Day 89

We went back to chair shopping today.  We had pretty much decided on layzboy, but we went back and looked at the stuff at Ashley's also.  We went to Ashley's first.  They had a couple of good possibilities. 

Then we went to layzboy.  They had a couple of ones we liked, too.  The small ones looked good, but weren't as comfortable as the big ones.  So we got two of the big ones.  They were on sale and cost a lot less than most of the other things that we were looking at.  We even got some that were in stock, they'll be delivered on Saturday.

We also got a package of Christmas presents from Patsy.  One of them is a really cool dog oriented coat rack.  I'll have to get around to hanging it up.

We had lunch at Gatti's pizza.  It's a pizza buffet with an attached game arcade.  We didn't do anything at the arcade.  The buffet was pretty good.  We may take the kids here when they come down.

Day 88

We went out furniture shopping today.  We went to half a dozen stores and saw a whole lot of chairs.  The ones we liked the best were $5000 a pair.  That's a little steep for our blood.  I think we'll probably end up with lazboy recliners.  We're going back to their store tomorrow.

We got really tired walking through the stores and sitting in a million chairs.  We stopped for lunch at a Japanese place.  The food was pretty good.  We had to eat fast though because the stores were only open 12-5.  All the stores seemed to have sales going on.  Some seemed to be real sales and others seemed to be "mark it up to mark it down" sales.

I was so wiped when we were done so I didn't stop at Circle C.  I did feel guilty enough to through the bumper for the dog when we got home.  She did a few retrieves.  She doesn't really like running on the rock in our yard.

The rest of the day was watching football.  The Packers lost.  The Cowboys are busy losing.

Day 87

It was cold and a little windy today.  So I decided to stay in and build the gondola crane I got for Christmas.  I got out the box with all my old model paint.  All of this stuff is at least 5 years old.  I needed four colors - yellow, black, red, and silver.  I found unusable yellow and silver.  The first black I found was dead, but another was OK.  Unfortunately the only red I had was dead.  Not bad for 5 year old paint.

The model is metal and required small files to trim off flash.  I did that while Ellen did the painting.

When we had done what we could we left to buy some red paint.  We went to the hobby store near I35.  We hadn't known that there were furniture stores there.  We went to three.  The lazy boy store had the best chairs.  They are expensive, though.  We're going to go to some other stores on Monday.

We did get the paint, and ate lunch at the burger place there.  There was as pet store there, so of course we stopped in with Lucy.  They had a sale on Christmas stuff and we got a couple of toys cheap.

On the way back we stopped at HEB to get something for dinner.  We got some really good fish. We also stopped at Circle C.  It was almost dark, but Lucy did a whole lot of retrieves.

We might go to a shoot tomorrow.  It's supposed to be cold and windy.  If it is, we won't go.

Day 86

The reset of the parts came in today, so I finished the build.  Sort of.  I decided to add a QD mount to the handguard.  I'm going to wait until it gets here to install the handguard.  The thing is way too big a pain in the ass to install twice.

After the post office we went up 360.  The ostensible reason was to look at furniture.  The real reason was to look at the Christmas trees.  There were a huge number of them.  Some of them were really eleborate and well done.  I hope people will clean them up later.

We stopped under the bridge to run the dog.  She had a great time doing retrieves.  I threw them until she was tired.  Then we went to the restaurant on the river.  It likes dogs, so Lucy ate with us.  It would have been OK if I'd remembered to bring a sweatshirt.  Without it the wind made it a little chilly.

Then we went to the furniture store.  It had a couple of chairs that we liked.  Of course they were hideously expensive.  We're going to go to some other places before we make a decision.

Day 85

All in all it was kind of a disappointing day.  We went to the post office and there was no mail.  That means no parts.  Then we went to the mall to look at furniture.  Dilliards didn't have anything we liked.  Macy's had a couple of things, but not the right colors.  We also learned that the mission chairs that we really liked wouldn't work because they only put up the foot rest when fully reclined.  That meant that I'd have to push my head into my chest to watch TV.

There were a lot of Christmas decorations on sale at various places.  We now have a lifetime supply of cards.  We also got a couple of ballet ornaments for the nieces.  Everything was 50 to 75 percent off.

On the way home we stopped at Torchy's for lunch.  It was really crowded even though it was late.  We barely got a table.  The food was as good as the roach coach, but I think it was a little more expensive.

We left the dog at home because we knew she'd just be in the car for hours.  When we got home I surfed and put some rails on the handguard.  When Lucy and I went to get the mail there wasn't any.  More disappointment.

Day 84

It was cold today.  33 degrees when we got up, and it never got up to 50 all day.  There was a wind, too.

We decided to do some after Christmas shopping.  We stopped at the Post Office first, but the package wasn't there (disappointed).  Then we went looking for Christmas wrap and cards.  We hit the home store on 290, Walmart, and Kohls.  We got some stuff on sale at each place.  We're probably set with that stuff for a couple of years now.

We stopped at TWO pet stores.  Neither one was having a sale, so we didn't buy anything.  Lucy was very disappointed.

I stopped at Lowe's to get the stuff I needed to fix the sun screen.  If you want out of the ordinary hardware, go to Lowe's  not Home Depot.  They had what I wanted.  We stopped at the grocery store and got a couple of things.  The most important was bananas. 

The trip finally turned good for Lucy when we stopped at Circle C.  It was cold, but I couldn't not do it after the pet store disappointment.  She did a whole lot of retrieves because it was cold.  Some other dogs showed up and she played a little with them.  She was still shy, but I hope she's recovering from getting bitten.

Day 83

It's Christmas day and we slept in.  I had to take out the garbage, and we did the wash, but that was about it.

After breakfast and some messing around we opened our presents.  We got some cool stuff, mainly what we had asked for.  I think that's the way to go.

Of course I got the rest of the parts I needed, so I went out to the garage and finished my build.  It all went pretty easy.  I'm glad I had the DVD.  It showed me a couple of tricks that were really helpful.

Ellen fixed this really cool dinner.  She bought some buffalo steaks.  They were really, really, good.  Lucy got some of the scraps, so she made out too.

After dinner I called Hooch and talked to everyone for about an hour.  It was fun.

All in all it was a good Christmas.

Day 82

It was the day before Christmas and we went for a walk.  The dog was really antsy so we went over to Circle C.  She did as few retrieves, but less than you'd expect.  The we walked all the way around the park.  She found a whole lot of things to sniff.  One time she stopped and kept sniffing a rock even after we walked away.

She also found a lot of places to go.  She took two craps and pissed at least three times.  I'm not sure what got into her.

After we got through at the park we went to Home Depot to get birdseed and some parts to repair the sun screen.  They had the seen, but not the parts.  Damn.

One interesting thing.  Two days ago Hooch emailed me saying he was sending me another present.  They sent it priority mail and it got here today.  I wish the package from PSA came as quickly.

Day 81

I decided to start building today.  I took the parts and the computer to the garage.  I started the DVD and watched the intro even though I really didn't need it.  As the guy installed each piece I would watch, stop the DVD, and then install the piece.

I'm glad I made the tool for the detent.  Even with that I launched the detent the first time.  I was living right.  It hit me in the face and dropped right in front of me on the bench.  The second try was perfect.

The bolt release went in relatively easily.  The mag release would have been easy except I really couldn't hold the receiver and thread the part at the same time.  I put the receiver in the block I built and it worked great.  I guess the time I spent building tools was worth it.

The trigger guard was a little harder, but there wasn't any drama.  The pin was a little oversize so I had to pound it hard.  So I switched to the vice grips.  They worked well.

That was as far as I could go until I see what Hooch bought me for Christmas.  There may be some springs that I need for the next step.  Instead I put  the extended catch on the charging handle.  It wasn't going well until I noticed that my cheap Chinese "1/16th" punch was a lot oversized.  I got out another cheap Chinese punch that was more accurately sized and then things went pretty well.

While I was doing that Ellen was cutting back the bushes in the back.  She was working pretty hard.  The dog was being disappointed because both of us were being extremely boring.  I didn't want to go anywhere, so I threw the bumper for her.  She didn't do a whole lot.  I think because the gravel on the road hurts her feet. 

The rest of the day was surfing and football.

Day 80

We wanted to go out today and watch the last minute Christmas shoppers.  We went to the Bee Cave galleria.  The weather was fairly sunny and warm when we left, but it got steadily cloudier, colder, and windier during the day.

We had a great time.  We walked through a lot of stores.  We didn't buy anything, but we looked at a whole lot of stuff.  We ate lunch at an outdoor place that had a gas fireplace that we sat at.  It was overcast and windy.  It would have been too cold to sit outside without it.

We didn't take the dog.  That was too bad because a lot of the stores in the galleria allow dogs.  We'll have to remember that next time we go up there.

Some of the parts came in today.  I now have enough to start the build.  I'll probably do it tomorrow.

There's football tonight.  I'm not sure why, but I'm not bitching.

Day 79

We slept in late today - until 11.  I woke up feeling antsy, so after breakfast we left.  First was the post office and then the liquor store.  I wanted to get more Bailey's while it was on sale.  Traffic was really bad, even though it was only noon.  I had planned on driving 360 to see the trees, but it was already marked "red" on the traffic maps.

So we took a back way up to Bee Cave.  We hadn't been up there since we got back, so it sounded like a good idea.  We went up SW Parkway and then took a road up to 2244.  That road went through some really rich neighborhoods.  We passed at least three golf courses in a very short stretch.

