in Victoria. Donna and Ken had been there a few times and had a few recommendations, including getting the roasted red-skin potatoes in lieu of baked or mashed. Yum!

Back at the Ark, we gabbed some more, then Ken retired for the night. Donna and I chatted into the wee hours of the morning as she ran down the battery on my iPad playing a game. It’s a good thing I brought it. I’m not sure how she would have entertained herself otherwise. 😉

Needless to say, we all got a very late and lazy start to today, which included watching two movies. I headed out around 3PM in good weather conditions and had nice dry pavement all the way through the Crowsnest. I thought I was home free. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.

The sky became more swollen and angry the further east I drove and it finally erupted over Fort McLeod. I pretty much crawled for the last 50 klicks of the drive in near zero visibility with big fat snowflakes clinging to my windshield wipers. It’s still snowing and it’s sticking. Yuck! I am so glad to be home. I just checked the forecast and Lethbridge is under a winter storm warning.

Even though the driving conditions were less than ideal, I am so happy that I had a chance to visit with my friends before the spring migration. Based on today’s projections, we will see each other again sometime next summer…

Before I sign off, does anyone care to guess what the liquor store in Blairmore is meaning to say with this sign?!