Have a nice day…. thanks, I just did!

Sundays seem to always be an awkward day for me. The whole “is it the first day of the week… or the last?” thing kind of keeps me a little uncommitted as to just what to do on a Sunday.

Tomorrow Merrily starts week 3 of 8 of truck driver training. She is struggling more with learning to back a 40’ trailer than what she thinks is normal.  Actually, that is the toughest of the field exercises that they do.  They intentionally have sloppy hitches between the trailers and the trucks so that it is impossible to just hold the steering wheel in one position and have the trailer move in a constant line.  It wanders all over the place forcing the driver to keep correcting it in real time…. not easy.

She is doing very well in all other areas, though. Getting good scores on the written tests and on all the other field exercises she is getting them down pat.

However, tomorrow, they are stepping up the difficulty of the exercises so they will be even more challenging.  She is not looking forward to that.

Her shifting is getting better, too.  Last week, they introduced skip shifting (where you skip one or two gears at one shift point) and she even got that one pretty well.  I never got that one very well at all. I am really glad that Clifford has an Autoshift transmission so it knows how to do it without grinding the gears.

Our Autoshift truck has a standard 10 speed transmission but the computer controls the actual gear selection and synchronizing so the driver just has to pay attention to the road and the truck takes care of the rest and does not have a stick to shift gears.

As for the rest of today, we walked Katie a few times (she is on day 61 of no seizures, wahoo!) , read the Sunday paper (Merrily’s job- I am not a newspaper reader) and swapped out the empty propane tank with the full one that Emery brought down.

We knew from late last week that Emery and Christi would probably come down today and that was a good thing to look forward to. Merrily even said yesterday that she was missing “the kids” and I will admit that I think of them most every day at least once. Having them come for dinner at Cracker Barrel was really a very good thing on several levels.

Merrily was doing a lot better after dinner. I think she just really needed to see her “kids” even if they are pushing 30. Okay, Okay, so maybe I was really missing them, too.

ttfn

A place for everything… and everything, eventually in its place.

I usually try to start my weekends sometime during the day on Fridays but today, I actually forgot it was a Friday and worked right up until time to go pick up Merrily from Truck driver training school.

It has been a very productive day for me. I managed to get a lot of boxes of miscellaneous items sorted and then collated back into the regular storage boxes that already have similar items in them. This is always a work in progress in the RV new items come inside in bags or odd boxes and are set down in convenient places to be dealt with later. 

Maybe there are some RVers that have perfect recall and know exactly where the existing storage box is that has other USB cables or pet items or whatever is similar to what has just been brought in. I am not one of them.  I can put my hands on the box for receipts (most of the time – Middle cabinet, top shelf, left most top-most box), the box with my medicines in it (about 93% of the time – Cabinet behind the open smoked glass door on the far right) and the hair cutting equipment (bright blue plastic box in the middle cabinet, top shelf, far right). if it is not one of these boxes, I am probably going to have to look for it for a bit.

Disorganized, you say?  No!  I am organized and have a place for just about everything… .I just can’t remember exactly where it is.  This is a primary reason that I don’t file paperwork. If I do, no one, including moi, will be able to find it later. I am sure it is a defective gene in there as my Father had the same problem. Rolling with this same story a bit farther, I also don’t try to remember things for other people. I will never remember them when I should or when it is needed.  I will remember it in the shower at 1:22am or while going to the bathroom at 4:27am.

These are not convenient times/places for remembering things that are important to anyone but unfortunately, this is typical of when I will remember stuff that should have been recalled on demand at specific times and places.. .usually earlier in the day…. or week.

Another obstacle to storing items in an RV is that there is INSIDE storage and OUTSIDE storage. OUTSIDE storage is any place that is not directly accessible from inside the RV by opening a door or a drawer. The so called Basement storage area is OUTSIDE storage as is any place in the tow vehicle or Towd if one has it. In other words, If I cannot put my hands on it in my underwear, it is OUTSIDE.

Often items new to the RV are best suited to be kept in OUTSIDE storage and that is usually inconvenient to access at the time the item is brought home so it is set aside for future relocation to the correct storage box and location (When I can remember where that is). Today was a day that I chose to deal with a lot of these sorts of things and put them in their correct storage places (I think). I made big progress, too. I actually put stuff away that had been waiting for relocation for nearly a year. I emptied 2 big cardboard boxes, 2 small ones, 2 grocery bags and also, through superior collating skills, managed to empty 3 of the shoe box storage containers that had accumulated a variety of stuff from 3M command strip items to RV related parts removed during other work.

		Cleanup 101 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

I even found a new location for Katie’s crate. She goes to it to rest, take a nap, hide, chew a bone. Who really knows what a dog thinks it’s for? I put it back of my computer table and was not sure that she would use it. I think she liked it out in the floor where she could hide inside and peek out through the ventilation holes in the side and feel she was in the room with us but still “protected”. Since we never have to lock her into it, I removed the door so she could easily come and go as she pleases. It is ghastly unsightly to have sitting out in the floor and does take up vital square footage but back where I tucked it, is space that is only used when we are traveling and not really visible from the rest of the room. She found it and quietly slipped into it for a nap this evening so I am very pleased.

