Day 75

We went to the club for a tournament today. Ellen screwed up the first 4 stations, but she did pretty good after that. I won AA. That sounds impressive except that C 1 beat me. I did pretty good on the first 50, but fell apart on the back 50.

We also shot the 50 target side match. I was doing pretty well until the last station where I got 3 out of 10. I thought about shooting the 5-stand, but I was too tired.

We shot with 4 guys from Houston. They drove 170 miles one way for the shoot. That's a short trip for Texans. It was fun, they were a good group.

After the shoot we stopped to pick up the mail. There was two bills and a couple of late Christmas cards. We also stopped at Costco because I thought I might be able to get a hose. They didn't have one. So we bought a couple of other small items and went home.

There's a lot of noise outside tonight. People are shooting off some really loud fireworks. Nothing is flying high enough for us to see it.

I've had two mojitos and I'm ready for new years.

Day 74

It was great weather today, so we decided to go to Zilker park. We stayed in bed until 11 surfing and playing with the dog and cats. Then we went to the park.

There were a lot of people there. There were some parking spaces, but not many. The dog had a great time. She did a lot of retrieves, and there were a lot of dogs to socialize with. Unfortunately I couldn't get her to quit worrying about the bumper and go play with the dogs. We played there for a couple of hours. We even had conversations with a couple of owners about dog stuff.

We stopped by the grocery store on the way home for a few things. When we got home I rolled up the hoses that I had strung to the burn barrel yesterday. I also went out an shot baskets for about half an hour. I think I'll try to do that more often.

Day 73

I'm pooped. We stayed in bed until noon (literally). I felt guilty, so I decided to burn the big pile of dead branches by the entrance.

Before I did that I had to convert the barrel into a burn barrel. I was going to use the grinder, but that wasn't working. So I drilled 4 holes per vent and then connected the dots with a jigsaw. It worked really well.

I set up the barrel and then began moving the pile to the barrel. It took half a dozen loads with the cart to do it. I had to pump up the tires on the cart first.

While I was doing that Ellen was cutting some dead bushes in the back yard. She added them to the pile.

The burning took about an hour and a half. All that stuff had been on the ground for months or years. It burned fast and hot. I'm going to clean up tomorrow if we don't go to a lot of sales.

Day 72

Cabin fever struck again today. We stayed in bed for a long time reading the news on the web. I guess it's not much different than doing so at the kitchen table.

When we got up we ate breakfast and then left for Bee Cave. The idea was to stop at Dick's to look for a dog collar. They didn't have one. So we spent a few hours going through the stores up there. We didn't buy anything, but we had a good time. It was sunny and 70. Just the appropriate weather for the week between Christmas and New Years.

The dog didn't have a very good time. She spent it all in the car.

We did stop at a bar. We had nachos and I had a pint of Guinness.

On the way home I bought some fireworks and we stopped at a gun store on 290. It's a neat little place, and the prices are reasonable.

Day 71

I decided to finish with the speaker stands today. It was a pain in the ass. To start with, I had to crawl all the way to the other side of the attic to loosen the bolts holding on the old speakers. I ended up loosening the ones for the wire plates too.

So I replaced the wire plate screws with plastic anchors. They will work fine.

I was going to attach the stands to the sheet rock, but that wasn't going to work. The speakers were too heavy and the lever arm provided by the stands was too long. So I attached them to the beams instead. Unfortunately I didn't have enough of the right size of screws. After a lot of scrounging I found enough to get the job done.

Figuring out the positioning of the stand was difficult. I had to try a lot of options, and holding up the heavy speaker/stand combination was difficult. I had to call a halt during the process to rest my aching arms.

I finally got the first one positioned and attached to the wall. The second went much faster because I knew how everything needed to be positioned.

The new speakers are up and sound great.

Day 70

Fry's had a good deal on an i7 laptop, so we went to Fry's and bought one. Ellen is spending the entire afternoon getting it initialized. Right now she's having some kind of trouble with the bluetooth printer connection.

I was feeling ambitious, and the weather is significantly warmer today. So I decided to tackle some of the Christmas projects. Those are the projects initiated by the Christmas presents i got. On the way back from Fry's I got some straps and anchors for the new speaker mounts. When I got home I turned the straps into adapters for the mounts. That involved drilling six holes, some hacksaw work, and some grinding.

Putting the first mount on a speaker was easy. Everything bolted together without a problem. Unfortunately the second stand wasn't built to the same specs. I had to grind away half of the nut on a mounting screw to make it work. I'm going to save mounting the mounts and speakers to the wall for another day.

I also put up the solar post lights on the deck. They turned out to be easy because they came with flush mounts. I was thinking that I would have to build mounts. I'll see if they work tomorrow or the next day when they are fully charged.

I'm going to watch the Cowboys tonight. Hopefully they'll lose.

Day 69

Christmas Day. I got up at 8:00 and drove to the store to get a paper. I wanted to make sure I saw the ads. It was good that I did, there's a 1 day sale at Fry's on a computer Ellen wants.

When I got home I went back to bed. We stayed in bed with the dog and the cats until about 11:00. Then we got up, had breakfast, and made the obligatory calls to the relatives. They all seem to be doing fine.

We both got neat stuff for Christmas. I got everything on my list (surprise, surprise). I'll have a couple of projects to do next week.

It's cold and gray, so we didn't do anything else today. Just TV, reading, and pinball.

Day 68

It was the day before Christmas and we didn't do a thing. The paper didn't come again. Apparently they've stopped it because they haven't received payment. They just sent us a bill last week. I'll have to get up early tomorrow to get one at the store.

We did nothing the whole day. I guess that's not really true. Ellen made a really good roast for dinner with mashed potatoes.

Other than that we spent the whole day surfing and watching movies.

Day 67

It was cold today - low to mid 40's. We stayed in bed most of the morning watching movies on our phones.

The paper didn't get delivered today, so I went down to the new store to get one. I didn't want to miss out on the porn. I also got a couple of boxes of matches. I found out yesterday when I couldn't find any in either the house or the trailer. I wanted to light off some firecrackers that we bought yesterday on the way home from Cabela's.

Later on Ellen wanted to go out to get a soap dispenser and some groceries. We also needed to go to the post office. Traffic was brutal. Everywhere we went there were long backups. I was so disgusted that I didn't even stop to run the dog. It was cold anyway.

When we got home we did nothing but veg out.

Day 66

We got up early (for us) and took the truck over to the dealer in San Marcos for an oil change. We had an appointment for 10:00. Even though we were there early, it to until 11:45 to complete. That may be because I had them do the recall work also. Because the recall removed the heated windshield washer, they gave us a check for $100. That just covered the cost of the oil change.

On the way home we stopped at the Hyundai dealership to look at the veloster. It's an OK car with some neat features, but I'm not sure I would buy one.

Because we were near there, we stopped at Cabela's. Ellen got a shirt and some Christmas cards. I got a LED work light from the bargain cave. Unfortunately when I got home it didn't work. I took it apart and found a loose wire. I soldered it on. Unfortunately when I put in batteries, the thing began to smoke. Crap.

After that the pinball machine broke while Ellen was playing it. I debugged it and fixed it (loose/missing screws). It actually works a little better now.

Day 65

I woke up today feeling ambitious. Unfortunately it was less than 50 degrees out, so I wasn't about to cut a hole in the roof.

Instead I went to the garage and finished painting the vent. The Slime seems to have fixed the mower tire, so I put away the compressor and the jack. I also cut down the hook I bought yesterday for the dryer. It works better now.

I was really bored, so we went out to buy a Christmas present for the dog. All the Christmas toys were half price, so we bought several. She'll be playing with them next July. Since it was Wednesday, we picked up a pizza to eat.

On the way home we stopped at the mini mart that they built last summer. It's actually a small (very small) grocery store. It even has a bakery and a hamburger stand. Unfortunately the bakery makes Mexican pastries. The prices are pretty good. I'm going to keep it in mind when we just need something quick.

Day 64

It was a cold morning, so I took the retiree's option to stay in the warm bed. When we did get up I did a couple of short chores (like vacuuming) and then wrote up a shopping list. We needed groceries and I wanted a couple of long sleeve shirts (all of mine are in Oregon). I also discovered when I was moving the subwoofer that its feet were sinking into the carpet I had it setting on. So I needed some casters to put under them.

we went to the post office, Kohl's, the yuppie grocery store, and Home Depot. Of course we also ran the dog. When we got back, there was a package waiting for us. That was a nice surprise.

I put the casters under the subwoofer (it sounds much better) and installed a hook for the hair dryer. That was pretty much the end of the day.

Day 63

It rained pretty hard for all of the morning. So we continued the Spartacus marathon. The rug rat got a chance to see the whole series except for one episode.

The trip to the airport was uneventful, and they got off even though there's a storm moving through to the north.

We stopped to buy some cat food on the way home. When we got home we just watched recorded movies and TV shows for the rest of the day.

I'm finally caught up on the entries. Yeah.

Day 62

It was another lousy weather day. It was cloudy, but not raining. It's Sunday, so we all spent some time with the paper. Then we decided to go to the movies and watch Sherlock Holmes. It was a fine movie. Maybe not quite as good as the first one, but pretty good anyway.

I gave my watch to the watch repair place to get the band shortened. It took about half an hour and $20. We walked around the mall while we waited. It was a mad house.

The whole day turned into a movie day. When we got home we watched the Italian Job on TV. I had to sit through the entire movie to see the car chase. After that we watched a blu-ray called Inception. The movie didn't make any sense at all, but the CGI was incredible.

The rug rat has become fond of Spartacus, so we spent the rest of the evening watching episodes that I've recorded.

Day 61

The weather is much improved. Sunny with some light clouds. The temperature got up into the mid 60's.

We started out by going shooting. The rug rat is pretty good. Ellen got him hitting targets well after two rounds of skeet. Then we took him on the corporate course. He hit at least 50%, and some of the targets were a little challenging. Lucy was disappointed. Because it was the weekend, we couldn't let her off lead.

