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My daughter and her sweetie, who live near Georgetown, CA, had to evacuate due to the Mosquito Fire. Thing just blew up, literally overnight. It's very scary how fast it ballooned to 30,000 acres. Last they knew, the fire was only two miles from their place. Expecting ashes when they can get back. That whole area is cutover timberland, and a lot of it is full of overcrowded second- and even third-growth, very brushy. They are sheltering with friends.
Here on the extreme SW Washington coast, we are having smoke. Not sure where it's coming from.
Here on the extreme SW Washington coast, we are having smoke. Not sure where it's coming from.
Finally got my car fixed. The next day when trying to back my trailer out it was a struggle as all that rain had sunk one of the trailer tires down into the soil. But I eventually managed to extracate it. Good thing I have AWD. A girlfriend who had come to meet me at that last camp has moved over to my new campsite with me. New campsite being a relative term as I camped at this same spot twice last summer, it is near the Grand Canyon.
This being Sunday and it being near a super popular tourist destination I know to arrive and look for a campsite around 9 or 10 in the morning when people have had breakfast and have left to go sightseeing in the national park. Now that it is dark there is a string of people showing up looking for a place to camp. But I have made sure my car is blocking one side of the entry drive and my friend's car is blocking the other side.
The entry road to this immediate campsite splits as loop around a tree. I positioned a chair next to her vehicle taking up the extra width on the entry road. Last summer people crowded in after dark despite the site being fully occupied. Tonight so far 4 cars have tried to pull in despite being able to see 2 vehicles a tent and a trailer in it. That extra chair in the entry road seems to be working.
I think I need one of those plastic, flat folding signs real estate agents put out for open houses. Then put a reflective Stop sign on that surface with Occupied on it. You would think my travel trailer would be enough but it looks cute, friendly, welcoming even and people just come right on in.
This being Sunday and it being near a super popular tourist destination I know to arrive and look for a campsite around 9 or 10 in the morning when people have had breakfast and have left to go sightseeing in the national park. Now that it is dark there is a string of people showing up looking for a place to camp. But I have made sure my car is blocking one side of the entry drive and my friend's car is blocking the other side.
The entry road to this immediate campsite splits as loop around a tree. I positioned a chair next to her vehicle taking up the extra width on the entry road. Last summer people crowded in after dark despite the site being fully occupied. Tonight so far 4 cars have tried to pull in despite being able to see 2 vehicles a tent and a trailer in it. That extra chair in the entry road seems to be working.
I think I need one of those plastic, flat folding signs real estate agents put out for open houses. Then put a reflective Stop sign on that surface with Occupied on it. You would think my travel trailer would be enough but it looks cute, friendly, welcoming even and people just come right on in.
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Went into Grand Canyon Park today to do laundry, ship out a couple of orders at the Post office and also show my friend the location of the medical clinic, grocery store and also the Maswick cafeteria where she could hang out for a few hours using internet and charge up her Jackery. We are going to be here on the nearby NFS Dispersed camping for a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately the National Park laundry and showers are closed due to a break in a water line. But I called the RV park in Tusayan, the town just outside the park, and their laundry machines are open to the general public so I will be able to do a load tomorrow.
Today we stopped at the food court in the town of Tusayan and had a personal sized pizza for lunch while she recharged the Jackery and went online to download a video or two. Fast wifi connection th connection. The campsite has 4 bars of cell reception, 4G extended Verizon but she wanted to plug her laptop into 110v at the food court. Her portable, folding solar panel is not working correctly which is why she is having to recharge her devices via 110v. The panel is fortunately still under extended warranty from Amazon so that is being investigated by them as to getting a replacement. I could likely charge her Jackery via my own solar but it has been cloudy yesterday and today and I have my own work to do and I just have a single 150 watt panel.
The weekend park visitor crowds are gone now so things are quiet out here on the forest road this evening. Plenty of empty campsites now. There is a lot of sage brush out here. If I was into making some personal use sage smudge bundles this would be an excellent place for it. But I am not into that or even burning incense or scented candles. Aromatherapy just is not my thing other than great cooking smells such as Bar-b-Q, fresh bread, cookies, etc.
Unfortunately the National Park laundry and showers are closed due to a break in a water line. But I called the RV park in Tusayan, the town just outside the park, and their laundry machines are open to the general public so I will be able to do a load tomorrow.
