Monthly Archives: March 2020

Mar30

Update, COVID-19 Edition

Posted on March 30, 2020 by Blaize Sun

I don’t feel like writing.

I don’t feel like doing much of anything.

Don’t worry. I’m not sick. As far as I know, I’m totally healthy. I don’t have any symptoms of COVID-19 and no risk factors other than going to town (The Hot Zone, The Man calls it) last Tuesday to pick up Jerico’s dog food and drop some postcards into the mail slot.

The Man is fine too, as is Jerico. We’re all in good health.

I quit my job a week ago. The hand washing facilities where I worked were inadequate. In the three months I worked there, I never once saw the woman I assisted wash her hands. Another frustrating problem was that she did not believe COVID-19 was a big deal. If they’d quit calling it a pandemic, people wouldn’t be so frantic, she said on more than one occasion. She certainly was not practicing social distancing, so I was exposed–directly or indirectly–to everyone who came over to visit her, everyone she hugged, everyone who touched something in her house. I was also expected to take her to a friend’s home to shower once a week, so I was exposed to her friend, her friend’s husband, the hired hand, and anyone else who happened to be there on a Friday afternoon.

*This is from the frequently asked questions from my state’s unemployment website.*

The state I work in won’t pay unemployment to anyone who quits a job due to “a medical concern.” In the eyes of the state, I was supposed to keep working until either I got sick or my client did. Hell, I might have been expected to continue to care for my client had she gotten sick even though I had no protective gear or even a place to wash my hands other than a sink that drained into a bucket that I had to dump outside when full.

While I received emails from my credit union, the gas station and supermarket to whose rewards clubs I belong, and every fast food restaurant and craft store with whom I’ve ever shared my email address explaining how each business was working to keep both customers and employees safe in the time of COVID-19 and telling me how to keep myself safe, the company I worked for didn’t so much as text me to remind me to wash my hands. I heard nothing from my employer. Nothing. Not a peep. The silence did not instill confidence in me. In fact, the silence underscored the reality that my employer did not give a damn about me.

At first I was excited about the prospect of not going to work.

I’ll get some writing done, I thought. I’ll work on my blog. I’ll let people know about the postcards I have for sale. I’ll get so much done!

Instead, I’ve been dragging my ass for a week.

The Man and I decided to stay home and take social distancing and flattening the curve seriously. The Man is talking about totally staying home for two months, maybe three. Is he overreacting or saving our lives? I guess we’ll never really know.

The Man and I have enough food for for a month, maybe six weeks, if we eat two conservative meals a day. We started out with about 15 pounds of dried pinto beans, along with a few more pounds of dried black beans, lentils, white beans and Lima beans. We’ve been eating oatmeal for breakfast so we can save the eggs for baking. I’ve been working hard to vary our dinners so we don’t burn out on beans early on. There may come a day when we’re eating all pintos all the time, but I want to delay that day for as long as possible.

Jerico is set with food for now. Last Tuesday we picked up a 35 pound sack of food we’d had shipped from Chewy.com. That much food will last him at least a month, probably six weeks. He’ll be out of medication too, sometime in the next couple of months. We order that online too.

Unlike most people in the United States, we don’t get home delivery of mail. No one in this part of the state does. Folks either get a box at a post office or at a private company like the UPS Store. So while most of you can order online and have groceries or dog food or medicine or craft supplies delivered to your home, we don’t enjoy that convenience. Our mailbox is 20 miles away, in The Hot Zone.

The nearest outgoing mailbox is at least 12 miles from our home, and The Man really doesn’t want me driving there to mail letters and postcards. He fears the virus is going to be concentrated anywhere that people live. He fears I might breathe in the virus and bring it home. Again, is he over cautious or just cautious enough?

What did I decide to do after considering my prospects of neither incoming nor outgoing mail for a month or more? I decided to make postcards, of course. Something about cutting paper and gluing it down in new ways is comforting to me in times of stress. The actions give me a feeling of control, I suppose.

*These are some of the 38 postcards I made.* *I took this photo too.*

Two days and 38 postcards later, I ran out of the decoupage glue I like to use for all my collage work. I won’t be getting any more of it any time soon, so I guess my postcard creating is on hiatus.

This past Saturday, I tried to file my taxes online. It turned into a fiasco because I don’t know last year’s Adjusted Gross Income. I had to give up after a couple of hours of struggle until my sibling (whose mail is delivered to the front porch) receives some documentation and calls me with the information.

After I was unable to achieve my big goal for the day, I fell into despair. It was tool cold and windy to go for the walk The Man suggested. I didn’t feel like writing. I didn’t feel like talking or watching a movie. After I cooked dinner and washed the dishes, the rest of my life stretched before me, long and boring.

The Man and I ended up watching some King of the Hill on Hulu. (Thank goodness for free trials from streaming services.) That cheered me up a little, but all I really wanted to do was play the matching game I put on my phone. I don’t have to think too hard about it, so it doesn’t tax my brain, but I have to pay close enough attention to it that unwanted thoughts are kept away. It’s an unproductive activity, but after hours of reading news sources and thinking about COVID-19 and people refusing to isolate and the lack of ventilators and all the horribleness that’s coming down the pike, my brain enjoys being blank.

I don’t know what to do with this blog right now. Should I carry on as if nothing is amiss and our whole world isn’t crumbling? Should I go all COVID-19 all the time? To be honest with you, I don’t have it in me to go all COVID-19 all the time. But if no one cares anymore about a free camping spot in Colorado or stories from my past or photos of my first Little Free Food Pantry, I’m not going to bother. However, if my blog helps you feel a little more normal, I’m all for continuing with it.

Please, let me know what you think. If you’re reading these words, please, please leave a comment (as short or as long as you like) letting me know what you want to see here in the coming days. Your input will help me make some decisions.

