So, the last couple of weeks I’ve been staying in the Boler. I figure that it’s the closest thing to living on a boat that I can get right now.

Well, last time I spent a prolonged period of time in the thing, it was nestled under a tree a ways back from the street. This time, however, I’m a little closer. By that I mean I’m basically sleeping on the gravel shoulder of Country Road 18. Right.

Boler trailers are known for how light they are. It’s really easy to tow and move them around. But this can be a problem when transport trucks cruise by within a couple feet of your pillow, at which point the entire trailer will usually rock back and forth (quite vigorously), and a generous gust of wind will blow in through the bedroom window (which conveniently doubles as a dining room window when the table is set up). Now, maybe that’s why I’ve been feeling so tired recently… but my real fear is that some prankster will hitch the up Boler and take off with it while I snooze away therein. Well, I haven’t been shanghaied yet… but any day now I could wake up in New Jersey.

Anyhow, you’ve got to be careful on those roads. Just ask a certain friend of mine who lives in a fish-tank (and I thought the Boler was tight):

She’s a painted turtle. As the story goes, she was found on the road near Oxford Mills back in 2005, after having been hit by a vehicle. Fortunately the injuries weren’t fatal; however, she’s had some reconstructive surgery on her shell (facilitated by a group called Turtle S.H.E.L.L.) — which was broken so extensively that she can’t be released back into the wild.

As you can see, she’s got two screws in her caprice that are wired together to keep things from shifting around too much. She’s also got a bit of twisted wire holding the plastron together just above her tail. The fix is not flawless, and while she can handle a bit of water, I’m told it wouldn’t be good for her to be completely submerged. I don’t know what she really likes to eat (right now she just gets little bits of fish), or — for that matter — very much at all about how things go around here; I just sleep on the front lawn and do the dishes every now and again.

Anyhow, I figure I can learn from the experience of this poor critter. Maybe I’ll move that trailer to a new spot tomorrow.