him - 3aug13 - stuff and casey is clumsy

Disclaimer: i wrote this thing about 10 days ago. sadly, i've been unable to upload the pictures that i took, so i simply didn't post it. so, while reading, pretend that it's actually about a week ago.

Making fun of Casey

packing was rough on casey. she had to sleep on the floor for several days. we only had a couple dishes we could use and the plate selection was rather limited. in fact, i took away the kitchen table and chairs. and the rolly desk chairs. such as it was, she was forced to sit in the camp chairs that we purchased from REI. all in all, they are great chairs...i like them lots (not least of all b/c when they break, we can return or replace them at our leisure). sadly for her, they don't have much in the way of 'grip' or 'anti-slip' or 'anti-don't-fall-on-your-ass' bits on the feet. as it turns out, all of that lack of stuff combined with my slick wooden floors and casey don't make for a good combination. 

so, we were sitting around my fancy new card table in our fancy returnable REI chairs a few nights back. probably on saturday night. maybe friday night. the night had been a little stressful (not terribly uncommon as we both uprooted ourselves from our known lives and friends and security in search of new knowing and more friends and whatnot). i think i was checking my email and facebook (dreadfully important, i know (i've spent some time with a londoner over the last few days and it influences my speech patterns)) for the first time that day (not counting several hundred glances at my phone). i'd been pretty damn busy with packing and cleaning and building and all that. i'm fairly certain she was setting up her new ipad.

so, as she was setting up the ipad, i was helping her figure out how to transfer some word and excel documents from an external hard drive to the ipad; this required two new apps: "pages" and "numbers" (i really like the names of those...quite clever). i had brought up a page or video on my computer and had turned it just so she could see the screen. apparently, i didn't turn the computer quite far enough, forcing her to lean forward and turn it a bit farther. as she did this, she fell right on her ass.

it happened rather quickly and she didn't fall that far. at first, she didn't react at all and i worried that the days' stress combined with a little fall would morph into some tears and unexplainable girly emotions. fortunately, i was way off base and she burst into laughter! first thing she said was "you're gonna blog about this, aren't you?!?". i was thinking "most likely", but i said "are you alright?". after a few seconds, the laughter tapered off and she righted the chair...no harm to her poor derrière. 

luckily for us, this little incident helped us boil off the stress of the evening and end on a pretty positive note. so, the moral appears to be as follows: if you're having a bad night, find a way to knock your girlfriend in such a way that she laughs it off and then you'll feel better. 

also, she farted several times in the car on the way through canada. got me the first time…thought it was me. again. last time that’ll happen. now, it’s deeply embedded in my psyche that she farts and it stinks bad. i’ll not blame myself again.

Different Perspectives (as of a week ago)

 so far, we really haven’t done much that’s resulted in significantly different perspectives. we’re still working through our different styles of planning and packing and living…it’s going pretty damn well considering how ‘out there’ our lives have become.

sometimes, she thinks i’m not nearly detailed enough in the answers i give to her questions. sometimes, she refers to ‘it’ or ‘that’ without naming the object because we have spoken about it in the past. it’s just little things like that. nothing major.

the only thing that sorta fits the bill is us finishing the Yukon Trail Marathon a few days back. my second race and casey’s first standalone marathon (she did complete that Ironman back in the day). i completed the half in 2:13, coming in 35^th out of 102. casey completed the marathon in 4:17, placing 17^th out of about 60 (i forget the exact number and i don’t want to steal any of her thunder). it was a tough course (i actually got off course and cost myself about 3/10 of a mile…several minutes). i’m pleased though…it went SIGNIFICANTLY better than my race in Michigan (amazing what a proper diet and a little training can do for you)…35^th percentile vs 48^th percentile. really pleased. casey was thrilled with hers, even if it was only a training run for her long run ;). we both figured out some things we need to do to improve, which is really the most important thing about stuff like this. and we had fun.

Building the Truck

so, as most everyone knows, i own a 2007 toyota tacoma. currently, it has 114,000 miles, give or take a few hundred. back when i lived in colorado i purchased a hitch-mounted bicycle rack that holds up to four bikes. shortly after moving to alaska, i bought a 'camper shell' (not really sure what the proper name is) that covers the bed of the truck...it's the standard model with a couple of windows on the side and it's the same height as the cab of the truck (in retrospect, i would most definitely have purchased a shell with a much higher roof…one that was higher than the cab, allowing for more headroom when trying to sit up in the back as the platform takes up a good 10 inches or so).

bikes on back and fuel/water cans in the wooden box on top. yakima box is just visible behind the wood. obviously, they're both sitting on the shell.

anyhow, a few months back, i got the thule bars installed on top (they are what the cargo boxes or ski racks or whatever else you want to put up there sit on). the bars have a dealer recommended ‘300lb weight limit’ which we’re trying to abide by…don’t really want to damage the bars or the shell, so it’s a bit of a balancing act…what goes in the bed and what goes on top??. shortly after i purchased those, casey bought the 18-square-foot yakima cargo box (the big plastic thing with a top). currently, its full of climbing gear and paper towels and sleeping bags and sleeping pads and whatnot. 
 

open yakima box. visible are a bunch of backpacks, some trekking poles, a bike pump, and some other crap.

a few weeks ago, i built the platform in the back. not to toot my own horn, but it's literally the first thing i've built other than a bird house and some pinewood derby cars when i was a kid. that took several days longer than it probably needed to, but it's working out great so far. we have a couple of plastic bins each that we use to store our clothing and toiletries and a few other bits – bought the specific size of bins to match what the platform would accommodate and they fit underneath just about perfectly. also, have a couple of little cubby holes with lift off covers towards the cab (in front of the wheel wells); mine is filled with random crap while casey’s is filled with some dust and air.

a little cleaner than normal, but this is generally what the backend looks like. the two black boxes contain our food and kitchen/cooking stuff. the blue on the right is the tarp we covered our bikes with.underneath is where we put our clothing bins (the center two spots...casey has the one on the right).

the cubby holes in front of the wheel wells. not huge, but an extra space to store things. also, this nicely shows off the astroturf i used to cover the whole thing. it's real nice.

about a week after that (and just a day before we left), i finished the other cargo box that's sitting on top (it's the second thing i built). this one had to be waterproofed, which took a little thought and still needs a bit of work…the paint has been rubbed off in spots after only a couple of days of travel! maybe a clear coat of some kind? mostly, just using it to transport the fuel and water cans as it isn’t protected from the elements. maybe we’ll end up getting a couple of large dry-bags.

fuel cans in the wooden box. the holes are both for drainage and to reduce the weight a tad bit. i'm sure i could've put many more holes in it.

we’re using several plastic boxes in the bed and the cab (two of them contain our food and our cooking stuff) as well as a cooler to organize most of our things. seems to be working out pretty well so far. we’ve been making several trips a day, ferrying things between our campsite and the truck; partly, because we don’t want our valuables sitting in our tent and partly because it helps us stay organized. we’re continuing to refine our systems and I suppose we’ll continue to do so as we continue. all in all, everything is going great so far.

The Future

we'll be in birchwood, wi for the next week...leaving on saturday for montana. i think we're going to make a stop in south dakota and climb for a day, but i'm not totally certain. while in WI, we'll fish quite a bit and drink some beers and have some bonfires with casey and her family. pretty great so far! 

more to come.