More testing required

First results from an ongoing experiment

More information to follow after further testing

Heat for the feet, part two

The heating pad didn’t satisfy my needs and wants so it went to a new home. May it serve the new owner well. 

Time to try the no-tech option. I got a real rubber hot water bottle and filled it with not quite boiling water. Mmmmm, nice and warm. I slipped it under the covers between my feet. Having never used a water bottle before, I didn’t know whether I was supposed to simply keep it in the general vicinity of my feet or rest my feet against it. I went with the latter. But that left me with tootsies that were toasty on one side and chilly on the other. So I moved my feet, leaving them feeling neither warm or cold. Okay, I’d try that.

I always change sleeping positions several times before falling asleep. Now I was bumping against the water bottle each time. I would move the bottle to make room for my feet, ankles, shins. Kind of annoying.

My big question was how long the bottle would stay warm. I understand a little bit of physics and know that when objects of different temperatures come in contact for a period of time, their temperatures eventually average out, with cold things warming up and warm things cooling down. And I also know that everything cools down unless more heat is applied. My semi-educated guess was that the hot water bottle would end up being a no-warmer-than-me bottle by morning.

And that was what happened the first night. Then there were several nights in a row that were warmer and my feet were happy without the bottle. The results the next chilly night were pretty much the same. I think if it had been seriously cold the bottle would’ve stopped being warm in the middle of the night.

So, meh, I don’t think a hot water bottle is the answer. The quest will continue.

Never bring a lazy man to a knife fight

A couple of months ago my only table knife went missing. I suspected it had slid off the counter then down the crack between the bed and the wall where it would be very hard to reach. The bed is bolted down and the things under the bed are packed in like Tetris pieces. And even if I were to move that stuff out of the way, reaching to the wall requires getting down on my back in the slightly narrower than myself space between the bed and cabinet, scooching over, getting my head under there, trying to see what I'm doing with just one eye and r-e-e-e-e-e-e-a-ch-i-n-g…

Well, I finally got tired of spreading things with the back of a spoon (even though it works better than expected) and did the unpacking part. Yup, there it was, up against the wall, out of easy reach. Then I had an idea. I got off the floor, found my potato masher and... yeah, that made reaching a little easier. I have my knife again.

Tah-dah!

Sometimes accomplishing stupid little things makes me feel like I totally have my act together.

Making fire and ice at the same time

Supply chain problem

The saguaro factory was out of matching replacement parts

Moved to a more cactusy neighborhood

A cone of my own

I spent part of my parking and traffic control shift at the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous supervising this cone. I was the head of the cone. I was the conehead.

One reason why I live this way

I’m here to tell you where to go

Today was paperwork and orientation (with a break for pizza) for Rubber Tramp Rendezvous volunteers. That’s me in safety orange in the middle of the traffic control meeting. My assignment is at the main entry, doing sort of parking triage, separating small and large vehicles, handicapped parking and event staff rigs. Don’t run over me, man.

Brief update on Lou

Lou got a scan last week and met with the oncologist yesterday. There were no detectable changes, which is good, considering. He’s scheduled for another scan in May.

Cody comes beggin’

Sometimes it’s quite easy to see how wolves became domesticated. “You have food? I’ll be your friend, okay? Food? Or are you going to make me stare longingly at you until you give me food to make me go away?”

But to Cody’s credit, a simple No will make him leave.

Re-relocating

There I was, on a hilltop south of Lake Havasu City, when an email arrived. Said email notified me I had a bit of business to deal with in Quartzsite.

Sigh. Best laid plans, et cetera, et cetera. So I drove back, did the thing that had to be done, then found a boondocking spot off Plomosa Road. 

I had relocated to Lake Havasu City for cell service that wasn’t clogged by a few hundred thousand other people like me. I had also gone for a change of scenery. Now I was back and cell service was still unusable, except in the wee hours when sensible folks were asleep. I couldn’t stay there.

I flipped a coin this morning: heads = Lake Havasu; tails = Yuma; edges = somewhere else. I fumbled catching the coin and it bounced out of the van and into a tarantula hole. I decided I preferred Yuma, if only because I had just made the drive north (and back) a few hours before.

Now I’m back where the land and the bandwidth are much less crowded. Yeah, this is a good place. Especially after making a stop in Los Algodones for tacos.

Relocating

I’m going to move from Quartzsite for the next five days. Running cheaprvliving.com requires a lot of online time, and the bandwidth is too clogged here. I expected that. 

So maybe Shea Road near Parker, or one of the places just south of Lake Havasu City. I’ll be back for RTR. I’ve volunteered for traffic control.

On the air live

Today, during Bob Wells’s live stream, I was introduced as the new editor of the Cheap RV Living website. I had been working on this for several months behind the scenes, redesigning the site, creating a stockpile of articles, going back and forth with the tech guy. It should all go live in within the next few days. I don’t know yet how it will impact this blog.

UPDATE: The new Cheap RV Living site is up and running.

Photographic evidence

See, sometimes I do hang out with people

Cooking with math

The package of dehydrated corn chowder mix looked really good. Just add potatoes, chicken broth and heavy cream. I could handle that.

But then I realized the portions called for in the instructions added up to more than my pot could hold. Even the leftovers would be too much for any of my containers. I would have to do some arithmetic to cut the size. 

I could hear some former teacher chuckling smugly, “See, you will have to know how to convert ounces to cups, and decimals to fractions.” 

I replied, “I have apps to do that for me, neener neener neener.” I had to guess on the dry mix, though. Better to add too much than too little. Thick soup is good.

The instructions failed to mention salt. I’m not a huge salt user, but this chowder really needed it, especially since I had used low-sodium broth. It needed pepper, too. But it was still the perfect lunch for a chilly day.