Freakishly Happy

Yes, it’s been a while since we’ve worked on the bus. Be the last few days we’ve finally had some decent weather and sunshine which has given us the motivation to get out there and work. Yesterday John took out all of the windows in the bus so that we could begin taking out the metal paneling on the sides. We needed them gone so that we could rust protect the walls beneath them and so we could also re-do the weather stripping and caulking around the windows that has been eaten away. He was also able to remove the remaining heater that was in the front of the bus near the driver's seat. He'll have to tell you more about that process as I was unfortunately called away to house-wifery errands like grocery shopping and making baklava.

Today took a trip to Wendy's (American Hardware) one of our favorite area hardware stores, and bought a load of supplies including ventilating masks, goggles, weather stripping and caulk. Then we came home and I went window-sill by window-sill and scraped off all of the remaining gunk and weather-striping while John did the ardeous task of removing the metal panels below the windows. Again, I"m not really sure what the full story was with this, other than the fact that it seemed really taxing, so he'll have to go in to it more later. Our friend Rich stopped by for awhile to act as our foreman, and to keep us on task and in line. He’s proving to be a really good resource and fount of knowledge and not only that fun to have around. And even better he’s going to be our go-to guy for much of our welding.

We were a little dismayed when read the forecast last night, and because said that we'll be getting some more snow tonight and the day after and the day after and the day after... This is a little distressing for us because we currently have no windows in the bus and a wet interior could set us back a few more days. So we weighed our options and decided that a tarp would be the best course of action. So we took another trip to Wendy’s and bought a huge tarp to put over the bus. (I have a feeling they're going to be seeing a lot of us in the next few weeks)

When we got back it was still sunny with no signs of a change in the weather, so we worked on scraping the black tacky residue off the bottoms of the windows using gasoline to help un-stick it, (under the guidance of my father). After a while the weather began to quickly change, and the sky went to a sickly grey color and we decided we’d better get the tarp on before anything worse set in. As I said the tarp is huge and it was a little tricky to get the thing unraveled. Once we did, it took some creativity to get it up and over the back of the bus. Just as we began to devise a plan, our friend JodyFenton showed up to cheer us on. We used the skills that we learned in PE in second grade with the parachutes and did a “1… 2… 3.. up and over” action while each holding a corner of the tarp on either side of the bus and taking a good run for it. We made it about ¼ of the way down the bus before the weight of the rest of the tarp set in. John worked from the top and I worked from below and we were able to get the tarp all the way situated.

The tarp goes just to the front of the bus and hangs around the “face” of the bus so that it looks like a nun in a habit. We put the green side of the tarp facing in, and the brown side of the tarp facing out. From the outside the bus looks either like a giant tootsie roll or an oversized Swiss Cake roll.

We spent a little more time working on the goopy windows, before I decided I had to go in and get warm. John, being the trooper that he is, stayed out in the bus until well after dark getting the remainder of the metal paneling off the walls.

  We finally got the sealant we've been waiting for in the mail, so we should be working in the bus a lot this week. Please feel free to check out our progress on the bus-cam, and to drop us a line at Johnandjoni@freakishlyhappy.net

So I’ll admit it, I’m a little self-conscious being on camera. I’ll be working away and then suddenly realize that there are potential people I don’t know watching me. Especially when I realize that my pants have slipped down and the top of my posterior has been visible for the past 20 minutes. It’s really embarrassing. So I’ve decided to make a game of it, and put my fanny to a good cause. The game will begin as soon as we appear on camera each day we work on the bus. For first person to spot my *ahem* “plumber’s crack”, and can correctly state the time of it's occurance with a two minute margin of error, (*** or takes and reports the first screenshot of my lily white backside,) we will donate $5 to your choice of one of these charities.

• Tibet House Trust (http://www.tibet.com/Trust/trust.html)
• Heifer International (http://www.heifer.org/)
• Reading is Fundamental(http://www.rif.org/)
• Action Against Hunger (http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/)
• The ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) Association (http://www.alsa.org/donate/default.cfm)

Let the Game Begin!

*** In order to make a screen shot:
- Hit the FN (function key) and then hit the “print screen” key (mine is located at F11).
-Then email it to me at joni@freakishlyhappy.net

**Thanks to our friend Jody for this fabulous idea!

This week we've been moving a little slowly on our bus conversion.  John's finishing up on the very end of his contract, and the weather has been a little cold for working out side.

Today I did get a little bit of cleaning up done.  I spent some time trying to sort out all of the metal bits (nuts, bolts, metal stripping that was around the wheel wells) so that we can take it to be recycled as scrap from the wood and the rubber. It has been rainy the last few days, and the plywood that we took up over the weekend was wet and soggy.  

I still have a little bit more cleaning to do, but hopefully we can start weather/water-proofing and insulating soon.  Last night we found a really inspiring site: 
                                               http://www.housetrucks.com/
It has a lot of house buses  and trucks from the 1960s and 70s as well as some modern ones from New Zealand. They have some really imaginative designs with great windows and skylights.  We got a lot of really good design ideas from it.  Now that the seats are out of the bus I'm really starting to get a good picture of what it might look like.  It's going to be exciting to see it all come together.

Tonight we're expecting 3-6 inches of sleet and ice, with a possibility of up to 18 inches of snow.  I doubt we'll be able to  work on the bus much tomorrow, as it's probably going to be a skating rink out side and I forgot my ice skates :)