Lauren

Though we’re already on our third week of the summer program, yesterday was the first Monday. (Memorial Day and the conference took up the other two.)

It was a doozy.

Without any narration or context: two birthdays, two birthday treats; first day of Music Class; an entirely uneaten (late) lunch due to the excitement of birthday treats; late nap due to late lunch; two kids with fevers sent home, eating my lunch on the floor of the dark bathroom during late nap due to 1) contacting fever kids’ parents during lunch and 2) serving birthday treats; first day of water play in 103 degree weather (outside for a very short time); covering for a co-worker so she could go home for her son’s 10th birthday; forgetting my phone at work.

I was very, very quiet during the evening hours. That seemed to fix it.

Happy Tuesday!

On Saturday, I made Lloyd tag along while I ran some errands. We were in north Lincoln, so I told him we were going to swing by Camping World. (I didn’t realize we had one in Lincoln until about a month ago.) They mostly sell RVs, but they have a big store, too, with lots of camping stuff to look at – even a couple of RVs inside to walk through!

Not many people were there, and there was an interesting giant teardrop-trailer-type camper in the parking lot. When we left, the owner was out by it and I hollered that it was a really interesting design.

“Want to see inside?” he asked

YES!

As he opened it, he explained a bit of its history. It’s a 1949 Wee Zim trailer – one of the last of its kind. A gentleman from Canada purchased it and completely rebuilt it, restoring its glory. The man we talked to was traveling with his wife and dog. They traveled to Canada, bought it from the restore-man for a mere $15,000 and were taking it home to California.

The design is incredible. You open the back hatch, raising the roof, and the floor drops down so you have 6’2″ of headroom. It’s all done with simple pulleys and cables, with lots of wood involved. It’s amazing to see what human brains used to do with what we had.

Here are some videos that the restore man put up documenting his process. This is the very camper I stood in!

How it opens:

The rebuilding video:

Here’s a link to his photo documentation of the process. He did so much restoring!

https://www.myvintagecampers.com/1949-wee-zim-tear-drop.html

Nothing can ever go smoothly can it? Saturday morning I did a load of laundry, and even though this machine says ‘only cold water rinses’, the clothes were hot when they came out of the washer. As it turns out, the inlet hoses were reversed, and now a couple of my shirts and pants have shrunk. *sigh*

We switched the hoses and I ran another load. Later, I was hanging things up to dry and I noticed some water on the floor. Guess what? We have a leak. Not from the hoses, oh no – the actual faucet is broken.

Yes, that is a piece of hose zip-tied to the faucet to catch the steady drip and funnel it to the laundry sink. all the stuff is in the sink to keep Ralph out of there, since the whole setup is a little precarious. Lloyd’s going to call the plumber on Monday.

There is a silver lining to this – all the little plumbing woes that have been put off for so long will now get done after this emergency is fixed. ……Yay? (It feels weird to cheer for disaster. )

Happy Birthday to my nephew, Matthew! He becomes a teenager today, which just doesn’t seem possible. How is time going by so fast?

In other news, the washing machine is in, but it kind of seems like a post Lloyd should write. I’ll see if I can cajole him into contributing to this little website. Don’t hold your breath, though. 😉

Happy Wednesday!

My presentation is done! It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t a train wreck, either, so I’m calling it good. There was sooooo much that needed to be done at the center to get ready for this, so a fair amount of the weekend was spent there. (Not just for my part, but some building repairs/hiding of stuff/getting chairs set up for all the sessions/posting information/etc.)

Anyway, today is the second day of the conference and I’m not in charge of one bit of it, so I’m looking forward to hearing some good words that will ‘fill my bucket’.

Happy Monday, everyone!

No new washer yet. Lloyd had to ask the to wait a week since he had an eye appointment the same day. No worries – it’s just that we have loads to do and I’m a little worried that I’ll walk down to a ‘finished’ load sitting in a tub of water. We’ll chance it anyway.

Yesterday I helped Lloyd take a load of Marxhausen art to our local art gallery. It was nice to do a different kind of work in the late afternoon, and that was good for me.

Today is the final day of the first week of summer. After the kids leave it will be time to get the building ready for Sunday’s portion of the early childhood conference. I wonder how much will get done tonight, and how much will wait until tomorrow……..

Happy Friday!