In the meantime, please keep yourself safe. Stay home as much as possible. Work from home if you can. Stay away from people outside your immediate family. Wash your hands. Be kind. Above all, please be kind.

Mar25

15 Tips for Staying Comfortable in the Heat

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Blaize Sun

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World's largest thermometer shows temperature at 91 degrees.

Summer is coming and depending on where you are, you may already be dealing with the heat. It’s important to stay cool whether you’re living in a tent, a van or other vehicle, a motorhome, a travel trailer, or a conventional house. Today I’ll give you tips on staying comfortable as the mercury rises.

Thanks to Laura-Marie of dangerous compassions blog for asking me to write about staying at a comfortable temperature.

#1 Wear the right clothing. Unless you’re at a nudist colony, you may have to wear some clothing, but you can increase your comfort by wearing 100% cotton garments. Cotton is a breathable fabric that lets perspiration evaporate. I refuse to wear polyester in the summer because it makes me unnaturally hot and causes my armpits to smell really bad.

#2 Don’t get a sunburn. Trust me, you will not be comfortable if you have a sunburn. Use a broad spectrum sunscreen with a high SPF on exposed skin, or (my favorite) cover up with lightweight 100% cotton clothing. The Lady of the House swears by sun protection clothing by Coolibar. According to the comapany’s website,

Tested more than any other brand, endorsed by experts worldwide and recommended by dermatologists – Coolibar guarantees UPF 50+ protection in our fabrics from the first day our product is worn until the day your garment is retired.

#3 Wear a hat. A hat intended to keep the sun from beating on your head can go a long way to increase your comfort in the heat. Again, I like natural fibers. I also like a wide brim to help protect my face, but even a baseball or trucker cap will help protect your head.

#4 Stay in the shade. If you have to be outside when the sun is shining, stay in the shade of an awning, canopy, tree, or umbrella. When parking your rig, try to put it in a position for optimal shade.

#5 Be still. Like a desert animal, you want to remain inactive during the hottest part of the day. Exercise or do your most physically active chores in the morning or evening when the temperature is lower. During the hottest part of the day, read, write, listen to podcasts, or nap if you can. In other words, take it easy during the height of the heat.

#6 Fan yourself. When you’re awake, you can use a handheld fan to make a breeze for yourself. At night use a fan run by batteries or electricity (depending on your situation) to move the air. Especially at night, I need airflow to survive the heat.

#7 Wet your clothes. If the humidity is not too high, wetting your clothes can be mighty refreshing. If I’m wearing a long sleeve cotton shirt, I’ve been known to take it off and dip it in a basin of water. If no basin is available, I’ll pour water directly over myself. As the water evaporates, cooling ensues, especially if a breeze hits.

#8 If you don’t want to wet your clothes, try the strategic application of a wet bandana. A wet bandana tied around or draped over the head can be very refreshing. Sometimes I’ll put a wet bandana under my hat. On hot nights, I’ve draped a wet bandana over my naked chest and been comfortable enough to drift off to sleep. A wet bandana draped over the back of the neck also feels good when it’s hot out.

There are products available for purchase (or you can make your own) that are supposed to help folks stay cool. Cooling towels and neck wraps are marketed to athletes and are supposed to stay cool for a long time after being dipped in water. Other items have little beads in them that absorb water and are reported to stay cool for hours. (These beads are properly called ” Super Absorbent Polymer water absorbing crystals.”) These products are well and good if you have money to buy them and space to store them. However, I’ve had success with the cooling properties of a wet bandana or even a washcloth.

Feet wearing hiking sandals in water — My feet in a cold mountain stream

#9 Soak your feet. If you have a kiddie pool or even a small basin, try soaking your feet in cool water. If you have ice, put some to your foot bath for added cooling pleasure. If I can get my feet wet (especially in a cold mountain stream), the rest of me cools off instantly.

#10 Wet your whole self. Try submerging yourself in a lake, river, swimming pool, or ocean. Take a cold shower or bath.

I once lived in Texas in a house with no air conditioning. Sometimes during the summer I’d wake up in the night totally hot. I’d make my way to the bathroom without turning on a light, get in the shower, and turn on only the cold water. The jolt of coolness left me comfortable enough to go back to sleep.

#11 Drink cold beverages. Staying hydrated is so important when the weather is hot. In the summer, I keep my EcoVessel bottle filled with ice and water, and I carry it wherever I go. If you need a little flavor, add some lemon or lime to your cold water. You can also drink juice, iced coffee, and iced tea (herbal or with caffeine) but water is your best bet for battling dehydration.

#12 Go somewhere cool during the hottest part of the day. Hanging out in the air conditioned comfort of a library, coffee shop, movie theater, or even a mall can make even the hottest day pass pleasantly. For a few bucks (or maybe no cost at all), you can take advantage of the cool air already being cranked out by someone else’s air conditioner.

#13 Cook outside. When you cook inside, the heat from your stove warms your living space. If you have a portable propane stove, take it outside to cook your meals. You can also cook on a gas or charcoal grill. If cooking outside isn’t an option, cook early in the morning before the day heats up or late in the evening when the temperature has dropped.

#14 Don’t cook at all. Use some of the tips from my blog post “What to Eat When You Can’t (or Don’t Want to) Cook.” Eating chilled fresh fruit is cooling and will help you stay hydrated. Hummus and guacamole are light, easy to prepare, and can be eaten cold.

Winding mountain road — Follow a mountain road to a higher elevation.

#15 Change your location. If possible, go up in elevation or visit a beach or seashore.

The mountains are beautiful in the summer. For every 1,000 feet gain in elevation, the temperature drops approximately 3.5 degrees. That means if it’s 95 degrees at sea level, it will be a cool 78 degrees at 5,000 feet. (For more information about mountain life, see my post “Managing in the Mountains.”)

If the mountains aren’t right for you (or they’re too far away), go to the beach. It will be easy to cool off in the water, and the seashore tends to have a nice breeze. Even a few days in a cooler location can make the heat at home easier to bear.