After that we went to the gun show. Ellen and her sister sat in the car while I took the rug rat in. He was interested at first, but I think he was bored by the time we were finished. The problem was he didn't know what he was looking at. There were a couple of guns that I didn't recognize at all. There was even a Johnson rifle and two artillery Lugers for sale.

After that we went to Zilker park. Traffic was a mess. It too half an hour to get through Austin on I35. Then we couldn't take 360. It was backed up from the off ramp to loop 1. The Brodie exit was backed up onto 290 also. We finally ended up going to the post office and then getting on loop 1 from east bound 290.

Melissa enjoyed the park. We went to Barton Springs and then walked down the river to the lake. On the way back we walked through the dog park so that Lucy could have a run. After that we went home - the rug rat was tired.

Day 60

This is another late post.

The weather is still lousy. It's a little warmer, but still raining a little.

We went to San Marcos to the Aquarena. The glass bottom boats were as cool as usual, although the cloudy weather cut visibility some. Unfortunately they've torn down the rest of the place. The museum and aquarium are piles of rubble. You can't even go on the boardwalk. That was a disappointment.

The university was having their graduation, so it was hard to find a place to eat. We ended up at a sports bar. The food was pretty good, and they had Guinness on tap.

After that we just went home again because the weather was still lousy.

Day 59

This is being written on Sunday. I haven't been updating because of Ellen's sister being here.

We picked up her sister and the rug rat about noon. The cell phone parking lot at the airport is screwed up. You have to drive all the way through the airport to get to it. The real way to get to it is by entering the cargo entrance. Of course they don't have any signs to tell you that.

On the way home we stopped at HEB and told them to buy what they wanted to eat. It's not like we keep a lot here.

Then we went home an basically chilled. They were tired and it was cold and raining. Just like Oregon.

Day 58

We got a lot of presents today. Three boxes worth. We took the presents out of the boxes and put them under the tree. A Christmas tree should have presents under it.

I took the truck to north Austin to get the EGT probe replaced. One hour and $80 later it was done. It seems to work fine.

On the way home we stopped at this neat toy store. It had some really cool and unusual toys in it. Ellen wouldn't let me buy any for the nieces.

We didn't do anything else today except clean up the house and give the dog a bath in preparation for Ellen's sister coming in tomorrow.

Day 57

We cleaned up the apartment for the nephew today. We also rolled out the carpet that we bought in Spokane. I hung a picture that we got in Spokane on the living room wall.

It was warm (60's) so I put the slime in the tractor tire. We'll know in a few days if it worked.

That pretty much puts an end to the niggling little tasks that I had on my todo list.

I put a third coat of paint on the vent. It's going to need a fourth coat, but that may do it.

My new watch came today. It's very good looking. I'm not going to wear it for a few days until I know that it works.

We went out to get the mail, more for something to do than anything else. Other than that it was a pretty lazy day.

Day 56

We started out the day going to Home Depot (where else?). I picked up some paint for the vent, a u clamp for the cart, and a couple of hoses for the hose reels. We also stopped for a couple of things at HEB and to run the dog. The dog didn't seem to want to run much even though it was a cool day.

When we got home I put the hoses on the reels. I sure like that better than having them coiled on the ground. Then I went to the garage and painted the vent. I also installed the u clamp on the cart. It's now very sturdy.

The first coat of paint on the vent didn't cover well at all. So later on in the day I put on a second coat. That was much better, but I'll still need a third coat tomorrow.

Other than that it was mainly a day of reading magazines and surfing.

Day 55

I went out to the garage this morning to do a few small tasks. I vacuumed up some debris from earlier projects. Then I hung up the two shelve that I bought on Friday. I had to relocate the wire dispenser to do it.

I attached the reducer to the vent that I bought. I've decided to paint the vent white before I install it. I had to cut tabs in both ends of the reducer to make it fit. Apparently vent component manufacturers don't understand the concept of inside and outside diameters.

I also moved some stuff from the garage to the back shed. That cleared up some working area. Finally I spent a little bit of time cleaning up the living room in the apartment. It no longer looks like a dumping ground.

All that didn't take more than a couple of hours. I thought I might go get some stuff at Home Depot, but I just didn't want to fight traffic. So I'll go tomorrow. So the rest of the day was spent watching football.

Day 54

We didn't get out of bed until 11:30. Ellen was surfing, I was playing games, and the dog was sleeping between us.

We just spent the early afternoon surfing and reading the paper. We settled on a possible phone for Mom and went over to Best Buy to look at it. They didn't have exactly the same model, but they had a similar one. It looks like it will do the job. One interesting thing. The on-line price for the phone is $5 cheaper than they wanted in the store.

On the way back we stopped at Home Depot and Lowe's to get the rest of the parts for the vent. A guy told us that Lowe's won't allow dogs after the first of the year. I guess we'll be buying more stuff at Home Depot.

We ran the dog before we went home. She ran a long time, and now she's very tired. We just watched TV and surfed for the rest of the day.

Day 53

Another estate sale day. It started out bad. The first place was north of Bee Caves. When we got there, they decided to cancel it on Friday. We're not going back. The next two places were OK, but nothing special. We bought a couple of small items.

I decided to stop at the surplus place. They had two hose reels for me that I bought. I'll probably go back next week to see about measuring their power supply.

We stopped for lunch at a place called "Patsy's Place". I took a picture of the front to send to Patsy. The food was OK.

We went to a final place, but by then it was 2:00 and they were shut. What is it with these people?

On the way home we stopped to run the dog. She didn't go nearly as long as she did at Zilker.

Day 52

I decided that I was tired today, so we didn't go anywhere and didn't do much.

We were woken up by the sound of jackhammers in the back yard. It turns out that one of our neighbors in the back is putting in a new fence. Apparently it's going to be built right up against the existing one.

I took the opportunity to walk the entire perimeter of the property. The good news is that the fence is in good shape.

I did a couple of small jobs. I reinstalled the Edge. I called up a place that will install the new probe for $80. They will do it next Wednesday. I also tightened up some screws on the cart, which should take care of the weight carrying problem. Finally, I did some research on gifts for Mom. I think that we'll probably order something tomorrow.

Day 51

We went over to the club today to pick up the shipment and shoot a round. The temperature was in the 40's with no wind. It was perfectly comfortable.

The dog had a great time. There was no one else there, so she got to run around as much as she wanted. She was a tired doggy by the time we were finished. I'm going to have to beef up the new cart. It doesn't handle the weight well.

Before we left I had to inflate the tires on the truck. They were low to begin with and the cold weather took the pressures down into the 50's. While doing that, I tore my pants. So on the way home we stopped at Kohl's. I bought two pairs of off brand jeans for the price of one pair of Levi's.

When we got home a package containing my Edge was in the driveway. They totally redid it and sent me a new EGT probe. I'm going to have to find someone to put it in.

Day 50

I got a call in the morning that my watch was ready. So we drove over and picked it up. $160 is a lot to pay for replacing a watch battery.

Then we went over to Zilker park to run the dog. She only did a little bit of socializing, but she did a whole lot of retrieves. She just didn't want to stop. I think being cooped up for four days and a 40 degree temperature had something to do with it.

We finally went over to the mall and picked up my other watch. They said it would have to go to Citizen for repair. Crap. We walked all through the mall looking for presents. I got a couple of good ones for Tony - a keep Austin weird t-shirt and a box of "armadillo droppings" candy. We also got Ellen some tit holders.

After that I went and got a haircut. It's a little shorter than I might have wanted, but it's OK. It only cost $17.

Tonight I'm trying to buy a watch online. The connection is so crappy that it's almost impossible.

Day 49

Today was a day to tie up some loose ends. We wrapped up all of the presents that we bought and mailed them off. The only people left are Mom and Tony. I don't have a clue what to get either of them.

I also took out some stuff for the trailer and took some boxes up to the storage shed. After that I collected stuff for Goodwill. By the time I was finished the whole trunk was filled.

When we were out mailing and Goodwilling I decided to go to the mall. I looked at every jewelry store, but couldn't find a watch I liked. We ran across a watch repair place and they fixed Ellen's watchband. I left my watch with them because they said they could fix it by replacing the battery. We'll see.

It was cold (40's) all day today. We turned the furnace on for the first time since we got back. At least it worked, therefore avoiding yet another repair bill.

Day 48

Today sucked. We drove up to the club and they were closed. That was even though I called yesterday to see if we could pick up the shipment. That's $16 worth of fuel wasted.

Then we went to a "green" building supply store. It sucked. Only a limited supply of building supplies and a lot of crap.

The store was in a shopping center that we hadn't been in before. It had a yuppie HEB in it. We had fun going through it and bought a few things.

I had a Michael's coupon that wouldn't work before 4 (go figure). So we killed time at Best Buy and bought a moon pie baking sheet at Bed, Bath, and Beyond (w/a coupon).

We got to Michael's a little before 4. The coupon was for 20% off a sale item. The display case I wanted was 40% off yesterday. It wasn't on sale today. Shit.

Of course everywhere we went was packed. I like shopping on weekdays a lot better.

I guess it was good that it rained all day. It's supposed to continue to rain until tomorrow afternoon.

Day 47

We got up early (7:30) today because I wanted to see if I could buy some stuff that I saw yesterday at a bigger discount. Unfortunately it was sold when we got there. I drove down to the sale that was closed yesterday. It was a great sale, but I only bought a ruler and a couple of CD's.

After yesterday I didn't feel like doing anymore driving around so we went home. I just bummed around surfing and reading the paper. Ellen took her new mat cutter and made up another frame full of pictures. It looks really good. Now I have to figure out where to hang it.

We called the club. The shipment is in, so we'll go pick it up tomorrow. It rained most of the day today, so I hope that it's a little dryer tomorrow.

