Homemaking

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Pre-Departure Checklist

Since Miranda has essentially been in storage for the last six months, I have a few things to do that weren’t necessary the last time I spent six months in one location (Campbell River). When I take her out next week, probably Wednesday, I’ll have to add these things to the departure checklist:

-dewinterize the plumbing and check for leaks

-start up the fridge and make sure it runs on both 120V and propane

-fill up the water heater and make sure it fires up

This is in addition to:

-checking tire pressure

-having the front passenger wheel retorqued

-getting fuel and propane

-taking on water

-topping up the distilled water in the batteries

It’s incredible that I am counting down to departure in days now, and that two weeks from now will find me back in North Dakota.

I thought I would feel anxious about getting back out on the road, but nope, I am only excited!

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Triumph Over Electricity

I can’t believe it’s been about two months, but I finally got my two 120V outlets installed in the study!!!

What a learning curve this was… Every time I thought I was done, my electrical tester would tell me there was a loose connection. I rewired the outlets a number of times and finally got the test to show two orange lights meaning that all was good with both outlets. I closed everything up and retested one more time to make sure. The undercabinet one was fine, but the bottom one suddenly showed one orange light, meaning ‘open neutral.’

electrical tester, open neutral is the second one down from the top

I did some research and all of it told me to look at the outlet powering the one showing a fault. The wiring on it was nice and tight. Voltage on both outlets was the same, varying from day to day between 114 and 118, but steady at the same number. Nothing seemed loose and I didn’t have enough wire left to be able to rewire again.

This day next week, I aim to be running around with Miranda getting her prepped for departure. So I’m on a time crunch for painting. I decided that I would take one more look today, then close up the electrical project and admit defeat on it.

I decided that the undercabinet outlet was fine so I turned my attention back to the lower one. I poked the wires a tad and then, oops, the white wire jiggled! Bingo! I used needle nose pliers to keep the wire tight against the screw as I tightened the connection. I put the tester back in the outlet, flipped on the power, and voila! I closed everything up (looks nice, I’ll have pictures once the painting’s done), and tested again. Perfect!

As for the new 12V outlet, I learned a lot from my disastrous first attempt to install a 12V outlet, and this installation was a cinch. I’ll have pictures of that one, too, once the painting’s done as I am very pleased with the neat installation of it.

I cannot believe how accomplished I feel. Now, I need to go get a coat of green paint on so that I can finish the green in the morning and then get a coat of primer of the stuff that’s going to be golden brown!

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Turning the Key

This afternoon, I decided to continue procrastinating on getting the study done and instead cleaned up the cab. I sat down in the driver’s seat and decided to check if Miranda would start since the battery didn’t appear to be too low. But I knew that she’s been sitting for six months, so I expected a few hiccups.

HA HA HA HA

I turned the key and Miranda started immediately, smooth as can be. I let her run for a bit, enjoying the purr of her V-10 engine.

Two weeks from now at about this time, I should be pulling into the Moose Jaw Walmart.

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Return to Mindfulness

In a few hours, my high speed internet connection will be terminated and I will have to go back to my very limited 5GB cellular connection. The new billing period starts on the ninth, so I can use that entire 5GB in a week, making the return to limited bandwidth not too drastic just yet. And I’ll be back on high speed when I get to Quebec, so this is just for six weeks. I opted to terminate the connection tomorrow because that was the last day of the billing cycle. The way internet is billed, I pay a month ahead of time, so I should not have to pay for anything else, but I will ask Jody to keep her eye out for a Telus envelope with my name on it just in case.

This winter, I haven’t had to think my use of water or electricity or internet or propane nor have I had to worry about sewage. It’s been very easy, and very mindless. I find that the days tend to run a little less into each other when you have to monitor your utilities. because it hasn’t been that long since you dumped or took on water or because your batteries have been rather low for a few days. It’s a combination of small things that help me feel more engaged in my life. There is so much I miss about living in my RV and mindfulness is at the top of the list. Cooking over a flame is also near the top of the list. 🙂

I am giving the apartment complex a few more hours early this week but I am hoping that by Wednesday I will be pretty much done. I ended up putting in a full eight-hour plus day on Saturday, which had not been on my schedule! So I wound up spending today doing transcription rather than working in the rig.

As for my rig preparations, I’m downscaling them as I always do since my mother reminded me that she has her full woodworking shop and some of her free time at my disposal. So I will finish up my work in the study and call it done, unless the time to do that materializes this week and I have time to take on the other projects.

April 11th is marked on my calendar as the day to take Miranda out for fuel, propane, and dewinterizing, and April 16th is down as the absolute last morning for pulling out. Having those dates firmly set in my calendar makes the idea of departure from Lethbridge much more real. I have now been in Lethbridge exactly one year and am 14 days away from leaving. While I have no regrets about the last twelve months, I am ready to go. Well, mentally at least. Physically, I’m hustling. 🙂

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Winter’s Bittersweet Refrain

BRRRRRR!!!

February is going out like a lion! It’s unfortunately too cold to work in the rig, so my electrical and painting projects are on hold. Eep! The forecast does have us moving back up towards a thaw for next weekend, so I’ll hopefully be able to catch up then!

I’ve been feeling really spent the last couple of weeks, so I spent the bulk of today curled up with my cats and the iPad. Tomorrow, I’m going to continue preparing The Apartment for my imminent departure. I should be back home within a month or so!