Titanic isn't sinking? in A small but passable life.

Okay, so the ship isn’t sinking. Too bad for the folks who jumped to another ship or who are clinging to lifeboats. I was just hanging out on the railing observing the panic and chaos.

I had no plan, other than to not go back to OD unless everybody else did. I do have a brand new 200 page paper journal with seven written pages since May 14th, 2017 and two pages written since the first of this year. I had grand illusions about actually starting to write in it again.

Miss Lillie from across the street knocked on my door this morning at 4:45. I got up, got dressed, backed the car out of the carport, loaded her carry-on into the trunk, asked her if she had her ID and boarding pass, and we took off to the airport.

I took the freeway. Halfway there she said she’d forgotten her hearing aid.

“Do we need to go back and get it?”

“No, it’s fine.”

“You can now legitimately ignore everybody.”

She laughed at that.

I dropped her off and headed back home. I was back in bed at 5:30. Forty-five minutes, round trip.

I slept until my usual 8am.

Coffee and the brand new non-fiction this morning. Sausage and eggs for brunch. A lie about the pool for about four hours. I was waiting for the forecast ninety degrees. It only made it to 87 degrees.

Back home to more lie down with NPR on the radio. With the A/C on.

My amazon order arrived today, a day earlier than tracking said it would and a week after ordered.

The Anker PowerCore 26,800 mAh / 96.48Wh battery is a beast. It weighs about 1.2lbs. It has three USB output ports and two input ports for charging. I’ve got it hooked up to two 5v USB chargers right now.

So that’s it, my portable power system is complete. I’ve got the Anker 21w solar panel, the Anker SoundCore Bluetooth speaker, the smartphone, the tablet (containing about 300 CD’s), the Kindle, and the old flip phone (for the FM radio). The two d.lights (lantern and spotlight) are self contained solar rechargeable but they can also be charged by USB cable. Oh, and the “Bag O’ Cords”. To replace the old AM/FM/weather radio I’ll use the NOAA app on the smartphone, if I’ve got signal.

I really need to, but don’t want to, weigh all that together. I’ll guess several pounds. Maybe even four pounds. And all for total luxury. I’ve never been an ultra light backpacker though. As long as my base weight comes in less than 20 or 25 pounds I’m happy. And now, between dark thirty and midnight I can listen to music, play solitaire, or read, or write and let all the lights burn bright.

I’ll let the solar panel hang off my pack during sunny times, charging the PowerCore. At night the PowerCore will run, or recharge all the devices.

That reminds me. I need to buy a scale. There was one at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. A food scale, eleven inches square. A digital one. In US and metric. I think it was $15. Next time I take Mom to Walmart I’ll go next door and check it out.

For some reason I was thinking San Diego was about five hours away. Nope, about ten hours. It looks like we’ll be spending the first night in Yuma, the halfway point.

I found a La Quinta Inn in Chula Vista for $78 per night.

I got thirty days to get this all lined out.