Day 273: The shortest day

This is Day 273 of 15 Days to Flatten the Curve, Day 33 of Ohio’s 21-day WuFlu Curfew, and the 2020 Winter Solstice.

Deb and I are fine today.

Most of the time, the significance of my header images is obvious in the text. Often I’ll provide an explanation at the end of a post. The graphic I’ve used today, however, is a different animal — an original design I created a few days ago.

Sorry, but right now I’m not going to explain it. I won’t reveal its meaning or its origins just yet. It’s sitting up there today only as a marker, establishing an initial published presence on Monday, December 21, 2020.

You’ll see it again, I promise, probably early in the New Year. Stay tuned, my friends — it has a purpose.

We’re getting into what looks like a three-day stretch of tolerable weather here. Ernie’s slides are out, the heat pumps brought the interior up to sweater temp and we (along with the dogs) spent a good bit of productive time inside the bus this afternoon.

Once today’s drizzle and rain are past us, but before snow and bitter chill arrive Christmas Eve, I expect we’ll make some good progress indoors and out.

I ended up replacing the gas props on the bed, figuring that a pair of new 150-pound struts would hold it up once raised. They didn’t, so I fashioned a couple of low-tech prop rods, stout dowels with a cane tip on each end — done.

Since this is a 2004 coach, it wasn’t equipped originally with the kind of navigation and communication gizmos common on newer vehicles (including our daily-driver trucks). The last part I needed to update Ernie’s cockpit arrived today, and I got right to work installing the new setup.

Now, with a couple of RAM Mounts fitted to the right side of the dash, I have my phone and tablet within arm’s reach. I don’t have to lean to operate them, nor do they obstruct controls or gauges. Plug-in power for both is right next door. The tablet can be pivoted easily toward the co-pilot’s seat, so that Deb can enter a route or check conditions ahead, and then aimed back toward me.

The true test will happen on the road, of course, but I’m really jazzed about how this turned out.

Deb immersed herself in a project of her own today — for lack of a better description, un-pimping the window treatments in the bedroom and rear bath. She began removing the original leopard print, gold draping and tassels (totally not kidding here) and replacing them with warmer, woodsier fabrics.

I look forward to the result, but (as much as I can) I’m staying out of her way. Totally not my thing, definitely in her wheelhouse. It works out.

In current events, I’ve heard that a new strain of the Wuhan coronavirus is in circulation. (This would not be a surprise, by the way.) Reportedly it’s more contagious — more easily transmitted, that is — but less deadly. (That’s also not shocking.)

This is what viruses do. We know that. Try to keep up.

Ohio’s governor has been upping his media profile again, popping up just to pop up, saying inane stuff that doesn’t need saying and reporting every bit of dim news he can find. He remains a massive embarrassment (and that’s being charitable).

This week a lot of us are watching what he does with a bill that just landed on his desk — SB 175, sponsored by my state senator Tim Schaffer, would remove a citizen’s “duty to retreat” in a self-defense situation. From the standpoint of individual Liberty, this “stand your ground” measure is critically important.

Naturally, he’s hinting that he’ll veto the bill — that’s what an anti-Liberty progressive would do. And if he does veto SB 175, this sorry son-of-a-bitch will lose the last of his support from the Right.

He lost mine long ago.

Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay free.

#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #LFSH #OhioAgainstDeWine