Day 178

It was a relatively calm day today, so after breakfast and the Sunday paper I decided to do the last major thing that has to be done this spring.  I got out the sprayer and sprayed the driveway and parking area.  It was warm, so I did it with minimal clothing.  That way I didn't have to wash much.  It was still pretty hot in the sun.  I decided to haul the sprayer by hand.  That was a little more strenuous, by I think it was faster than jocking the mower around.

I was pretty tired when I got finished.  The shower afterwards was a real treat.  Even after that I was too tired to do much.  I sat down to watch TV and surf.  I think I might of napped.

This evening my legs are pretty sore.  I didn't help that it decided to rain about 5:00.  It rained pretty hard for about an hour.  Of course it had to pick today to rain.  After all, it's probably only rained about once a month since we got here.  I hope that doesn't reduce the effectiveness of the spray too much.

Day 177

I needed bananas and lunchmeat at the grocery store.  Lucy was also making me feel guilty with those doggy eyes.  So I took her over to Circle C.  She did a few retrieves and than we walked over to watch the soccer rugrats.  It wasn't all that interesting.  All of the games were with really young kids.  A lot were bunch ball and the rest were 8 person teams of kids just out of bunchball.  I watched for awhile anyway.

On the way back to the car I noticed that i didn't have my wallet.  I'd changed for my shorts to pants and forgot to move the wallet.  So I carefully drove home and got it.  Then it was back to the post office and the pet store.  It was time to get Lucy some more dog food.  The final stop was HEB.  The place was packed.  I've never seen so many people there.  I got what I needed and got out.

At home I watched 1 and a half movies.  The second movie was good, but I just timed out on watching movies so I recorded the rest of it.  I started reading on the deck instead.  It was sunny, 85, and nice with a light wind.

Day 176

The dog was cute today.  When I woke up this morning, I decided to lay in bed and surf.  Lucy jumped up on the bed without being invited.  That's the first time she's done that.  After about an hour she started nuzzling me and trying whatever she could to get me to get up and feed her.

After breakfast Lucy was really trying to get me to go someplace.  So I took her to Circle C.  It was warm enough that I put on shorts.   Lucy started out slow.  I think she was tired from yesterday.  She did speed up some, but she didn't do a whole lot of retrieves.  Then we went for a walk around the park.  Lucy had the standard amount of fun exploring the trees and bushes. 

The only other thing I did was go to the post office.  Because I got a late start Austin Friday traffic was in full swing by the time we were finished at the park.

When I got home I spent the rest of the day on the web.  I just felt like surfing today.

Day 175

I went over to get fingerprinted today.  They had this neat electronic scanner, so no ink.  The whole process took less than 5 minutes.  Then I took Lucy over to squirrel island.  She started getting antsy as soon as we got close enough for her to smell the water.

She was woofing for joy when we got out of the car.  Her parking karma still worked - we had the last parking place.  I had some good conversations with people while I threw her bumper, so she got a whole lot of water retrieves.  When I figured she was tired enough (she was) we went for a walk.  I finished up with land retrieves to dry her out.

I didn't stop anywhere on the way home.  When we got home I just surfed the rest of the afternoon away.  The doggy was very tired.  She laid down on the couch and didn't move.  I took her to the mailbox later anyway.

There's a Clint Eastwood western to watch tonight as well as looking for estate sales.

Day 174

I decided to get my exercise by doing useful labor today.   It was a fairly cool day, the high was 68.  So after breakfast I went out and started hauling rock.  I spread out a few loads at the bottom of the driveway to smooth it out.  Then I worked my way up the driveway dropping loads of rock wherever it looked like one was needed.  I finished with filling in the depressions at the curve.

All of that work took about two hours.  It also took more than half of the rock that was left.  I decided not to do any more until I've driven over the driveway a few times.  I do think I have enough rock left to finish the driveway and build up the area where the trailer is parked.

I was really tired when I was finished.  So I sat down and did some reading.  Lucy was acting really cute.  She kept coming over and trying to get me to play.  I finally got down on the floor and played with her.  She had a great time chewing on me.  I also took her to the mailbox so she at least got a little walking in.  Tomorrow I'm planning on taking her to squirrel island.

That was about it for the day.

Day 173

Today was wash day, so it began by starting the wash.  Then I went back over to the instructors to check out the misspelled name on my certificate.   They said all I needed was to give them the signup printout and they would take care of everything else.  I didn't even have to mail anything.  I liked that. 

It got better.  I needed gas and a station by the class had it cheaper than I'd see it any place else.  So I filled up.

