Sniff sniff sniff....what's that horrible smell?

I am not a poker player by nature and am only vaguely acquainted with the terminology involved, so humor me here, but I’m betting a flush beats a full house.  Plus I’ve learned some bets are better to make than others.

Let me explain why I feel so strongly on this issue.  We normally have a RV site with full hookups.  For those of you who may not be familiar with this term, it means that we have water, electric and sewer at our disposal.

For those who live in the city I imagine not many people consider or even care what happens after they push the lever on their toilets and say goodbye to what was left behind.  When Left Brain and I still lived in the “big house” we had a well and septic system, so we were more closely attuned to the comings and goings of our fluids than some others.  In this scenario you have a holding tank that needs to be pumped out every year or two.

So, transitioning to the motorhome was kind of the same, but on a smaller scale.  You need to make sure your water tanks are full and your waste tanks are emptied.  Actually this isn’t much different on a personal level either.  It’s always nice to have a full belly and an empty bladder.

Our black water tank is of a 40 gallon capacity, as is the grey water tank.  Again, for those of my readers not living in an RV the grey water tank is the stuff from the kitchen and bathroom sinks and the shower.  It’s greyish in color.  The black water tank is the stuff that exits the RV through the toilet and it’s…well, it’s really more brownish, but they call it black.  You get the picture.  I apologize to anyone reading this blog while eating.

How does one know when the tanks are getting full?  We have little monitors and gauges everywhere to tell us what is going on in the innards of our home.  You press a button and can ascertain the tank levels, battery levels, or anything else you want to know.  But just like those people who ignore the lady on the GPS trying to tell you where to go (who shall remain anonymous…you know who you are) , but you’re just SURE you know a better way…there is a tendency to ignore the warning red light when the tank levels are reaching dangerous limits.  “Oh, those things are never accurate…I’m sure we can make it the full two weeks”.  This is the phrase I keep hearing in my head.

Let me tell you this…trust the gauges!  They are designed to warn you before it’s too late.  And if that isn’t enough for you, you can always rely on your sense of smell and (gasp!) own vision. It was the smell that woke up and memories of She Devil and the foul aroma of her litter box came to mind.  Wait a minute!  It’s not that, she’s gone.  Could it be…..?  Oh no!   After heeding my own call of nature I glanced through squinted eyes to be sure….yup.  Even after stepping on the flusher I still have a visual…and not a pretty one.  Let’s just say if there was ever any question as to whether or not my “stuff” stank – this removed all doubt.

But it’s okay because today is Thursday!  We had finally agreed that we probably cannot make it two full weeks and I had arranged for the honey wagon to pay us a visit…but they only provide this service on Mondays and Thursdays.  I made this appointment on a Tuesday.  We knew it was gonna be a close call, but I had no idea just how close.

Okay, let me back up again for my non-RV friends.  A honey wagon is a portable sewage removal tank pulled behind a small four-wheel vehicle.  A nice man (or perhaps woman, who knows?) will arrive sometime today to pump our tanks and relieve us of this dilemma and all for the price of $10.  There is no extra charge for the public viewing of your waste material as it sloshes back and forth on the way to the disposal site. It’s best to do this on a quiet day when there are fewer neighbors to enjoy the Toilet Bowl Parade.

Such a deal!  I know you’d have to pay ME significantly more to go pump out someone’s ….stuff.  Why it’s called a honey wagon, I have no idea; but it sure beats some of the names I’d come up with for it, and probably explains why I don’t care for honey.

So, sometime after lunch this operation should be completed and we will be back to normal again.  Now I just have to wait until lunch time.  Hmmm.   I think I’ll go shopping for a while, find a nice public bathroom somewhere.

Well, I gotta go now.  Really….I gotta GO.

Long Live the Queen

 

Getting ready for the take off

Preparing for a journey is different for everyone.  Today I went in for a massage and conversation with Kathy at Caring Hands.  She found many tight muscles that I didn't even know I had, I thought I was starting to get pretty relaxed lately.  Of course that was before I called the Safe Ride people to get some questions answered about my class this coming weekend.

As you recall, Left Brain and I bought a bright blue Yamaha scooter as our "second vehicle".  We are now a one and a half car family.  However, to be licensed for this I need to either take a road class or pass the test at the DMV.  As luck would have it there was a class the last weekend of our stay in Wisconsin so I signed up for it.