When we got to Bee Cave it was a lot warmer than the weatherman said it was going to be.  So we couldn't park and leave the dog in the car.  We stopped at the used furniture place, but they didn't have anything we were interested in.  We did take the dog to the Petsmart next door.  We bought her some Christmas lufa dogs and a red collar with bells on it.  We also got her a treat.

On the way home we stopped at Sonic for a late lunch.  The rest of the day was reading and watching TV.

Day 78

It was really windy last night.  It was so windy that it broke the sun shade on the kitchen window.  So I had to get up at about 4:30 and go out and roll up the shade.  It was a pain in the ass.  Even more so I couldn't get back to sleep afterward.  When I finally did, I slept until 10.

We read the newspaper and surfed the morning away.  After lunch I had an attack of cabin fever.  That was fine with the dog, she really wanted to do something, too.  So we went to get the mail - a couple of Christmas cards.  The real excuse was Costco.  We could leave the dog because it was windy and cold (mid 50's).  We went in to get some water and kolaches.  We left after $138.  There were just several things we saw that we just had to have.

I wasn't going to stop at Circle C, but Lucy's doggy eyes got to me.  When we did stop she did an amazing number of retrieves.  The wind was blowing, so they were fairly long retrieves.  She did a long set, then took a drink, and then did another long set.  After the second set she was ready to go again.  That is until she did one retrieve.  Then she decided that getting in the car was a better idea.  That was fine with us.  The wind and relatively low temp had made us both cold.

I was looking forward to watching football tonight.  Unfortunately they aren't having a game.  Damn.  Instead Ellen is watching a bunch of ladies (some XX and some XY) in a clothes designing show.

Day 77

Last night I found out that one of our presents was probably stolen from the mailbox.  As Hooch says, "that sucks".  Oh well.

We really didn't have anything to do today, it was warm so we took the dog to auditorium park.  She had a great time swimming.  There were a lot of dogs there.  We spent almost an hour with her doing retrieves and us talking with the other dog owners.  There was this box truck there that was full of dog stuff.  We went through it, but there wasn't anything we wanted to buy.

Even after all that swimming the dog wasn't tired, so I had her do a bunch of land retrieves.  Eventually she got to the point where she just couldn't retrieve anymore.  She didn't want to stop though.

We ate lunch at Fireman's.  We just didn't feel like burgers or tacos.  Afterwards we took Lucy to the dog store next door and bought her a treat.  She was appropriately pleased.

When we got home I started to read a book, but I fell asleep.

I never did get around to doing anything useful.

Day 76

Today was wash day - clothes and dishes.  So we hung around in the morning while the machines did their thing.  I went to the garage and wiped down the receiver that I'd coated with CLP last week.  It came out looking much better than the one I just bought.  So I coated the new one and put it in the bag.  I also cleaned Ellen's Zombie so that it would be ready.

I got an email form PSA today saying that the lower parts had shipped.  And the BCG arrived in the mail. Yeah!

After we got the mail we went over to the bank to replace funds.  The dog started to get excited as soon as we drove into the parking lot.  I took pity on her and we went to the pet store.  We bought a few things that we really didn't need, but Lucy had a great time.

It was pretty warm today, 82.  We stopped at Circle C anyway.  Lucy surprised us by doing a lot of retrieves.

I went on the web tonight.  Things are crazy.  Almost everything is sold out.  I blame Obama.

Day 75

The dog hadn't gotten to do anything for two days, so we decided to take her out.

Our first stop was the post office.  Then we went over to Centex to buy a receiver.  It cost 30% more than the one I bought a month ago.  I blame Obama.  Then we went to Central Market and bought some yuppie food.

By that time the dog was convinced that nothing good was going to happen.  She was really happy when we turned into the park.  She was less happy when I threw the bumper into a tree.  Fortunately I managed to knock it down without much trouble.

Lucy didn't do a whole lot of retrieves.  She really wanted to walk.  Ellen wasn't feeling well, so we only did a short walk around to the soccer fields and back.  Lucy did a lot of going through the woods and the weeds while we were walking.  She had a really good time.

When we got home I was going to do some surfing.  Instead I fell asleep in front of the computer.  Oh well, I'll be awake during football.

Day 74

We went to the show today.  It wasn't as good as the one two weeks ago, but there was still a lot of stuff to look at.  We managed to see a Coyote LCP, pocketlite, and a zombie sig.  We decided to by the sig.  Ellen really liked the paint job.  The place where we bought it was doing a land office business.  We had to wait 45 minutes just to start the paperwork.

All in all that took the whole day.  We stopped at HEB on the way home and the bank to replenish our funds.  HEB had some "potato encrusted cod".  I'm supposed to eat fish so we bought it.  It turned out to be really good.

Tonight seems to be zombie night on TV.  So we're watching the actor's survival strategies.

Day 73

We had a really good estate sale day.  We went to four places and found good stuff at all of them.  We got a bunch of sewing stuff for Ellen.  I scored a bunch of Dremel accessories for $5.  There was at least $40 or $50 worth of stuff in a nice plastic storage box.  We also got a set of 5 cool special scissors for scrap booking - for $3.  We're going to send them to Martha.

The last place was on Barton Springs road.  So after we ate lunch at the burger place we took the dog to Zilker.  The wind was blowing, so my throws went a long way.  Lucy did a whole bunch of retrieves.  There were these guys at the park flying a huge kite.  It took two people to launch it.  It looked like a lot of work to fly.  It was big enough to pull pretty hard.  The guys were switching off flying it.

On the way home we bought a whole lot of groceries.  The cupboards were getting a little bare. 

When we got home I soaked the receiver  in CLP and put it in a plastic bag.  I'll take it out and wipe it off on Monday.

Day 72

I woke up at 7 this morning, but I didn't get out of bed until noon.  I can't believe I spent 5 hours in bed playing mines.  It was fun, though.

When you get up at noon you don't get much accomplished.  After lunch (not breakfast) and the paper we went to the post office.  Then we stopped at Staples and Lowe's.  Ellen needed some printer ink and I wanted a tool for the build.

On the way home we stopped at Circle C.  It doesn't seem to be worthwhile to go to Zilker while they have it blocked off.

I did get lucky.  One of the websites had BCG's in stock today.  I've ordered the last piece for the build.  Now I just have to wait for the parts to show up.

Tonight it's football.

Day 71

Since it was cold, we stayed in bed late again today.  When we got up I found out that the second guy from ebay had paid.  So Ellen printed out a mailing slip for the package.

We went to the post office to mail the package.  There was a lot of people there, but most of them were dripping off stuff quickly.  I guess lots of people use online postage.

We just couldn't go home without taking the dog somewhere, so we went to Zilker.  They've blocked off most of the park for this Christmas light display.  There weren't many people at the park, so we threw the bumper for the dog until she was tired.  Then we walked from the west entrance to Barton Springs and back.

When we got back there were more dogs, so Lucy got to do a little socializing.  I think she's still really wary because she got bit in Flagstaff.

On the way home we stopped at IHOP for a really late lunch.  We were both really hungry.  When we got home there were two packages from Amazon.  They were filled with wrapped presents which we put under the tree.  It now looks like a complete Christmas tree.

Day 70

It was cold today.   At least it was cold for Texas.  We stayed in bed for awhile in the morning because of it.

It turned out that both of the items that I had on ebay sold.  Unfortunately they sold for the minimum.  It was quite a hassle to settle things.  First I had to get a paypal account with my email address.  Ebay is emotionally incapable of allowing the paypal payment to go to an account with another address.  Attempting to do this screwed up the first payment completely.  Ellen had to call paypal to get it straightened out.

Second they changed the postage mechanism.  This messed up Ellen when she tried to print it out.  We're supposed to get a refund on a bad postage, but I bet we never do.

Third the second guy paid with a credit card.  In order to accept it I had to sign up to pay 2.9% + 30 cents on ALL paypal transactions.  What a ripoff.

I've got to decide now what to sell next.

We took the first package to the post office.  It was really crowded.  Then we took the dog to Circle C.  Because it was cool, 53 degrees, she rean for quite awhile.  I was clad I was throwing the bumper.  It kept me a little warmer.

The rest of the day was surfing and TV.

Day 69

Ellen wanted to go to the fabric store today and Lucy really wanted to go somewhere.  I sat in the car while she bought a bunch of stuff.  Apparently everything in the store was on sale.  When she was finished we went to Tuesday Morning.  We didn't really need anything, but we bought a few things anyway.

We stopped at Taco Bell for lunch.  Lola and her mother were there.  We agreed to hide a ping pong table for them as a Christmas present. We also stopped by the credit union.  Apparently we need to reapply if we want to refinance. 

I stopped at Lowe's to get a part for the build.  I was amazed that they had what I wanted.  The dog had to have her time, so on the way home we stopped at Circle C.  The temperature was only 53, so she had a great time retrieving. 

I got another present from Hooch today.  It was wrapped, but unfortunately there was a packing slip that told me what it was.  What's the point of that?

Now it's football time.

Day 68

Since the club wouldn't return our calls I decided to go to the club.  A cold front is supposed to come in tonight and drop the temps into the 20's.  It was 80 degrees, cloudy and humid today.

The shipment was at the club, so the first thing was to load it into the truck.  I hadn't taken the hitch out, so it took up a large part of the bed.

We shot both courses.  They were unchanged from the tournament.  It was still fun, and we got to practice some of the stations that we had problems with at the tournament.  There was only one other person on the course so the dog got to run around.  We only tied her up at the rabbit stations.

We went straight home so I could unload.  I had to put some of it in the apartment kitchen.  I think we're well supplied for the time being.

Tonight will be a drink and football.

