Month: April 2020

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Getting Crafty

With all this extra time on my hands I decided to get serious about a craft I have wanted to do for years.  For a long time I have been looking for a US map shaped corkboard and several months back I ran across one for $9.99 at Hobby Lobby.  My goal was to print a picture from every state we had visited and then glue it on the board to make a 3D wall hanging.  This sounds easy, but was more complicated than I thought, as I realized when I first started selected pictures.  I spent hours combing through the pictures I had looking for ones I thought would work with the specific states.  Then I needed to print them out (correctly sized) and I used tracing paper and an X-acto knife to cut them into the right shape.

 

After many starts and stops I was starting to make progress, but soon realized that the smaller states would be a real challenge.  The bigger states out west were pretty easy but oddly shaped states like Virginia and Ohio were simply not going to be an exact fit.  I knew I could live with that, but was VERY concerned about filling in the gaps and ultimately I had to admit that no matter how careful I was my finished project was going to look like a kids 5th grade school project.

It’s hard to back away from a project after so many hours invested, but if the end result wasn’t going to be worth the hours I realized it was better to just stop.  Plus I had an idea.  We use Adobe Photoshop for our pictures, but I have always known we have barely scratched the surface of what it could do.  I thought perhaps there would be a way to accomplish my goal in Photoshop and asked Lee if he would mind looking into it for me.

This turned out to be more of a challenge than either of us thought but after two days and several hours worth of research he figured it out!  We purchased a template for $10 with all of the states and the larger map and cropped each state into an individual template.

The template we purchased

 

Here is the cropped version of Vermont

Once we had the “mask” of each state I could start putting my pictures in.  This sounds simple but requires multiple steps as you have to make the mask outside areas transparent and then pull in the picture and align it properly.  This leaves you with a picture like this.  (The checkerboard area is transparent).

Once you have the picture, you then pull it onto the larger state map and carefully align it onto the state.  Because you can make the section larger, it makes it a little easier and by scaling and rotating you fit it like a piece to a puzzle.  The only problem is that for some reason the state cut-outs are not an exact match of the states on the larger map.  I know that’s crazy but they just aren’t so I got as close as I could and then use  a cleanup tool in Adobe to fill in the gaps.

You pull it to the general area and then scale it down and rotate so it fits.

The good news is it is MUCH easier to fit two states together, and even better, if it doesn’t look right you can easily delete a picture and start all over.  Yes it is a bunch of work to start over, BUT you can change just one state.  What excites me about using Photoshop is as we travel and I get better pictures I can change them out and reprint versus with the original plan I would not have been able to do that easily.  Plus the steps get easier the more you do it and I was able to do several states in a few hours.

 

So far I am pretty happy with the results and once it is done I can either print it on canvas of print it as a poster.  I also like that it has Alaska and Hawaii, which the cork board map did not have.  This kind of project is something I would rarely have time to get up and running, but now that I have the basics I can add to it at any time.  Really grateful that Lee spent so much time helping me get started and feeling good about doing something positive with my furlough time.

Oh and one more thing.  If this is too technical for you, I also treated myself to a Nordic Heritage bundlette pan.  I have been watching The Great British Baking Show and was inspired to try some lower calorie baking. I decided smaller sizes would be helpful with that so invested $28 in this cool baking pan.

I have to say I am absolutely thrilled with the results.  I made lemon cake budlettes first and one box of cake mix makes twelve of these little beauties.  I dusted them with some powdered sugar and lemon zest and they were absolutely yummy.  Plus the smaller size makes it much easier to make the cakes calorie friendly.

They turned out perfect and were only 260 calories!

 

Then I made Pineapple cakes with a pineapple slice under the base and cherry juice sprinkled with a cherry in the middle!

Trying some lower calorie recipes next, but I have to say I am thrilled at the results.  Who knew a little pan could make baking so much prettier? And I definitely feel fancy with my stylish deserts. Once again just glad to be doing something fun with my extra downtime.  And it’s nice to have something pleasant to write about.  Stay safe everyone.

 

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  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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Jack Turns Two

Finally a post with some lighter news in it, as Jack turned two last week.  I am sorry to say the milestone passed without us recognizing it, but his vet sent a happy birthday E-card which reminded us.  He has made such a positive difference in our lives, far outweighing any inconvenience.  Here are a few Jack pictures to brighten your day!