Day 46

All in all it was a pretty good day. It rained all day. It looked like Oregon, rainy and foggy. Only it was about 10 degrees warmer. It's supposed to do the same thing for the next couple of days. That's fine with us. I didn't think I'd ever say that.

We stopped at 4 estate sales and a surplus store. One of the sales was cancelled due to rain. It looks like it was just a garage sale anyway. The other closed for the day before 2:30. Assholes.

We scored things at the other two. We got a cool garden rabbit for Patty. It's very heavy. We also got a cow skull complete with horns. Both were good deals. At the other sale we got a couple of Star Trek Christmas ornaments. At the surplus store I got some laser levels for John and a nice pair of hedge clippers for myself. All of the things were at good prices.

On the way home we stopped at Tuesday Morning and Costco. We managed to find some nice presents for the nieces. Again, the prices were very good.

Day 45

I went up into the attic to see what I would need to finish venting the fan. There's only a couple of inches clearance between the top of the wall and the roof. There's no way to get a duct to the soffit. I'll have to go through the roof.

We went to Lowe's and Home Depot. Neither one had a roof vent that I could use. So for the time being it will vent into the attic.

Ellen's watch has worn out, so we bought her a new one. We got it on sale at Kohl's with an additional 20% off coupon.

My watch is dying too (we bought both at the same time). Unfortunately Citizen doesn't make one that I like anymore. I found an older one on the web, but it's really expensive.

Day 44

I spent at least 6 hours today installing the new oven vent. The new vent was kind of a pain to unpack and get set up. Removing the old one was easy. The real pain in the ass was cutting the two holes in the cabinet. I couldn't use the jigsaw to to the whole cut because there wasn't enough clearance. That meant that I had to cut about half of each hole by hand with the hacksaw blade holder. I used it to cut all of the hole in the ceiling. That wasn't as bad because it was just sheetrock.

At least the joist turned out not to be in the way.

Putting the new vent in was a pain. It was one of those jobs that required three hands. Ellen helped and I got it done.

After that I was tired, so the evening was just surfing and watching TV.

Day 43

I unconnected the trailer and drained its tanks this morning. I also fixed the stairs into the apartment. It was another case of the sellers doing a half assed job. They hadn't fit the stairs to the platform. So they left a 1/2 inch gap and put three screws through it. Of course over time the screws corroded and broke. I cut a small block of wood and used it to join the stairs and platform.

Then we put the Christmas tree up. We needed to get another string of lights and a top ornament for it. We went out and got the mail and the Christmas stuff. I also finally remembered to get a basketball pump and a tool to remove valve stems. We also stopped at Lowe's and got the new vent. It's going to be a pain to install, but last night the whole house smelled from cooking dinner.

I found a couple of parts at Home Depot that may make the install easier. We'll see. I'll install the new vent tomorrow, but I probably won't get the ducting done until later.

Day 42

One of the sewer people that we called on Friday called us early today. I told them to come on out and they were here in a little over an hour. After some messing around with it the guy said that it needed a new pump (who really knows). Anyway $1,000 later it was fixed. Sort of. He said that they drain field will need work soon, too. Also I found out that the "complete rebuild" that the sellers said was done was really a replacement of the top of the tank. The guy said that the hard water eats tanks, so it may have problems later. Great. He did check out the apartment tank and said that is was working OK.

After he left we went to the Hyundai dealership to have the paint fixed on the car. The guy fixed the door and the bumper. He did a great job. He only wanted $25, but I gave him $30. While it was being done, we took Lucy for a walk. She had a good time. We also stopped by the service department and found out that there are 4 recalls on the car. They need all day to fix it, so we'll have to make an appointment.

In the evening a guy came over to do an estimate on the bathroom. We'll see what he comes up with.

Day 41

One of the things that they told me last night was that I wouldn't be getting out before this evening. The day was spent getting woken up on a regular basis for vitals and tests. They did a heart ultrasound and a radio nucleotide stress test. It was all so much fun being wheeled all over the hospital when all I wanted to do was sleep.

They were finally finished messing with me about 2:00. They thought I'd be done by 8:00, but they had 10 people running through the same series of tests that I was going through.

The doctor finally came by about 6:30. He said that the MRI had shown up some deteriorated disks in my neck that were pinching the nerves to my left arm. That explains the symptoms. The tests all showed that my heart is fine.

I can hardly wait to see the bills.

Day 40

I'm writing this two days late - more on that later.

The first thing that I did was try to contact someone about fixing the septic. Of course no one is available on the holiday weekend. Ellen finally found someone, but they wanted $250 plus 20 cents/mile just to come and look at it. We'll wait until Monday.

I decided that I'd spent enough consecutive days doing nothing. I started out by hooking the water to the trailer and turning on the hot water heater so that we could take showers.

Then I decided to put up the plywood in the attic in preparation for putting in the stove vent. I moved the wood from the truck to the area of the attic that I needed to work on. I was tired when that was done, but not overly so. So I decided to position it and screw it down. I'd forgotten how dam difficult it is to work in the areas where the roof was low. By the time I got them in position and screwed down I was dripping in sweat and very tired.

I'm so tired that I'm not sure I want to finish the project.

I quit that and started looking at the bathroom book that Ellen bought. I marked all of the pages that had design elements that I liked. It took quite awhile because the book is pretty big.

After that it was time for dinner (leftovers) and surfing. I began to have serious pain in my left arm. I went in to lay down and got nauseous. When I got up to go back to the living room I got the oddest sensation in the left side of my body. At that point it was time to go to Emergency. They kept me running tests for about 3 hours and then said that they thought I should spend the night in another hospital.

So I ended up in an ambulance going to a hospital in Austin. When I got there they kept me up all night running tests (including a MRI) and taking blood and vital signs.

Day 39

Today sucked.

We got up fairly early and went out. The only success was getting some ink with a 20% off coupon. I tried to buy something at Michaels, but we were too early. The coupon didn't activate until noon.

I went to the Hyundai dealer to get some touchup paint. The salesman convinced me to come back Monday to have their dent repair guy look at the door. So we will. I wanted to look at their new car, but he claimed that they sold the last one yesterday (on Thanksgiving?).

Then we went to Best Buy. There was a small tablet that I wanted there. Someone just ahead of us got the last one.

When we got home we gave the dog a bath. As we were finishing, the high water alarm on the sewer went off. I changed over the valve, but that didn't help. I called the sewer company, but didn't get a response at 4:00 on a Friday. They haven't called back. I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow.

Day 38

It was a very relaxed Thanksgiving. Ellen fixed a ham rather than a turkey. I like ham leftovers a lot more than I like turkey leftovers.

We spent a big part of the morning looking over the ads in the paper. The paper was huge and there were a lot of them. Out of all of them I only found a couple that were of interest to me.

The rest of the day was spent watching football and vegging out.

Day 37

We spent a lot of the morning looking at Black Friday ads on the web. Response was really slow so it was a frustrating process. Things got a lot better after I rebooted the tablet. Neither one of us saw anything that was really cool. We weren't even thrilled by the loss leader ads.

After that we just wiled away time surfing. Eventually Ellen wanted to go get a ham for tomorrow. We went to Costco an bought one. We also bought a couple of other things, including one of their huge chocolate cakes. There's no way we'll eat all of it before it goes stale.

When we got home Ellen fixed a really good dinner. It was bacon wrapped scallops with salad and scalloped potatoes. It was a s good or better than anything you could get at a restaurant.

Day 36

I actually got up early (before 9:00) today so that I could finish the boards for the vent. There was a big thunderstorm last night about 4:30. The thunder was so loud that it shook the house. Ellen said that it dropped between 1/2 and 1 inch of rain. It's amazing how fast the grass gets green around here. The last rain and this rain has turned most of the front lawn green.

I went out and finished the boards. I sanded the ends some more to make them fit, cut notches in them, and finish sanded them. They are ready for painting. I fished out the stain that the dumbshits used to refinish the kitchen cabinets. It looks like it will do for matching the new wood.

We hadn't been to the post office in a few days. So we went to Lowes and I got a little bit of hardware for the vent. I also figured out how I'm going to do the vent. I'm actually going to put in a soffit vent (assuming that it will fit). I'm going to use dryer vent hose to connect to the fan. I can't buy any of this stuff until I cut the hole for the vertical vent. I'm not sure exactly where the joist will be.

We also stopped at HEB for more mojito mix. I'm beginning to like those things.

We took the truck because it's been a week since it was run. The EGT guage isn't running. It's stuck on 2,000 degrees. I suspect that the sensor is screwed up. It will probably be expensive to fix.

Day 35

The weather really sucked today. It was 80+ degrees and raining. If you went outside it felt like a sauna. I'm sure glad that we got the AC fixed.

Because the weather sucked we spent a large part of the day shredding papers and watching the DIY channel. Eventually that got to me, so I went out and cut the lumber for the oven vent. A couple of the cuts were a little long, so I had to sand down the ends of the boards. By the time I was finished I was dripping in sweat.

I actually didn't get the boards completely finished. I have to cut small notches in a couple of them. That takes the jigsaw, and I didn't want to spend the energy to get it out. I was way too hot and sweaty. I'm going to wait until tomorrow when it's cooler to finish it up.

Day 34

I didn't wake up today until 10:00. I didn't stay up really late, so I'm not sure why I did that. It's Sunday, so the rest of the morning was taken up buy reading the paper.

I was gong to cut up the board I bought today, but it's over 80 degrees and 60% humidity. So I turned up the AC a little and watched football. While I was watching, Ellen sorted some more papers. When she got a big enough pile I shredded it. We filled up a whole garbage sack and there's still a big pile to go through.

We made a quick trip to the grocery store, but that's all. The dog was disappointed that we didn't stop to run her, but it was getting dark.

Day 33

We got up pretty late. Then I spent a fair amount of time on Craig's list. We finally got going on garage sales about noon. Unfortunately the people we went to see decided that they didn't want to stay open any longer than noon.