Day 67

The dog really, really, really, wanted to do something today.  We spent part of the morning waiting for the club to open so we could call them about the shipment.  We called them, they said they'd call back, but they never did.  We waited until about 1, by then the dog was very insistent.

We went to the post office and then over to Circle C.  Lucy did a respectable number of retrieves, but I think she really wanted to walk.  The park was packed with people there for the soccer games.  Some of them were parking in the fields.  We walked over to the fields to watch some of the games.

We watched some of a girl's game and then a boy's game.  They were mildly entertaining.  Then we walked over to watch another boy's game.  It was interesting.  One team was bigger than the other.  However the small team had more skilled players.  The coach of the small team was really entertaining.  He spent the whole game yelling instructions to individual players.  Some of his comments were pretty funny.

After that we walked back to the car and went home.  The rest of the day was surfing.

Day 66

I woke up and started surfing in bed today.  That meant we were late getting up.  It really didn't matter, because all I did when I got up was more surfing.  This might be getting to be a bad habit.

About 1 I complained to Ellen that I was getting bored. So she suggested going to north Austin to see a store.  I was dumb enough to agree even though it was Friday afternoon.  The traffic on the Mopac was OK until we crossed the river.  Then it got a little slow.  When we turned off at Alexander it was really slow.  It was a parking lot going in the other direction.

The store she wanted to go to was a sewing store that sold sewing tables.  These things were cheap laminate with fine furniture prices.  The cheapest one that we might use was $650.  It was made of cheap laminate.  We passed.

We went home on Steck, which didn't have much traffic on it at all.  The Mopac southbound was fine.  On the way home we stopped at Randall's and bought a bunch of groceries.  The final stop was the back to deposit the winning's from the tournament.

When we got home there was an email that said the shipment was at the club.  I guess we'll go there tomorrow.

Day 65

We went to the pet store today.  We were short on cat food and they were having a sale.  We picked up some dog food too at a discount.

Next stop was the park.  The dog did a bunch of retrieves and then we went for a walk.  Last year when we walked through the park we really didn't go through all of it.  So we've been walking in different areas just to see new terrain.  The dog seems to like it, too.  At one point today she treed a squirrel.  After that she was checking every tree we walked by.

I spent a lot of today looking for parts on the web.  Most places are sold out.  I've finally decided on what I'm going to buy.  However I'm going to wait a few days as the vendor is having a daily special.  Maybe I'll get lucky on one of the things I want to buy.

I did order a tool and a part from a different vendor.  I can't build anything until Christmas anyway as some of the stuff is coming from Oregon as presents.

There was also a fire drill from Travis.  I had to call him a couple of times to make sure I did what he wanted correctly.  He hasn't called or emailed back, so I guess I did.

Day 64

We got up and going earlier than usual today so that I could go get my hair cut.  It was getting long and shaggy enough to annoy me greatly.  I wanted to get there early so it wouldn't be too busy.  There was nobody there when I was there.  The girl who cut my hair said that Tuesday are the slowest day and Wednesday was usually busier than it was today.  I'll try to remember that.

Ellen went over to Best Buy.  She didn't see anything to buy and neither did I.  There was this cool electronic Dungeons and Dragons game that Hooch might like.

We stopped at Costco on the way home and got some water and drinks.

We kind of lucked out.  Apparently the garbage people didn't have a record that we called them.  So they didn't pick up our garbage.  They called us just as we were getting home and the garbage truck was leaving.  We told them that we had started, so they had the truck come back and empty the can.

The stuff I ordered on Amazon came today.  The Nexus stuff looks good, except they sent me the wrong cable.  The DVD was very good.  I spent most of the evening watching it.  I'm ready to do the lower.  Doing the lower will depend on the cost of the tools.

The website guy said that he mailed the password.  I'll have to see once Hooch mails it to me.

Day 63

I spent the morning on some more little tasks.  I hung up the second bird feeder and the cat decoration outside.  I also made up a shipping box for one of the ebay items.  I took a small one price boax and duplicated it by cutting out the pattern on a larger box.  That makes shipping the item half the cost.  After packing both items up Ellen put them on ebay.  We'll have to see how they do.

After that I didn't do anything except surf.  Surfing can be a colossal waste of time.

About two o'clock the dog was getting really antsy.  So I decided to go get the mail and take her for a run.  We stopped by target and bought a Barbie doll so Ellen could make clothes.  It was 25% off and still cost way more than I think it's worth.

After the dog did a bunch of retrieves at Circle C we went for a walk around the park.  The weather was perfect.  It was about 75 degrees with a breeze to keep things cool.

After we got back it was more surfing.  I must have spent over 8 hours on the web today.  I didn't accomplish a thing.

Day 62

I tied up some loose ends this morning.  I fixed the open joint in the gutter.  I checked the old motion light.  It was toast.  So I mounted the new one.  It's stupid.  It goes off in the day time as well as the night. 

Then I broke down the 229.  It was clean and not used much at all.  Another magazine for it is going to be expensive - $40.  I also function fired it.  It has just a little less recoil than the .45.

I also boxed up the t-shirt for Dorie's kid.

The final loose end was to get the camera and take pictures of a couple of items for ebay.  Ellen will probably put them up tomorrow.

We took the kid's box to the post office and picked up the mail.  Then we stopped at the bank to deposit a check.  Of course we had to take the dog across the street to run.  There was a complete deer leg in the parking lot.

The final stop was the grocery store.  Ellen wanted to pick up stuff for a recipe she wanted to try.  It was a chicken/noodle casserole.  It was good.

Now it's time for football.

Day 61

Today was a pretty good day.  We went to the club to shoot the tournament.  The weather was great.  Ellen shot really good, but unfortunately there was another shooter there that did just a bit better.  I didn't shoot very well, but I still won AA in both courses.  I would have done really well on the hard course except for a single target.  I missed it four times.

When we got home I tried another battery in the camera from the truck.  The first one hadn't worked.  The second one did.  It turns out that the camera ran out of juice in 2003.  I then tried the first battery and it worked, too.  I got the AC/DC charger and two batteries for $10.  That's a lot better than buying a new camera.  I should download the pictures before I take the camera back out to the truck.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching football.  I'm on my third game now.

Day 60

Wow.  We've been gone two months.  I woke up this morning and the first thing in my mind was "gun show".  That was weird because I hadn't even thought about it for days.

We got to the show and it was crowded, but not ridiculous.  Some people had good prices and some didn't.  People were definitely buying stuff.  I got to see a lot of the ar15 parts that I'd only seen on the web.  It helped me make some decisions.  One guy had a good deal on magazines, so I bought 4.

We saw the rainbow.  It didn't look near as good in person as it did on the web.  So we didn't buy it.  Two vendors had coyote LCP's, but they wanted $60 extra for them.  So I didn't buy it either.  We did buy a t-shirt for Dorie's kid.  It was a zombie shirt, and he's a zombie fan.

On the way home we stopped at McBride's.  They had a used P226 at a good price, so we bought it.

When we got home Ellen asked about the water softener.  I went out and looked.  It was empty.  So after dinner we went over to Home Depot and bought 200 lbs of salt.  We also got 40 lbs of bird seed.  40 lbs sure is heavier than it used to be.  When I got home I put 160 lbs in the softener and left the last bag for later.

I also got out the stuff for a tournament tomorrow.

Day 59

I took down the solar light in the front because it wasn't working.  I thought it might be the battery.  I opened it up.  It uses a pack of C cells.  I won't be fixing that.  So it was off to Harbor Freight for another.

We stopped at Hobby Lobby first.  They had a lot of cool scientific toys.  Unfortunately I don't think the nieces would be interested in any of them.  I bought a model of Da Vinci's catapult, though.  It was 25% off.

I bought a new light at Harbor Freight.  I also got a torque wrench and some rope.  I actually spent way less than 50% of the list price for everything. 

After that we went to HEB's yuppie grocery store.  We bought a lot of produce and nothing else.  On the way back we bought a bottle of Bailey's that was on sale at the liquor store.

The final stop was Circle C.  First to pur the trailer title in the safe deposit box and then to run the dog.  She had a good time.  The wind was behind me so she did some long retrieves.  It was too muggy to walk around the park.

When I got home I decided to test the old light with the new solar cell in case that what's wrong.  The old light is a lot higher quality than the new one.  After that I built the catapult.  I'll wait until tomorrow when the glue is dry to try it out.

The guy from the website emailed me saying he won't give me the password.  I replied asking him what ESP I might sign up for that would satisfy me.  I'm pretty frustrated.  The whole thing seems stupid.

Day 58

I restacked the wood that fell down today.   It wasn't hard, just a pain in the ass and somewhat time consuming.  I made a whole new second stack so nothing would fall down again.

Then I went to the garage to make a fixture for my build.  I took a 1 1/2 by three and used the router to shape it.  I did the final work with a rasp.  I think it will work fine. The clean up took a significant portion of the time it took me to build it.

When I was finished I brought the Christmas stuff back to the house.  We put up the tree and I put up some lights on the deck.  It all looks pretty cool.

The website guy emailed me back.  Instead of giving me the password, he asked me why I had the mail sent to the phone.  So I told him the website wouldn't let me sign up any other way.  I don't understand why he didn't just send the password.

Day 57

We did something out of the ordinary today.  We spent the whole morning, til noon, in bed surfing and playing games.  It just seemed the thing to do.

When we did get up the order of business was to fill out the forms from Gerry.  I had to sign in 8 or so places.  It took quite awhile to copy them, there were 15 pages.

