Monday, August 30, 2010

Sorry, I've Been Busy

I've had a lot of homework lately and I just really haven't been on the computer much.  There isn't a lot going on right now, we're just waiting to move and looking at furniture.  We've bought a bed and I've located some free furniture that we need to go and look at, but that's basically all.  I have a test in Biology on Thursday and even though I've been studying around 4 to 10 hours a night I still don't feel prepared for it.  I'll let ya'll know how it goes.  I really think I'm just over thinking things lately, but I can't be too careful when it comes to school.  I need to start getting my gpa back up now so I can get into grad school in a couple of years.

When something exciting happens I'll let ya'll know and when I have time to sit down and recall some more Airstream moments I'll get that done too.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Vintage Airstream For Sale

So here it is, I still can't believe I'm typing this.  Our Airstream that has been our Tulsa home for two years is For Sale.

Price: $4000

Specs:

1972 Airstream Sovereign Land Yacht International dual axle travel trailer, 7500lbs dry weight, 9000lbs loaded.  Trailer comes with hitch and original EZ stabilizer bar kit.
32ft Rear bath mid-ship bunk with large closets and credenza.
Vista View windows.
Skin is in excellent condition one minor ding that is barely noticeable.  She has ghost numbers and a ghost of a Wally Byam Travel Club sticker just above them.
Under skin is also fully intact and stiff walled newer trailer tires with plenty of tread.
All four jacks are in perfect working condition.
All four original hubcaps
Brand new Carrier AC/ Heat unit installed Spring of 2010
Original Dometic propane refrigerator
Original Dometic propane cook top
Original Magic Chef oven
Original double basin stainless steel sink.
Original lounge gaucho sofa bed
Original radio and control panel
All curtains and blinds intact
Original rock guard
Original aluminum propane takes and regulator.  Propane takes have been converted to match OPD specifications.
Original bathroom fixtures, tub and hand flush Thetford toilet.
All closet doors are intact.
Tambor doors are a bit rough but most of them are intact and working.
New RV plug installed last month July of 2010.
New rugs in December of 2009.
Linoleum floors throughout.
Non working hot water heater, may just need a part but we were unable to tow it to an RV shop due to the fact that we lived in it.  The door is still intact and may be fabricated to fit a new hot water heater if one is needed.
Forced air furnace with ducting throughout the inside and the under skin of the trailer.
The electronics of the furnace were replaced in October of 2008 and she blows hot.
This model has four closets, two bureaus under the credenza and two huge pantries in the kitchen.
It also has plenty of overhead storage in the bunk and in the kitchen and bathroom and under bed storage under the gaucho and the bunk.

She is definitely tow-able and livable.  As a reminder I am sitting in the bunk looking into the kitchen as I type this up and she has been our Tulsa home for the last two years as stated above.

She will also be listed on Craig's List, RV Trader and the Airforums.  Leave a comment with contact information and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  She will not be available before September13th and she will be moved to a storage facility as of the 16th.  We will show her at both locations once we have moved our things into our new home.

Photos to come soon.

Who Wants to Buy the Tin Can?

We found a house last week and fell in love with it.  It's just the right size in just the right area.  It's in our age range and price range and it's just what we've been looking for.  We were the first people to look at it as it had just been put back on the renter market.  Interestingly enough we didn't even know it existed when we were driving around trying to get to a different neighborhood.  I took a random residential street to try and cut across Route 66, and there it was the first house in from the corner of a wide, well kept, quiet street.

This is the house we went to look at after we found the Saab and we filled out the paperwork right away.  Wynn was hopeful but I have a hard time getting my hopes up, I've always felt that if I do I am setting myself up to fail. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than devastatingly disappointed.

At any rate I tried not to think about it all weekend and at the same time promising my friends that I would tell them as soon as I knew anything.  So I worked my last 12hr shift of the week and came home this morning to sleep for a few hours before class.  At 9am Wynn called and woke me up.  I was so dead asleep that what she was saying didn't even register at first.  "We got the house."  "What?  What are you talking about?"  "We got the house."  and then I dissolved into non-words as my mouth tried to catch up with my brain.

We are moving in on the 13th of September, 12 days after my 29th birthday and my father will be pulling the Airstream out of our rental slot to a nearby storage facility on the 16th the day rent is due here.  The Airstream is officially for sale.  I know I will miss Airstreaming full time but I'm not sure when exactly I will start missing it, probably when we park her at the storage facility down the road.