We stopped at Lowe's and I picked up a board for boxing in a vent for a stove fan. I put it together and if it looks good then I'll buy the vent. We also stopped at Target for some cat litter, but really just to mess around.

We ran the dog on the way home, so it was fairly late when we did get home. It wasn't worth doing anything, so we just watched movies.

Day 32

Friday is estate sale day. We went to one sale in an area west of Austin that we had never been to before. There's lots of money in Austin. It's about the size of Portland. Portland has its rich neighborhoods. They are relatively constrained. Austin has huge areas of million dollar homes. They are all over. This was one of them. It went on for miles. We didn't see anything there that we liked.

We went to the store of one of the estate sale companies. They had some neat stuff at surprisingly good prices. We only bought a couple of Christmas ornaments. We also went to an authentic estate sale way north, almost to Round Rock. We bought a few small items: ant killer, a bird feeder, and a bird house (for Patsy).

I was tired of it all by then, so we started home. We stopped at Rudy's to replenish our brisket supply. We also stopped at Randal's to see what their Friday special was. It was roast chicken. It wasn't a total loss. We found several other things on sale that we bought.

The soft water last night was nice. The dishes came out of the dishwasher much cleaner. The water out of the reverse osmosis tastes great. It was nice to actually rinse all of the shampoo out of my hair.

Day 31

They came to install the softener today. They had to completely redo the well house plumbing. When they got finished, the new setup is a thing of beauty. You can shut off all three outputs (house, apartment, and trailer) individually. You can also drain the pressure tank without affecting the rest of the system. The well house now has both soft and hard water spigots in it.

Inside the house they put in the new faucet. Getting the old one out was a nasty job - they had to cut it out with a saws-all. They also replaced the reverse osmosis system with a new one. The new one is a higher quality one than the salesman said that we were going to get.

While they were doing that, I got ambitious. I finished the cart and cleaned up all the tools that were lying around. Then I went up into the attic to look at what it would take to put in a vented stove fan. Of course there's a joist in the way, but it looks doable. While I was there I sealed some spots on the furnace plenum that I've been meaning to do for a year. I also redid the antenna connection for the bedroom. The connector was bad, but I'm not sure that fixed the problem.

I also replaced the cable input on the trailer. The old input was a design that made it really hard to connect the cable. The new one is much better.

We're going out after they leave to get a plug for the sink. The new faucet uses one less hole than the old one. I'll probably price out what I need for a vented stove fan.

Day 30

This is another late post.

I spent the morning looking for someone to buy a water softener from. I sent out a couple of inquiries through websites. One of the people called back withing 2 minutes (I'm nor exaggerating) of the time I posted. He came out at 4:00.

It turns out that our water is about twice as hard as I thought it was - 65 GPG. That's way past "extremely hard". It also has a lot of salt in it and a whole lot of sediment. The water softener he was selling was hugely expensive - $9,000. It comes bundled with a reverse osmosis system for the kitchen sink.

I'm sure that the whole thing was very overpriced. He offered to install it for free, do a sanitizing flush of the pipes, and install our new kitchen faucet as part of the deal. He also financed the thing for 60 months at 0%. So we bought it.

I was really feeling buyers remorse after he left.

Day 29

It's Thursday when I'm writing this. Time to catch up. I could have sworn that I was only one day behind.

Tuesday is washing day as well as the day to take out the garbage. So those were two of the high points of the day. I just didn't feel like doing much, so we didn't.

We took a short drive over to the Post Office and HEB. Tuesday is a bad day to go to the grocery store. It was really crowded. Also all of the sales don't start until Thursday.

Day 28

We got a couple of things accomplished today. I got the blind for the bathroom installed. Ellen got pictures collected for the frame we bought yesterday. She tried to mat them, but the mat cutter we have is a POS and isn't up to the task.

We also called someone to come and fix the AC. It turns out that mounted to the outside of the AC is a weird relay. The actuator side is 24 volts from the thermostat. The other side is 220 volt and turns on the fan and compressor. It wasn't working because fire ants had clogged it up. Replacing it cost $150.

The repair guy showed us that we needed a new filter. He says they need to be replaced every month. So we went out and bought 4.

When we got back we spent a bunch of time looking online at water softeners. I think I know what I want. Tomorrow we'll probably call someone about getting one installed.

The battery in my watch died today. There's only one dealer in Austin, so I'll have to go there to get it replaced.

I called Hooch in the evening to talk about Mother and see how he's doing. He says they might come down for Thanksgiving. That would be very cool.

Day 27

Not much got accomplished today. We stayed in bed late and then got up and spent hours reading the Sunday paper.

Lowe's called to say that the new bathroom window screen was in. So we went there to pick it up. We left the dog at home because it was 86 degrees out. After Lowe's we went over to Michaels to get a frame to put some photos in. They had coupons that allowed us to buy one for 75% off.

On the way back we stopped at a hamburger place we hadn't gone to or heard of before. The hamburgers were OK, but a little expensive. They had real milkshakes made with Blue Bell ice cream. It's be awhile since I had a real milkshake.

When we got home I just watched TV for the rest of the day.

Day 26

We went off to garage sales again. The first place we stopped at had some tools that I bought at a good price. I also got another golf bag cart. It's lighter and folds smaller than the one we have now. Ellen bought some chick flicks. The second place had mostly garbage.

We then went over to Wally World so I could get more pills. We also went over to the Verizon store and looked at the new Razor. It's cool, but not $300 worth. We stopped at Staples to look at a computer, but they didn't have it.

After running the dog we walked her in the park for awhile. It was nice to walk in the sunshine rather than cold and rain.

When we got home I put away my acquisitions and went to work converting the new golf bag cart. I mainly finished it, but it was a pain in the ass.

After that it was just surfing and watching movies.

Day 25

We started out going to estate sales. The first one pissed me off. They had decided not to hold it on Friday, but rather than update their posting they did a new posting. So I drove 10 miles for no good reason.

The second sale was out in the sticks to the west of Wimberley. Their were a whole lot of people there for something that isolated. We picked up a clock for the trailer.

The third sale was in Kyle. It was a true estate sale with a house and out buildings crammed full of junk. We didn't see anything that we wanted. I bought a flat basketball for $3. I hope it pumps up.

Since we were in Kyle, we decided to go to Cabelas. We looked at a bunch of stuff, but didn't buy much. Only a light on a key chain for my set of house keys.

We didn't do anything after we got home except surf.

Day 24

I spent a lot of time in bed playing games this morning. Then I decided to put in the time it took to finish all the little tasks around here. I put up the weather station thing I bought last spring. Now I have to wait until the wind blows to see how well it works. It's made by the same company, for the same retailer, as the temperature sensor we already have. But the two outdoor sensors are incompatible. Go figure.

I tried to change out the lights in the butterflies, but they use non-standard blubs.

I hung up the wind thingies that Anthony gave us.

I replaced some nails that were coming up in the deck with screws.

I finally finished putting away everything in the garage. I also put Dad's old Phillips 66 thermometer in there so I know how hot I'm getting next spring. The mower tire is flat again, so I pumped it up. I couldn't find a hole in it, so I'm going to try some Slime. I also super glued a new latch on the back of the garden thermometer that we got for Mom. I'll hang it up once the glue has time to dry.

Ellen found that our long lost audio books were supposed to be delivered on the 4th. They said they left a notice, but we didn't get one. We went to the post office and they said to call early Sat to talk to the delivery guy. I got some more deck screws on the way back. I think that there will be more nails that need replacing.

Day 23

We got up early for us, 8. After breakfast it was time to move stuff into the safe.
That took about an hour including a couple of miscellaneous tasks along the way.

Then it was off to the club. It was windy, but the targets were pretty good. The only disappointment was that the "hard' course wasn't really that hard. Traffic getting up there (we left at 10) was surprisingly good. Traffic on the way back at 3 wasn't too bad. I wouldn't have wanted to go much later though.

We had skipped lunch, so we stopped at Golden Corral on the way back. That place has really good food for a buffet. We even got some sort of discount because it was sort of an off hour.

By the time I got home I didn't feel like doing anything. So after a little surfing I watched a couple of movies. The first was Scarface. It's long, 3 hours. Then some foreign film that I never could get the point of. A planet was going to have a close encounter with earth, and it was making everyone weird. It had the guy from 24 in it, so I thought there would be some action. Instead it was just gibberish.

Day 22

I woke up this morning will all sorts of intentions to get things accomplished. I did manage to sign up for the paper and write an email about fixing the scissors on my knife. That was it.

It does seem that the air conditioner is broken. I got the thermostat to turn it on, but the fan on the heat exchanger didn't go on. We'll have to call someone in to look at it.

After two ways hassling with the safe I just didn't have the energy to do anything ambitious. So I surfed instead. I got bored doing that, so went to mail my apology about the jury summons. I wanted it to be postmarked today. We also did a little messing around at Best Buy and Walmart.

When we got back it was time for more surfing. I finally got some ambition. I put the new LNB on the trailer's antenna and brought the weather station to the house. I was going to install it, but we got into a long conversation with the neighbors when we went to get the mail. By the time we were finished, it was dark.

Day 21

The main task of the day was to bolt the safe in. I thought it was going to be an ugly job. It turned out to be even uglier than I thought. Today was warm and very humid - at times it rained. Drilling the holes required me to be in that small, hot closet and sometimes inside the safe. When drilling I had to push as hard as I could on the drill to make progress. In no time I was panting and dripping in sweat.

I got two holes done before the battery in the drill began to go south. So I put it in the charger and did a couple of small things - finish hanging the butterfly lights and hang the clock in the shop. I also cleanup the work bench and took some stuff out to the garbage.

The battery still wasn't charged, so we went out to get the mail, some groceries, dog food, and run the dog. All those activities were successful.

When we got back I finished the other two holes. Again I ended up panting and dripping in sweat. So I took a shower.