It turned out to be a pain in the ass to send it back.  Gerry had included a FedEx envelope.  Unfortunately the FedEx website isn't very specific about dropbox locations.  We drove all around Sunset Valley looking for one.  Ellen said there was one at the Post Office, so we went there.  There wasn't.  Finally Ellen found a map that showed where the one in Sunset Valley really was.  So we drove back there.

I also stopped at Verizon to see if I could get a real email address.  The guy there said he didn't think so.  Actually he was too lazy or ignorant to look it up.  I left in disgust.

We also stopped at the Credit Union to see about a refinance.  They told us to apply online.  Crap.

On the way home we stopped at Circle C.  Lucy was funny.  At first she didn't run very fast.  I think she was stove up from yesterday.  She got faster as she warmed up.  After the retrieves we walked around the park.  I didn't take the bumper and she did do a lot of running.

In the evening I emailed the website that texted me.  Their message was truncated.  Hopefully they will resend to my real address.

Day 56

We wrapped up all of the presents today and boxed them up for shipping.  There were a lot of them and it took a lot of time.  Ellen had quite a pain in the ass printing out the mailing slips.  Apparently the Post Ofice doesn't make it easy.  She gave up on the biggest of them.

After lunch we to the packages to the Post Office.  We didn't have to stand in line because the big package just barely fit in the bin. 

Somewhere along the way we misplaced the dog's chew toy.  So we went to the pet store to get another.  On the way we stopped at the bank to deposit some checks.  That took awhile because we asked about keeping the account open w/out a lot of activity.  They ended up setting up a savings account with automatic transfers between the two.  They gave us three books of legal disclaimers with the new savings account.  I blame Obama.

After the pet store (Lucy got a treat).  We went to Whole Foods next door just to see it.  It lived up to it's nickname.  Everything was very expensive.  We bought some salmon, a can opener, some chips and some eggnog.  $50 for a half bag of food.

Lucy had been bugging me all day about doing something.  So we stopped at Circle-C on the way back.  The dog did a whole lot of retrieves, and then we decided to walk.  We walked over to Escarpment and back.  She did more retrieves all along the way.

We didn't get home until 5:30.  It's time to surf.

Day 55

I finished doing something that's been bugging me since we got here.  I had brought down 3 bags of clothing that had been stored in Salem.  It was a whole lot of stuff, mainly colder weather stuff and shooting clothes.  I went through all of the things in my closet.  When I finished I had one bag of "too small" clothes, and two bags of "heavy clothes I don't need".  I also had a lot of clothes to go to Goodwill.  All of the clothes I wanted from the bags are in the closet.  The closet is a lot less crowded than it was.

After that we did a little bit of running around.  We got the mail, bought a Christmas present for the niece, some grocery shopping and lunch at Taco Bell.  We also stopped at Walmart so Ellen could get a new sewing machine.  They didn't have one in stock.  We also stopped at Goodwill to leave off a trunk full of stuff.  The clothes, a box of electronics and toys, and some indoor/outdoor speakers.

When we got home Ellen ordered the sewing machine online.  She ended up paying less than she would have at Walmart even after shipping.  She also ordered some Christmas presents.  I had her order some stuff for the Nexus 7 at the same time.

It was hot and muggy when we got home, so I didn't try to do anything outside.  It's supposed to be cooler tomorrow.  If it is I'll work in the garage.

Day 54

We just vegged out today.  All we did was surf, read the paper, and watch TV.  I didn't leave the house except to get the paper.

Day 53

We decided to go over to Sears to look at a couple of "Black Friday" deals that were only available on Saturday morning.  Go figure.  We stopped at the post office on the way there.  The package with our October mail was there.  A lot of bills, a $400 refund check, and some magazines.

When we got to the mall, there weren't a lot of people there.  Apparently a lot of people were tired out from yesterday.  Unfortunately enough people got there before us to sell out of the items that we were looking for.  So we decided to walk around the mall.  We ended up getting a present for my brother and a couple of things for mother.  We also got a really nice toaster oven for us.  It was expensive, but really nice.

By the time we were finished a lot more people had showed up.  I guess people were recharged by the afternoon.

When we got home I fixed the house number light by putting a new battery in it.  It will be several days before I know if the problem was the battery or the solar cells.  I also added another stick light to the gate, just because I had it.  I finished up by unpacking the train stuff that was in the garage and putting it away in the storage thing I bought at last week's estate sale.

After some surfing and some dinner we went to a neighborhood party.  We'd met the people at the last party, so at least we knew someone.  We had a great time talking.  It was a little cold outside, so everyone would spend some time on the patio and then some time inside to warm up.  We stayed until almost 10:30, probably longer than we should have.  I hope they do it again.

Day 52

I got up very late, 11:00, today.  I was asleep, not surfing.  The paper had a few more ads in it, but not much.  We sat around awhile because we couldn't think of anything we'd seen that we wanted to go out and buy. I got out my new pedometer and set it up.

I decided to do a little much needed cleanup.  I cleaned up the corner table in the kitchen and moved my train stuff to it.  That stuff had been on the kitchen table since last spring.  Then I cleaned the kitchen table.  I also went out and used the black spray pain we bought awhile ago on the stumps and branches in the back yard.  I used paint because Home Depot was out of sealant and the guy there said black paint works as well.

We finally decided to take the dog to Circle-C.  We did some retrieves until she stopped.  Then we walked around the park.  When we got to the end I threw some more retrieves until she wouldn't do any more.  When we got home we had a tired doggy.

Because it was cloudy we did a little shopping.  HEB for some groceries and Costco for some cookies.

We just surfed and watched TV the whole evening.  I watched two whole movies, Open Range and John Carter.  Of course I surfed at times, too.

Day 51

We started the day by reading all of the Black Friday ads in the newspaper.  It took quite awhile.  I didn't see anything that justified getting up early and/or waiting in line.  This year there were a lot of online Black Friday ads.  Some were online only.  I still didn't see anything I thought we needed.

I spent most of the rest of the day watching football.  The Texans won and the Cowboys lost.  Perfect.  I also looked up some stuff for my Nexus 7.  I didn't buy anything though.

Ellen fixed a really good dinner.  She cooked the turkey with mashed potatoes and asparagus.  We had key lime pie for dessert.

Lucy got a bunch of the giblets with her dinner.  She must have had turkey before.  She was antsy the whole afternoon while it was cooking.

Day 50

Today was a dog day.  On the way to the park I stopped at Wally World and bought a Nexus.  I threw it in the trunk and we continued to Auditorium shores.  The dog started getting excited while we were still on Barton Creek.

It was just before noon when we got there.  I think the dog has parking karma.  There was a parking spot for us right in front.  That's the way it's been every time we've gone there.

We spent about an hour and a half in the park throwing the bumper for the dog.  Most of the first hour was in the water.  I threw it until she was almost too tired to get out of the water.  We walked for a while and she recharged.  So then I threw it on the grass until she was finally too tired to retrieve it.

We stopped for a late lunch before going home.  We also stopped at a toy store and bought a Christmas present for a niece. 

The dog has been on the couch since we got home.  She only got up to eat.  She even wouldn't go out with me when I took out the garbage.  I had to do that tonight because Ellen cooked the ham.  It was really good.  However, the remains had to go out immediately.  We wouldn't be able to trust any animals with them overnight.

Day 49

It was the normal wash the clothes and go run errands day.  We went around looking for a pedometer to replace the one that I had that broke.  I got one at Wally World.  We also got a whole lot of mail that had piled up in the PO box.

I tried to buy a Nexus 7 at Wally World.  That's because Google will charge me sales tax.  Unfortunately they decided not to staff the electronics department while we were there, so I couldn't get one.  Maybe I'll try again later.

It was hot today, 88 degrees.  That meant that the dog couldn't come along.  She was very disappointed.  I hope we can take her for a run or something tomorrow.

On the way home we did some grocery shopping.  We wanted to make sure that we wouldn't have to go to the store until a couple of days after Thanksgiving.  HEB was having a special.  If we bought a ham (which I like), we got a turkey for free.  So we have both.  We also got a key lime pie for Thanksgiving.

When we got home it was time to meet w/Gerry and Jacque.  They convinced us that we wouldn't have any problem covering expenses if we invested in the other annuity.  Actually we had several misconceptions that they cleared up that made things make a lot more sense.

Day 48

Tree #18 got cut down today.  It was the last one.  It was the biggest tree we cut down and it took me over 3 hours to do it.  I think I hurt the saw at the end.  I was cutting through several pieces of the 10" trunk and didn't give the motor time to cool down.  It wasn't running well at all by the time I was finished.

We started cutting trees a week ago last Friday.  It seems like it took a lot more than 10 days to cut them all down.  I miss the trees we took down, but the place does look better without all the dead trees.

We've been listening to the neighbors cut down trees, too.  They're higher tech.  They're using a chain saw and a wood chipper.  At least that's what it sounds like.

The tree cutting sort of wiped us out.  So we aren't doing anything for the rest of the day.  Tomorrow will be get the mail, do the wash, and maybe run the dog day.

Day 47

We went out shopping today.  We started out by reading the ads in the paper.  Then we went out to take advantage of the pre-Thanksgiving sales.  We bought stuff at several stores.  Along the way we stopped at Golden Corral for lunch.

We got home about an hour before it was time to go to the neighborhood party.  It was sure convenient to have it just outside our gate.  We had a fine time talking with some of the neighbors.  The party broke up just in time for the start of the football game.  Good planning.

Day 46

17 trees done.  It took four hours, but we finished up the trees in the back yard.  We left up part of the trunks of two of the smaller trees to hang stuff from.  It feels very good to have them all down.  The only question now is whether or not we cut down the other tree by the trailer.  It's pretty big and will take a lot of work.  I think I'll wait until next week to decide.

