I said before I wasn't going to talk about the Lances refrigerator anymore, but these are hard times for me trying to find something to write about because there is simply nothing of interest going on in my life at the moment, so for lack of anything better to mention I will say that the Lances refrigerator after I replaced the regulator at the propane tank, has been doing great. It stays between 34 and 38° all day and all night, quickly regains its temperature after I put some groceries in it, and is running as good as any RV refrigerator I've ever had, and I've had quite a few.

My thoughts of what to do when the refrigerator is acting up while running on propane used to be you should clean the propane burner in the refrigerator. But now I'm thinking that if my propane regulator is anywhere near ten years old, I will buy a new one before doing anything else. There only 20 or 30 bucks, easy to find,  simple to replace, and could make a difference in all of your propane appliances.

I worked in the Arctic Fox some more this morning, throwing away some things, packing other things to be moved to storage, and putting a few things in the Lance. I have to be careful putting stuff in the Lance since the camper's weight is a big concern for me. As usual RVs tend to gain weight over time, as do their owners.

Dealing with all the stuff in the Arctic Fox seems overwhelming, but it must be done. It would be much easier if I had a neutral party come in and decide what to keep and what to throw away. They would throw out 95% of what's in the Arctic Fox and probably have the whole thing done in a weekend.

Theboondork

The day's march by one after another, so similar I can hardly tell the difference. The mornings are cool and clear, allowing me to start checking things on the truck so it will pass its emissions test. And fooling around in the Arctic Fox at half speed, trying to separate all the things that were once so important to me, into piles of things to keep, and things that go in the trash.

I find it difficult to get in the mood to get rid of things in the Arctic Fox because it represents starting another phase in my life of seemingly never-ending downsizing. It is especially difficult because everything in the Arctic Fox has undergone an initial downsizing when I moved into the Fox, and an on-going downsizing as I traveled in the Fox, leaving my ever-diminishing possessions in various dumpsters in the tiny towns I frequented.

And now, once again, I'm sorting through the detritus of my life, attempting to separate my often used possessions from the solely sentimental worldly goods that have no use to me but still tug at my heartstrings and beg to remain in my care till the end of time. There are many good things about being a full-timer, but getting rid of the things with sentimental value is the hardest thing of all.

I have learned through living a full-time life that you don't need much to live comfortably; I feel I have almost everything in the Lance and the truck right now that I need to live a semi normal, comfortable life. But comfort is not the only thing you need in life; most folks need a physical connection to their past, and that's what sentimental possessions represent.

Photographs from the past are the backbone of sentimental memories, but you also need more tangible assets. A scrap of paper your kindergartner drew on in school, a coffee cup your junior high school student made in a craft class. Your child's first shoes. All of these things are a connection to the past, and it's a connection most of us need

So how do I separate the things I need to live a semi normal,  life of comfort from those things that serve no purpose except to connect me with the past? I don't know if there's an easy way to do it, if there is I haven't found it. But I do know this.... no matter how I do it, it's painful.

Theboondork

The local bunny rabbits love this clover bed in the yard.

Today was the same as before weatherwise, nice and sunny, although slightly chilly in the morning and rainy after lunch. And I see very little change in that pattern in the 10-day forecast.

The grandkids had another "play date" with a couple of different kids here at the house today. These kids were far less rambunctious than yesterday's, but I still helped with the babysitting.

Some kids don't have the respect for adults that kids my age had when I was growing up. I can remember visiting my friend's homes when I was a kid, and the only thing any of us would say to the adults was "Yes sir and No ma'am" There were no questions asked, there was no justification required; you did what you were told, and you did it NOW! Adults were given that kind of respect, as were schoolteachers, and policemen, even though I don't remember ever seeing a policeman in person until my dad moved us to Miami when I was 13 or 14 years old.

And even then, I don't remember the cops being all that prevalent, but when I was discharged from the Air Force and returned to Miami, it was a different place where drug smugglers had largely taken over. I started seeing more LEOs running around. And it stayed like that until the Mariel Boatlift in 1980, and shortly after that, there were more cops in the streets than I had ever seen before. But it didn't matter. You can have all the cops in the world, but if the court system is so overloaded it shuts down, like it did in Miami, the criminals are turned loose and are back on the streets in a day or so.

Fidel Castro made a fool out of President Jimmy Carter, which wasn't hard to do considering it was Jimmy Carter, and especially after Carter got on television and told Castro, "Send us all your freedom-loving Cubans, and we'll take them in." At that time handfuls of Cubans were sneaking to Miami on inner tubes, and raggedy boats, and Jimmy Carter thought he would show the world what a terrible place Cuba was, so Castro said okay, you want um? You got um! And in a matter of days, he had emptied the Cuban prisons and insane asylums and dumped thousands upon thousands of murderers and psychotics on the shores of South Florida, creating a legal nightmare that jammed up the courts for years, and filled the prisons to the point they were pretty much releasing everyone except murderers

It doesn't take a genius to see some of the Miami plan coming to fruition in the United States on the southern border. The welfare costs and the legal problems haven't yet begun... But they will ! At least when the situation in Miami got too dangerous, I was able to pack up the family and move to Colorado. But where do you move to when the entire United States starts looking a little bit like Miami did in the 1980s?

Theboondork

These Peonies put out some kind of a smell or a taste that the ants just love. There's three ants in this picture.