The house is red brick with white trim and a working fireplace.  It has wood floors throughout and tile in the bathroom and kitchen.  It was probably built in the late 1920s and still has all of the original details.  Someone built a garage on probably in the 1940s and also added on a sun room.  It has two bedrooms a formal dining room and a large living room.  There are 1920s era French doors into the sun room where our office and my study area will be.  All of the plumbing fixtures as far as I can tell especially in the bathroom are original.

It has brand new appliances in the kitchen; gas stove, dishwasher, refrigerator, garbage disposal and even a washer and dryer.  The garage is big enough for all of the tools that I drive around with in our 4Runner and even our motorcycles will fit.

I am so excited that I have been up since Wynn called at 9am, I think I shall crash after class and sleep until my class in the morning.

The next post will have the specifics on the Airstream and the price.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Yes I Know

Yes I know that this is still an Airstream Blog and yes I have plenty of stories to tell, it's just that we've been so busy lately and things are moving so fast in the here and now.  Honestly I'm afraid that if I don't post about the present right now I'll forget.

So I will be posting more Airstream stories soon and photos, but I have to wait for things to settle around here a bit.  Once we find out if we get to move into the rent house we want and once we start preparations to move into said rent house I will catch back up with where I left off on the perils of living in an Airstream.

Oh, I will also post when the Airstream is for sale and for how much when the time comes and I think the time will come soon.  Sorry about the hiatus, just give me some time to breathe and the stories will flow again.

So It's Not A Jetta After All

My first week of class is officially over.  I'm caught up with all of my homework and I have some reading to do for biology but I can do that at work tonight after the kiddos go to bed.  Everything seems to be going better than expected, I'm thankful for that.  It's been a confidence booster, I think I can do it this time and do it well instead of just half assing it like I've always done before.

Alright so, those of you who follow my private Facebook page already know what happened with the Jetta, but just in case you missed it here is a recap.

So we found the Jetta at Volkswagon of Tulsa over two weeks ago and we were told that all of the work that needed to be done to it would be done, however that turned out to not be the case.  After ten days of not hearing from them at all, ten days that they were holding a very large down payment check, they finally called us and told us that it would be $5600 to fix the Jetta and that they were unwilling to do so.  So we went and picked up the check and took our business elsewhere.  It wasn't so much their refusal to fix the car that made us angry it was the fact that for ten days we knew nothing.  Ten days and they couldn't spend two minutes on the phone to let us know what was going on.  Then Wynn happened to look at the reviews for Volkswagon of Tulsa online and found that we were not the first customers to be extremely unhappy with their service.

We still needed a car and we weren't going to buy from them.  Wynn looked online while I finished up a five hour shift at work and by the time I got home she had found another Jetta at a smaller dealership just down the road.  We test drove it and like the Jetta before it just felt like crap.  It felt like it had been driven into the ground.  She happened to notice two Subaru WRX wagons on the lot and asked the salesman about them. He stated that they were good cars but that they had been street racers.  Damn.

He then led us over to a Saab 9-2x.  The Saab 9-2x was made by Subaru.  It is basically a WRX with Saab badging.  I love Saabs and Wynn loves Subarus, perfect.  It was more than we could afford but we test drove it anyway.  It was amazing, it felt like a car should feel, tight steering, smooth ride, effortless shifting and power.  We decide to negotiate once we got back to the dealership.

The owner of the dealer ship met with us and was unwilling to take any less than what he had priced it at and we made it clear how much money we had loaned for the Jetta.  He then offered to let us pay out the difference over the course of three months.  Sold.  Totally Sold.

We picked up the Saab the next day and took it to Oklahoma City to have it insured.  No waiting on parts no bullshit.  We have a second car and I think we're damned lucky that we didn't end up with that broken down Jetta instead.

Oh yeah and it's also a manual, so I guess I will still have to learn how to drive one, but for now I'm just happy to see the 4Runner parked next to a Saab in the driveway.  Photos of our happy little car family will be posted soon, I just really need to wash the 4Runner first.

P.S.  After we bought the Saab we went to look at an awesome little rent house.  The paperwork is pending so I'll let ya'll know when I know.  Hopefully that will be the next post.

