Cheers!

I had to run some errands tonight and I meant to get out of work a little early.   I had started about seven so it had been a long day.   But I was a little involved in something at the time.  So 4:30 slipped into five, and I hate to drive the van in rush hour.   It is a side mirror only vehicle.   Zero visibility out the back.   Driving it in heavy traffic is an adventure that relies a  great deal on human trust & compassion.  I just get thinking about the propane tanks I have riding in the back.

Since I started sleeping in it I have had a couple of blankets hung up over the windows but that isn’t the best solution.   Tonight I was on a mission to obtain “blackout curtain” a special fabric that doesn’t allow light to pass.  Years ago I first heard about it when my sister lived in Alaska.  Up there if you wanted your kids to go to bed in the summertime you knew what blackout curtain was.   I found it on the web site of a local big box fabric store and assumed it would be a common enough product they would keep it in stock.   Sure enough, they had a white on white or white on cream both in stock.   I figured I didn’t want the starkness (or dirt showing ability) of the white/white so I went for the white on the outside, cream colored on the inside.  

(I am sitting in a bar right now and the guy two stools down just asked me if I used to play lead guitar in the band RUSH.)

Looking at the back of the van now that the
curtains are in place.

I owe this whole idea to the brother of The Professor.   This year, The Professor had received, as a Christmas gift, a one inch square metal cube from his brother.  But he felt like I would enjoy it so much more, and he re-gifted it.   He handed it to me in the box it came in.   All bubble wrapped.   When I opened it up, I was confused.   I pulled it out and looked at it.  It was heavy for it’s size.   Perfectly machined and smooth.   I tossed it back and forth between my hands a couple of times, feeling it’s weight and uttering a perfunctory “Uh gee, thanks” and then I thought aloud “Is this a magnet?” I looked to the cast iron radiator beside me and extended my hand toward it.   When it got about three inches away the cube leapt from my hand and slammed onto the radiator.  Wow!   Very powerful magnet.  Wonderful gift for me!  It holds a full sized calendar to a stainless steel (magnets don’t work as well) refrigerator at home.

I went to the company web site later on that night and discovered these same strong magnets are available in all shapes and sizes.   And when I say strong, I mean it.   If you want to buy a two inch square magnet or larger you have to sign a special disclaimer.   It says essentially, “If you buy this and you get your fingers under it, they will be crushed. That is your problem”  Here is my idea.   I will take this blackout shade material and I either sew, or glue, or by some means use as many of these strong magnets as I need to put firmly hold up the hunk of material.   A couple of weeks ago I bought the magnets, but I am concerned they are too small.   It was hard to visualize the size I would need.   Tonight I am going to find out.

So I bought the material along with some fabric glue.   The curtain was nine dollars per yard.  I paid twenty seven for a pretty good sized chunk.   If this works out I am thinking I will make them to fit the cab windows as well.   That will give us full roam of the van if we are at a campground not filled with voyeurs. 

Then I ran a couple of other places.   Radio Shack doesn’t seem to exist here any more, I was looking for a twelve volt, cigarette lighter style plugin cords to plug in twelve volt appliances.  Tried a couple of places.  No luck.  I suppose Amazon has them.  Then I went to the evil guitar empire and bought a cheap 12 volt guitar amp.  It is small so it will fit better in the van, and now I won’t need to run the inverter just to make noise. The Wife told me earlier she was making  a family favorite for supper so I treated myself to the fancy burger joint and savored their olive oil drenched french fries.

By this time it was eight thirty. I was butter and olive oiled up.  Feeling all kinda lazy.   But I had planned my errands around a work night so I had done all my shopping less than a mile from the workshop door.   Being that close I figured I had to head there anyway.  I thought maybe I would get motivated once I arrived so I made the drive.   Pulling up though, there was a car parked there.

I have access to a companies’ shop via a guy I know.   He made an offer in a bar.   Stood by it a couple of months later when I showed up to collect.  A stand-up guy.   Maybe this is no big deal, but I feel like it seems like a really good idea to stay under the radar with this outside project in their shop.    *AND* I was lazy anyway.   So between those two things I was very quick to say “Whoa, can’t work tonight!” I saw that car, whipped a U-ie, and headed to my night parking spot.  I took the night off.  I am sitting here in the corner pizza bar in my big city.   About a block away sits the van.  (Why didn’t I turn the furnace on?)  Painted on the wall behind there is the pizza girl mural.  It is The Wife who is the subject in the mural.   We lived across the hall from a painter when we were going through the artist loft phase of our lives.  She ended up immortalized.  But I can feel her back there, looking over my shoulder, grimacing over my heavy reliance on spellcheck.