The poor family dog that was left in my charge barely made it through the night. Clinging to a tattered sweater that held the last remaining scent of the family that he loved. Shaking from cold and loneliness, with no one to comfort him he waited through the night clinging to the hope that his family would one day return, and he would again experience the love and laughter of the family that meant everything to him.... And so he waited, and waited.

I did some laundry this morning since I'm the only one at the house except the dog. It sure is great using my daughter's washing machine, the thing is huge, and it doesn't even have an agitator in the middle of the machine, just a giant stainless steel bowl where you put all your dirty clothes. When I'm paying to wash clothes at a laundromat, my laundry bag will fill up at least three machines. But my laundry bag full of dirty clothes disappears into the bulbous silver belly of this washing machine like a villain in an adventure movie falling into a volcano.

I'm not sure how the whole system works without an agitator to beat on the clothes like women have done for a thousand years anytime they were near a rocky river, but it works, and my clothes come out clean enough for me.... But I'm not all that picky.

I've taken a few more things out of the bronco, but I don't really have a place to put all the stuff, so I'm just piling up things in the Arctic Fox. I can see logistics will be a real problem in schlepping all my stuff from one RV to another with no place for any of it to stay permanently... as yet.

After the holidays, I might head over to the Salida area and visit a large RV dealer there that specializes in truck campers, both new and used. In a way, I don't want to buy a truck camper from a dealer because you know you're going to be hosed at the get-go, but I'm not seeing anything I can use from a private sale; there is just not a lot of choices out there.

A year or so ago when people were buying up every RV in sight they apparently also bought up every truck camper in sight leaving slim pickens for someone like me. I'm quite sure in a couple of years a lot of those first time RVers are going to be selling some of those RVs they never really wanted in the first place, and that will be a great time to pick up a bargain. But I have fallen head over heels in love with the highly mobile lifestyle a truck camper offers and I'm in no mood to wait.

Theboondork

This is a very rare Peruvian flowering chlamydia. Normally they only grow in Peruvia but this one seed, probably attached itself to the sandal of a Peruvian illegal alien, made it across the border and into Colorado,

This afternoon will be the official beginning of the Memorial Day holiday and the start of the summer travel season. When folks get off from work this afternoon, they will be on their way to the High Country, where they will be packed together in great herds of humanity surrounded by barbecue smoke and overflowing state parks. With music blaring from every outdoor speaker on any RV new enough to be cursed with that infernal invention. The contractor generators will be roaring, the kids will be screaming, the dogs will be barking, and overworked and underpaid Park Rangers will be doing their best to keep the power drinkers and alcoholics from ruining everybody's experience in the park.

Meanwhile, I will still be in Denver, happily ensconced in the Arctic Fox, almost completely alone in my daughter's driveway, since everyone else will be in the High Lonesome, which this time of year, remains high but far from lonesome, enjoying the peace and quiet.

My daughter and my son-in-law are going to a casino in the mountains to spend some time away from their jobs. The Kids will be dropped off at their cousins' house, and my job is to watch after the house and feed the dog. So it sounds like I'm going to have a much better time than all those people eating incinerated hot dogs, and flaming marshmallows in the mountains....

Although I have to admit, when I was raising kids I ate more than my share of incinerated hot dogs and flaming marshmallows; without giving much thought to the lasting memories being made in the kids lives.

Theboondork

My grandson must be real careful when he walks down the stairs to the kitchen, because sometimes Poppa is waiting down there to surreptitiously take his picture. But I tricked him this time, because he didn't know what surreptitiously meant. Gotcha!

My grandson has his backpack all packed up, ready to go to his cousin's house

A passel of Irises, some of which suffered greatly during the last snowstorm.

I worked on the bronco roof some more, removing the leftover self-leveling caulk and putting a touch of caulk in the screw holes to prevent any future leaks. So far, I've been able to do all of that without getting up on top of the roof because, frankly, I'm not sure the bronco's roof would support me, so I get up on my ladder and lean over as far as I can to reach areas that need work.

I left one solar panel on the roof, and I'm also leaving the solar controller hooked up in the bronco, so at least the batteries will get some charging during the day. I considered removing the whole solar system, which is the way I bought the bronco. But the wires that plug into the truck from the bronco are so tiny that they pass very few amps to recharge the broncos batterys when the truck is running.

So the one hundred watt solar panel will at least charge the bronco's two AGM batteries enough to have lights at night, but it will take a lot more than one panel if the buyers want to be "comfortable," especially when they get some cloudy days.

Theboondork

A large herd of mushrooms sprang up in the yard after the snow melted.