So there you have it—fifteen tips for staying comfortable when the weather is hot. How do you stay cool in hot weather? Please leave your tips in the comments section below.

Please remember that Blaize Sun is not responsible for your safety and wellbeing. Only you are responsible for your safety and wellbeing. If you are in a dangerously hot situation, please move to a cooler location Ask for help if you need to. Heat exhaustion and heat stroke are real and dangerous, my friends.

I took the photos in this post.

Mar23

She Didn’t Want to See Me

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Blaize Sun

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The woman strode briskly across the fuel center toward the kiosk where I was stationed. I already knew she was trying to use the credit card we didn’t accept. My POS (point-of-sale) system had told me so.

The woman was older than I am and had dirty blond hair. Her shorts and blouse were color-coordinated, and she wore fashionable sunglasses.

Hi! How can I help you today? I asked through the intercom. I typically waited for customers to tell me their problems, even when I was pretty sure I knew what was going on.

It told me to see cashier, she said referring to the screen on the gas pump. But I don’t want to see you, she whined. I want to do it out there.

I have to admit her saying she didn’t want to see me was a blow to my ego. It was a small blow, but a blow nonetheless. Like Sally Field, I want to know people like me. I’m very likeable. Well, I can be very likeable, when I’m trying.

I let her finish talking (and hurting my feelings) before I asked, Are you trying to use [the credit card we didn’t take]?

She said she was.

I’m sorry, I said. We quit taking [the card in question] in April.

But I didn’t live here then, she pouted. She looked so much like an unhappy child I thought she might drop to the ground and roll around in a tantrum. I don’t know why she thought the date of her arrival in town would possibly matter.

I’m sorry, I repeated, although by this point I was only sorry she was still standing in front of me.

She scrunched up her face as if she were furious and stomped back to her vehicle. I don’t know if she used another card to pay of if she simply left. I’d stopped caring about what she did when she said she didn’t want to see me.

Mar18

Living Nomadically in the Time of COVID-19

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Blaize Sun

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Unless you’ve been boondocking deep in the woods for the last month, you’ve probably heard about the coronavirus, Covid-19, social distancing, and the stockpiling of toilet paper. If you’re feeling a little confused about what this all means for you as a nomad, today I will try to help you sort out fact from fiction and truth from fake news.

What is the novel coronavirus everyone is talking about? What is COVID-19?

In the HuffPost article “Here’s the Difference Between Coronavirus And COVID-19,” author Lindsay Holmes explains that the term “coronavirus”

refers to a group of viruses that are known to cause respiratory issues. So even though many are referring to the illness circling around right now as “coronavirus,” that’s not actually the name of the disease…

COVID-19 is what experts are calling this particular disease.

According to a Standford Health Care FAQ,

A novel coronavirus is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified. The virus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is not the same as the coronaviruses that commonly circulate among humans and cause mild illness, like the common cold.

The same FAQ says,

the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses…named the novel coronavirus, first identified in Wuhan, China, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, shortened to SARS-CoV-2.

As the name indicates, the virus is related to the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that caused an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002-2003, however it is not the same virus.

Am I at risk for catching COVID-19?

According to the University of Chicago Medicine article “COVID-19: What We Know So Far about the 2019 Novel Coronavirus” by Emily Landon, MD, an infectious disease specialist and hospital epidemiologist, the short answer is yes.

It doesn’t appear anyone is naturally immune to this particular virus, and there’s no reason to believe anybody has antibodies that would normally protect them.

Can my pet catch COVID-19 and transmit it to me?

According to the Healthline article “Don’t Fall for These 3 Myths About the New Coronavirus” written by Joni Sweet and fact-checked by Dana K. Cassell,

“You’re not going to get a dangerous human coronavirus from Fido,” said [Dr. Gregory] Poland [a virus expert and head of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic]. “It’s true that dogs, cats, and most species carry their own kinds of coronavirus, but those are not human pathogens.”

Can I get vaccinated against COVID-19? Is there a treatment for the disease?

The aforementioned Stanford Health Care FAQ says no.

Currently there is no vaccine or specific antiviral medicine to prevent or treat COVID-19. However, there are vaccines and drugs currently under investigation. The National Institutes of Health has estimated that a large clinical trial for a vaccine may be available in 12-15 months.

How do I protect myself from COVID-19?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website offers the following measures to protect yourself from COVID-19:

The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus.

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds especially after you have been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.

If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Cover all surfaces of your hands and rub them together until they feel dry.

Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

Having trouble avoiding touching your face? Check out the Healthline article “You Probably Touch Your Face 16 Times an Hour: Here’s How to Stop” by George Citroner and fact-checked by Michael Crescione.

What is social distancing?

In the humorous yet informative Forbes article “What Is Social Distancing? Here Are 10 Ways To Keep The Coronavirus Away” author Bruce Y. Lee explains

Social distancing is a public health strategy attempting to prevent or slow the spread of an infectious pathogen like a virus. It includes any method to keep people as physically separate from each other because physical proximity is how many pathogens go from one body to another. This includes isolating people who are infected, quarantining people who may have been infected, and keeping people separate from each other in general.

Who is at greatest risk for contracting COVID-19?

In The Guardian article “Coronavirus: Who’s Most at Risk, What We Can Do and Will We See a Vaccine Soon?” Dr. Tom Wingfield of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine says

heart disease, followed by diabetes, hypertension – high blood pressure – chronic lung disease and finally some cancers were the main risk factors [for contracting COVID-19).
The more of these conditions you have, the greater the likelihood of severe disease that you face.

In addition, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services states

Older adults and people who have severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease and those with weakened immune systems seem to be at higher risk for more serious COVID-19 illness.

Early data suggest older people [over 65 years of age] are twice as likely to have serious COVID-19 illness.

What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website lists the following symptoms of COVID-19:

Fever
Cough
Shortness of breath

The website says the symptoms can appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus.