During my conversation today the leader confirmed some information for me and reminded me that I did not need to bring my scooter - they would provide the bikes for us.  In my mind this would be a scooter.  But nay nay!  It will be a 250cc motorcycle.  Yikes!  This is not what I had envisioned, but it should be okay.

I washed a load of clothes this afternoon and they are hanging out on the line waiting to dry and should be ready sometime tomorrow.  They were done too late in the day to get dry, but I love the scent of them from being out in the night air anyway.

I was trying to enjoy the fresh air scent on the pillow case last night but forgot to remove the CPAP first.  You don't really smell anything with that thing strapped to your face.

Short post tonight but I will close with a couple of photos I've played around with.

This is the one I took of Wheezy (sorry if I'm spelling her name wrong, Shayna) when she came to visit us up north.

She is just the cutest little pug and so funny.

She doesn't look athletic, but I watched her play a mean game of football with the boys.

another version of the photo

the original photo

So, as you can see, it is possible

to alter a mediocre photo and

make it look totally different.

Long Live the Queen

We are enjoying the quiet after Labor Day weekend has ended - the weekend campers have departed back to their normal life.  

Covered bridge at Amnicon Falls WI

It's interesting to watch them pull in on Friday in a frenzy to get "away from it all" but they seem to be bringing everything with them.  It almost appears that they are hauling more stuff than we do.

same photo but with poster edges filter applied

I think this was a dry brush filter and textures added to it

Hmmm.  A red car just pulled up outside my RV on the road and a man is looking around and heading into the woods.  Strange.  Now he's back and moved down the road a ways.  I wonder if he's a homicidal killer or someone geochaching.  It's always fun to add a little drama into your life.  I think he's looking for a place to bury a body.  But that's just me.

Can't remember what I did to this one - not sure I like it very well

It is so good to have internet again.  We are using our smart phone as a "hot spot".  It is slow however.  For example, while waiting for these four photos to load I did the dishes and measured the width of the RV on the inside....10 feet wide at the widest spots.  I guess this would indicate we live in under 320 square feet since some parts of the floor are narrower and others are not passable (up by the driver and co-pilot chairs).

Well, the red car just buzzed outta here - he must have buried the body.  I tried to add the last photo here but it insists on popping up higher in the blog.  I give up....it will be where it wants to be.

Time is a wasting - gotta get moving and on with my day - places to go...people to meet....things to do.

Long Live the Queen

Photoshop Fun

We've been busy lately taking care of last minute details before heading off to the rally and trying to see as many friends as possible.

But I've managed to do some playing with my Photoshop Elements.  It's amazing what textures and filters can do to otherwise "bad" photos and make them special.

This one looks like it could be the cover of some paperback novel and I am very pleased with it.

Here is the image as it was taken.

It's not a bad photo, but just doesn't have the sense of mystery that it does after adding the effects to it.

I can't even tell you for sure what all I did to it, only that it sure is fun and hours can fly by before you know it.


Here is a photo of the dock and the pontoon boat as it was.

And here is the same picture with the filters and textures applied.  Hopefully as I get better at this I'll start to document what I did when to share the full process with you.  Right now it's just too much fun to mess around without having to analyze it.

Left Brain and I went to see Hope Springs yesterday with Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones and Steve Carrell.  VERY good movie.  I wouldn't be surprised if she wins another award for this one.

That's it for now - the Queen needs to get the laundry off the line before it rains.  We have company coming tonight for supper so it's time to clean up the RV for another showing.

Long Live the Queen

Guess who's coming to dinner?

The last day of the month…. a Friday…a full moon...a blue moon in fact.  You just know it’s gonna be a strange day.

Left Brain and I seem to have trouble handling our busy social calendar, most likely because we’re not used to having one.

He would drive his bus and I would work in the garden, but that’s all gone now and suddenly our life is full of people.

While he was off golfing with Biker Boy I checked my calendar and found that the dinner guests we thought we were having Saturday night were actually coming Friday night.  Hmmm. What’s a girl to do?