Monday, August 16, 2010

That Was a Pleasant Surprise

I went to my first class tonight, I was still nervous enough to forget my student ID and my parking permit, but I found a visitor spot and I didn't need my ID for class so that was good.

I was quite surprised to find that this math class starts at a low enough level that I actually understand it.  I haven't understood a math class since middle school.  I have always been terrified that I would finish everything else and fail college algebra right before graduation.  I'm not afraid of that anymore.  I found out that I will have to take one more zero credit class before I take college algebra but that it is for the best.

Tomorrow morning I have biology and lab and I must remember my parking permit because the metro campus has very little parking without it.

I feel better, I'm less nervous, somehow things feel right.  Tomorrow after class I'll get an iced chai from Shades of Brown and go and get a hair cut from Julianna.  Then I'll pick up Wynn from work (no the car still isn't ready) and we'll go look at houses and go by the dealership to see what is up.  I'll order my text books and start organizing as best as I can for full on homework assaults Airstreamer style.

I Feel a Bit More Confident Now

Yes, I'm posting again, and yes I'm still up.  Luckily my first class tomorrow is at 5:30pm.

I feel a bit better now, I just spoke with a friend of mine that I haven't had a long conversation with in ages.  I found out that she graduated with the same degree that I am shooting for at NSU.  We became friends her senior year there when she was interning where I work but I never knew what her degree was in.  She went a similar route as I, basics at TCC and degree from NSU and she was able to make me feel much better about going back to school.

She was an adult student like I am and I think that makes a difference.  I could talk to college aged students all day and it wouldn't make me feel any better because I am no longer a college aged student and I can't really relate anymore.

I think I can actually do this now.  I think once I get through these first nine hours successfully my college phobia will be gone.

She has just finished her masters and you know after talking with her about the difficulty of the classes she's taken I feel so much more confident.  Will I get that nervous feeling in my stomach when I'm walking to class tomorrow?  Yeah, I will but I think it will be more out of anticipation than nerves.

I can do this.

I will do this.

I will not look back on my failures and I will, for the first time, believe in myself.

Oh and more importantly, I will not skip class and will do my homework.

Thanks L. M.  I'll call you and let you know how it goes.

Third Time's The Charm... I Hope.

I'm really nervous right now.  My first college class in four years starts tomorrow and even though it's zero credit math, I am terrified.  I don't know why I think I've always been terrified of college, it's as if somehow I'm going to suddenly find out that I'm not as smart as I have always thought I was.  I see all of these people with degrees and I think to myself, "my god if they can do it I sure as hell can", but now that I'm actually going back to school, again, I'm am petrified.  What if I can't?  What if I'm really an idiot and I've been kidding myself all of these years?

I started college at OSU in 2000 and I should have graduated in 2004.  I used my partner's illness as an excuse to drop out in 2003.  I could have finished, I was a Junior but I was terrified of taking my basics so I dropped out.

I went back the first time in 2006.  I had a car wreck and used that as an excuse to quit again, I was commuting after all.  Oddly enough Wynn was commuting with me and she was able to finish school despite the car wreck, even though it was our only car.

And now here it is 2010 ten years almost to the day that I started college the first time and I'm trying again.  I have to finish this time, I have to, but I'm terrified that I won't.  I'm afraid that I will start skipping class again or not doing my homework.

Wynn and my boss have done everything they can do to make sure that I finish this time.  Wynn bought a second car and has decided that we will stay in Tulsa, get a house and sell the Airstream. My boss was able to arrange an awesome work schedule for me.

Now it's up to me, I hope I don't let them down.  

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Busy, Busy

I know it's been several days since I have posted, we have been quite busy and I am still trying to put the last few years living in a tin can in the correct order to post.  This week started on Friday for me as it generally does so even though it is only Sunday it has already been a long full week.

Friday I went to try and enroll at OSU Tulsa since I am already a student at OSU Stillwater, however I skipped my basics when I was there and so even though I am  Junior I still have to take Freshman level courses.  OSU Tulsa does not do courses that are below the Junior or Senior level so off to TCC.  I've been at a four year university on and off for ten years and now I have to go to a community college?  Yeah I'm getting over it and putting the ego in check, it's my own fault for dropping out.

So instead of starting class on August 23rd I am now starting school tomorrow.  I have to go to two different campuses and I have night classes and day classes.  Again, my fault for enrolling so late.

