Day 196

Cloud computing only works if you can contact the server. We're in Kingman now and connection to the internet sucks. We can't get a signal with the MyFi (this is a first). The campground connection is slow and keeps dropping you out.

We made 300 miles today. We are now a little more (53%) than halfway to Oregon. Along the way I came across something I've never seen before. We gassed up at a Flying J in Phoenix. The price on the signs was $3.02. However, the price at the pump was $2.94. I only made one gas stop. When we got to Kingman it took 18.6 gallons to fill the tank. That's the lowest I've ever let it go when hauling the trailer.

I got some good news today. I called up the Oregon health insurance people. They will start my coverage tomorrow. I'm lucky, since I sent in my application so late. Of corse I don't have any of the information about it. Hopefully I won't need any until I get back to Oregon.

We also got lucky on the campground reservations. They are having some sort of festival in Boulder City. The campground is almost full, but they managed to fit us in. I guess it's bad planning to stop over in Las Vegas on the weekend. We just have to decide if we will go shooting or go into town.

The dog got to run in the area adjacent to the park. She was bouncing off the walls when we parked. We had to wait an hour after she ate before we could run her. She's quiet now.

We're going to walk down to a kind of truck stop place to have dinner. We ate there last year and liked it.

Day 195

We planned to go shooting today. We got up early (the club is open 9 to noon), fed the animals, loaded up the truck, and went to the club. We were met by someone who informed us that the office wasn't open. The website said it would be. Our fault for not calling and checking. We won't be shooting at Tucson this year.

We were out of milk and nearly out of water. So we went to the store. Then we went to the dog park. There was another dog there that was about Lucy's size and age. They hit it off and played some, although not as much as we would have liked. We had a good talk with the owner while they played.

After that we just went home. The wind was blowing pretty hard, 20 mph with gusts to 40. We didn't feel like doing anything. After lunch we just read for the whole afternoon. I went over to the library and worked on a puzzle for awhile. I must have contributed a whole dozen pieces.

The wind rendered the TV dish inoperable, so I watched a DVD I had picked up at a pawn shop. It was some old shows from a TV series called Tripping the Rift. It's a funny scifi cartoon. Then it was time for bed. We've got 300 miles to do tomorrow, and part of it is driving through Phoenix.

Day 194

Got up fairly early and took the dog for a walk. Then we hitched up and drove 70 miles to Tucson. I'd forgotten how nice a place it is. It's also nearly deserted. Everyone except for a few diehards has gone back up north.

We took a walk around just to look the place over. Then we gave the dog a bath at the dog wash. She wasn't thrilled, but now she smells a lot better.

One of the changes that they made was building a library in one of the apartments. It's really nice, with brand new bookshelves along all of the walls. They must have over a thousand paperback and hardcover books.

It was hot (over 90). So I got a book down and spent several hours there reading. Ellen had gotten the satellite set up and was watching the chick flick channel. I couldn't bear it.

In the evening we went over to the casino to gamble and have dinner. We won $6. We ate at a restaurant that we had eaten at before. Last time we had sandwiches and they were great. This time we had fried seafood and it was terrible. Oh well.

We may stay an extra day here. It's nice.

Day 193

The dog and I love the desert. Lucy got to run twice today. Once in the morning and once at night. I got to enjoy a sunny day with a high of about 85. That's a whole lot better than the 55 degrees and raining that Oregon is having today.

We spent the morning doing the wash and running the dog. It was nice not having to hook up and drive somewhere. Almost like being retired.

After that we went to Tombstone. We left the dog at home because it was too hot. We had a good time doing the tourist thing. Going through the shops (only bought a t-shirt and a book). We also attended one of the several "shoot out shows" that are put on at various places in town. We'd been there before. It's fun. You sit there and eat lunch while they reenact gunfights that happened in Tombstone. The $2 margaritas are nice, too.

I got some good news. Oregon is going to give me health insurance. Maybe I won't have to go without coverage at the end of the month.

We stopped by the river on the way back. I wanted to hike to it to see if Lucy could go for a swim. There wasn't enough water. Ellen got hot and pissed during the hike. I'll hear about it for awhile.

