September 22, 2011 by Rae

Moving Towards Acceptance

I have taken THE big step towards accepting that I will be back in a house semi-bound life for six months: I ordered internet service. Telus has a special; super fast internet with 500GB of bandwidth for $30 a month for the first six months. I will be downgrading my cellular modem to the flex plan so that I still have it available should I travel this winter or the other internet goes down. So that will be $35 a month. The total will be $65 (plus taxes and fees, of course), which is exactly what I pay now for my 5GB mobile account!

Once again, I’d like to make it clear that the only reason I am staying in Lethbridge this winter is the sudden availability of health services. Getting signed on with a family doctor in just two phone calls was life-altering, but what followed was even more amazing. I had initially booked a physical for January, but I don’t want to wait that long to see the doctor. So I called and asked if I could get a regular appointment sooner… and I got one for October 5th!

I have no intention of getting settled into this apartment. I will make it as cozy and functional as I can for six months, but I am bringing the strict minimum with me and will invest as little as possible into making it habitable. There are so many things I will miss: having many rooms, the double sink in my kitchen, my kitchen’s much more functional layout, my huge shower. But I am looking forward to having a bath!

In the next week I will scrub every inch of the apartment and start to make an inventory of what is coming into it. Of course, Miranda will be parked very close by, so I can grab what I need, but I want to see how little I can live with.

November should be a much slower month for me with nice days at the beginning. So with the rig empty, I’d like to repaint the study and do another coat of yellow in the kitchen/library/loft. I’ve made a list of other small projects that I could do weather-depending that would be much more doable with the rig empty.

The only big project on the table for this winter will be planning my shortened US route for my trip through there in the spring! Six months will go by fast, I know it, and soon I will be back on the road, healthy and ready for more adventures. That’s how I’m looking at this winter; just one more adventure in this crazy, wonderful, nomadic life of mine.

September 16, 2011 by Rae

Furnishing the Castle

It was quite the busy Friday and I’m only in the supper lull before the final push.

I was up early to do transcription, then I had to call my new financial planner to discuss my portfolio. Based on the fact that I don’t plan to touch that money for, oh, twenty years or so, if not more, we’ve decided to go with a slightly more aggressive strategy, that will possibly result in short-term losses, but also increase the changes of long-term gains. Discussing my nest egg is always surreal when I look at my bank balance. 🙂 That’s probably the best advice I could give to someone who decides to RV pre-retirement. Have some untouchable investments so that you can live with yourself when your bank balance is in the negative digits as you build a new, mobile life.

At any rate, things are looking up for me. I am insanely busy, but I am also seeing money come in that is equivalent to the effort I am putting out. Today, I got some payments from a couple of sources of passive income that will more than pay the internet bill this month. This is the sort of income I am trying to build, the kind where you do the work once and then are paid in near perpetuity, whether it’s through royalties, commissions, or ad-sharing revenue.

Work was good. I said something to a tenant that made me realise just how far I’ve come in the last three years: “If I were you, I wouldn’t talk to me in that tone when I’m the person who can get things done for you.” Don’t cross Rae! 😀

In the afternoon I went shopping for blinds for my office and… a microwave for my apartment. That microwave will eventually end up in my office to replace the dinosaur there, but I get to enjoy it first. This will be my first time with a brand new microwave. I wouldn’t call such a device a necessity, but since it was offered to me, I’m glad to accept it! The rest of the furnishings will trickle into the apartment as an inventory of available things is made. It is going to be so strange living in a space almost three times the size of Miranda!

Well, I just finished a supper of tomato sandwiches (thanks to a lovely tenant who is keeping me supplied with my beloved red spheres) and I’m off to do two more hours of fliers, then as many hours of transcription as possible before I start to sleep at the desk. I’m so glad I savoured all that time off in the spring, knowing that things would get like this soon enough. But I’m dropping the fliers at the end of the month and will be losing my commute, so more than just the odd day of free time may pop up.

August 24, 2011 by Rae

Up On Blocks

Last night, I noticed that Miranda was listing on the passenger side and thought that she had perhaps sunk into the ground. But no. When I came out this morning, I discovered that the front passenger tire was flat as a pancake!!!

I asked around at work and was able to borrow an air compressor. That’s something I’ve been wanting to buy, but the one I want is a lot more money in Canada, so I planned to get it this winter. Anyway, this compressor I borrowed was perfect; 2 gallon tank, 125PSI, and, maybe most important, I could lift it!

The compressor was super easy to use. Just plug in, wait for it to stop making a racket, then apply the tip of the hose to the tire valve. Worked like a charm. Except that the reason my tire went flat was that the valve was kaput! So the air was rushing out as fast as it was going in.

Jody came to see me just as I got home and was messing with everything, so she was able to call Gary and ask him to bring a jack home so that I could at least get the weight off the wheel. But that wasn’t good enough for my wonderful host. Oh, no:

my borrowed air compressor in the foreground, with Gary beside it trying to get the hubcap off

can you see how flat the tire is?

I feel like a redneck with my home up on blocks!

Yup. Gary loosened the tire nuts, got Miranda on the jack, slid blocks under her to stabilize the frame (yay, I’m level again!), took the tire off, and determined that the tire is okay but the inner tube is rotten. So, my plan went from getting a mobile tire repair place to come to me ($$$) to bringing my tire to a repair place this weekend, having Gary reinstall it, then taking it for torquing ($). But do you know what Gary did? He left with my tire to get it fixed tomorrow. Can you believe that man?!

