On the Road Again

Well, these past 2 ½ months have been pretty crazy.  Multiple trips around OH, PA and KY to visit family and friends, taking care of some personal stuff, helping my dad and stepmom move, and trying to get my mobile home organized, condensed, and less stress-filled.  Oh, and of course my time spent anywhere wouldn’t be complete without cold, miserable weather and freak snowstorms in April.

So, a recap of the past couple of months:

I made a couple more trips to Pennsylvania to visit and help my sister get a little break from the chaos that is any new mom’s life.  Let’s just say the Laundry Fairy and Auntie LaLa were kept very busy.  I have bestowed the title “Chaostrophy Crew” upon my little nephew and niece.  Now, if I can just find a litter of Mastiff puppies for them the “Crew” will be complete!  (I know, I am so evil).

I also made a trip to Kentucky to see my “second family” – dear, dear friends from when I lived there.  Visiting with them always does my heart and soul good.  And I hung out with friends in Ohio – I even got to color Easter eggs with my friend Jacquie and her daughters – what a blast.  

That's my blue Herd of Sheep Egg

Jacquie made this orange and purple “Friendship Egg” for me.  We both are Star Wars fans, thus the stickers, and the orange and purple have a special significance to our friendship.  I wish I could have kept it.  

And it wouldn’t be a visit home without time at the lake – unfortunately the weather never cooperated for me and my dad to take our traditional walks on the beach, looking for lucky stones and other treasures.

Lake Erie

One project I did manage to complete during the few decent days we had was making drawer stops for the new drawer system in my van.  Up until then, I just used big pieces of cardboard held up against the drawers with a pile of stuff I had in the van.  Not a good system at all.  My criteria for the drawer stops were that they had to be simple, inexpensive, and not sully the beauty of the platform.  I had the idea a while ago to use rods to hold the drawers, but had to do some sleuthing at the hardware store to find what pieces might work.  I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, but found these D-ring picture hangers instead. 

I was going to use them on the top and bottom, but the lip we made on the bottom to hold the drawers in place was too tall, so I had to MacGyver a solution.  I had an old webbing strap with a broken buckle that I kept for years.  I cut that into pieces and screwed loops of it to the bottom piece of the platform so that they came out from under the drawers.  

I wanted to add D-rings to the webbing loops for the rods to go through, but couldn’t find any, and the O-rings were all too large.  So I took small zippy ties (cable ties) and made rings from them, and voilà, fairly inconspicuous drawer stops!  And all for about $7.00 – plus I got to finally use that broken webbing strap for something!

Drawer system with drawer stops in place.

My time back home wasn’t all fun and games.  One day I received this in the mail. 

Not my birthday, and definitely NOT appreciated!  Just two years ago I was being carded for buying windshield washer fluid and now THIS?  Actually, this was the second senior moment I had – some teenybopper gave me the senior discount at a restaurant, just assuming I was one.  Damn gray hairs springing up!  If not for those, I wouldn’t look a day over 29.  Yep, I’m sticking with that story. 

    

Now I’m on my way to Washington for my summer job.  I left this morning, and with a much lighter load than my last trip west.  It took a while to get my stuff condensed down, but I am very happy with how it turned out.  Sure, I could still cut back more, and will naturally as I use up some of the extra consumable items I have, but for now I am feeling very “Zen” with it.  It has been a very long time since I felt this way about my life.  Feels good to have the “Zen-ness” back.

And now a Public Service Announcement:  Beware milkshakes with chocolate chips and straws.  I think you probably can guess where this is leading to, but for those of you who haven’t had your caffeine yet, I’ll spell it out.  Chocolate chips and straws should NOT be used together.  Chips get stuck in the straws causing a blockage, which results in you inhaling harder, dislodging the chips which then become dangerous projectiles headed straight for your throat.  Consider yourself lucky if the chips only lodge in the back of your throat instead of down your throat.

One thing I had forgotten about during my hiatus . . . TIME ZONES!!  I think that is one of the many reasons I love heading west – you get FREE extra hours!  You don’t have to answer 20 questions correctly in 30 seconds or bounce ping pong balls into cups while doing cartwheels blindfolded.  You just cross these magical lines and you get free hours!  But the only thing is you have to GO WEST to get them. 

So, here I am tonight camping at a State Park west of Peoria, IL, relishing the existence of time zones, which allowed me to make it to the campground before dark for once!  How nice it was to actually back the tearbaby into a campsite during daylight – so much easier.  Since making camp, I’ve been trying to find my routine again.  While in Ohio, I didn’t stay in Zelda – the weather was just too nasty for it – so I spent the whole time as the Couch-surfing Bag Lady.  I am grateful to have such generous and loving friends to let me crash at their places, but that lifestyle gets old pretty fast.  It is good to finally be back in my own little house and bed . . . even without heat.  Oh well, can’t have everything.   

Yes, it’s good to be back.