I amazed at how well that little saw worked.  I sure did abuse it.  I'm pretty sure that it needs a new chain, or at least sharpening of the current one.

I was a little worried about how the yard would look without the trees.  The front looks OK, but I sure miss having something (even dead trees) surrounding the bench.  The back actually looks better than I thought it would.  We may have to buy a sun shade to hang from the end of the porch overhang.

We were both tired, dirty, and sore when we got finished.  So we spent the rest of the day watching TV and surfing.

Day 45

We spent the morning going to a couple of estate sales.  We picked up a bird feeder and a really old, nice table saw fence.  The second sale was full of tools.  There was a garage, spare room, and two sheds full of stuff.  I bought a nice tool cabinet for $15 and a box of western paperbacks for $5.  I consider that a successful shopping trip.

On the way home we ate lunch at Rudy's.  We needed more lunch meat.  We also did some grocery shopping.  We bought a box of twinkies because there won't be any more.  I blame Obama.

When we got home I unloaded the car and did some surfing.  After the election it's really hard finding parts for my build.  I went outside about 4:00 to put some stuff in the new cabinet.  The weather had cooled off, so I decided to cut trees instead.  I used my "cut it off the tree" strategy.  It worked pretty well.  I cut the largest tree down to a 10' stump.  I cut one of the others down to a 6' stump.  I do have a lot of branches to cut up.  I got that done in about an hour.

Day 44

We woke up pretty early this morning, but we didn't get up.  Instead we surfed.  When we did get up we ate breakfast and went out to do battle with the trees.  After a little over 4 hours of branch cutting, branch hauling, trunk cutting, and burning the front was done.  Ellen managed to get all of the branches burned, so the barrel area is clean.  We're both very sore.

That makes 12 trees that we've cut down and disposed of.  There are 5 trees in the back yard and one by the trailer to go.  We may stop when the trees in the back are done.  I'm going to try a new approach.  I'm going to cut all of the branches from the trunks before cutting the trunks down.  I'm also going to cut the larger branches to length while they are still on the tree.  It's going to take extra time because I can't drive the mower up to the trees.

The rest of the afternoon was a nap, surfing, and football.

Day 43

When I woke up this morning I was still sore from yesterday's work.  That told me that we needed a day off.  So we went to the club.  The weather was perfect - sunny but not too hot.  The dog had a great time.  There weren't any other shooters, so we could let her off lead.  We had to tie her up at the rabbit stations though.

I decided that in honor of the election I'd buy a receiver.  I got the cheapest one they had.  I also got a parts kit.  I'll need to buy some tools before I can put it together.

On the way home from the club we stopped to get gas for the car and the mower.  When we got home I filled up the mower.  There was just enough gas to fill up the tank completely.  Now it will be ready for use tomorrow.

Day 42

We spent over 5 hours today on the trees.  I moved the stuff that I cut yesterday to the burn pile while Ellen started burning things.  She's getting more efficient at burning.  The rate at which the pile goes down is faster than it used to be.

While she burned I cut.  I cut down the last tree in the side yard, cut up the debris, and hauled them off.  Then I started on the trees in front.  I put the pole back on the saw and started cutting branches on all of the trees.   By the time I was finished most of them were just trunks.  That was good.  If I hadn't cut all of the top off of the tree nearest the house it would have hit the house when I cut it down. 

I cut the tree nearest the house completely down, cut up the debris, and hauled them off.  I figured that was enough for the day.  Ellen still had to finish up burning, so I decided to work until she was done.  I managed to cut down two more trunks as well as cutting up a couple of large branches that I had felled earlier.  This way I can haul up a couple of loads of branches tomorrow so Ellen can start burning while I'm cutting up trunks.

We're both really tired right now.  I wouldn't be surprised if we took tomorrow off.

Day 41

We had a bunch of errands to do so we left after breakfast.  We made stops at the mail, Wally World, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and JoAnn's.  Nothing special.  We just needed some stuff.  The last two stops were the grocery store and Circle C to run the dog.  She'd been bored the whole time we were driving around, so she was very happy when we stopped to do retrieves.

After we got home I was guilty about not working again.  So I went out and spent about an hour on the trees.  I cut down and cut up two of them.  Tomorrow Ellen can burn them while I do more cutting.

Day 40

We were up by 8 today because I wanted to get going on that tree by the apartment early.  It was warm so I went out to look at the tree wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  I spent about 5 minutes planning things.  During that time I was bit by at least 4 mosquitoes.  So I went back into the house and changed into long pants and a long sleeved shirt.

I started by cutting some low hanging branches and moving them to the front of the trailer out of the way.  Then I had Ellen use a cord to put tension on some of the higher branches as I cut them.  That way I was sure where they would fall.  I had to get out the ladder to reach a couple of them.  Even with that the tallest one just missed the sewer when it fell.  The lowest part of the trunk still has some live branches on it.  So I left the bottom 8 feet of the tree and sprayed sealant on the cut.  Hopefully it will survive.

I showed Ellen how to drive the tractor and she hauled the branches that I cut off from the tree to the burn pile while I did the cutting.  That made things go a lot faster.  When they were all cut up she started burning while I hauled up the branches that I cut yesterday.  Then I cut down another tree in the side yard and cut it up.  I also finished cutting up the big trunk of the first tree.  When I finished hauling the entire area was clean.  Three trees have been taken care of.  By the time that was done I was too tired to do anything else.

That makes 4 of 16 or 17 trees that need to be cut down.  I figure that someone would charge $100/tree to cut them down and haul them off.  That means that we've already made back the $100 that the pole saw cost.

I spent the rest of the day watching football and surfing.  Tomorrow we'll have to deal with the investments.

Day 39

I was tired from yesterday's tree cutting, so I decided not to do a lot today.  The day started off a little rocky.  The switch to my toothbrush broke.  Sigh.  That meant we were going to need to go to Costco.

We started off by going to Lowe's to get a new hose so Ellen would have a better branch burning experience.  I also got a cord plug so that I could repair the power cord that I cut yesterday.  Then we stopped at Costco and picked up a new toothbrush and some more drinks.  It's Costco, so we had to by a package of two toothbrushes - $99.  Oh well.

On the way home we stopped at a pizza place where Lucy could sit outside with us.  Then we took her to the park to do retrieves.  I threw them until she was tired.

After we got back I replaced the hose and fixed the cord.  I still felt guilty about not working.  So I spent some time sorting the clothes in my closet.  I packed away some that I'm too fat to wear and unpacked some I bought from Oregon.  When I got finished with that it had cooled down, so I spent an hour cutting up the branches and trunk from the second tree.

Just as it was getting dark I went over to the apartment.  I noticed that the dead tree by the trailer is actually being held up by a live tree it's leaning against.  If the live tree wasn't there, the dead tree would fall hitting the apartment and the apartment's sewer system.  I'm going to have to deal with that tomorrow.  It won't be easy.  The tree is big, 10 to 12 inches.  It's also high, probably close to 20 feet.  I think I have a plant to deal with it though.

Day 38

I am tired tonight.  We got up fairly early.  It was semi cloudy and the wind was blowing.  That made it a fairly good day to work outside.  So after breakfast I put the pole saw together.  I couldn't use it though because I hadn't bought oil for it.  So it was off to Lowe's for oil. 

When we got back I used the saw to cut a few limbs off the trees in the back.  I also cut down a tree/bush in the area by the parking area.  I hauled up all the results to the burn barrel by hand.  That taught me I didn't want to do that anymore.

I decided to start on the trees on the side of the house.  I also got out the lawn mower and trailer to haul the stuff up to the burn barrel.  I worked for a couple of hours and got a good pile up to the burn barrel.  After lunch I had Ellen go out and start burning while I continued to cut.

By 4:30 I was literally too tired to stand.  I managed to get one tree taken down and another about half done.  Ellen burned about 2/3 of the stuff I produced.  The hose she was using leaked all over, so she was wet and dirty by the time she was done.

I went in and took a shower.  It took the rest of the evening to recover enough to go to bed.  I was even too tired to log on.

Tomorrow we have to respond to Gerry.  I might try to do a little more, but probably not much.  It's going to tak awhile to cut up the 14 trees that are left.  We need to get another hose, too.

Day 37

Today was a doggy day.  We didn't get up until late.  That's because I stayed up late last night.  I just couldn't go to sleep.  I think it was depression.

Anyway, we didn't get started until 11:00.  We stopped by the post office and then went to Auditorium shores.  Since it was around noon there were a fair number of people jogging.  Lucy had only one thing on her mind - swimming.  I threw the bumper for her for at least 45 minutes.  She wasn't tired, but we wanted to do something else.  So we walked across the river and went to the dog store. 

That suited Lucy fine.  She got a couple of dog treats.  We bought her a treat for later and a bag of Zukes.

We walked a few blocks of downtown Austin.  They are really tearing up some of the streets that make it hard to get around to some places.  We walked by the building that houses Austin City Limits.  We also walked by some impressive apartment towers.  They even had doormen.   We also walked by a couple of restaurants with outdoor patios.  They were filled with yuppies from hell.  I'm sure glad I'll never have to live that life again.

We walked back across the river and back upriver past some boats.  Some were rentals and some were tour boats.  We need to take Lucy out on a rental some day.

When we got back to the park Lucy wanted to swim some more.  I threw the bumper for at least another 45 minutes.  Finally the dog was tired enough not to object much to quitting.  That lasted until we got near the car.  Then we stopped and I did about 15 land retrieves with her.  She still wanted to keep going when we left.