Wynn's Jetta is still at the dealership having repairs made, hopefully we'll have it this week and my class schedule won't make Wynn's work schedule more difficult.

We have found a couple of rent houses that we are really interested in and since I don't have to be in class all day and I don't have to work until 7pm on Friday we are going to spend this week finding a place to move into.  We're having to rush a bit more since I am going back to class a week earlier than we had initially planned but we'll get it done.

Speaking of work schedules, this is one of the reasons I love my job, I have the most accommodating bosses.  Starting Friday I will be working 3 twelve hour days a week with four hours here and there to make my 40 hour work week.  So I have three days on four days off and I don't go to school on Fridays.  So in effect the days I am off work I am in class and the days I am in class I am off work.

Hopefully within three years or less I will be done with my BS in Social Work and almost finished with my Masters and my licensing hours for my Counseling Certification. 

Thursday, August 12, 2010

We Have a New Four Wheeled Addition

Well we finally did it after ten years of sharing a vehicle, we finally bought a second car.  I'm serious we found a car for Wynn and actually bought it.  We've been talking about buying a second car for years and we finally got serious about it this year.  Wynn has been looking at cars for a while and I was beginning to wonder if she would ever find the perfect car.  Today August 11th 2010 Wynn finally found her perfect car and we decided to buy it.  

We were going to go down to Texas because Wynn had found the car she wanted down there, but she happened to check Autotrader right before we walked out the door and found a similar car here, at a dealership.  So we thought we'd check out the car here and if it wasn't right then we'd go down to Texas.

So off to the VW dealership to check out the car.  Turns out it had just been traded in today and they hadn't even finished the inspection.  After some negotiation we got them to pull it off the rack and let us look at it.  She wasn't pretty.  The little old man that owned her had parked her under a tree and so the hood had some serious oxidation on it and there was some hail damage.

The asking price was $9800 which we thought was way too much and so we handed back the keys and got ready to road trip it down to Dallas.  The sales manager who had not actually seen the car offered to take a look before we left and "see what he could do" about the price.  We offered $6282 as is due to the extensive bodywork that would need to be done.  He offered to do the bodywork for $7900 plus any engine work that would need to be done which would include replacing the timing belt and the water pump due to the mileage on the car.  Deal.

So we bought the car.  We handed them $1500 for the down payment and they offered $500 for Wynn's old Rodeo if we can get her running and get her here.  They are going to repaint the hood and fix the hail dings in the roof and the trunk, they are also going to do the engine work and let us take her to our private mechanic to have her checked out.

We will not have the car until next week and the deal is over if she is not up to our specifications, but I have a feeling she will be.  It feels good to have this over with.

Interestingly enough the sales manager's father in law is interested in buying our Airstream once we get a house.

What did we buy?

A Silver 2002 Volkswagon Jetta GLS TDI
Black Leather Interior
5 Speed Manual
Aluminum Rims
Rear A/C
Keyless Entry
Am/Fm CD (Soon to be upgraded)
Premium Sound (Soon to be upgraded)

We'll be upgrading the head lights and lenses
Tenting the windows (Immediately)
Custom wheels will be added later
We'll be dropping in a new stereo and taking the truck boxes out of the Rodeo and putting them in the trunk.
Remote start for cold days

By the way the TDI, if you don't know is VW's clean diesel engine, it gets 50 miles to the gallon and can easily be converted to biodiesel (we are currently looking into this). TDIs are extremely hard to find which was why we were willing to drive all the way to Texas.

Time for photographs.  These are not of the actual car but I was able to find some of a similar car online. I will post photos of the actual car once it is ours.

2002 Jetta GLS TDI


Remember this is not the car we bought.

It's like Christmas in there, ooh somebody's check engine
light is on.  

And this translates to cheaper fuel costs.

Black leather interior, yes I know this car is actually an automatic
but it was as close as I could find. 


Gratuitous TDI stock engine photo.

All of our audio work, the remote start and the window tenting will be done at our favorite audio shop in Oklahoma City Lower Soundz on North May Ave, across the street from the Nichols Hills Starbucks.  They did an awesome job on our 4Runner and we will always do business with them.  Here is their website http://www.lowersoundzinc.com/.  If you live in Oklahoma and you can drive to Okc it is totally worth it.  I actually plan on posting about what we went through with our 4Runner's audio and how helpful they were.

