Cleaning!

Today - a magical milestone. I started to clean my bus. The cockpit is now clean with the floor swept and even a beaded seat cover on the driver’s seat. I had to add some extra twine to the headrest attachments as my driver’s seat has no headrest to attach the cover to.

Why a beaded seat cover? Well it’s a vinyl seat and those vinyl seats trap sweat. I drive 3 routes in a school bus every day. I’m behind the wheel for 7.5 hours every day. During the morning run when it’s cool, my back gets hot and my clothes end up sticking to me. The same for my pants - they end up sticking to me too. A beaded cover allows some ventilation under and behind me which reduces trapped perspiration.

Wiping down the windows inside and out is the next task and wiping the mirrors too. That’s not a task for today though. That can be done on a day when I come home from work.

One of the important things was done today. I checked the fluid levels for everything - brakes, washer fluid, power steering fluid, oil and transmission fluid. The transmission fluid was a warm brown. The oil was grey - both in need of replacement. Neither was dark from use - just faded from age. The front tyres have been put on the wrong way around but at least I saw the date code. Some time in 2012. They’ll be OK for at least this year. The backs are a bit older but as they’re duals they can go on for 10 years.

I’m going to have to put some stuff in the spare trailer for the moment but I need to go through my stuff. I know I have a lot of just plain junk and a lot of clothes that don’t fit. Each time I moved house and I’ve moved house 4 times in the past decade, I’ve thrown everything in my drawers into a tote and never opened the tote again - largely because I live pretty much out of a suitcase sized quantity of stuff. I need to whittle down to the stuff I will actually use. I bet there’s a ton of garbage.

A long time ago I bought four packs of CD mailers. Over the years I have used precisely one pack. The remaining three packs have been traveling with me for the past 15 years. Occasionally one will get used and they’re invaluable then but a pain to keep carting around! I have things I use rarely and things I use frequently.

Anyway, at the end of work today (I worked yesterday too) I had most of the bus ready for use. There’s just a bit of work to do in the bedroom area. The sheets definitely need laundering. I used them (both sets) until the day I moved to where I am now and they’ve thus not been washed. They’ve been stored unwashed for the past 4 years. Given that the washing machine where I am is questionable, I might end up having to use a laundromat.

I put a pile of food in the bus ready for my forthcoming trip. I just hope I put enough! I know I need to put toiletaries and to fill up my water containers. I think this weekend looks like being interesting. The downside is according to the weather forecast it will be 84 the entire weekend and raining. That’s fine - it’ll give me some downtime to sort through my boxes and work out what I want to keep and what I want to get rid of.

I’d not really thought of rain. I have an umbrella but not a big umbrella to put up outside, I don’t have an awning either. The bus originally had an awning when it was first converted but when I had it, the awning was gone with just the hardware remaining (which I removed).