2

 We woke up, and it was still damp, though the rain had stopped.  We decided to walk down to the community center so Joey could sit someplace comfortable to use his computer and he was afraid the rain would return.  

While there, I got a blessed, blessed, thank you Universe, hot black coffee.  I love you, coffee.  And the kids split a bucket of popcorn for breakfast, and the last of the poptarts they'd had for breakfast the day before.

It was Aaron's birthday, so we had the cupcakes we got him from Walmart the day before.  I was a little heartbroken that he's homeless on his birthday.  As was Joey; his birthday was in the airbnb.

We hung out for a while and I read Facebook.  Aaron played his Switch, and Joey did whatever Joeys do online at tumblr and discord.  It was very modern.  By the time we walked back to our tent, the rain seemed pretty done, so we hosed ourselves down with deet spray and let the cats out into the dog crate, where they each pretended they were the only cat in there.

Clockwise from top left - Duchess, Ser Pounce-a-Lot, Spaghetti, and Scrunt.

I was so tired I needed a nap.  Since COVID, I nap just about every single day, but the tent was like an oven at midday, so I lay the tarp down and flopped my airbed onto it, under one of the two little trees on our lot, and slept.  I was woken up to someone talking to the kids - the cats were a big hit, and everyone who walked by wanted to meet them.

Joey had bought smores stuff at the general store/community center, so I tried to start a fire.  There was no kindling, though.  I was unsuccessful, mostly.  We did manage enough embers that we warmed up a jar of gravy to lukewarmness, and Joey and I had that with bread dunked in it.   Aaron was certain he hates gravy, so he just downed half a loaf of plain bread, turning down my offer of peanut butter and jelly.

By the time we decided to head into the tent for the night, there was some smoke, but still no fire.  I dumped my water bottle out on the smoking logs until they stopped their terrible habit.  We got the cats in one by one, reach into the crate, grab one, hand it off to Joey in the tent, go back for another.

Scrunt and Duchess wedged themselves against the back wall of the crate so they didn't have to go in, and that took a lot of wrangling.  I do not fit in the dog crate.

We got into the tent, and I had the extension cord finally set up, threaded from the outlet that came with our site through a special little cord pocket, which is definitely new to me.  Tents in my day *shakes fist at clouds* didn't have wiring.  Nice though.

I tried to set up the TV so Aaron could have a movie, but discovered I had not packed the cord to the TV.  I decided to try and reinflate our sagging airbeds.  I could not wrangle mine into a position where I could easily reach our outlet and get the inflatotron (technical term) into the valve.  I almost fell.  I burst into tears and yelled "I said I needed help!" 

Both kids had thought I meant the other kid.  Both were upset because I do not cry, and I do not yell.  They were horrified and mad at themselves and that is not an acceptable outcome to me.

So I cried a minute, and then we talked it out, and we were good.  They're pretty easy going for two autistic young people with PTSD and anxiety, honestly.

So we got that done, and it was time to go to the bathroom again, cranking the wheelchair over the tent threshold, doing our bathroom routine, watching to make sure no one came in and accidentally opened Aaron's stall.  

Then back to the tent.

The whole time my muscles are so sore and trembly, and I have to remind myself to keep going and get everything done. 

I put youtube on my kindle and we watched the entire spooky month series, as Aaron requested, and then we tucked in for the night.

Aaron begrudgingly.

Because he wanted a campfire.