Today we stopped at the food court in the town of Tusayan and had a personal sized pizza for lunch while she recharged the Jackery and went online to download a video or two. Fast wifi connection th connection. The campsite has 4 bars of cell reception, 4G extended Verizon but she wanted to plug her laptop into 110v at the food court. Her portable, folding solar panel is not working correctly which is why she is having to recharge her devices via 110v. The panel is fortunately still under extended warranty from Amazon so that is being investigated by them as to getting a replacement. I could likely charge her Jackery via my own solar but it has been cloudy yesterday and today and I have my own work to do and I just have a single 150 watt panel.
The weekend park visitor crowds are gone now so things are quiet out here on the forest road this evening. Plenty of empty campsites now. There is a lot of sage brush out here. If I was into making some personal use sage smudge bundles this would be an excellent place for it. But I am not into that or even burning incense or scented candles. Aromatherapy just is not my thing other than great cooking smells such as Bar-b-Q, fresh bread, cookies, etc.
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Morgana
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So I got a call from a collection agency, bwaaa ... the caller vaguely mentioned an "incident" from 2021 and claimed I owed an insurance company money. So I said "thanks I'll try to contact the creditor myself" and hung up. (In retrospect, not a good idea -- there's all sorts of questions you have a right to ask, and I should have asked them, rather than politely and calmly panicking.)
I checked my journal (I try to write down briefly what happens each day, just in case something like this comes up, and once in a blue moon it comes in handy), and couldn't find anything I might have done on that date, not even p1$$1ng off the cat lady upstairs. I tried calling the insurance company, but haha good luck with a non-routine question there.
So got to thinking maybe it's not a good idea to just ignore this. I recontacted the collection agency, which I assumed would be a horrible experience. But the guy was super nice ... and we quickly figured out that the debtor must be someone else, because the "incident" (a car accident) happened halfway across the country and the debtor was almost 30 years younger than me. So he said he'd take my name off the file. I said "is there a case number for this?" and he said no but gave me his full name and volunteered the correct spelling.
So, not EVERYONE is an ass hat.
There should be a National People Who Do Their Bleeping Jobs Right and Aren't Ass Hats Day, really.
And hey, there's a work-from-home job ... if you've got the wiring for it (I certainly don't).
I checked my journal (I try to write down briefly what happens each day, just in case something like this comes up, and once in a blue moon it comes in handy), and couldn't find anything I might have done on that date, not even p1$$1ng off the cat lady upstairs. I tried calling the insurance company, but haha good luck with a non-routine question there.
So got to thinking maybe it's not a good idea to just ignore this. I recontacted the collection agency, which I assumed would be a horrible experience. But the guy was super nice ... and we quickly figured out that the debtor must be someone else, because the "incident" (a car accident) happened halfway across the country and the debtor was almost 30 years younger than me. So he said he'd take my name off the file. I said "is there a case number for this?" and he said no but gave me his full name and volunteered the correct spelling.
So, not EVERYONE is an ass hat.
There should be a National People Who Do Their Bleeping Jobs Right and Aren't Ass Hats Day, really.
And hey, there's a work-from-home job ... if you've got the wiring for it (I certainly don't).
I had a similar experience. While I was in Quartzsite last year I spent a couple nights in the hospital in Parker... I don’t recommend. Anyways, long after I paid my bill they send me a collection notice. It irritated me and kinda worried me. But the person was kind and said they’d look into it and quickly called back and verified it was paid. They were always respectful which helped me remain calm.
Side note... that two nites cost me more then about any other hospital stay and I’ve had some grueling surgeries. And they did nothing... which is good, cause what they did attempt to do we’ll just say made things worse. I believe that stay was to monitor me to make sure I wasn’t messed up to bad after what they did. Well, it did require more doctoring later.
Conclusion: Parker Hospital gets zero stars! Haha. Not often the collection agency rates higher then the hospital.
Side note... that two nites cost me more then about any other hospital stay and I’ve had some grueling surgeries. And they did nothing... which is good, cause what they did attempt to do we’ll just say made things worse. I believe that stay was to monitor me to make sure I wasn’t messed up to bad after what they did. Well, it did require more doctoring later.
Conclusion: Parker Hospital gets zero stars! Haha. Not often the collection agency rates higher then the hospital.
I drove into the south entrance Grand Canyon National Park around noon today. About a half mile in by the road there was a 5 point bull elk and his harem of 3 cows and a few calves. They are the lucky ones as there is no hunting inside the park. It is Bow Hunting season on the NFS land outside the park.
Hoping TA is ok... Been a bit since there was a TA post.
