Trying to make good use of my time

it is not only in Texas where the mentally challenged were turned out onto the streets in the 70's

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Yes, it also happened in California.  We lived on the San Francisco Peninsula at the time they closed the Agnews facility for the mentally ill and many of those people ended up on the streets.  Sad indeed.

ArdraF

I'm not generally doom and gloom but its sure not looking good anywhere for people like her. 

Well she will have a good life while we are here and we will try to provide what we can.  but it gets even worse, now there is legislation down there if she got any assistance when we die they will take the estate and still throw her on the public dole if there is one.  Our MHMR advisers said that they see it all the time and no matter how much money the parents leave the state manages to suck it all out in year 1.  The kids are left with SS only and allowed $20 a month for haircuts, hygiene, clothes, and everything while services are being cut.  We have a special needs trust set up by our attorney down there that won't be funded till we die, but sounds useless now. Will have to redo our wills and all and we will soon as we get established, all states will likely go to this if they have not already.

Of course if you are extremely wealthy they have lawyers that know how to navigate the legal system as there are a lot that go to places like Brookwood in Texas that are pristine, wonderful communities but beyond our reach if we saved everything we ever made.

To bad we have to go and get old, durn!! We kept putting off traveling and things, I just wish interest rates on CD's would go up even to 4%, we would be in great shape if they did.

But as hubby says it will work out some way and we won't be here to know about it. 

Enough of that kind of talk, its a New Year coming up and I plan to be positive as usual.

Life is still good and we are fortunate beyond anything we ever envisioned so I'm thankful for it all and will continue to be.

The dog is having a ball.  I let him out this morning and saw him in the field behind us going full speed and then in the yard doing the same but after awhile he is ready for warm again.  He is fun to watch out there. I think the basement will also be his "doghouse" along with mine down there!  We were playing fetch, I was throwing a stuffed toy and he was running and fetching, think I wore him out last night.  He and I will get a routine worked out here.

Sounds like at least 6 more inches of snow and no melting, I may be shoveling about 50 foot, just guessing of driveway.  Wonder if I will be able to pull my 20 foot flatbed out of here as I'm planning on leaving about the 7th or 8th of January to meet hubby the 12th in Houston.  Wonder if it will hold the back of the truck down enough to get it out.  Also getting it hooked up might be a challenge, I do have a bag of salt, so might thaw where I need to back and hook.  Maybe it will warm up and melt it enough.  Hope so.

It was snowing again awhile ago and its still beautiful out there. 

I've read where many of you are in the southern areas and not so warm either.  Now looks like extreme heat in the summer and extremes in the winter, huuum..

PatrioticStabilist said:

I've read where many of you are in the southern areas and not so warm either.

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You are so right Carolyn.  We woke to snow on our cactus, but none on the sidewalks/streets.  By 8:00 it was all but gone, and by noon is gone.  It's not often it gets down this far, but usually behaves itself and stays on the mountains where it is the best place to look at it.  Temps at noon about 50 so not too bad out for a winter day in southern AZ.

I saw today there is even snow down into Mexico, I'm sure it won't last to long but wow, that's got to be unusual.  Not likeing these weather extremes.

Ok, so we are in the motorhome moving along, but we are going the wrong way!!  Tom says go to Indiana to go to Florida, say what??

So he is heading north with another huge load of stuff, my God we have so much "stuff".  And he says take the motorhome and the toad up and when I go back to work you can leave from there, humm, sounds ok.


So today we drove from home to near Lonoke Arkansas.  We pull in at a Pilot truck stop, don't really care to hit a campground tonight.  Tom stopped for awhile but his days and nights are all mixed up so he can't sleep till about 4AM, says pointless for him, stayed about an hour.  I think he also felt bad taking a truckers spot.  Sue Anne and I are staying the night.

I have the genny running and the motorhome all comfy and warm.  I had a brief shower, Sue Anne took a spit bath.  Tom has the dog, I have the cat.  Such divisions of duty!!

So anyway when he heads back to Houston to fly back to Indonesia, we hope to head for Florida. 

The old gal is purring along was doing 70 most of the day.

