Texas

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Panera Morning

Gah, another heavy sky day ahead and I was down 45AH this morning. I ran the engine for an hour and gained 7AH, but that still put me at 38AH down and no charging in sight. It was definitely going to be a coffee shop kind of day.

I’d noticed a Panera Bread while running errands the other day, so I headed out there. It’s quiet, the food’s good, there’s power, and I’m even using the wifi since I am going through bandwidth like crazy this month and my cell connection is SUPER slow in Von Ormy (which is strange since I had high speed internet on the beach).

The only downside is that they don’t serve soup until lunch and I didn’t want to be here during the lunch rush, so I’m having to make due with a sandwich when I really wanted a bowl of their broccoli cheddar soup. I may end up taking some to go for my dinner! I did score a free brownie since I had my birthday recently. How lovely of them! It just came up when the gal scanned my card. This is the second or third time I’ve had a freebie in the short time I’ve had and used the card.

It is nice to get an excuse to go out like this, but, really, a little sun would be nice!

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And the Thunder Rolls

It has been disgustingly grey out most of the time I have been here. Thankfully, there have been some nice sunny patches, but it’s mostly been icky and the humidity has been increasing. It looks like we will finally get some rain tonight. I hope it’s not too much or I will have to move to higher ground.

If I didn’t have my solenoid, I would have had to move back into the RV park by now. Between it and the weak sun, I’m holding steady between 30 and 40AH down. So I’m fine, but my batteries sure would like a full charge sooner rather than later…

Mail will determine whether or not I leave on Thursday. I still haven’t figured out where I’m going next. I’ve pretty much decided not to stop in Austin. I’ve been told several times that I need to check it out, but I’m not into the music scene and nothing about the city is calling my name while there are things I want to see in Dallas. But Dallas is even more of a challenging in terms of finding an overnighting spot, much less somewhere that I can stay for several nights at little to no charge. I may just have to bite the bullet and stay at an RV park for a couple of nights.

That said, if I end up staying here later than Thursday and into the weekend, I will consider going to Austin on a day trip. An extended stay here would put me really behind schedule, so then I will probably overnight somewhere before Dallas, stop in Dallas for the afternoon (as long as I can find a place to drop the rig), and then overnight after Dallas.

I can’t believe I absolutely need to be back in Canada in 45 days, but I am aiming for no more than 40. April is going to SPEED by.

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Company

This morning, I invited longdog2 to come visit before I left. This afternoon worked best for her and she arrived around 3 and left at about 6:30. I had fun showing her  the rig, then we went for a walk around the RV park.

I’m really enjoying having a home that I can keep almost ‘company ready’ all the time so that when I get company with a few hours’ notice, there is no panic involved. 🙂

That’s definitely the best benefit of being organized and decluttered at long last; it’s easy to stay on top of the housekeeping.

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Painting Plastic With Krylon Fusion Spray Paint

It’s no secret that I like a harmonious decor. While I love the cubbies I bought for the study,

the colour of the frame was all wrong. There is absolutely no grey in this room.

This is much better:

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I used Krylon 2340 Fusion Spray Paint in the ‘espresso’ colour.

This paint adheres beautifully to plastic without having to sand or prime. I applied many fine layers and they all feathered beautifully. I knew from another blog that if you don’t shake the can a lot, you will get a grainy finish. I preferred that to a high gloss look, so I kept the shaking to a minimum and really like the slightly rough feel to the new finish. The end result is very rich and I am thrilled with it!

According to the directions, the coating will cure within a week and will then be chip resistant. It already feels dry to the touch after only a few hours of drying.

I may end up painting my ugly white and black garbage cans with this fantastic product!

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An External Replacement For the MacBook Pro Superdrive

I would like to once again thank all my readers who shop through my Amazon link. It never ceases to amaze me how such a small thing that costs you nothing makes such a huge difference to my bottom line.

The SuperDrive (DVD/CD reader and writer) on my Macbook Pro has been increasingly fussy and it has finally decided to stop recognizing any of my DVDs. Replacing a SuperDrive is not really a DIY project and it is very expensive to have it done by Apple. The recommendation is to replace it with an external drive.

Thanks to my Amazon commissions this month, I was able to go ahead and order one this week without even having to debate with myself whether I can live without a DVD player for the foreseeable future.

My first choice was no longer available, so I bought a Samsung Ultra Portable Slim DVD+/-RW USB External Drive, Black SE-218BB/RSBS.

It is very small, barely bigger than a DVD and about as thick as a DVD case. Best of all, it is powered by USB only, so I don’t need to run the inverter to use it. Installation was easy. I just plugged it into the computer, popped in a disc, and started watching a movie. My SuperDrive has not recognized that disc in years!

Getting this replacement was perfect timing since the movie Lincoln just came out on DVD, too, so I picked that up as well. So you can all guess what I’m doing tonight. 🙂

You can buy just about anything on Amazon, like paint to refinish the new cubbies you bought for the office. My Amazon commissions free up so much of my budget for other things. Thank you again to everyone who shops through my link.

In other news, the weather I’ve been experiencing in San Antonio apparently isn’t typical for this time of year. All I can say is that it has pretty much sucked for solar charging. I’m doing fine, but the forecast doesn’t give me hope of a full charge any time soon.

I just renewed for another six nights, taking me to noonish on the 4th of April. The weather up north is crappy, rent here is cheap ($5 a night), and I’m waiting for mail to come from Canada. Six more nights puts me at two nights past my original plan of two weeks, so I’m still on track with the original schedule. I’ll reevaluate next week. This is just such a good location. I feel so far from anywhere, but I’m less than five minutes from I-35.

A weekend-long project came in, so I’ll be pretty busy for the next few days, which suits me just fine since I had so much time off this week. I’ll try to remember to pop in with a proof of life at some point. 😉