Jack and Hobie being good boys!

 

Usually their relationship is more like this 🙂

 

Jack and Hurley.  Hurley is super patient with him.

 

Love this picture of them running through Goblin Valley.

 

Finn and Jack..best buddies.

 

Doggie Day Care with Peyton, Jack, Sammy, and Hobie.

 

Me, Oliver, and Jack. Oliver and Jack are both sticking their tongues out!

 

Jack’s first hike

 

Jack at the beach

 

 

Jack in Oregon

 

Jack staring down the cows

 

Jack’s first Christmas

 

Zoomies

 

Jack Gate Guarding

 

The day we picked him up.

 

We both had major concerns about getting a dog after five years without one, but I am so very happy to have him in our lives.  Hope these pictures made you smile and have you a little sunshine today!

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
  • You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on iTunes.
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Covid – Playing the Odds

I wish I had something else to write about, but it seems that all aspects of my life right now are colored by the virus.  I know I am not alone in this, but since I write about what’s on my mind and I am not sleeping well I thought I would spend some time sharing my thoughts.  Almost every day I wake up and spend some time in the morning looking at the data.  People get their news from a variety of sources but looking at the numbers grounds me.

Despite assurances by multiple sources that we have turned a corner the data still scares me.  The most credible source I use is Johns Hopkins. It is not the friendliest view for sure but I trust the data and they have added some new pages including critical trends.  I don’t spend much time comparing us to other countries, mainly because I don’t trust their reporting, but I do look at areas of the country where I have friends and family and see how things are going there.  I can also see the mortality rate, which is a key statistic for me, because at the end of the day what matters the most is how many people die. Currently we are at 8.66 deaths per 100,000 people which in the grand scheme of things doesn’t look that bad.

But then I dig a little deeper.  I look at a dashboard that a person in Seattle has run since the beginning and look at the overview. 2M confirmed cases worldwide, 135K confirmed deaths, and 28,554 deaths in the US alone.  I like trends though so I check out the NBC graphs that show the number of US cases per day.    Yesterday we had 30,000 cases, which is down from the high of 35,000 cases but when you look at their curve it looks like this.  Definitely not flat.

That’s the big question really.  Have we flattened the curve?  I watch the briefings almost every night and he and the experts talk about we have flattened the curve.  They used projections from this website and again I have no reason to not find it credible.  But the pictures don’t match.

 

According to this site the peak is over and as a nation we are starting in the downward trend.  That supposes stay in place measures are happening, but so far it seems pretty accurate.  When the president talks about each state’s reaction and the differences he is using this data.  For example Texas, with its rural areas and dispersed populations is doing pretty well so far, but it’s peak isn’t estimated to be for another  14  days.

 

 

 

Even though it isn’t for another 14 days the projected death toll per day is relatively low.  At peak it is 71 deaths per day, which in a state as large as Texas is objectively not that high.  As conversations ramp up around getting the country back to work, believe me I understand the need for folks to get back to normalcy.  We are spending trillions of dollars to keep some money flowing to people, but even with those additional funds, individual people will start getting desperate soon, if they aren’t already there.  The question then becomes do we accept the deaths (and perhaps more) by lifting the stay at home measures or do we hope we have passed the peak in enough areas and roll the dice.

As a person who likes to work and was raised to be a productive member of society I want everyone back to work as quickly as possible.  That’s not about my individual 401K portfolio, or my loss of income from partial furlough, but about understanding that the long term impacts of being out of work for some people could last for years.  Unfortunately those desires are at war with the reality of what I am seeing on the ground.

I personally know many people in our healthcare communities, and when I reach out to them they are still telling me that they don’t have access to basic protective equipment.  For example a daughter of a friend works in trauma at a hospital and is forced to wear the same gown and face protection all day.  Before Corona they changed gowns between every patient , but there still aren’t enough supplies for them to do that.  I know a doctor who was exposed (through no fault of their own the patient lied about having symptoms) and doesn’t have access to a test.  In many parts of the country if you are asymptomatic you simply cannot get a test unless you have had a fever for two days.

In addition to the healthcare situation, we still continue to see hot spots bubble up.  In the last few days we have seen that they are putting bodies in refrigerated trucks in Detroit and they closed down a pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, SD because of 300 cases.  Those are just the examples that made the news. With examples like those it doesn’t seem like the danger has passed, although I can allow for the possibility that they are isolated cases.

