Day 196

Today was a lot of work.  We got up early and moved all sorts of stuff into the trailer.  It took all of the morning.  I also pumped up the tires and torqued the lugnuts.  The new tire gauge lasted one whole day.  It's hose broke.  It was a piece of crap.

So we went out to buy another gauge.  We also stopped at a sub shop for lunch.  Then we went to the library to upgrade the GPS.  Eventually it got done, but we're not sure what actually got accomplished.

We filled up the truck on the way home.  Apparently all the diesel is now 5% biodiesel.  Crap.  How I hate liberals.

After we got home Lola came over and I showed her what I wanted her to do.  We settled on $15/mo.

We've decided to go to San Angelo first.  It's only 200 miles, so it won't be a long drive.  That's good as it may take some time to get out of here in the morning.  I've got a full page of todo items that have to be covered before we can go.

Day 195

We went to the member's day at the club.  Everything was free.  They even had lunch and a mariachi band.  The band was very, very good.  They joked around a little and it was a lot of fun.  The targets were pretty easy, even on the hard course.  We did get to practice any shot we felt like, as long as we wanted.  I was surprised that there wasn't more people, but I guess they were down in San Antonio.  I know we had more fun there than we would ever have had in San Antonio.

We left home at 9:30 and didn't get back until 4:00.  Traffic on I35 near 260 was a mess.  It turned out that there were a couple of trucks parked off the road.  They weren't causing any problems, but people slowed down anyway.

I wanted to mentioned something that happened late last night.  I tried to open the safe and couldn't.  I tried the combination - x, y, z- over and over again without it working.  Ellen got on the web and discovered that on cheap Chinese piece of shit locks the middle number (y) sometimes shifts.  That's what happened.  The numbers x, y-1/2, z work every time.

Day 194

I had another chance at a squirrel this morning, but it ran away before I could get a shot off again.

After breakfast I went outside and finished spraying the weeds with the stuff I had left from earlier.  There will be some when we get back, but I got all that are growing right now.  Then I put away the ladder and swept up the leaves from the front porch.  There didn't seem to be any reason to clean up the inside of the house without doing that.  Of course the leaves were back in an hour or so.

Then I went inside, got out the vacuum, and started to clean up the house.  I used the hose to clean up all of the base trim.  It was all dirty from 6 months of Texas dust.  I also vacuumed all of the rooms.  It must have taken a couple of hours.

Then I got out the new cow skin and put it in the bedroom.  The bedroom one came out to the kitchen with the other one.

We went over to Barnes and Noble to look for the two books I wanted.  They didn't have either one.  So we went over to Starbucks so Ellen could update the GPS.  It's a 700 MB file.  The connection was so slow that after 2 hours the download was only half done.  So we gave up.  I might try the library on Monday.

Day 193

I took advantage of the cool in the morning to put the tire on the trailer.  A squirrel was raiding the feeder when I got up, but it ran off before i could get a shot at it.

It was an estate sale day.  We went to four sales.  All were honest estate sales.  We only bought a few minor items, a tool and some kitchen stuff.  It was interesting to see all the nice stuff as two of the estate sales were in upscale homes.  There was one quarter sawn oak table that I would have bought, except someone else had already bought it.

The trip started was a great big circle.  It started at Slaughter and Brodie, went to Zilker, and then looped around to Bee Cave.  We stopped at Zilker so that Lucy could have a run and socialize.  I threw quite a few retrieves and we walked around a little.  It was warm and she got to that state where she didn't want to quit, but she didn't want to retrieve either.

It was over 90 again today, so when we got home it was more reading and surfing.  I met Lola's dad when I went to get the mail.  We're going to talk tomorrow or Monday about her "looking after" the place.

In the evening I went surfing and came across some liberal professor from UCSD's blog.  Actually I think I've been there before (check posts from earlier years).  He's a complete idiot and a socialist nut case.  I spent several hours reading his blogs as well as some stuff he referenced.  I was incensed.  It's unfortunate that people like him are paid by the government to "educate" our youth.

Day 192

I remembered yesterday evening that I hadn't gotten a replacement spare tire for the trailer.  So I unhooked the one on the trailer and put it in the back of the truck.  I also cut a piece of masonite to use as a shield so the new one doesn't get ruined.  Then I tried to find a vendor.

