Notes from the Road Part Three
Nap Time with the Pooches
We all know that naps are essential for good health and keeping the right subservient attitude with your wife (if you’re married).
I had noticed for some time that when the weather is hot the dogs like to sleep under the trailer. This happens mostly in the afternoon, the heat of the day. They lie there, tummies and faces on the cool ground perfectly content.
So it was here in Picacho Peak SP near Tucson that I decided the other day to join them. There was a nice breeze blowing, it was gaining on 2PM, my usual nap time, the temperature was edging up towards 90, and the pooches looked so darn comfortable there under the trailer…
So I got the old bunk mattress that I had saved figuring I’d find a good use for it or the foam, and scrounged my pillows from my bed. I placed the mattress under the trailer near the dogs being careful not to wake them. Grabbed my pillows and crawled under and lay down on my back. My small dog Jake just opened his eyes and regarded me with either suspicion or incredulity, I am not sure which. The older one Nigel just continued sleeping.
It was like immediate air conditioning. The cool breeze, the cool ground, where the sun never reached until very late afternoon, a comfy mattress, my favorite pillows…Life is sweet. NO wonder the pooches sleep here I thought to myself, this is great.
As I lay there wondering why it took me so long to catch on to this little bit of Shangi-La under my trailer I started looking at all of the wires and stuff that are visible. I started to make mental notes of small projects I could do to improve things under here. That wire needs a strain relief. I need to check those brake wires for abrasion. I can insulate this all and close it off pretty easily. Stuff like that.
I had optimistically brought a novel I was reading under the trailer with me, something I rarely do (read Novels, my usual is History, Biography, Current Affairs, Politics etc.) But I promptly fell asleep with the breeze wafting at me and the sound of the birds and the dogs snoring softly in my ears. The Novel went un-read.
I highly recommend this practice. There is after all a long tradition of sleeping under your vehicle of conveyance. The early settlers did it under their covered wagons, truck drivers the world over in developing countries sling hammocks under their freight trailers and nap by the side of the road, Lewis and Clark slept under their overturned boats on their way westward and when I was younger and living in Egypt, I used to sleep in the shade of my camel as he lay on the ground, hobbled and chewing whatever was in his stomach that afternoon.
So if you decide to try this, and I highly recommend it, you can be assured you are in good company. (and your wife will probably never think to look for you under the trailer.)
We all know that naps are essential for good health and keeping the right subservient attitude with your wife (if you’re married).
I had noticed for some time that when the weather is hot the dogs like to sleep under the trailer. This happens mostly in the afternoon, the heat of the day. They lie there, tummies and faces on the cool ground perfectly content.
So it was here in Picacho Peak SP near Tucson that I decided the other day to join them. There was a nice breeze blowing, it was gaining on 2PM, my usual nap time, the temperature was edging up towards 90, and the pooches looked so darn comfortable there under the trailer…
So I got the old bunk mattress that I had saved figuring I’d find a good use for it or the foam, and scrounged my pillows from my bed. I placed the mattress under the trailer near the dogs being careful not to wake them. Grabbed my pillows and crawled under and lay down on my back. My small dog Jake just opened his eyes and regarded me with either suspicion or incredulity, I am not sure which. The older one Nigel just continued sleeping.
It was like immediate air conditioning. The cool breeze, the cool ground, where the sun never reached until very late afternoon, a comfy mattress, my favorite pillows…Life is sweet. NO wonder the pooches sleep here I thought to myself, this is great.
As I lay there wondering why it took me so long to catch on to this little bit of Shangi-La under my trailer I started looking at all of the wires and stuff that are visible. I started to make mental notes of small projects I could do to improve things under here. That wire needs a strain relief. I need to check those brake wires for abrasion. I can insulate this all and close it off pretty easily. Stuff like that.
I had optimistically brought a novel I was reading under the trailer with me, something I rarely do (read Novels, my usual is History, Biography, Current Affairs, Politics etc.) But I promptly fell asleep with the breeze wafting at me and the sound of the birds and the dogs snoring softly in my ears. The Novel went un-read.
I highly recommend this practice. There is after all a long tradition of sleeping under your vehicle of conveyance. The early settlers did it under their covered wagons, truck drivers the world over in developing countries sling hammocks under their freight trailers and nap by the side of the road, Lewis and Clark slept under their overturned boats on their way westward and when I was younger and living in Egypt, I used to sleep in the shade of my camel as he lay on the ground, hobbled and chewing whatever was in his stomach that afternoon.
So if you decide to try this, and I highly recommend it, you can be assured you are in good company. (and your wife will probably never think to look for you under the trailer.)