I then picked up the mail.  There was a bunch of stuff that needed looking at.  Then it was on to Circle C to run the dog.  She did a whole lot of retrieves, and then we walked all the way around the park.  I was listening to Pandora, so I walked pretty fast.  Both of us were tired by the time we got back to the car.

The last stop was HEB for some milk and eggs.

When I got home I continued the wash and dealt with the mail.  That took a while.  Then I sat down intending to read.  I fell asleep almost immediately and didn't wake up until 5:30.  Time to feed the aliens.  A monster's work is never done.

The evening is going to be TV and surfing.

Day 172

I decided to get a few little things done today.  I put up the message board in the apartment and took a few things over there to put away.  Then I cleaned up the kitchen and changed the cat box.  Finally I went online to fill out my application.  I had to do a full virus scan first. 

I had opened an email that said my paypal account had been.  I clicked on the link without really looking at it.  It sent me to some page filled with Chinese characters.  I immediately closed the page and turned off the internet connection.  Then I did a reboot and the scan.  The scan took almost 2 hours and didn't show up anything.  I hope I'm OK.

That pretty much took up the whole day.  I didn't feel like going anywhere, but I did walk the dog to the mailbox (it was empty).  Tonight's going to be TV watching.

Day 171

I felt sorry for the dog, so this was sort of a dog day.  It was sunny but cold in the morning.  The wind was blowing a little too.  I waited until it warmed up into the 50's and then took the dog over to Circle C.  I had her do a whole lot of retrieves.  Then we took a walk all the way around the park.  She was a tired happy doggy when we were done.

I was tired myself when we got home, so I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening reading and watching TV.

Day 170

I went out today and put up the wire to reinforce the yard fence.  It wasn't particularly difficult to do, but it took some time because the length of the run was 50 feet.  The dog was funny.  She couldn't figure out what I was doing, so she just sat on the inside of the fence and watched.

The morning was cool, that's when I was working.  It warmed up during the day.  By the time i was finished eating lunch and surfing it was too hot to take the dog anywhere.  I did need to get the mail and some stuff to eat.  So I tied up the dog and went to the post office and HEB by myself.  There was tax information in the mail, but Gerry had already got a copy to her.

Day 169

It was an estate sailing day.  The first place I went to had some neat old tools.  They were in rough shape, all rusty.  However they were old, some handmade.  I would have liked to buy a couple for yard art.  Unfortunately the guy who had priced them was dreaming.  Everything was 2 or 3 times what they were worth.  And he wouldn't come down on any of his prices.  Oh well.

The second sale didn't start until noon.  It was near McBride's, so I stopped there.  They actually had 9mm at a almost decent price, so I bought a box.  I also bought some snap caps so I could work the trigger on the 709.

I got to the second sale about 3 minutes before it opened.  Unfortunately they decided to make us wait outside for an additional 10 minutes.  In addition I wasn't in the first group let in.  It was hot and humid and I was sweating by the time I got in.  They had three marble topped chests that would have made great microwave stands.  I just didn't want to buy one without Ellen.

I picked up the mail and ran the dog at Circle C on the way home.  There were two tax documents in the mail.  So I had to cut out little pieces of paper to block out the identifying info, scan them, and email them to Ellen.

It was nice and warm, so after lunch I went outside and set on the porch and read my zombie book.  It has some really good stories in it.  It finally got too hot to stay outside and I finished reading inside.

In the evening I took apart the 709 and greased the trigger sear real well.  Then I watched TV and continually pulled the 709 trigger.  I pulled it 1000 time in double action and 500 times in single action.  The result isn't perfect, but it is definitely improved.

Day 168

You can sure get a lot accomplished if you get up at 5 AM.  I took Mom and Ellen to the airport and then stopped at Jim's on the way back for breakfast.  I didn't want to stop on the other side of Mopac to eat because of traffic.  I shouldn't have worried.  There wasn't any traffic until 7:00.  By then I was heading home.

When I got home I spent a couple of hours watching old recordings to clear up the DVR.  Then I went outside and looked at the back fence.  It seems that the best way to stabilize it is to string a cable between the two end posts.  SoI loaded the dog into the truck and went to Home Depot.

At Home Depot I bought cable, clamps, and two turnbuckles.  I also got 12 more bags of sand and a bag of cement.  On the way home I stopped at Circle C and had the dog do retrieves.  Then we took a short walk around the park.  I also stopped at HEB to get a couple of things.

The weather was cloudy and 65 with a little wind.  That's perfect for working so when I got back I spread out the sand.  I mixed half of it with the cement and spread it, then I put the other half of the sand on top.

