You know the saying; Some Days You're the Bug...

...some days you're the windshield?

Yesterday was a windshield day.  Every single project the Senior Chief and I worked on had to be left unfinished until another, critical issue was addressed.

Finish installing the new fresh-water pump?  The switch on the control panel fails.  Wire up the new bathroom fan?  Blow a fuse.  Painfully crawl under the dash of the Lincoln (to fix the little problem there before we can put it up for sale); works one day and fails again the next.

Why is it inevitable that everything takes more time and more money than you estimate?

What would life be like if everything came in under budget and ahead of schedule?

Mother's Day, 2011 
"Life began with waking up and loving my mother's face."  George Eliot 

Finishing the "little" stuff.

Who knew the list of "must do" and "better do" items on the pre-departure list would grow so alarmingly?!

The Senior Chief has decided to do what appears to be a complete rehab of the engine on our motor home Maya;  since she is an elderly old party, this is undoubtedly a good idea, but golly!  He works in his own leisurely fashion and I should know (but consistently forget) after 37 years of marriage not to try to infect him with my own sense of urgency.

My own list is not minor league, but I am whittling it down.  Yesterday I installed the new bathroom vent to replace the storm-damaged one.  Today I will remove (with many a cuss word no doubt) the bizarre arrangement of caulk and broken plastic that caps our black-water vent pipe, and install the Splendiferous Vortexual Stink Remover, otherwise known as the Cyclone Sewer Vent.

Also on today's list is the removal of our DOA fresh-water pump, and a complete redo of the related plumbing.  The previous owner hacked in an ugly arrangement of CPVC to fix some freeze damage at the pump and forgot (among other things) to reinstall the system drain and the valve that keeps the city water from back-flowing into the fresh-water tank.  I'll use flex pipe for sound insulation as well as a rubber pad, and add a small accumulator as well.   It will be splendid indeed!

Spring is creeping up on us here in Wisconsin; still hoping to beat it our of here soon.

As always, reality has a way of messing with my plans.  I do possess the dubious virtues of extreme stubbornness and horns-down bullheadedness, so perseverance comes quite naturally to me.  Reality doesn't stand a chance.

One more cup of coffee, and off to the day's labors!

The auction is over

Our big sell-it-to-the-rafters ready-to-go-fulltime auction was yesterday, April 30 2011.  Everything we're not taking in the Maya the motor home or D-Ram the storage van now belongs to someone else, and this house looks so empty.

It took months to get to this point, and its hard to believe the sale is finally over.

 
A few things didn't sell, but we can unload those things, as well as the few pieces of furniture we kept in the house on Freecycle or Craigslist just before we get underway.

Bill still has some things he wants to do on the motor home before we hit the road, so our actual leaving day is still up in the air.  That's relaxing in a way, but hard for me, the uber-planner!

Among other things, Bill will change the oil & fluids and do a tune-up with performance parts.  Two new tires need to go on the front, and the manual levelers need to be welded in place.  I still have to replace the fresh-water pump, which died while we were flushing and sanitizing the water system, and replace the bathroom vent which broke and blew off in the latest windstorm.
All the parts are in hand, and were just waiting for this huge ordeal of  Auction Day to be over.

Today and tomorrow I promised Bill would be relax and deflate days;  no work and no planning!