The Healthline article “Everything You Should Know About the 2019 Coronavirus and COVID-19” (written by Tim Jewell and medically reviewed by Meredith Goodwin, MD, FAAFP) elaborates that the cough gets more severe over time and the fever begins as low-grade and =gradually increases in temperature.

What should I do if I contract COVID-19?

The University of Chicago Medicine webpage “What Are the Symptoms of the Coronavirus (COVID-19)?” by Allison H. Bartlett, MD, MS gives the following suggestions for folks who are experiencing mild-to-medium symptoms of COVID-19, including fever, muscle and body aches, cough, and a sore throat:

…stay at home, self-isolate and rest.

Monitor your temperature and drink plenty of fluids. Continue to wash your hands frequently, disinfect frequently touched surfaces in your home and stay away from other people as much as possible.

The hospital and emergency room should be used only by people who are concerned about life-threatening symptoms… If you’re just a little bit sick, the best thing you can do is self-isolate and try to keep the virus from spreading to others.

What should I do if my COVID-19 symptoms get worse?

On the “What Are the Symptoms of the Coronavirus (COVID-19)?” webpage mentioned above, the author says,

If your condition worsens after 5 days, reach out to your doctor — ideally through a remote way, such as calling or messaging— for advice.

Contact a doctor if you’re experiencing the following symptoms:

Shorness of breath
Trouble breathing
Chest pain
Wheezing
Constant or sever abdominal pain
Confusion
Unable to keep food or liquids down

If any of these symptoms are severe, you should go to an emergency room. If you are over 60 and have other chronic medical problems, consider contacting an emergency room for less-severe symptoms.

Thanks for all the great information, but what particular challenges do nomads face in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak?

Right now, healthy people are being told to self-isolate and stay home as much as possible to help flatten the curve and help slow down the rate of the epidemic. People experiencing mild-to-medium symptoms of COVID-19 are being told to stay at home and rest. What’s a nomad without a permanent home base to do?

I suggest you find a place to hunker down and sit still for a while.

Perhaps you can find a free camping spot in a national forest to spend 14 days away from the rest of civilization. Of course, you will have to weigh the pros of being away from people with the cons of being away from medical attention should you get sick with COVID-19 or some other illness. If you’re generally in good health, you may feel more comfortable taking the risk of going deep into the woods. Maybe you can find a free camping spot not terribly far from a hospital or urgent care clinic. Perhaps hunkering down with a partner, traveling buddy, or members of a small caravan would be a good idea so folks can take care of each other and someone healthy could drive a sick person into civilization if necessary.

This may be a good time to splurge on a campground near a town if you can afford such a luxury. Just remember, you’re at the campground to isolate, so stay out of common areas and away from group activities as much as possible. Campendium has posted a list called “COVID-19 State by State Campground Closures & Responses” to help you decide where to go and what places to avoid.

If you can’t afford to stay at a campground and can’t or don’t want to trek out to the woods, continue blacktop boondocking, but stay away from other people as much as possible. Many hangout spots like libraries, museums, and senior centers have been closed across the country, but you can still hang out in your rig in parks and parking lots. I’ve heard of a Panera that was open but had removed half of its seating so people weren’t forced to sit so close together Maybe you can find a coffee shop with a similar setup where you are. (For maximum stealth, spend your days in a parking lot different from the one you will sleep in at night.)

Another problem a nomad might face is hand washing. Hand washing is all over the news. UNICEF, in the article “Everything You Need to Know about Washing Your Hands to Protect against Coronavirus (COVID-19)” says,

In the context of COVID-19 prevention, you should make sure to wash your hands at the following times:

After blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing
After visiting a public space, including public transportation, markets and places of worship
After touching surfaces outside of the home including money
Before, during and after caring for a sick person
Before and after eating

That’s a lot of scrubbing up! What are you supposed to do if live in a rig without running water and a sink?

When I was a vandweller, I kept hand wash water in a Nalgeene bottle or a empty Dr. Bronners soap bottle. I found both of these bottles easier to use and less wasteful than pouring from a gallon jug. I often washed my hands outside, either in my camping spot or in parking lots, and just let the excess water hit the ground.

Worried because you don’t have hot water to use for washing? The aforementioned UNICEF article says,

you can use any temperature of water to wash your hands. Cold water and warm water are equally effective at killing germs and viruses – as long as you use soap!

If you don’t have soap, UNICEF says you can use hand sanitizer.

…alcohol-based hand sanitizer kills the coronavirus, but it does not kill all kinds of bacteria and viruses. For example, it is relatively ineffective against the norovirus and rotavirus.
Using…hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 per cent alcohol [is] the best second option if you do not have soap and running water

If you are going to be stationary for a while and don’t have hand washing facilities inside your rig, you can set up a hand wash station outside. Put your soap and water in a location where it’s easily accessible and wash up throughout the day. Clip a clean cloth or paper towels nearby. UNICEF says drying your hands is important too.

Germs spread more easily from wet skin than from dry skin, so drying your hands completely is an important step. Paper towels or clean cloths are the most effective way to remove germs without spreading them to other surfaces.

My final advice for you is about what to do with yourself while you are practicing social isolation. For nomads who are introverts, this won’t be such a problem, because we prefer to be away from crowds. However, the extroverts among us thrive off interacting with others and will have to figure out how to amuse themselves until the pandemic passes.

Several of the suggestions in my post “What Do I Do Now That I Have All This Time on My Hands?” are suitable for doing alone. If you have internet access, you can watch movies or television shows, often for free. Check out the following articles to help you get free entertainment: “The 9 Best Free Movie Apps to Watch Movies Online,” “How to Watch Movies Online for Free–Legally,”and “19 Best Free Movie Websites.” If you’re able to stream you can attend the Metropolitan Opera for free without leaving your rig. You can also take virtual tours of museums around the world via the internet. Finally, if you like to color and an access a printer, you can download free coloring books from 113 museums.

