Freakishly Happy

Yes, it’s been a while since we’ve worked on the bus. Be the last few days we’ve finally had some decent weather and sunshine which has given us the motivation to get out there and work. Yesterday John took out all of the windows in the bus so that we could begin taking out the metal paneling on the sides. We needed them gone so that we could rust protect the walls beneath them and so we could also re-do the weather stripping and caulking around the windows that has been eaten away. He was also able to remove the remaining heater that was in the front of the bus near the driver's seat. He'll have to tell you more about that process as I was unfortunately called away to house-wifery errands like grocery shopping and making baklava.

Today took a trip to Wendy's (American Hardware) one of our favorite area hardware stores, and bought a load of supplies including ventilating masks, goggles, weather stripping and caulk. Then we came home and I went window-sill by window-sill and scraped off all of the remaining gunk and weather-striping while John did the ardeous task of removing the metal panels below the windows. Again, I"m not really sure what the full story was with this, other than the fact that it seemed really taxing, so he'll have to go in to it more later. Our friend Rich stopped by for awhile to act as our foreman, and to keep us on task and in line. He’s proving to be a really good resource and fount of knowledge and not only that fun to have around. And even better he’s going to be our go-to guy for much of our welding.

We were a little dismayed when read the forecast last night, and because said that we'll be getting some more snow tonight and the day after and the day after and the day after... This is a little distressing for us because we currently have no windows in the bus and a wet interior could set us back a few more days. So we weighed our options and decided that a tarp would be the best course of action. So we took another trip to Wendy’s and bought a huge tarp to put over the bus. (I have a feeling they're going to be seeing a lot of us in the next few weeks)

When we got back it was still sunny with no signs of a change in the weather, so we worked on scraping the black tacky residue off the bottoms of the windows using gasoline to help un-stick it, (under the guidance of my father). After a while the weather began to quickly change, and the sky went to a sickly grey color and we decided we’d better get the tarp on before anything worse set in. As I said the tarp is huge and it was a little tricky to get the thing unraveled. Once we did, it took some creativity to get it up and over the back of the bus. Just as we began to devise a plan, our friend JodyFenton showed up to cheer us on. We used the skills that we learned in PE in second grade with the parachutes and did a “1… 2… 3.. up and over” action while each holding a corner of the tarp on either side of the bus and taking a good run for it. We made it about ¼ of the way down the bus before the weight of the rest of the tarp set in. John worked from the top and I worked from below and we were able to get the tarp all the way situated.

The tarp goes just to the front of the bus and hangs around the “face” of the bus so that it looks like a nun in a habit. We put the green side of the tarp facing in, and the brown side of the tarp facing out. From the outside the bus looks either like a giant tootsie roll or an oversized Swiss Cake roll.

We spent a little more time working on the goopy windows, before I decided I had to go in and get warm. John, being the trooper that he is, stayed out in the bus until well after dark getting the remainder of the metal paneling off the walls.

  We finally got the sealant we've been waiting for in the mail, so we should be working in the bus a lot this week. Please feel free to check out our progress on the bus-cam, and to drop us a line at Johnandjoni@freakishlyhappy.net

So I’ll admit it, I’m a little self-conscious being on camera. I’ll be working away and then suddenly realize that there are potential people I don’t know watching me. Especially when I realize that my pants have slipped down and the top of my posterior has been visible for the past 20 minutes. It’s really embarrassing. So I’ve decided to make a game of it, and put my fanny to a good cause. The game will begin as soon as we appear on camera each day we work on the bus. For first person to spot my *ahem* “plumber’s crack”, and can correctly state the time of it's occurance with a two minute margin of error, (*** or takes and reports the first screenshot of my lily white backside,) we will donate $5 to your choice of one of these charities.

• Tibet House Trust (http://www.tibet.com/Trust/trust.html)
• Heifer International (http://www.heifer.org/)
• Reading is Fundamental(http://www.rif.org/)
• Action Against Hunger (http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/)
• The ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) Association (http://www.alsa.org/donate/default.cfm)

Let the Game Begin!

*** In order to make a screen shot:
- Hit the FN (function key) and then hit the “print screen” key (mine is located at F11).
-Then email it to me at joni@freakishlyhappy.net

**Thanks to our friend Jody for this fabulous idea!

SO... two weekends ago we were in Washington DC
for a political conference (see what I forget to tell you about!). The
weekend was great, spring was in the air it was a balmy 42 degrees (up from the
20 degree weather we'd been experiencing up here), the trees had big fuzzy buds
robins abounded everywhere and it was perfect, well.. Nearly perfect.
Everywhere we went there were people talking on their cell phones. Now much
like an ex-smoker is much more sensitive to smoking, I am an ex-mobile phone
user and am very sensitive to cell phone, especially usage of the obnoxious
type. At the national monuments were teenagers gabbing away, in front of
the Declaration of Independence were senior citizens with phones to their ears,
even at the radical conference we went to were punks on cell phones (how totally
under the thumb establishment is that?).

I can not understand how we as a civilization have gotten to
the point where we can not even enjoy our national treasures without having a cell
phone conversation (Now I know that those of you who knew me during my cell
phone phase are going to jump down my throat, but hey, I’ve evolved and pretty
much mobile free for almost two years (okay, when we came back from Germany I
did have one, but it barely functioned)).I remember the good ol' days when people would talk to their friends and families in the privicy of their own homes, and would go to grocery store prepped with a written list and if they forgot something? Oh well.  But now it seems like we have to have constant connection with those who are not with us, while on vacation, at the grocery store and even in public bathrooms.  

The worst cellphone abuse we saw on our trip were on the train to and
from DC. The ride was fairly quiet until
we got to, you guessed it, New Jersey. It seemed like as soon as we crossed the
border there were at least 3 people around us having very loud conversations. There
was a woman 4 rows behind us who practically screamed into her phone for over
an hour. She would finish one
conversation and then call someone else 30 seconds later. As I said this went on and on and on and on. There were also several business people who
got on the train, who were obviously together, who each sat in the window seat
across the aisle from each other and proceeded to have a business meeting (this
is another rant all to itself). They’d holler
back and forth things like, “Susan, did you get the numbers for the BlahBlah
account?” and then would each hold very loud conference calls and then hang up
and bellow over the aisle again.

Try as I might it is
really difficult to ignore other people’s conversations, especially when they
are shouting. I have decided that there
should be a law, that if you are talking loud enough that the people around you
are forced to listen to your conversation, you should also be forced to switch
to your speaker phone. It is not fair to leave us wondering what he was
indicted for, or what stocks we should be purchasing. Either that or they should all be herded
together like smokers into a single cell phone section so that the rest of us
can go about our business in peace.