P.S.  I can't drive a stick shift so that will be yet another adventure that I shall be posting about in the future.  

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Well Maybe Not

Wynn's schedule varies a lot, it sucks.  We make plans to do something and they don't work out.  I know it's not her fault but the type of work she does.  So it seems since it's getting close to the time I have to go to work that we won't be looking at the rent house she found today.  The upside to this is that I have the next two days off, so whenever she gets off work we can go check it out.  Except for part of Thursday, I absolutely have to go enroll on Thursday.

On another note, my boss is trying to fix up a back to school schedule for me and he is talking about putting me on three 12hr days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then coming in for a couple of hours here and there to get the rest of my 40hr work week in.  Sounds cool right?  Yeah it does I just have to make sure that it works with Wynn's schedule.  I'd like to have some time off with her from time to time, but I'm sure she and I can work something out.  I hope.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Tuesday's Child

*If you want to know, just ask a Tuesday's Child... Yeah that's right, I am in fact a Tuesday's child.  Wynn was a Sunday's child, if you're curious.

Okay, that's enough of that.  What does that have to do with anything at all?

Tuesday of course.

On Tuesday we are going to look at a rent house.  Yay!  Maybe, just maybe, it will be the one and we can put down a deposit on and be in by the end of the week.  Oh I would be so happy, we wouldn't have to pay another full month's rent on the slot for the tin can.  No more early morning propane runs.

I'll let ya'll know when I know.  Keep your fingers crossed.

*Line from Tuesdays Children, Indigo Girls 1986ish.  

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Craig's List Again

So we've decided to rent a house for six months until we can get our credit ratings up high enough to buy a house.  I think the house that we are looking at will still be on the market by then.  If not we'll find something better.  So it's back to Craig's List we go.  We had found a couple really nice homes there to rent at reasonable rates but we just weren't ready to make that commitment at the time.  I wish we had been, we looked at a really cool one at one point that both of us fell in love with, but it just wasn't to be.  We need to find a place that will be comfortable for Wynn and I and the dogs, so it needs to have a nice yard with a good strong fence and hopefully it will fit into to our specified time period for homes (nothing built after 1935).  More on this quest later.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Oh My Life of Humidity...

That's not my quote up there, but I like it and it works as a great title for this post.

It's 103F here today with a heat index of 106F, Oklahoma in August horrible.  I thought it felt quite warm in here today even with the new air conditioner going at full blast.  I mean I'm sweating a bit and the dogs are all spread out on the linoleum floor under the A/C but 103F?  Yowza!  I really wanted to light up Ol' Smokey and cook some nice organic brats for dinner this evening.  I'm not sure I'll be doing that now.  We might just pick up some junk for dinner while we're out doing the laundry this evening, or I might do one of my famous 1am BBQ sessions.  More on that later, sounds like another story to write up.

Oh and by the way, this is one of the reasons that I don't mind not having a functioning hot water heater.  Rinsing off in a shower with water straight out of the ground is quite refreshing on a nasty day like today.

Heat example

High today in Northeastern Oklahoma
103F, wait a minute, remember the heat index?  Ahem, 106F

High today in Atlanta Georgia
92F, I'm jealous.

High today in Phoenix Arizona
107F, but no humidity.

Dust Bowl 1930's Oklahoma
So you take the heat from the Southwest and you mix it with the humidity of the Southeast and welcome to in August in Oklahoma.

*Post title is from Late Bloom a song by Amy Ray from the album Stag 2001 Daemon Records.  

Famous Airstream Owners

I saw this list on the Airforums site a few weeks ago and figured it was pretty complete.  Sean Penn once owned an Airstream also but I heard it was destroyed in a wildfire in California.


Arthur Godfery
Fatty Arbuckle
Gene Shepard
Lawrence Welk
Ben Blue
Joe Lewis
Joe Bolton
Veronica Lake
Gale Storm
Anne Jefferies
Milton Supman
Zazu Pitts
Leo G Carol
Manny, Moe & Jack (shared)
Jack Cones
Jame Gumb
Ed Gein
Billie Thomas
Danny Thomas
Maurice Jarre
Andy Devine
Rufe Davis
Edgar Buchanan
Gunilla Freeman Hutton
Slim Pickens
Gertrude Hoffman
Virginia Christine 
Randy Whipple
Ann Southern
Frank Yensan
David Jansen
Jonathan Harris
Bill Mumy
Veda Ann Borg 
Walter Pidgeon
Sterling Haydin 
Art Linkletter
Howard Hughes
Matthew McConaughey
Eddie Vetter
Lance Armstrong
Ted Cassidy
Mark Harmon


Well and of course Wally Byam the most famous of all.  