These are trying times, friends. I hope this information and my suggestions can help you stay healthy, keep others healthy, and maintain your sanity for the duration.

If you found this post helpful, I’d love your support! Hit the donate button in the right toolbar or go to Patreon to become my patron.

Blaize Sun is not a medical professional. She did her best to insure the information in this article was accurate at the time of publication. Things are changing fast right now, and it’s possible this information will be outdated by the time you read it. As always, please look at this blog post as a starting point for your own research. Also, please seek medical attention if you need it. Blaize Sun is not responsible for you. Only you are responsible for you.

Mar11

In Praise of LED Lights

Posted on March 11, 2020 by Blaize Sun

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As a van dweller, I used my Luci lights and loved them. The sun recharged them, so as long as I kept them in the sunshine for several hours during the day, I had light at night. I liked that I could inflate the Luci lights and hang them like lanterns or collapse them flat and prop them somewhere close for reading after dark. Each one cost under $20 and served me for a long time.

One of the perks of giving up van life to live in a travel trailer is having built-in overhead lights that come on at the flip of a switch.When we first moved into the trailer, before we hauled it out to our land, we plugged into shore power or used our generator for electricity to run our lights. Once we moved onto our land, The Man installed our solar power system, and the sun provided our light, even at night.

When we moved into the travel trailer, all of the light fixtures were outfitted with small incandescent bulbs. Incandescent bulbs are the kind that most of us of middle age and older grew up with. In the article “5 Different Types of Light Bulbs” written for the Omega Pacific Electrical Supply website, Eileen Garcia explains how these bulbs work.

In an incandescent bulb, a tungsten filament glows when the current passes through it, illuminating the bulb. The tungsten filament is surrounded by a vacuum or nitrogen gas… the sudden flow of current causes the filament to heat and burn out. Incandescent bulbs only work for 700–1000 hours and…cause energy waste.

If you’ve ever put your hand next to an burning incandescent bulb (or tried to take one that’s been turned on for a while out of its socket before it’s had a chance to cool down), you know that these things can be HOT! Even the very small incandescent bulbs in our travel trailer light fixtures became very hot when turned on. When I put my hand near one of our burning incandescent bulbs, I could feel the heat even through the light fixture’s plastic cover. It was obvious that it took a lot of energy to produce so much heat.

The Man mentioned getting LED bulbs to replace all of our incandescent bulbs, but I didn’t prioritize this improvement. I thought LED light were outrageously expensive. I thought LED lights for RVs had to come from RV suppliers or at shows aimed at RVers like the Big Tent in Quartzsite, AZ. Guess what? I was wrong!

As we lived through autumn and winter drew near, we found that the sun was no longer charging our three batteries to the level we had enjoyed in the summer. Some nights we had to turn off our lights before we were ready in order to prevent our batteries from discharging to a damagingly low level. The Man thought seriously about how to solve this problem.

The first thing he did was adjust the angle at which the solar panels were placed. According to the article “Optimum Tilt of Solar Panels” by Charles R. Landau,

It is simplest to mount your solar panels at a fixed tilt and just leave them there. But because the sun is higher in the summer and lower in the winter, you can capture more energy during the whole year by adjusting the tilt of the panels according to the season.

The Man did a heck of a lot of work to calculate the optimum tilt of our panels to maximize the amount of energy they could captured during the winter. The optimum angle for our panels was based on our location. Once The Man decided on the correct angle, we moved and tilted the wooden frame our panels are mounted to. (As of now, we have not mounted our solar panels on the roof of our travel trailer. I think that will be a project for the upcoming summer.) When we positioned the frame where he wanted it, The Man fastened supports to the frame to hold it in place. It is certainly nice to have a builder for a partner. An added bonus is his ability to calculate angles.

The second thing The Man did to increase our energy capacity was to move our solar batteries to a warmer spot. According to the Solar Power World article “How to Prepare Your Solar Battery Bank for Winter” by John Connell, vice president of Crown Battery Manufacturing’s SLI Products Group,

Most batteries are rated at 77°F, and their ideal operating temperature is between 50°F and 85°F. Batteries lose about 10% of their capacity for every 15°F to 20°F below 80°F. Their internal chemistries slow down, resistance increases and capacity and charge acceptance drop. This reduced capacity is temporary. However, it can present a problem because most renewable energy systems have the shortest days (i.e. lowest solar production) and highest loads during the winter, when capacity is lower.

When The Man set up our solar power system in the summer, he put the batteries in the storage compartment at the front of the trailer and ran the necessary wires into bedroom where he located the inverter and charge controller. With temperatures dropping and winter on its way, he realized the placement of the batteries was not so good because the storage compartment did not provide much insulation for the batteries. Our batteries were getting too cold (and would get colder as winter progressed); we were suffering the effects of reduced capacity. He moved the batteries to the enclosed storage area under our bed. He built a box for the batteries, sealed it, and vented the battery box into the adjacent storage compartment. When he set up that storage compartment to house the solar batteries, he had vented it to the outside so any dangerous gases that made their way from the battery box to the compartment would escape.

Once The Man adjusted the angle of our solar panels and moved the batteries into a warmer environment, our batteries began holding their charge longer. Success! However, The Man wasn’t finished with his solar power system home improvements just yet. He had one more trick up his sleeve.

The Man started talking about LED lights again. They would really help conserve our energy, he said. I asked him to figure out what lights we needed, where to buy them, and how much they would cost. I figured once we had that information, we could make an informed decision about whether any savings would be worth the cost.

He got on eBay first. He found a listing for 20 “cool white” 12 volt LED light bulbs. The price? $10.50, including shipping. Even a tightwad like me couldn’t argue with that price. We ordered the LED bulbs.