Day 192

Drove from Deming to a campground near Tombstone today. There's something screwy about the gas stations in Deming. They all sell Diesel at an inflated price. They were asking $3.49 a gallon while all the other stations we saw near the town were selling it for $2.98 - $3.05. I think there's an informal cartel going on in town.

When we got to the campground we got unhooked and then went to Sierra Vista to do a little grocery shopping. I didn't feel like doing anything else. I was still tired from yesterday and the four hours of driving today.

Arizona doesn't believe in DST. So we set our clocks back another hour today. That puts us on PST. It also means that it gets dark early here. It was dark by 7:30. The dog still got a chance to run all over the hiking area. She didn't tire herself out totally, but she's a little subdued tonight.

We'll go play tourist in Tombstone tomorrow. It will be nice to have a day when I'm not hauling the trailer.

Day 191

There isn't much to write about a 400 mile drive through west Texas and southern New Mexico. Midland isn't a garden spot, but as you go west the environment just deteriorates. The vegetation turns to scrub sagebrush. The land turns to dark brown with an overlay of windblown sand.

400 miles translates into about 7.5 hours on the road when you include the fairly frequent fuel stops that are required due to 10 MPG and a relatively small fuel tank. Also, you don't want to run out of fuel anywhere along this drive.

I was tired by the time we got to Deming, but for some reason the dog was not. So we took her on a walk. We found a nice little park (it even had some heavily irrigated grass) that we walked through. By the time we got back she was tired and thirsty.

I was, too. So I got a drink and then took a nap. The campground has cable, so I'm going to try to find something to watch. Then I think I'll go to bed early. We only have to go 200 miles tomorrow, so we won't have to get up early. Early to bed and late to rise. That's the retired life.

Day 190

We went over to Windwalker today to shoot. It was the first time in well over two months. I shot as you would expect - very poorly. But I had a lot of fun.

The weather was perfect. Sunny and 70 degrees. With about a 20 mph wind. The target setter had done a good job correcting for the wind. I bet he's had a lot of practice.

They were having a non-registered fun shoot. 50 sporting, 50 5-stand, 50 skeet, and 50 trap for $60. That's a good price. Only I didn't want to shoot trap or skeet and I didn't want to shoot 200 straight birds. They had lunch for $5. Smoked sausage, steak, salad, chicken with noodles, rolls, and four kinds of desserts. I almost bought a second to take home in a doggie bag for dinner.

We stopped by HEB on the way back and topped off the tank. When we got home we hooked up the trailer so that we can get a faster start in the morning. Then I read a couple of magazines and took a nap. It's the first time I've done either in months. I could get to like this retirement shit.

Tomorrow we're going to Deming NM. That's 407 miles away according to Google. It's the second longest drive we will have on the way home. When we get there we will have covered 30% of the distance to Oregon.

Day 189

We drove to Midland today. The most notable thing about the trip is the change. You start out in the hill country, the nicest place in Texas. Over the course of about 200 miles it gradually turns into west Texas. This is the Texas that Sherman was going to rent out while he lived in hell.

Midland is a cool little city (100,000). It has several interesting things in it like the petroleum museum and the CAF museum. But we've already seen those. So when we got here we just set up and then surfed.

I made a special trip to HEB to pick up a case of Lonestar. It's about my last opportunity since we'll be leaving Texas in less than 48 hours. The gas station there had diesel for $2.75. I bet we don't see that price again for a long time, it ever. I do love hope and change.

On the way to the HEB I saw something that I thought I'd never see again in my life. It was an operating drivein theater. With three screens no less. It was a little early, but it seemed to be fairly well attended on a Friday night.

We lucked out on the weather too. Yesterday they had some serious thunderstorms. There's mud and puddles all over. Today there was supposed to be a strong headwind. There was, but it started after we got to the park.

Tomorrow we'll go shooting. We got lucky. There was a shoot last weekend and another next weekend. There's nothing this weekend.

Day 188

On the road again.

We spent a couple of hours in the morning getting the trailer ready and locking up. I left most of a large bag of cat food for the cats. Of course it won't get them through the summer. I hope they have the brains to move to some other house.

