Wednesday April 20th 2022

Today’s weather was a mix of clouds and sun with a lot of wind out of the east. The temperature was in the upper seventies overall. If you were in the direct sun sheltered from the wind it was much warmer.

I was out of sync most of the day. Until I typed the first line of this blog entry, I wasn’t sure of the day of the week. Uncertain if it was Thursday or Wednesday I had to use the computer’s calendar to verify it was Wednesday. All of this probably reflects back to the unusual act of relocating on Saturday. I move again this Saturday.

Today was a minor RV maintenance day. One of the lift arms on an overhead cabinet lost a rivet. Rather than seeking out and replacing the whole part, I decided to replace the rivet. I had everything I needed, but it was a challenge getting all of it together. First I found a pop rivet in a bin of small parts and fasteners I carry. The egg crate like divided bin was inside a bigger plastic storage bin inside my RV’s larger basement storage locker. My next challenge was to find the pop rivet tool to insert the rivet.

To understand the challenge, you need to know that I probably carry too many tools. They are separated into three tool boxes and a couple of bins for a small number of bigger things. I carry a wide assortment of common tools in a tool box that travels in my car. My tools for electrical type tasks are in another box on the drivers side basement of my RV home and the other less common tools are in a third box on the passenger side basement of my RV home. The rivet tool I needed was in the latter box that I haven’t looked in for a couple of years.

To complete the task I also needed my drill to make the hole bigger. The drill was stored in yet another location. It took about half an hour to assemble all the required elements followed by two minutes to complete the repair. Another fifteen minutes was consumed putting the tools away. The satisfaction of knowing I had the parts, locating the parts and making the repair was enough to offset the nagging “Why do I carry all this stuff?” question I keep asking myself.

I sandwiched my maintenance tasks between a couple of walks around the campground and other areas of the park. There is a lot of daily turnover in the park. Unlike during the winter, many of the occupants are in small tents and less formal equipment than big RVs. I’ve seen several tents that went with bicycle riders and a hammock camper that was completely exposed to the elements. It creates a different atmosphere in the park.