We are starting on week four of living in an RV — a space graciously provided by friends for the time between selling MI house and buying/moving to our WI house, with retirement in between.

Living small is not a problem. Living in close quarters with my husband is not a problem. Going to a laundromat every four days is not a problem. Cooking meals in a microwave and a small appetizer crockpot is not a problem. Having very close, and rotating neighbors is not a problem.

The three biggest problems of living in an RV for me are: 1) sleeping in a cave, as our grandson aptly called it;

2) vibrations throughout the RV at every step taken; and 3) no Internet. (A fourth might be the awkward-yucky job of draining the gray water and black water every two days. Bless his heart, Jeffrey handles that; literally.)

The RV park where we are staying advertises Internet available. We were told it is spotty especially on weekends when lots of children are streaming movies. But we can’t stream movies, and found it mostly impossible to connect to even during the week.

Mostly, I get a circle going round and round showing me my phone is trying to connect to the Internet. Once in a while, I get the politenotice: “No Internet connection. Please try again.” Even when I am in the community building where the cell phone tower is, it often is dysfunctional.

We also depended on the church Internet. In order for Jeff to do his sermons he uses the Internet for many resources. I would go in to town with Jeff to use the church’s Internet, but it went from unreliable, to available only in a hallway to none at all within a week. The none at all it was caused from a violent storm which turned off the fuse box. now the single room of the entire building which is semidependable Internet is the library. Jeff also must do all his committee zoom meetings at church, too. At least it’s a pretty 20-minute drive over Michigan countryside.

No email, no text messages, no iPhone updates, no Facebook (I can sometimes go several days seen only gray squares for pictures with no updates in that time.) No news apps (I have 4), no YouTube, Netflix, Acorn, BritBox, or other streamed channels to watch, no iPhone games except a couple basics, no Goodreads, no weather channel, no checking my bank account or PayPal via the iPhone apps, and only the occasional updates to my iPhone, with daily messages saying they were unable to update my iPhone at the schedule 5 AM times. I also cannot send photos or text messages to my husband standing next to me at the Community Building.

I could do some of the above, including FaceTime with the grandkids, if I pay for extra cellular data.

I am, however, able to read the Kindle books and Hoopla I have downloaded earlier, as well as write on the notepad, but writing on the notepad has caused my right hand to go numb.

To communicate with others, I can actually: 1) call; 2) write and post a letter; or 3) visit in person when the van is available.

I feel like I am on a deserted island and have run out of a supply of empty bottles with no paper to write on.

Some of you might be saying, “oh, that sounds so restful. And who wants to listen to all that bad news, anyway? And how great it is to get away from electronic devices.”

I do agree that all that would be wonderful, IF it were planned. But when you expect to have things available daily, to do work or just be able to communicate, and they simply are not available, it takes for some adjustment. We are adjusting.

The two nicest things about living in the RV are: 1) being so close to my husband; and 2) the sunsets.

Eight more weeks to go.