Except personally I really don’t believe that.  We are a country that takes our personal freedoms very seriously, and I can’t believe that if we lift restrictions folks are just going to stay in one area and keep to themselves.  Airline travel will start up again, and even if we don’t allow folks from the outside into the US we have plenty of opportunities to cross contaminate ourselves.  I personally have numerous business trips that have been delayed due to corona and have to believe as soon as the bans are lifted I will be back to flying.

Then there is Lee.  He has a summer job he is really looking forward to at Crazy Horse Memorial  in South Dakota.  At first glance this seems like a great place to be, but they are expecting record crowds this summer despite delaying their opening until Memorial Day.  Since few people will vacation internationally, they will likely vacation in the US and just like after 9-11 our National Parks and Memorials will probably see record crowds.  Since Lee is doing lighting at the show this might not be a bad thing, but in order to get his 40 hours he will also spend some time each day taking tickets.  The memorial gets one million visitors per year (most in the summer) which means Lee will be coming into contact with thousands(?) of people each day.

These folks will be from all over the country and I have to believe some of them will be carrying the virus.  No matter what protections are provided, and they will probably be minimal, chances are he could contract it.  But even if he did only 8 out of 100K die, so those are pretty decent odds right?  Maybe, but at least in our case we have a choice.  For now at least I have a job that pays our bills so he doesn’t have to work this summer.  Or he could try and find a less risky job somewhere else.  We are lucky in that respect at least for now, but I am fully aware that this is not the case for many Americans.

As much as we are about choice and individual freedoms, there is precious little of that when you have bills to pay and kids to feed.  Despite any reservations many people might have they will be driven back to work by necessity. The immediate concerns of making rent and putting food on the table will fully outweigh the outside possibility of getting sick.  Those of us who have jobs where we can work from home will continue to do so for awhile, but eventually the pressures of the need for business travel will outweigh our concerns as well. We will travel, we will expose ourselves and others, and perhaps will we see more hot spots bubble up over the summer.

The problem is we simply don’t know and we don’t live in a perfect world were we can reasonably say with certainty what will happen.  Personally I would feel a lot better if the antibody test was widespread, but even when it is what will that solve?  Will people who have never had the virus expose themselves under controlled conditions, like we did with the chicken pox?  Would businesses understand that there is one set of rules for those with the antibodies and those without?  Doubtful.

There will be risk in the upcoming months regardless of what we do.  Best case scenario you have the disease and didn’t even know it and are carrying the antibodies right now. For us, since we have some choice, we need to talk about what we want to do.  How much risk do we want to accept? When will I be willing to get a haircut, walk into a crowded store, or get on an airplane?  To some extent life will make those choices for me.  The pressure to normalize will be very great, and it will be harder and harder to push back against those forces.  We are already seeing that and when they start opening things back up it will be much worse.

As always, we will let you know.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
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March 2020 Budget

Sorry this took me so long to get out, lots going on.  I would say this month could in no way be considered normal but wanted to share what we saw anyways.  COVID is changing the way we all live and since it is part of the story I decided to go ahead and report it.  Just don’t use this as any indicator of what normal (if there is such a thing in this lifestyle) looks like.

 

 

Alcohol – As a perfect example of an unusual charge when this all started going down we stocked up on alcohol.  We aren’t big drinkers but the thought of liquor stores closing (which never happened) had us running to the liquor store.  Turns out Texas had the biggest liquor sales of any state.  We were obviously part of that 🙂

Campground Fees – We are staying with friends but helping with the electric so those costs will be in this section.

E-Cigarettes – Again over concerns about not getting supply I bought tons of these.

Dining Out – Even though restaurants all closed we were still able to blow our budget in these categories.  Most of these purchases happened earlier in the month and we have gotten carry out a few times.  Our personal rule is only carryout on items that we can microwave before eating and we are doing very little of that at this point.

Entertainment – Early on we purchased several board games in anticipation of needing something to do.  We also ordered a few books online after the Half Price Book store was closed down and consequently needed to pay full price.

Gifts – Some of this was purchases for our hosts and other gifts were for our grandson.  I am missing him terribly and little gifts really help make me feel better.  The largest chunk was when Lee bought wire shelves for Kyrston.  He was going to help her build shelves when we went to visit her, but since that trip got cancelled he purchased her something that she could put together herself.

