No stress here, uh-uh, no siree

I keep nodding off, which is what I usually do when I'm stressed out. A friend finally said, well, you're dealing with moving, both out and in, and your parent died, so why wouldn't you be stressed! So I'm going to just keep moving at my snail's pace, taking things out of my apartment, doing some work on the RV, and dealing with red tape on the estate front. I'm now trying to file my parent's income tax for last year. Yes, it's fun all round.

Got a small CA fix today, always a good thing. Went to dinner with friend last night. Will go play cards with friends on Sat. eve. Joe's ripping out some rotten wood to replace with new wood, which means I get to reprime that area. Sun. I'll begin the real painting (in color!). Seems like I'm always about to paint.

Two months till I leave town. Time pressure is building up. Aaarrrgh.

Killz Paint

Today I finished putting Killz oil-based primer everywhere inside the RV, including in my hair and on my glasses. I think I'm the world's sloppiest painter. It's imperative I work with the brush or roller in one hand and a wipe rage in the other. It took a full gallon of Killz to do it all, and I now have muscle aches in odd places. And then there's the cleanup. If you're a sloppy painter, your brushes are covered in paint at the end, as are your clothes.

I did the TSP two days ago and forgot to wear gloves so I came out with blisters and redness all over my hands.

Tomorrow I start putting on the real paint, in a color (summer sage), so I'm going to have to slow down and be careful because I really do want it to look nice.

The older I get the more I believe in the old saying, "good enough for government work."

Working But Not

Not having a job is weird. This is the first time since 1987 I've been jobless. There's no structure to my days so I have to be my own disciplinarian. If I don't, the RV isn't going to get done. Some progress has been made. Joe is figuring out the old electrical system and wiring. I caulked nine million holes in the cab floor (slight hyperbole). I've put down the underlayment on the cab floor and overlaid it with rubber matting, so we can reinstall the driver seat.. A new regulator and hose fitting has been purchased for the propane tank and Joe will install them this weekend. I'll begin making the box for the passenger side of the cab -- this will be storage for heavy things, probably tools etc. It'll also provide an armrest and drink place and desktop.

Next is the TSP, Killz, and paint the interior. Then make and install the cabinets, using "hardware cloth" as door insets. This is actually gridded wire, so why it's called cloth is unknown.

Still discussing the option of generator versus inverter.

And the matter of my mother's estate rolls on. I sure hope it's all finished before I hit the road.

I had a nice flirtation going with a younger man but, sadly, it's fizzled out. Ah well.

Lost Time

I'm so pissed and tired and bored with being sick. It's either the flu, a really nasty cold, or a severe allergy attack, or some combo of all three. Nothing's gotten done on the RV this past week, and very little has gotten done in the house either. I did take a couple of things to the auction house and I packed up a bunch of boxes of books to take to auction in a couple of weeks. And today I took a box of D&D and comics and comic-related books to my favorite comic store, Pastimes.

At the moment, I'm pissed because my Modesty Blaise books are really late, like over a month now. At least the Buffy comics are coming regularly, more or less.

Excuse me while I go cough my lungs out once again.

Tools Two

Not only did I get to learn the table saw, so I'll be able to make the cabinets, but I got to use an impact wrench. I'm becoming close friends with ear protectors. I also got the last of the nasty carpet out of the cab itself-- you should have seen me folded up under the steering wheel, pulling and tugging and sweating. And I don't fold or unfold as easily as I used to. I think I'm going to have spray-on bedliner in the cab, which will give some insulation and noise deadening. The passenger seat is gone and in its place will be a box big enough to house the batteries and a space for other tools.

There's some repairs to do in some corners and on the ceiling. Then I'll be ready to paint (well, TSP first, then Killz primer, then paint). Then install the cabinets.

Whew.

Tools

Today I got to learn how to use a new tool. On one wall of my RV, there were about 10 big screws sticking through from the bathroom wall with the heads covered by the shower wall. So I got to use a grinder thingy to cut the pointy ends off flush with the wall. As it was clouding over and was dim, the sparks looked like a Catherine Wheel from when I was a kid.

Tomorrow the table saw!

RV Progress Report

Most of the interior demolition has been done. We took up the nasty carpet and the weirdly cut plywood underneath, and have now put down A-C plywood (Birch finish) all the way from the bathroom to the cab with only one cut. There's one small place that'll get a piece of its own. The ceiling was patched halfway with melamine (or the like), badly cut so that it's popping out. We're going to take it out, recut it to fit, and turn it over so we can paint it. We have to take out the old fridge and put in the new electric-only one (that only pulls 70 watts!). All the old overhead cabinets have been removed, which immediately made the space feel much larger.

I've begun measuring for the new cabinets, which are going to put everywhere there's wall space. They'll be units with 6 inch deep shelves and a frame extension deep enough to put frosted acrylic sliding doors. They'll also have holes drilled to put pegs in so the shelves are adjustable. I've measured many things in my kitchen etc and very few are wider than 6 inches; even a stout-looking Juicy Juice bottle is less than 6 inches across. All the wall and ceiling are to be painted a pale sage green. With the pale walls, pale floor, and the frosted acrylic panels, it should look and feel light and airy.

In the cabover section, I'll be using white rubber-wrapped wire boxes that fit together with round connectors. They're about 15x15x15. I figure I can fit about 13 of them with small spaces left for other things and some space on top too for other flat things. I have stout plastic crates in loud colors which I'll use in the two cabinets, which will keep visible colors pale.

Then comes all the wiring, planning the lighting, testing the water system and propane, etc. Lots to do.