119 - Fail.

Was going to attempt to make bread and realized I don't have strips of yeast in the cabinet like I thought. So much for being a girl scout. Or trying out my KitchenAid for the first time since I bought it... over a year ago... Unfortunately yeast is a key component of bread so it will have to wait until I decide to go into town again. If I'm lucky they'll have some at the camp store, but somehow I doubt I am.

Other than scooping poop, and waking up to gunshots... again (they love them some duck hunting around here)... my day was pretty unremarkable. Until sunset. Sunset was pretty nice.

And then there was this Dali-esque reflection in our windows that I thought was pretty cool. Hey - desperate times...

Went to town a couple of days ago to return my bluetooth plugin (didn't work on Windows 8), get my check co-endorsed, and grab some groceries. Someday when I go grocery shopping I will have a plan... I'm sure that would work out much better in the longrun. The local Goodwill wasn't very exciting, but I did get two Pilsner glasses for $0.50/ea, and two small round glasses for the same price. Instead of drinking soda in a can, or from a plastic cup, now I can drink it like a big girl. Certain things seemed like a great idea when we started out, like plastic to save on weight and reduce breakage, but Mike's right... plastic just doesn't feel sophisticated. Going to town is an all day thing. It takes about 30 minutes just to get there (17 miles), which isn't so bad except in one spot. It just seems to suck up the whole day, and I didn't want to be crossing the mountain after sunset. Some day I'm going to see what's in all the other directions... there has to be a less arduous way to get groceries. Once I have my car maybe I won't be so hesitant, but the truck still feels unwieldly to me. I'm getting used to it, but parking is still a pain.

The water is still soaking into the ground. The ground had gotten so soft that even pulling forward slowly created ruts under the wheels. I'm talking turtle creeping slow because I was trying not to create ruts. Several days of going to the office to check for mail obviously didn't help. The day I went into town I started to pull forward and went nowhere. Tried again a little more forcefully and still nothing. I had to back up. Yes, I could have put it into 4WD, but I figured backing out would be the more gentle approach.... less mud being slung, and I didn't want to slide at all since I park near the 5th wheel. Now I'm parked on the side. No one has pulled into camp recently so I figure I'm not in anyone's way, and if I am, they can ask me to move. Once the ground firms up I'll put it back where it was. So there.

Watched Taken 2 last night. My big hurrah. Kristy's date night with herself. It was pretty good. There was a part in the beginning that I didn't really watch. They pulled scissors out and I heard screaming. I figured I probably didn't want to know what was happening, but I got the gist - it was bad. Seems like I go to bed around 3-4 am now and get up between 11 and noon. Doesn't matter much as far as my day goes, unless I'm trying to accomplish something outside of the RV, and then it can complicate matters.

Really looking forward to March. I have two potential visitors! Woohoo! And I can't wait to see Mike again. He's going to Austin and Houston before driving back in my car. I don't know how long a break he has in between jobs, so I'm not sure how long he'll be here before he has to head out again. I really, really, really miss him, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the greater good, and he needs to make this trip. I guess in the end, I get something out of it too... my car will be very, very nice to have. And I'll get him next time. :)

118 - Pictionary

It's been such a merry-go-round of weather lately that there hasn't been much of anything going on except rain, wind, sleet, snow, mud and lots of television. Even now as I type this, the wind is having a field day with my awnings and the flag outside the lodge. They say it feels like 19 degrees outside, but unless my jacket is incredibly adept at keeping me warm, I would say it's warmer Then again, it snowed earlier, so I know it had to be below 32, and the heater has been kicking on pretty regularly... seems like every 10-15 minutes, and I have it on 67.

The repairs have been made to the RV so I have a microwave again, and the fridge is now running on electricity rather than LP. That's progress.

So instead of boring you with tales of dishes and laundry, I will bore you with pics I took, since that is my other entertainment.

Rammathorn, causing destruction everywhere he goes. The ground is so wet and spongy that just moving the truck causes ruts.

Pretty golden sun this afternoon.

It was so foggy out that my flashlight beam looked like a light saber.