We stopped at Sandy's on the way home for a late lunch.  Lucy got to sit with us while we ate.  She also got a few french fries.  On the way home we stopped at Tomlinson's to pick up some dog food.  Lucy got some dog treats there, too.

She's on the couch now, and seems totally contented to stay there.  All in all it was a pretty good doggy day.

Day 36

I've decided that if I need to work outside, I need to do it early.  So I got up early (8), ate breakfast, and went out to finish weedeating the yard.  It didn't take a whole lot of time, but it was a little painful.  That's because I wore shorts.  Big mistake.  I was pulling those round sticker things off my leg when I was finished.

Then I got the user manual and the cabinet door out of the trailer and we went to do battle with the license people.  Luckily this time we got a lady who knew her ass from a hole in the ground.  The bad news is that it turns out to cost more to license the trailer in Texas than in Oregon.

We decided to put the title in the safe deposit box and do some grocery shopping.  So we did.  That took the rest of the afternoon.  The total mileage covered was over 80 miles.

When we got back I put the trailer back together and put the new plate on the trailer.  Then I finished the train inventory and then started looking up prices for the stuff I want to sell.  I'm not going to get much.  It seems the only things going for appreciable money is the stuff I want, not what I want to sell.  Sigh.

One final note:  I'm very depressed.  The country is truly fucked and it's only going to get worse.

Day 35

Today was wash day, so we stayed home.  While Ellen did the wash I went out and unloaded the basement of the trailer.  I took all of the stuff and moved it to wherever it needed to go - garage, apartment, house, and well house.  I also put away a lot of stuff that I just piled up in the garage since we've gotten back.  The whole effort took several hours.

One cool thing that I found while I was unpacking was some camera supplies including some compressed air.  I was going to buy some to clean the camera after the Moab trip.  Now I don't have to.

After that I decided to continue with messing around with the train inventory.  I brought in everything from the garage and entered it into the inventory.  I also sorted out all of the little pieces I had stuffed away in car boxes and put the result in a parts case.  Then I got all of the miscellaneous cars that I plan to sell.  I fixed up the ones that needed fixing and entered them in the inventory.  There's going to be a lot I need to sell.

I spent the evening killing time looking at train stuff on ebay.  I don't want to know how the election is going until I see it tomorrow in the paper.

Lucy's ready for another trip to the river.  She spent about half an hour tonight running around the place trying to find a deer that she scented.  At least I think that's what it was.  I scared what ever it was off when I whistled for her to come in.  It was dark, so I didn't get a good look at it.

Day 34

We spent the morning on an unpleasant task - investments.  I started writing up a e-mail for Gerry on what we want/need.  Ellen spent a lot of time figuring out how much we spent this year.  We spent a lot more than we earned.  I finished the letter based on that info, but I didn't send it.  I want to wait and send it tomorrow after having some time to reflect.

In the afternoon we took the dog to the park.  She was really excited.  As soon as we got there she ran down to the river and started barking.  When I started to throw the bumper she didn't want to talk.  We threw it for awhile at one place, then walked to another and did it some more.  Then we walked back to the first place.  Lucy wanted to go in so I threw it for her.  She barely dragged herself out of the water, so after three retrieves I called it good.  She didn't seem disappointed.

After that we walked around the auditorium park and looked at the turtles and the fountain.  Then it was time to go home.  We stopped at Rudy's on the way back and got some take out.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the train inventory.  I got a lot done, but I have a lot left to do.

In the evening I went to the neighborhood association meeting.  There were 6 people there including me.  They spent all their time talking about whether or not they should elect one person to the board.  Apparently he's been a board member for a long time, but he's a jerk.  They decided to appoint him later after they've talked to him about his behavior.

Day 33

We slept in a lot.  Even with the change in time, we didn't get up until 10.  The Sunday paper was huge.  There were lots of ads as well as a lot of editorial content.  It took until after noon to read it all.

We went over to Lowe's, ostensibly to get some Christmas lights.  I had a 10% off coupon.  I decided to get an electric pole saw.  That way maybe I won't fall off any more ladders.

We also stopped at Academy and I finally got a pair of sandals.  We also stopped at Michael's, primarily because Ellen had a coupon.  She got some art supplies.

When we got home I assuaged my guilt over not accomplishing anything by putting out the pink flamingos that we bought in Tucson.  I also hung up the flamingo lights that we bought somewhere.  By then the mosquitoes were out and I got bit several times.  I was going to try out the pole saw, but the bugs and the heat made me decide not to.

 Instead I went inside and started to inventory the train stuff.  That's going to take some time.

Day 32

We stayed in bed until almost 10 today surfing.  When we did get up, we ate breakfast and surfed some more until noon. Then we went shopping.  We went to Barton Creek Square.  I wanted to get some slip on sandals.  No one had any good ones.  We got a lot of miles in walking around the mall, though.

We got home at 4:00.  I decided I had to mow the lawn.  I told myself that I'd only do about half the yard.  It was hot and very dusty.  The heavy growth was some pretty slow going.  The whole thing was so unpleasant that I was afraid I wouldn't finish it another day if I stopped.  So I kept going until I was finished.  It took 2 hours.  I was covered with dust when I was finished.  I could barely see through my glasses.

I immediately went inside and took a shower.  I left the clothes in the laundry room because they were too dirty to put in the hamper.

That leaves only two more pain in the ass yard jobs.  One is to weed eat the area by the trailer.  The other is to spray all the weeds.

Daylight losing time starts tonight.  I hate it.

Day 31

I hate the government.  We drove to San Marco today to license the trailer.  They wouldn't do it because we didn't have the weight of the trailer.  Dumb fucks.  The stupid broad at the window said we needed a weigh slip.  Give me a break.  I'm going to bring the advertising brochure, the door the weight label is on, and the user manual if it lists capacities (I doubt it does).

At least we got one thing accomplished.  Early voting was in the same building, so I did my part to rid us of the socialist, racist, piece of shit in the White House.

On the way back we stopped at Cabelas.  They had a very cool Kimber, but it was in 9mm instead of .40.  They didn't have a Sig and sent us to a little gun store on Manchaca.  They didn't have one either, but I bought an AR-15 book so that they would make a sale.

That pretty much burned the day.  I decided to unpack the n scale cars I bought over the summer.  I put some of them in the display cases, but there wasn't room for all of the cars I have.  I started to sort out what I'm going to sell on eBay.  I also repaired the little switcher engine that the kids wrecked years ago.  I wonder if it will run.

Day 30

The grass was wet again this morning, so I bagged mowing.  Instead I started tying up loose ends in the house.  I put up a picture that had been sitting since last spring.  I also hung up a metal heron that we bought this summer.  I put out a pink flamingo windmill we got this summer also.  Finally, I hung the train display cases on the wall and fixed up the trains in the one.  This took quite awhile because I had to fix damage on one of the engines.

Since there was no mowing, I decided to bite the bullet and take the trailer to get safety inspected.  This would have gone smoothly except Ellen forgot the insurance card.  For some reason State Farm couldn't seem to fax us the right thing.  After and hour or so of waiting at the inspection place we managed to get "proof" emailed to a phone so that we could get the sticker.

Parking the trailer when we got home was a pain, but it wasn't a major pain.  I must be getting better at doing it.  I even moved a couple of things out of the basement.  There's a lot left though.

There aren't any good estate sales tomorrow, so I think we'll go get the trailer plates.  Apparently we can vote early at the same place.

This makes one month on the road.  Time flies.

Day 29

It rained last night.  That meant I couldn't mow.  The grass is so high that there's no way the mower could handle it wet.  So we ran some errands instead.

I decided to wait on the trailer safety check until tomorrow.  I didn't see any point in getting one dated October on the last day of the month.  Instead we went to the insurance agency and got a Texas based umbrella policy.  Then we went over to check to make sure that I can get the trailer in and out of the inspection station.  We can.  Finally, we got a safe deposit box for some of the papers that we felt should be in Texas.  When we got home we met Lola and paid her off.

I felt guilty for not doing anything when we got home.  So I moved the rest of the stuff out of the interior of the trailer.  I still have the basement left to do.  Then it was time for dinner followed by the Halloween get together.  Ellen made a cake, but it won't be ready until tomorrow.

We had more adults than children at the get together.  We all had a good time talking for about an hour and a half.  One of the neighbors is talking about having a cul-de-sac party her in a few weeks.  I hope it comes off.

Day 28

Today was a yard work day.  I got up early because I couldn't sleep.  The pain of my finger kept waking me up.  I literally woke up several times an hour the whole night.

The battery on the mower was dead (no surprise).  So I decided to use the weedeater while it charged.  I cut the area by the well house and then did the lower part of the driveway.  At that point I decided to just keep weed eating and use the mower tomorrow.  It took over 5 hours, but I did the well house, lower driveway, and the edging for all of the front and back yards.  The only part I didn't get to was the far side of the parking area.

To cap it off I cut back the wisteria.  I think I cut off about half the plant.  I took it all and threw it over the back fence.  I love having acreage where I can do that.

I was covered with dust and plant material when I was finished.  I went in and took a shower.  I had to use the shampoo twice to get my hair clean.

We went to HEB to get stuff for dinner and some Halloween candy.  When we got back Ellen gave the dog a bath so that she could be on the bed with us.

One weird thing.  I had to use my finger all day today to hold the weed eater.  It should be hurting a lot right now.  Instead it feels a lot better as long as I don't bend or bang it.  Maybe I'll get some sleep tonight.

Day 27

We're home.  The drive over wasn't bad, it's only 70 miles.

