Tuesday, 29 September 2026

 

The weather is predicted to be "breezy" this weekend, but I exhausted myself so much putting this up initially that I'm still too tired to do too much work into continuing the tie-down process with the paracord (which arrived yesterday). I did go and add a paracord line to the first-section tie-down (over the roof), though I kept the twine rope there, too; it just doesn't seem like two paracords would cut it. Hopefully there won't be a lot of rubbing/damage to the roof from either tie-down, but it's more than clear that adding three more stake points is necessary to keep this bad boy from taking flight. Ideally, there should be some padding underneath, but it's a question of what to use and what will last. 

In the attempt to keep the sides from flapping so much, there is a long Suncast outdoor storage unit just inside the door on the right, and a paracord strip going pole to pole across the front. Both are experimental and might not do much, but they'll at least stop the tarp from whipping inside too much. Figuring out what other ways to still the tarp is going to require probing through the internet. Leaving it alone in this state isn't an option. I had to take a hammer and re-pound the stakes further into the ground this afternoon, too. I had no idea this thing would be so high-maintenance and it's not even winter yet.

Oh, and the Equinox fits just fine in there, too. I drove it in and parked it there for the night, as Mother has church on Tuesday night and it's better to keep my vehicle out of the driveway. I'm still toying with the idea of putting two ratchet straps inside and tightening them either to the roof rack or under the SUV itself, to make sure the thing doesn't go flying in bad weather. I can accept that the tarp is probably not going to make it through the winter; I cannot abide by the idea of the frame being yanked out of place.

Although I don't get my monthly disability for another two days, I went ahead and paid off the soon-to-be-a-bank credit card, so now I'm going into October with just three credit cards--two of them are with a credit union (which I'm hoping is safer). Once that last payment clears, I'll freeze the card, and then it'll just be a matter of trying to keep it empty and work down the rest of the debt on the others, which is currently over $52k combined. The hell of it is, that amount is not a sign of wasteful spending on my part. It's dental work, gas, food, repairs, oil changes and other vehicle maintenance, car insurance, vehicle registration... just trying to live a semi-regular life in the United States.

What really sucks is that I'm going to have to throw two big amounts at the credit union cards, now that I've strained the available-credit limits on both with this transfer. Still don't regret it. If things go bad with the banks, that's one less card to be concerned over.