We were excited the day we picked up the bulbs at our mailbox. When we got home, The Man installed them in the two fixtures above our sofa. The lights weren’t very bright, but we decided they would do. They would help us save energy, so we were on board. However, when The Man tried to install the lights in the rest of the fixtures in the house, he ran into a big problem. Our new bulbs did not fit in the other fixtures. Yep, our one travel trailer had two different types of fixtures that took bulbs with two different types of connectors. Frustration! It was back to the drawing board for The Man.

(We discovered later that the first LED bulbs we bought also fit in the reading lights installed above our bed. We were very glad to exchange the very bright lights we had dubbed “interrogation lights” for the more subdued lights from eBay. In other good news, we were able to use a local Facebook group to sell the remaining 16 bulbs we couldn’t use for $8.)

The Man’s next stop was Amazon.com. There he found the appropriate LED bulbs for the rest of our light fixtures. This time we bought ten “super bright” 12 volt “soft white” LED bulbs for $15.49. (I’m not sure if that price includes shipping, if we paid a shipping fee, or if we were using a free trial of Amazon Prime when we placed that order.)

Again, we waited for our bulbs to arrive in our mailbox. Again, we were excited to install the bulbs in our light fixtures. This time: Success! The bulbs not only fit in the fixtures, but they were in fact, “super bright.” They were so bright that in fixtures where we before had two incandescent bulbs, we now only needed one of our new LED bulbs. (I can’t find any information on how many lumens the first bulbs were, but the bulbs in the second batch are 600 lumens each. If you need help calculating how many lumens you need to light up your life, check out the Language of Light article “How to Determine How Many LED Lumens You’ll Need to Properly Light Your Space” by David P Hakimi. Of course, this article is about lighting a conventional home, not a travel trailer since I couldn’t find any articles about how many lumens one might need in an RV.)

The rooms in our travel trailer are so much brighter at night since we put in the new bulbs. The Man can do his detailed artwork now even after the sun goes down. I like having the place well lit too. The quality of the light is better as well. I can best describe the new light as “crisp.” Only in retrospect did I realize that the incandescent lights in the travel trailer when we bought it were yellow and dull, even somewhat hazy. The new lighting seems to be better for my mental health.

The new LED lights also solved our original problem: they don’t use as much energy. I can tell this is true because when I put my hand next to them, I feel no heat. The Trailer Life article “Making the LED Swap” by Kristopher Bunker explains why this is the case.

“Typical halogen lights that are used in the RV industry are either 10 or 20 watts,” said Mike Camarota, president of ITC RV, a company that offers interior lighting products for the RV industry. “In contrast, the LED equivalent lights are 4 or 6 watts. This reduction on energy consumption of 70 percent means less draw on the power circuit of the RV…In dry-camping situations the battery will last longer.”

But the benefits of LED technology go beyond power consumption. Ever notice how hot the interior of your trailer gets when all the lights are on? “Lights produce heat,” said Camarota. “The process of converting energy into light involves two byproducts, heat and light. The difference between LED lights and non-LED lights is not that LED lights produce no heat but instead that they use less energy to produce light. In that conversion process, a greater percentage of energy goes into light emission than heat emission.”

Do I recommend you replace the incandescent lights in your RV with LED lights? Absolutely! If you have $10 to $15 to spare (or even $30, if your RV is larger than ours and you need double the number of bulbs), get yourself some LED bulbs. They will make your solar power last longer, keep your rig cooler during hot times of the year, and require replacement less frequently. Just be sure you check all of your fixtures so you will know if you need bulbs with different types of connectors and determine if you are getting the number of lumens you need to keep your living space as bright (or dim) as you desire. I think you’ll thank me for this advice once your new LED bulbs are in place.

Mar9

God’s Time

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Blaize Sun

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We started Daylight Saving Time yesterday. The event snuck up on me (as it often does) and I didn’t get this post scheduled to pop up before it was time to spring forward. I hope everyone remembered to update their clocks. In honor of this moving of the clocks, today I’ll tell you about my grandmother’s reaction to Daylight Saving Time becoming the law of the land.

The events I will relay today happened before I was a conscious being, but I’ve heard the story retold so many times, I feel confident I can share it as if I had been there.

My paternal grandmother was a hardheaded Cajun woman. Born in 1913, she birthed my father, her youngest child, at the ripe old age of 32. She married and buried four husbands and tried to be a good Catholic until the day she died. Did I mention she was hardheaded? Once she made up her mind, there was no swaying her.

Daylight Saving Time has existed in one form or another in the United States since the turn of the 20^th century. According to Wikipedia,

Daylight saving time was established by the Standard Time Act of 1918. The Act was intended to save electricity for seven months of the year, during World War I.^[3] DST was repealed in 1919 over a Presidential veto..

During World War II, Congress enacted the War Time Act (56 Stat. 9) on January 20, 1942. Year-round DST was reinstated in the United States on February 9, 1942, again as a wartime measure to conserve energy resources.^[5] This remained in effect until after the end of the war.

From 1945 to 1966 U.S. federal law did not address DST. States and cities were free to observe DST or not, and most places that did observe DST did so from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in September. In the mid-1950s many areas in the northeastern United States began extending DST to the last Sunday in October. The lack of standardization led to a patchwork where some areas observed DST while adjacent areas did not…

According to the article “Here’s When and Why Daylight Saving Time

Started in the US” by Kathleen Elkins,

Daylight saving time didn’t officially become a law until 1966, under the Uniform Time Act.

I can only imagine this impending springing ahead an hour must have caused much discussion across the nation. Certainly my family members were discussing it. My grandmother, for one, thought the idea was ridiculous. Nobody was really going to go along with this foolish idea. She maintained that most people would refuse to participate. She would not be participating, that was for sure.

Her kids tried to explain to her that there wasn’t a choice. Folks weren’t going to be able to choose between participating and sitting on the sidelines. People would grow accustomed to the twice yearling changing of the time. The hands on clocks would be moved, people would lose (or gain depending on the time of year) an hour (of sleep or watching TV or whatever they did with their leisure time), life would go on.

