... a deviant path is the only way ...

A couple weeks before the end of CO, I thought it would be smart to bring my tires into town and get them replaced, rather than try to get that done while I was leaving. So I started to jack up my trailer to pull off the tires that needed to be replaced, whereupon my trailer rolled off its supports/over its chocks, a foot and a half down the hill, into my neighbors trailer. Thankfully, there was minimal damage to their trailer - just a few cracks in the fiberglass surface, and he showed me the far more extensive damage he had done a few months earlier that he had yet to patch. My trailer was a little less well off, as the rear supporting scissor jack had broken one of its welds, and pierced my black water tank. (For those not in the know, that's where the toilet empties.) Thankfully the scissor jack, in piercing the tank, also plugged it, giving me time to panic, calm down, and deal.

The coolest thing about this experience was when I was jacking my trailer back up, the extension for my truck jack broke, so I walked up to the blacksmith where they were able to repair it right away. Yes, I walked up the hill to the blacksmith. How cool is that?

So, how do you deal with a pierced black water tank? First: Get your tank pumped. Second, find a blacksmith or welder with a portable welding unit who can remove the jack, and if still usable, repair/replace it. During this step you should be on hand with a tupper to catch the remaining black water that will spill out of the hole (4 gallons of it, yuck!). Third, buy some Plast-Mend, which is the only holding tank patch kit that is the same kind of plastic as the holding tank, and spend two days brushing on layers of toxic plastic stuff (use gloves and a ventilator!). Fourth: Celebrate that you spent less than $200 and two weeks repairing something that would have cost at least three or four times that at a professional RV place. Yay!

Oh yeah, and don't fuck with a level trailer in Colorado. Get your tires changed on the way out of town.

Just got back from Milk in Denver. There seem to be new DJs, a cute asian guy in the Milk Bar, and a woman in the main room. The music has changed a bit with the change of DJs - the Milk DJ played a good variety, and his non-genre selections blended well with everything else he played. I'm still not as fond of the main room music - the DJ has different enough taste from me that when I did pop over for a break from the Milk Bar, I generally didn't feel compelled to stay. I think my friend who prefers 80s goth would have preferred the main room though.

Three notes for new music: "Undertaker" by Pusifer, "Midnight City" by M83, and the #7 remix of "Last Night In Brooklyn" by Inner Party Systems. That last one may very well qualify as the first dubstep song I like, with beautiful violin during 90% of the song. Also, there were two instances (one in each room) where I asked the DJ what song they just played, and they said it was an Aesthetic Perfection song. Which it didn't sound like at all, not harsh enough, nor distorted vocals. But apparently I must now download the rest of Graves' discography and listen to it all, just in case there are one or two songs that I absolutely must have. Unless AP is just the name the DJs through out when they're clueless about what they just played, or some such.

It's been an interesting week.

Last week I came to the realization that my feet were not simply sinking into the luxurious softness of my bathroom rug, but they were also sinking into the floorboards. So I contacted one of the Jill-of-all-trades on site, and after scouting it out on Monday, she and her muscle/runner began work replacing my bathroom floor on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, what she anticipated would be a fairly simple two-day job turned into something of a fiasco because the people who installed my sink and aftermarket toilet were very certain that they were permanent installations. The sink cabinet was screwed into the wall from the outside (with the screw heads only accessible from underneath my aluminum siding), and the toilet bowl flange was glued to the pipe below it, which in turn was glued to the black water tank. Dealing with all that has added about six hours and $200 to the project.

End of day one. Not much completed yet, spent most of day dealing with cabinet. Mid day, day 2. Everything that needs to be removed is removed. End of day, day 2. Came home from the concert to find my bathroom looking halfway normal again, yay! Placeholder for project end picture.

Then last night was the God Module concert. The person who was going to come with me bailed at the last minute, so I ended up giving away his ticket to a random couple at the door who seemed to be taken aback that it was a special event and not just a random no-cover Church night. It was a fun show, but I don't know if it was the 6 hours sleep, the stress of the house repair, the stress of trying to find someone else interested in going to the concert, or PMS, but I wasn't really feeling into it, and left the club around midnight.

Otherwise, I've been doing a lot of sewing, and I've had a 50% success rate of getting to the Monday night dance class. It's been a good show, but damn I can't wait to get to CO!

Little things make traveling to Norway this winter feel more feasible. Like learning the different denominations of the krone (50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 in bills; 1, 5, 10, and 20 in coins), and that the 50 øre piece will be obsolete at the start of May. Also figuring out a rough budget (300kr/day for 2 weeks will be a minimum of $800 for the trip, 1000kr/day will be $2500). I figure I'll bring 5000kr with me to start, with $1500 in travelers checks for when/if I need them. 300kr/day is a number for the ultra-frugal traveler, which is probably pretty decent for the time I'll be spending with my friends at their house, but I'll also want to spend a couple days in Oslo when I get there, and maybe I'll try to explore northern Norway myself at the tail end of the trip, both of which will entail spending a bit more money.

On short notice during my last week in AZ, I went to an industrial night at Sanctum in Phoenix. We almost wimped out, but I'm glad we didn't!

( So much better! 3 stars out of 4 )

AZRF is drawing to a close. It's been a good run, low stress, though since I'm not currently managing I'm making a bit less than I am used to.

At the start of the show, I managed to extract myself from my internet games, so I have not felt compelled to get online twice a day. In fact, sometimes I go three or four days before breaking out my computer! It's kind of awesome. It's also kind of handy, because...

My video card has been slowly dying. It first flickered in November, then waited a month before another, but is now a fairly regular occurrence. I will end up sending it in for repair once I get to Scarby, because it will probably take three weeks to get back from Geek Squad. Yay for warranties!

My diet and exercise regimen continues to go well. I'm now down 14 lbs from when I got to AZ. At this rate, I might have to change my MN goal.

Wow, it's almost a month since I posted here.

I arrived at the AZ faire grounds yesterday, and am nicely settled in. On Monday I begin work making tons of chocolate - literally!

I got a Wave 3 catalytic heater installed yesterday before I moved in, so I'm really excited about being able to keep warm at night without running my furnace and draining my batteries.

I've acquired a cat, Guts, who did not particularly enjoy the trip out here, and so far isn't very interested in going outside. I don't know if it's that he knows there are coyotes out here that would love to terrorize and eat him, or if he's just getting used to the new surroundings, but I have once found him waiting to be let inside with his tail and back puffed up. Hopefully he gets to like it eventually.

On the trip here I weighed my rig - 14,680 lbs, 6100 for my truck, and 8580 for the trailer. So while my trailer was underweight (max weight is 8800), my truck was towing a little more than the recommended max of 14.5k. I did have the weight well distributed at least, with 17% of the trailer weight being on my rear truck axle. However, I don't think I'll be hauling walking staffs again, especially since I had my tires looked at and they noted that they're wearing more on the slide side than the door side. And I still don't like how they're wearing. Tomorrow when it's light out I think I'll check my axles to make certain they're not bent, just in case, but otherwise I guess I need to look for 10-ply radials.

Finally finished up some of the little piddly sewing projects I've had lying about, leaving me with just my mother's renfaire dress and chemise. Barring that and getting my taxes done, I'm just about through my to-do list.

I like being on vacation!

Went out to Numbers again on Sat night, this time for an actual club night, and not a concert. I wore my new velvet bra with my corset this time, and alas, it is not a good clubbing bra, as I did end up with light bruising by my right armpit.

Since, my last review doesn't really count, being a concert and all, I present Numbers Review #2.

( 3.5 stars our of 4 )