Homemaking

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Procrastination Burnout

In April, I hit renovation burnout. Five months later, tired of tripping over trim, paint cans, tools, and bits and bobs that’ll probably end up in the trash, but which I want to hang on to till the end of the renos, I’ve hit procrastination burnout.

So, this afternoon I went outside, got the handsaw and mitre box, and did this:

half of the library floor, in desperate need of trim

half of the library floor, in desperate need of trim

trim!

trim!

a handsaw's not a bad tool!

a handsaw’s not a bad tool!

I actually found it much easier to do the trim with the handsaw than I did with the mitre saw, and it did a much nicer job.

Now, I’m moving on to the other half of  the room!

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Domestic Bliss

It’s amazing how long the days are when you don’t have to waste time at a job. Even after I’ve done as many billable hours as I can, worked some leads, and caught up on my bookkeeping, there’s still time to clean the rig, take walks, go swimming, and be silly with the cats. At the rate I’m going, I might actually finish the toilet room and get the dressing room done! I also have a library project I’m itching to get to, in addition to desperately needing new window coverings for the study.

The weather today wasn’t as nice as the last few; very windy and overcast, and it only went into the high teens (*cough, cough*), but still nice enough to throw open windows and roof hatches. I even had the front door open all day, something I didn’t do once this summer, and which delighted Neelix who loves to lie on the landing and stare through the screen door.

I just love being home; there’s no better place to be!

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Location, Location, Location

Wanting to have as little manoeuvring to do as possible tomorrow morning, I Googled directions to the repair place so I could go check it out and figure out ahead of time the best place to unhook the car.

The address of the repair place, Elite Auto, is 2655 Enterprise. I stepped out of the rig, looked at the nearest street sign, did a double take, and then looked at the address of the nearest building. 2958 Enterprise. I’m literally two blocks away and one street light away! Enterprise seems to be a busy road and rather narrow, so I’m glad I scoped out the place since I now know I’ll need to use the entrance to the business next to the repair place so as to best position myself to unhook the car. So long as there aren’t any cars around me tomorrow, getting out of Walmart should be easy.

One odd thing that came out of yesterday is that it was my second best gas mileage day to date (with the best being on the drive between Brandon and Regina; ie. flat prairie with the wind at my back where I hit 12MPG). I did nearly 750 kilometres on the tank yesterday and I’m still not in the red, but the gas gauge is right next to it. That tells me I have about 40 litres of fuel in the tank, putting my MPG at a 11, which I think is probably amazing for a huge vehicle towing through mountains.

I don’t want to go into the repair shop being so low on fuel, but neither do I want to go fuel up; the fewer times I need to stop, the better. So, I bought a 20L jerry can and will fill up Miranda manually. One can should bring her up to about a quarter full (60L on board total, out of a total 200L), which is a respectable amount, and more than enough to get me to Osoyoos. I haven’t decided yet where my 20L tank is going to live. I have a 5L one mounted to the motorhome ladder, but the 20L tank isn’t going to fit. I think it’ll end up in the kayak!

Today, I’m just chilling out a home and getting some work done. I got quite a bit of interior damage yesterday from all the bumps and sudden stalls, so I need to prioritize what I should work on first. For example, the retaining rods in my bookcase ripped right out, so they need to be glued back into place and putty applied to the tears to make them less apparent. I also lost my shower door; the top pin jumped out of the hole and then the door bounced off the bottom pin! The door has quite a dent near the top, but otherwise seems okay, and I need to find a way to secure that top pin! Besides that, I had a lot of things fall out of cabinets and make messes, so I need to clean up. Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be anything major I need to deal with.

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Getting Ready to Leave. Sort Of.

Departure from Dawson is still slated for late morning/noonish on Tuesday, but you’d never guess that from the state Miranda is in right now! Plus, I’m awaiting two packages, the most important of which is my new computer. USPS got it to Canada quickly and customs processed it efficiently, but Canada Post is of course putting the snail into snail mail. It’s been in Whitehorse a couple of days now, so I’m hoping it’ll be here tomorrow.

My work schedule is as full as ever and what I had planned to do was just work until the computer came, then get on with my departure preparations during the installation of the new Mac, which would put me without a computer for at least a day. If the computer comes in tomorrow, I will get started on the prep, but I think I will end up finishing it up in Whitehorse and still leave on schedule.

Tonight, I got all my laundry done, including my heavy bedding. It’s such a treat to be able to do that and start the fall all fresh and clean. Tomorrow, I’ll finish putting things away and also clean the cab carpet.

Departure is not stressing me out at all, even if it’s not as relaxed as it was last year. I’ve had enough departures after sitting to know that my tire pressure is fine (but I will check it ‘just in case’) and that it’ll be a good idea to trickle charge the battery when I get up on departure day. Both vehicles are in good shape (minus their windshields), so the exterior prep will only involve putting away hoses and packing up the bicycle, extra propane tank, and kayak. It’ll only be a couple hours of work to do, inside and out.

The game plan will be two nights in Whitehorse, one night at Nugget City, one night on the Alaska highway, one night in Dawson Creek, and then the start of several nights on a new route. So, really, there isn’t going to be any newness or anything worth stressing out about for almost a week. 🙂

I am eager to get back on the road and and see what the winter will bring, but I sure will miss this little town…

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Last Trip to the Free Store

I went to the free store this afternoon not to ‘shop’ but to drop off yet another large basket of clothes and other items. It’s been a great summer for decluttering and while I still have more to do, I’m just about ready to completely take the rig apart and reorganize it.

I’ve made serious inroads into mastering the dang wardrobe and am proud that I gave away about twice as much clothes this summer as I brought home. I did manage to score a full new wardrobe for less than $20 this year, which made it easier to give away older pieces I was tired of wearing.

I’m happy to report that the wardrobe now looks 100 times better than this!

Next up on the list is to go through my books. I have so many free sources for books in Dawson that it’s been easy to go overboard and bring home more than I’ll ever have time to read. With my iPod Touch doubling as an e-reader, there’s no sense in keeping anything but the most special print books on hand.

I expect to have a lot of time on my hands in October, so more decluttering, organizing, and decorating will be my priorities when I’m not working. After working seven days a week for four months, it’ll be nice to have time to get back on track with my homekeeping duties!