I worry about running the genny at night but its to cold not to.  I cracked the roof vent but its making it cold.  Am I worrying over nothing? I put in a new carbon monoxide detector and tested it and have a smoke alarm.  I also have a second monoxide one I'm putting in toward the front, the other is in the rear.  I assume it wouldn't take much to make it go off.

This is a diesel genny, I'm between the backs of 2 trucks and the others are across the way so hope I'm not disturbing them, its not exactly a quiet little Honda but I know other trucks are running too.  This place is massive.  I had stayed at the Galloway Inn here last time and saw all the trucks everywhere.  I think there are 3 truckstops here. 

I can hear the engines on the other 2 running in the bedroom but not real loud just kind of a vibration.  Doesn't seem to be bothering Sue Anne, ours doesn't bother me either as I'm tired.

Well at least we are moving the old gal and taking her with us, so maybe she isn't feeling neglected and she has a nice new house too, complete with sides.  No electric for her yet  Tom said I will have to crank the genny up every couple of weeks to charge the batteries until he can get time to run wiring.  Well also will have to be spring or summer first.

Hope we can get to Florida soon.  I'm sorry to hear the high prices, I won't being staying at those either, they wouldn't welcome my 20 year old rig anyway I'm pretty sure.  $3000 a month, holy tomato juice, what kind of place is that?

Rather uneventful trip up.

My mud flap must have hit something 2 or 3 of the screw holes ripped so I tied the one end up with some bungee cords, I had a pack in my bay.  It worked good.  Tom will have to drill 3 new holes and put new screws in to repair it.

Also the heater quit about half way up but I had electric heaters and it was cozy with the furnace running.  He will take a look and see if its something he can fix, probably is.  The fan blows, no heat, maybe something just needs flipped.
He has an hour meter to put on the genny too, the one in the dash doesn't work, says no program.
 
It was late and supposed to be 20 tonight so left the furnace and heaters running with the genny on.  Tom's going to go and dump the tanks tomorrow, we didn't want it all to freeze.  So he has some things to fix.  As he says he always will.

When I get a chance I'm having the drivers windshield replaced, its got a crack in the middle, I don't think its spreading but it still needs replaced, was like that when we bought it.

I drove 70 most of the way, yes, I know uses a lot of diesel.  I put in about 100 gallons on the way up  I didn't keep track of how many hours we ran the genny but at least 24 or more off and on and that's 1/2 gallon an hour.  We needed to get up here.  When Sue Anne and I go somewhere we won't drive that fast.

I've got to clean it up its a mess, didn't do well keeping it clean on this quick trip up.

 

How does she like her new house?  Need pictures of her inside.  ;D ;D

She fits in nicely, its 18 ft wide so Tom is putting shelving down oneside.  There is enough room on the ends but I think an extra couple of foot would have been nice.  I know folks here told me so.  I added 2 ft he said we didn't need, I'm not so sure of that. We can walk all the way around it though.  With the tow mechanism on the back that takes up room.  I do wish I had insisted 2 more foot we could have put shelving across the back too.

Tom fixed the mudflap.  We don't use the crank up antenna and it was flopping in the wind so he took most of it off and taped the rest till we can remove the whole thing.

He said he is curious to see if the old diesel engine will crank over in the cold.  It's supposed to get high of 17 Monday and 5 Monday night.  The genny has an engine heater and he says the engine does too.

But he bought a diesel heater for his garage today so if it doesn't I suppose we could heat that one.  He showed me how to blow the water out of the lines whne I come back from Florida so they won't freeze.

Tomorrow taking all the canned goods out and anything that will freeze, its got to much junk in it anyway.  Want to clean out and reload before we go.  We are replacing that crappy mattress I had made.  I had 2 for another motorhome and they were wonderful.  Went to the same manufacturer and this one has only been used a few times and we rolled together in the middle, miserable thing.  What a terrible waste of money, stuff like that just makes me sick.  To buy what you think is quality then isnt.  I'm hoping a regular queen size will fit.

