1st full week VanDwelling

Arrived back to Seymour (the van) in South Austin Monday nite after a pretty cool 2 weeks in South Padre. Was just gettin dark, I rushed to open him up and see what the Austin floods had done.  I had heard the last week that the area was flooded, and people were getting rescued from on top of their houses last week. Well I saw no sign of water gettin inside so I'm guessin I was parked in a good spot... whew!  So was excited/nervous about the cold Monday nite, news said lows were in the 40's.  And I have not worked out all my house power yet.  But I had a thick long robe and 3 blankets and once asleep I slept like a baby till 5am when the alarm went off.

So while waiting I make this lil video.... ( been watching other vandweller road videos LOL)

I had found a temp job "sign spinning" on craigslist for tues-fri 7-11am so Tues am I was up at 5, gettin dressed brushin teeth and such... went to start the van and the battery was dead.  Of course my SoPadre partner would not get out of bed and give me a hand, so I snatched his keys and proceeded to hook up my battery cables.  He has a small Toyota pick up, his battery is half the size of mine... and it would not jump it.  So I go back to his garage apt and ask him if he has any ideas... he won't wake up and says to take his truck to the job.  Well by then its already after 6:30am, so I email the place and tell em I woke to a dead battery but now on my way... put the addy in my GPS and off I go.... 50ish miles in the wrong direction!!!  I finally get back into Austin and find the place at 9:30 and the gal at the counter says the guy that hired me is already gone... so I email him again from my cell cause I don't have his number, I promise him I'm not a flake and would love to come back for the rest of the week.  He writes back that I can come the follow Mon-Tue if I'd like but this week he don't need me anymore.  DANGIT!

So I get back to the lot where Seymour is and my SoPadre partner is still in bed... but... the shop across the road has guys all over it so I walk over and ask if one can come jump the van... they put a charger on the battery and said to let it sit for a bit and charge before startin... so I waited.... long story short at noon the van is running! YEAH!

I was off to visit one of my artist Billy Eli (www.BillyEli.com) had a great meeting, went to leave and DARN the battery was dead!  So he got out his jump start thingy and it was dead so we went back in to plug it in and visited some more.  At 9:30pm the thing was still not fully charged so they made me sleep on the couch. Would not let me go sleep in the van. :) The low was 30 last nite so I guess I can spend a nite on the couch. So this morning we go out and put the jumper cables on his car and the van and VOILA it starts! YEAH....

Drove 25 miles to a McD's and gettin some work done... will sit here much of the afternoon tryin to get work caught up since I haven't done much on it the last 3 days... Not sure what I'll be doing this evening yet, seems every plan I've made so far has been blown away.  There is a Walmart downt he road 2 miles... when I get ready to leave here will have to get a jump.  Goin to look thru Craigslist for a temp 1-2 day job, hopefully raise enough for a new battery... Wish me luck!

Expenses so far...

Monday   -0-
Tues        $10 fuel in Toyota
                $2.15 donut&milk
                $30 fuel in van
Wed        $4.08 wipes and crackers from HEB
                $2.15 b'fast at McD's