I have certainly been lazy this week. Doing laundry at an RV park the other day was my most strenuous activity. The laundry and showers inside the Grand Canyon park are shut down due to breaks in the water lines. Fortunately the RV park is willing to let the public come in for showers as well as laundry without staying there. The “General Store” just in front of the laundry has at the back of the store a filtered water machine where for free you can fill drinking bottles and up to as large as 1 gallon jugs. As there is also a post office inside and mail box in front of that General store and a dumpster so I am all set up nicely for my basic necessities an easy drive from my campsite.
Plus no sign of mice or rats at this camp. The ground is too rocky with lots of small and larger stones to allow for easy burrow digging.
Plus no sign of mice or rats at this camp. The ground is too rocky with lots of small and larger stones to allow for easy burrow digging.
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Nice weather today, humidity was down so I could finally get busy and cut some cardstock kits for the upcoming holiday season sales. Dry paper equals clean cuts!
Enjoying listening to audio books while I work. Of course my door and windows are open and I take breaks outside to stretch out my muscles. So not even close to grind of a work day.
Rain predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday but then (hopefully) back to sunshine. My friend I am camping with wants to walk along the Grand Canyon Rim. She really can’t walk very far without a rest so I have an easy walking tour that allows good views with some rest breaks and time visiting some of the historic buildings and exhibits of old photos plus seeing beautiful old oil paintings of the canyon planned for her on Thursday.
Enjoying listening to audio books while I work. Of course my door and windows are open and I take breaks outside to stretch out my muscles. So not even close to grind of a work day.
Rain predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday but then (hopefully) back to sunshine. My friend I am camping with wants to walk along the Grand Canyon Rim. She really can’t walk very far without a rest so I have an easy walking tour that allows good views with some rest breaks and time visiting some of the historic buildings and exhibits of old photos plus seeing beautiful old oil paintings of the canyon planned for her on Thursday.
travelaround
Well-known member
Hi everyone - sorry to be gone so long - not meaning to worry anyone. I'm still here in Happy Camp living in the travel trailer and am just trying to cope with forest fire PTSD from what happened in 2020... it really takes a lot out of me especially when others nearby are now suffering the same type of disasters. It has been a terrible fire season for my county (Siskiyou) with the McKinney fire killing 4 people and the Mill fire killing 2 more... plus all the homes lost between those two fires, over 250.
We also had another evacuation warning here - and we passed the two-year anniversary of our fire (Sept. 8). You would think that would be enough time to get over it but after this past 2 months I've realized I might never get over it. I'd really like to move elsewhere, but I think there's nowhere to go. No place is really safe. I think what I've been wanting is security.... just to feel safe somewhere again.
In our fire in 2020 we lost over 200 homes. I think it was 212. So far less than ten people have replaced their homes. A couple people bought a home either here or elsewhere. There are 4 new mobile homes in my neighborhood. I took a drive up the creek and saw only one home under construction. I put in an application for a grant for building materials and a home to be built - that was back at the beginning of January. So far as I know, the agency that was to be in charge of that grant has not even looked at the applications. I was told it would happen this month but haven't heard anything from them.
We also had another evacuation warning here - and we passed the two-year anniversary of our fire (Sept. 8). You would think that would be enough time to get over it but after this past 2 months I've realized I might never get over it. I'd really like to move elsewhere, but I think there's nowhere to go. No place is really safe. I think what I've been wanting is security.... just to feel safe somewhere again.
In our fire in 2020 we lost over 200 homes. I think it was 212. So far less than ten people have replaced their homes. A couple people bought a home either here or elsewhere. There are 4 new mobile homes in my neighborhood. I took a drive up the creek and saw only one home under construction. I put in an application for a grant for building materials and a home to be built - that was back at the beginning of January. So far as I know, the agency that was to be in charge of that grant has not even looked at the applications. I was told it would happen this month but haven't heard anything from them.
TA..,Good to hear from you. It might be best to just get away from there for a while so you can get a vacation from the stress of PTSD. But I realize you are feeling tied down waiting to hear about the grant and also have that trailer from the tribe to look after.
So just come for a vacation after Christmas. Bring your van and materials for some projects. No doubt your friends from this forum including myself can pitch in and accomplish some build task during that mini vacation. Progress on moving a long held dream towards reality is excellent mental health therapy.
You are much in need of something different than everyday stress to look forward to. There is a community Church service every Sunday at the La Posa South BLM under a pavilion. You could even go to the RTR events in January.
