Tag Archives: thrifting

Day 126 – Saturday – Thinking of Home

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Today was another one of those days where we’re just keeping time, watching the clock run down, wishing it would go a little bit faster. If it wasn’t for the fact that we’ve already paid to stay through next Tuesday, we would have left last week. This is true. We talked about it. I’m pretty sure we talked about it.

We’ve enjoyed ourselves during this stay, and we’ve seen some pretty incredible things. The only regret we have obligating ourselves to such a long residency. All of our previous trips in the RV have been 3 to 15 days, so enduring a 4-month stay is way out of our comfort zone. We’re ready to kick the can a little further down the road.

Diane took the morning off to visit a couple of her favorite thrift stores and brought home some nice things. My job was to find a home in the basement for the stuff she bought yesterday. I did that. She brought more nice things home from her morning efforts, but they were mostly soft, foldable items that she can stuff in one of many vacant places inside the bus. Granted, they are getting to be fewer, but there are some spots available and I’m confident she’ll fill them.

For lunch I whipped up a 7-egg omelet, which was pretty good. Even Max kept his eye on our forks in case something fell off.

Nothing dropped but he got to lick both plates. Once he was done, we took Max for a ride and headed to the Humane Society thrift store, just for fun. On the way, we stopped at a handy UPS store to drop off my heart monitor that’s been stuck on my chest for the last 30 days.

Max is always welcome at the Humane Society. All the ladies there love him and give him treats. It’s one of his favorite places in Tucson. I have no doubt that when he thinks of Tucson his first memory will be about this thrift store.

I have nothing else.

We hope everyone is safe and healthy.

God Bless you all.

Day 80 – Tuesday – Two Thrift Stores

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Wow! Eighty days! Who knew I could actually count that high?

This was not a busy day. We visited two thrift stores and had to leave Max home alone because he’s not welcome at the chosen facilities. It’s not just Max, it’s any dog. So, we left him home alone so he wouldn’t get embarrassed by not being allowed inside. He was fine at home because he sleeps the entire time.

The first thrift store was close to the Bone Yard here on base. It’s only open on Tuesday & Wednesday. Diane got to go there a few weeks ago but she didn’t take me for some reason. She just told me that it was a really nice store. This time she decided to let me go with her.

She was right. It’s a nice clean store. I think I got a couple of Stanley crescent wrenches and a long flat blade screwdriver in a zip loc bag. All I wanted was the bag. The wrenches were a bonus, and they will come in handy one day.

The other store we visited was the Assistance League Thrift Shop. I found an extension cord that Diane wanted for the Christmas lights she purchased. They are going to be placed under the bus to hopefully keep critters from seeking shelter inside the rig. We don’t need critters in the bus. Max might think it would be fun to have some critters he could chase. Diane and I have discussed the possibility of getting him a companion after we get to the end of this saga and return home. That will be sometime next year. I think that will be 2025. I’d be a little more specific, but I’m retired, so I don’t really pay attention to time or dates.

I got a couple of 8 lb weights so I can get my Charles Atlas body back into shape. I’ve been meaning to get some of those for years for that purpose. Now that I’ve got them all I have to do is use them regularly. This is what they look like:

You can get these at Walmart for $16.99. The ones I got at the thrift store cost $6.

Maybe tomorrow will be a little more newsworthy. For sure I’m going to ACE Hardware for some proper screws to fix some of the seals on the bus. We stopped at one on the way home this afternoon and I took a guess at what kind of screws I needed. I guessed wrong so I removed one to see what I needed. The problem area only has 3 screws holding the seal in place. It needs 10. Now I know what to get. I’ll take some photos of what’s wrong, before and after. If I remember.

That’s it for today.

Day 60 – Thrift Storing

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It was chilly this morning. Like 48 degrees! That is legitimately chilly. Actually, it was cold. So, I got to wear long socks, long pants, and two hoodies when I took Max for his morning walk. That was at 0730. Couldn’t quite see my breath so I was bummed.

Ok, it was 48.7 degrees. Picky, picky.

Walking briskly warmed us up a little, but it was still cold.

I did my normal morning routine to get my breakfast which is mainly to be quiet like a mouse, but that never works out. Something always makes a racket which Diane can easily hear. Thankfully, she doesn’t complain about it. Honestly, I think she’s OK that I make a little noise because by doing so she is reassured that I’m alive and moving. Even then I think in the back of her mind she’s prepared to hear the heavy thud I’ll make when I land on the floor for any reason. So far, that hasn’t happened. I practice that move when Max and I are home alone. Yes, I practice falling in the RV as quietly as possible. That’s kind of lame, I know, but what the heck. Gives me something to do. What will most likely happen is I’ll fall off the stairs leaving the rig and I’ll land on the gravel. I doubt if she would hear that so now I need to train Max to start barking when I fall to get attention. I tried to teach him to run back in the RV to the bedroom to bark, but he wanted to stay with me. Teaching him to bark is a challenge because when he does it voluntarily, he gets scolded a little. So, the best bet is for me to just lay where I land and wait for someone to show up.

You know, I’ve fallen a few times walking Max and I’ve never been concerned about getting back up but after writing it out like that, it’s suddenly something that kind of bothers me. Like, how long would I have to lay there until someone shows up and rolls me over to get my face out of the rocks.

OK. Enough of that.

The 1st thrift store Diane found was really nice. Max got to in and look around too. He loves to shop, and he gets lots of attention.

While Diane was visiting the 2nd store Max, and I stayed in the car and did some research about lunch. The one I found, Frank’s, was right up our alley. Here’s his reader board out front:

Here’re the t-shirts worn by the waiters and cooks:

I totally understand the T-shirt because it’s a pretty small place so they don’t want folks hanging around too long after they’re done eating.

Here’s what we ate. Diane had taquitos and I had a chicken fried steak:

After lunch we travelled to the 3rd stop on Diane’s list, but it wasn’t there. We took that as a hint that we’d apparently hit our thrift store limit for the day. So, we went back home. On the way, we stopped for this photo op that we’d seen on the way to lunch.

Kind of difficult to fathom that one, isn’t it? Makes one wonder a little about the history of Jerrie Blvd, right?

As soon as we got home, I immediately took Max for a well-earned walk. On the way back we saw a new neighbor pull in.

That’s the biggest Class C rig I’ve ever seen. It’s a Newmar from Alaska. He was parking the trailer that he apparently carries his car on. I’ll be curious to see what it is.

Now I’m going to rest before watching game 5 of the World Series.