This Could Be A Problem

This right here, could be a serious problem for me . . .

But more on this later.  For now on with yesterday and the active day that it was. First of all, I decided that it was time to do my dishes, as (I realized later) was a week’s worth of dishes. Just serves me right for not having a woman to nag me to do stuff. So there I was starting to run the water to wait until it gets warm enough, when this happened . . . 

For those of you with a “stationary house” this means it is either time to get out the plunger, grab a bottle of Draino or call a plumber, what this means for me is that it is time to dump my graywater tank.  I don’t know exactly why as my kitchen sink is the furthest and highest sink drain in the system, but the water doesn’t drain here first. I know then that it is really, (oh so not kidding) time to dump the tanks. Just in case you are curious, this is how I confirm how full my blackwater tank is . . .

So I decided to dump after the library and went inside the library to do my writing. Now, when I did get into the library and to my study area I found this . . . 

Yes, folks that electric screwdriver that I left plugged in at the library was still there waiting for me. Thank goodness for either unobservant library staff or them just assuming some other staff or maintenance personnel left it there. (yay me). I did get my writing done and my two chapters done. 

The one for Brian that I had wanted to extend to my target of ten pages was just too short. If I had extended it, I would have been rehashing the same material over again, or adding some useless puff scene. I then smushed it with the previous chapter and took out a chunk of puff that I had added earlier. That meant that I had to move up one chapter. 

This is a bit of a problem as I am now pretty much into new territory for Brian and in a hole in his story. I have a nice bit at the end for what happens to him, I need to fill his story with more action of the Wars of the Roses in between. So this means all new material for both storylines, (no rehashing of old chapters), so my pace will slow down, but the action will pick up.

After the library I did go and dump, and yes both tanks were full. I also filled a bottle of propane; I now time filling my empty propane tank with when I dump my tanks as it is both at the same place and continent. They have turned their fresh water off, but that is okay, as I can fill my water at work, not a problem.

Speaking of work, I went to work, with the intent of parking behind work to plug in and fill my water tank, I found this . . . 

This is not just any van parked in just any place but one of the vans which work out of the back of where I work. Another company has a bunch of vans which run about doing stuff during the day, they arrive at about 7:30 am (in the front) and are gone by 8:00 am. They park their vans at home, I think, as they are never here, not on the streets, nowhere around work, just in the morning and only for half an hour. Not a problem for me as they have a job to do, I get it. 

The place this van is parked behind is my work and the bay door that it is parked behind is the one bay that their company doesn’t open, it stays closed all the time. What that means is that thing could stay there for weeks on end and not bother anyone . . . but me. 

I could park behind another stall and plug in there and perhaps get a longer hose, but I don’ t like (and won’t) plug in to any place but my work. I have permission, sort of, but not a right to do this. My guess is that van was parked there by someone who doesn’t want me to park there anymore. I can’t really complain to anyone as I don’t have any right to be there, I know this.

As it stands, because I have been using the heater in Wanda in the mornings and evenings, her batteries are down. I plugged in on Thursday and all was well, but I do need to plug in today. Already, last night I have noticed some of the telltale signs that her batteries are dangerously low. So I didn’t turn the furnace on, I couldn’t waste the power.  (sure the furnace heating element runs on propane (or 120 ac) but the fan runs on 12 VDC (or 120 ac). What that means is that without heat, this morning I woke up to this . . . 

I don’t know exactly how cold that is but it is inside Wanda and somewhere near 5C. I decided that it would be best to go to work (as I was parked down the street). I am here warming up and I will be fine. If that van is not moved by tonight I will be in trouble. 

I know the solution, I have to buy a generator and charge my own batteries that way. I was hoping to hold off buying that as late as possible. The other problem this poses is where will I get my fresh water? The place that I dump has turned their water off “because it is winter” meaning they are afraid the pipes will freeze. I can drag 5 gallon jugs back and forth from work to Wanda to fill her fresh water tank that way, but that sucks.

As all this is happening, I am reminded of one of those interesting “Life Lessons” which you can so easily ignore. This one happened yesterday morning. Yesterday morning I got up and lit my tealight lanters. 

I have three of them which hang in Wanda’s main space. They provide enough light to putter about and provide a nice ambiance, but they are not enough to compete with the light from the laptop main screen, so they don’t help for what I had intended. I have another glass fixture thing which I put another tealight in, this sits on the table (nice but useless). 

I light all four at the same time, all four are fresh tealights and all are left to burn. Sometimes I will blow them out in the morning (when I go to work) and then light them again in the evening. This particular morning I lit them all and then just let them burn till they were out, well past the time that sunlight had returned to the world.

A curious thing happened, one by one each tealight went out around about the same time . . . all but one. This last tealight, the fourth tealight kept burning, it burned for what seemed to be at least fifteen minutes past when the other three gave up the ghost and stopped burning. 

As I face problems and troubles in life, I am reminded that we are all made of the same stuff, and we all face the same problems. It is what we are made of, our own determination, resolve, resourcefulness and sheer refusal to quit that keeps us going, so I will leave you with this last, parting thought . . . oh to be the fourth tealight.