Dominant Right Foot

Two weeks ago I moved into my home of sticks (without bricks) from my twelve year home on wheels. I am still acclimating to the new environment. Naturally, things and life is very different in Old Yeller. One thing I noticed the first night is that it was much quieter. Prior to my new home, I had been living in Wandrin Wagon at Far Horizons RV for about a month before moving into Old Yeller and closer to the distant streets. Although closer by about 300 feet the traffic noises were almost unheard. By contrast in Wandrin Wagon, I could hear truck acceleration from the traffic signals. Old Yeller's almost two extra inches of wall thickness makes the difference.

The kitchen area in Wandrin Wagon was compact and efficient by comparison. There is little counter space in my new kitchen for preparing food. When preparing my usual monstrous lunch salads all the inputs were laid out on the counter in Wandrin Wagon. In Old Yeller, it is not possible to have all the ingredients on the counter. My solution is to open the refrigerator a couple times during the process of making the salad. The positive of the long galley kitchen is that I get lots of exercise going from one end to the other as I cook or make my salads.

Wandrin Wagon was efficient. In less than 200 square feet, I had stored lots of stuff. The stuff has been spread all around the 400 square feet of my new home -- and the shed. Boxes of stuff was donated or left at the dumpster where this man's junk became another man's -- or woman's -- treasure.

There is more stuff about which I need to make decisions. There are lots of DeLorme and Benchmark state gazetteers. There is a box of maps for national parks and hiking trail maps. There is a stack of hiking guides for numerous places through out the west. I opted to keep the wood carving and wood burning  tools in the event that I decided to take up that hobby again. Materials for other hobbies that I left at the dumpster were "treasured" and went home to another shed.

When living in Wandrin Wagon, liberal use was made of earthquake putty to keep things from moving as I towed Wandrin Wagon along the country's bumpy roads. Some of that sticky stuff was on items as I moved into the new home. I certainly hope there is no longer a need for earthquake putty in Old Yeller.

Wondering what the earthquake frequency was for Tucson, I headed to the internet for the source of all answers. According to http://earthquaketrack.com/us-az-tucson/recent the last Tucson earthquake was four years ago at a magnitude of 3.6. That earthquake epicenter was over a hundred miles away in the Sea of Cortez. There doesn't appear to be much need for the earthquake putty here.

Earthquakes seems to be a natural segue for the last of how things are different in Old Yeller. When done with business at the commode in Old Yeller, I balanced on my left foot and raised my right foot to flush. No foot pedal on Old Yeller. After 12 years of RV living, my brain had been well trained for the "right foot flush". No doubt most RVers can relate. Two weeks later, there is a moment of hesitation as I raise the dominant right foot before using the "left hand flush".