When I needed a tire in Podunk, LA the only tire store in town had one at a good price.  I called all over the tire stores in south Austin and no one had one.  I finally found a place that was having one delivered in the afternoon.  The price was outrageous.  Oh well.  I paid it.

The temperature today was 92 degrees.  There wasn't anyway I was going to put the tire on the trailer in that heat.  I'll do it tomorrow.  Instead I looked for estate sales.  There are a couple of good looking ones that I'll probably go to tomorrow.

I haven't mentioned it, but there are at least three other squirrels helping themselves to the bird seed.  I missed an easy shot at one the morning.  I may have hit another a couple of days ago, but it ran off so I'm not for sure.  I can't believe I missed the one today.  In the afternoon there was another one, but I opened the door to throw out a bottle before I saw it.

Day 191

I promised the dog we'd go out today, so we went to Auditorium shores.  The park was closed.  They're setting up for the wine and cheese party this weekend.  They're putting up a fence around the whole thing.  All the parking spaces were blocked off.

Fortunately we had parking Karma and found a spot in the little parking lot by the railroad bridge.  We walked back along the lake path, which isn't blocked off.  We found several places for Lucy to swim and we let her swim at each one for awhile.  Then we'd walk to the next and give her a little rest.

When we were done we stopped by the old hamburger place for lunch.

That's all we did.  By the time we got home it was hot.  It was over 90 degrees.  So we just sat inside and surfed and read.  The dog sure was happy.

Day 190

We started to get the trailer ready today.  Ellen vacuumed it out.  I put in all the presents for various people.  I also put some shells in the truck.  Finally I put all of the tools from the layout away and packed in all the trains stuff I'm taking with me.  That included cutting two pieces of Masonite for the control panel.  It took a lot longer than the description would indicate. 

After lunch we went to the Post Office so that Ellen could mail off a package.  We also stopped at Tomlinson's and got some cat food for the trip.  They don't take the dog cookie bucket anymore, so we paid for it.  It was 90 degrees, so we didn't try to run the dog.

When we got home we finished the wash and did some reading.  Tomorrow I think we'll run the dog.

Day 189

I got up early (8:00) today in order to do the yard work when it was cool.  I started off by doing the spraying.  By the time I was finished with that my back was killing me.  I told myself I'd just do the areas by the garage with the weed eater and quit.  That went easier and quicker than I thought it would.  I was finished by 10:15.  That was too early to quit, so I got on the lawnmower.

Mowing the lawn was easier because the grass wasn't really high.  However, it was dry and really dusty.  By the time I was finished my glasses were so dirty that I could barely see.  I went in and took a shower as soon as I was done.  I am going to really miss that shower.

After lunch we went out to buy some office supplies for Ellen.  We also stopped at Costco to get water and drinks for the trip.  It was a really good feeling to have that lawn work out of the way.

In the evening I did a little work on the layout.  I installed some more power leads and drilled some holes in some of the track pieces.  I also continued to build up the retaining wall.  It takes a long time because I have to wait for the glue to dry on each section.  I don't think I'll do much more on the track before the fall.

I logged onto ebay.  What a mistake.  There's all these bargains that I'd like to get involved in that I can't.  It's depressing.

Day 188

We had a pretty successful morning.  We went over to Zilker.  We got there at 10 and the place was already packed.  We took Lucy across the bridge and let her swim for awhile.  There were a lot of poeple on the river in canoes, kayaks, sculls, and surfboards.  We watched a class for surfboards practice under the bridge while we threw the bumper.

After the swim we walked over to the dog park.  We threw the bumper and let Lucy socialize.  There was a beach volleyball tournament going on, but we didn't watch much.  Instead we went over to the rocks and Lucy played.  There were some cool puppies.  Two Wiemerieners, two dobermans, and a GSP.  The dobermans were only 9 months old, but they outweighed Lucy by at least 20 pounds.

It was warm, 90 degrees, but we kept Lucy wetted down which seemed to make her feel good.  We ate lunch at the Zilker snack bar.  It wasn't too expensive and the hamburgers were big and very good.