It was raining lightly all day. Good old Texans. The rain was light enough that you only needed to use the wipers every couple of minutes. I passed people that had their wipers on high.

We got out of the gate without damaging anything and the trip was uneventful. When we got to the park a little before noon it was only half full. I knew they were bullshitting us.

After setting up we went into Fredericksburg. It was noon, so we stopped at a place for lunch. It had a sign that said the dining room was closed from noon to 2:00, but the drive in window was open. When we drove to the window, someone inside looked at us and then disappeared. We drove away. I predict a short life for this establishment.

We did the tourist thing walking the main street looking in shops. We saw some nice furniture. One store had a sale on cowhides and I bought one.

After that we went back to the trailer and watched cable TV.

Day 187

Spent part of the day on prep. Put the hitch back in the truck and packed in the other things that have to ride in the truck bed.

I was going to get the trailer ready, but there isn't any need to. The damn trailer park in Fredericksburg won't let us in until noon. It's only a 90 minute drive, so there will be plenty of time tomorrow morning to get ready to go.

So I spent the afternoon ripping the last 5 CD's that I've accumulated. I acquired about 50 CD's on the trip. They are all going to stay here, there's no reason to take them north. I've got over 60 albums to listen to on the trip that I've never heard before. They will have to compete with the comedy on the satellite radio.

We bought groceries and gassed up in the evening. The next time we leave it will be for 6 months. All we have left to do is set the alarm and lock the doors.

Ellen made reservations for the first couple of nights. It's a 2,500 mile trip. We discovered that we'll have to travel a little farther when we cross int NM than we were planning. The parks in Los Cruces are a ripoff so we'll have to go another 60 miles to Deming.

Day 186

The first day of preparing to leave is over. First I took out the garbage. There wasn't as much as in previous weeks. Then I had the oil and brake fluid changed in the truck. Then I had it washed and waxed.

When we got home it was house cleaning time. I used the shop vac to vacuum up all of the leaves and paper shreds that were littering the study, kitchen, and living room. Then I used it on the rest of the house for good measure.

There are 4 boxes of records and a couple of small boxes of miscellaneous stuff that haven't been unpacked. There was also a big box of computer stuff. I unpacked the big box and put the stuff away. About half of the box's contents are going to Goodwill because they are obsolete.

I moved all of the stuff out of the house that needed to go back to the trailer or to the garage. It took several trips. I also turned down the water heater. All that's left to do is set the alarm and lock the doors.

Finally I went around the place taking pictures of everything inside and out. I know that people are going to want to know what it looks like when we get back.

Tomorrow's going to be another busy day. I need to install the hitch and get the trailer ready to go. I also need to finish cleaning up the ammo or Ellen won't have anything to shoot when we get on the road. The last thing will be to turn down the water heater in the apartment (after we've taken showers).

Day 185

The work is over. Today I completed the last task that I'll do this spring. I resprayed some of the areas that I sprayed before. I also covered the road areas that I didn't get to the first time because I ran out of poison. That's it, done, fini.

Only now it's time to prepare to leave. I need to get the truck's oil changed and I'd like to get it a bath. I'll see about that tomorrow. It's also time to start cleaning up the house. It needs vacuuming and a few things put away. I also need to turn down the water heaters in the house and the apartment.

Ellen spent the day cleaning out files. I did the shredding. We got rid of all of the records from the '80's and '90's. There's still some more to do, I'm not sure we'll get completely finished.

I met another neighbor today and the local sheriff's deputy (he drove by while we were talking). It turns out there was a meth house down the road a while back. The guy's doing 22 years in the state pen now. Good riddance.