In the mail we got from Richland was a jury summons that required me to appear on Nov. 7 (today). I wrote them a letter of apology and will mail it tomorrow.

This evening was the annual neighborhood association meeting. About half the officers and one couple (besides me) attended. Nothing of note was discussed or accomplished.

We dialed into the club board meeting. They finished working out the contract with Stephen. I'm not happy with the result.

Day 20

We went to Dripping Springs today to get a safe. It hurt my soul to pay $50 in sales tax.

The process of getting it installed in the house was a lot of work, but no big problems. Getting it out of the truck was easier then I thought it would be. So was getting it over the threshold. The hard part started when we got to the bathroom door. There wasn't enough room to get the hand truck through the door. We ended up going to Harbor Freight to get a furniture dolly to put it on.

I took the opportunity of the trip to pick up a set of masonry bits and some anchor bolts. So the time spent going out wasn't wasted. Lucy didn't think it was wasted either, since we stopped at the park to run her on the way back.

The dolly made the move into the bathroom and the closet fairly painless. One thing for sure, we couldn't have got a bigger safe in there. I didn't feel like attaching the thing to the floor today, so I'll do it tomorrow.

Day 19

We went to Wimberley for the Market Days. When we got there at 10:30 traffic was lousy and all but one of the parking lots was full. We did get in and spent hours walking all over the place. We ended up buying a pink flamingo and nothing else.

After that we crawled through traffic to downtown to eat. We waited almost an hour to get seated and served. The food was OK, and I had a great piece of apple pie.

Then we went up to Dripping Springs to look at a safe at Tractor Supply. It looks like a good one, so I'll buy one tomorrow.

When we got home we took out the trailer hitch. While doing that we noticed that one of the tires was flat on the tractor. It was so flat that it was off the rim. It didn't help that I drove about 200 feet on it before I knew it was flat. I got out a jack, jacked it up, and reinflated it.

I think I have a way to unload the safe from the truck and get it into the house. We'll see tomorrow.

Day 18

We started the day going to "estate sales". They turned out to be garage sales that people labeled estate sales. I didn't find anything I wanted except a couple of CD's. I didn't buy them because the people wanted way too much for them. Ellen found a new in box Mickey Mouse toy that we'll send to the nieces.

After that disappointment we went to Rudy's and picked up some brisket for lunches. We put it in the car and went over to Zilker park to eat it and run the dog. The dog had a great time fetching the bumper and playing with other dogs. She even got a chance to chase a couple of squirrels up trees. We walked around the park with her and then went to the next errand.

We stopped at a consignment store that we like. They didn't have anything that we were interested in, but that's the luck of the draw. We also stopped at harbor Freight so that I could get a couple of things.

When we got home I went out to the garage to finish unpacking and rearranging things. I spent a couple of hours there and got a lot done. I just have a few minor things left to do.

Day 17

Today was a singularly unproductive day. The only thing of note was that Ellen ordered a new LNB for the trailer antenna. Other than that we spent the whole day surfing and watching TV.

The closest thing to work that I did was looking on the internet for some stuff we need to get. I wasn't even motivated enough to order anything.

Day 16

We're falling into a pattern - don't get up before 10 - 11. That will end on Friday when it time to start hitting garage sales.

I've been looking at Craig's list every morning. I'm not finding anything. I think that's probably because we don't need much anymore. Also I'm being picky. If the item is too far away, I ignore it.

I decided to do some stereo stuff today. I replaced the back speakers in the bedroom with the Bose speakers from Mother's place. I had to modify the speaker mounts a little to make them work with the Sony stands.

Then I unpacked the new rear speakers for the living room. They are going to need new speaker mounts. I looked at Best Buy, Radio Shack, Target, Walmart, and Sears. No one has an appropriate mount in stock. The only stock them online. I also looked at Fry's. They have one. However, it's expensive and Fry's is an almost 100 mile round trip from here.

Finally I hooked up the new subwoofer. It's not as good as the Velodyne, but at least it doesn't hum.

Today was kind of lucky. I didn't have to fix the toilet. It seems to have fixed itself last night. Also the internet connection is much better. I think that that's due mainly to repositioning both the indoor and outdoor booster antennas.

Wednesday is cheap pizza at HEB day. So we got one there. We bought some Canadian Bacon to dress it up. It was pretty good.

Day 15

We woke up at 8 today, but we stayed in bed with the dog until 10. After we got up I decided to do some installing. I installed the solar motion detector light that we had bought for the front sidewalk. It was a conceptually simple job that turned out to be harder than it needed to be. That's because the mounting bracket was very difficult to install.

Once that was done I hung up the butterfly lights on the porch. We'll see how they look after I get a cord so I can plug them in.

I collected a whole bunch of garbage and put it in the can. When I was moving the can out to the street I noticed that the gate opener was generating an audio error code. After I tracked down the documentation I found out that it was a low battery alarm. I took what I thought was the control box apart. It had a battery and circuit board in it. However, the only wires connecting to the box were +/- to the battery. Outside the box is a rat's nest of wires all cable tied together.

After puzzling over this for some time, I realized that the control board mentioned in the documentation must be in the actuator arm. It seems that the circuit board was for an older opener that was no longer used. Taking the arm apart required getting down on my hands and knees and unscrewing the bottom of the housing. Then I had to peer back up to see the circuit board.

The board status lights indicated that power was OK and the battery was being charged. So I confirmed what I'd already guessed, that the battery was toast. Some surfing showed that a new one would cost $40.

We went out to get a new battery and check the mail. Ellen had a hassle because the box hadn't been paid for. I got a new battery. We also stopped at Tomlinson's for some cat food and to fill up Lucy's treat container.

When we got back I installed the new battery. As expected it fixed the problem. I then went to unpack the last plastic container that I'd unloaded yesterday. It turned out to have mostly house stuff in it. So I took it to the house and put away its contents.

I had to take a piss, and that showed up the second failure of the day. The toilet in the master bath won't fill with water. That's not too surprising, since the hard water here has really crapped up the mechanism. So it's off to Lowe's tomorrow for a new one. I really love that job since it's guaranteed that water is going to get all over the floor. I also love laying down by the toilet.

We've been back two days. I hope the one failure a day rate doesn't continue.

Day 14

We didn't get up very early this morning. The dog had a chance to get in bed with us as we surfed.

When we did get up, I spent a couple of hours looking a Craig's list. I didn't see anything that I needed. I also looked at the Texas website concerning getting a license. In order to get a license, you have to register a car in Texas. No problem, except the titles are in Oregon. I guess we won't become citizens until next year.

In mid afternoon I decided that I should do something. I started by changing the orientation of the cell booster antenna. I managed to get it a little better, but our internet connection still sucks. It seems to vary over time. It can be great for a while, and then degrade to no connection at all.

After the antenna work I unloaded the trailer. I'm amazed at how much stuff I got in there. After unloading it I started unpacking and doing some small tasks. I put up the road runner crossing sign and hung the extension cord reel. I also rearranged the peg board, toolbox, and shelves in order to put away some of the stuff that I brought. I've still got a big box of stuff to go. I also have to hang up the thermometer after I fix its hook. Three different lights also have to be installed.

The nice thing about this is that I can do it at any speed that I desire.

Day 13

Home again. It's almost exactly 100 miles from the park to the house. I took my time hooking up this morning. We even washed the dog. I filled up the fresh water tank halfway in case the well was dry.

The trip up was uneventful. Parking the trailer when we got here was as big a pain in the ass as it always is.

The house seems to be in fine shape. I'm not sure yet that the well works. Of course the water smells terrible. I'm really liking watching football on the big TV. The car was a big surprise. It started up first time. I did have to fill up the tires. All of them had about 24 psi, when the label on the tire says 44 psi. I filled them to 39.

We spent a couple of hours moving stuff from the trailer to the house. I also unloaded the back of the truck. We've got a lot more work to do tomorrow. By 3:30 we were tired and hungry (no lunch). So we quit and went to Cheddars. The food was just as good as we expected. Afterwards we went to HEB.

When we got home we moved a few more things from the trailer, but not much. Then we declared it time to relax.

Day 12

We slept in again today (a nice habit). When we got up we went to the club. We shot a practice 5-stand. It wasn't near as much fun as yesterday because the wind wasn't blowing the targets out. I ran the dog afterwards, which made her very happy and a lot calmer.

We hung around a bit and then shot the K-cup. The course was an easy one. It was the sort of course that you would see at a tournament in Oregon. I sucked a little and Ellen sucked a lot. I shot at least 10 birds less than I should have. I topped it off by missing 3 on the last station.

Shooting the K-cup took 2 and a half hours. So we had a late (3:30) lunch. We sat around awhile and then met up with Dorie. We talked about the Western and settled on a 300 bird main and a 200 bird prelim. No 5-stand, but we'll set up a couple of games on the 5-stand fields.

We didn't win anything in the contests and drawings at the end of the day (want to see my surprise face?). We did get a good dinner of German food courtesy of Blazer.

We got home late and I just did a couple of things in preparation for leaving tomorrow. We'll have to get up reasonably early to get the rest done.

Day 11

We slept in late today. When we woke up, we surfed in bed until about 10:30 or 11:00. I love being retired.

Gerry sent a copy of Stephan's proposed contract to us yesterday. I took it with us to the club. I sat on the patio, read the contract, and typed up a response. It was like being back at work again. After an hour and a half or so I was done. That's all the work like activity I want to do for a long time.

We did a little more cruising of vendor row, but we didn't buy anything except the glasses that I ordered yesterday. We also met with Dori and introduced her to the people at Promatic. We also shot some 5-stand with her.

In the evening we watched the pro shoot-off. It was fun, and the food was pretty good.

All in all it was a pleasant, restful day. Sort of like what retirement is supposed to be.

Day 10

I signed up and shot the 20 gauge today. I didn't do very good, but I had a lot of fun. Jason set a good course. I also got my gun back from Lucio. It looks up very nice now. It should. The service cost me $435.

