Update

I know I know, I haven't blogged in weeks. But I've been busy. Have been up on a ladder to look at the roof and found a place that might be letting water in so it got puttied. Today I'm repairing the black water tank leak -- ick ick. Did selling at Smiley's flea market on Sunday and made a few bucks. Have sold a bunch of books to DBN. Have culled out a lot of stuff I no longer need and the inside looks much more spacious.

Have been in touch with Indiana friends re my visits. Leaving here Friday and plan on arriving in Indianapolis Sat. evening. Then on to Terre Haute on either Monday or Tuesday. After that, who knows where I'll be.

Am going to try for a winter job on the West Coast so I probably won't be back here for at least a year, if not more.

Money & Chores

Got a fair amount of work done on the engine -- turns out the valves were sticking and the manifold gaskets were leaking badly, so both those things had to be done as well as normal maintenance stuff like oil change and headlamp adjusting and inspection. Many hundreds of dollars later, it's all good.

Joe used his jigsaw to square the corners on the access door opening so the new frame I got would fit. Then I cleaned carefully all around the opening, scraping off old putty and paint and dirt and petroleum jelly and cayenne pepper. Put rope caulk along the edges of the opening and anywhere that looked open. Used butyl putty tape all around the frame edge, then squoze the door into the opening. Drilled new holes and screwed in about seventy-eleven screws. Done!

I feel so handy! And it looks great.

Have been ruthlessly chucking out stuff and will be doing a flea market next week. Sold a bunch of books to DBN today, and took the rejects to the new Montford Books (was Readers Corner, where I worked). They didn't want anything for cash so I'll take them to the flea market, too. Am going to try to wholesale my good wine to one of the wine guys around.

Busy busy. Leaving here two weeks from today.

Errands and Such

Not much has happened since last post. Just running around doing errands. Trying to figure out the access door problem -- the welder I thought would cut the new door down to size says it's really a sheet-metal problem and gave me a name, so have to trundle over there. Got a new lantern to replace the nonworking one (straight trade at Sears as it was a Craftsman brand). Got some screening to work on the vents. Got a new water hose and a thingy to roll the hoses onto. Got masonite sheet cut down to make a new larger lapdesk, which I'm loving. Taking the rig into the shop tomorrow for engine maintenance and inspection. And so forth. Exciting, eh?


Amy and I are going to Zen Sushi for lunch today. And Gillian and I are going to Kanpai for dinner tomorrow eve. Have been by Accent on Books but no Byron yet.

More later.

Nice Night Out/In

I've been relaxing and healing since I got here last Sat. Everything is coming along very well and healing rapidly, except for my ass. The bruise there is still bigger than my hand and is still a deep deep purple. The knot has gone away but sitting for any length of time is still uncomfortable.

As with playing pinochle last night at John Ro's with Joe Y and John Ru. Had a good time but the ass ached.

Tonight Blair, Mary-Anne and I went to the Usual Suspects restaurant for dinner. I had duck egg rolls for a starter and then steak frites, with a gimlet to drink. Very nice. But their chairs are wooden so I was a little stiff when I got up and my ass ached. Then back to the house to watch CSI. This was a regular ritual before I went RVing so it was nice to do again.

I've also been sorting everything yet again and discarding stuff I haven't used since last May. This includes clothes, kitchen stuff, trivial pursuit game, etc etc. Have gotten rid of four large bins, too, which makes the interior much roomier. Am thinking about doing a flea market and trying to make a few bucks off this stuff.

Arrived More or Less Safely

Am now in Mary-Anne's driveway. Coming up from Davidson, which takes about two to three hours, made my ass hurt. Got here to Asheville about 4pm Saturday and got hooked up. Fell asleep for two hours. Then she and I went over to John and Hazel's for an hour or so. Blair came in and I gave her and H&J their presents. Mary-Jo was there, too. Good to see everybody.

Physically, everything is healing well. The worst of it is the right eye and brow, and the right ass cheek. But all is coming along.

Now, to set up all my "to-d0s" and get it all done before I leave on 3 April. First thing is to get my shaggy hair cut.

I'll be out and about visiting real soon.

TX to NC

Left Uvalde area Sun am, March 1. Made the Escapees Park in Livingston by 5pm (about 400 mi). Stayed there Monday. Tue am left there, hit I-10 all the way to Mobile, turned north on I-65, and spent the night in the Mississippi Welcome Center. Wed. night was spent in a truck stop about 50 miles south of Atlanta. Rolled into Diana B's driveway about 4pm Thurs. No problems along way (except for weird clatter in the engine) and great driving weather.

So Diana and I settled in for a marathon of Ru Paul's new drag queen reality show. Taking a break I went on the tiny porch to have a smoke and promptly fell down the brick steps (I had forgotten to turn on the porch light). Fortunately, she was in the front room and heard the godawful noises I was making (after the thumping). So I now have an ugly gash on my forehead, extending into my eyebrow (from greeting the pathway with my face), assorted other scrapes and bruises, etc etc. But nothing is broken or sprained. Good thing I planned on staying here tomorrow because I can just bet I'm going to be creeping around and moaning a lot. My right buttock must have hit along the stairs because it really hurts, so driving on Sat is going to be a lot of fun.

But I'll be there. I just won't be able to jump for joy.