You know when you're a kid, and you're waiting for Christmas, and the days just can't seem to pass quickly enough to get you there? You try to sleep at night and get the whole visions of sugarplums thing going on (or in my case, Ataris and cartridges) and just can't get any rest. The tree in the corner mocks you as you pass by, holding its gleaming boxes, filled with unknown magic, that you can't touch until That Time comes...
Okay, keep thinking about that excitement. Then mix it in with the sheer unmitigated panic of knowing that not only haven't you set up the tree or bought any presents, but you also have the entire family coming over for a dinner that hasn't yet been purchased, much less cooked. Oh, yeah, and it's December 23rd.
That's where my head is right now.
A quick rundown on the state of the camp: we are rapidly running out of time. I've spent the last several months pouring in the coal to build up the steam on this temporal freight train, and now I can't seem to find the brake lever. Bernie has made great headway on bringing stuff up from Big D, including some super-nifty tiki chairs and other accoutrements. I have been trying to take care of much more prosaic duties, the primary one being the repair/optimization of the RV.
The RV is not going well.
Oh, don't get me wrong, it's clean and the packing has begun. I started laying in supplies some time ago for the trek ahead, so that part's going pretty well. And, since we're on an especially tight budget this year, I've enlisted some good free labor to help with the RV, namely an ace mechanic buddy of mine from Muskogee, who happens to have come up today to do just that.
What's the problem, then? The quick answer is the same as always: money and time. I've been waiting on the deposit check from our old place for several days now, and thought I would have it
by now. I don't, and likely won't until next week sometime. By the time I do have this check, of course, the M-Town mechanic will not be able to help me. It has to be today. So, I wangled some favors and have borrowed just barely enough to get the parts we need.
Well, this sounds promising so far... we began work, got the genset started, fixed the vacuum leak in the RV... and then the AC stopped working. Worse yet, it appears the battery disconnect may be fried. I'm hoping we just overheated it by running too much amperage at one time, and maybe it'll cool off by tomorrow. We shall see.
These are kind of small setbacks, and I think we can work with it. We Burners are a crafty bunch. So, really, I wasn't just totally despondent at that point.
Then I made the mistake of dragging out the whiteboard.
I don't have time at the moment to post a picture of this thing, but all the notes we have make it look less like a camping trip and more like a military operation. I've got sections for electronics, communications gear, combustible safety, first aid, vehicle mechanics... and this isn;t even counting the stuff for the bar itself. Altogether, there are well over 200 different items on this list. Some are "action items" (simple to-do's), some are things to purchase, and some are things already purchased that just need to be packed up.
I'm going to attempt to sleep, and see if I can keep from having nightmares about a huge white dragon with multicolored markings that wants to worry me to death.
One final thought to leave you with... we leave in 10 days.
Okay, keep thinking about that excitement. Then mix it in with the sheer unmitigated panic of knowing that not only haven't you set up the tree or bought any presents, but you also have the entire family coming over for a dinner that hasn't yet been purchased, much less cooked. Oh, yeah, and it's December 23rd.
That's where my head is right now.
A quick rundown on the state of the camp: we are rapidly running out of time. I've spent the last several months pouring in the coal to build up the steam on this temporal freight train, and now I can't seem to find the brake lever. Bernie has made great headway on bringing stuff up from Big D, including some super-nifty tiki chairs and other accoutrements. I have been trying to take care of much more prosaic duties, the primary one being the repair/optimization of the RV.
The RV is not going well.
Oh, don't get me wrong, it's clean and the packing has begun. I started laying in supplies some time ago for the trek ahead, so that part's going pretty well. And, since we're on an especially tight budget this year, I've enlisted some good free labor to help with the RV, namely an ace mechanic buddy of mine from Muskogee, who happens to have come up today to do just that.
What's the problem, then? The quick answer is the same as always: money and time. I've been waiting on the deposit check from our old place for several days now, and thought I would have it
by now. I don't, and likely won't until next week sometime. By the time I do have this check, of course, the M-Town mechanic will not be able to help me. It has to be today. So, I wangled some favors and have borrowed just barely enough to get the parts we need.
Well, this sounds promising so far... we began work, got the genset started, fixed the vacuum leak in the RV... and then the AC stopped working. Worse yet, it appears the battery disconnect may be fried. I'm hoping we just overheated it by running too much amperage at one time, and maybe it'll cool off by tomorrow. We shall see.
These are kind of small setbacks, and I think we can work with it. We Burners are a crafty bunch. So, really, I wasn't just totally despondent at that point.
Then I made the mistake of dragging out the whiteboard.
I don't have time at the moment to post a picture of this thing, but all the notes we have make it look less like a camping trip and more like a military operation. I've got sections for electronics, communications gear, combustible safety, first aid, vehicle mechanics... and this isn;t even counting the stuff for the bar itself. Altogether, there are well over 200 different items on this list. Some are "action items" (simple to-do's), some are things to purchase, and some are things already purchased that just need to be packed up.
I'm going to attempt to sleep, and see if I can keep from having nightmares about a huge white dragon with multicolored markings that wants to worry me to death.
One final thought to leave you with... we leave in 10 days.
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