God Bless America?

So this happened toward the end of winter, I think actually the first time was during the Super Bowl.  It was still cold at night and warm during the day, but cool enough over all that the air conditioner was not running in the tin can.  While Airstreams are pretty sound proof when compared with other RVs there are times when you do hear everything.  The perfect conditions are as follows; the air conditioner is off and the noisy party is walking right next to your trailer.

As I've mentioned before, I work at night and sleep during the day, this can be complicated by noisy neighbors but I have become able to sleep through just about anything.  Well almost anything.  I was sound asleep on Super Bowl Sunday with the dogs curled up around me like furry hot water bottles, it was one of those nice sleeps you have when the air is cold but you have a nice warm blanket to cuddle up under.  When suddenly it happened, something jolted me out of my sleep and the dogs began to bark tentatively.  

What was it you ask?  A loud, drunken rendition of the chorus of God Bless America.  Just the chorus nothing else.  And as loud as it was the singer in question was stumbling through the space between my fence and my neighbor's trailer.  He was just wondering around singing God Bless America at the top of his lungs at 9am.  

I thought I was losing my mind, seriously.  Was I really hearing this?  Was this a dream?  So I called Wynn at work to tell her about it, if only because I wanted to see if I was dreaming or if she would mention it when she got home.  You guessed it, I wasn't dreaming, she asked me about it when she got home.  Great, I kind of wished I'd been dreaming because the other alternative was that Airstream living had finally gotten to me and I was losing my mind.  

The next day Wynn was home and off work and at 9am guess what woke her up.  The drunken chorus of God Bless America being sung drunkenly at full volume.  Yes!  I'm not crazy, or either we're both now crazy. So being the type A person she is, Wynn called the office and they went on a hunt for the drunken song bird.  He was real and we weren't crazy.  They told him to keep it down and we didn't hear him again.  

So about a week later I'm out in the yard emptying the black tank before a cold snap and I see this man wondering around in the dark with a light on his hat and one on each bicep and a light strapped to his dog.  Okay cool, he likes to see where he's going, great.  Living in an RV park you get used to having a few people around that are just a few bricks shy.  It's part of every day life.  Fine, live and let live.  I finish what I'm doing and usher the dogs inside before they can bark at this guy.  

I don't think anything of it and I decide to go up to the shower house.  There's the light man, dressed like a frontiersman, you know, coon skin cap, scraggly beard, buckskin jacket with fringe and this fluffy little dog. Okay great, cute dog.  As I head to the shower I over hear him complaining to one of the guys that work at the park that someone made him stop singing in the mornings.  You guessed it, this was Mr. God Bless America himself.  

I found out later that he started to deteriorate after a few days and the police had to take him out of here.  I felt bad, he was just trying to live life the only way he knew how.  I think that's what we're all trying to do out here.  

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Pseudo Friday

It is officially Pseudo Friday, even though I just got off work and haven't gone to bed yet.  This will be the first time that my last shift doesn't bleed over into the morning of my day off in a very long time.  Generally I would got to work at 11pm and get off around 7am on Wednesday morning, the first of two days off.  Now I will actually get off tonight.  I'm not sure what to do with myself.  Oh yeah, I suppose I could take care of the laundry monster that's making the Airstream bunk/ hallway almost impassable.  And I suppose I could actually continue the Airstream stories.  Maybe if it's cool enough I could cook out instead of reheating cheap prepackaged food or running out for fast food.  Alright never mind I have plenty to do and since Dakota is all new and improved now I don't have to worry about leaving him unattended.  His stitches are out and the cone of shame is no more, I guess I'm out of excuses.  Ooh I could get a haircut, I really need one of those, ahem after the laundry of course.

