Today I’ll begin with a couple of updates. First and most important, our Redneck Malinois continues to heal — there’s still a little seeping, but the dressing has taken things about as far as they can go without opening the wound to the air.
Three weeks into this new way of managing her injury, we’re getting close to the point at which we’ll start leaving the bandages off.
I predict that Miss Smudge will insist on messing with her sore spot. We may have to wrap it at night and whenever we can’t keep an eye on her, at least for a little while.
And then there’s Ernie’s new inverter/charger, installed last Wednesday. I’m pleased to report that it works and works well. In fact, it may be doing more and better than the identical 20-year-old unit it replaced.
On the master panel in the coach’s bedroom, I’ve watched as the charger progressed through its four stages — bulk, absorb, float and full. I noticed much higher voltage and amperage in the first stage than I’d seen before, telling me that the charger sensed that the house batteries were in need of a good hard pull. It took three days before I saw the float stage, and only this morning did the display indicate a full charge.
This is a good thing. So all’s well with our 12VDC system.
This old porch is just a long time
Lyle Lovett
Of waitin’ and forgettin’
And rememberin’ the comin’ back
And not cryin’ about the leavin’
And rememberin’ the fallin’ down
And the laughter of the curse of luck
From all of those sons-of-bitches
Who said we’d never get back up
I ‘m losing count of how many times we’ve moved in the last three years. Let’s see… we moved weekend stuff into the Bumper Bunker when we got it the summer of 2020. Ernie’s arrival, and getting that rig ready for a year on the road, meant moving essentials from the Bumper Bunker and Second Chance Ranch. About this time last year we moved a Tacomaload from Ohio down here. Then we moved everything we hadn’t sold out of our house and into a pair of storage units (and shifted a little too much stuff into the bus).
Now we’re moving out of the motorhome and into the fifth-wheel. Some stuff will go into a storage container in Gassville. A couple more moves are inevitable, of course — one across the driveway and another across the country.
I hate moving.
To clarify — I hate moving out, the gathering and packing and loading. Moving in, on the other hand, I don’t mind at all. That signals a new place, a new adventure, an opportunity to arrange and organize and begin with new digs just so.
Deb and I are devoting today to making strides toward moving out. I feel like she’s getting a lot more done than I am — by noon she’d packed several large totes and a few boxes. All I’ve accomplished is to finish clearing out the basement compartments.
Tomorrow morning we’ll need to leave early for The Mountain — our electrical contractor will be there around 9am — so we’ll load today’s packing into the truck tonight. Over the course of the day we’ll work around that appointment and some anticipated backhoe work to transfer stuff into the fifth-wheel, bringing empty totes (we hope) back to the campground and repeating the process.
And it is, of necessity, a process.
Circumstances prevent it from happening all at once. But I’ll tell you what — if I could snap my fingers, skip the moving out and be transported straight to moving in… an old man can dream, right?
I know one thing for sure, that for all of the sweat and strain, we’re headed in the right direction. My motivation is simple — to see the sun set and greet the following dawn from our Home on The Mountain, and never leave again.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB