Work

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A Quiet Couple of Days

This post is just so no one sends the Mounties out after me as I really have nothing to report. Yes, there are pixels below, but only proceed if you’re bored.

The weather’s been really grey, cool, and windy the last couple of days (although the sun seems to have decided to come out), so I’ve just been staying in and getting work done.

I have a transcription client who pays me peanuts, but lets me choose projects from a pool of available ones with no minimum to complete in any set period. So I turn to that client when things are slow with my better paying clients. This week, I got some really interesting ones, including some interviews that are likely going to be part of a ‘making of’ bonus feature on a DVD of a movie starring a famous Hollywood actor. Interesting ones like that make up for the poor rate of pay since it’s something I would have listened to for nothing!

But I’m not getting as much work done as I’d like because of my slow connection. It takes ages to download my transcription files and I can’t work on anything web-based, like Squidoo or the new site I will be launching shortly. There’s no rhyme or reason to what I can connect to or not, no Youtube, but Netflix is working way too well for me. Most annoying is Google, which hasn’t worked about 95% of the time since I got online at Haven. Bing works fine, though, but boy are its results crap!!!

So the connector for my booster’s high gain antenna can’t come fast enough. It’s been in Markham, ON, for days. I really should take this time to figure out how to get the antenna cable into the office more permanently than just bringing it in through the window, but the high winds haven’t made me want to get up on the roof!

In related news, I got my Verizon bill today and it really confused me, which was a tad frustrating since I haven’t figured out yet how, or if, I can even call them Canada. I had cancelled my data plan before returning to Canada, but kept my Nationwide + Canada voice plan, which is $60 a month. My bill was $44. I thought they goofed and took me off the Canada plan (ouch, I’ve been making calls!), but then I found a link to where I could download a PDF of the bill, which had more details and allowed me to go ah ha!

What happened was that I had essentially prepaid for the next billing period, but canceled the data plan before the end of that billing period. So they credited me a pro-rated portion of the data charge. Wow, these guys never cease to amaze me. There’s no way that would have happened in Canada, at least not in my past experiences with telecom here.

My phone is problematic out here. I get enough signal with the Mifi to check my messages, but not to place calls. The field where I can get online doesn’t give my phone enough bars to use. I had to make a call the other day and wound up driving 16KM (one way) to get 2 bars. I hope the high gain antenna can make the phone usable here. But I mostly use it to speak to my mother regarding work projects, so if I get here the internet speeds I got in the field, then we will just switch to using Skype or some other VOIP solution. With a good internet connection, anything is possible!

So that’s all the thrilling news out of Haven. I’m off shortly to attend Canasta night. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of Little RV On the Prairie! *snorts*

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Okay, I’m Done

The last couple of days have been all the proof I need that internet is a vital to the running of my business and that I cannot get by without having it at home!

I have a number of different jobs to do today, one of which is proofreading a French document. All my tools for that are online. So I’m doing that job in the truck. As a reminder, my truck has neither a bathroom, a kitchen, nor a cuddly cat.

My booster order left Richmond (B.C.) this morning. Come on Canada Post, get it here FAST!

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Haven

It’s been a quiet day. I had about four hours of transcription to do, so I just powered through in order to be able to spend the afternoon out here in the field doing online stuff, including shopping for an amplifier. When I get home shortly, I look forward to making a giant batch of pita and falafel. I think I’ve had enough of adventure for a bit. 🙂

I walked around my property this morning and gasped at all the ruts I’ve made with Miranda and the truck. I thought, “Wow, someone is going to be really upset with me!” And then it finally hit me. This land on which I’m parked is mine. If I don’t care about ruts, no one else will. It is still completely surreal to me that I am a landowner. Sure, it’s nothing special, just a small boxed lot with no real view in a decrepit village, but it’s mine.

And it might not be what I would have wanted, but it’s what I need. And that’s key when you have limited means of making such purchases. Yes, a big open tract of prairie would have been lovely, but can you imagine the wind out there? What about driving to and onto the lot? I have decent paved roads into the village and a proper entrance onto my property. And if I do decide to bring in utilities, it’s not going to be complicated. It’s low maintenance, has low property taxes, and, for being out in the middle of nowhere, is well situated. It was a sensible purchase.

Now that I’ve spent a couple of days parked there, I know it’s going to work out just fine as an RV pad once I figure out the logistics of getting water in and trash out. Minor details.