Monday, August 2, 2010

I'm Doing it Again

I'm reading old houseblogs when I should be blogging here.  Today it's the Bangor Bungalow, I can't help it... we have a bungalow of our own in another city and we are looking to buy one here.  It's so easy for me to get distracted when there are so many people doing such neat things to bring their old homes back to the era in which they were built.  So I'm reading this and bookmarking that and just futzing around in general today.  I will pick up where I left off with the Oklahoma Blizzard, just bear with me I'm more in the mood to move ahead than to remember.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Sustainability

I think the hardest part about Airstreaming full time is my urge to become sustainable.  Sure we buy recycled and organic as often as we can afford to and my cupboards are stocked with non-perishable foods, but we depend way too much on Whole Foods and Farmers' Markets for foods that we could grow ourselves if we had the space.  Yes, yes, I'm yet another person jumping on the sustainability bandwagon.  I grew up with a garden and later with beef cattle, I ate farm fresh eggs, butter and milk and I knew where my food was coming from if it didn't come from my own home.  Now that's not to say that I don't know where half of my food comes from.  I know when I buy meat from the woman who runs a farm outside of town that it's coming from her farm.  Or if I buy veggies from one of the farmers at the farmers' market I trust that they have grown them in their own gardens.  But there are certain things, like what I made for lunch today that come prepackaged.  


Sure I didn't run and get fast food but it did come out of a package.  


Kielbasa and sour kraut, the kielbasa came from a big box store and was made by one of those infamous meat makers that all of the grocery stores stock, the sour kraut came from a can.  Now realistically I know the fine art of sausage making is well beyond my abilities, but that is something I can buy from the farmers' market.  Also I am trying to get rid of prepackaged meat, and it's better to eat it than it is to throw it away.  But the sour kraut realistically I could buy my own cabbage and pickle my own, but in the Airsream I just don't have the room or the means.  Eventually I would like to get to the point that we are growing a small garden and putting up produce from that garden for the winter so that our cabinets aren't full of food that came from wherever with scary chemicals in them, that we just pour into a pan to reheat and serve.  

Thaw

We eventually thawed out from the blizzard but it was staying really cold at night.  It was in fact cold enough that our pipes stayed frozen pretty much until March.  Towards the end of the winter it got cold enough that pipes froze and burst all over the city.  In fact the sprinkler pipes at my work burst and brought down a ceiling.  During that time our pipes at the Aistream were still frozen, not much had changed about that until the thaw.  Last winter we'd gotten away with our pipes intact and we had just assumed we would this winter too.  Not so.  Remember that there is an oil heater running off an extension cord plugged into a surge protector in the bathroom and that's where all of the pipes are.  So it seemed like a good idea at the time and I'd still run it the same way this winter if I had to.

I had come home from an overnight shift and it was still dark and cold outside when I went to bed.  At approximately ten am or so I awoke feeling warm like the sun was shining in on me.  It felt all warm and cozy so I just kept my eyes closed and hoped I'd fall back asleep.  I then became aware of something, an odd noise keeping me awake.  It sounded like a pressure washer in the bathroom or behind the trailer.  So I leaned over the side of the bunk and waited for my eyes to adjust.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  The bathroom was flooding, and the flood was creeping up the sides of the surge protector.  I ran outside and opened the trunk first just so I'd know what had gone wrong.  Was it a fitting (we can fix that) or was it a burst pipe (we can't fix that)?  I could tell that it was a PVC pressure fitting that twisted on and off the copper, but I couldn't twist it down tight enough to stop the high pressure spray that was hitting me in the face and spraying into the trailer, so I just turned off the water and cleaned up inside, the surge protector was unharmed and nothing shorted out.

Hottest Day of the Year?

So apparently it was the hottest day of the year today, well yesterday, and the Airstream stayed pretty cool.  I didn't really notice how hot it was until I went to work.  I guess our air conditioner isn't set for this kind of heat and we can't get to the controls until Monday.  Yay!  I get to sweat for eight hours tomorrow too.  I can't wait.  So my first day back was good.  I only knew two of the kids, but I wasn't too surprised.  I work in a homeless shelter so kids are always coming and going and after being gone for ten days I would have been disappointed if all of the same ones were still there.  I like to see them change and progress and move on and it saddens me when for whatever reason they get stuck.  So it was nice to only see a couple of familiar faces.  Change is good especially in my line of work, and no two days are ever the same.  I love my job, I do, that's one thing I can say.  I love what I do.  I don't make much money and it can be extremely stressful but in the end youth work is something I will do until I die, even after I retire.  This job is the only reason we chose to stay and live in the Airstream.  I'd never found a career path that I love until I found youth work and Wynn and I decided that it is certainly something worth staying for.