March 8, 2015

It was simply amazing waking up knowing there was a VW bus in my driveway.  This entire experience all started because of one post:  Julie Strickler asking where her silver or gold Toyota Camry XLE was.  She had manifested it but couldn’t locate it.  I answered that it was with my VW Westy, and then looked them up, just to see them.  There it was – an EBay ad, and I kept looking at it that night.  It grabbed me.  Somehow, someway, I “bought” it the next day.  Within 24 hours, after Dusty and Julie McAdon checked it out for me,  I was going to my bank and by that Saturday at 3 or so, I had deposited the check in the seller’s account (we had emailed each other rover 60 times). Friday night, one week later, I was sitting in Pizza Bene with Maggie, when I was contacted by the transport company in Florida.  5 minutes later I heard from the truck driver.  Somehow, instead of it taking 2 days to get the bus to me, he had a delivery in Folsom, so last night Brian Duby drove me there.  I drove it home 2 hours later.

And so, I am sitting in my bed, with a sore throat and not feeling 100% because this excitement has been overwhelming.  This morning I wrote yesterday’s 5-a-Day, then I got dressed and went outside with a cup of coffee.  It is the first day after Day Light Savings has ended, so the kids were still asleep.  I sat in that bus, with the book and my coffee, listening to the birds chirping their joy and feeling the sunlight of the Spirit on me.  

I got a bucket, water my lettuce garden, then went to the bus and started cleaning it out with a little but of soap and some warn water.  There is a lot of grime on that bus.  I am so ready to clean her up.  I am not going to color her yellow, after all.  Lizzie Mae needs to be that same vintage green color that she is inside.  I want to sand down the wood inside and seal it, but I am afraid to start anything until I know what and how to do it.  The tires are cracked on the sidewalls from sitting, so I need to get the tires replaced.  I need to get the belts replaced and get everything “sounded.”  I would love to figure out how to do much of this myself, but I want to have it done correctly.    I cracked the passenger side sunshade off, so (I’ll have to buy a new one of those.  Ethan did something with a rear speaker covering.  The side mirror suddenly was gone and we thought we lost it as we went to fill her up, but it was simply upside down.  We had a blast riding in her to the Shell station in Cameron Park (our road trip).  I had trouble getting gasoline in her because the gas nozzles are too short, I think.  I managed to get three gallons in.  The keys are tricky and hard to use, the seat belts remind me why no one used seatbelts in   It is, however,  AWESOME!!!! 

the 70s – they were too difficult to readjust!

On the other side, this house is a friggin mess.  I have stuff for a moving sale – good quality stuff – piled in the back room.  There have no idea how I am going to live in a teeny tiny house if I have all this stuff.  Actually, this house isn’t even 1200 sq feet (I think?), so it is a teeny tiny house and I still feel it is too big.

I tried making a DMV appointment since, due to the small VIN number (10 digits),

 I can’t do the title transfer online, so I joined AAA and I’ll get it done there.  My neighbor Brent suggested I join it, which I think is wise.   My last grad school class starts tomorrow night, so I got my homework board up and running.  I realize I won’t finish my hours anytime soon and am just going with the flow.  As for moving to Switzerland soon?  I found a company that can transport the Westy to Zurich, so we are set.  

Picture:  Maggie captured my wicked Westy driver skills as we listened to CRB "Little Lizzie Mae" (the first song played as a christening).