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January 7, 2010, a Thursday
Parker (K), Colorado, USA
— Errands and laundry on a cold day
It was 0°F (-18°C) when I got out of bed around 7:30, and the hot water was frozen. I turned on the hot water heater to thaw it out. I had breakfast including New Orleans Style Coffee with Chicory from Lucile's. My cousin S notified me that she had posted some pictures of her kids (L, age 3.5, and H, age 2 months) on SnapFish, so I checked them out. L is a cool kid who's into trucks (especially fire trucks) and trains, and he loves his little sister who is very cute. I left around 11:00 in the Jeep by myself to run some errands.

I went to the bank, the UPS Store to send off the travel tripod, and Radio Shack to pick up some switches to install the macerator and 12VDC clock.

Then I went to Home Depot to get wire to install the macerator and 12VDC clock, a Flexogen hose to use with the macerator (they didn't carry it like I thought they did), and a new solar-powered fence post light. You might be wondering why we need a light for our fence post, and what we're doing carrying around a fence post. Well, it makes a perfect entry light for the side door of the RV. It's always on when it's dark, so you don't have to remember to turn it on, it doesn't drain any power from the house batteries, and provides just enough light to illuminate the entry so we can unlock the door. Andy Baird had given us the same light as an RV-warming gift, but I knocked it off when we washed the RV on October 22, 2009. When it hit the ground, the tabs that hold the top section (solar panel, battery, and LED lights) had broken. So, it was just sitting loosely on the plastic globe section that's affixed to the RV. Somewhere on our travels, the top section fell off, and we had been without the light for a while.

Then I went to WalMart and picked up a second Lasko 5367 Ceramic Heater to replace our Honeywell HZ-338 Ceramic Heater that we use in the living room because the Lasko heater we bought on December 20, 2009 is so much quieter than the Honneywell heater and it puts out more heat too. I also picked up some Clif Bars and some duck cloth to make a bag for my light stands.

I returned to the RV around 1:05 and had lunch. We loaded up the Jeep with boxes to throw away, the Honeywell heater to donate, and laundry to do. We left around 2:00 in the Jeep, and it was about 27°F (-3°C).

We dropped off the Honeywell heater and trash, then ...

Went to the One Stop Coin Laundry and started our laundry. J stayed to use their Wi-Fi connection, and I left in the Jeep to run some more errands.

I picked up a 90th birthday card for my stepfather, then went to Lowe's to see what they had in the way of 3/4-inch water hoses. They don't carry Flexogen either.

I returned to the One Stop Coin Laundry just in time to put the laundry in the dryer. :) J was getting really tired of the laundromat environment with two competing TV stations. We left around 3:50.

We went to the Parker Post Office to sign, address, and mail off the birthday card to my stepfather.

We returned to the RV around 4:15. I put away some of the items we had accumulated in the last 24 hours to make space in the living room.

We had dinner at 6:00 of Bertolli Chicken alla Vodka & Farfalle and five-cheese Texas Toast. That was the first time we've had that flavor of Bertolli, one of our favorites, in a long time because we hadn't seen it in the stores.

I worked up a blog entry, then did some computer work. Before going to bed around 11:00, I turned on the hot water heater to let it run all night to keep the hot water from freezing. It was -2°F (-19°C)!