Saturday, June 29, 2013

Patches, I'm Depending on You...


The last few days have been spent planning and packing. Is it possible that I'm doing too much of both? I do have piles of stuff that I've removed from the camper for the trip (hurrah), but on the flip side I have added a few things. Extra sheets and towels seem like a good thing! I have a feeling that I'm packing to have everything that we will need for the whole 5 weeks - no stores required. Or do they have stores in the Wild West? They might even have laundry facilities as well! There will be no "I wish we had.."s!

My lists are getting longer, but more items are checked off - do you think I should remove the checked-off things from the lists or leave them there for a sense of getting things done?

One thing we got done today was installing a latch on the slide-out desk. It has been coming out as we've been driving so this was a MUST DO before the next trip or we risked some serious damage.

Thursday I un-puffed both poodles. They will need another clip just before we go, but they were so long and scruffy that they really couldn't wait another few weeks. What a pain though to have to do it twice :-(

When we got home a few days ago the peonies were finished with pools of petals on the ground. They still had a certain beauty.





You may wonder about my choice of song today : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z3nzjNbra4&feature=youtube_gdata_player http

We opened the pool on Monday, and since then have installed 3 patches. The first one wasn't so bad, just a little v-slit on the bottom. The water was warm and the day was hot when we did that one. Yesterday it was clear that we had another leak... we looked and looked but couldn't see anything very likely. It was raining which made it hard to see through the water so it was a fruitless search. This morning Carm went out to look some more. I joined him, but even with two sets of eyes we couldn't see anything. Oh... what's that over there? Quite some distance from where we were looking (where the ground was wettest), we could see last years patch had failed. Okay - fix. At this point I should mention that it was 21C with the water a bit cooler (69f). I stayed outside the pool, but Carm wasn't so lucky. To make matters worse I had to push him down to the bottom of the pool... and hold him there... with the pool brush/pole.

It soon became apparent that the water was still leaking, and now at an alarming rate. We walked around the pool and there was a spot where the water was pouring on the ground... we peered inside the pool to see a huge gash . Back into the water Carm went. It looks like we have it licked... but with two new holes patched so far this year it could well be the last year for this pool liner. It is 18 years old - a pretty good run for a bit of vinyl.

Speaking of vinyl - Carm got the truck's XM radio enrolled - it will be great for our trip! We'll still have some cd's of music, and of course my mp3 player, but having some different music, not to mention the comedy channels, will help us to pass the hours in the truck. I packed the cards from a trivial pursuits game for some driving fun too. Does anyone have any other ideas of things we can do while driving to keep us alert?


As a rule, we find what we look for; we achieve what we get ready for.
James Cash Penney

2 comments:

Merikay said...

I always find it in the last place I look.

Chuck and Anneke's RV travels said...

When we were full time, we never needed to think about packing. Now I am working on a checklist. We like to carry just the minimums, as we have never had a problem buying stuff:)