Today was spent making sure JR's computer was working properly. It had a virus and he took it to Best Buy's Geek Squad. A bunch of money later, it was home, but not set up the way he wanted. So I removed the programs that weren't needed, and installed the programs that he needed.
It was also spent looking for clever ways to begin work on the new trailer. Well, not so new, it is a 1965 small travel trailer. Only $200. So you can imagine, it needs a bunch of work. All the windows are either painted over, plexiglass, or strangely, stuffed with expanding foam. Today's best find was that two of the tiny windows on the top are in perfect shape, except for the paint on the glass.
I started around 10 am, unhooking the trailer from the truck. This meant that I had to figure out that the foot that holds up the front of the trailer was not in one piece, it is missing the bottom piece, and had to find a solution.....turned out to be a concrete cinder block from the side of the deck that was being used to keep puppies in the backyard when we are fostering.
So once that was fixed, I was off to RV World, thinking, hey, they call themselves "world," they must have everything! Nope. They are all about accessories. But they did give me the name and number of a place in Roy, WA that might be able to help. I think they thought I was going to restore the trailer. I am still of two minds about that. The two beds are wicked comfortable (yes, I lived in NH and occasionally still say 'wicked') and it seems wrong to take out things that I like. The kitchen isn't needed, but the appliances are original, so it seems wrong to take out things that are original. Sigh.
One of the things that I needed right away was a stabilizing system. Without being hooked to the trailer, the poor thing rocks too much to even attempt to step into it. RV World has a couple of choices for stabilizing jacks, but the least expensive is $50. Hmmmmm. Off to check out SportCo.
SportCo does have the jacks, but they are even more expensive. Rats.
Back home, work on the computer for 4 hours.
Made a yummy spaghetti sauce, grinding my own beef and making the sauce from scratch. It seems just as easy to make spaghetti sauce from scratch as it is to open a jar of store bought sauce. And it tastes so much better.
Then I went out to Home Depot to look for stabilization answers. I had very cleverly measured EACH AND EVERY CORNER to see how big the answer had to be. First I looked at the garden section, and checked out pavers. But luckily ran into a clerk who told me to also look in building supplies. All the way on the other side of the store. I took a big breath and started over to the far side. Normally, this wouldn't cause so much of a effort. But it seems that from about 12 noon to 5 pm, I am just exhausted. Oh well, I feel so much more normal than I thought I would. So off to the far side for me!
I found the aisle with the cinder blocks/bricks. And after deciding that bricks would have to do (cheaper and with 5 stacked would make the right height) I put about 30 of them in the basket before noticing the half cinder blocks! Perfect. Two per corner would to the trick, be more stable than the stack of bricks I had contemplated, and be cheaper. Gotta love that.
I emptied out my cart of bricks. And then went to put the new blocks in, and realized that I am too short to reach the shelf with them, and they are so far back, I am afraid that they will all come crashing down on my head. So off I go to find a salesperson. And I find one! He very nicely puts 8 of them in my cart and off I go.
They work perfectly. I had really thought about how to do this prior to doing it. I realized that I had to shorten the foot in front to raise up the back, then slide the blocks in. Then raise the front up higher than I need to slip those blocks in, then lower the foot so that the trailer is now sitting on the blocks. Ta Da! Stable trailer.
I swept out all the yuck and tried to start cleaning it with lysol. But I got too tired, so I got Chase and brought him in the trailer to see if we both fit on the bed. We do! We both had a little nap. It was so comfortable....
Yay, Trailer!
.......................best overheard word of the day "flustrated" Frustrated and flustered. Excellent!
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