Summer in January

Summer is here!  It's January and by 10am the past few days, our temps have gone from 50F to nearly 80F degrees. That's what I get for buying long bluejeans and a flannel night shirt. Summer arrived in January. In central Florida.  Wheeeeeeee!


We don't have a weather reporter for our area. We apparently get different weather than the TV weather station which reports what's happening north of us in the Orlando area and east of us in the Melbourne area.


Lately I am banging on my Blue Ox tow hitch pin. It is a keyed lock. The RV didn't come with a key for it. A check with the past owners revealed they had no key either. An RV forum discussion claimed awhile back, that I could bust it off with a hammer.


Ha ha ha!  Who are they kidding?  


So far I've made tons of noise, enough to attract a curious camper, who spent a half hour banging on it too. It's still firmly attached. 


I did have great luck repairing the door locks. I couldn't lock the door.  I like to be locked in at night. I don't want raccoons or Sasquatch to come walking in on me after dark thirty. All the screws were loose. Just like me...  a few screws loose. 


I repaired the ceramic electric heater, it works better now but it still grunts and groans on occasion if I ask it to oscillate or rotate too often. Not sure which is does. Maybe it swings. My heater was a swinger. Maybe now it's old and too tired to swing.  Sounds just like me, too tired to be a swinger again...


Recently I realized I utilize 4 electrical devices to stay warm when it gets cold around here. The last winter in Florida was pretty brutal, but not so this year. Oh sure we have some below freezing nights that sent me and the dog burying under the covers. But I have the 1500 water ceramic tower heater that is pretty compact and efficient. However,  when it drops below 45F degrees, the RV starts to shiver and shake. I have 2 of those tiny 200 watt ceramic heaters that are about the size of of a little square tissue box. One keeps the bathroom toasty, the other I often use near my feet to make sure they are warm or I move it around to where I need it. 


Lately the nights were mild enough, that I could close all the windows and just run the two small 200 watt heaters.  The fourth item I use to stay warm is an electric mattress warmer. My bed is located right on  the top of the basement storage area.  This can make the mattress icy cold but the bed warmer makes me  feel like a well fed kitty curled up to mama cat for a long winter's nap. Harley dog and I have changed places in the bed. 


I now sleep the opposite way changing my foot to the head of the bed. Harley dutifully moved to another  corner of the bed diagonally from where he used to sleep. Sometimes he sleeps in his own puppy bed, other times he loves to commandeer the afghan on my bed as his lair. 


On top of all that I have the propane guzzling furnace that I rarely use. I love it, because it works fine and feel greats,  making it toasty warm but it can empty out my built-in propane tank pretty quickly. They do sell propane only 8 miles away next to a pricey convenience store. So sadly, I rarely get to use the furnace, unless I am super cold, then I use it to kick in the heat until the wheel estate feels comfy again.  While it's my first choice, it's pricey, and well I am still living on a small budget, trying to keep everyone happy and warm. 


But now all this is for naught.  Summery temps are here in January, at least during the day. Yippie!