The Sandcastle

In the winter in Minnesota it is not unusual to have a power outage although I am please to say we have not experienced one since moving back here.

But last night we had a water outage. It seems a pipe in the basement developed a leak. The water would have to be shut off for 9 hours to repair it and wait for the glue to dry. So we were notified water would be off from 9 pm last night to 6 am this morning. They recommended everyone fill their bath tub with water to use for flushing the toilets.

We don’t have a bath tub. Only a shower. Which normally is fine because we both prefer showers to baths.

What to do? What to do?

We went around the apartment collecting our plastic trash cans, filled them with water, and set them in the shower to be ready. And we put a bowl of water in the sink to use for hand washing.

I knew we could flush once using the reserve water in the tank. So, about 4 am, I flushed.

And the tank promptly refilled.

Apparently they were able to turn the cold water back on. We didn’t have hot water, though, until mid-afternoon.

It sure in nice to have someone else decide on and provide the fixes here.

So, we dumped out all those trash bins, dried them off, and returned them to their normal service.

And it was nice to have all that RV boondocking experience to know we could wash hands several times in just one bowl of water.

TTYL,

Linda

 

Jack Frost visited us today.

In anticipation of that visit Dave bought groceries yesterday. We are all tucked up and cozy in here.

TTYL,

Linda

Ten days. That’s how long it took me to build this complex set. These picture will help you understand why.

Huh, I just realized I never took a picture of the completion of phase 2. That was the rest of the interior and exterior of the diner on the ground floor. You’ll get to see the exterior in some of my other photos, though. Although in none of them is the waitress on roller skates visible–guess you’ll have to build it yourself to see her.

Phase 3 was the second floor–a gymnasium with dumbbells, weight bench, heavy bag, and boxing ring. It also has a male in trunks with gloves and a female in a sleeveless hoodie although you only get to see the hair of the female in these photos of the interior and front of phase 3.

  

Phase 4 was the third floor–a recording studio. The photo of the interior of this one was taken before I finished building it because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get the detail once all the walls and doors were up. There is a glass door that closed off the room with the microphone. Also, there’s a very textured wall to improve the sound of the recording.

  

Phase five was the roof and the car. Check out those tail fins! And that guitar player has a haircut we called a DA back in the 50s.

With it all put together it looks like this:

  

Now I get to spend a couple more days disassembling it and repackaging it into the five phases of building it. Using quart Ziplock bags means the next builder will only have to open five bags. But, it might take a little longer to sort out the pieces in each bag.

I wonder how many days it will take next time?

TTYL,

Linda

When our daughter was six years old we started buying her Lego sets for her birthday and Christmas. Then she and I would sit on the living room floor and build new creations. When Dave realized I enjoyed building as much as she did, he started buying me sets, too. By the time she was sixteen, we had enough bricks to build freelanced towns to cover half a ping pong table.

But she went away to college and an old injury of mine said I needed to stop building. Which I found hard to do. So, I sold all our Lego bricks.

Now, in my second childhood, I’ve started collecting sets again. In the meantime Lego invented a tool which removes the aggravation of my old injury.

When I saw the advertisement for the Lego Downtown Diner with its art deco look and a pink car with tail fins I knew I wanted this set. 2480 pieces. Like a giant 3D puzzle. But unlike a jigsaw puzzle, these puzzles come with an instruction book. And the fun is seeing what details they managed to include in each set.

So I opened the box and dumped out all the little bags of parts.

Bags numbered 1-5. Which doesn’t sound like a lot. Until you realize each number has multiple bags.

And some of those bags have more bags inside them.

So, when I open just one set of all those bags and dump them into the shoebox I use to hold them I get this:

.

Which is a lot of pieces to sort through. Which makes sense once I think about it. After all I have nearly 2500 pieces divided into 5 sets which makes about 500 pieces per set.

So, I pull some pieces out of the shoe box to make it easier to sort through those that remain.

And when I finished assembling just those pieces in all the number 1 bags, I already have this:

Most of the diner itself is done and the details are very amusing: a juke box, a gumball machine, a coffee pot like those restaurants use, and condiments on the table, among others.

Only four more sets to go to finish building this three story building of which the diner is only the ground floor.

And I’ve already been sorting and building for two days.

Is this a great new/old hobby or what?

TTYL,

Linda

I keep seeing people questioning the future of RVing and what that might mean for them. Here are some of my thoughts on that.

The only constant in life is change. Whether you see these changes as good or bad is based primarily on your attitude. Do you see these changes as infringing on your own plans? Or do you celebrate so many people finding a pleasurable activity?

Yes, many baby boomers are hitting the road at least part time. I also think many displaced people are pushed into RVing as the only lifestyle affordable to them. Plus, today’s internet availability is letting many working people join the ranks of full time RVers. These various groups are mostly looking for different types of places to camp, though.

Yes, some of those places fill up faster than they used to do. Fortunately, there are lots of other places to explore. And people following the trends in the industry are deciding to build more RV parks. We are a long way from running out of places to camp.

Some of us boomers like boondocking in the desert. But there’s still a lot of desert out there. And most of us can also afford to stay in private campgrounds when those meet our needs. And the leading edge of the boomers are getting back off the road as our bodies age in ways that don’t let us do what we used to do so we are making some room for the rest of you.

So, come on out; the fun is still available for everyone who chooses to participate.

TTYL,

Linda