Saturday Morning and the RV Holding Tank

I awoke this morning to a picture sent by Kevin at 7 am of the cutest little munchkin god kid Kendra, hands and face all covered in blueberry jam.  Gilbert thanked Kevin immediately seeing this as his opportunity to dive in with dog kisses and squirmy body.
“Since I’m awake,  I might as well take you for a walk,” I said to Gilbert.  “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” tail wagging body happy thoughts.
I dressed.  Gilbert bolted out the door. I caught up with his leash.  He swatted down the lane right next to the waste bin. I picked up this present and deposited then took him back to the trailer. I meanwhile walked to the club house where I used the facilities.  My own have been plugged for weeks.
I’ve taken this as a metaphor. I see this as reflecting my relationship with God.  Somehow my life is so full of shit I can’t let the light of joy and heaven in. I have to get rid of the shit.  I’ve called various people. All the leaders in the field. The plumbing and septic system and waste folk are all flummoxed. There’s a broken valve and if anyone attempts to fix it in the park there will be waste overflow.  We have to take it to a place where the waste leakage will not stink up the neighbours in this otherwise lovely heat.
Tom has volunteered to help.  He even bought the valve replacement. Now he’s on his way to assist me moving my RV to the country.  We’re going to spend the night in the deep woods and replace the valve.  Out in the country we expect to find a place where we can have the RV on an angle so the shit in the tank is least likely to overflow when we removed the jammed valve.  It’s a design flaw. I am certain thousands of others have encountered this problem and there are videos on you tube about replacing the valve.  But there’s did not freeze shut. Open it’s a non issue.  The tank is emptied and the valve is replaced but closed is another story.
Most people do not ‘live aboard’ their RV’s or at least are not encumbered as I am with so much ‘shit’.  The metaphor here is that I have to ‘lighten up’.  I have a need for better organization. I have a couple of activities that I do each season and literally since last year I’ve not moved the activities of one season to the storage locker as is the plan.  I’ve got last years hunting clothing and this summer’s camping gear and all my work gear and my sports and reading material and writing projects and some of the boating gear all here. My garage which is supposed to be empty so I can load my Harley or my Honda 500 Pioneer is knee deep in suitcases and guitars and motorcycle gear.
It was the same when I lived on my sailboat. The sailboat without all the clothing associated with work and some of the other activities was just perfect for travelling and crossing oceans.  This RV is the same. I really think it’s the perfect RV for a cross country trip or for hunting trips to the north.  If I’d just get the stuff to the storage locker I’d be okay.  However the storage locker is next to the boat and this RV is on the other side of the city.  The change of one part in a whole requires the reworking of the entire system.
I have had to put netting and hooks for bungees up to make this RV more mobile.  When I’m just using it for a hunting trip it’s not a big deal because I can lessen the land and stow things but now there’s simply no room for things to be stored.
I’m full of shit. It’s really temping to consider a bigger unit. I’ve had my eye on the fifth wheels for a long time. The advantage there is better separation of bedroom with the laundry facility, more storage room, not that much more but more and better space in kitchen with counter space.  I really don’t have counter space here.
But that’s the ‘2 foot itis of ‘boat world.”  For years I wanted a slightly bigger boat. Yet my yacht is big enough. Just like this RV. If I wasn’t working all the time  and my storage locker was nearer and more convenient or I was simply better organized all would be well.  I do miss having a cleaning lady too.
I just think of all the pictures and things that will fall when we actually take this baby on the road. It’s been too long entrenched. My sailboat was perfect with everything properly stowed and the boat in working order after about of a week of travelling down the coast.  if I was on the road for a week the same would hold for this RV.  It’s just not moved since 2 years ago when I tore the slide parking at the end of the last moose hunting trip when I returned so tired late at night and worried about getting up to work the next day.  It was a guaranteed disaster, the kind of thing we learned on the sailboat.  Better to wait till morning than go into a harbour late at night in poor conditions.  The same held true for this RV Park. It’s a bitch to park in. The tightest parking one will ever encounter with a motor home.  Just like some of the docking scenarios that I encountered early but now seem relatively doable.  It’s a steep learning curve with these big machines.  My yacht is 13 tons.  Docking involved wind, current, and inertia.  The RV is just an issue of watching out for 4 sides on turning and backing up. There’s no wind or current by comparison.
It’s all overwhelming.
I’m thankful for Tom’s company.  With guys it’s always good to have another person to lighten the load.  All over this park there are couples with  one person who does the driving and another who gets out and watches as an extra set of eyes to lessen the likelihood of crash. On the boat it’s the one person who steps off and ties a line to the dock to hold the boat.
I’ve done these things alone but I sure do appreciate the help.