And Jody isn’t much better! When she saw how depressed I was tonight (I had a day from hell, and it had nothing to do with my job), she said “I brought home pizza. Come and have some.” So I didn’t have to worry about dinner AND she sent me home with beer, two corn on the cob that I look forward to boiling for dinner tomorrow, and some muffins!

It is a wonder of the RVing life that it can make friends out of strangers so quickly. I continue to be so grateful to be here.

July 24, 2011 by Rae

Sleepover

I just got in from visiting Ken and Donna in Mossleigh. What a great weekend for a visit, the weather was lovely!

It was at about 3:30 that I headed out there yesterday, arriving at 5. I had a beer then Ken followed up on his promise of taking me for a ride in their HDT, Pepe! This was my first time in a big ‘semi’ and I loved the view from up high!

We had a nice dinner that furthered my re-introduction into the world of eating pork and included some very yummy cheesecake I had brought along.

Their new toyhauler has a really good layout. I wouldn’t have wanted to stay over in their old Okanagan, but the garage is pretty much a guest suite. It has two bunks, a half-bath, and an exit. I also love the kitchen that’s set up in the nose since I could set out dessert and do the dishes last night while looking down into the living room and following the conversation.

Donna made up the lower bunk in the garage and it was just like sleeping at home, requiring a ladder to climb up and having a low ceiling. 😀

okay, I could have made an effort and made up the bed 🙂

I slept very well… even if I stayed up a bit too late enjoying Youtube on my iPod Touch thanks to the campground wifi. Oh, how I miss you Youtube. 🙂

This morning, I helped Donna with a couple of projects. The gal actually trusted me to cut and hem a lovely curtain she bought to separate the kitchen from the bedroom, replacing a cumbersome sliding door. The end result wasn’t exactly straight, but she was pleased. 🙂

They treated me to an awesome brunch in the dining car. If you’re ever in the Mossleigh area (basically just south of Calgary), you need to go have Sunday brunch at Aspen Crossing! There were hashbrowns, sausage, pancakes, French toast, biscuits, fruit salad, bacon, meatballs, rice, desserts, and more. Yuuuuuuuuuuum.

And, of course, my best buddy Midnight made sure he got in plenty of cuddle time with his auntie Rae. Dogs are amazing that way, you really feel like you’re dealing with a small child. I knew it was me he was happy to see.

This weekend was badly needed after the weekend I had. Thanks guys!

July 17, 2011 by Rae

Thunder (and Lightning and Hail) In the Valley

Yesterday (Saturday) evening Jody, Gary, and I drove out to the Crowsnest Pass to witness the annual fireworks show known as Thunder in the Valley. What makes the show so special is that the noise from the fireworks echoes in the mountains.

The fireworks are launched from the town of Blairmore, Alberta. There is always a large delay to get back to Lethbridge because of the number of cars so Jody thought it would be best for us to camp in the area. The nearest campground that would allow a single night stay was Mountain Shadows in Sparwood, BC. So we drove there (2.5 hours from Lethbridge) first so I could set up a tent (they sleep in their van) and also meet up with some of Gary’s family (the wonderful one whom we visited in Humboldt) who had gone on ahead.

Tent set up and dinner eaten, we headed back to Blairmore (45 minutes east of Sparwood) and found a spot up a dead end road. We set up chairs and within minutes I felt big, cold drops of rain hit me. Before long, the drops turned to a downpour and we ran back to the truck! The rain came down for a bit then stopped, giving us hope that the show would go on, but then it started up again. What a downpour!!! It was so violent and hail came down in loud plunks. Many people thought the show would not go on, so they left. We stuck it out and at about 11:30 the first fireworks went off.

The echoing effect was spellbounding! It was definitely worth going even if it was cold and wet!

We headed back to Sparwood after the show and I was glad to discover my tent and its contents were still dry. I did a quick toilette, crawled into my PJs, and went to bed.

The ground was hard and the noise from the highway was deafening, but I was warm and snug, so I was quite satisfied that I fell asleep immediately at 1AM and awoke at quarter to six. That’s actually a pretty decent camping night for me. We weren’t meeting up with Gary’s family for brunch until about 11AM, so I knew I had plenty of time to kill. I laid in bed and listened to an audio book for about an hour and then crawled out of my tent to use the most luxurious outhouse in the world: it has a flush toilet! There was no point crawling back into the tent so I literally wandered around the campground for three hours listening to my audio book.

This was such a pleasant morning. It was a trifle damp, but not cool, and the air felt so fresh. I took pictures of flowers and wandered up and down trails for a bit. At about 9, I headed back to our site to start dismantling my tent and packing up my gear, then sat on a dry corner of the picnic table to continue listening to my book. I decided to give Gary and Jody till 10:15, but they got up shortly before that.

We made quick work of packing, then drove out to meet up with Gary’s family. We had a nice ‘brunch’ (from the lunch menu) at the excellent restaurant attached to the hotel in Sparwood, then we headed home.

Like the first time Jody and I were in Sparwood, we stopped at Lundbreck Falls and we made a few other stops. So it was past five when we pulled in to home. My cats were happy to see me but we didn’t hang out for long since I got invited over for another Gary dinner. Yum-yum.

There’s nothing like a sleepless night away from home to recharge my batteries! 🙂