Well, we crammed a whole summer’s worth of camping into the last month and now it’s time to pay the piper. I got up yesterday and started emptying the cabinets in the camper and making lists. I knew I needed to drive into town to run necessary errands, so I fixed us some breakfast out in the camper, since that’s where the breakfast food is still sitting in the refrigerator. We sat at the dinette and I started my list.

I am not happy with the small ceramic heater I purchased for the camper. Even at it’s lowest setting (59°), the fan never shuts off and I can guarantee you it was a LOT warmer than that in there. I decided to return it and get a more suitable one. Also, I bought an anode rod for the hot water heater in the new camper, only to find out this one does not have an anode rod. I thought they all did. Apparently the guy at the service department that sold it to me didn’t know either because he argued with me. He said (a little to pretentiously) they ALL have anode rods at which point I took great pleasure in educating him otherwise. 

There are brakes on trailers that are powered through the electrical plug in the back of your tow vehicle. And, in case the trailer should become unhooked in transit, there is a safety mechanism called a breakaway box. A long cable is attached to the undercarriage of your tow vehicle and the other end attaches to a pin…much like that of a hand grenade. Should the trailer come unhitched, the safety chains you attach to the frame catches the trailer and keeps it from running away. Should the safety chains fail, the cable grows taut and pulls the pin out of the breakaway box and the brakes are automatically applied to the wheels of the camper, stopping it from moving on down the highway without you. Pretty neat.

Our problem occurred when the way-too-long cable hung down too low and dragged on the highway on our way home Saturday. I noticed it right away when I was unhooking. It was very nearly worn through and I am so grateful it wasn’t needed because it would have failed. I wanted to get a pin with a pigtail cable, but they didn’t have one in our little burg. I ordered it online and it will arrive a week from today. I returned the anode rod, ran my errands, picked up a late lunch and came home.

Mr. FixIt and I watched a couple episodes of Grace and Frankie then it was time to get some work done. He cut the elephant ears back, mowed some, and cleaned the chainsaw. I jumped on the riding mower and worked as long as I could see there my row was. I can pretty much tell when we’re at the end of the mowing season. It’s when you get hypothermic on the tractor. Jeez-o-Pete…I was freezing by the time I stopped.

We heard from my stepson yesterday. They’re at the beach and he is using the new rod and reel we got him for his birthday. He sent pictures of the fish he caught. He saved five out of the fifteen blues and they were going to clean them and have a fish fry. Mr. FixIt was so excited for his son. He beamed with the pleasure you feel when a gift really works out for the recipient. 

We are due to have a couple of really beautiful days coming up. I’ll finish the mowing today and maybe we will get out to the farm to mow one last time out there. I bought the fixin’s for Broccoli Cheese Soup for supper tonight. I’ll serve it with some piping hot biscuits fresh from the oven and it will be a meal fit for royalty! We need to start working on the building…cleaning, sorting, organizing. We simply must make ourselves do this. Because it won’t be fair to leave such a mess for one of us to clean up alone when the other of us passes. 

These are the things that occupy your mind when you have been widowed. What never occurred to you before will be front and center thereafter.

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“casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

1 Peter 5:7 ESV

#Prepared, #Autumn, #Chores