Most of us take that statement to mean others control us. That’s a lie except in extreme cases – and yes, there are extreme cases out there. This is not about those. This is about everyday living.

When other people let us down – or don’t like us – or don’t like something we do- or put us down, we react negatively inwardly, outwardly, or both. Our emotional self often accept other people’s judgements of us quickly, casting aside what we know to be true about ourselves. Yes, sometimes there is truth in their put downs, but often, it is their perceptions of how things should be or even, at times, unacknowledged jealousy on their part.

This is where judgement is a good thing: when we use it ourselves – not against them, but on whether there is some truth to their put down or if their dislike of us/our actions is/could be based on something in their life rather than on us. It is in that careful judgement of the situation and personalities involved that we have control of our own moods. Sure, it is still a downer that someone doesn’t like us or doesn’t want to be around us or could care less about what we may be excited about, that is human nature – but by stopping to be an observer before we let the emotions fly free, it may just not hurt as much or we may see what they see. Either way, we win a battle in the war of emotions.

Yeah, I’m moody as heck now, didn’t stop to observe or judge quite fast enough, but hindsight and sitting outside in the cool breeze under bright blue sunlit skies on a deck beside a pool with sunlit rippling on one side and a peaceful canal on the other helped. It also made me want to play hooky from everyday life to go play!

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So, the RV came with: maple cabinets and doors, a gray countertop, white walls, bone and gold handles, a white sink, and black stove. Add to that the medium gray of the dashboard and door panels. The one thing I did actually like was the blue pattern on the upholstery, but the upholstery had to go.

We thought about coordinating the passenger and driver seats with the dashboard – and not worry about the maple. But, the front of our RV will not be curtained off as often as some people’s are.

So, we are ordering tomorrow, Ermine Flexsteel Captains seats. (Not sure what color the one in this pic is, but it is close.) So, far, I have been quite pleased with Glastop, so we will have them install the seats as alterations must be done to the seat base.

Yes, we could have perhaps found them cheaper online or a different make, but we were able to sit in them at their store and they were helpful, did not try to push products on us, so they get the sale.

We chose this model because it does not seem that it will cut my circulation off the way many models do. And it is also comfortable for Leon – though we are about 8 inches apart in height.

I dared him to drink coffee while driving with that color seats. His response was, “We will just have washable slipcovers made.”

This is the same man who freaked when he realized just how many changes I required – and nearly fainted when he realized how much going more chemical free will cost. And now he is willing to pay for slipcovers – and they have to be organic cotton or Ultraleather to make me happy? I think refraining from coffee may be the cheaper option.

We are waiting impatiently on requested information from two flooring manufacturers, an insulation company (for the cab), and the radiant heating manufacturer. We are still on the hunt for what to cover the insulation with. Right now 100% pesticide/chemical free wool carpet is leading, but it is not really what I want.

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I will be able to breathe well for the first time in 2.5 years! By instinct, I asked our son to call his renter to see if she wanted to move before her lease was up mid year. I knew she was planning to buy a home, blah blah blah. You never know when someone MIGHT want to be let out of their lease. I so had my fingers crossed.

He called tonight! My instincts were right! His renter was excited as she had found her new house early, had a place she could live for a month or so while fixing up the new house, and the thought of saving two or three months rent, well you know how that is! So, she may be saving, but we sure won’t be, what with overlapping our rent. The RV resort would have been cheaper! But that’s ok.

I cried when I got the news. I know his ac system is not messed up, he has tile floors that I can use the Roomba on and use the steam cleaner, so no allergy problems – and if it needs repainting (there were kids there, and kids are kids) he will let us use no VOC paint.

Add to that we can move our business from the rented office to the house (again, no carpet or perfumed cleaners used by other people to clean) – AND when we need to work on the RV, we can bring it “home” for a few days to do so. Packing for a trip (or hurricane flight) will be a lot easier without having to pack the car, then unpack it and put it in the RV. And – we can use a grill for the first time since 2000. He won’t cook fish in the house to be nice to me, now he can cook fish and eat healthier.