After lunch we went back to the park for awhile and then went home.  We stopped by the grocery store for a quick stop on the way. 

When we got home for some reason I decided to watch TV.  We saw three pretty good movies in a row.  One was a "girl grows up and vantages her parent's killing" flick, the second was a British alien invasion flick, and the third was an old old cop/young cop movie with Robert Duvall.

Day 187

We went to the Circle C garage sale today.  It was kind of strange.  There was a lot of junk, but there was also a couple of really good places.  We got some Lego's for the kids, some nice pens for $1, and some bags to put groceries in.

We got tired of seeing places, so we went to the Post Office.  We also took the dog to Circle C.  She wouldn't do retrieves even though she'd been whining all the time we were at garage sales.  We watched a little bit of a soccer game while we were at the park.

When we got home it was just reading and surfing.  After dinner I spent a little bit of time making some retaining walls for the layout.  I've really stopped doing any serious work on it until the fall.

Day 186

They didn't deliver a paper today. That sucks since one of the reasons I get the paper is the geek porn on Friday.

 I found four estate sales, so off we went in the morning. We found a couple of small items at the first one. A paper punch for Ellen, a small plane for me, and a motorized BBQ grill cleaner. The second sale had some cool stuff, like antique wall telephones, but it all came under the category of TMS. I tried to by a helping hands, but they wanted $20 for it. I can buy a better new one at harbor Freight for $5-$10. It was old and couldn't have cost more than $5 new. The third place was a bust. They were closed, probably because it was supposed to rain. The fourth place was up on 2222 and I decided not to go. The website showed neat stuff, but the prices I saw looked pretty high.

We ate lunch at Steak & Shake and then went to the hobby store nearby. It actually had a bridge I needed for the layout, so I bought it. It started raining while we were there. There was some pretty impressive thunder and lightning. It rained a lot harder towards I35, and not much at home.

When we got home I went out to the garage and started to build up the retaining walls and the tunnel openings in it.  I got some parts cut and glued together.  I'll probably do more tomorrow after the glue dries.

Day 185

I forgot to do an entry yesterday because we got home late from the neighborhood party. Ellen had a great time and we got to meet a lot of the neighbors. We met the people next door (we'd met them before), and the person who lives at the end of the circle (we've barely seen him). Unfortunately the people from across the street didn't attend. Google has changed the entry form for the blog. It sucks because it no longer recognizes paragraphs. It runs everything together. Some dumb fuck programmer at Google needs to be fired. We didn't do much during the day. We did one of our standard "go get the mail" runs. We took the truck, which hadn't been run in two weeks. It started up right away, which made me feel good. We took it to the car wash and got it washed and waxed. It cost a lot, but with the money we're making I don't care. We have to spend it on something. I also got some gas for the mower. I'm going to have to mow one more time before we leave. I'll also have to spray some more. The rain after I sprayed before washed away some of the spray.

Day 184

We got up late today. We still got some stuff done. We got the car washed and the oil changed. It's really nice to have a clean car. It was getting really bad. The oil change place had built a dog park next to the garage. We took Lucy over there and she had a good time. We ate lunch after the oil change and then went to Home Depot and the Post Office. Two not so nice things happened today. I got a phone call from the ambulance company. It sounded almost like a bill collector. They knew that the bill had been resubmitted, but they wanted me to pay a portion of the bill. They kept asking me to pay $25. I told them that I didn't owe them anything and that they would have been reimbursed if they had followed procedures. The second thing was worse. Bob sent our tax return at media rate. The Post Office opened it. Apparently they can open "media". They charged us a whole lot ($6.56) to get the package. Worse yet, someone or someones in the Post Office now has all the information in our tax return. Shit.

Day 183

I got up this morning and I just didn't feel like doing anything constructive. So I read the paper and surfed.

The next step in building the layout is to file down the points on the switches. I didn't feel like doing that. So I went looking for a CAD program to use to design the control panel. I had worked a long time entering the design in another program just to find out that it wouldn't print. The one I found did. It's not as easy to use, but I managed to get the design entered. I also got a full size printout printed. That allowed me to make sure that there was room for all the switches and indicators.

We left briefly to go to the grocery store, but we came right back home. Tomorrow we'll have to make a longer outing to get the car washed and the oil changed. It's time to start getting ready to leave.