A little while ago I started a list of all of the things that we've done here since March 6th. That's 37 straight days of work (not counting moving the trailer and yesterday's time off). In that time we accomplished the following:

1. Unpacked the storage containers and moved everything into the house.
2. Unpacked all of the boxes from the move.
3. Hung over thirty items on the walls of the house and the apartment.
4. Cleaned all of the cabinets and closets in the house (they were dirty).
5. Got new roof installed.
6. Got burglar alarm installed.
7. Disassembled swimming pool and installed new lattice work on the deck.
8. Painted the entire interior of the house including trim and doors except for the bathrooms.
9. Replaced three kitchen lights and two bathroom lights.
10. Replaced ceiling fan in the study.
11. Installed surround sound speakers in the living room.
12. Hung the TV on the wall.
13. Replaced all of the door knobs in the house with levers.
14. Installed blinds on two windows.
15. Sprayed the weeds and gravel areas with Roundup equivalent.
16. Filled up pot holes in the entry road.
17. Pruned trees at the entrance to allow trailer passage.
18. Shredded 20 years worth of financial documents and tax returns.
19. Bought the following furniture:
a. Rolltop desk
b. Wooden file cabinet (converted it to modern files)
c. Double bed frame for the guest bedroom
d. Double bed frame for the apartment main bedroom
e. Dresser for the guest bedroom
f. Dresser for the master bedroom
g. Two dressers for the master closets
h. Table for the living room
i. Table for the kitchen
j. Kitchen table and four chairs for the apartment
k. TV stand for the apartment
l. Washer and Dryer for the apartment
20. Painted the apartment living room including trim.
21. Put up trim around the apartment front door and other unfinished places.
22. Put up towel bars and a clothes rod in the apartment bathroom.
23. Built a shelf in the garage.

I'd call that a lot to accomplish with 1.8 people (Ellen was gone for a while) in 7 weeks.

I'm tired and looking forward to getting back on the road. Driving the trailer isn't relaxing, but I think it's going to be lots easier than the last 7 weeks have been.

Day 184

I couldn't post yesterday because we'd run over our data transfer limit on the MyFi. It wasn't a very interesting day anyway. It was unusual though in one respect. It was the first day since the day after we bought the house (March 5) that I didn't work on the house. It really felt good to take a whole day off.

We didn't do much except a little shopping. Without the internet I read the Sunday paper and played Xbox. Ellen watched a movie.

I did get a call from the Craig's list appliance guy. He's going to pick up the old washer and dryer tomorrow. The new ones seem to work OK.

Day 183

I didn't do much today. I went to Buda to buy a toolbox that I saw on Craig's list. I took the opportunity to go over to Cabela's, but they didn't have anything that I was interested in.

I spent the rest of the day ripping CD's that I had bought over the last few weeks at Goodwill and pawn shops. One thing about Austin, there's some good used CD's to be found. I ripped 16 of them. There were three others that I bought that I already had. One other had the wrong CD in it. I was really disappointed, as the real CD seemed like it would be a good blues CD.

Ellen spent some of the day on shredding and part on the Western. I shredded part of the papers that she had, but I left the rest because it interfered with ripping.

There's a heavy thunderstorm coming this way. It should be interesting to watch. According to the TV radar it's still miles away, but the thunder is pretty loud already.

Day 182

The last job on the house (for me) is done. I moved all of the boxes from the kitchen floor up to the red storage building. It took two truck loads. I also used up the remains of the spool of bailing twine that I used to secure things in the PODS. I think I'll buy another spool. That stuff is handy.

Ellen kept on coming up with stuff to shred and I shredded it. She says we've shredded two boxes of stuff and are near finishing. I'm sure the shredder will be grateful. It overheated twice today.

We went out for awhile to buy some groceries, porno (it's Friday), and to look at a church consignment sale. It was all kid's stuff, so of no use to us.

When we got back I saw an ad on Craig's list for a washer and dryer for $125. I called them up and went to see it. We bought it. That was about 6:30. It took until 9:00 to get it home and installed in the apartment. Tomorrow I'll try to get someone to haul off the old ones.

Tonight we're sitting at the kitchen table in the house. It's the first time we've been in here to do something other than work (except when I watched movies). It's nice to look around and not see something else that needs to be done.

It rained today and it's supposed to rain for the next couple of days. I hope I can get some more spraying in before we leave. Time is getting short.

Day 181

It rained today. Heavily at times. That sort of threw a wrench into my plans, since the main tasks that I wanted to do were outside. Maybe it will be better tomorrow, but the forecast isn't promising.

