Trial Run

Photo by Ilse Orsel on Unsplash

Sunday rolls around again and this week, my countenance has lifted some after my mom had a turn for the better. Many thanks to those of you who sent prayers and thoughts. After my last post, I was compelled to drive up to see her again (I had just gone the week before) which did my heart a lot of good. I may have mentioned before that I live 90 minutes (one way) from her and with the shocking tally at the gas station these days, I am unable to go every weekend. Not to mention that I’m also trying to reduce my belongings to what will reasonably and safely fit into a 30’ camper and getting ready for the actual move which I hope will take place around the middle of this month. Then I will have about another month to get everything out of the apartment.

I’ve stayed for short periods in a camper before, but when you’ve decided to actually live in one, you wonder what it will be like, and you might romanticize it a bit. The “you” in the last sentence being me, of course. It’s one thing to study up on the important bits to be “prepared” and quite another to place yourself and everything you own into one. The camper has been in place now for just a hair over a week and while I’ve visited my soon-to-be home several times, I had not attempted to stay overnight in it.

Until last night.

Here’s what you need to know about last night. In true Ohio fashion, completely disregarding that we are now into May, the temperature dipped aaaaalllll the way down to 30°. No biggie. My camper is an all-seasons camper. I just turned on the furnace. And, um...nothing happened*.

Now, I could have let this little snag make me second-guess every decision I’ve made over the last 10 months and fallen deeply into despair, but alas, I did not. There are actually several good things I focused on while Lu and I were trying to stay warm.

1. I know the furnace has worked, as it was turned on the day I closed on it and did my final walkthrough because it was frigid outside that day.

2. The camper is under warranty.

3. It also has a little electric fireplace that doubles as a heater.

An added benefit was that I’ve been fretting over what would happen with the camper if it got down to freezing (bursting pipes, frozen tanks, etc.) and now that it’s not only happened, but I was IN the camper when it did, I can rest in knowing that the world did not, in fact, end, and the camper**, Lu, and I all survived the night.

Narrator: No, she wasn’t about to just go back to the apartment where it was warm. She’s kind of stubborn that way and will not easily admit defeat.

I did manage to get what remains of my yarn stash tucked away in a space that looked like it was made for it. I also set up the TV and actually pulled in a few channels with the little onboard antenna on the roof, and I managed to connect up my Blu-ray player.

As I sat there in my hat and my scarf, watching an episode of Father Brown on PBS, with the little fireplace flickering and the Frenchie snoring away in her bed, I thought to myself, this is going to be brilliant.

Yes. Yes, it will.

X

*Yes, I checked the propane and the voltage - both good. No, I did not open up the panel because I don’t pretend to know what I’m doing while there’s still a warranty on the thing, no matter how many YouTube videos say it would be a piece of cake. Once there’s no warranty? I will definitely pretend to know what I’m doing.

**She needs a name. Something that symbolizes this new chapter in my life. Ideas? Hit me up in the comments, I’m all ears!