Day 182

I got up this morning and was going to blow off doing the spraying. However it was relatively cool, so I decided to do it. An hour and a half later I was done and my back hurt. I took a shower and Ellen put my clothes n the washing machine and set it for sterilize.

After the shower we left with a series of missions. We took the truck. It started right up even though it had been two weeks since we used it. We got the mail, mainly a bunch of quarterly statements. They were all pretty good, although none beat the stock index. Then we went and I got a haircut. After that, lunch. I had forgotten to eat breakfast.

After lunch we went over to Michael's and I used a coupon to buy a hobby tool. We also stopped at Walgreen's so that Ellen could get some stuff for her leg. She got two different things and says neither one works. We also stopped at the Verizon store. I can get a new phone, but I don't like any of the ones that are available.

The final stop was to run the dog. At first she didn't seem to want to, but with some coaxing she did a fair number of retrieves.

I missed out on the ebay auction I wanted to do by a few seconds. So I paid off what I'd ordered. I'm going to miss looking at ebay for the next few weeks.

I didn't feel like installing power leads, so I tried my hand at modifying on of the switches. I'm not sure what I did was a great improvement. I may work on it more tomorrow. I have four to do.

Day 181

I forgot to mention yesterday that I shot squirrel #2 in the morning. I thought that would be the end of it, but the bird feeder was opened again this morning. I guess I'm facing a full scale war on squirrels.

I couldn't spray because of the wind and rain, so today was a soldering day. The soldering iron that wouldn't work yesterday worked fine today. I soldered up a whole lot of wires. Then I ate lunch and took a nap.

When I woke up I decided to go install the feeders with some left over. There were enough to finish the layout. Of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I started installing the spares. This caused me to identify some additional places where over-engineering indicated I should install some. So it was back to solder up another 13 pairs of wires. I think that that will do it.

I won one auction today - a flat car. I wanted to get in on several others, but they were all too expensive. I had a chance on one, but ebay screwed me over. It was displaying the wrong end time and the auction ended before I could bid. Today is my self imposed "last order day". That way I'm sure to get what I've ordered before we leave.

Day 180

It's been six months since we left Oregon. Time flies.

We went to Bastrop today. There's a hobby shop there that advertised a lot of n scale stuff. It turns out they don't have much at all. Only a few cars. I bought one just to support them. They mainly order stuff for you.

There was a park near the shop that was on the Colorado river. So we took Lucy for a swim. She swam for a long time. I finally called a top even though she didn't want to. Before we started back we stopped for lunch. When we came back out Lucy had barfed up all of her breakfast on Ellen's coat. We couldn't tell if she was sick, or just that we'd run her too early after eating.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store and got some chicken. Ellen was going to fix her chicken and rice. Then we got the idea to stop at Tomlinson's. They had some real mild canned food. So we bought a can. We fed her at 9:00 and she seems to be doing OK. She's not moving much, but then she has a right to be very tired.

I installed the leads I made the other day in the layout. I'm almost done, about 10 pairs to go. Unfortunately the soldering iron seems to have gone tits up. I'll have to get another one.

Day 179

We got up at 6:15 this morning to take Mom to the airport. The traffic was a little lighter than when I took Ellen. That might have been because we were maybe 5 or 10 minutes earlier. She got off OK, and apparently made it to Portland.

After we left her off, we went to Denny's for breakfast. Then we went over to the dam that I discovered the day Ellen left. We walked across the dam. It was interesting to see what the rive looks like below the dam. It's wide, but not very deep. Lucy got in some retrieves in the little park by the dam. We had to remove a bunch of stickers from her legs when she was finished.

After that we walked upriver a little on the lake path. We walked around the power plant that they are dismantling. The wall around the power plant is covered with graffiti. Some of it is pretty good quality artwork. Beyond the power plant is a set of baseball fields. We didn't go any farther than that.

Across from the fields were three beautifully restored houses. We struck up a conversation with the builder that was doing the restoration. He also owns the property. When he's finished with these, he's retiring to Buda. He's sick of dealing with the 26 neighborhood organizations in the area. I don't blame him.

