Ah, life in the trailerhood has been adventuresome this
week. I really need to see if “My Name is Earl” is available on Netflix on
demand.
As if my internet signal was strong enough to Netflix from
the RV, but that’s really the least of my RV issues right now.
Quite sincerely, my accommodations in my little Copper Canyon
are worse than my ceiling-leaking, George-infested, black-mold-growing abode in
Morocco.
I lost power about 9:45 p.m. last Friday, and it took until
about 2 p.m. this Friday to get it fixed. At that point, I thought I was gold
but now the propane-fueled heat isn’t working.
At one point, I thought I had a leak but was blown off.
Turns out I do have a leak. I only had one tank, which I was going through in
about 10 days. There is some kind of splitter on it and when you only have on
tank, instead of two, it leaks out through the open hole.
So we hooked up a dummy tank but for some reason I still
can’t get the heat to come on.
Now, I’m perfectly fine at night – when the power was out, I
just ran an extension cord to the nearest plug and plugged in the electric
blanket.
This works fine for heat, but there is nothing anyone can do
about wind in an RV. Even if it has power.
Wednesday and Thursday, we had 40- to 70-mile an hour winds.
I woke up at 2:30 Wednesday morning moving. The little RV was like a Disney
ride. Or a vibrator bed.
I could barely nod off, seriously. It was constant motion,
and the rain just pounded on the aluminum. I couldn’t believe it was so loud and strong. I
am in the very back of the campus, and I really thought the trees behind me had
a chance of coming down. Either that or the wind just jolting the whole thing
off the little blocks.
Wednesday night was quite a ride.
By Thursday morning, I figured it had to be freezing cold and
soaking wet based on what I’d heard and felt, but when I opened the door, it
was wet, but not pouring and not really cold at all.
However, the weather that day was my least favorite: low 40s and light rain all day. Gross.
I haven’t spent barely any time in there in the last week,
so really, having no power wasn’t much of a problem. I unloaded my fridge and
freezer and put my stuff in the big reefers, so nothing got lost there.
Essentially, I woke up at 7 every morning, fumbled around in
the dark to get dressed as quickly as possible, grabbed my spoon, cup and bowl
thing and my toiletries and headed off to the rec chapel, which has heat.
There, I’d eat breakfast, brush my teeth and get ready to go
to work. After walking my stuff back to the RV I walked right back over to the
church to work until lunch.
At that point – and sometimes before, for tea – I’d go back
to the reefers and grab something for lunch, or just a bag of chips. Since our
volunteers have moved off campus, there are no meals served and no new
leftovers (if that makes sense), so sometimes I’d just skip it.
Around 6 p.m., I’d wind down, do the same thing for dinner
and then go back into the office to work and watch Netflix a little more. I
just finished “Arrested Development” again. Around 8 p.m. or so, I’d go back to
the RV (armed with a flashlight), fumble around, grab my shower stuff and a
book and then head back to the rec chapel, read, then go take a shower, come
back and read until bedtime and then cross back over the RV and curl up and go
to bed under the electric blanket.
So really, no harm, no foul. But right now, it’s getting
old. I am again without heat, so I have been hanging out in the rec chapel all
day today.
I’ve tried everything I know to do with the propane tank and
the heat, but I am at a loss.
I did, however, remove all my food items from Cain and Abel
– the two reefers – and store them back into my own fridge.
This morning, I went to Walmart to get a little bit of food
for the week, since the gravy train is coming to a halt. I splurged on a $5 Key
lime pie (not Marie Callendar’s; the other brand was on sale this time). I also
got milk, rice – just a little bit of basic stuff. I didn’t even get Junior
Mints.
When I went to pour tea, I noticed my refrigerator light was
blinking. Not like it was about to go out, but regularly.
So that can’t be good, right?
Of course not. I just went back to get more tea and the
fridge is dead for the moment.
The really depressing thing is, today is the last nice day,
probably for the entire season. It was 60-something today and, watching the
weather forecast, the temperature just drops from here on out.
And there’s still no word on housing, except for the YWCA is
off the table. I’m relieved of that – I never wanted to do it; it was my
sitemate’s idea for a stopgap – but there’s no funds available for the nice
house. I am not sure what will happen. I’ve offered to pay some, but it was in
my deal that housing was taken care of, so I hope I don’t have to do that.
This is just not my week.
No comments:
Post a Comment