Last thing I am raving over: the rental comes with yard service. I don’t have to worry about fire ants and Leon duking it out. See, another way, I can breathe.

OK, not last. We will be closer to our son and daughter-in-law. I hope that means we see a tiny bit more of them between work, vacations, and what not.

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I know you are asking, “What are you doing throwing that negative stuff in here on this day, Marcia?”

I couldn’t help myself – because there IS good in it; I just had to hunt for much of it. Really, isn’t that part of what Shelly’s vision for Only the Good Friday is? Hunting for the Good – in spite of ourselves? Leaving the snarkiness, as she puts it, behind

OK. Here goes in one long run on paragraph, Only the Good!

The sky was blue, the Florida air was wonderfully cool. Leon and I made some decisions on RV Panoply remodeling. Now, you know I want two or three different things at once, and Leon does not always seen the brilliance in ALL my ideas, so that was a major accomplishment, grin. We agreed on my sofa/bed design with extra storage, my smaller dinette with larger table, our flooring, and my step covering idea. (Do you see the trend there? It’s only ’cause I have more hours to scheme.) Part of the sad news was a separation – with a child involved. I had to dig deep on that one. The three of them are young enough to regroup and make the best of it, whichever way it goes. (Shh, I KNOW the youth of our world don’t always make the right decisions, this is about the possibilities!) I get to take a break from my new home search this weekend and concentrate on…. work, lol, and RV Panoply. I won’t mention the worst news, but people have them in their prayers… and that, in itself, is a good thing. And tweeting little senryu and micropoetry and just thinking ‘out loud’ on Twitter helped put my mood into perspective: 2 year old inner tantrum mixed with bleeding heart for them. As to Haiti, as depressing as the statistics are, if you read the numbers you realize just how many people HAVE helped. We just need to squeeze a bit more out if we can, quickly.

There, not the most positive of my Friday posts – but I see the hope, the fun – and I read it and remember that I had to force a smile a couple of times, but they DID give way to genuine ones.

Everyday cannot be perfect – but everyday can be made better with effort.

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We visited a recommended and long established auto upholsterer. I could tell the minute he saw Panoply, he didn’t really want to mess with it, but he kept us engaged in conversation for at least thirty minutes. Bottom line, he doesn’t want to put the upper carpet in with the screws and staples used by manufacturer, he insists the wool carpet I want to use (chemical and pesticide free) is too flexible not to glue and he only uses lacquer based glues. Now, he only looked at it from the door, that was my second clue. No matter how experienced, he should have at least looked at it closer.

He is convinced if we use a water-based non-toxic glue it won’t hold up to the summer heat. I told him I would rather have it fail years down the road and have to redo it than to have more toxins in the RV. He didn’t understand that, but then he has been breathing those glues for well over forty years. I don’t mind paying someone for their time, but his estimate of number of hours seemed insane. I could be wrong. Time will tell.

Mini rave, Yay:

• Found a company that can accelerate off gassing of formaldehyde (in theory?), waiting for a call back, no one local
• Spoke with the manufacturer of a radiant heating element, which in theory, cannot overheat. Can’t proceed until we decide if we are running it from solar or only with hookups
• Picked out a Flexsteel replacement driver and passenger seat, color undecided. We may color key them to the dark gray cab dash rather than with the maple cabinets since they will be curtained off most of the time we are stopped to conserve ac or heat.
• Found a company willing to build my weird chair should I go with a wild idea I had, though Leon stood behind me saying no no no no, but I caught him, lol.
• We are making time this week to tear out what carpeting we can get at, the shades, and passenger seat! Goodbye more odor.

May your day be free of toxic smells and disgusting odors… the wind blow smiles… your plans move forward

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I am trying out this new theme, so it will take a while to figure out how to size a few things correctly, bare with me – or is that bear with me? I know there and their and its and it’s and affect and effect, but not bare and bear (in that context). OK, I know one is naked and one is ferocious, although in the right circumstances both could be appropriate words to describe one person!

