What happened to us?

Nothing other than life in general.  We didn’t post anything last year because we spent the summer planning and living a big trip to the Pacific Northwest (more on that in another post), dealing with a unexpected job change (but one that turned out to be financially beneficial – I should have left a long time ago!)  and cleaning up the mess when drug addicts and gang members wander unsupervised through a trailer storage park.  Yes, the pod’s TV was taken.  Fortunately, we store nothing else of value in there.  Apparently a collection of miniature dish soap and salt shakers are not high target items for thieves.  The good news:  my PiBox project to create a wireless media system to replace the TV/DVD player is ready to go!  So, in a way, the saved me a little work having to pull it out.

We had two big trips last year, one to Rifle Gap and another to the Pacific Northwest.  We also had a trip to Cherry Creek State Park, which was a wonderful trip even though it never left the Denver metro area.  We’ve got photos for the first two and it’s time to get them up.   I’ll have video and photos of the PiBox mod eventually, but not till later this year.

In other news, there have been updates to the planned mods.  Some examples:

• I built a wooden cutting board to cover the burners.  That was a lot easier than I thought.
• We replaced the handles on the drawers in the kitchen area with leather straps so we could stop ripping our shins whenever we walked by them.
• I opened a hole from the top bunk to the bottom, filled with a wide PVC pipe and kept open with a piece of clear fiberglass between the mattress and the PVC to allow air to flow from the top bunk to the bottom.  Word is still out on how well this works, but there was at least some improvement according to my wife (who has the bottom bunk).
• I installed an IKEA lamp for additional lighting when connected to 30A at State parks.  It provides a little home-away-from-home feel to our evenings.

Those were all done last year.  We also have a new shower head and copper handles and spigot in the kitchen this year.  That was due to my failing to winterize last year.  Live and pay to learn.

We thought about replacing the metal step into the pod with a two-step alternative.  However, the one we found requires cutting metal to make it fit and I’m just not interested in that much work.  The pups will have to make do.

Speaking of pups:  the two old ladies are showing their age.  The eldest, Reba, has (and I kid you not) COPD.  She also has hip displasia.  Fortunately, there is a new drug – adequan (or something like that) – that did wonders for her.  She’s walking nearly normal and other medicines are helping her deal with her COPD.  But long trail walks will be out for her.

And Bailey, the next oldest, tore an ACL.  She’s already had surgery on the other knee when she was 7 (she’s 12 now).  So we got her a custom fitted brace.  She took awhile to get used to it, but she’s fine with it now.  And it’s doing wonders for her.  It’s proof that while the ACL will never heal completely, she can recover enough to live happily with the help of a brace.  And isn’t that kind of what happens to their elder owners eventually anyway?  If she can take it, so can we (eventually, but not yet).

So that’s it for now.  More photos and videos coming soon.