We were up at 7:45 AM this morning. We were still unable to acquire the Internet via the resort Wi-Fi system so I turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi and got our Wi-Fi Ranger connected to it. I made the coffee and fed the cats while Linda cleaned the litter tray.
Sunday is pancakes-for-breakfast day but we had some coffee first. Linda played word games while I put the finishing touches on yesterday’s blog post and started today’s post. The pancakes were yummy if a bit too much quantity wise. Linda said I complain if she makes a smaller batch, which is probably true. I suggested that we should have grapefruit with our pancakes to make up the difference.
At the fire circle last night we met Tom and Cindy. We have seen them there the last three times but not had a chance to introduce ourselves. Tom sat down next to me so we finally had a chance to chat. They are newly retired and less than one year into their RVing adventure. Like us, they are only here for the month but expressed an interest in getting together to discuss motorhomes and RVing. Absolutely!
My main focus today was finishing our 2015 Year in Review holiday letter, which is actually a photo essay. I spent some time looking for a few additional photos that met my criteria and constraints and found one to fill available spaces. I also replaced several images with better (sharper) versions. By noon I was finally ready to print a test copy but had to mess around with printer settings for half an hour to get it to print. It finally did, and looked good, so I should not have to make any further adjustments unless Linda finds something when she proofreads it. Linda won’t have time to address envelopes until the middle of next week so there was no need to print them at this time. We will print, fold, address, stamp, and stuff them in one continuous process and then get them out of the rig and to the post office the same day. Space is at a premium in an RV, even a 40 foot converted highway coach.
With the holiday letter done I decided to make some minor updates to our website having to do with Bus Conversion Magazine. WordPress 4.4 was available so I installed it. There were eight updates—three plugins and five themes—so I installed those too. I did not take the time to update the other three WordPress sites but I need to do that and thought I might get to it after dinner.
We were both focused on our work and decided to skip lunch save for a few pretzels dipped in hummus. At 1 PM I decided to it was finally time to install the window. It was a warm, sunny day, which was fine for a short, light-duty maintenance task. Linda informed me that the weather forecast for the upcoming week had a significant chance of rain, so getting the window reinstalled today was probably a good thing.
It was a simple enough thing to install but I had to get out the Little Giant stepladder and a tool box for a pair of needle-nose pliers. I cleaned the hinge part of the frame and sprayed it with a dry lube. With me outside on the ladder and Linda inside I got the window hung and she got the lever mechanism adjusted so we could get the lever pins inserted in the correct direction. I then installed the E-clips on the ends of the pins. I noticed that the front pin on the other driver side living room window was missing its E-clip so we installed one there. At that point we checked the other six windows for missing clips. They were all good. I was going to change the pins around on the other three windows that had them in backwards but it was warm with a hot sun on the driver’s side of the bus so I deferred this minor project to another time.
Not having the window in place was starting to bug me so it was good to have it done. With that minor weight off my shoulders I returned to working on the Habitat For Humanity article for Bus Conversion Magazine. Although Part 1 will run in February and Part 2 in March I really want to put it to bed in the next 48 hours. As with Part 1, I reformatted Part 2 in two columns and started selecting and inserting photos in-line with the text for the print edition. With Jorge doing the magazine layout, and not being a bus person, placing the photos approximately where I think they should go seems to streamline the process.
By 4 PM we were both ready to go for a walk. We were back before 5 PM and sat outside for 45 minutes using our iPads until we felt a few rain drops and then a few more. The day had started with fog which gave way to mostly sunny skies that were gradually replaced with clouds and became a dense overcast by the time we went for our walk. The winds were out of the SSE and darker ones moved in just ahead of the rain drops. I put our outdoor chairs away and went inside just in case we had an unexpected downpour.
For dinner Linda heated up a couple of cans of Amy’s vegan chili with saltine crackers on the side and the last of the broccoli Cole slaw. After dinner we tuned in PBS and watched the 1981 Simon and Garfunkel Central Park reunion concert followed by a documentary on The Carpenters. The resort Wi-Fi was still not providing Internet access so I turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi and spent the better part of the evening copying blog posts from e-mails into Word docs. Linda played word games and eventually went to bed to read. I switched to my iPad to finish up this post and turned in for the evening at midnight.