(Yes, I’ve looked it up, but it does not seem to “stick”!)

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There are ways around S.A.D. like specialized lights, but I have another idea to help y’all get through it: VOLUNTEER.

Why not? It can’t help but make you smile – and think of how many other people will smile ’cause of you. That creates light, right? OK. So, SAD lights are not quite the same type light, but the principle is!

Not enough hours? Many of us associate volunteering with helping month after month, but there are plenty of one time opportunities.

Can’t find the right place? You could start simple by doing a search online or asking co-workers or neighbors. You could, however, take the easy route below – the one with a reward on top of the feel good reward!

So, on this Only the Good Friday, why not consider this:

Disney is offering admission to either Disney World or Disneyland if you volunteer for one of the organizations linked below. And guess what? Some allow children from six and up to volunteer. You search by your zip code and nearby areas. There is a variety in types for people of all skills and skill levels:
Give a Day. Get a Disney Day

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continue, I think. To make it worse, grin, I had to use Leon as a sounding board to come up with a title, and though he will take credit for the series title, I thought of it at the same time. Guess it is because we have been married so very long. ; )

You do get it don’t you? ReVitalizing RV Panoply ties in with my blog’s tag line. Now I can get on with telling our journey to making someone else’s RV into ours. Yes, it is remodeling,

but more importantly it is ReVising and ReVitalizing what will become our part time full time home. If it ReVitalizes Leon or I along the journey, we won’t be complaining. Speaking of ReVitalizing. I sure hope our Mother-in-Law Tongue helps eat some of the off gassing in the RV.

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Today, merely hints of three ideas deemed by some as crazy, that, will probably not become realities – because Leon has second thoughts about all the work involved on idea one. I can see that happening with ideas two and three, too.

I wanted to remove the booth and replace it with something I have not seen done in anyone else’s RV. We even marked the “future” dinette and existing kitchen out with painters tape on our concrete floors at the rental condo to see if it would work. It would be convertible for different trips: just the two of us or with a ‘future?’ grandchild in tow. It is brilliant. ; ) Leon said it wouldn’t work, but when we laid it out on the floor, he realized it might. But, we may not do it ’cause of the work involved – and Leon and our son like the booth. Yuck!

We have to make a decision soon ’cause of the new flooring and radiant heating we want to put in, though I don’t know if we can do that with just 30 amp service. That said, once the decision is made one way or the other, I will either do a post on my idea that never came to fruition or post pics of the final results.

I have an idea for a desk in a most unusual place – and if we pull it off, I may have to give in and let Leon have at least most of his booth. ‘Cause that is another idea he told me flat out was insane (or was that inane?). Then days later he said, let’s see if we can make it work. So, some concessions may be necessary. Once we decide, I will share my idea, so you can either marvel, shake your head, or just nod in agreement that I have insanity issues.

My third idea is to not copy the pantry that someone else did, but use an idea that leaped from my brain into Leon’s ear. It would work IF there is enough room, though again, I got that look from Leon since he is the one who would get stuck making my idea a reality. We forgot to measure last time we were at the storage facility. Stay tuned for that idea, too, whether we can use it or not.

May your days be bright, your evenings all you want them to be, and your mind, uncluttered.

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That is not true; my brain is in complete chaos about Panoply’s design, but on to the pic of the gift that will help future picnics, and therefore, future calm.

Isn’t it cute? About 47″ long, with two little benches that when folded click in for storage beneath the folded picnic table. Our son and daughter-in-law gave it to us for Christmas, their way of “approving” our RV dreams. OK, that’s not it at all, but it was our first gift for Panoply – and a thoughtful one at that! Don’t know where we can keep it, but Leon will make it work, ’cause he knows better than to let ME find a place for it – that will involve construction – or a new car.

Of course, with a green table and benches, one blue folding chair and one bright orange folding chair, and a beige mat left by previous owners, we will be known as the Mismatch Duo, but all money is going into safety related items and into changing out some items for less ‘toxic’ items, not decorating. That is just the way I want it!

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