I had a cardiologist appointment last week and everything was pretty good. I will be continuing my blood thinners until early next year. That means no new tattoos until after I stop taking those. Bummer. But, if it helps my health that is a better option and it hopefully won’t be permanent. I guess the timing will work out fine for a return to Europe to get more ink over there. With full flights and the crazy arrogant assholes on those flights it is just as well to wait until the stupid calms down. At least in the meantime I can pack up and go someplace…it is even possible this week! I guess we will both be surprised.

Now that my urgent medical stuff is taken care of (he said, knocking on wood…) and I get my truck back tomorrow, I am now freed-up to get out on some local trips. I am getting the trailer closer to ready to go. I am re-mounting the spare tire on the trailer tomorrow; I took it off to save a little weight but the tire just takes up too much room inside my truck and it really limits what I can carry inside or in the truck bed. The dog’s crate is plastic and doesn’t fold down so it takes up most of the back seat; it won’t fit in the trailer door either, which is all well and good since the trailer is small. I am going to have think about getting a collapsible one for the road to save some room.

Once I get some trips out of my system and we get into drier weather I will take the shower apart after I work on sealing the windows. I have not forgotten…just too many things, like rain, a heart attack and heart surgery, that kept me from doing it yet this year when we had the nicer weather.

I still have not unboxed and put oil in my new generator for a test so that is on my agenda too. Right now I cannot lift it with my surgery restrictions but I think in another month I will be doing that. With the popularity of “camping” now I think campgrounds are gonna be jammed with people and I hope it won’t be difficult to find a spot in the forests to park for a few days. That is my preference but in this area even those spots are sometimes hard to find and I find that safety issues can be a real problem these days.

It’s been odd getting back into some normalcy. I can travel again, I have no appointments until next year, but since I believe in real science and facts I am still taking precautions from the ‘rona and will for a long time to come. It’s hard to change some of those habits, like not being able to do much, lifting restrictions, no dog, and no real travel. Between the pandemic and health issues I have been really locked down and now that I am able to go places and do things within reason I have had trouble thinking of destinations. Yeah I went to Montana in March but it was a fast trip. I was a little concerned with not just the weather but also I had just had a heart attack and was waiting for surgery. There are some vast areas of nothing along the route so that was in the back of my mind.

But now I see the future getting brighter and it’s really very uplifting and positive for me. Working on and in the trailer is getting me excited to go hit the road. Even though I will not get on a plane yet I have been bingeing quite a few international travel shows and that is getting me excited to go overseas (or even just up to Canada) again. I just know not to get my hopes up quite yet as things are changing constantly. I am starting to think about places I want to visit and will begin a list of where I want to go, knowing it may be a while yet. At least I would have that part done.

As I watch these travel and food shows I keep finding new things to add to my bucket list. Adding a few new entries to that list the other day I noticed I am really getting quite a collection of domestic things to see and do and places to eat. I will be figuring out how to make it to all these places too. I am still intent on getting the last three of the 50 states and most of the bucket list things I want to see and do are along the way. I should be freed up to be able to do that trip now. If Canada is not open yet when I get up there well it looks like I am staying “local”.

That’s all the dreaming for now…