*pant*
My sister and her children have kept me quite busy. Lori has been off work this week so we are doing all kinds of things, including mowing the lawn, weeding around some trees, cutting down an in-the-way tree, etc. This morning Lori helped me replace the windshield wipers on my truck. I need to get the tires rotated and change the oil, that will probably happen next week.
When I drove from Vancouver Island to Alberta, I packed up all my stuff in the bed of my truck (well, really Kirsten packed up the truck but it amounts to the same thing), put a tarp over it and tied it down with a bungee net and ratcheting ties.
This will work for a short distance, but I need something more solid for making the trip across the border. If mum & I drive through storms, we need the back to be waterproof. I need to be able to lock my stuff in the back of the truck, I will not go to all the trouble of carefully selecting the things to bring only to have them stolen. Last, and I think I have mentioned this before, we will be traveling with my cat and she needs to have access to her litter box. On the drive here, the litter box was in the foot well of the passenger seat. Mum probably wouldn't like to have to rest her feet on a litter box, so my idea was to have the litter box in the bed but next to the cab of the truck. If I had a canopy with a sliding window, I could build a little tunnel for Sam to go back & forth from the cab of the truck to her litter box in the back. That was the original plan.
And then yesterday, I found mold on my mattress.
(sigh)
I bought this mattress at IKEA after having landed at the airport in Edmonton when I came back from Japan in 2004. I've never had a frame for it, I've always had this mattress just on the floor. I know, I know, not the best idea for air circulation. Now, it's possible that on the drive from BC to Alberta, the mattress got wet. When I brought it into Lori's house, knowing that she had had some flooding in the basement, I put my mattress on a clean tarp on the carpet where I'm staying. The dehumidifier has been going nonstop since I arrived here four weeks ago, and the 10L bucket is full of water every day.
I had been meaning to flip the mattress or at least tip it up to air it out for a while. I should have been doing it once a week, knowing the dampness problems in the basement. Finally I did it yesterday and found a spot, right smack in the middle of the bottom of the mattress, about 18" in diameter. Crap. This mattress was going to come to North Carolina and be our guest bed. Now I am fairly certain that I do not want to take a moldy mattress across the continent.
So...
I have sprayed the affected area with a bleach solution. I have a fan and the dehumidifier pointed at the area. I seriously doubt the mold can be eradicated.
What does this mean?
Finding a canopy for my truck is quite challenging. For some reason, the Ford F150 longbox from 1997-2003 is a very unusual length and hard to find second hand canopies for. They are either too long or too short by something like an inch and a half. I looked at a canopy a few weeks ago but it didn't have a window to meet the cab, the lock needed replacing, and all the side seals were peeling off. Even if it was free, it would have cost me hundreds of dollars to make it usable. No thanks.
So now, with the possibility of not taking this mattress, suddenly there is a lot more space in the back or much less stuff that needs to be covered. Almost all my stuff is in Rubbermaid bins. I'm wondering if maybe with some plywood, sealant and some clever design, I can create my own cover for the truck that would include a place for the litter box and would be something I can lock down. See, this is exactly the kind of thing Dan would do. I haven't yet had a chance to talk to him about my crazy plan, but it just might work.
I would possibly continue to sleep on this mattress until I leave, though there is a hide-a-bed downstairs that I could sleep on. It would also mean that Dan would have to buy us a mattress before I get there (he has been sleeping on a foamy all this time), and that Mum would need to stay in a local motel for the few days before her flight back to Canada. We'll see what happens...
My sister and her children have kept me quite busy. Lori has been off work this week so we are doing all kinds of things, including mowing the lawn, weeding around some trees, cutting down an in-the-way tree, etc. This morning Lori helped me replace the windshield wipers on my truck. I need to get the tires rotated and change the oil, that will probably happen next week.
When I drove from Vancouver Island to Alberta, I packed up all my stuff in the bed of my truck (well, really Kirsten packed up the truck but it amounts to the same thing), put a tarp over it and tied it down with a bungee net and ratcheting ties.
This will work for a short distance, but I need something more solid for making the trip across the border. If mum & I drive through storms, we need the back to be waterproof. I need to be able to lock my stuff in the back of the truck, I will not go to all the trouble of carefully selecting the things to bring only to have them stolen. Last, and I think I have mentioned this before, we will be traveling with my cat and she needs to have access to her litter box. On the drive here, the litter box was in the foot well of the passenger seat. Mum probably wouldn't like to have to rest her feet on a litter box, so my idea was to have the litter box in the bed but next to the cab of the truck. If I had a canopy with a sliding window, I could build a little tunnel for Sam to go back & forth from the cab of the truck to her litter box in the back. That was the original plan.
And then yesterday, I found mold on my mattress.
(sigh)
I bought this mattress at IKEA after having landed at the airport in Edmonton when I came back from Japan in 2004. I've never had a frame for it, I've always had this mattress just on the floor. I know, I know, not the best idea for air circulation. Now, it's possible that on the drive from BC to Alberta, the mattress got wet. When I brought it into Lori's house, knowing that she had had some flooding in the basement, I put my mattress on a clean tarp on the carpet where I'm staying. The dehumidifier has been going nonstop since I arrived here four weeks ago, and the 10L bucket is full of water every day.
I had been meaning to flip the mattress or at least tip it up to air it out for a while. I should have been doing it once a week, knowing the dampness problems in the basement. Finally I did it yesterday and found a spot, right smack in the middle of the bottom of the mattress, about 18" in diameter. Crap. This mattress was going to come to North Carolina and be our guest bed. Now I am fairly certain that I do not want to take a moldy mattress across the continent.
So...
I have sprayed the affected area with a bleach solution. I have a fan and the dehumidifier pointed at the area. I seriously doubt the mold can be eradicated.
What does this mean?
Finding a canopy for my truck is quite challenging. For some reason, the Ford F150 longbox from 1997-2003 is a very unusual length and hard to find second hand canopies for. They are either too long or too short by something like an inch and a half. I looked at a canopy a few weeks ago but it didn't have a window to meet the cab, the lock needed replacing, and all the side seals were peeling off. Even if it was free, it would have cost me hundreds of dollars to make it usable. No thanks.
So now, with the possibility of not taking this mattress, suddenly there is a lot more space in the back or much less stuff that needs to be covered. Almost all my stuff is in Rubbermaid bins. I'm wondering if maybe with some plywood, sealant and some clever design, I can create my own cover for the truck that would include a place for the litter box and would be something I can lock down. See, this is exactly the kind of thing Dan would do. I haven't yet had a chance to talk to him about my crazy plan, but it just might work.
I would possibly continue to sleep on this mattress until I leave, though there is a hide-a-bed downstairs that I could sleep on. It would also mean that Dan would have to buy us a mattress before I get there (he has been sleeping on a foamy all this time), and that Mum would need to stay in a local motel for the few days before her flight back to Canada. We'll see what happens...
Defo, dump the mattress, treat yourselves to a new one and cut the stress.
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