My grandmother was adamant. She was sure people would not go for such foolishness. She was sure people were not going to change their clocks and their lives, and certainly they would not give up an hour of sleep.

As the night of the change drew closer, my grandmother’s friends and family members shrugged and admitted they would move the hands on their clocks. What else could they do? Businesses were going to recognize the time change, and employees who wanted to get to work on time were going to have to recognize the change too. There just wasn’t any way around it.

My grandmother still maintained that she simply wouldn’t do it.

What about mass, Mom? one of her kids asked, pointing out that if MawMaw didn’t recognize the time change, she was going to be late for church on Sunday.

Oh no! My grandmother wasn’t hearing that. The Church was run on God’s time, she said. No way was the Church going to participate in this time changing business. The Church would not be messing with God’s time.

Family folklore holds that the first Sunday of the national observation of

Daylight Saving Time was also Easter Sunday. Of course, my grandmother went to bed on Holy Saturday without touching her clocks. She was confident she and the Catholic Church were on the same page when it came to God’s time. Surely mass would start at the same hour it always did.

MawMaw woke up on Easter Sunday joyous in the rising from the dead of her Lord Jesus Christ. She put on her best clothes, applied her makeup, and styled her hair. At just the right moment, she got into her car and drove herself the few blocks to the Catholic church she attended every week. She had plenty of time to get here, find a good seat, and still be early.

I wonder if she was confused when she arrived and found the parking lot already full. Easter is a holiday when lapsed Catholics come out of the woodwork, so maybe she chalked up the abundance of cars to the yearly brief return of the lost flock. In any case, she found a parking space on the outskirts of the lot.

She must have congratulated herself on being early as she walked across the lot toward the church. Even having to park so far away wasn’t going to make her late. She had plenty of time. I can imagine the small self-satisfied smile on her face. She knew she was early enough to find a good seat.

I’m sure she expected to walk into a quiet church. Perhaps the organist would be playing softly. Perhaps parishioners would be greeting each other in whispers. Perhaps she’d hear the soft rustling of people shuffling through the church, dipping into the holy water near the vestibule before making the sign of the cross, genuflecting, sliding into pews.

Surely she was surprised when she walked in and the church was not quiet at all. The priest must have been talking when she walked through the doors because she immediately knew she wasn’t early, but late. Mass was almost over, and in my family, walking into a church after the service had started was considered one of the most embarrassing things a Catholic could do. MawMaw must have been mortified.

I wonder how long my grandmother stood there before she realized even the Catholic Church had forsaken God’s time and sprung forward.

Images courtesy of https://www.pexels.com/photo/ancient-antique-art-business-277371/, https://www.pexels.com/photo/alarm-alarm-clock-analogue-clock-280257/, https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-clock-reading-at-2-12-1537268/, and https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-and-brown-tower-under-blue-sky-2450283/.

Mar6

Stolen Sprayer

Posted on March 6, 2020 by Blaize Sun

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When I worked at the supermarket fuel center briefly in the summer of 2019, one of my duties was cleaning fuel spills. When fuel ended up on the concrete during my shift (and this happened daily and sometimes more than once a day), I applied a special chemical to the fuel. The chemical somehow neutralized the fuel and alleviated the possibility of it catching fire. I’d soak up the whole mess with big pads make from a superabsorbent material.

This is the type of sprayer we used to dispense the neutralizing chemical.

The neutralizing chemical was liquid and came in large jugs. My fellow clerks and I had to pour the liquid from the jugs into a two-gallon sprayer, the type of device landscapers use to apply herbicides to weeds.

The sprayer was already falling apart when I started the job. One day during my first week at work, I needed to spray some of the neutralizer onto spilled gasoline. I couldn’t get the chemical to shoot out of the sprayer’s nozzle. I paged a manager to ask for help. The person who returned my page (but did not identify himself) told me to just turn the container over and pour some onto the spilled fuel. I was pretty sure that was not the way things were supposed to be done. If we were meant to pour the chemical, we would just pour it from one of the large jugs and not put it in the apparatus designed for spraying. But what did I know? I was the new kid, so I did what the manager told me to do.

A few days later the store manager came out to the fuel center kiosk to do the daily walk through (which did not happen daily, trust me). I told him the sprayer did not spray properly. He started looking at all of the components and found the tube that was supposed to connect to the hose was detached. He reconnected the tube to the hose. Success! Now the neutralizing chemical could be sprayed properly.

Sometimes the blue, slightly oily liquid pooled at the top of the sprayer near the handle that did double duty as the pump that worked to pressurize the contents of the container. I’d use the absorbent pads to soak up the liquid, but was never really sure how it had gotten there.

One afternoon right before my coworker showed up to relieve me, I discovered diesel was flowing slowly but steadily from pump 2. Even after I turned off power to the entire pumping station, diesel continued to flow from the nozzle. I grabbed the last of the absorbent pads from the supply area in the back of the kiosk, wrapped a couple around the malfunctioning nozzle and used the rest to soak up the spilled fuel. When I went into the supermarket to pull merchandise to restock the fuel center, I looked for more absorbent pads, but there were none. One of the managers told me to use cat litter to absorb the diesel on the concrete in front of pump 2. I gave my coworker the cat litter instructions and left the cleanup to him.

When I returned to work the next day, there was diesel all over the lane in front of and leading to pump 2. My coworkers had not used the cat litter to absorb the still flowing fuel. After nearly 24 hours, what had pooled in front of pump 2 eventually flowed over to the next pump. It was a real mess.

When I asked what was going on at pump 2, my coworker seemed completely unconcerned. There were no absorbent pads, he shrugged. He seemed to think there was absolutely nothing he could do to improve the situation if there were no absorbent pads.

