Unsettled, fly and ride
I have been in one of those periods of time where I feel like there are so many little things that need to be taken care of and I don’t feel like I am getting anywhere. It’s not a feeling I enjoy. The funny thing is feeling that way despite getting a decent amount of things done over the weekend.
It started out early Saturday with me getting outside to work on weeding a little after 7:30. That rolled almost immediately into doing the oil and filter change that was due on the Prius. Cindy and I headed out to do a Rural King run, something I hadn’t done in a couple weeks, a long time for me. We brought Elsa along for the ride and she once again oscillated between being ok one moment and terrified the next.
We stopped at Home Depot on the way home. We picked up some more vegetables for the garden including tomatoes, something we historically have a horrible time getting anywhere with. If first you don’t succeed, try, try again. I also picked up a new LED floodlight for the other side of the house, similar to the awesome stadium style bright unit I installed on the other side a couple months ago.
When we got home we made plans to go with Katie to go look at rvs/trailers/park homes. She is looking to move ahead with having a place to call her own and wanted to get a first hand look at some options. The first place we went surprised the hell out of me, they sold Airstreams. For some reason I had it in my head that Airstream was no longer in business. I am not sure where that notion came from.
Not only did they not go out of business, they make some of the highest quality trailers on the market we came to discover. Katie loved the stainless steel shells that wrapped around highly functional living spaces. We looked at models that ranged from 16 feet to 30. Regardless of the size, every single model we checked out was really, really nice. Of course top of the line comes with a price tag, they are far from cheap.
I talked a bit with the sales manager at the location. He used to work at the Airstream factory store in Ohio for a long time. He really stressed how well made they were and how they steered clear of shitty Chinese components as much as possible. He also told me that depending on the price of he unit, they can be financed for as long as 20 years, making one affordable even for someone just getting started like Katie. The last interesting fact was they are just over 8 feet wide, meaning in theory one could be driven into our wide open backyard through the 10 foot gate with little fuss.
In addition to the Airstreams we looked at more traditional trailers as well as “park homes”, another thing I wasn’t aware of. These were apartment/condo sized homes on wheels. When you were inside it looked like conventional construction. When you were outside you saw the big trailer it was built on and would be a permanent part of it’s structure. I guess the name comes from the idea that typically you park these once and leave them there, unlike an Airstream-like trailer which could be relocated pretty easily.
Out of everything we saw Katie definitely liked the Airstream option the best. The ability to pick up and move while having all the basic necessities to live day to day was very appealing to her. The design of them was really interesting to Katie and she spent a good portion of the drive home researching the hell out of them on her phone.
When we got back we didn’t waste much time before we headed over to the school to ride our wheels. I also brought my Mavic with as I wanted to see how it did tracking Katie and I as we rode around. Well the drone did pretty damn well. Even with sunset approaching rapidly the Mavic did a good job of following us around autonomously , keeping us in it’s field of view.
Cindy was doing more of her fence EUC training and did well again. I think all she needs to do is get more frequent training sessions under her belt so she can keep building where she left off instead of having to refamiliarize herself when 10 or 14 days have passed.
Saturday night Cindy called in a food order that I picked up. We had a Netflix rental in an envelope, a movie called Memento that Cindy picked out, some murder mystery flick. Well we gave it a solid 15-20 minutes to spark our interest before all three of us gave it the gong. I pulled out the dvd and instead rented Deepwater Horizon on X1. The movie reenforced why fossil fuels and the companies that provide them need to be put out to pasture. The recreation of the disaster on film was incredibly realistic and impressive. I’d give it a B+.
I felt guilty when I didn’t start my Sunday morning off with a run. The reality is my knee/hip/IT band on my right side is still messed up and running would just amplify it. That didn’t make me feel any less guilty however. I did however get busy once again outside, tending to the chickens, planting the vegetables I bought Saturday and starting the work to replace the floodlight.
Installing that floodlight was one of the very early home projects I took on after we built the place in 2001. As I ripped down the old beat up light I realized that back then I did some pretty shoddy work. I had the old light sloppily and loosely attached to the aluminum flashing, it wasn’t very solid at all. I got the old light ripped out but realized if I wanted to install the new one correctly I was going to need a proper electrical fixture mounting box, which I didn’t have.
The three of us went to Dunkin Donuts and followed up with another ride into the Esplanade development. It was SUPER windy during the ride. At times if the wind hit us dead on it felt like it almost brought us to a standstill. It was nuts.
After the ride we made a couple stops, including the hardware store so I could get the mounting box I needed. When I got home I got to work. Instead of mounting the light to the aluminum I attached the box to the concrete wall with tapcons, a much sturdier solution. Once that was in place the rest of the light install went pretty easily. It looks a lot better and lights up that area of the yard in a much more efficient manner.
I had a few other projects/chores keeping me busy during the afternoon. Late in the day Cindy mentioned that Katie was interested in going over to the nearby Bird Rookery Swamp to walk with Elsa. We came up with a plan where I would leave ahead of them on my Msuper and they would drive there with Elsa in the Prius. With the ability to cruise comfortably at 18-20 mph, I got there pretty fast, fast enough that I had time to ride the length of the boardwalk and back before they got there.
Katie had never been to the swamp so it was cool for her to see. We ran into a decent sized gator shortly after getting onto the grass path. Cindy was scared, Katie was concerned, I just sort of shrugged. I have seen so many gators at this location it just doesn’t affect me much. Elsa seemed to like the hike as well although she got scared by random people along the way. We stayed later than I ever had before, getting back to the parking lot a few minutes after the sun had set.
I told Cindy I wanted to ride the wheel back to the house as well instead of hitching a ride with her. She was not thrilled with the idea but knew I was going to do it regardless. The ride back was fine, possibly even faster than the ride there. The headlight on the Msuper was definitely necessary as it was almost pitch black by the time I pulled back into the driveway.
I have a work week that is going to be very meeting heavy so don’t be surprised by short and sweet entries as standard practice.