Now, we can actually enjoy our fireplace, again, which has been quite nice while I am sitting here working on this blog with it in the mid-30s outside. This makes it a bit chilly on the floor and this fireplace does a nice job of keeping my tootsies warm without running the furnaces.

ttfn

On a long rainy day…

I am a list maker. Maybe it’s a defense mechanism so I have something to blame when I don’t get things done (“Well, it wasn’t on the list”). However, I think that I am leaning more towards list making as a tool of procrastination.  After all, one should not go off half cocked with only a partial list in hand and this does work quite well, most of the time. 

I can avoid starting a task until the list is complete. Coincidentally, that seems to happen simultaneously with when I feel like actually working on the job instead of the list. I can’t help that. It is just my nature.  Maybe I have watched Charlie Sheen too long and also believe that my brain is bigger, more complex and more capable than most folks. I am certain that there is a lot that goes on in it behind my back so until I get the thumbs up from down deep inside somewhere, starting to actually work on a task before this point has proven it to be doomed work. 

Maybe I have stumbled onto a dark universal secret but I think that there are many men, and even women, that struggle with getting their “doing” ahead of their “thinking”. I just to incorporate that inevitable hesitancy as a part of the planning cycle instead of letting it default to being an actual delay in the execution stage.  It sure works out better this way because, being a guy, I really hate to make a wrong turn and then have to go back.  Likewise, I hate to get started on something, then have to undo what I have done to correct or fix mistakes or omissions.

All of this has been the long way of saying that today was a “planning day” and not an execution day.  I got groceries and a towel hook. I came home, put the groceries away, mounted the towel hook, took Katie for a well deserved long walk between rain showers and then returned to eat lunch, watch a bit of TV (Two and a Half Men, of course), get a tick off of Katie and give her the meds to prevent them and heart worms. All in all it was a totally boring day…. but it was a part of a plan and was well executed and I crossed two things off of one of my lists. I feel it was a productive day. Getting this blog entry posted was just brownie points.

ttfn

Baby Steps towards Winter

Today I made reservations for the coming winter months at Portobelo Village RV park in Aransas Pass, TX . We have been studying our needs for wintering locations and just can’t find Florida all that appealing. maybe it’s because we grew up in central Florida or maybe we just need to feel like we are really somewhere new for our first winter of full-timing on the road.

While Merrily is attending the 8 week Truck Driver training School, here in Smithfield, NC, we are staying in the Smithfield KOA in a monthly site. People have asked what it is like so I have included some pictures for a little perspective.

		Smithfield KOA VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The Monthly sites are in an area of the park that was formally for Mobile homes so the lots are quite large, which is very nice to have. I-95 is nearly 1/2 mile to the North of us so whether we hear it or the train on the other side of it, really depends on the direction of the wind.  A few nearby dogs are a lot more perturbing than the transportation noises.

Most days, Merrily comes home for lunch unless she is out on the road in a truck with her instructor and usually, we fix dinner in house but tonight we ate out at Smithfield’s Chicken and BBQ! We split a White combo platter for about $10 with our senior discount so it’s a good satisfying choice.

PackRat 101

One of the most difficult things I have found in downsizing into an RV is the issue of my hoarding skills.   How the heck can I keep them finely tuned if I have no place to put anything?

Last September, We were forced to move from the RV back into the house. Of course, we had lived in here for 3 years before that so there was a well worked out “packing density” that allowed us to have what we wanted and needed… out of sight.  But once in the house, that was slowly dismantled over the ensuing months as we needed various things in there, like meds, sleep gear, vitamins, Katie stuff, tools, cosmetics, underwear..etc. The initial offloading took 54 trips just to get the stuff that we knew we had to have in the house. That was over a 3 day period (I counted because no one would believe we had that much stuff in here).

Trying to get the RV reloaded in 2 days was impossible without shortcuts and assumptions.  The shortcuts were mostly in the form of piles of things stuffed into grocery bags, boxes and pockets.  I figured that once we were setup here, I would take the time to sort it all out and put it back…. uh… NOT!  Even on my best days, my memory was not up to that task so thus far, the packing density is quite low. There is leftover space over, behind, under and inside of other things which must be compressed if I am to get all of these things back in here. Today, I launched into phase I.  I started with the rear overhead cabinets which hold most of the office and records related items. I had previously found a bunch of shoe box type plastic containers with lids that just exactly fit the space.  I had packed most of these but many were still a mixture before we moved into the house.

Today, I pulled them all out and collated the contents into specific bins for specifically related contents. e.g. program CDs, RV related CD/DVDs, USB related stuff, Audio stuff, Network stuff, Pet stuff (2 containers), etc.