When we got home the place was overgrown.  I kind of expected it would be.  I had to weed eat the parking area before we could park the trailer.  I got ambitious and cleared the entire area as well as all of the rocks surrounding it.  I also did the entryway sidewalk.  There's several days worth of lawn mowing and weed eating left to do.

The pump didn't work when we got home.  I immediately called someone.  They were out in a couple of hours.  We got lucky.  It turns out that there are a couple of circuit breakers mounted on the well head box.  They had tripped.  Sooner or later we'll need a new pump.  I hope later.

Before parking the traile I decided to cut off a branch from a dead tree that overhangs the spot.  Ellen helped cut, but she was only about halfway through when I was ready.  So I got the ladder and a handsaw and climbed up to finish the job.  Big mistake.  When the branch went, it knocked me off the ladder.  I fell flat on my back.  I'm lucky I didn't hit a rock and cut the back of my head.  I did bang up my left arm and hand.  I either broke or severely smashed the little finger on my left hand.  It hurts.

Parking the trailer went pretty well.  I didn't get it quite as close to the rocks as I would have liked.  On the plus side I didn't have to move any rocks.

After a quick lunch I started moving stuff from the trailer.  I was tired when I started, and more tired by the time I finished.  I still have to move the stuff in the cabinets and the basement.  I just ran out of steam and went in and took a nap.

When I woke up it was time for dinner.  The Hyundai started right up, but it had a thick layer of dust on it.  We had to clean the windows before we could drive off.  We went to Cheddars.  I missed that place.  On the way back a warning light went on in the Hyundai.  When we got home I restrted the car and it was off.  We'll just have to see what happens.

Day 26

We slept in a little today.  After breakfast I went out to change the headlight bulb in the truck.  They don't make it easy.

First I had to unbolt a fender support and remove one of the batteries.  It was heavy of course and just barely fit.  That made it pretty difficult to get out.  I still couldn't get to the bulb.  I had to lay on the ground to disconnect one of the fender liner attachments and then unbolt the window washer tank.  I had to get Ellen out there to pull back the fender liner while I unbolted the tank.

At that point I could get enough access to unplug the bulb by using a screwdriver to unlatch it by feel.  I couldn't get my hand in there to get the bulb, but Ellen could.

At that point the battle was won, but it was still a pain in the ass to put everything back, especially the battery.

After that we went to town.  We took Lucy.  She was great, well behaved for the entire time we were there.  We walked up and down the street and took turns going into a few stores.  We both bought wallets.  We also ate lunch at the place hat allows dogs.  When we were finished I didn't feel like going back to the trailer.  So we took Lucy to another place that had a singer.  Ellen had tea and I had a hard cider while we listened.

On the way back we fueled up the truck.  It's a short day tomorrow, so I won't hook up until tomorrow.

Day 25

Another day, another 375 miles.  The weather was a little better today.  We only had a head wind for the first 90 minutes or so.  That meant gas mileage went up to just about 10 mpg.

I was a little worried about the biodiesel that I had to put in the truck last night.  It didn't seem to do the truck any harm.

When we got to Fredericksburg we set up and then went to town.  The first thing I did was buy a headlight bulb.  It turns out that I'll have to remove a battery, and possibly the windshield washer bottle, to replace the bulb.  The owner's manual says reach down and replace the bulb.  There's really no way to do that. 

We went around to most of the stores in the afternoon.  We didn't buy anything, but we saw a couple of things we'd like to have.  I may go back tomorrow and get a wallet.

The campground is pretty full.  There's the wine and food festival today, and some sort of jamboree earlier in the week.  We're kind of lucky to get in.

Day 24

There isn't much to describe about an 8 hour trip through southern New Mexico and west Texas.  It's just a place to get through ASAP.  We battled a headwind, or a cross wind all day.  I got between 7.5 and 8.5 mpg all day.  That's expensive.

We're in Van Horn right now.  This place has no socially redeeming value.  At times the wind gusts hard enough to shake the trailer.

We lost an hour just before we got to Van Horn.  I still plan to get up early and get to Fredericksburg as soon as I can tomorrow.

Day 23

We went shooting today.  Tucson is having a cold snap, so it was only 75 degrees.  We had a good time, and the targets were pretty good.  I was shooting well, which made it even better.

We had the dog with us, so we couldn't do anything afterwards.  That was OK, because we left he off lead when we were shooting and she had a great time.  She's been occupying the couch since she got back.

When we got back we left the dog in the trailer and went over to Camping World to look at trailers.  They had one trailer that looked pretty nice, but they wanted over $40K for it.  That was really too much.

We went back and surfed until happy hour at the park's restaurant.  I had a beer and we sat there reading the paper and surfing until dinner time.  I had a pizza for dinner.  Half of it is left for tomorrow.

When we came back I checked the air in the tires and got the truck cover folded back.  I was going to hitch up the truck, but I didn't feel like it.  I still hope to get an early start.  I'd like to make it 438 miles to Van Horn tomorrow.

Day 22

We drove down from Ben Avery to Tucson today.  The drive was a little longer than I thought.  It was uneventful except for some traffic through Phoenix.

After we disconnected at the park we went to a grocery store and bought a few items.  Then we went back and hid in the trailer because it was over 85.

In the evening we went to the doggy park.  Lucy met a few dogs.  It took her awhile to warm up to the other dogs, but then she had fun.  We had some good talks with the other people while the dogs were playing. 

There's free ice here, so I fixed myself a gin and tonic.  I'm having it right now.

Day 21

Today was pretty uneventful.  We got up in the morning and did the wash.  When it was over we shot a round of sporting clays.  We basically shot the hard stations, and some of the easy stations the hard way.

After sporting clays we went over to the stores to get a few grocery items and to top off the tank.  We had lunch at In-and-Out again, mainly because there wasn't any better place there.

The dog is sick.  She had a bad case of diarrhea in the morning.  However, her ass wasn't dragging when we shot.  The cool jacket helped.  She had another case while we were gone, there was shit on the carpet when we got home.  She also had another run to the border after her dinner.  I'm not concerned yet, but I soon will be.

Day 20

All in all this was a pretty good day.  I got up at 8 our time (7 their time) did the morning things and a couple of trailer things.  Then it was time to go to Sears.  We were first in line.  The tire that failed was not one of the ones in the recall.  That means we don't get a free one.  It also means that the other three will always be suspect.

That took very little time.  We were back at the park, hooked up,m and ready to go by 8:35 (our time).  The trip down I17 was somewhat of a pain.  The overall decline in elevation is 5,000 feet.  But there are a couple of 1,500 foot ups and downs in there, too.  There were a couple of trucks that were a continual pain in the ass the whole trip.,  I also met some RV's that were barely making it around.

We got to Ben Avery just before noon (out time).  We were going to stay at a park about 11 miles away, but that didn't seem to be worth it.  Instead we're staying at Ben Avery.  We set up, ate lunch, and then loaded up the guns and went shooting.  It was hot (85), but we had fun.

After shooting we left the dog in the trailer and went to the outlet mall about 4 miles north on I17.  We went through several stores and bought a couple of clothing items and some kitchen stuff.  That killed the rest of the afternoon, so we stopped at In-and-Out for dinner.  I got a new t-shirt, too.

When we got home Ellen spent an hour trying to get a signal on the satellite.  She was unsuccessful.  Because she was doing that, I wasn't able to watch football on broadcast TV.  Oh well.

There's laundry facilities here, so we're going to stay here tomorrow to do the wash and shoot again.  We'll go to Tucson on Wednesday.  We'll probably stay two days there and then head home ASAP.

Day19

We went to Sears today and got a new tire ($300).  The web says that they have lousy service.  The web was right.  We were the first people in in the morning and it still took them two hours to do the job.  We bummed around the mall.  It was bigger than I thought.  I did find my shampoo, so it wasn't a total loss.

We went back to the park and got Lucy.  We took her to a dog park.  We stayed there the whole afternoon talking with a lady who has spent twenty years working as a nurse in Indian health services.  She worked in Obstetrics.  So she and Ellen talked baby deliveries for a long time.  She didn't have a particularly high opinion of Indians.  Apparently the government gives them free everything and they don't respect it.

On the way home Ellen found out that our tires might be subject to a recall.  The three that are left aren't.  I went back to  Sears and asked to see the carcass.  They told me to come back tomorrow.  I'll be there.

Day 18

Today wasn't the best of days - but we got lucky.

First was the drive.  It's all up and down, at times with a headwind.  I got 7.5 MPG on one leg and 9.5 on another.  Of course there was the usual pain in the ass trucks and RV's.

We took the scenic route by Monument Valley.  It was a lot of up and down.  It was also spectacular scenery.  That iconic tower that John Wayne rode by is only a mile or so from the highway.  I always thought it was out in the sticks.

We made reasonable time and got to Flagstaff about 3:30.  That's 2:30 their time since they don't believe in DST.  We went over to Wally World to get my pills and a water filter to replace the one we lost in Snowville.  Unfortunately they didn't have a place to get my shampoo.

On the way back we stopped at a light.  A guy pulled up and said we had a problem with a tire.  The right rear had this big blister on the inside sidewall.  We got to the tire store just as they closed.  They didn't have a replacement, but the put on the spare.  Of course we don't have the documentation for the purchase, so I'll have to pay for a new one.  We might be able to get one tomorrow.  Unfortunately we won't be able to get to Ben Avery tomorrow.

At least the campground is nice.  We'll be staying there another night.

Day 17

It was nice to sleep in until 8 today.  We got up and ate breakfast and then it was time to go.  We got to the ATV place about five minutes early.  Another couple was waiting.  That was good.  It meant that we got back $70 of our fee because we didn't have to pay for a second driver.