He went into the supermarket to get merchandise to restock, and I got busy cleaning the mess he’d successfully ignored all morning. I spent the better part of the next five hours cleaning the spilled fuel.

The first thing I did was drag out the sprayer with the neutralizing liquid. I wanted to spray down all the diesel on the concrete so at least the fuel center wouldn’t go up in flames if someone created a spark. I had just sprayed everything down and used the short-handled scrub broom to make sure the fuel and the neutralizer were mixed thoroughly when I looked up and saw a customer standing in front of the kiosk waiting for me to assist him with his cash purchase. Dang! I hated abandoning my cleaning project, but the customer came first and all that jazz. I carried the scrub broom with me into the kiosk, but left the sprayer behind. I’d use it again momentarily; no need to carry it in and back out again.

By the time I helped the fellow waiting at the kiosk, two people had taken his place. By the time I helped them, three or four other folks had gotten in line. I was stuck behind the cash register for five or ten minutes. When I finally cleared out the line, I headed back outside to finish the cleanup. I looked around. Something was missing. Where was the sprayer? Had I brought it into the kiosk?

I went back inside the kiosk. No sprayer. Some low-down dirty thief had stolen the sprayer. How was I ever going to be able to clean the mess if I couldn’t spray the neutralizing chemical?

I paged a manager so I could alert someone in charge to the latest turn of events. When I told the manager who answered my page that the sprayer had been stolen, he laughed bitterly, as if he wasn’t even surprised.

After getting off the phone with management, I grabbed one of the jugs of the neutralizing liquid from the storage rack in the back of the kiosk and took it outside. I sloshed some of the liquid from the jug onto the diesel slick concrete. The application wasn’t as neat as it would have been from the sprayer, but the effect was the same. Once I had the fuel and the neutralizing liquid thoroughly mixed, I laid down a thin layer of cat litter. I figured I’d let the litter sit for a while and absorb the chemical stew before I swept up the whole mess.

I went back into the kiosk and enjoyed the air conditioned coolness. I’d have to go back out there eventually, but for now I’d relax a bit, if you call talking to customers, taking money, making change, and authorizing gas pumps relaxing.

I don’t know how much time passed before I had a moment to look up and gaze out of the window and across the fuel center. There…by the air pressure machine…was the sprayer. What? The thief had returned our sprayer!!!

I had to laugh to myself as I hustled over to scoop up the sprayer. The thing was such a piece of junk that the thief had decided it wasn’t worth stealing. I just imagined the chemical in it bubbling up to the top of the container, then sloshing around all over the thief’s vehicle. I bet that was a surprise. What really astonished me was that the thief returned the sprayer instead of just chucking it into a dumpster. The thief had probably not even made it out of the parking lot before realizing the sprayer wasn’t worth keeping.

I took the photo in this post.

Mar2

Contrary

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Blaize Sun

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Perhaps the most frustrating customers I encountered during my two months working at the supermarket fuel center were the ones who needed help but got pissy when I tried to remedy their situations.

The intercom that was supposed to allow me to communicate with the world on the other side of the bulletproof glass was a piece of crap. The sound cut in and out; sometimes there was no sound at all. The fuel center definitely needed new communication equipment.

One morning I pushed the button on the intercom and began speaking to a man on the other side of the window.

I can’t hear you, he smirked.

I put my mouth right next to the part of the intercom box that picked up sound. I kept my voice low, but since it was right next to the amplifier, it must have been loud outside.

What pump are you on? I asked the fellow.

You don’t have to yell, he chastised me.

I guess there was just no pleasing him.

Customers often had trouble getting the pay-at-the-pump feature to work. Strange, because 98% of the time when I went outside to help, I could get the pump to accept the troublesome debit and credit cards. Maybe I had the magic touch, or maybe I have the attention span, patience, and mental capacity to follow the step-by-step directions given on the pump’s computer screen. Customers often acted as if our pumps were the cause of their hardships, but if the pumps were at fault, I don’t think my success rate would have been so outstanding.

People are funny. I thought folks would be happy when I got the pump to accept their credit/debit cards so they could get their fuel. However, over the course of two months, more than one person (more than twenty people) seemed to get angrier when I got the pump going. Of course, these people couldn’t very well complain when they were able to pump their fuel, but I could tell when people got angrier after I’d gotten the pump to accept their card. I think those people wanted to be upset and they’d decided (subconsciously, probably) to be upset whether they got what they wanted or not.

Of course, some people were so invested in their anger, they didn’t even want me to try to help.

I do this all the time, customers said to dismiss me on more than one occasion after I’d gone outside and was trying to talk them through the steps necessary to get the pump to give up fuel. I knew the customers were having trouble because they’d come up to the kiosk and told me so, but when I went outside to help, I obviously wasn’t wanted.

I do this all the time, I was told, and I wanted to say, So what usually happens? Do you always fuck it up and have to ask for help, or can you usually muddle through?

Of course I kept those thoughts to myself. I also refrained from demanding to know why someone came up to the kiosk and reported a problem if they didn’t want my help. Do you just want to complain, or do you actually want to put gas in your car? I often wondered.

Sometimes when I was outside trying to help, the customer decided they’d had enough of my chipper personality. (Really, I was chipper when I went outside to offer assistance. I dare say I was friendly too, and pleasant.)

I’ve got it now, customers sometimes said pointedly, trying to get rid of me.

Uh, no, I’d say in my head while politely refusing to leave. I wasn’t going to walk back to the kiosk, unlock the door, and go inside only to have the same person up at the window again, complaining through the intercom that something was wrong with the pump. We were in this together now, and we’d see it through to the end, side-by-side, until the nozzle was in the gas tank and fuel flowed freely.

Rubber Tramp Artist

One woman's stories, rants, and observations

Monthly Archives: March 2020

15 Tips for Staying Comfortable in the Heat

She Didn’t Want to See Me

In Praise of LED Lights

God’s Time

Stolen Sprayer

Contrary