Tuesday 1/19

Tuesday 1/19 7am

Very disjointed sleep last night, up at 5.30am. Front moving through, clouds, maybe rain, snowing up north of Albuquerque, achy knees.

Got a smaller shelving unit (four drawers $8 each) and couldn't wait, so I took out all the foodstuffs, dismantled the big shelving unit (bang bang bang) and got it undone enough to drag outside. Moved the full laundry bag out. Put in the new shelving, sitting up on a plastic milk crate so as to access the bottom drawer. Turned it this way and that to test access.

Finally put it in with drawer fronts facing front wall, which means the drawers only open halfway, but also means that during travel they won't fall out and dump food everywhere. The only things I access every day are my coffee canisters. The drawers are translucent so I can tell what's in each drawer -- handy. Things like the juice bottles and the baby wipe packages fit around the unit down in the shower pan. I could also turn the unit sideways so the drawers open all the way and put bungee cords on when traveling. Hmmm. A work in progress.

The only things that don't fit are the tall canisters with potato chips in them (I think one canister on its side will fit in a drawer). So I'm going to get one more drawer and do away with one chip canister. Maybe I'll get a differently shaped canister so it'll be easier to get in and out of the drawer. Also, I now don't have a place for the laundry bag -- must think about that.

I'm also going to put some tape along the sides to keep the drawers from coming loose from each other -- they just sit down on each other along a little groove; the big unit had legs that slotted into the frame, like a mortise and tenon joint.

One reason for getting drawers instead of a one-piece cabinet is the shower pan lip -- cabinets have doors and the lip would prevent opening them. It's about 4 inches deep. Now, I could put a platform on top of the lip, with a support in the back corner, and put a cabinet on the platform. However, that's considerably more hassle and would require all sorts of construction and ways to attach the cabinet to the wall, etc etc. The drawer units are much easier and more flexible.

Am waiting to hear from brother about the actual dates of the Tucson Gem show. He's borrowing the RV from Deb's brother and we're all going to boondock on some land that Tinnee owns. I'm determined to go, even if I have to quit this job to do it.

No answers yet from any of the applications I've sent out (JR is doing the same thing and says he's getting no response either). I'll just keep on. Or when I get to Tucson, I'll look in the paper and see whether there are any part-time jobs. Or I'll go talk to Bookman's and see what they have on offer. I'll call the carnival this week, too.