098 - The Glam Life

Here I am, living my glamorous life of emptying poop tanks and watching cheesy Hallmark channel Christmas movies... oh yeah... envy me people... envy me.

Emptying the black water tank is a disgusting, but fascinating process. I watch the waste passing into the hose and think how very thankful I am that all of the connections are solid... how it all looks like hot chocolate, which I used to love... and then it slows to a trickle and I think - I'm done! Not so. Seems like there is always more, at least according to the indicator lights that tell you how full the tanks are. But nothing more is coming out... so what gives? Do RVs get constipated? (we certainly don't) Today I used the water hose to flush the tank out... huge wads of white paper came tumbling out, followed by more... poo. My first reaction was to think we should be adding more enzymes to the tank, but then I realized that because we empty the tanks once every day or two, the enzymes are probably doing more for the septic tank of the park we're staying at than they do for our tanks. So I guess we just have to flush the tank out every so often. It's not a difficult thing to do, and I certainly have the time.

Now that you have that image stuck in your head...

Even though I'm gorging myself on holiday movies, this is just one of those years that just doesn't seem very Christmas-y. Hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week. I think it's all of the crap we've been through this year. Or the fact that we don't have an actual house - or rather, no particular place to call home at the moment. Or maybe it just comes with age. I can't put my finger on why some years lack that holiday feeling. I don't really feel like doing any Christmas shopping... it's hard to... where do I mail the packages? How do I get around to shop at a brick and mortar store when I don't have a car? And we don't really need anything except a house, which isn't something I can ask for anyway, hahaha. Makes me sad... traditions are slowly becoming a thing of the past and I don't like that they're getting lost in the shuffle. There's that part of me that want to live life according to 'the old ways' and traditions are a piece of that.

Made some small, simple changes to the RV to help get us organized. So far, so good. We bought a battery operated light... in June... that we never found a place for. We'd thought it would go by the bed to replace the interrogation spotlights there now, but there wasn't wall space for it (seriously, sometimes I want to tell Mike everything I know just so he'll turn the light out... but I took an oath... (that's a joke people)). I recently ran across the sconce part of it and decided to put it over an existing light with some doublestick tape, kind of tones it down so it's not so harsh. It works. Now we need several more of them. And Mike likes to keep his semi-used clothes in a pile on the floor... which worked okay at the house if I never went on that side of the bed, but we just don't have the space for it here. I recognize that he has methods that work for him, so I found a balance that works for both of us - and helps prevent wrinkles - we got some 3M wall hooks and mounted them on his side of the bed, and now he can hang those clothes. Perfect. Lastly, I found some shelves at Target for shoes and t-shirts. We had a hanging organizer, but it was heavy and this takes the weight off the dowel rod. Now we just have to figure out how to secure it so that it doesn't move when we're on the road. Otherwise it's great - gets the shoes out of the way. And once we get to Austin we can put some stuff in storage so that hopefully there won't be piles of stuff around the dining room table... not that we really eat there, but it makes opening the blinds a tricky thing.

And speaking of shoes... I'm wearing the rain boots I bought last year. They are nice and warm and so ridiculously comfortable. For some reason the floor of the RV is particularly cold tonight and my socks aren't doing the job. It's the little things... like the fake fire in the fake fireplace... and Mike bringing home Chuychangas for dinner... mmm... Chuychangas with Boom-Boom sauce... I actually made salsa and queso last night... and ate it again this morning for 'breakfast', but I think I could live on Mexican food at least 300 days of the year, and it's the weekend and... and... he said Chuy's... don't judge me...! :)