So just come for a vacation after Christmas. Bring your van and materials for some projects. No doubt your friends from this forum including myself can pitch in and accomplish some build task during that mini vacation. Progress on moving a long held dream towards reality is excellent mental health therapy.
You are much in need of something different than everyday stress to look forward to. There is a community Church service every Sunday at the La Posa South BLM under a pavilion. You could even go to the RTR events in January.
travelaround
Well-known member
Thanks for the invitation, Maki... but gas costs too much these days. I spent a lot on gas on my trip to San Diego last year. Ever since the price of gas went up earlier this year I've been conserving on that. I decided to make one tank of gas last the entire summer. I still have some... summer ends tomorrow. If I take a vacation it will be to some place nearby. Applegate Lake looks good. It is just over the border in Oregon. Of course, there's no help for the build there. I have 2 nice solar panels now - in Yreka... and I haven't been to Yreka in 10 months. Not sure when I'll go again.
Morgana
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Well I learned a new vocabulary word today. A company I freelance for is revamping how they sort people who work for them into into freelance vs. staff status (important because you can get in trouble under tax and labor law if you don't do that right).
They referred to it as "bucketing." As in, "everybody has been bucketed now."
You'd think they'd realize what that rhymed with.
As a freelancer, I guess that puts me in the "bucket of expendables"
I'll be fine in a minute.
They referred to it as "bucketing." As in, "everybody has been bucketed now."
You'd think they'd realize what that rhymed with.
As a freelancer, I guess that puts me in the "bucket of expendables"
I'll be fine in a minute.I was curious about it to. Turns out it was in use in one of the programming languages for building tables and such. It drifted into more frequent usage within a genre of activity but still not widespread use in the general population. So it relates to creating data tables of information. Which is what you were getting sorted into.
The temperature here at the Grand Canyon South rim area is dipping to a bit under 40 for a low, which happens just before sunrise. I gou out my down sleeping bag, i slept great last night!
today I got around to removing my diesel ceramic stove top/heater out of the counter so I could acess the rear underside of the unit. Then I tracked down the loose wire that was causing intermittent issues after going over rough roads. It just needed to have one little end pin on a wire pushed further back into a wire connector fitting. It fires up fine now. But there is still some zip tie tidying up to do tomorrow. I am very much looking forward to pushing a button when I wake up early, crawling back under the covers for a bit then getting up to a cozy trailer with preheated cooktop for making coffee and breakfast.
My friend I was camped with has gone off with another woman who showed up to camp with her. No way was there going to be enough room for that person to get a great big travel trailer in this site.
I am really looking forward to a couple of weeks of solo camping time before spending a few days as a volunteer at the BYOV. I certainly will not be feeling bored during those couple of weeks of solo time, I will be savoring them!
today I got around to removing my diesel ceramic stove top/heater out of the counter so I could acess the rear underside of the unit. Then I tracked down the loose wire that was causing intermittent issues after going over rough roads. It just needed to have one little end pin on a wire pushed further back into a wire connector fitting. It fires up fine now. But there is still some zip tie tidying up to do tomorrow. I am very much looking forward to pushing a button when I wake up early, crawling back under the covers for a bit then getting up to a cozy trailer with preheated cooktop for making coffee and breakfast.
My friend I was camped with has gone off with another woman who showed up to camp with her. No way was there going to be enough room for that person to get a great big travel trailer in this site.
I am really looking forward to a couple of weeks of solo camping time before spending a few days as a volunteer at the BYOV. I certainly will not be feeling bored during those couple of weeks of solo time, I will be savoring them!
travelaround
Well-known member
A love of solitude is a great strength to have. I also love my alone time. I get much more done, have peace of mind, and it just feels freeing. Then occasional social contacts are precious and memorable instead of stressful.
The Klamath River Valley has turned cold, but will get colder still before long. Right now our days vary between cold and hot with not too much of either.
I'm going to make another attempt at van rearrangement... this time with the intent to create an art studio space for myself and my granddaughter this winter. I'm now her art teacher and if I can get this done, I could include my grandson, though he doesn't know it yet. I do know for certain I don't want the art classes in my trailer... so the van looks like the perfect place.
The Klamath River Valley has turned cold, but will get colder still before long. Right now our days vary between cold and hot with not too much of either.
I'm going to make another attempt at van rearrangement... this time with the intent to create an art studio space for myself and my granddaughter this winter. I'm now her art teacher and if I can get this done, I could include my grandson, though he doesn't know it yet. I do know for certain I don't want the art classes in my trailer... so the van looks like the perfect place.