After that we went home. There was nothing on ebay today. I soldered a whole lot of leads, but I didn't feel like installing them. I was going to spray tomorrow, but it's supposed to rain and be windy.

Day 178

It was a good estate sale day. We went down to Kyle. I got some nice garage stuff and we bought a suitcase for Mom. It turned out too big, so we'll keep it. It's a nice American Tourister and we paid less than $20. It didn't seem like it had been used at all.

On the way back we stopped at Cabelas. I wanted to get Mom a Gortex coat, but they didn't have any she liked. She did get a shirt, and I paid for it with my card points.

The people on ebay this evening were nuts. They were bidding way over what things were worth. It was really frustrating because I could have bought a "buy it now" before that auctions started that went for less than the two auction prices. And it was a better locomotive. It wasn't just the locomotive auctions. Everything I looked at went for more than it was worth. And everyone was sniping big time.

Day 177

I decided that today should be a day of rest. My foot was killing me from yesterday.
Walking three miles with the dog pulling on me made it hurt a lot.

After breakfast I went out and put the leads I soldered yesterday in the layout. When I was finished I had more connectors, so I started to solder them up. I've still got quite a few to go.

We went over to the post office and I got the last of the ebay packages. It's a pretty nice station. We also stopped by the book store so Mom could get some more books. Lucy got to go to PetSmart. On the way home we stopped to run her, but she only did two retrieves.

We went home for awhile and I did some soldering. Then we went to Cheddar's for dinner. I like that place. When we got home I finished up the soldering. I could have gone out and put the lead in the layout, but I just didn't feel like it.

Nothing interesting on ebay tonight. There are some things tomorrow.

Day 176

While it was cool, right after breakfast I went out to the layout and installed the leads that I had soldered. That gave me a whole collection of connectors.

We went over to Zilker today and parked by loop 1. We went over the bridge and let Lucy swim. She swam for a long time. She did at least 30 retrieves. When we stopped she was really tired, but didn't want to quit.

Even though she'd been swimming she insisted on pulling me as we walked. We walked the 3 mile loop and she pulled most of the way. The only time she didn't pull was when we were going up hill. It was after 1 when we got back to the car and it was getting hot. We stopped at the hamburger place and got hamburgers. I think they're the best we've found in Austin.

When we went to the post office there were two packages. One was a car I had ordered and the other was the order from the internet store. I now have more than enough stuff to keep me busy for quite awhile.

When we got home I soldered up all of the connectors that I'd collected in the morning. They made 40 pairs. Then I just screwed around on the internet and watched TV. It was too hot to go outside.

After dinner I went out and installed a few of the leads that I'd soldered. I also fit the bridge that I'd bought. It isn't long enough. I'll have to buy another one.

Ebay pissed me off. I'd been watching a locomotive for days. As the auction was ending it was a good price. I bid 15 cents more than the selling price, but ebay didn't give it to me. That sucks.

Day 175

We declared this a "get up later" day. I think it was a good idea. We spent a lazy morning ebaying and I did some soldering of track power leads. It's going a little faster/easier as I get more practice. I also painted the viaduct supports.

After lunch we went to get the mail and do a little shopping. My package wasn't there (later on when I got home the tracking information said that it was delivered at 1:30, a few minutes after we stopped at the Post Office).

We stopped at Kohl's so I could buy some pants. I found out Easter morning that the only pants I have in Texas are jeans. They wanted $72 for a pair of Dockers. I was going to leave, but Ellen found some Haggar's for $38. She also found a cool Hawaiian silk shirt for half price that I bought.

We left the dog at home because it was hot. She was whimpering on the couch when we left. So I stopped at PetSmart to get her a toy. They were clearing out Valentine's day toys for $1. So I bought 4.

After a grocery store stop we went home. Lucy really liked her toy. It took about ten minutes to destroy. I did some more soldering. I soldered up all of the connectors that I had. I'll have to install what I have to get new ones to keep soldering with. It was too hot to go out and do that.

Ebay was a bust. Everything went for more than I wanted to spend. The item I wanted the most went for $72. I only wanted to spend $55. Oh well, there's more stuff tomorrow. It's getting near the time I'll have to quit ordering things because of the trip.

Day 174

The day started out really well. As we were getting up the squirrels showed up. I managed to nail one with the pellet gun.