Instead I went to the apartment and finished installing all of the trim that the sellers had neglected to complete. After that I went to the garage and started cleaning it up. I put everthing away and cleaned up the work bench and floor. Then I started to unpack the last box - marked "misc junk". I wish I'd done that before. It wasn't junk. It contained tools and hardware. Included was picture hanging wire, deck screws, and metal tape. I didn't have to buy those things - I already had them. Oh well.

After everything was put away I started looking at the ammo from the truck. I knew it had gotten wet, but I didn't know that some cases had gotten soaked. That pisses me off, as I had it wrapped up tight in a tarp. Anyway I've thrown half a case of shells away and I suspect I'll have to throw away at least another box. That's after reclaiming a lot of them with sand paper and emery cloth.

I neglected to mention that the washer developed a problem on Tuesday. It's valves leak. I had to turn off the water to it. I spent some time on Craig's list looking for another. I've got some leads to follow up.

Ellen spent the whole day on the western and surfing.

Day 180

The major work that we need to do on the house is done, so now it's time for the smaller stuff. Ellen spent most of the day going through papers and deciding what needed shredding. I did the shredding.

In between overheating the shredder I did some other small but time consuming tasks. I put up the last picture (we forgot one). I put up a couple of clothes hooks in Ellen's closet and a tie rack in mine. I also repacked the award plaques that we decided we wouldn't hang up. I also did a little cleanup in the kitchen.

All of the boxes from the move have now been broken down and are ready to be put away. All of the packing material has either already been thrown away or is bagged ready to be thrown away. Once I move the boxes out the house will look like it's ready to be lived in.

I cleaned up the porch and moved some of the cat stuff that's been sitting out there for a month into the cat room. We took a whole lot of the garden stuff, mainly sprinklers planters and pots, to Goodwill.

Day 179

We spent most of the day hanging pictures. At least I did. Ellen did the wash and sorted out papers for shredding.

I hung 16 pictures and 2 clocks between the house and the apartment. We don't have anything left to hang. The funny part is that we could use a few more pictures for the bathrooms and the apartment bedrooms. I'm sure we'll acquire some.

We went to look at a sofa. Ellen decided it was too worn. I'm getting burnt out on Craig's list. Unless it's close and really looks interesting I'm giving it a pass.

We shredded another bag and a half of papers. The shredder shut down twice. It's garbage day tomorrow and the can is loaded to capacity.

With the pictures up the house is really beginning to look like a home. It's time to start doing cleanup - vacuum, put away the stuff on the counters, take out the boxes, clear out the porch, etc.

Day 178

In the morning I pulled up the masking paper in the apartment living room. I was a little premature as Ellen needed to go over the doors again. She managed to do it by just putting a piece of paper under them.

Then I vacuumed the room and hallway as they were filthy. The sellers had left an 8.5 by 11.5 rug in the apartment. We rolled it out and it looked fine, but it was filthy (surprise, surprise). Ellen got out the steam cleaner and worked on it for hours. When she was finished, it looked great.

While she cleaned the rug, I arranged the furniture and set up the stereo, TV, and Xbox. I also put standoffs behind all of the electrical fixtures because the dummies that built the place nailed the boxes too far back from the face of the sheet rock. When we were all done the place actually looked like a livable room. The only thing it needs is a sofa. I found a candidate on Craig's list and we'll go see it tomorrow.

I unpacked two boxes of pictures and clocks while Ellen was doing work on the Western (she's been doing work on it for the last few days). Then Ellen decided where they should go and I put them up. I put up two clocks and 6 pictures. There's a clock and at least 10 pictures to go. After that there's the apartment.

In the late evening we had a shred fest. We went until the shredder overheated. Then we called it quits at about 9:30.

Day 177

Ellen finished up painting the trim in the apartment living room. This is somewhat of a milestone as it may mark the end of the painting until Fall. If we get ambitious we'll paint the small bedroom, but that is definitely a second priority.

I decided it was time to start hanging things on the walls. I started with the hardest thing. It's a metal sculpture that Ellen wanted 8 feet up the wall above the TV. It was quite a challenge to get the thing positioned exactly right. I managed to do it, but it took a long time.