Groceries – I was wondering how much this category would be and $1,140 does not surprise me.  We had no idea how much food would be available and had access to freezers and a larger refrigerator so we stocked up on everything we could.  I would not do this any differently if I had to do it again, but I am now wondering if I should donate some of this stuff since the food banks are struggling so much.

Healthcare (Out of pocket) –  I had a difficult time setting up my HSA account because they would not recognize my mailing address as a real address.  There was a significant delay but eventually I got it sorted out and am now putting away $300 a paycheck.   These were the last of the bills that had to be paid out of pocket.

Home Equipment and Repair – At the very beginning of the month we went to the container store and bought some items to go with our newly remodeled rooms.  Plus there were some trailing costs on the carpet replacement.

Pets – We were planning to stay at a military campground and Jack had to get a completely updated shot record.  Along with that we purchase two packages of flea chewables which are not cheap.

Truck Fuel – Check out how low our fuel costs are.  Combination of not going anywhere and the lowest fuel prices in years.

 

April should actually be more interesting  because we will be in full on lockdown for most of it.  Stay safe everyone.

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
  • You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on iTunes.
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First Time on Furlough

We are living in extraordinary times.  My company, as with many companies, are trying their best to keep people employed during the crisis.  In my case, as a salaried employee, we were put on a ten day unpaid furlough over the next 6 weeks.  Our choices were to take the time off in 5 day increments or to work 3 out of five days per week.  Based on my workload and personal preference I chose to take Tuesday and Fridays off and today is my first day.  Honestly I feel really lucky that we are able to continue to work as I can live on 3/5ths pay indefinitely.  That is a major advantage of our lifestyle, debt free position, and ability to live on less.  For my coworkers with mortgages and children it is much harder, but everyone is trying to make it work.  This decision has allowed our company to avoid laying people off at least for the time being.

Speaking of my coworkers, every one of them who is a working parent deserves a medal.  Not only are they working very long hours, they are also home schooling and taking care of their children.  I love my kids but I am incredibly grateful that they are grown and out of the house, because this would be so much harder with them in it.  Even with just the two of us, it is still difficult.  We live in a small space and we used to give each other breaks by going to the store, running errands etc.  That’s a rare occurrence now and I feel particularly bad for Lee because he is listening to me talk all day about things he doesn’t really care about.

That’s because we are very busy.  Even before shoving five days worth of work into three days, there was lots to do and now we are doing the best we can to get it all done.  Things will be left on the table though.  It’s unavoidable, and for all of us Type A’s that can be particularly difficult.  But the company clearly stated no work phone or computer on our days off so I am left with some time to fill.  I want to make sure I don’t spend it focusing on the unpleasantness around me and instead I am trying to find positive things to do.

I recently discovered Tik Tok, which I think is super fun, and even made a couple of Jack videos which you can see @jacktheflyingpupperking.  I wish I was living in a Tik Tok world where folks are dancing and singing and trying to make the best of things.  Obviously those folks are only showing you a small slice of their lives, but I want more moments like that and less moments of worry and fear. I also purchased (before the crazy) a corkboard map of the US.  My idea is to take my favorite picture from each state and print and cut them out to make a collage.  This project is harder than it sounds (just picking my favorite picture is rough), but I am going to try and tackle it.

Other than that we are trying to stay safe and practice social distancing.  This is actually harder than it sounds because we are in Texas and despite everything that isn’t really a thing here.  More times than I can count, when we are receiving packages, I have had to back away from delivery people and ask them to set the box down.  They almost always give me an odd look as if my behavior is abnormal.  That’s pretty concerning to all of us and we actually stopped doing pickup at one local grocery store because they weren’t practicing social distancing.  As with everyone it’s been a crazy ride and we are just waiting for it to be over.  What the fallout will be long term, it is hard to say, but personally I don’t think things will just go back to normal.  If nothing else being isolated with people says a ton about those relationships and they will either be much stronger or weakened when all of this is done.

In the meantime I continue to try and be as kind as I can be to everyone I come into contact with, but that gets somewhat harder as the days go by.  I am just thankful that so far my family is safe and I am employed, which puts me in a really blessed position as compared to so many people.  Take care of yourselves and the people in your lives as best you can.

Trace

 

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
  • You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on iTunes.