That work eliminated 2 boxes and 3 grocery bags and it is all behind cabinet doors. More important, I can now find my meds on demand.

However, as you can see, there is still a lot more to go through before this will look like a home instead of a pack room.

Merrily had a great day, too and takes her first on the road drive, tomorrow. She has now done all of the current practice field exercises at least once and did quite well on all of them.  I think this is going to work out very well.

ttfn

… And so it begins…

Trite title, I know, but it’s true. The circumstances of the past 2 months have closed some doors and opened this window to full timing, big time.  We planned for this day for so long and now, it is really happening.

One of the items on our to-do-to-go list was for Merrily to go to truck driving school.  You have seen the rig we have in other posts. She has wanted to be comfortable driving it under most circumstances and said so several years ago.  I attended the North Carolina Truck Driver Training School at Johnston Community College in the summer of 2004 along with my oldest son. That was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life…. but worth every ounce of sweat and tired.

Now, Merrily is going through the same course to train her skills to work like they should to be safe and confident in all situations.  Down the road, options for workkamping will be a lot more flexible if we both have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) so she is going to get hers, now.  Not that driving an 18 wheeler is in the plans but team drivers can make a serious dent in income in a pinch. More likely we will pick up a few gigs driving shuttle busses or tour busses in places. There is a lot of demand for licensed and certified drivers in places like Alaska, and National Parks.  We will see what develops.

Meanwhile, the first of 8 weeks in class is drawing to a close. Each day is about 3 hours of classroom time and the rest of the 10 hour day is divided between working the field exercises (backing, coupling, serpentine backing, offset alley navigating, Pre-trip inspections, etc. The objectives of the class make it imperative that every learned skill is automatic and tightly tested before certification. This makes a graduate a professional driver.. not just a truck driver.

My son has driven for TransAm trucking out of Kansas since 2004. He loves the work, hates being gone from home so much but now owns his own truck and has nearly 1 million miles under his belt.

Although I have never driven professionally, it is a keen confidence I have when I sit down behind the wheel of our HDT. It Is a more comfortable and natural place to be than behind the wheel of my automobile and that is totally to the credit of this Truck Driver Training Class.  A lot more folks can pass the NC CDL licensing testing than can graduate from this class. The requirements for passing the course are just that much more rigorous than the state examination process, and that is not easy.

I will be working this blog a lot more frequently, now that we have some real movement into full timing in play. Much of the daily work was very non-full-time related so I stopped wasting everyone’s time trying to make it interesting.

BTW, Katie is doing well. She made it to 100 days, as I previously mentioned but then had a couple of seizures a few weeks apart. Now she is back on track and on her 50th day without a seizure.

TTFN

Wahoo! Katie the Poo has reached 100 Days seizure free!!!!!

Katie the poo, the kid of controversy has reached 100 days without a seizure!  This is a momentous benchmark for a little dog that could sometimes barely make it 14 days without having one for the first 3 years of her life.

Her history is elsewhere in the blog site but the persistent care of a great Veterinarian, Dr. Amy Valenzisi, Katie is now holding her own on 100mg of Zonisamide once per day. Though recommended min dosage is twice a day, she has been fine and has no side effects or personality changes on this med. All other meds we have tried have resulted in increased number/severity of the seizures (up to 4 hours off and on) and major changes to her awareness and behaviors. Some made her lethargic, uninterested in anything. Others made her become OCD and she would spawn off into uncontrollable barking bouts for no reason at all.  Most gave her a glazed over staring look that was hard to connect with.

OOPS!!!!!!

Drat!

Here, while writing this blog, Katie was sleeping soundly in her bed under the window. I got up to go to the other room where her meds are kept to get the name of her medication and she woke up and jumped down to follow me.

I checked the Rx bottle, came back, started writing and then heard her scrumbling around in Merrily's chair. She was going into a seizure and was fighting it the way she has learned.... just lie still and be as unstimulated as possible.  It did not completely stop it but the whole thing only lasted a few minutes instead of hours and she only had 1 bout of the stiff rigor.

After a minute, I picked her up and sat with her in my lap to help her feel secure and relax. Another few minutes and she wanted to get down and walk.  She has learned that it often helps shorten the overall seizure and after effects if she paces.  I am guessing that the neurological cross-brain patterning that is involved helps to normalize her neurology back into regular patterns.

Once again, this was a case of her being soundly asleep, then suddenly waking and getting really excited.  She also had not been out yet this morning and somehow, that is almost always a present condition. It's  Like having has to evacuate is a condition that enables these seizures. Whether it is from the urgency or perhaps, her own efforts to control it and not just go in the house, I don't know but I suspect it may be part of her attempts to hold it that leads into seizure as many times in the past, she would uncontrollably evacuate during the seizures.

Bummer but still, 3 times a year is much better than 3 times per month and especially when the seizures are much, much shorter and more gentle.

I had planned this for a celebration and it still is, just not quite as joyous as I had thought... yet.