They put us in a van and drove us about 15 miles north of Moab.  We parked off the highway and got into the vehicles.  The other couple and us had RAZR's.  The guide had a quad.  We loaded up (including Lucy) and headed out.

We started off on a one and a half lane graded road.  It quickly changed into a path, and later into rock.  Some of the rock areas were pretty rough.  The RAZR handled it all well.  Lucy had some trouble adapting to the low back rim of the cargo area.  In one rough section she slid out the back.  I stopped right away and no harm done.  After that she learned to set on her haunches and brace against the back.

We road for quite awhile and then came to Uranium Arch.  It's an arch that they dug uranium out of the ground below it.  It was very cool - see the pictures.  Then we did some more driving over to the Monitor and Merrimac formations.  Those are formations that we took pictures of from afar last year.  This year we drove up to the base of them.  Very cool.

We then drove over to another formation.  I've forgotten the name.  It was a vertical column with shear sides that people free climb.  That's crazy.

The next stop was a formation where water had eroded a tunnel through some rocks.  The tunnel was big enough to stand in and maybe 50 yards long.  The far end opened up into a bowl kind of formation with interesting walls and a view of the mountains.

Several times during the trip we ran through areas where the track was sandy.  It was a lot of fun bombing through the steep banked curves and the whoop-de-dos.  There were a lot of people on the track.  There were jeeps, quads, UTV's, four seaters, motorcycles, and one pair of girls in an xTerra.  I wouldn't have taken that on the trail.

All in all we had a great time.  It was well worth the money.

When we got back we went to lunch at Milt's hamburgers again.  Then we walked around downtown a little.  I got a pair of sandals with arch support.  We also got John a t-shirt for Christmas.

We've decided to go to Flagstaff tomorrow.  There's no way we can make it to Ben Avery before their 3:00 closing tomorrow.  In Flagstaff we'll decide if we go on to Ben Avery or to another club east of Phoenix.

Day 16

The day started badly.  Accuweather had said that the low was going to be 28.  Instead it was 23.  That meant that the water hose froze solid.  So did the water faucet.  I got the hose off the trailer using two pliers and a hair dryer.  I couldn't get the faucet closed, so I just left it open.  I hope someone sees it.  I would have disconnected the water the night before If I'd known it was going to be that cold.

The first 50 miles of the trip were a little scary.  It was below 32, so I was concerned that there might be some slick spots.  Also, we were driving into the sun.  That made it very hard to see.

Driving was OK until we hit the traffic near Ogden.  Then it was pretty solid until we got to Provo.  Lanes kept coming and going, which added to the misery.  We did get good mileage, 11.5.  That includes all the hills from Snowville to Logan.

We gassed up in Provo and headed up Price Canyon.  It was OK except for some pain in the ass trucks and RV's.  The GPS decided to send us off the wrong exit in Price, but we recovered and just got back on.

When we got to Moab we unhooked and then went into town.  We signed up for a 4 hour guided UTV tour.  It was $400.  I hope it's worth it.  Then we bummed around town for awhile.  A store clerk told us about a hamburger/ice cream joint off the main road.  We went there for an early dinner.  It was great.

Apparently there's a big todo this weekend in town, so everything is pretty booked up.  We'll have to see about tomorrow afternoon.  We might just head off for Phoenix on Sunday.

Day 15

We left Richland for a long, boring, 400 mile drive to Snowville.

The trip was totally uneventful.  That's good.  The last thing I need is an adventure in the wilds of eastern Oregon or southern Idaho.

We got pretty good gas mileage after leaving Baker, about 10.5.  We got really good mileage, 12.8, after leaving Boise.  That's because we had a strong tailwind.

Other than that nothing happened.  We made it in about 7.5 hours and just stayed at the campground.  I was too tired to walk anywhere.

Day 14

We spent the morning getting ready to leave.  We did the wash.  I torqued the wheels and aired up the tires.  I also drained both tanks, flushed the hose, and put it away.  We were done by 10:30, which is when I told Dan we would be done.

Apparently Dan wasn't interested in a new TV because he wasn't there when we got there.  We hung around with Patsy until noon, not doing much of anything.  All of us went to lunch at Annie's.

After lunch we went back to Dan's house.  Patsy called DirecTV about getting an HD upgrade.  They refused.  I told her to threaten to quit, but she didn't.

Gerry called about the investment.  Neither Ellen or I are thrilled about it.  I told him to send us the paper work for keeping the money in a liquid account until we can decided what to do with it.  I'm writing him an email to that effect right after I finish this entry.

We went over to Greg's to get vegetables and run the dog.  Lucy had a good time running.  Then we went back to Dan's, had dinner, and listened to the debate.  I think it was a tie.

After the debate, we went home.  I hooked up the trailer so that we could get a good start in the morning.

Day 13

We kind of messed around a little in the morning and then walked into town for the mail.  After that we went over to Dan's.  He wanted to go hunting, so I went back to the park and got my stuff.  I didn't really want to go because my foot hurt.  I'm glad I did because Lucy redeemed herself.

We hunted behind Dave's place.  He really is building an impressive deck.  We walked up a road to get above his house.  We hadn't gone 25 yds before a covey got up.  They were too far away to shoot, but they just flew up the draw.  We followed them and Lucy did a wonderful point.  She locked steady on the bird and didn't move.  I walked up near her and told her to break.  She flushed the bird and I shot it.  Then she rushed out and retrieved it.

Then we humped it a lot further up the hill.  We saw a covey run up the hill.  Dan went up the hill after it and I stayed below to shoot them.  Unfortunately when Dan flushed them they flew between us.

At the same time Lucy was acting very birdy.  I was holding her close because I thought she wanted to run up the hill.  Instead there was another covey down in the draw just ahead.  They flushed.  I might have had a shot or two if I'd remembered to take off the safety.

The rest of the hunt was a little more uphill and then a lot of down hill on a vicious rocky slope.  I didn't see another bird, but Dan got up two more covies.  When we finally made it to the bottom I gave Dan the bird I shot.  I had lost interest in it as soon as Lucy brought it to me.

My foot's even more torn up than it was before.

I went home and took a shower while Ellen stayed at Dan's house to give Lucy a bath.  She was filthy. 

We went to dinner at John and Pat's place (weird they have the same names as John and Patty).  It was a great turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberries.  Just like Thanksgiving.  Patsy  made a pineapple upside down cake for dessert.  It was all great.

We went back to Dan's to watch the rest of the football game and then went home.  It started raining while we were at dinner and it hasn't stopped.

Day 12

Dan went to church today.  It had a function afterwards, so he was gone all morning.  We needed milk and bananas, so we took Patsy with us to Halfway.  We went to both of the grocery stores, mainly to see them both.  Then we went to one of the two restaurants in town for lunch.  That pretty much exhausted all of the places that are open in Halfway on a Sunday.

Dan was home when we got back.  He'd already washed everything he had, so we watched football all afternoon and evening.  Jeff Clay came over in the evening and we talked with him for quite awhile.  He's taking out a guy who has never hunted before tomorrow.

That was pretty much the whole day.  I set a new record low for a reading on the pedometer.

Day 11

We did a little surfing in the morning and then we went over to Dan's place.  Ellen went off with Patsy to the bazaar in Newbridge.  She got Christmas presents for Patsy and Pat.  I stayed and watched Dan detail his trailer.  I knew he didn't want any help.

When Ellen got back we went to the ice cream place and had a cone, just to spend money.  We had lunch at Annie's for the same reason.

When Dan was finished with his boat we hooked it up to the truck and hauled it back to the RV park.  We covered it for the winter.  When we got back Dan went in to watch football.  I rinsed off the truck.  It was covered with dust from our trip down Snake River road and the other hunting trips.  I mean covered.  It was so dirty that you could see it was dirty at night.

In the evening we watched Prometheus.  It was a midly entertaining movie, but not one that I'm going to buy.

Day 10

We went fishing for the whole day today.  We used my truck to haul Dan's catamaran.  It's the first time that we've been on it.  It's very, very, nice.  After we launched I found a part of the trailer on the pavement.  We took it with us on the boat.

We went down the Powder to the Snake, and then down the Snake to Swede's Landing.  Dan's son was waiting there and we picked him up and fished with him for a couple of hours.  That's a long drive from Boise, and he returned that afternoon.

We spent some time fishing on the way back.  All in all we caught 4 or five respectable fish and some really small ones.  I fished a little bit, but didn't catch anything.

We had beautiful weather for most of the day.  However, by evening we could see the clouds moving in from the west.  By the time we got back to the dock it was dark and rain looked likely.  Dan and I put the trailer part back on, but it came off again while we were loading the boat.  We went to dinner at the Shorthorn and it rained a little while we were there.

Day 9

We didn't do much in the morning, just surfed (sound familiar?).  We went over to Dan's place about 11:00.  I used his compressor to blow all of the dust out of my gun.  Ellen worked on Patsy's computer some more.  Then we went hunting/fishing.

Dan and I got out of the boat.  He did this super climb up and around a fair piece of territory.  I stayed below him.  Most of that involved hanging around.  I still ended up climbing maybe 200 feet and walking half a mile.  That doesn't sound like much, but it was all on a steep side hill covered with little rocks.

Dan flushed some covies, but they were too far away for a shot.  I flushed one.  I could have shot a couple of birds, but they would have fallen where I couldn't retrieve them.  So I passed.

After that we fished for a while and then went in so Dan could listen to the debate.  It would have been interesting if Ryan had wiped the floor with Biden.  Instead it was boring, with them basically tying.