What a typical week looks like.

But let's try to make it sound interesting. I have the advantage here because Monday was a holiday and so already covered in the previous post. So, I only have four days to spice up. The disadvantage is that I was still in a lot of pain from skiing, so the days were pretty slow-moving, to be safe.

For some backstory, we developed a rock chip in our windshield some time ago. We have also been experiencing the intense radiant heating capabilities of the sun in such arid environment as Arizona offers, and would like to do something about it. 3M manufactures an infrared-blocking thin film product that applies like window tint but doesn't significantly change visible light transmission. In other words, it's nearly clear. We wanted to have the film installed professionally, but we also wanted to ensure the rock chip would not form a crack that would propagate and warrant throwing away the windshield along with the newly-installed film. So step one was to have the chip addressed by Safelite. They chip away at it a little bit further to make it a more uniform bowl-shaped chip, and to remove any loose fragments of glass. Then, it is filled with a clear epoxy and made flat. The whole process took only about twenty minutes. The tiny chip is still visible, but the hope is that it will not get any larger or split. We will monitor it for a few weeks before getting the window film installed, as a precaution.

It sort of looks like a stethoscope for the windshield!

Another minor issue we've faced is related to our greywater tank and plumbing. In general, the drainpipe is mostly-straight shot all the way to the back of the van. It enters the greywater tank on the driver's side at the rear of the tank, towards the bottom. The point is that if the tank is full, and if we turn towards the right and apply the brakes, the momentum of the water can push it up the shower drain. Twice this has happened. Our interim solution is to dump the greywater more frequently so it doesn't get full, utilizing only about half the capacity. But we also ordered a check valve online to install in the drainpipe so water can't flow back up into our shower. This week, the valve arrived. It looks like this and will be installed this weekend.

This will help prevent greywater from overflowing onto our floors.

Wednesday morning we woke under a blanket of snow. It means a few extra minutes before work to get the snow brushed off the van. And it usually means water on the floor from our shoes and Loki's feet each time we get back inside. That's just part of van life. At least the flooring material is waterproof. I went to urgent care this day to get some sort of pain relief more powerful than the ibuprofen we had in the van. After that excursion, Loki and I parked the van and worked on editing video for our YouTube channel. When we got Mandy from work, she cooked us up some delicious comfort food in the form of cheeseburgers. But these were on homemade sourdough bread, with caramelized onion and bacon-pepper jam. And they were SO. GOOD.

Fresh snow!

Thursday, I was finally beginning to feel a bit better, thankfully. We didn't accomplish much while Mandy was at work, but after work we went out to dinner. We'd been drooling over Colt Grille for a while. They always have a bbq pit smoking meats in front of their restaurant and the smells waft down over the whole downtown area. I think they know how good a tactic this is for getting people to come in for some BBQ. It's genius. We both got brisket and it was fantastic. We highly recommend Colt Grille if you're ever in Prescott, AZ.

Friday morning was mostly preparations for the weekend. While Mandy was at work, Loki and I dumped the grey water tank. We filled up the freshwater tanks. Ensured we had fuel and groceries. And by "we", I mean Loki didn't do anything but keep me company. Which is an important job, nonetheless. When Mandy got out of work, we set our navigation system towards Wickenburg, Arizona, for our weekend trip!

Cruising towards that Arizona sunshine.