9-1 Slo-mo’ing life, constant maintenance (and clumsiness)

Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky

September has finally arrived and I didn’t think I’d be here. In earlier nomad versions of myself, I’d be somewhere further north, likely Canada or further west, Montana perhaps.

Yet I’m still here in Kentucky slo-moing it. I like this version of nomading — slowly winding my way around in randomness makes for more discoveries and experiencing deeper flavors of the places I’m staying at that I’d otherwise miss or overlook.

That’s the thing about nature and her places - the longer you embrace her, the more she reveals.

…view from camper at Land Between the Lakes

Today was maintenance day — tightening up loose screws (my mind is a lost cause, however), check tires, top off battery fluids, and tweak whatever else needs tweaking. As in this case ’twas a cracked rear side-light cover on the camper and a cracked back-up light cover on the car.

I have no idea how the the backup light cover got cracked — perhaps a wayward pebble flung in reverse?

The camper side lens? My fault from one night when I folded up my chair and leaned it on the side of the camper for the night. It fell over while I was sleeping (I bet my flipping around in bed to change positions rocked the camper enough to jar the chair lose) and hit the light cover on the way down, breaking it off. (Lesson learned - park chair somewhere else.)

Both issues are luckily easily fixed — nuttin’ like a little superglue to make good and pop ’em back where they belong.

Feels good to fix things up, doesn’t it?

Speaking of, constant maintenance is a regular staple of nomading/full-time camping life more-so than with regular brick ’n mortar life I’d think.

The constant movement — vibrations and jolting (those dreadful unexpected potholes, big dips and worst of all thud-thud-thud-washboarded-thud-thud-thud roads (omg those drive me crazy) always jar things loose and makes screws unscrew themselves.

Clumsiness (a better word than carelessness, isn’t it?) accounts for around a quarter of these issues, I’ll confess.

Fortunately I learn from each and every one of these “issues” as they crop up and it adds to my growing repertoire of handyman-ish knowledge.

The clumsy parts? They add more cuss-words and subsequent “silly-me” laughter adding to a richer life.