I found a TV stand on Craig's list that sounded like it might work in the apartment. Actually I found two the same, one close and one up North. We went to the close seller. It looked nice so we bought it. On the way back we stopped at a Goodwill, a thrift store, and a pawn shop. I bought some CD's. At the thrift shop we saw a Chinese rug very similar to the ones we have in the master bath. It was a real bargain at $15. It's a little dirty, but when Ellen cleans it we'll use it in the apartment.

We had a late lunch at a restuarant that specialized in catfish and shrimp. We both had catfish. It was very good.

After lunch we stopped at the grocery store. We hadn't been there in awhile and supplies were running low. We also stopped at Costco because they were supposed to sell rugs. The one we went to didn't have any.

When we got home I did some shredding and unpacked some other pictures that we will probably hang tomorrow.

Day 176

We got the room in the apartment almost done. I did the second coat on the walls. Ellen touched up the dark green wall and did most of the trim. She'll be able to finish it tomorrow.

I was tired of spraying, so I found something else to do.

While Ellen was doing trim, I replaced the fan in the study. The old one was a very good quality Hunter fan. I replaced it with a cheap one from Home Depot that we got a month ago on Craig's list. I did this for two reasons. First the Hunter fan was huge and dominated the room. It hung so low that tall people would have to duck under it. Second, it only had two 60 watt bulbs inside a glass enclosure. That made the room dark. The new fan is smaller and has 4 40 watt bulbs in open glass enclosures. Much more light. The downside is that it's cheap and hums.

In the evening I found a sewing table on Craig's list that sounded like it might work for us. The sellers live in Lakeway, which is an area about 20 miles away that I've been wanting to visit. When we got there it turned out that there was no way the table was going to work. However they had this very nice antique kitchen table with hidden leaves. We ended up buying it. Now we need to find matching chairs.

About a mile from the seller's house was a park that borders Lake Travis. We took Lucy over there and she had her first swim in months. She was ecstatic. It was a short one though as we got to the park a half hour before it closed.

Day 175

It was a little cold last night, so staying in the warm bed this morning felt good. So we did, but not for a really long time. When we got up Ellen started painting and I started spraying.

After about two hours I ran out of poison. I got most of what I wanted to cover done, but I still have some areas that I want to spray. I decided to help Ellen with the painting. I took over the rolling. The two of us got the first coat on the entire living room. One wall has its second coat.

After a late lunch we went back to Dripping Springs to get some more poison. Yesterday we just bought it. Today the store's computer system wanted all sorts of information to insure that we weren't buying a restricted herbicide. It was stupid.

When we got back I enlisted Ellen's help in putting the pinball machines back together. They both came through the move in fine condition. We played pinball for awhile and then started shredding out of date documents. That got old quickly, so we went back to the trailer for dinner.

After dinner and some surfing we went back to do more shredding. We spent about and hour and a half destroying 2 and a half years of records. We've got a lot more to go.

I found a hall tree on the internet that looks interesting. We'll probably go look at it tomorrow.

Day 174

We stayed in bed for awhile this morning, we were both tired. When we did get up, I got started on spraying the weeds. Some of the thistles were quite big. The previous owner had just cut them occasionally. That just gets you strong thistles. Some had stalks over an inch in diameter. I didn't get everything done, chiefly because I quit after two and a half hours.

Ellen started painting the living room in the apartment. It's going to look good. She only made slow progress for the same reason I did. She quit after two hours.

After lunch we went shopping/exploring. First we went by the post office and mailed off the tax returns and my health insurance application. Then we went to the town of Bee Cave, about 10 miles to the northwest. The town is really two shopping centers. One is sort of a both sides of the street strip mall. It had Lowes, Best Buy, PetSmart, OfficeMax, etc. in it. It also had a yuppy grocery store where we bought a couple of things. There was a consignment furniture store where I bought a desk fountain for $10. We also stopped at Best Buy and I picked up a couple of Blu-Ray disks that were on sale.

Then we went across the street to the sort of outdoor mall that you see in California. It was anchored by a Dillard's. It had several also common mall clothing stores. There were also some nice eating establishments. We stopped at a dog boutique shop and a rug store. We saw some nice rugs, but they were expensive.