So, I quickly tidied up the house and yard, arranged the lawn chairs, put the tablecloth on the picnic table, swept the patio rug, grabbed my shopping list and left…..to go to a movie.  Yeah, I know.  That’ doesn’t seem like the sane thing to do, but it was an early movie and he was out golfing with his friend and I wanted to play with my friends too.

 It has been so long since I’ve been to a movie and with the absence of TV and internet I had no idea what was playing.  But who cares? It’s all about the shared experience and popcorn.   I would have plenty of time to pick up my groceries and return to my nice air conditioned RV for a couple hours of baking desserts and cooking and still have enough time to clean up the kitchen for the showing of the RV.

I had a little extra time so I ran Henri into the garden center for some new “hair” as I wanted things to look pretty when they came.  He waited in the car for me while I enjoyed a weird but funny movie and after hugging my buddies goodbye I started toward home.

As I pulled into the Wal-Mart there were the two squad cars at the entrance to the store.  There was a plump older woman with her hands handcuffed behind her near the squad car. It just seemed strange to see what was probably somebody’s grandmother being arrested, but she must have done something seriously wrong to have two squad cars pulled into action.  You just never know what you’ll find at the local Wal-Mart.

  

I raced up and down the aisles with my silver chariot scooping up everything I needed to fix supper and even got some flowers for the table.  The crime scene was vacant when I exited so no more excitement to be had here and I went home to prepare my feast.

As I pulled up in front of the large metal box we call home I noticed the door was open.  What!  As they say in that one commercial on TV “Shut the front door!”  This was not good.  This means Left Brain arrived home before me and turned off all the AC to enjoy the 80 something degree air.  Rats!

So I schlepped the multiple bags into the RV and started to prepare the dessert first.  It would have to bake while I made the pasta dish.  The butter sauce for the dessert was on the back burner and the water for the pasta was on the front.  I had full production going within minutes and the small space was heating up quickly.  While waiting for the water to come to a boil I did up the breakfast dishes to make room in the sink for what I knew would be coming.  In a small space you need to wash as soon as you’re done to put things away, especially when you want to show off your new digs.

Thirty minutes later the dessert was ready to come out and I could turn the oven off.  Hmmm. Where can I put this?  There’s not much surface area in RVs, so I grabbed a cookie sheet to set them on and placed the whole works on the bed to cool.   The pasta was done and ready to come out opening up that burner to start the onions and spinach. I dumped the pasta into the strainer, luxuriating in the steam bath it provided, and then washed up the large pot so it could be tucked away.  While that concoction was simmering I washed the molds for the desserts and put all evidence of my baking away.

 

Somewhere in this production I assembled a salad, set up the bread and got the plates out…I can’t recall exactly when that happened.   Every time I turned around I expected to see Lucy and Ethel and find myself in an ‘I love Lucy’ skit.  At this point I went past glistening and was sweating like a race horse. Let me interject here that Left Brain is not known for his great sense of timing.

As I’m about to wrap it up with just enough time to run a wet washcloth over my face, cleavage and pits to prepare for our guests arrival he comes inside and asks “Do you want me to put the air on?”  I was speechless.  Now?   Seriously?  This had the potential for full blown yelling loud “discussion” but we company coming in minutes so we sat outside in the breeze to wait for them.

This couple is one of many we seem to have inspired to unclutter and downsize and recently bought a condo and are in the process of selling their house and disposing of goods.  It was fun to sit and visit with them and hear their journey and catch up a bit.  After enjoying some beer and conversation we moved to the picnic table for the salad.  After that was served I ducked back into the RV to heat up the pasta meal and get the bread ready.  When the pasta meal was served I ran in to heat the butter sauce.

I was so excited to use my decorative little molds to make the cranberry cake recipe I got from one of my former garden club members.  It’s attractive, tasty and decadent with the rich butter sauce poured over the top.  Little did I know that this recipe had come full circle!  As it turns out this was Francie’s recipe and it had went through many people before it worked its way down to me.  As Owen said, it was the dessert that made him propose.  Wow!  Maybe this was all caused by the Blue Moon coming tonight.

This is the best thing about our new lifestyle…the people.  I have no more gardens to work in or artwork to prepare for shows.  He has no more buses to drive.  We now have the luxury of being able to relax and enjoy the company of friends, both those we now have and those we will meet on the road.  It’s a good life.

Long Live the Queen