Without even trying my one track mind has somehow started to slide off the Summer track and on to the Winter track. The weather cooling off probably has something to do with it, because I'm having to start up my radiant heater every morning now for an hour or so. It also may be all the talk about today being the first day of Fall, and to me Fall means preparing to leave before it gets too cold. And I think reading on the Internet about other full-time RVers that are hitching up, or getting ready to hitch up, also puts me in a mood to head South. Whatever it is at the moment I've got part of my one track mind still hanging on to Summer, and the other part slowly sliding into the Winter travel season, and the colder it gets here the stronger is my desire to follow the geese and head South.

I had a strange conversation with my accountant the other day. I had been expecting that I would have to drive to Colorado Springs and pick up my personal taxes to be mailed away to the IRS. But he called me and said that I didn't have to file this year. Now my hearing is not all that great, but it's actually not as bad as most people think there's just too many people that whisper all the time, so I thought I misunderstood what he said and he actually said I didn't have to pay anything this year, because I didn't have to pay anything last year.

But when he said I didn't have to file this year he actually meant I didn't have to send in a 1040, I didn't have to sign anything or send anything to the IRS. I couldn't believe it, I'd never heard of that before, I thought you always had to send paperwork to the IRS. But apparently in certain situations you don't actually have to file with the IRS, and I'm in that situation.

So I've been working and paying taxes since I was 16 years old and now at 73 after working in one way or another my entire life, I've finally reached a point where I'm so poor the IRS no longer cares about me. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

                                theboondork

I almost never sleep with any heat on, in fact the only time I do sleep with the heat on is when a quirk of fate has put me in the unfortunate position of the weather being cold enough to possibly freeze my holding tanks and then I will run the Arctic Fox's furnace on its lowest setting just to keep the basement and the tanks from freezing over night. Other than that I just throw an extra blanket on the bed and sleep just fine.

But when I woke up this morning it was 42° inside the trailer and I was cold. I believe that's the coldest I've been since one of my mini-vacations when I was boondocking up near timberline in the little Bronco and it got down into the high 30s. Normally on mornings that chilly I just stay in bed where it's warm until the sun warms up the Arctic Fox, but at my daughter's house the morning sun is kind of blocked by houses, trees, and hills so I have to get out of bed when it's still cold and fire up my Hearthrite radiant heater.

By 9 o'clock the sun is hitting the trailer and it's warming up enough outside so it becomes comfortable pretty quick inless I leave the door and all the windows closed. If I keep the Arctic Fox closed up it's so well insulated it will retain the nighttime cold till almost lunchtime. So It's kind of a weird feeling to be saying to myself, I'd better open up all the windows cause it's freezing in here.

I noticed tomorrow is the first day of Fall and the local weather forecast seems to bear that out. The 10 day forecast for where I'm at, in the foothills on the far western side of Denver, it looks like it's going to be in the low 80s high 70s and night time temperatures in the low 50s, so with modest humidities, that makes those temperatures very comfortable for me.

                            theboondork

The mornings are getting chillier and chillier, when I got out of bed I had to run my radiant heater for almost an hour before it got up to 70 in the Arctic Fox. The sun is getting lower on the horizon now so I'm not getting much help from it in the morning to warm things up.

The cool weather is a reminder to me that it won't be long till I'll have to start getting the Arctic Fox ready to head South. Which means that my one track mind will have to make the transition from thinking about the little Bronco camper and mini-vacations, to cleaning and straightening up the Arctic Fox after a summer of mostly letting things pile up, and go undone.

It also gives me a chance to think about all the things I wanted to do to the Arctic Fox this summer but never got around to, such as.....

Install a fantastic vent fan, that I bought about four years ago, in the bathroom to replace the noisy worthless little propeller that came with the Arctic Fox when I bought it.

Grease the wheel bearings.... Not yet, but I might possibly do it before I leave.... Maybe.

Rotate the Arctic Fox tires..... Fat chance!

Clean out the refrigerator.... Why bother. The green stuff growing in there might get big enough to eat.

Wash the Arctic Fox's windows.... Maybe not, if I did then I would be able to see who's parked next to me in a Walmart parking lot, and if you plan on getting any sleep you never want to do that.

Spray some Rust-Oleum on a few rusty spots.... But If there's any chance I'm going to the Texas Gulf Coast that would be a big waste of time.

Sweep the floor... Not a good idea, the dirt protects the linoleum from undue ware.

Clean the stove.... It's taken years for the stove to develop a protective crust, no sense ruining that just for looks.

the carpet is starting to resemble a dead lawn..... This is a good thing, between all the dirt on the floor, and the carpet looking like a dead lawn, I can sit in my easy chair in the living room and feel like I'm outside without having to deal with the wind and the bugs.

So looking at the big picture I guess there's not actually all that much I have to do before I leave, mostly just put up the steps and drive away.

                          theboondork