While we were there Dan called. I couldn't help mentioning that it was 73 degrees and sunny. I may delay our departure a little. I'm not sure I'm ready for early May weather in Oregon.

When we got home I finished up the trim around the apartment's front door. I must say that it looks pretty good for a first effort. Of course anything looks better than an unfinished surround.

Day 173

It was hard to get up this morning. I was tired and sore. My plan to poison the environment had to be put on hold because it was raining. The first priority was to apply for health insurance. I should have read the application before I wasted time with Blue Cross. I could have just applied based on losing COBRA.

We had to wait on UPS to deliver a package, so I went to the apartment and put down the masking for the living room. I also went to the house and unpacked 4 boxes of knick knacks. Ellen started to paint the room, but she didn't get far. She had to spend a lot of time on the phone with Patsy consulting on a computer problem.

UPS brought the package about noon. That freed us up to go shopping. We got some cat and dog food. I got a new pair of jeans to replace the ones with paint all over them. We also got some Longhorn t-shirts for Stephen. Finally, we stopped at Home Depot to get some trim lumber to finish the trim that the sellers didn't do in the apartment. Wood to trim a single door cost almost $50.

When we got home I put the trim up around the front door in the apartment. It was the first time I've ever done something like that. It came out OK. It would have come out better if the door opening had been square.

Day 172

This was a very productive day. We got up a little earlier than usual to meet a Craig's list seller. She sold us an occasional table that is a perfect fit under one of the living room windows. If I get a chance, I'll unpack some nick naks and awards to put on it tomorrow.

When we got home I packed the garbage can. There was a lot of cardboard as well as the chair Goodwill wouldn't take to fit in. The result was a masterpiece in how to fit as much as possible into a garbage can.

Then I attacked the swimming pool. I dug the bottom of the walls out of the sand. With Ellen's help I unbolted the twenty or so bolts that held the wall seam together. Several were so rusted that they broke as we loosened them. One had to be drilled out. Then I rolled up the wall and together we folded up the liner. The liner went into the red storage building. Everything else got put behind the garage.

Removing the pool created a new job. Part of the pool was up against the deck. With the pool removed, it was necessary to put up some lattice to block critters from getting under the deck. Off to Home Depot, then I cut two pieces out of the sheet of lattice and screwed them to the side of the deck.

After the lattice I went to work in the garage. I finished setting up the stereo, moved the workbench to where it belongs, and unpacked several boxes of stuff. With Ellen's help I put the TV stand into the TV cabinet. The result is a halfway functional garage. There are still several boxes to unpack and some other stuff to put away.

Ellen wasn't idle during all of this. She made a lot of progress on the trailer carpet with the steam cleaner and some chemicals that we had packed away. Then she went over the floor trim again. It's looking very good.

During the Home Depot trip we stopped at Tractor Supply and bought some Roundup and a sprayer. Tomorrow I'll set about poisoning everything that I don't want to grow while we are gone.

Day 171

The broad who said she was going to buy the pool backed out. She had her boyfriend call to tell me. As Jack said, "just remove reason and accountability".

So I spent the day taking the pool apart. I wasted a fair amount of time trying to figure out how to get the top rail apart. After unscrewing several things unnecessarily I hit on the right approach. Then it was a matter of unscrewing a bunch of screws and drilling out some stripped ones. Of course it wouldn't have been fun without having to crawl under the deck to unscrew the last post.

Once the top rail was off, it was time to empty the liner. Ellen helped hold up one end of the liner while I bailed out the other. Eventually we got it emptied.

At that point I'd been working for six plus hours in the heat in humidity. So I called a halt to the festivities. Tomorrow I'll tackle taking down the wall and remove the posts. I suspect that a shovel will play a significant role in the proceedings.

Ellen got a little bit of painting in. She spent a lot of time using a steam cleaner on the rug in the trailer. It really did a great job on the cat barf and dog shit spots.

Day 170

Did I mention that I really, really, hate pools. Today I went into the pool. I found out that the reason the pump was so slow was that it was sucking the pool liner against the bottom of the pump. I put a little shim under the pump and the flow increased dramatically.