So cold out that my windows are foggy, but it was kind of cool because this tree looked like the fog framed it.

Ice chip on the window from sleet this afternoon.

Water was sheeting down the window and it gave the view a cool effect.

Fog. Usually you can see the mountains behind the trees.

Sunset shining though the dew on the window.

Sun! On a tree.

Geez it's windy... like a tay in the win...

117 - Rain, Rain Go Away. Seriously.

It's no secret that it's been gloomy and wet here for the past several days. Last night I fell asleep to the soothing sounds of rain falling on the roof... all day today I looked out the window and was fairly unphased by the continuing rainfall. That changed a little when I went outside. The window I have been looking out faces in one direction and that direction was fairly benign, it reassured me that the lake is several yards away and while there were puddles and everything was muddy, I had nothing to worry about.

The window behind the television would have told me a slightly different story... had it not been almost completely obscured by the television and foggy condensation on the windows. There were several large puddles out there, seemingly all converging into one large puddle, and one of them appeared to be connecting with the lake. The lake is pretty low so I really wasn't worried that it would flood and I still don't think it will for the most part, but that one large puddle was slightly unsettling. The water that worried me most, however, was the pool my two front jacks were sitting in, which was about two inches deep a few hours ago. So I freaked out, and you really can't blame me given our recent run of bad luck. I called the front office and asked if I should be worried. I even started putting things away so I could move. They sent someone out and said I should be fine, that I'm actually better off than a lot of the people here. It didn't reassure me much, especially since he didn't stop in to pass that information along; I had to call back and then they told me he'd been by. He said he'd let me know if I needed to move, and said they'd help me do it if it came to that.

What actually helped (somewhat) was getting in the truck and going to the office to pick up a package and take some trash to the dumpster. When I came back I had to drive down the road where all the puddles are, and they hadn't actually crossed the road, it just looked like they had because of the way the light reflects off of the wet pavement. I'm also in a spot that doesn't drain well, and looking around I'm in good company. It's just that I'm nearer to the lake than they are... and the angle I'm facing plays tricks on the eye. That's not to say I'm not sitting here at 1 a.m. wishing the rain would stop... but looking at the forecast, it's probably not going to until tomorrow morning, or rather, the percentages drop around 9 o'clock tomorrow morning. And then it gets colder.

Huntsville is icy and has gotten some sleet. A little further west they have had snow and power outages. Speaking of which, my power cord is off the ground, away from the puddles. I at least thought that far ahead, but when the rain abates I'm going to check it again... and I think it just did.

This is a zoomed in shot from earlier... around 5 p.m. You can see the puddles. The foremost part of the picture is, I think, wet pavement and not actual standing water, but you can also see where it appears that the lake is part of the puddle.

This is the living room end of our 5'er with a window that looks out to one (muddy) side and the other window faces the road and a part of the park that isn't riddled with standing water. The front window that you can't see is facing out toward the tree, which is where all the water is. There is a puddle underneath me, but the swath that goes across the picture to the right is wet road with a couple of small puddles. So it looks bad, and in some respects is bad, but is not as terrifying as it seemed at first.

We just need a reprieve from the rain for a while so the water can soak into the ground or wherever it goes. We seem to get that in half hour increments, an hour if we're lucky. Right now there is a lull and I'm hoping the percentages hit somewhere else for a while. I have heard that a 50% chance of rain means that 50% of the viewing area is likely to get rain... it is someone else's turn (and it doesn't have to all be dumped in one spot... share the love... I don't want anyone else to flood tonight either!). Anyway, I can see all the jacks now, so the water has receded a bit, and my power cord is still fine. I'm going to be hoping for clear, cool skies for the rest of the night.

Until then I'll attempt to get further along in my story. I have five pages now and had a good rhythm going with a couple of paragraphs that I was proud of. I'm thinking it's best to write scenes in tandem with my current mood, so tonight promises to be dark and scary. I liked the funny and snarky I had a couple of nights ago.

And I'm serious about the pontoons this time... because here it comes again...