I'm Sure They Heard Me Yelling!!

Not having packed to go anywhere in ages, not to mention not becoming familiar with the van again after all this time, made for an interesting trip.

First off, I said goodbye to Kitters and asked her PLEASE do not bring any critters inside the house while I'm gone.  I think it fell on deaf ears.

As I walked out the door, what should I see but another problem.  Seems the light fixture the PAID FOR electrician installed, fell from the ceiling.  I guess I'll call on that upon my return.

In no time, I was heading out.  First off, these darn rigs try to drive FOR you, instead of letting YOU take the wheel.  Even though I turned off all the WARNING settings, like vibrating crazily when you get too close to the white line, or what USED to be a white line ... and the worst one ... slowing down just as you pull up being a vehicle to pass it.  THAT is the worst.  

Traffic was awful.  Little did I know, Juneteenth (whatever the heck that is) has become a Federal holiday.  I went 35 mph for close to 30 miles.  Add to that all the foreign truckers who do not know the laws, who travel at 55 mph in the fast lane and NEVER move over.  I'm sure they heard me yelling at them. 

I made it in about 2.5 hours and "camped" out front of Cyndae's house.  We spent most of the morning sitting right here having coffee. 

Suddenly she said .... let's go swimming!  But first, we wandered off not far away to something like 300 houses for sale, built for seniors 50 and over.  $500,000 will get you 1600 sq feet of house, plus the biggest pool I've ever seen, a big conference building and a gym, along with pickle ball and bocci ball courts for an addition $200+ a month.  Not bad ... but they are almost completely sold out.  However ... just imagine .... no screaming loud music or 3 am parties!!

It would be a great place to live, but not today.  Instead, we went over to her daughter's house for a swim.  The pool is heated by solar and was perfect!  The good news is it kept me distracted.

We were joined for dinner by her daughter who is a pilot for Southwest Airlines.   That girl is amazing!!  The food was zoomed up chicken and pasta, a huge salad and ice cream.  It was delicious and more than I could eat.  After a bit of television, I headed out to the van.  

Little did I know what awaited me.  I thought I would turn the TV on for just a bit before crashing.  BIG mistake.  It's crazy there are no directions for the SMART TV, and the Dish Network box is dumb as dirt.  No kidding ... nothing I could do would get it to turn to Dish instead of twelve other things to click on.  

Of course I forgot my password book, so I had to call.  Everything he had me do was completely opposite of what you would THINK to do.  It locked up half way and we started completely over.  Finally he said it would finish up ... goodbye.  What it ACTUALLY did was completely reprogram the dish box, which took over an hour.  So much for a good nights sleep.  I'm sure the neighbors heard me yelling!!

I finally turned it off two hours after my bed time.  I suppose I now have to go turn the TV on at least once a week to keep it updated.  Same goes for the Starlink by the way.  It took 30 minutes for IT to update its little brain so my internet would work.  

That's when the van said HOLD MY BEER!!  I'm usually plugged in and everything works fine.  NOT being plugged in means NOTHING works, even when you tell it to.  I tried everything to turn off the noisy CHARGER, but it refused to go to sleep.  I finally took a BIG sleeping pill and dozed off an hour later.  

This morning came WAY too early, but here I am, not having any idea how long I can go with my batteries, or just what I can turn on without killing them.  I know, I need to use it more.  Everything is just so much different than when you are plugged in.

I've no idea how long I will stay ... maybe one more day.  I'll make that decision later.

Thank you everyone for hanging in with me and my sweet boy Coop.  I miss him so much!