i carry your heart with me...

Well, no license yet. It seems that if you show up in person in Livingston, Texas ($90 work of gas away, I've learned from Ron, who tried to take care of this matter yesterday) to license a vehicle, you need to bring not only proof of insurance, but proof of inspection! Now I have never had to provide proof of inspection before, so this was a puzzler. But the tale gets sillier. It turns out that if you MAIL in your licensing request and fees, you only need to provide proof of insurance! How ridiculous is THAT? Oh, and one more thing they'd like to have - a photograph showing Towanda truly IS a motorhome. Will someone tell me the value of jumping through hoops to register a bus as a motorhome if the intent is to use it as a schoolbus? Is the fee for a schoolbus that much higher? Must be...

MUCH progress on Towanda as Ron the Diligent drove around Texas chasing the elusive license plates...

Peter finished the overhead cabinets but for door installation, though the doors are ready for varnish and hinges. He then set to work on the base cabinets on the "passenger side" of the bus, and by day's end had completed the third, and even got the countertops ready to be installed today!

There are number of very neat little features that have grown as the construction progressed. Three ELFA drawers I had stored away are now a part of the forward cabinet, an ELFA wall system is installed on the side of that cabinet, allowing a variety of items to be used with it, including a paper towel holder, a dishrack, and small hooks for dishtowels.



On the smaller rear cabinet, I requested a shorter shelf and ended up with a very useful sliding shelf! Thank you, Peter!



The last base cabinet on that side is intended for multiple uses. I plan to travel with my cat friends some, and thus I needed a good place for a sizeable (Mr. Big is, well, BIG) sand box. Needing easy access to an outside door, placing the cat box across from the human toilet, right next to the rear exit door just made sense. Okay, so that takes care of my furry friends, but what about the plentiful time when they wouldn't be along? A kitty krapper seems like a serious waste of space when there're no kats about to avail themselves. Again with an eye to ease of sand box disposal duty, I had already decided the sandbox needed to be built into a box on casters. So why not make said rolling box useful as a rolling seat by adding a top with cushion? The seat simply stores under the cabinet and can be pulled out for use - unless the aforementioned felines are along for the ride, of course. And now we get to the final use - a real bonus, because until Peter accidently discovered it while working, neither of us knew it existed! First a little background information. Ron and I like to travel together, and although I know I will be doing a lot of solitary travel in Towanda, I also know that Ron will join me whenever the mood strikes him, and MOST welcome he is, too. :-) Thus Ron's comfort has been constant in my design plans. He has a few special needs (don't we ALL), and one of them is of a little shorter cabinet than the standard 36" height. I decided to make the entire rear section of cabinets 30 inches instead of 36", thus giving Ron a comfortable space of his own. What I DIDn't realise was the GREAT space we were creating for MY special needs! Peter suddenly showed up in front of me, positively jumping with excitement, and announced "You know the cat box cabinet? Because it's 30" and open at the bottom for the rolling box, it makes a perfect work area for you will great light!" And indeed, it is exactly what I need for working on my many art and writing and other odd projects! I am so PSYCHED! Here's a photo with a chair in place (instead of the rolling seat):



Pretty cool, huh?

The last thing we did, and we did this as the sun set, was to cut the lovely wood Victor donated to the project, into the lengths needed to create countertops on the two new base cabinets. This wood came from a 1940s telephone exchange in Waxahachie, TX that was being torn out so they could install some wonderful plastic-based product instead, and Victor snagged some off the trash pile, storing it all these years so I could use it in Towanda. There are some bolt holes in it that I plan to fill with a combination of epoxy and turquoise crumbs..won't THAT be pretty? I adore the fact that so many of my friends have donated their time and resources to this project, I feel as though I shall be carrying each of them along with me as I travel. In fact, I keep hearing a favourite ee cummings poem rolling through my mind, and I will leave you with those words today...

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings 1894-1962