Living In A Box

If I don’t write today I’m going to go absolutely bonkers.

I’m dead tired. Miss pussy foot Pumpkin decided to go investigate the neighborhood late last night and didn’t come prancing back in until 3:30 this morning. Creeping around the campground in my ginch on a cold rainy night trying to find a gallivanting cat without starting a chain reaction of howls with the neighborhood camper’s dogs doesn’t come first on my list of ideas for a good time.

This is the second such episode with the fur ball, also known by a few other names then Pumpkin right now, who I am periodically and purposely keeping awake today. Two days ago she disappeared from sight and after four hours of hoofing around the campground, through bushes, over fences, under buildings and down the streets, I came into the trailer to grab a sweatshirt to continue with the search and rescue operation and when I opened the closet door, out jumps miss Pumpkin with a great big stretch and yawn.

This morning we went out to do a cleaning job which is a few miles out in the country which pays us a whole 30 dollars. When we were unloading the car at the Chamber of Commerce, which is where we’ve had to stash our cleaning supplies while we live in the campground, we were discussing how we should perhaps let this job go as it’s hardly worth it, and in the midst of our conversation we locked ourselves out of the car. So here we are, the two of us, standing on the outside looking inside at the car keys, the trailer keys and the cleaning keys sitting on the dashboard. So in comes the tow truck and 40 dollars later and 10 dollars poorer we returned home.

Speaking of home. Four, four and a half if they’re tiny. That’s how many steps I can make before I run into the wall at one end and the bed at the other end. That’s on the long end of things. On the width side of things it’s one step across to the other side. It doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for two people to meet or to pace up and down and relieve the frustrations of the day. But then there’s always the great outdoors and although the weather hasn’t been the greatest for camping so far we have been away a lot doing jobs or looking for that elusive new home.

Our first few days in this pint size home proved to be rather interesting with the water pipes springing leaks behind the walls and repeatedly finding water all over the floor. At one point, after we were sure everything was fixed and honky dory, we returned home to find water leaking out underneath the front door. So we called the owner, who was kind enough to lend us this rig, and said, Huston, we have a problem!

So once more our water supply was shut off. The bright side of all this is our camp is next to the outhouse. This is an important little tid-bit of information which ranks high on the debit side of things, most especially in the middle of the night when two menopausal women with malfunctioning bladders have the sudden urge to go to the bathroom. The ironic side of all this is the Pumpkin fur ball who would much rather use the great outdoors for a bathroom, can’t find a loose piece of dirt to dig in and is forced to resort to her inside litter box.

But we have survived the move so far and we are now in our seventh day here at the Kinsmen Park where we scrunched in as many of our worldly possessions as we could into our new digs. The rest of our household (boxes mostly) is piled up in a 10 X 12 storage unit a few kilometers out of town.

On a different note, my baby turned 28 years old today. Sometimes I feel like in the time it took me to turn around, my girls transformed into grown women. Twenty eight. Imagine! On most days that’s how old I feel in my heart. Now when it comes to body – that’s an all together different story especially after a week of sleeping on a 1970’s foam type seat cushion from the trailer instead of my nice cushiony, extra thick queen size mattress. But then again, all kidding aside, I am grateful for what I have. There are much worse things then a few aches and pains and living in a box. Not being able to write is one of them.

May 4th

And today is Emily’s birthday. Happy Birthday Emily. You have played a major role in my psychological growth and you continue to be an inspiration and a mentor as I plug my way along on this road called life. I wish you the best as you begin another year. May it be filled with as much joy, inspiration and love as you give to others who come cross your path.

We’re off to Kelowna today. We are both getting our eyes tested so we can get some new glasses. Yipee! In another two weeks we should have actually have them and finally we will see the light. Who knows, it may be what we need to help us find our new home.