We got up at 7 to go to church, but got a late start. We got to the church 15 minutes early and the parking lot looked packed. It turned out that it wasn't, there were plenty of parking spaces in the back. The church was packed, but the usher found us a spacious place for three.

When church was over we figured every place to eat would be packed. We went to the IHOP next to Barton Creek. It's parking lot was almost full. We walked in and got seated immediately. The food and service were really good.

On the way home I stopped at the Post Office and there was an item waiting for me. I wasn't expecting one. We also stopped at Lowe's to see if they had Masonite. They did, so I took a sheet over to have it cut. At the saw there was a dumpster with three cut pieces of Masonite in it. They were much more than I needed. The helper said I could have them for free. So I saved $14.

When we got home I cut the pillars for the viaduct. Then I did a bunch of ebaying. I was disappointed. I was outbid on the thing I really wanted by someone who wanted it a lot more than I did. The same thing happened with another item. Oh well.

Finally I shoveled some gravel in the driveway to fill up a hole that had appeared. It was only two and a half loads, but that was enough. I'm not going to have fun if I order more.

Day 173

We took Mom up to Fredericksburg today. I think she had a good time, at least she said she did. The trip wasn't bad. There wasn't very much traffic and we went over 70 most of the way.

We got there a little after 10 and it was already crowded. We lucked out and got a parking spot on main just by the courthouse. The off street parking had already half filled. We walked up and down main. Most of the time Ellen would go in with Mom and I would stay outside with the dog. Mom bought presents for everyone and we bought some things, too. We got presents, earrings, and a new cowhide. The cowhide is great.

Ellen asked at one of the stores and they told us of a restaurant that would let the dog sit on the patio. So we ate there. It was mainly Tex-Mex, and very good. Our waiter was one of the best wait persons we've had in a very long time. They even brought a bowl of ice water for Lucy.

Lucy was a very good girl the whole day.

When we got home I logged on ebay. It was a big disappointment. I missed the end of one of the auctions I was most interested in. The item sold at less than I would have bid on it. Damn. There were some other things that came up in the evening. One went for way more than I was willing to pay. The others I just decided I didn't want.

I cut notches in the viaduct pillars to mount the Kato track. I also modified two Piers to serve as bases for the two pillars that have to be higher. I'm not going to shorten the others until I go out and check everything on the layout.

We have to get up tomorrow and go to church.

Day 172

We didn't do much in the morning. I completed gluing the Viaduct supports together and did a lot of surfing. Mom read and Ellen surfed.

It was in the 80's today, so we left the dog at home when we went to get the mail. The package wasn't there (more on that later). After that we went over to Kohl's so I could buy some shorts. While I was doing that Mom bought some shorts and a shirt. It was after 2, so we stopped at BJ's for lunch. For some reason they were really slow. We didn't get our food until after 3. On the way home we stopped at Randall's for a few things.

When I got home I e-mailed the vendor about the package. He e-mailed back that he had mailed it to Oregon. The Texas address is clearly marked on the payment. He had to work just to find the Oregon address. I won't see the package for lunch. Needless to say he won't get a 5-star rating.

In the evening I did two auctions and won them both. I got a neat looking freight house and a coal car. Tomorrow there's a couple of engines that I'm looking at closely. We'll have to see how much they are bid up.

Day 171

We took the dog over to auditorium shores for a swim. It's the hottest day of the year, and the hottest April 5th on record.

She loved swimming (of course). We let her swim for quite awhile and then we walked across the bridge. There's a plaque there that we hadn't noticed before. It says that in 2008 the flood waters got over the top of the bridge. That must have been something.

We walked a little on the far side and sat in the shade by the river for awhile. Then it was back across the river and more swimming for the dog. She was getting really tired. It ended when she finally didn't bring the bumper back to me. That's the first time ever that she's called it quits for swimming.

We ate lunch at the trailer park. We all had fajitas and they were great. Then we stopped by the ice cream place in Circle C for dessert. Ice cream is what you need when it's 92 degrees.

We got home about three o'clock. We just sat and enjoyed the air conditioning for the rest of the day.

