Transition

I am living through a state of transition.  Change is always hard, but I guess having enough time to help acclimate to the upcoming changes helps.  I find that as I’m working through a variety of processes and procedures in the physical world, I’m also working through a series of process and procedures on an emotional level as well.  At some point soon, both will hopefully coalesce into a stable and beneficial outcome.

The camper has been unloaded in the driveway, and the Great White Knight sits next to it.  I’m almost overlapping into my neighbor’s area, but she doesn’t seem to mind.  She drives a single, small SUV-crossover thing, and parks in the middle of her garage, so she still has plenty of room.

I dropped off the trailer in its temporary storage facility, barely squeezing it in between two other trailers.  Not having the camper on the back of the truck makes backing up a huge trailer a whole lot easier.  I’m not sure I would have been able to put the trailer in this tight of a spot with the camper still on the truck.

After dropping off the trailer, and not having the camper attached, driving is a whole different experience without all the extra load!  I had enough free mental energy to take this shot of Minneapolis on my way.

I’ve been working through various little projects in the house, fixing things that never really bothered me enough to get them fixed, but which need to be done before a new renter is going to take over.  Above, I have a couple photos that show the broken knob on the washing machine, and its replacement.  A simple $10 knob saved me from buying a new washer/dryer set.  I’m quite pleased about that one.

Another project that actually turned out even easier than I thought it was going to be was replacing the kitchen faucet.  When I moved in nearly 8 years ago, the faucet was difficult to turn from one sink to the other.  Since it didn’t really bother me, I left it.  And when the faucet started dripping, I replaced the valve component in the center of the faucet, and that fixed the leaking, but it made the handle less usable since the new valve wasn’t a precise fit.  Once again, didn’t really bother me, so I left it.  Well, now that I’ve got new renters coming, (presumably), I replaced it.  It’s so clean and shiny I’m trying to not even use it.

Yet another project was to remove the 1.5″ lift in the front suspension that the previous owner of the Great White Knight had installed.  The lift made the truck ride nice and level when there was no load in it, but that’s not why I bought the truck.  I bought the truck to tow and haul.  And when it’s doing those things, that extra lift makes the front stick up more than it should, and the whole rig isn’t nearly as close to level as it should be.

This restoration was a bit more challenging than the two listed above it.  I was hoping to not need to purchase or use a set of spring compressors, but they ended up being necessary.  Fortunately, while I was at Breckenridge and Paul was helping, I had enough time to overnight a set of spring compressors, and we got the job done.  I’m very pleased that the truck is now riding more like how the factory set it up.  I can’t wait to load it up with the camper and trailer and see how much closer to level the whole setup is.

I’ve also been starting to pack up everything in the house.  The idea is that I’ll clean out, pack up, and otherwise organize everything possible so that I can load it into the trailer (with Paul’s help), in a minimal number of days.  I’d take my time with it if I could, but the City of Shoreview will only allow on-street parking for up to 7 days at a time, and the entire process of fixing/replacing appliances, getting packed and loaded, and cleaning out the townhouse is going to take more than 7 days.

While packing, I’ve run across a number of “long-term” storage boxes.  These contain items from my teenage and early-twenties years.  Some of them are fond memories, but many remind me of the pain of those years.  I could simply throw out the items that remind me of the less-than-desirable experiences, but somehow it feels wrong to do that.  To ignore the memory of what was feels dishonorable.  There’s a part of me that feels that I need to hang on to these things, they are a part of my personal heritage.  Being reminded of so many of those painful experiences though, during this time of change, was too much for me on one day, and I basically stopped all progress and did what I could to mentally take care of myself.  I’ve decided that a little pro-active emotional management is necessary in this case, and I’m going to simply bring the boxes with and not examine their contents at this time.  It’s about a half dozen boxes of small to medium size, so the size and weight is not of significance, and I don’t have to re-arrange, re-categorize, or otherwise optimize the contents at this point, so I’m not going to.

I just got back from a trip to Breckenridge, which was a welcome break from my regular routine these days.  I will of course be going back to that routine shortly, but as my path and timeline become clearer, so does my mental state.  I can see more clearly what needs to be done, the order it is to be done, and can see an endpoint within view.  This helps to alleviate feelings of anxiety regarding leaving my home of the last 8 years, and the unknowns of living in a new situation.  As the checklist starts to dwindle, I’m slowly going from a state of uneasiness to more of state of acceptance and even some anticipation of the upcoming changes that are approaching.

Without doubt there will be times that I will miss my townhouse.  It was the first house I ever bought, and it fit me really well for a good number of years.  It has, however, been tainted by my ex and the heart she broke in it.  There isn’t a place I can’t look where I am not somehow reminded of her in one way or another, and that’s not a good place to be.  I need to move on.  Time may heal all wounds, but I’m quite certain that if I stayed here, it would take a lot more time than it should.

Update on the plan: for the next couple days, I’ll continue my working in the morning hours, then packing/cleaning/throwing in the afternoon hours.  Some point, probably about mid-week or so, I’m going to transition to living in the truck camper.  This will allow me to pack or disassemble everything in the house, without regards to “I’m still using it, so I can’t pack it yet” since I’ll be living in the camper.  I can of course still use any facilities in the house I need or want, but it’ll be really helpful for packing the kitchen equipment and disassembling the entertainment center.

I ordered a new stove (or range), a simple electric unit with glass top and stainless-steel looking front to replace the existing unit.  The current oven works most of the time, but sometimes throws errors.  The glass top is not exactly in the greatest condition either.  The new unit is scheduled to be delivered on Thursday.

Paul has volunteered to help with the manual labor of getting everything loaded into the trailer, so that’ll happen sometime on the week of April 24th.  I’d like to be on the road by the end of the month.

I’ve been working with a contractor to replace the deck.  He’s drawn up plans, and I’ve submitted them to the association, but give that it was a holiday weekend, I haven’t received a response yet.  Once the association approves, then it’s on to submitting it to the city, and that takes a couple weeks.  The contractor is also booked out about three weeks, so by the time they get started, I won’t even be around.  The current deck is almost at the point of being a safety hazard, so it really does need to get replaced.

I will need to purchase a smoke detector and a couple carbon monoxide detectors, and likely get the carpet cleaned, but the list is certainly getting down to a more manageable level.

Minnesota being what it is, it had to get one last quick snowfall in on me while I had the camper here.  I thought it was just amusing to see snow on the solar panels.  I bet that’ll never happen in Texas.