I stayed the one night in a Pilot truck stop, a bit noisy but noone bothered us and the price was right.  The other diesels were facing the other way and Sue Anne said they didn't bother her, our genny made more noise, but I know why.  Most of the old insulating stuff is gone, it was hanging and loose and we pulled it out.  I have that new silver noise reducing stuff to put in there and need Tom to help do it.  Somehow that isn't high on our priority right now. I don't notice it going down the road.  I like to drive and play the Sirius tuned to Willie's Roadhouse, love that old old country music.  Sue Anne says she doesn't like it and next thing you know she and I are singing along.  She has earphones when she wants to hear something else.

I got rid of the Direct TV and have to see if I can get some box from Frontier up here to put in it before we go, we need our tellie.  If we stop at a park with cable we are good to go, but not if we camp in a truck stop or roadside place and I will at times. 

I think we got about 7.5 mpg, I can't be exact as I didn't keep track of how long we ran the genny, a long long time and I know it uses a half gallon an hour. I will keep better track next trip.

It has a 4 speed tranny and seems like it takes forever to get going, Tom says it just seems that way since I'm used to hitting the accelerator on a car or truck and it goes.  I can watch the mph's click up and when it gets to 38 it takes off.  It will run 70mph at 2000 rpm's all day long I think.  I really like driving it.  I must say moreso then the smaller one but I have to be more careful where I pull off or into.  But I will.

Tom will leave around the 27th, he flies out of Houston on the 30th.  We will likely leave the first of the month.  This next week while its so cold, I will work on our taxes, lot of prep for the accountants this year and I have to load it the first of March.  Hope to get a great deal done.  Had to startforwarding mail, bad time of year.  I really don't have time, but I've been promising Sue Anne we were going for months so I will.

At least another uneventful trip.  Whoops need him to check the heater, but if it doesn't work I can use a heater with the genny and it will be fine.   
 

Whoops need him to check the heater, but if it doesn't work I can use a heater with the genny and it will be fine.

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If you are in freezing weather and not running the heater (furnace), it is possible that the lines in the underneath bays and other things like the water pump or hot water heater could freeze.  The little heaters that run off of electricity from the generator will keep the inside living area warm, but not the under bays.

Enjoy that Indiana weather.  We moved from there many years ago.

Marsha~

I had the furnace on and it heats the bays.  I set it about 70 as we have 2 furnaces and they use a lot of propane and I wanted to be sure and have enough for hot water. I believe we have a 10 gallon hot water heat in this one, it heats up fast.  The other motorhome had motorade or whatever it was called and when you drove it heated the water.  The hot rodd in it doesn't work on electric and like so many things Tom hasn't had time to replace it.  I suppose I could then would have electric and propane.  There are things needing fixed and we paid out a ton to have the necessary things gone over and fixed.  Like he said when he gets up here permanently he will go over things. But I have hot water and unless something happens to it I likely won't get it done, just have to see.  Right now we are spending LOTS of money everywhere, as I'm sure all of you have done to and I cut where I can. But it definitely needs done.

I thought replacing all the hoses, or over 90% of them was more important, and servicing and fixing any mechanicals and that's where we spent the money to get her taken care of.  Yep we still have things to do. 

Anyway, this way I can supplement the heat with the little electric heaters.

We are replacing the new mattress I had made this week, just horrible. 

Oh Marsha, I reread and the heater I'm talking about is the regular heater like in a car, not the furnaces, they both work.  Tom said there is a switch above the generator that you turn to have engine heat for the winter and turn it off for the summer.  He thinks it may have vibrated to off.  I could use an electric heater up there for the windshield if I got freezing rain but he is looking at it before he leaves and if he can't fix it, I may have that done.  It worked driving up here about half way then still blew air just not warm. 

Whew...great!  Glad you have heat. 

Marsha~

It was in the low 20's this morning and Tom was wondering if it would start.  The genny and engine cranked right up.

Be interesting to see if day after tomorrow when its 6 if she will crank up as easy.

I got all the canned goods and liquids out so nothing will freeze.

Also unloaded all the clothes and things.  Going to reload when we leave for our trip, had to much junk in her.  I still need to vacuum all the carpets but not today.

Motorhome garage

Another pic

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Another

PatrioticStabilist said:

Can't seem to get them small enough to post more then one per reply

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They're small enough, you can post up to 12 per message, up to a maximum of 2MB.  Each image must be no more than 500KB.  See this message for the details on how to.