After the 20 gauge I we had to go home to get the checkbook to pay Lucio. He gave me the gun and trusted me to come back later.

We ate a lunch that Ellen fixed at the club. We're both tired of the food there. It's the same every year. Then we went out and shot a practice round. I shot pretty well in the practice, much better than in the competition. I was really tired afterwards. 200 targets in a day it too much.

A note on the weather. It was supposed to get cold, windy, and possibly rainy by the afternoon. It didn't. It stayed sunny and warm all day. The wind did come up a little in the late afternoon and it also cooled down a little.

We have nothing to do tomorrow except watch the shoot off in the evening. I plan on sleeping in.

Day 9

It was a short drive to San Antonio today. The traffic wasn't too bad. I did have to get used to being on an interstate again. All those cars and trucks passing me.

We finished setting up at the park about noon and went to the club. We decided to shoot the K cup, so we registered. Then we went around to the vendors. We bought a couple of t-shirts and I took my SC3 to Perazzi. It was working fine, but Lucio said that it had a broken firing pin and the lock was worn out. He said he'd have it fixed by tomorrow morning.

Adam asked us to go the Advisory Council meeting to protest the new rating system. We went, but didn't bother to speak. It was basically just a BS discussion with no real purpose. Now we're back at the trailer. I'll have to pick up my gun about 9:30. Then we'll go shoot some practice.

Day 8

We pretty much did Fredericksburg yesterday, so we went to Mason today. Every time we go through there we say we should stop, but we never have. So today we went back north 40 miles to see it.

The town has a whole bunch of tourist shops and antique shops. We went through all of them, at least the ones that were open. Several are only open on the weekend. There was even a gun shop to go to. I saw a rifle I'd like to have, but it was about $250 more than I wanted to spend.

We saw a lot of cool stuff at the shops, but we didn't see anything that we really wanted to buy. I did get a few books for Dan.

When we got back we tried to find a place with antenna parts. It turns out that the closest DirecTV vendor is in Kerrville. Oh well.

Day 7

Fixing the tires went a smoothly as it could. There was a tire dealer 5 miles from the park that had two replacement tires. Not only that, but the store was on the way to Fredericksburg and there was a gas station on the way to it that had cheap fuel. It took about an hour to get the tires fixed. It was clear that I had hit something that cut the two tires that needed replacing. Whatever it was was nasty. The lead tire had serious damage. We were lucky it didn't blow.

The new tires are noname Chinese. Hopefully they won't be junk.

The trip was uneventful except that I got worse mileage than I expected. That was offset by the cheapest prices that we've seen on the trip. We got to the park about 1:00. That's probably earlier than we would have got there if we hadn't had tire trouble.

After we set up we went to town. We shopped for presents, but only found something for Hooch. We also stopped for a beer and did some grocery shopping at HEB. It's nice to get back to a place that doesn't charge near as much for food.

I was really tired when we got back to the trailer. I'm going to sleep in tomorrow.

Day 6

I'm not sure if we're lucky or unlucky today. The trip was uneventful. Just another long (360 mi) drive through the north Texas flatland. It was actually a few miles of Kansas, 40 miles of Oklahoma, and the rest Texas. We made OK, but not wonderful, time. Fuel has been getting cheaper as we go south.

At one point in Texas we drove through the results of one of their fires. We drove for one to two miles with burned trees on both sides of the road. We saw one burned out farmhouse. There could have been more, but that was the only one that was close enough to the road to see. It's amazing how fast the vegetation grows back. In some places it looked like the burned trees were growing new foliage.

Finding a campground was a little weird. There were three candidates. The offices of the first two were closed because it was Sunday. We stayed at the third one. Welcome to the Bible belt.

Now for the kicker. When we got to the campground I noticed that the tread on one of the tires on the right-hand side was separating. Looking closer, the other one was, too. The left-hand side tires looked OK. We would have been really screwed if they had blown out on the road.

Tomorrow I'll have to try and find someone to remove the tires from the trailer and replace them.

Day 5

The original intent was to go to Garden City today. Instead we went on to Liberal. That's 400 miles, and a big chunk of the distance left to go. We could make it to Austin from here in two long days, but I see no reason to.

About 100 miles of the trip was on the interstate and the rest was on back highways. There wasn't much traffic on the back roads at all. I think I passed two or three vehicles today and was passed by maybe 8 or so.

We've got a little bit of a timing issue here. It's Saturday, so all of the gun clubs that we could drive to will be closed for two days after we get there tomorrow. I don't see spending three days in either San Angelo or Midland. That means we might as well push on to Fredericksburg. That's 529 miles and too far for me to want to go in one day. I'm going to look for an intermediate point after I'm finished with this.

Since we can't shoot on the way down, it looks like we might as well go to Nationals. One option would be to get to Fredericksburg on Monday, stay Tuesday, and go to San Antonio on Wednesday. We could shoot practice of course, and maybe the K cup.

Day 4

Today we just screwed around a little. We went into Sidney to try to find a LNB for the dish. One place didn't have the right one. The only other one "won't have any until Tuesday". It's supposed to snow here on Tuesday.

The Galaxy POS refuses to stay connected to the internet here. So we went to the library to use their WiFi connection. We spent over an hour locating places in KS to hunt. I left messages at a couple, but they didn't call back.

For lunch we went to this fast food place called RUNZ. They sell this weird ground hamburger/cheese in a roll concoction. It wasn't terrible, but I don't think I try another. Their fries were great.

After lunch we went back to Cabela's to see about a clock for the big trailer. They didn't have the one we saw in the catalog, but we bought one that we liked better. I also bought some hearing protectors at the bargain cave and some sale ammunition.

I also called the club, to talk to Roy. He wasn't there, so I talked to Suzanne. I just bullshitted with her for a few minutes. She didn't seem to be upset with me. Later Roy called and I gave him Dave's number so that he could get the tower parts from him.

Right now we're fighting the POS trying to get connected enough to figure out where we are going tomorrow and what route we'll take. The tentative plan is to go down through KS. We may still get to hunt if one of the places calls back.

Day 3

On 250 miles to Sidney. The drive was more boring Wyoming accented by a whole lot of going up to go back down again. The culmination was climbing to 8600 feet east of Laramie so that we could descend to 4500 feet at Sidney.

The first 75 miles were made even more enjoyable by an asshole driving a double trailer. He was going about 1 mph faster than I was. That meant that it took literally miles for him to pass me. Of course he slowed down whenever there was a grade and I would pass him. I passed him at least three times in the 75 miles. I was happy to stop for gas so that he would get out of my hair.

Going to Cabela's was a good news/bad news thing. The good news was that I didn't have to pay for either the camping or the merchandise that I bought because of the credit that we had built up. Also, they had a nice pair of shoes in the bargain cave that I bought. The bad news was that they didn't have either the dog collar or the mesh vest that I wanted to by. The lady there said that they had put away the mesh vests this morning.

Tomorrow is a rest day. I need it. Even though today was only 250 miles, I was pretty tired by the time we got to Sidney.

Day 2

It was cold (28 degrees) in the morning. The truck was covered in frost and the water hoses frozen solid. I folded the hoses into the back of the truck and idled the truck until the defroster cleared the front window.

We originally planned to go to Rock Springs today. It's only 250 miles. When we got near Rock Springs I decided to go another 100 miles to Rawlins (the next campground). We had made good time and I didn't feel like stopping in Rock Springs at 1:15. Sitting around the campground isn't exciting.

Going this far means that we can sleep in tomorrow. We only have 250 miles to Sidney. That means I might end up going to Cabela's in the afternoon.

The trip through NW Utah and southern Wyoming has no socially redeeming value. The best thing to do is get through it ASAP. We did stop for a few minutes at the Devil's Slide. It's a cool rock formation in the canyon leading out of Ogden. Ellen took some pictures.

Two things about this stretch that are particularly aggravating are the trucks and the elevation changes. The overall elevation change is a rise of about 3,000 feet. Unfortunately about 1,000 feet of this gain is accomplished by going up 500 feet and then down 400 feet over and over again. Obviously this burns a lot of fuel.

The damn trucks don't make it any easier. The speed limit is 75. I go 63 because of the trailer tires. This means that the trucks are always passing me on the down hills and being passed by me on the up hills. Lots of times they cut me off at the bottom of a hill, or prevent me from passing a slower truck when I'm in the right lane. By the end of the day I'm driving like an asshole - just like they are.

We made good time again and made it to Rawlins by 3:30. That's after starting at 8:50. I'm going to take the dog for some bumper and then take a shower. The showers close at 7:00.

Day 1

I forgot to do an entry yesterday, so here's the inaugural entry for the fall.

We spent two weeks in Richland before we left Oregon. It was successful. We had a great time with Dan and Patsy. The dog had a good time hunting. We got 3 pheasants, a hun, a chukar, and at least half a dozen quail. The dog did super on the retrieves and not very well on the points. It's kind of sad to leave the people we know, but I really want to get down to Texas.

The drive from Richland to Snowville was typical - long and boring. The gas mileage was a little better than I expected. That might be because of the new tires.

It seemed that every time we stopped for fuel we were delayed by assholes that wouldn't clear the pumps. I really hate that. We made good time, but crossing the time zone cost us an hour. That meant we didn't do anything when we got to the campground except walk half a mile to the local cafe. It's got great food and atmosphere.

After dinner we watched a couple of DVDs. The campground doesn't have cable and the antenna I bought isn't compatible with our DirecTV receiver.

Day 209

This is the end of the entries until fall.

It was an uneventful 3 hour trip to the club. When we parked the trailer there it was level. That's the first time that's ever happened. To cap it off the hitched released without my having to pound on it. That's only the second time that's happened this trip.

After I set up the trailer I partially filled the black tank and filled up the water tank. Andreas washed the rig for me. The front tires are totally trashed. He must drive it very hard.