I’m naming my property Haven, mostly in the sense of “an inlet providing shelter for ships or boats; a harbor”, but also in the sense of “a place of safety or refuge”, after yet another planet from the movie Serenity. And don’t anybody tell me it’s weird to have one planet parking on another; okay? This is my ‘Verse and it has its own logic. 🙂

Even nomads need a safe harbour. I’m glad I found mine.

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Relocating the Office to the Marina at Indianola

Today boasted an afternoon too beautiful to be spent cooped up indoors.

I had just finished the newest draft of the new ebook and was at the point where I needed to print it out to be able to effectively proof it. So I decided to get it out on paper, then head over to the marina at Indianola for a few hours to work on the book there.

I put in an order for lunch and then sat outside to work and watch the fishermen. It was very windy in the sun, but too cold in the sheltered areas, so I held tight to my precious paperwork!

The marina is a nice place to spend time even if you don’t fish. There are lots of tables with a good view:

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I indulged in a chicken bacon ranch sandwich (delicious!) and opted for their yummy hush puppies as a side rather than their anemic fries.

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The exterior:

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Coming back home, I stopped at the monument to La Salle, the same dude who has a bunch of stuff named after him in Quebec, including a borough of Montreal.

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Indianola was a major town in the area in the 1800s until it was wiped out twice by two hurricanes and a fire. It is now a ghost town.

Finally, there is a fire burning close to the beach. Check out the smoke, it has completely obliterated the sun:

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Sunday Miscellanea

I had quite the adventure at the laundromat this afternoon, as far as laundromat adventures go.

First off, I got there and I realised that I forgot my detergent!!!! There was no attendant to sell the little one-use boxes of the stuff, but, thankfully, a nice lady took pity on me and let me use some of hers (¡Muchas gracias, señora!).

I also needed change and the change machine took some convincing to convert my $20 into a mountain of quarters.

I loaded up two machines, put in money, and one of the machines refused to turn on. $1.50 down the drain, literally.

I managed to tap out a whole rough chapter while my loads ran. I’m getting quite good and productive with the iPad!

Then, it was time to try the dryers. One of my loads did not spin properly so I had to wring it out by hand since there was no setting on the washers for just spin and I correctly guessed that rerunning the load would be most costly and take more time than just drying it as is. Fun. I could have done this at home on the beach with a view. 🙂

For the dryers, I had to put in a quarter, turn a knob, then press a button. I knew that the machine was working if giant flames started shooting out of the top of the dryer. I am not kidding.

My loads, even the sopping wet one, dried reasonably quickly and laundry ended up costing me $6.25, a fair price.

At one point, I noticed a guy holding a screwdriver had come in and begun to work on a washer. When he was done, I asked him if he could rescue my six quarters from the bad machine. He did not object and he was still trying to fix the dang thing by the time I left!

All the machines in the laundromat were very old, but the place was quite clean. The whole experience reminded me of carting my laundry to the Wilbrod Laundromat in Ottawa’s Sandy Hill in the late ’90s. 🙂

I was up working on a project by 6:15 this morning (no hardship, I was just up and at ’em by that time!), so I was pretty zonked when I came in at about 3:00. I wanted to get more work done, but was rescued by my French-Canadian neighbour who needed some help with her iPad. I got her mostly sorted out and then it was time for a beer!

Ugly weather is incoming. 🙁 The temperature has dropped and the wind has picked up. The truck is going to get quite a workout charging my computer in the next few days and I think I will go investigate the Port Lavaca library to see if it has any power outlets. If so, I could easily spend a couple of grey afternoons there.

I still don’t have a really full charge and tomorrow I might bite the bullet and ask the French-Canadian neighbours if I could rent their genset for a few hours so that I can start this grey stretch with a charged battery bank and properly calibrated battery monitor.

Finally, a humourous note. I watched the movie About Schmidt last night, in which the main character sets off on an RV journey in his brand new Winnebago Adventurer. Guess the make and model of the latest addition to our little beach community? What a funny coincidence! I can’t believe that movie is 10 years old! I definitely appreciate it more now that I’m an RVer. I could watch that guy park his rig and get parking tickets all day. There’s just something about someone nonchalantly driving a 35′ class A motorhome like it was a subcompact that is hilarious!