Today the inertia is with me.  I’ve had coffee but I’d really like to just lie on the couch and read a novel. The thought of all the moving parts of hooking up this trailer and driving out of the park and then heading up the road towing tons of home is simply overwhelming.
I phoned Tom at 8 am and said we’d plan with breakfast first. White Spot.  More coffee and more mobility.  Then it will happen.
We want to take the RV up north this fall for hunting simply because it’s going to get cold soon. Tenting is fun but not in the cold.  This RV is the perfect set up.  It can go on logging roads and backwoods but we really need to know where we’re going and where we’re going to set up.  The problem with a trailer is you don’t want to get stuck because backing up is a royal hassle.  A nightmare if it’s any distance.  And certainly something you don’t want to be doing on a mountain road.  We have however found a small paved trailer car park near where we want to hunt so plan to take the trailer there and then drive the truck with ATV the 10 miles back to the hunting area.  Laura will be coming along and will like the luxury whereas Tom and I and Gilbert will rather enjoy coming back to warmth and comfort of our RV home.  I like the showers.
Now I’m going to enjoy the shitter working again.
I also know that it’s not going to be a much of a mess as I fear.  But I’d love a cleaning lady.  There will be stuff falling to the floor and I really need to get this place better organized. I do miss my cleaning lady.  It’s been a couple of months since I spent a day going through this place and really cleaning it.
I could do stuff now while I’m waiting for Tom but I’m going wait till I’m driven by having another person waiting on me and me dashing about putting dishes in sinks and bathrtumbs and such so they won’t fly about.
I’m inspired now. I think I’ll shave and shower. Then I think I’ll put the coffee on for another cup.  I’ve got to get myself in the zone to address this RV move and shitter restore equation.
It’s times like this I understand why guys never get past the couch.  I did years with the highest tech being a canoe and bicycle. The car was something . But there were mechanics and I ever learned mechanics for the maintenance of my bug. That’s when it began.  I learned the mechanics for the bug and then it was downhill from there.  Having the yacht required me to learning plumbing.  I fixed the plumbing and replaced the toilet on that boat a dozen times. Diesel mechanics courses and courses on radio and radar and electronics and bigger and bigger trucks and bigger and bigger RV’s.  Now I’m 21st century and looking longingly back on the days when I had only a pup tent a canoe and an old car that carried me and my canoe bicycle and tent.  I sometimes think that retirement will be a lessening until I am back there.  It’s one thing to have never had the Harley Davidson and another to know it’s joy and then return to the simpler cheaper less complicated bicycle. I’m not there yet and love this RV for instance when it’s working. It’s rocket science.  It’s unbelievable.  But when these high end items go wrong they sure are complicated. There’s a simple joy in Walden Pond.
We talk a lot about the simplest sailing system off shore.  All the accessories can and will go wrong so there’s a die hard group that don’t have GPS , radar or autopilots and remain luddite and safe. Like the AK47 ….a truly dependable rifle.  I’ve got the semi auto Ruger and it does jam whereas my old bolt action rifle is so simple and dependable.
Then there’s the whole world of leasing and renting.  Let some one else maintain things.  Ownership is over rated.  Hotel living at it’s finest.  Maids.  Car to Go.  There’s a lot to be said for that. I’ve given up on home ownership roof repair, plumbing costs and yard maintenance and all the other things that went with owning homes. Mostly I got tired of losing the investment because my partner and I were not able to maintain our relationship so the home became a burden and I lost my shirt every time.  I lack the fundamental ‘entitlement’ that others seem to have. I also lack the ‘spite’. I just want it over and I’ve found myself paying through the teeth just to get away from the abuse and anger.  The most beautiful people can be the most ugly .  I don’t like neighbours who are psychopaths like the guy who almost killed my cat stealing my power after I went to work and by doing so triggering the shut off on the heater.  For weeks I’d come home to a shivering cat . Then I found out this Vancouver psychopath was waiting for me to go to work so he could unplug my electricity and run it into his home to save himself the money of winter heating.  In a civilized country I’d able to get recompense but in Canada it was best to move away.  I like my mobility.  Without police protection or legal support of the working man and the government considering the middle class solely a tax grab, tis best to be able to move . If I had a home today I’d want a gated community.  I understand Trump wanting to build a wall. I laughed to see the huge wall around Clinton’s place. I remember liking the barred windows and walls in the Mexican haciendas. We’re getting that way here. Even in this park if anything is left not locked down thieves range through at night and steal.  Bicycles are forever going missing in Vancouver. It’s famous for the level of bicycle theft. Probably the highest in the world.  More and more heroin and more and more theft.
Of well, time to shave and prepare for the a shitty day.