preps

 
At last the holiday gear is packed away and the stick house is clean enough for company. The weather is glorious one day (and we start looking at the Golden Isles) or blustery cold (and we wonder  what it’s like in the ‘glades). What is for sure is that we are pulling out of here as soon as Patty has her date with the deluxe, supper conducting high speed mammogram machine she is so fond of.  For now it’s prep time. 
Finding all our gear is going to be a bigger problem  than it usually is, since all our “load outs” were secreted away in nooks and crannies we can hardly remember.  I’m thinking our clothing load will be reduced even further as we learn what we actually need, but the hardback book load is increasing with the “3 books for a quarter” sales at the library.
The new Tow Vehicle continues to amaze and confound us.  You will love this: seems that I have a heated windshield washer fluid button in the new TV and it is briefly described in the manuals.  Mine does NOT blink or heat or do anything, actually.  So, after making fun of it but then reading how it would clean bugs off my southern windows, I developed a real NEED for it to work.  It seems that a few years back GM had decided that the way to the future was to have this gadget in all its upscale cars just for the WOW factor. (Remember the headlight wipers on the Mercedes and the Trooper?)  Being GM, they bought the unit from the lowest bidder and proceeded to put it into 1.5 MILLION cars.  Then the circuit boards shorted out and at least five fires were reported.  Enter NTSB, and the recall.  It seems that if you ever took your car to a GM dealer, they would remove it and hand you a hundred bucks.  So my unit is long gone, BUT another player has a new, more sturdy heater unit tested and grudgingly  passed by NTSB.  For only $70 bucks I can have the heater I now NEED and dream about.  All the brackets hoses and electrical connectors are still in place, so even I can install it.  It should arrive soon;  I’m hoping for snow....