Blaine

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Response to an Email

The following email just landed in my inbox:

Hi – I subscribe to your blog. I wish you could please write more about travels and less about the personal woes. Thanks!

I’d like to remind my readers that full-time RVing pre-retirement is not a perpetual vacation. It’s real life. And this blog serves as a chronicle of my full-timing life. I wish it could all be about travel, but I can’t ‘travel’ all the time. Those who want me to write more about ‘travel’ are welcome to contribute to this part of my budget by buying my ebooks and hiring me for contracts.

In retrospect, I realise that the name of my blog doesn’t reflect the daily reality of my life, but, really, how much travel does one person need to do to qualify as having a ‘traveling’ lifestyle? In the last twelve months I’ve gone from Vancouver Island to the Arctic Circle, the Okanagan to Quebec, the Vancouver area to Washington state. All while addressing the same mundane issues of real life that I had while stuck in a fixed residence.

I practise a policy of honesty when writing the blog. I got up this morning and realised that I hadn’t updated in a while. Why? Nothing’s been going on. Why? I got screwed over by a client. But it’s not all bad; I have exciting plans coming up! I’m heading into Oregon! I have some major changes ahead! Yeah, I’m paused right now, but things are going to pick up. And my teasing tone showed, I thought, that I’m in really good spirits and enjoying my down time.

A few days ago I wrote about health issues I’m having. I guess this could be considered sharing ‘personal woes.’ It’s relevant to this blog because it’s going to affect the choices I’m going to be making over the next few months. It’s also relevant to my readers because it offered evidence of the problems with the Canadian health care system, an issue pertinent to Canadian full-time RVers.

Obviously my blog can’t be to everyone what they wish it could be. It certainly isn’t to me because I really do wish I was independently wealthy and could treat full-time RVing pre-retirement as a perpetual vacation.

But this email has made me decide to explicitly state something I decided on about a month ago: I’ve given up on using this blog as a way to generate some income to finance my life. So, I’m going to stop worrying about how often I post.

That said, there are thousands of resources for RVing around North America, but this is the only one about full-time RVing in Canada pre-retirement. My readers only get a glimpse into a very tiny part of my life, but I feel that what I share is relevant to the purpose of my blog. So, I’m not going to stop including contextual information when I do post.

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Electric Blanket

This week, I bought an inexpensive 12V electric blanket to see if it would make any difference in my overnight comfort level. I decided to start with a basic plug-in model before investing in a pricey warming pad with temperature controls and the like.

The blanket arrived the day before last. I spread it out under my comforter and plugged it in, then went for a shower. Did the same thing last night. I unplugged before going to bed and climbed up into a toasty nest. What luxury! And even though the blanket was off all night, I remained snug and cozy.

So, I’m definitely going to want to invest in a proper warming pad at some point! I’m going to use this blanket for curling up in on chilly mornings instead of running the furnace. I wish I’d thought of getting such a device earlier on in my travels; the 6A draw is about half of that of my furnace, plus it doesn’t use up propane!

To that end, I’m going to start adding 12V sockets at strategic points around the rig.

This post foreshadows Miranda’s impending electrical makeover. Da da da dum. 😀

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Paused

Nothing much to report at my end. The week or so of cold weather we had was conducive to finally getting some real downtime at home and my days have pretty much been filled with cat cuddles, movies, and embroidery.

Without going into too much detail, a large payment from a client is very long over due so I’m having some cash flow issues. Resolution is in sight, but I don’t expect to get much more done here in Blaine except for perhaps a day trip.

It feels like I just got here, but incredibly enough, I’ll be pulling out mid-day on Tuesday! And I’m heading south, into Oregon! And it will be in Oregon that my RVing life will change forever. Da da da dum.

(I won’t be offended by the eye rolls that result from that last bit. 😀 )

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Close Encounters of the Border Patrol Kind

I took a bit of an awkward exit out of the Cost Cutters last night. You have to turn right and then immediately move into the left hand lane. I turned right and soon as I was straight, I signaled that I was going to move left. The car in the left lane behind me sped up the minute I put on my blinker, stayed snug against my bumper, and forced me to stay in the right lane until I had no choice but to exit because of the end of the lane. When I made the turn I was able to see that the car following me at been from the US border patrol. I’m guessing had been able to see that my license was ‘different’ and was probably trying to figure out where I was from. The distance was much too short for him to have had time to radio in anything.

That officer’s curiosity was very dangerous! I had no idea I was being tailed by anyone official and I was scared! I didn’t know the street I was turning onto; maybe he was a maniac planning to force me into a dead end to carjack me. If he hadn’t been riding me so closely, I might have decided to hit the gas and force my way ahead of him, only to discover blinking lights and a ticket for dangerous driving.

D-U-M-B.

 

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Expediency

For about five years now I’ve suspected that I have certain medical condition. Attempts to get tested for it in Quebec were dismal failures. After waiting for hours at walk in clinics, I’d get the usual harried GP who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the patients who would call me a hypochondriac to my face and only send me for blood work to get me out of his hair. I’d then wait several weeks to get an appointment at the blood clinic, wait hours for the test, wait weeks for the results from the doctor’s office because I’d been told ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you’, and then try to follow up to be told ‘if we haven’t called you we either lost the results or you’re fine.’ It just boggled me to be treated that way when I had a plastic surgeon on speed dial with whom consults were fully covered by Quebec medical insurance!

My last attempt to get tested was the summer of ’08, before I hit the road. Since then, I’ve essentially been without health care coverage and I’ve also been daunted by the thought of breaking into another province’s medical system.

Long story short, I’ve been feeling poorly for a very long time and this month it’s come to a head. I’ve been eating well, resting, getting exercise, managing my stress levels, etc., but I just keep feeling worse.

So, this morning I got online and Googled testing in Bellingham for the condition I think I have. I found a website where I could pay for the test online, print out a confirmation, and go to a lab in Bellingham immediately and get the test done. This sounded too good to be true, so I made sure the place is legit (yes) and even found a 10% off coupon. So, I PayPaled the company $43. By 11:15 I’d printed out my confirmation and by 11:30 I was in the car on the way to the clinic.

I got there at exactly noon, prepared to wait for hours or even be told to come back another day. Instead, I was checked in and brought into a cubicle immediately. I was out of there in ten minutes flat!!!

The results should land in my inbox in the next couple of days. Regardless of what they say, the next step will be to find a doctor. If they are positive, then I’ll need some drugs and if they are negative I’ll need further testing. At least, I have one step out of the way and I’m feeling very proactive!

The lady at the lab said I was the fifth Canadian patient that morning and that Canadians come down so they can get their blood work out of the way more quickly. So, it sounds like the BC health care system is just as efficient as the one in Quebec!