challenges: mail, connectivity, neighbor dogs

It’s a really nice day with some fiddly challenges. Sharing this as an antidote to the “Things nO oNe Tellz you about vAnlife!!!!!!!!” social media clickbait.

challenges

connectivity

Connectivity is about 2/3rds non-existent to 1/3 mostly unusable. I can load some simple webpages with the images turned off with the Fast Image Blocker extension for FF. Most complex pages error or don’t even try to load.¹

Yesterday, for example, I tried to log into the VA portable to read a message from one of my counselors. The site is bloated and hopelessly convoluted in the best of times (eleven redirects involved in just the login process, I shit you not). On ratty bandwidth it’s a real beatdown. I got to the Messages page after 23 minutes but could not get to the Inbox. Feeling a stress-induced migraine coming on, I bailed.

Tried again today and fared a bit better. Logged in, left a message that stateless forms of contact like email and SMS (actually GV texts) would go through. Still took over 20mins but finally got a single message sent.

mail forwarding

Mail service from Escapees is $$ and stodgy, but completely reliable. General Delivery tends to be reliable, too, but experienced this weirdness today:

• got a USPS alert that the GD was ready for pickup. Normal stuff.
• 16 minutes later I got an alert that the package was unclaimed by the recipient and would be returned to sender. What?

Tracking says:

Your item could not be delivered on July 4, 2025 at 11:30 am in WALSENBURG, CO 81089. It was held for the required number of days and is being returned to the sender.

Apparently the required number of days is 0.011. I assume this weirdness is because it’s a federal holiday. If they actually returned the package I’ll be miffed; it’d mean about a 2 week delay and another mailing fee. :-(

Update Jul 6 - getting more updates that say it will be delivered on July 7th. We will see.

Update Jul 8 - Nope, it’s in Dallas now so I guess it’s really being returned to TX. The tracking info is the longest I’ve ever seen; 24 entries so far. If it continues toward Livingston I’ll know it’s safe to bypass Walsenburg.

neighbor dog

One of the dog’s from the next site over thinks it’s hi-larious to come into my camp to crap and to piss on all my gear. The owner, a geriatric RV pilot with either diminishing or never-present skills, does not respond when I speak or wave to him. He stares blankly. The dog has a similar reaction. I’ve got a spray bottle I might use on both of them as needed to secure the desired outcome.

Update Jul 6 - neighbor and dog left for new places to piss on. Yay!

wins

lip balm

My skin is dry in general and my lips dry in particular. I always have lip balm in my pocket and on my bedside. I planned poorly and just ran out of my last tube of chapstick.

I’ve long thought about DIY refilling a tube but hadn’t yet done so. Several years ago I made a batch of of 50% olive oil and 50% beeswax and poured it into a repurposed Altoids tin. Worked a treat.

This time I melted 2.15g of petroleum jelly and 2.15g of beeswax and mixed it well. While that was melting I used a pair of pliers to make a spout on an steel ramekin for pouring purposes. The pour went well with no spillage.

After setting the balm is slightly harder than the Altoids batch before. That’s probably best for a tube that will live in my pocket in summer. Maybe for winter I’ll make a softer batch with oil and/or less wax to make application easier in cold weather. Maybe add a drop of vanilla extract or something.

Anyhow, it’s cheap, easy, and functional. A frugal trifecta!

good sun

The weather is lovely. Mostly clear skies so far (as of 1330) and a moderate breeze. Dog is sleeping in the grass and I’m making a batch of pinto beans in the instant pot.

1. in MVNO discussions people sometimes talk about the usability of “unlimited data at 2G speeds thereafter” throttling, and most say it’s unable. Those speeds are typically 50-64KB/s. I’m seeing about 1/10th of that when it works at all up here. ↩