Cats in an RV

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A Beautiful Spring Day!!!

WOW! It’s sunny and warm out, with just a hint of a breeze. (In all fairness, yesterday was a beautiful day, too, but I had more important things to do than enjoy it. 🙂 ) The entire park is out and about doing things outside. This weather seems to have also motivated everyone to do laundry. I think I’m 30th in line. 🙁 I would just wash at home in the Wonderwash as it would not be a hardship to spend a few hours outside doing laundry, but there are too many clothes to dry indoors and exterior drying is not permitted.

I finally swapped my winter clothes for spring/summer items, so I have quite a bit of ironing to do. Thankfully, the laundry room provides an ironing board, as did the park in Oliver, so I can continue to keep Miranda an ironing-free zone. 🙂

I took advantage of the beautiful weather to wash the toad, something I haven’t done since I arrived in Oliver!

I also topped up my new batteries, something I had to do for the very first time! I wish I had known during the winter that I wouldn’t need to top them up until a gorgeous spring day as it’s a lot of work. I have to remove five screws and manoeuvre the batteries into position, so it takes about a half hour in a very uncomfortable position to check the water levels. I would have saved myself a lot of numb fingers had I been able to predict the future. 🙂 Yes, a battery monitoring system is on my list of desired items at some point!

My cats have also been enjoying the weather seeing as birds like the cedar hedge behind Miranda. They also like to sit up front and ‘chase’ squirrels to the back by following them from window to window. It makes me think of the portrait subjects jumping from frame to frame in Harry Potter. 😀

(A tip for those RVing with cats: if you’re sitting in the lounge one day and noticing that it’s drafty, check to see if one of your cats cranked open a window in the cab!)

Speaking of windows, I opened a few today (ah, fresh air) as well as a two overhead hatches. I’ll be stowing away the hatch foam covers in my final step to fully dewinterizing the rig.

(There’s a FLY outside one of my windows. Between that and the robins I’m ready to concede that Mother Nature really does intend for winter to be over!)

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Luxury

Luxury is a relative term.

This concept is beautifully illustrated in one of my favourite books of all time, The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig. It is a memoir of the Siberian exile of a young Polish Jewish girl during WWII.

Ms. Hautzig wrote:

We were one of four lucky groups: Father found us living quarters in a corner of the room. In an utterly bare room, two walls to lean against, a corner to curl up into, were luxury.

I  was ten when I first read those words and they have followed me for twenty years, helping me appreciate what I have even while longing for more or better.

Tonight, I came home to find Tabitha in the study looking out the back window while Neelix was in the lounge looking out the window on the passenger side. Rather than disturb the cats by shutting the blinds, I was able to slide closed a solid wood door with a satisfying ‘thunk’, stretch out an accordion door, and change into jeans in a private room large enough to move about comfortably. I’ve discovered that in a less than 300 square foot RV, a dressing room is luxury.

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Not as BRR as I expected!

Oh, I just love this RV. 😀

The cats and I had a cozy night. Neelix eventually wandered off to curl up by the electric heater while Tabitha crawled under the covers with me. Woke up to find it chilly in here, but not freezing, and I discovered that I hadn’t even cranked the electric heater anywhere near max. It was minus three outside.

Came in this evening expecting an ice box since it was below freezing all day, but, no.

Total degree loss between 10ish last night, when the furnace quit, and 5:30ish when I came in with propane: two degrees. Insulation in here’s better than I expected! Of course, I left the blinds open today and some (weak and rare) sunlight got in here today, but I’m still impressed!

I am now officially sick and tired of running off my 30lb tank so I’m going to call the propane company that delivers here and ask if they do a one time delivery. If not, I’ll take Miranda out at the beginning of March… which is next week (!).

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Unconditional Love

Poor Tabitha.

Last night was really cold and found her and Neelix hogging the blankets (really). I woke up twice to yank the blankets back onto myself. Both times, this was followed by a THUMP as Tabitha pretty much flew off the bunk onto the floor below!!!!!!!! Not once did she complain; she just climbed right back up and setting herself against my back as if nothing had happened. Once might be funny, but twice makes me feel like an awful mother. 🙁

Despite that, she’s still right here by my side, purring away. Sorry, babe!

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Mysteries of the Bench

I was shocked by what I found in the dinette bench behind the driver’s seat: dozens of plastic hangers! I don’t know what I was thinking! Let’s just say I got rid of them quickly!

Here’s a shot of the drawer into that compartment that constitutes poor design:

The infamous dinette bench drawer

The infamous dinette bench drawer

I’ll let you in on a secret: that drawer is so hard to open that I store my most often used plasticware in… the fridge’s vegetable bin!

I was able to put two small totes in there. One holds the blender and the other linens. The blender will still be accessible here. I had it in a basket over the fridge, but it made the basket so heavy as to be dangerous to pull down. It’s still not the best use of space, but better.

The other bench holds a lifetime’s worth of journals, all carefully sealed against potential flooding. And I thought they were in an overhead compartment in the study. Which leads me to wonder what’s in the overhead compartment?

I think I need to make a map of what’s where!

(I love the expression on Neelix’s face in this picture!)