And then we gave up.
Or rather, I gave up on the window tinting project and my friend Linda (who was doing most of the work) seemed very happy to hear it.
I won’t go into the whole sordid story but window tinting is a hell of a lot easier when you are a professional with all the right equipment at your disposal, including a garage to work in out of the sun.
When I get back to San Diego and my son’s shaded carport, I may try again on my own. I am not as concerned with doing a perfect job as Linda (not a criticism! I admire her can-do spirit and determination!) so the tint might actually happen some day — very imperfectly.
Meanwhile, I have blackout curtains at last.
I bought 7 1/2 yards of black fleece for the old van last summer but never could figure out how to hang them from the uneven ceiling.
I was determined not to use pins or even Velcro. Standing half up, stooped over, to attach and detach them a couple of times per day is an exercise in backache. I wanted a track like I had seen in professionally converted vans, so I could simply pull the curtains across the windows whenever I wanted.
I ordered bendable plastic track from Amazon but when it came, we realized the hardware would not be as easy to install as we thought. And then Linda noticed the one obstacle we could not overcome: airbags installed in the ceiling over the windows and side door. No way could we take a chance on puncturing them!
So I opted for pins, for now. It’s a slap-dash solution that looks crappy but it does the job. For now.
I will keep looking for better options.
Today, we will hang the curtains and the hammock and put everything back in the van, hopefully better organized than before. We will return the plastic track and the heat gun I bought for shrinking the window tint to fit the curve of the windows. It will be nice to get my money back.
And then we will look for something fun to do together before I head back to San Diego.
So, progress. Slow and halting and not as much as we’d hoped, but progress.
Sometimes, that’s the best you can do.
