10

 Morning is usually a bathroom rush.  Sometimes neurodivergent folks like my kids can have sensory problems regarding their bladders, like not sensing it's full until it is quite late.  Because of that, mornings are often mayhem.

Mayhem in a 1 bath house.  Much more mayhem with a too high tent threshold and cats who dearly want to be on the sun porch while I'm directing traffic through it.  Pounce tore a little hole in our manse here while trying to leap out into her porch.

I might put a doorbell here for aesthetics.  It will say "Get out of my porch".

Usually I get everyone into the porch and that is crowded.  Then I zip the door shut high enough the cats can't jump back out, and Joey hands me them one by one and I feed them through the hole back into the main body of the tent.  Then I zip it shut fast, we unzip the outer door, and head to the bathroom.

This morning, Pounce would have made it back out if I hadn't caught her.  She is a beloved menace.

So.  Morning rush accomplished, back at the tent, I get to work on my Plan to deal with the heat.  First I made a rectangle out of Gorilla tape, then I cut a hole in my tent.  (Don't worry, all the cats were shut out on the porch, next to where I crouched.)

I'd gotten a small loan, and sent most of it to Rundes to remove temptation.  The point was to use it to get through our situation, and I'd intended to use it as help with a deposit or application fees (which have been prohibitive, with three adults in the household).  But I asked her to sent me about half back ($450) and I bought a small window AC and all the supplies I'd need to do this:

Rustic af

My two main concerns were: Joey and I are prone to heat sickness; and the cats cannot be left in a tent that becomes hotter than outside while we do anything away from the tent.

Plus we can use the AC in an actual house when we get one.

On that front, we have a meeting about our technically reinstated Section 8 on Wednesday, the 12th.  We have a ride (Rundes) and a cat-sitter (her kind son).

Rundes deserves a spa weekend.

So, that done, we started cooling the tent to test the setup.  It works.  The machine itself is set on a little scaffolding of firewood.  Mostly right now we're using it as a fan to draw in the cooler outside air.

Next we needed to block some of the direct sunlight  that was heating up the interior of the tent and worsening my sunburn.  But first I needed a little rest.

The POTS experience.

But then I took our tarp that was protecting our Too Much Crap under our picnic table, and tied that down over our tent, the Turtle Princess.  All our Too Much Crap is currently in Orgalorg the screen tent.

Time for another little rest.  At least the tent was cool and dark.  I fed the kids pb&j and colored in my digital paint by numbers.

If I do one picture a day, I get a digital sticker.

Then I reorganized all our kitchen stuff.

Then a little rest!

Aaron played his Switch.  It is, of course pinkish.

Spaghetti offers her assistance with Mariocart.

One of Aaron's neurologists credited his love of games for how well he's held on to his fine motor ability in his hands as he deteriorates, slowly, but inexorably.

I headed down to the general store to wait for our grocery delivery - our food stamps come in on the 9th.  I ordered a little fresh chicken and a flatbread deli pizza as a treat for the kids for dinner - food they love.

By then it was cooling off enough back at camp to get the fire pit going for dinner.  I set up my mason jar coffee to be ready for tomorrow and cooked barbecue chicken and made Aaron his pizza.

My goodness was he pleased.  And I admit it was a real treat to have meat!

The temp dropped sharply after dark.  I found myself trying to sleep with three kitties cramming themselves onto my cot for a cuddle, until I finally gave up.  There have been few sleepless nights since we got here - exercise and exhaustion are on our side there - so I was due.  The kitties and I wrapped up in blankets against the 45 degree temps, and I read.

Sketti in the sleeping bag.

Scrunt in Aaron's extra blanket.

Pounce in her glorious fur.

Duchess hid in the sleeping bag under Joey's cot, so no picture of her.

I was finally able to sleep around 5 am.