Day 170

I spent the morning cleaning up. I cleared off the kitchen counter and table. I also cleaned the guest bathroom. I took a lot of stuff to the apartment and threw away some stuff, too. Then I dusted the living room and kitchen. That took quite awhile given all the things that had to be moved. Finally I cleaned the kitchen table. It was covered in grime. The cloth was black when I got finished.

After lunch I went over and got the mail. One letter marked "tax information". It turned out not to be important. Some bullshit about setting withholding amounts. I didn't even bother to stop to run the dog. It was hot and she hasn't been very ambitious.

When I got home I went out to the layout to install the insulating connectors. I wanted something easy to do. Of course Murphy struck. The short switches have non-standard joiners. So I had to modify four of the standard joiners to replace them. I ran out of joiners before I was finished, but I knew that was going to happen. I miscalculated when I ordered them.

After dinner it was ebay time. I did a great bit of snipering. I put in a bid in the last 10 seconds that won the item by 5 cents. I also put in an order for a bunch of stuff including the joiners that I need. The internet economy loved me today.

Now I'm waiting to go pick up Ellen. She doesn't come in until 12:25, so I'm going to be up late.

Day 169

I got up early today. I just didn't feel like sleeping. I didn't have much to do, so I surfed. I found a website that contained instructions on how to wire Kato track. They had a much easier way to do it than what I was doing.

I took out all of the recycling stuff. I also did the wash. After all it's Tuesday.

By the time I got through surfing it was just after noon. So I went to the Post Office. Just a magazine. I'm beginning to wonder where one of the items I ordered is. Then I went over to Hobby Lobby to get some supplies. I also stopped by Harbor Freight for a tool. On the way home it was run the dog time. She did the grand total of two retrieves. Then it was back in the car because all she'd do was graze. It was a little hot.

When I got home I cleaned up all of the stuff I had used to make the car stop. Then I brought in all of the stuff to do soldering. The new method works slick. It took a few before i got the hang of it, but after awhile I was making steady progress. I've got about 20% of the track done. I'll probably work on it some more tomorrow after I clean things up.

Day 168

I went out in the morning and did the edging. It took over two hours. Even though I started early it was still hot. And dirty. By the time I was finished the legs of my jeans were green. I must admit that the place looks pretty good now.

After I was finished I had a leisurely lunch and called the insurance company about the ambulance bill. The lady I talked to said she'd resubmit the bill on "appeal". This will take 4-6 weeks. In the mean time she was going to call the ambulance company and tell them to cool their jets.

Then I went to the post office. There were three packages waiting for me. On the way home I stopped at Randalls for some bread and bananas. I forgot the card, so I just asked them for another one. Now I have three. I also got a couple of frozen dinners. I was tired of chicken tenders and quesadelas. I also stopped at Costco and got some more drinks. I found shade for the dog each time, but I still didn't stay long because it was hot.

On the way home I stopped to run the dog. She only did three or four retrieves before she stopped and ate grass. So I told her we were going home.

When I got home I opened the packages. They were things from ebay. One item had a $70 price tag, I spent $31. The second item was some rock walls that look great. They will fit right in. The third was a big disappointment. I thought I'd bought a freight station model kit. Instead it's a cardboard kit. I didn't even know that the manufacturer made these. I wasted $15. Oh well.

That didn't stop me though. I bought two items tonight. One was a model (plastic this time) for 1/3 the price from an internet store. The other was a second viaduct that I paid 2/3 of retail for. That made me feel a little better.

Day 167

Today was mow the lawn day. Before I did that I painted the viaduct. That way it would be dry if I wanted to do anything with it.

The first step in mowing the lawn was moving the cars over by the burn barrel. No more rock dents. I tried to use an iPod with the earmuffs, but I couldn't hear very well. So I bagged the tunes. It took about two hours to mow everything. It was hot, dusty, dirty, and painful when going by the trees.

When I was finished I immediately took a shower. I was covered with clippings and dirt. It's not over either. Tomorrow I have to do the edging. I'll get up early and do it when it's as cool as possible.

I watched ebay today, but that's all I did. Nothing was selling at what I considered a bargain price.

I finished the car stop today. It came out pretty good. Now all I have to do is make 8 more. I'm also going to have to get back to some soldering. I'm not looking forward to that.