After that I started moving all sorts of stuff from the small trailer to the big one. I also got out all of the stuff that we'd bought for folks and organized it. It was good that I did because Roy came and I was able to give him his cribbage set.

The mice had gone all through the trailer. There was/is mouse shit everywhere. They decided to make a nest in our bed, so we had to take everything to the laundromat. Unfortunately we didn't notice that the quilt was messed up, too. So we'll be going back tomorrow. The damn mice ate a hole in the quilt.

Ellen didn't bother to clean the shower or the bathroom sink last fall, so I got to do that after we got back from the laundromat. I also had to replace the batteries in almost every battery operated device that we have in the trailer. When I finished I was still finding mouse shit all over.

Day 208

The phone woke us up today. It was the dentist calling to confirm our appointments for tomorrow. I thought they were for next week. We had to reschedule. I'll get mine done next week. Ellen has to wait until July.

Ellen did the wash, then we took the dog swimming today. The river water was very cold. Lucy kept going back in again and again. I finally stopped when she was shivering even when she was just coming out of the water.

She wasn't tired, so we did a whole lot of land retrieves. I didn't count, but she must have done at least 30.

After that we ate lunch at this little cafe in town. It was pretty good. We were the only people in the place, but it was at an off time.

When we got home I poured the 5 gallons of diesel that I had in the jerry can into the tank. Then we went over to the gas station to fill up for the ride home.

Day 207

We went all of the way to the indian's today. We were going to stop at Mt. Shasta, but there was a weather warning for the northern Sierra Nevada's. So we kept on going. That made for an almost 8 hour trip.

Fuel here is as expensive as they say. We had to pay $4.45 at Mt Shasta. We'll have to pay $4.29 here. At least I got fairly good gas mileage - about 11.

When we got to the resort we took the dog for a walk. I left her off leash and she got to explore a little and sniff a lot.

I think we'll go over to the casino for a little while after the Matrix is over.

Day 206

It was cold and windy today. I think the high was about 46. We couldn't leave town because they closed the highway to RV's due to the wind.

After our traditional cheap breakfast we took the dog to the park. With the wind I was throwing the bumper a long way. We actually got snowed on a little bit, but none of it stuck. Lucy just kept running and running. Finally we called a stop because she seemed to be about to lay down.

We went across the street to Costco. I bought two 36 bottle packages of water. This is the last chance we have to buy water without having to spend a nickel a bottle for the bottles. When we got back to the car the dog was recharged. So we took her back over to the park and ran her some more. This time she stopped when we asked her to.

We stopped at a grocery store on the way back and got a few small items. Then we went home and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. Just before dinner I went out and fueled up the truck. We'll be leaving tomorrow.

Day 205

We started out the day with a cheap breakfast (surprise, surprise). It was crowded so we had to wait. Then we went to Sage Hill. It's a nice course with some good targets. They were a little testy, but nothing that was over the top. The course has a lot of up and down, which wasn't easy when you're not used to the altitude.

We were the only people on the course, but the dog had to stay on the leash. She showed too much interest in the rattle snake yesterday.

The clubhouse had a snack bar and a real bar with video poker. There was also a fairly nice pro shop.

When we got home I decided to have a nap. That pretty much killed the rest of the afternoon.

The weather channel says that it's going to snow tonight. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 46. I was going to go to Lake Tahoe, but I'm not interested in getting out the winter clothes.

Day 204

We started out with another cheap casino breakfast. After that we put a few dollars in the moo machine. Then we took Lucy over to the dog park.

Lucy was acting strange. She'd do two or three retrieves and then sit under the picnic table. After awhile she'd decide to get up and bark to do another couple of retrieves. We sat in the park for a couple of hours doing this and reading.

We ate lunch at the In and Out and then we went to a gun show. Ellen stayed with the dog while I went in. It was a nice little gun show. The only thing I saw that interested me was a break action pistol. Of course I can't buy it.

I took a nap when we got home. I have a pain in my left side that is giving me fits. We went to dinner over at the parrot casino. The buffet was great. It took a lot of will power not to totally over eat. After dinner we played Jonesey. One of the machines just took our money. On the other it only paid off once. That once was great. We got three doors and blew the alien out of the airlock. We left the machine after more than doubling our money.

We were thinking about going up to Bend on Sunday. The problem is that it costs $50 to stay in Bend. That means that we would be in Salem on Monday. That's too early with the weather still sucking. Instead we're going to stay here at least another day and shoot Sage Hill.

Day 203

This was a really good day. We started out by having breakfast at the casino. For 2.50 you get two bacon strips, two eggs, hashbrowns, and toast. It's a very good deal

We met Dave and his wife at 10:00 and went to their range. It's a few miles east of town and up on the hill. Think chukar hunting with old dirt mining roads running parallel on the hill. Dave has traps set at three levels on the hill. You can shoot any trap from anywhere on the hill. We had a great time moving around and setting up shots that you just can't take at a club. We were there for three or four hours and shot 375 shells.

When we got back we were tired so we didn't do much. At 6:00 we went to a Chinese restaurant to eat with Dave and his wife. We had a great dinner and a lot of good conversation. Ellen made sure we paid for it.

When we got home I called mother to reenforce what hooch told her about putting things on Craig's list. I told her we'll have an estate sale and then her friends can put whatever's left on Craig's list.

Day 202

The worst drive of the trip is over. 465 miles from Las Vegas to Carson City. It took 8.5 hours. There's nothing to say about the trip. It's a long boring drive through some of the most god forsaken country in the nation. We got OK gas mileage, around 11. We met a couple of idiots on the road, but they weren't much of a problem.

Ellen found a park associated w/a casino that was cheaper and better located than where we usually stay. It's a nice place and easy to get in and out of. After we set up we went to the casino. We played the cows and won $3. Then we lost $5 on Jonesy. Then we went to the restaurant and had a cheap dinner. It was pretty good food though.

I'm tired now. I'm just going to sit for the rest of the evening. We're going to go shoot with Fiedler tomorrow morning at 10. That will allow me to do some sleeping in.

Day 201

We went back to the casinos today. We hit the south end casinos. The new Flamingo, the Excalibur, the Mirage, New York New York, and the Luxor. All of the older ones had been redone on the inside and much improved. We had a good time playing Aliens and cows from space. We lost a few dollars, but it was worthwhile entertainment.

We ate lunch at an Irish pub at the Mirage. I had Guinness to eat, Guinness beef stew, and a Guinness brownie sundae. It was all very good food. We also stopped at the Guinness store next door. I bought Hooch a folding church key and we bought a refrigerator one for ourselves. I wanted to get one of the baseball caps with a built in church key for Hooch, but they didn't have any designs that I liked.

On the way back we stopped by Fiochi. Jackie was there and so we talked for quite a while. She gave us both shooting bags. Dee asked us out to dinner. We went home to do the wash and I dumped the gray tank. We got done just in time for dinner at a local casino. We had a great time talking to Dee and her husband. We couldn't stop them from buying us dinner. I guess we'll see them again at the Western.

Tomorrow will be a long day. 465 long, boring miles to Carson City.

Day 200

We went to the casinos today. We played several machines and ended up losing about $12. We saw someone playing a space monopoly game that we have to try. We also saw a neat casino that we hadn't seen before called the Cosmopolitan. It was next door to the glass casino with the neat whirlpools. We also stopped at the Bellagio to look at the chocolate fountain.

We ate lunch at PF Chang's. We stopped there because it was raining very hard. They were late with our lunch so we got it for free. They didn't need to do that, but it sure was nice of them.

Overall we walked a long way today. From the Mirage down past Paris and back again.

When we got back home we took the dog to the lake. She did 45 long water retrieves and 15 land retrieves. She's a tired dog again tonight.

Day 199

Today was a relatively short 200 mile drive to Boulder City. We got up at 7 and were in Boulder City a little before noon. It was a nice trip except for the fuel stop. There were only two diesel pumps. The people using them blocked them after they were fueling. Then another idiot with a 5th wheel pulled around so that they couldn't leave. I got disgusted and drove on. It turned out all right. A few mile down the road was another station that sold diesel cheaper.

We did pretty good on mileage. We had a strong cross wind until Kingman and than a tail wind up to Boulder City. We got around 11 mpg for the whole trip. It helps that we came down about 3000 feet in elevation also.

We went to the grocery store when we got in. The prices are outrageous. Here's something stupid. New York steak was $1 a pound less than hamburger.

After the grocery store we went to the lake. The dog did 50 water retrieves. Then we set and had lunch. While we were eating we watched Lucy run all around the bushes sniffing. It looked like she had something cornered a couple of times.

The cable here has a couple of encore movie channels. So we watched movies all night.

Day 198

Today was fun. We went over to Train Day. The first place we stopped was some radio station's display. They had a contest and Ellen won a free lunch. Then we went an looked at some model train exhibits. The first train left at 10:00. It was an impressive sight standing next to a steam engine as it starts out of the station.

We found out that we could ride the train over to the shop for a tour. So we did. It was very cool. They have a set of jacks there that can lift an engine 12 feet in the air. On the way back we almost got to see Darwin in action. Some jerk's hat blew off and onto the tracks. The dumbshit ran onto the tracks in front of the train to retrieve it.

When we got back we looked at a couple of more displays and then went to lunch. The place was a nice old style diner. It had good food and GREAT pies. We ordered one piece and it was too big for us to finish. They had a gift shop where we bought a sign for Ellen's shooting signups.

Back to the train station where we watched the train come and go once an hour. Ellen took some cool movies of it. They had a caboose and two diesel engines that we could go through. They also had another steam engine that we could look into.

We also walked back through town to the stores we didn't get to see. We found things for the nieces and John.

On the way home I bought 4 gallons of $4.49 diesel. Tomorrow is 200 miles to Boulder City.

