Getting Ready for Departure

The final week of a winter at the trailer park is usually a week filled with bustling activity followed by inactivity soaking up the sun at the pool. This year I've been cursed with rain and cool temperatures the past few days. Today it will be much warmer but there's still a chance of rain every day. I know, no-one cares!

I always leave my trailer neat and clean but this year I've cleaned a bit more thoroughly. A friend will arrive here in early October and has offered to clean and prepare my trailer for my return in late October. I can't have her thinking I'm a slob. There's only so much dust you can blame on 6 months of wind blowing through the closed windows. It actually does happen to a degree, though, because these trailers are not well constructed. A few well sheltered windows also have to be left slightly open so that there is a bit of air flow to combat mildew and mold.

As I was cleaning yesterday I decided to unhook my camera from the computer and, in the tangle of cords that flow in all directions, managed to remove the main plug. Later, while e-mailing a friend, the blue screen of death appeared and it wasn't long before I had no screen at all. Shocked at what I first thought was the early demise of my laptop, I traced my steps and discovered my error. All is now working well.

Some friends stopped by in the afternoon to let me know they were selling all the gorgeous rattan furniture in their Florida room. I phoned my friend, Carole, who just bought the trailer across the road but is now home in Canada. She bought the furniture and now I have to figure out how to pack it into her already crowded Florida room. It was just too good a deal to pass up, though, so I'll manage somehow. Her old furniture has to go but I'm not sure if we're allowed to take large items like that up to our dump site. In any case, I'm going to have to draw on the kindness, and strength, of some of the men around here.

A couple of friends and I went out for dinner and were surprised to see how close to our park the latest brush fire came. Firefighters managed to keep it from jumping the highway onto our side of the road but it still came within 1/2 mile of our park. Even if there is no outward sign, these brush fires can simmer beneath the surface of the ground and come back to life at any time. I was thankful for the rain.

My personal plan for today is to get some travelling money out of the bank. Gas is selling at about $2.85 a gallon here but Carole said it's $1.03 a litre (approximately $4.00 a gallon) back home. My little Honda is great on gas but it will still cost me about $125. to get home. One year it will be simply too expensive for me to drive at all.

But today I'm happy, healthy, and have a bit of work and a bit of play planned for the day. Life is good!