How We See It!

Our Life on Wheels continues, and we’re sitting still on those wheels for a while. But, we can still talk about what’s going on.

So, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson and Ed McMahon have died. And the Governor of South Carolina has had an affair in South America. Can you handle it? We never wish ill to anyone, but we certainly don’t make a fuss about celebrities who have the same problems all of us eventually have. (I’m not necessarily including the Governor’s affair with that comment!)

Here in southeast Arizona, the Monsoon Season has arrived! RAIN in the desert. We didn’t have much Thursday, but enough that Dave, our contractor, took a break from installing our rigid awning to visit his mother in the local nursing center.

Dave is working as well as he can to complete our project. He won’t start a new job until he finishes ours, and he’s running into unexpected glitches. First of all, we’ve had an unusual amount of wind, and he cannot be working with these light-weight panels in the wind.

Now, there aren’t enough panels to complete the awning! Apparently, the folks who had installed the awning at the old site had stretched each panel just enough to fill the space. Dave, on the other hand, is going “by the book” and needs one more panel to complete the job. His comment? “Amateurs!”

Another glitch – our Architectural Committee apparently has changed the rules. Instead of allowing the awning support anchors to be placed in 18” deep holes and anchored with cement, the acting Co-Chairman for the summer declared the holes must be deeper, with a cement layer at the bottom, the anchor placed on top of the cement layer, and then the holes filled with cement. Of course, that will cost Dave more money for the additional cement, and he’ll have to pass that cost on to us.

But now Dave is working with the skirting. Hey, the trailer is sitting higher than it used to (remember, he didn’t deflate the tires as the previous owners had) so he can’t use all of the old material! He’ll have to buy extra! This is Dave's sister helping while Dave is watching.

Hey, I’m a member of the Architectural Committee! I’m going to challenge this process of changing the rules in the middle of my project, and in the summer when the Committee isn’t able to meet and discuss proposed changes. Unfortunately, they won’t meet until October.

But you know what? It’s all part of the adventure. It’s the life we are living and loving.

That’s what we see today. Welcome to a new version of … Our Life on Wheels!