Day 197

We took the dog to another lake about 10 miles out of town. It was down a Forest Service road and had a campground and picnic area t it. She did 50 water retrieves. That took about an hour. Then I did 5 long land retrieves to dry her off. She would have done more, but yoiu could tell she was getting tired.

The campground host had been watching use for about half an hour. When we finished he came over and told us that there was no swimming in the lake and the dog had to be on a leash. I thanked him for letting us get by and told him we wouldn't do it again.

When we got home we had lunch. I developed a crashing headache. Also I was having a hard time breathing. I spent the whole afternoon until 7 PM sleeping uncomfortably. Ellen work me up for dinner. I still feel like shit. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow when the trains are running.

The dog has been thoroughly wiped out the whole day.

Day 196

We had breakfast at the clubhouse and then took the dog swimming. She did about 40 retrieves and wasn't ready to stop. She was getting tired though, so I stopped her. I walked her in the woods to dry her off and then we took her home and fed her.

We left the dog in the trailer and went into town. We stopped at the train station. We can't get tickets for the steam train until Sat. Then we went downtown and walked through the tourist traps. We found a couple of things that we thought of buying, but we wanted to wait until we saw the whole town.

Ellen decided she just couldn't go on unless she ate immediately. We went to a pizza place on the main street. As we were finishing the trailer park called. Lucy was making a big racket. Apparently she was doing the standard dog killer thing and it was disturbing the residents. We had to go home and babysit her.

Ellen worked on the antenna some more but couldn't get it to work. Finally we ran a selftest on the box. Apparently the box isn't talking to the SWIN (LNB). After a bunch of cable switching/debugging it looks like the LNB is bad. We'll have to wait until we get to Boulder to get another one.

Day 195

We made the trip from Sky City to Williams. The drive was entirely uneventful. We got between 11 and 12 mpg, which isn't bad considering the elevation changes. Twice we stopped at places where the price of fuel on the station signs was MORE than the price the pump charged. I've never seen that before. We gained an hour since Arizona doesn't believe in DST.

We set up at the park. Then we did the wash. While we were waiting we talked to the person at the desk. She told us of a good place to take the dog swimming. We'll do that tomorrow morning. She also gave us a 50% off coupon at the local Pizza Hut.

We went over to the Pizza Hut for dinner. We waited to be seated and the single waitress totally ignored us. We went over to the counter to order out. The counter guy seated us and said the waitress would be right over. She didn't come. We went back to the counter and tried to order out. The dumbass broad who took our order couldn't operate the cash register. After watching her screw around for about 20 minutes we finally got our order in. When we got it home we discovered that they had left the lettuce and tomatoes off our sandwiches. We won't be going back there.

Ellen tried for quite awhile to get the DirecTV to work. No signal. It was dark, so she'll try again tomorrow.

Day 194

Today we traveled from Roswell to Skyline NM, 330 miles. It would have been an uneventful trip except that someone decided to pile it up on I40 about 60 miles east of Albuquerque. The traffic jam was miles long. We sat on the road doing nothing for about 20 minutes or so. Then the traffic half a mile ahead started to move. It was amazing how quickly the jam cleared up. We were back up to speed within a mile of when we started to move.

Time to bitch about trucks again. Twice during the day I had to contend with dumbshit truck drivers that drove slow up the hills and fast down them. This went on for 10's of miles. Then at a TA stop a trucker had blocked the RV pump - the only one that took credit cards. Another trucker had blocked the exit from the pump. Assholes. I waited for a little bit, and then went to a different station.

With no headwind we made between 10 and 11 mpg. That was on a route that gained several thousand feet in elevation.

The place that we are staying at is a casino. We spent an hour or so playing slot machines. They had Aliens. We ended up spending a whole dollar. There dinner buffet wasn't appealing - fried chicken. So we ate a Mickey D's. I think we'll try their breakfast buffet tomorrow morning.

Day 193

Today was a long day - 9.5 hours. We got up at 7:15. After breakfast it took until 8:45 to get going. That was because the trailer hitch refused to hook up. It didn't help that it was cold - 45 degrees.

Once on the road everything went smoothly except for a nasty headwind that we fought all day. Gas mileage was between 8 and 9 all day. Diesel was about $4.05/gal. This caused a few more fuel stops that slowed progress.

I was feeling tired until I drank a couple of Mountain Dews. That gave me enough energy to go on to Carlsbad instead of stopping in Pecos. We'll have a shorter day tomorrow. We're stopping at a casino. It should be fun.

Day 192

We didn't shoot until 2:00 today, so we spent most of the morning surfing. We ate lunch and then went to the club about noon. I stopped at Perazzi and found out that the selectable triggers from the MX's should work in the Comp 1. We'll see.

I used the SC3 today and shot a somewhat better score. Nothing spectacular, but better. Ellen didn't do as good as yesterday, but she still finished in the top 10 in her class. We got lucky on the weather. It stayed cloudy. Otherwise we would have roasted. It was still a little warm.

We left the back way out of the club. We picked up some last items at HEB and some dinner at Arby's. Tomorrow we get up early, hook up, and head for Pecos, TX.

Tonight is very windy and a lot cooler. It's 70 degrees. Last night at this time it was at least 85.

Day 192

Since we shot at 11:00 there wasn't any reason to get to the club early. I finished fixing the compartment door and the gun cart. Then we went to the club about 10:00. We walked around a bit and then went to shoot. It was cloudy, so the temperature wasn't bad. There wasn't much of a wind.

Ellen shot really well. I sucked. In fact she beat me. It's OK to have fixed chokes, but fixed chokes and a non-selectable trigger is a bad combination. The targets were great. I wish we could set ones like them in Oregon. If we did, people would have kittens.

It took three hours to shoot the course. By the end the clouds were burning off and it was hot. We went home immediately to take refuge in the air conditioning. Ellen took a shower and I took a nap.

We went back to the club at 5:30. They had a nice dinner with an open bar. We ate with Skip and Bev and one of their friends. Lucy got her share of food and a lot of attention. Afterwards we watched the pro shoot off. These guys make very difficult shots look easy. After a while you expect them to make everything.

Day 191

I finally got my Ranger glasses. I took the prescription to the vendor today and they made the lenses on the spot. I chose basically bright day colors for the clip ons. That's because I like the HiDef Spex so much for cloudy days.

We spent the day walking around and shooting the practice. It was nice to be able to try a pair of lenses by going out and shooting in them. If I didn't like them I just tried a different color. We also shot a make-a-break using this new vendor's shotgun. The gun was fine. However it's competing at a price point with Beretta and I'd have a hard time saying that it's a better gun.

We spent the evening with Skip and Bev. First we sat around and talked. Then we ate the light dinner that was served. Then we stayed until 9:00 watching the pro's shoot some weird form of make-a-break. We saw them make some incredible shots. The dog got a lot of free petting ffom lots of different people. She even got a little of the dinner items.

Day 190

We got up relatively late and had a leisurely breakfast. Then I glued the mounting plate for the door strut back on the compartment door. I'm going to let it cure until tomorrow before trying to reattach the strut.

We loaded up the guns and went to the club. We messed around a little and didn't get to shooting until after noon. Ellen managed to loose the trap key before we started to shoot she went back and got another. Late in the afternoon we found out that someone had returned the one she lost without using it.

We shot the practice course. All of the targets were challenging, but I'd say about half were ones that didn't really give us any trouble. Some of the others really kicked our asses. We'll probably try those again tomorrow.

After shooting we went around to all of the vendors and got them to sign our little sheet. We'll probably turn them in tomorrow. We also talked to the Ranger glasses people. Maybe this time I'll finally get a pair.

After we got all the signatures we set on the deck for awhile and I had a beer while we watched the shooters. Lucy collected her usual quota of admirers. One the way home we stopped at Dick's and bough another flat of cannon shells for tomorrow.

Day 189

We got a little later a start than I'd plan thanks to Taiko. He decided to hide out in a cupboard. It took awhile to find him. When we got on the road the drive wasn't too bad. It's just about a 100 miles to the club. The traffic wasn't heavy, but there seemed to be a lot of clueless drivers. We did see an accident occur in the northbound lanes. Some broad drove off the road and hit the center divider. She was probably texting.

We got to the park and set up. It was about 12:30 when we got to the shooting complex. We said hello to everyone at registration and bought the obligatory t-shirt. We took our guns to Perazzi and they fixed them that afternoon. They replaced the firing pins and springs on Ellen's gun. Apparently someone had taken my gun apart and forgot to put the lever spring back in. They put in one.

I'd been looking for Jason and we found him. We had a good talk and some laughs.
Most of the vendors weren't open, so we went over to Skip and Bev's trailer. Lucy had fun with there dogs and we talked for about an hour and a half. They said the practice has some long targets, so we stopped at Dick's for some cannon shells. They were on sale for $50 a flat, so we got a relative bargain. When we got home we just ate dinner and veg'd out for the evening.

Day 188

This is the last day in Austin. We spent it moving stuff to the trailer and getting the house prep'd. We both hauled clothes, drugs, food, etc. Ellen also cleaned out the refrigerator and cleaned a bunch of the house. I checked the trailer tires. They were fine after 10 weeks.

We also gave the truck a rinse and filled it up. We ate dinner at Cheddar's. It's the last time I'll be able to eat there for quite awhile.

This evening (8 PM) there's a huge thunderhead building to the east. I'm sure that it won't hit us, but it's an impressive sight. You can see the cloud expand it's growing so fast.

Day 187

Most of the hard items on the to do list are done. We got the car's oil changed today, Stabl put in it, rinsed it off, and put it in the garage. I also got the Casoron spread. I tried to get my prescription filled, but the dumbass insurance company won't allow it until Wednesday. Ellen moved a lot of the food over to the trailer.

About the most difficult thing left to do is put away the patio furniture.

We went over to Rudy's and got 1.5 pounds of brisket. That will keep us in lunch sandwiches for awhile.

Tomorrow will be tying off a few loose ends and minimizing the remaining stuff that has to be put in the trailer.