I was all finished before 1:00.  So I went in, had lunch, and watched another movie.  I started a second movie, but I stopped about half way through because I was just tired of watching movies.

I did a little surfing and then about 6 I couldn't keep my eyes open.  So I sat in the recliner and the next thing I knew it was 8:00.

Day 167

Ellen spent a lot of today getting ready to leave.  It's going to be early tomorrow.  We'll have to get up at 5 AM.

Late last night the weather alarm went off warning of a thunderstorm with large hail that was heading directly for us.  So just before bed we went out and put the truck in the garage.  That entailed moving out the lawnmower, which had a dead battery.  In pushing it I pulled a muscle in my side.  The pain made sleep last night problematical.

While Ellen was getting ready I moved the truck out of the garage and put the mower back after charging its battery.  I wasn't going to push it anywhere I didn't have to. 

The rest of the day was spent mainly reading the news on the web.

At dinner time (5:30) we went over to Jack West's to eat.  There were no empty slots in the parking lot.  So we went to the Nutty Brown Cafe instead.  We all had some good food.  I ordered homemade strawberry pie for dessert and we all had some.

Today I'm officially old - 60.  The only thing I can say about it is that it beats the alternative.  I really am beginning to feel old.  I just can't do the things that I used to do.  For example there's no way that I could have done all the work that we did moving into this place three years ago.  The reduction in my strength and endurance is that significant.  Crap.

Day 166

I tried painting the door screen today.  It didn't work worth a damn.  My next idea is to have Ellen sew some thin fabric panes on it.  We'll see.

Ellen started getting stuff together for Oregon.  The dog and cats got pedicures because it's going to be awhile before they get another one.

Other than that it was a day for reading and surfing.

Day 165

We needed to do some shopping today.  But before we did that after breakfast we went to squirrel island.  Lucy had a great time as expected.  Mom really isn't capable of walking more than a short distance.  Also it was pretty hot, over 80.  So most of the time we were there we just threw the bumper while Mom sat.

Lucy did a whole lot of water retrieves.  I stopped when I saw she was getting tired.  Of course she didn't want to stop so I had her do some land retrieves to dry off a little.  I ran her until she couldn't bring it back any more. 

On the way home we stopped a Wally World for some spray paint and the grocery store for some milk and bananas.

After we got home we read and surfed for the rest of the day.  It got up to 95, so we didn't feel like doing anything outside.

Day 164

We didn't do a whole lot of things today.  It was cloudy in the morning, but got up to 90 degrees in the afternoon.  Most of the day was spent reading.  We did go over to see the open house up the street.  The house was kind of cool, but it had a really impractical design.  It also smelled a little like a barn because of the hay in the barn.  I sure wouldn't want to pay 475K for it.

One the way over Lucy tracked down a baby rabbit on the neighbor's yard and killed it.  I wouldn't let her eat it.

That was it.  In the evening we watched a couple of old movies on the TV.

I forgot to mention that yesterday I shot another squirrel.  He was just eating stuff on the ground and it wasn't a completely clean kill.  I didn't feel good about it.  I don't think I'll shoot anymore unless they're on the feeder.

Day 163

We spent most of the day sitting around and reading and surfing.  In the afternoon Ellen decided we needed to go to the grocery store.  We didn't take the dog because it was 86 degrees out.  We stopped at the post office and then Randall's.  We went to Randall's because of the weekend sale they had.

When we got home we read for awhile and then had dinner.  MIB 3 was on tonight.  We made sure to watch it.  I was surprised.  Mom liked it as much as we did.  It was definitely better than MIB 2.

Day 162

The first thing we did was go over to Lowe's to see about another screen door.  The good news was that they were still on sale.  The bad news was that the price had gone up from $40 to $80.  Oh well.  I bought one and put it in the back of the truck.  Then we went north to an estate sale.

The sale was at a pretty expensive house with some good stuff.  Unfortunately the things that I thought looked interesting were already gone.  We did pick up a neat ceramic rabbit for Patty and a neat purse for Ellen.  The purse looked new except for some ink marks.

We ate at Rudy's on the way back.  It was a nice day, 75 degrees.  So we ate at the tables in back with the dog.  She made out well.  She got more meat than normal and got to lick the pan clean when we were ready to leave.

We stopped at Circle C to run the dog.  Even though it was warm she did whole bunch of retrieves.  Then we decided to get something to attach to the new door so the dog won't run through it.  We went back to Staples and got some colored stickers.  We also stopped at the pet store and bought Lucy some treats.  Between the brisket, retrieves, and treats she had another good doggy day.

At home Ellen tried to clean the purse with no luck.  The web said use isopropol alcohol.  We'll need to get some.

