Lethbridge

by

Return to Mindfulness

In a few hours, my high speed internet connection will be terminated and I will have to go back to my very limited 5GB cellular connection. The new billing period starts on the ninth, so I can use that entire 5GB in a week, making the return to limited bandwidth not too drastic just yet. And I’ll be back on high speed when I get to Quebec, so this is just for six weeks. I opted to terminate the connection tomorrow because that was the last day of the billing cycle. The way internet is billed, I pay a month ahead of time, so I should not have to pay for anything else, but I will ask Jody to keep her eye out for a Telus envelope with my name on it just in case.

This winter, I haven’t had to think my use of water or electricity or internet or propane nor have I had to worry about sewage. It’s been very easy, and very mindless. I find that the days tend to run a little less into each other when you have to monitor your utilities. because it hasn’t been that long since you dumped or took on water or because your batteries have been rather low for a few days. It’s a combination of small things that help me feel more engaged in my life. There is so much I miss about living in my RV and mindfulness is at the top of the list. Cooking over a flame is also near the top of the list. 🙂

I am giving the apartment complex a few more hours early this week but I am hoping that by Wednesday I will be pretty much done. I ended up putting in a full eight-hour plus day on Saturday, which had not been on my schedule! So I wound up spending today doing transcription rather than working in the rig.

As for my rig preparations, I’m downscaling them as I always do since my mother reminded me that she has her full woodworking shop and some of her free time at my disposal. So I will finish up my work in the study and call it done, unless the time to do that materializes this week and I have time to take on the other projects.

April 11th is marked on my calendar as the day to take Miranda out for fuel, propane, and dewinterizing, and April 16th is down as the absolute last morning for pulling out. Having those dates firmly set in my calendar makes the idea of departure from Lethbridge much more real. I have now been in Lethbridge exactly one year and am 14 days away from leaving. While I have no regrets about the last twelve months, I am ready to go. Well, mentally at least. Physically, I’m hustling. 🙂

by

I Love Living in a Bilingual Country

I was hanging out in the office this morning when the phone rang. Quebec came up on the call display, so I suspected it was BMO calling me about a fax I sent them a couple of days ago.

It was.

And I just loved the pregnant pause when I answered in English and the person on the other end of the line was dumbfounded by the realisation that she had just called Alberta and she didn’t speak a word of English. A quick “Bonjour!” on my part got the ball rolling, but I bet those were two of the longest seconds in that woman’s life!

by

New Toad Starting Battery

My issues with the toad battery that started in December worsened to the point that I could no longer get a full charge and the battery was going flat every few days. Today, I finally had enough time to a) charge the battery enough to get the car started and b) get to the battery place.

Three people told me to that the car to All-Tra Battery on 3rd Avenue South, so that’s what I did. Service was very speedy! I came in and said I needed a new battery. A tech came out, determined what kind I needed, and went inside to get the new one. He told the person at the till what I was getting and I was able to pay immediately ($89.20, including taxes and installation). When I went back outside, the work was half completed. Sum total, I was out in less than five minutes!

I probably could have gotten a cheaper battery at Canadian Tire or Walmart, but when three people who don’t know each other and are in the automotive industry recommend a local business, I prefer to go there. I also know that going to a place that only deals in batteries, I’m going to get a fresh battery.

I thought of inquiring about prices for a couple of 12 volts for Miranda’s house battery bank, but decided to wait until the fall. I’m going to monitor how my new solar panel works over the course of a month’s travel to see if I have I have any surplus charging that I could apply to a second battery. This won’t even have to be scientific; I can just make note of how many mornings my battery is fully charged before noon and whether or not its overcast (if it’s overcast and I get a full charge, then I’ll know for sure I have a lot of waste!).

I can’t believe I only have two to three weekends left in Lethbridge and that before I know it, I’ll have to worry about things like battery and holding tank capacities again. Can’t wait!

by

A Little Soggy

I was up in The Apartment this afternoon doing some transcription when I got an email from the new manager that said, grosso modo, a tenant has a broken tap and it’s spewing water everywhere and I can’t get a hold of maintenance. Did I any chance know where the shut off valve was?

Nope. So I raced downstairs to the other building, turned off a couple of taps in the boiler room until I got the water turned off for the building, and then pretty much waded into the tenants’ apartment. What. A. Mess. A bathtub tap had come right off; I’ve never seen anything like it and I have more than a casual acquaintance with plumbing issues. I used the tenants’ phone to call the office to find out that maintenance still wasn’t picking up. Thankfully, now that there wasn’t water pouring out of the tap and filling the tub faster than it could drain, I could turn the tap off manually.

So I handed the tenants a wet-dry shop vac and went back to the office to get a screw driver. When I came back with the tool, the apartment was a lot drier and I had no trouble turning the tap off. I can’t remember if all house-style plumbing has this, but all our taps have a metal cover below them, behind which is a pipe with a screw that can be used to turn the water on and off if the tap fails. That done, I was able to turn the water back on to the building.

Back at the office, I told the new manager to add to her to-do list, “Ask head office what to do in case there’s another plumbing emergency, maintenance won’t pick up, and Rae is gone!!!”

Such fun. 😀

I have made the switch in my brain and consider myself to be in a supporting role now. I’m putting in some face time at the office, but it’s a better use of my time to be upstairs doing transcription or other work for myself. I am in the pay period that will produce a mid-April pay cheque and will Friday fall into the first of May pay cheque period, so I am motivated to work my fingers to the bone in these last few weeks in Lethbridge. It would bring me peace of mind to know that I have income coming in during my trip east.

That said, my rig is nowhere near ready to go mode and my toad needs a new battery, so I need to start drilling down my list of priorities!

 

by

Resting Before Departure Mania Starts

I’ve had a fairly calm ten days that included two full weekends and five weekday evenings off. The weather has been crappy and I decided to just coast. I have been working very hard this winter and it’s been good to just breathe and immerse myself in a new-to-me TV show and let my mind quiet itself in preparation for how much work is ahead of me. I’m transferring management of the apartment complex to the new manager, so the work day has been full. Soon as she’s up and running, I’ll start focusing on getting back on the road. I don’t expect to be able to breathe again until I’m across the North Dakota border!

This weekend, I met some folks who read Full-Time RVing in Canada and wanted to talk to me about it since they were coming through Lethbridge. Gary made another one of his great dinners last night. And, quite exciting, there are half-packed boxes in The Apartment!!! I’ve got a box per room in the rig. As soon as I complete work in each room, I’ll be able to start bringing things back in. I can’t wait to be home. 😀