The ladder was green with algae, so I removed it and cleaned it off as best I could. It needs some real elbow grease to be really clean though. The bottom and sides of the pool were covered with scum. I spent a lot of time scrubbing the sides clean. I couldn't do the bottom because there's water in it.

The sump pump won't pump in water less than two inches deep. That's when I started screwing with the swimming pool pump. I discovered that I could have emptied the pool with it. That would have saved me $50. I also could have cleaned the bottom of the pool with the vacuum, except it doesn't work when there's only a couple of inches in the pool.

With Ellen's help I was able to get the vacuum primed and I used it to suck up most of the scum. It took a couple of hours bent over holding the end of the vacuum hose just above the bottom of the pool. There's still about an inch of water in the pool. I don't know how to get that out.

All in all I spent a long, tiring, day with that stupid thing. Oh, and did I mention that it was in the mid 80's with 100% humidity today? I'm going to be glad to see it go tomorrow.

Ellen got some painting done, but she lost the whole afternoon to helping me.

Day 169

We spent the morning at the Wimberley Trade Day. There were several hundred booths selling craft items, antiques, and sometimes just junk. We got there early, and it wasn't too crowded. By the time we left at noon it was getting packed. We also went through the town. That's something that we've been saying we'd do for two years. It's pretty much your standard tourist town. We didn't find anything that we wanted to buy except a metal Texas star.

Did I mention that I hate pools? Of course the first step in getting rid of the pool is to drain it. I took the sump pump that I bought yesterday and started the progress. According to the pump rating the process should have take 2 - 3 hours. After five I turned it off with the pool about 1/4 full.

While the pool was draining, I was busy cleaning all of the leaves out of it. Not really all, just what I could fish out with a net. The thing is filthy. I guess I shouldn't have neglected it for the month we've been here.

Eventually I got it as clean as I could. So I went to the garage and finished the shelf. Then I unpacked the garage stereo and put it on the shelf. I quit about 7:30 with the garage a real mess.

Ellen continued on the doors. It's a long process because they need two coats.

Day 168

We spent the morning on the web and shopping. Harbor Freight finally had the shop crane that I need for the trailer hitch on sale. We went there to buy one. I also got a submersible pump so that I could empty out the pool. Someone is coming to buy it on Monday.

We went to a furniture consignment shop, but didn't see anything that we liked. We also made a stop at a Goodwill. It didn't have anything we wanted.

We stopped for lunch at the Golden Corral buffet. We ate too much of course. Then we went to Home Depot and got a new fluorescent light fixture for the kitchen. It's got pewter accents that match the other two fixtures that we have installed. We also got daylight balanced bulbs.

When we got home I installed the new light. It's great to turn on the kitchen light and not hear the buzzing of a dying ballast. The warm light is a great improvement over the old white light.

I put the shop crane together (it's a lot of work). Then I moved the hitch off the work table so that I can use the table. Then I started to install the shelving that I bought earlier. I got the supports attached to the wall. I'll attach the shelve tomorrow.

Ellen decided that the next painting she wanted to do was the doors in the house. She got three of them done. She has about half a dozen left to do.

Day 167

We decided to take some stuff to Goodwill today. Some of it was old clothes that Ellen didn't want. The rest was stuff that the sellers left - an aquarium, a small TV, and an office chair with a ripped seat. Goodwill wouldn't take the chair. Apparently they don't repair things anymore. That's a shame as it's a nice chair, it just needs recovering. I'm going to have to take it apart and put it in the garbage can. That's a waste.

We stopped by Home Depot (I think there's a pattern there) and got some blinds for a kitchen window and the makings for a shelf in the garage. I got the blinds installed. Then we had to leave to look at a sewing table. It turned out to be too small (it was also too beat up). I'm going to bag looking at Craig's list item until after we go to Wimberley on Saturday.

I also whittled (literally) a piece to repair one of the posts on the four poster bed. It improved the post, but the post is still a little wobbly. I don't think that there's much more to be done unless I want to permanently attach it to the bed.

Ellen got the second coat on the woodwork. I'm not sure if it will need a third coat.