After we got home I decided to wait until later to install the door.  Instead I had a nap.

Day 161

We didn't do much today.  I spent part of the morning working on the handle for the screen door.  I cut and ground off the part that wasn't..  However, when I attached it it didn't work any better than the other handle.  While messing it I discovered a way to hook the screen without too much trouble.  So I'll probably leave it alone for now.

After lunch we went over to pick up the mail.  Then we stopped at Walgreen's and HEB for a couple of things.  Finally we stopped at Circle C.  The dog did a few nice long retrieves.  It was pretty warm though, so she wanted to quit after only a few.  I made her do a couple of extra ones just because I was having so much fun.

I went to sleep at 2:00 last night and got up at 9:00.  So I was a little tired.  When we got back home I took a nap until dinner time.

After dinner disaster struck.  Ellen took the dog up to the garbage can.  When she came back Lucy ran through the screen door.  The door was destroyed.  I was more than a little pissed.  I'm going to see about buying another tomorrow.

Day 160

I decided to install the screen door today.  The process had some disappointments.  First of all I discovered that all the sanding I did wasn't necessary.  The instructions described a requirement that simply wasn't true.  Then I discovered that the kit was missing one piece.  It was a trim piece that isn't really necessary, but it would make things look better.  Oh well.

The install was really a two person job.  Ellen really helped in a couple of places.

When it was finally finished it worked well except that you can't latch the screen from the outside.  The inside latch is way small.

So we went to McCoys to find a different latch.  They didn't have anything appropriate, but we got something that might work.  Then we went to the Dripping Springs HEB to get a couple of items.  We also stopped to run the dog at the park behind the store.  She did a respectable number of retrieves given how warm it was.

Then it was home for the rest of the day.  I just didn't feel like doing any more work on it today.

Day 159

Today was a complete doggy day.  The day was arm and sunny, with a light breeze.

We started off by going to squirrel island.  Unfortunately the squirrels were no where to be seen.  That was OK though, because Lucy got all the swimming that she wanted.  While she was doing water retrieves we talked with a couple of other owners that came by to let their dogs swim.  It was fun.

After Lucy got very tired (she didn't want to stop) we did a little walking around the island.  Lucy did a little meeting and greeting, but she was mainly interested in doing more swimming.  I let her do a few more at the end of the island, but none of the places were really good for that.

We made sure that Mom sat down a lot and we didn't walk far without making sure she rested.  Even with that I think we worked her about a hard as she should go.

After that we went over to Bee Cave for lunch.  We ate at the place with the fireplace.  Of course Lucy ate with us.  We gave her mainly low calorie doggy treats, but she got a couple of pieces of people food too.

After lunch we went over to the toy store.  They were dog friendly and gave Lucy a couple of treats.  We bought a couple of small gifts for the nieces.

After that we went home.  I sat down for a minute and the next thing I knew I woke up.  These new chairs do that to you.

Day 158

We needed to do some errands today.  We stopped at Costco and HEB for groceries.  It was also time to buy cat food, so we stopped at Tomlinson's.  The dog got to run at Circle C and a couple of cookies at Tomlinson's.

When we got home I decided to finally put on the license plates.  That's when I found out that the dealer had registered it in Travis county.  Apparently that cost us at least an extra $15. 

It was a pleasant enough day, middle 60's with a breeze.  So I decided to install the screen door.  At least that was the plan.  The instructions listed some pretty stringent requirements for the door frame.  Of course ours didn't meet them.  The height of the door frame was 1/16" too short.  So I had to us the sander to enlarge it.  The sander was the only tool I had that could do the job.  Then I had to make a shim for the door sill.  That involved using the router to put a channel in a piece of 1/2 x 1 1/2 wood that I had.  Finally I had to paint the area I sanded and the shim.  I thought the paint I had for the shed would match, but it didn't.  I used it anyway because most of it will be covered up by the parts of the screen door.

After that I'd done all of the work I wanted to do today.  The door install will have to wait until tomorrow.  Maybe.

Day 157

We didn't do anything today.  The morning was a little cold and very windy.  I just didn't see going out on the weekend to do something.  I also didn't want to have to deal with Mom's possible issues.  So we spent the day reading and watching Tiger win a golf tournament.

Day 156

It rained all day today.  Some of the time it was just misting and some of the time it was really raining.  I had found four estate sales.  Two were north and two were south.  The ones to the south had postings that said they were open, so that's where we went.

The first place we stopped was Petco.  We stopped just to pick up a bag of lo cal trats for Lucy.  We gave her a few every time we stopped.

The first sale had some nice stuff, but it was way over priced.  There were a couple of nice pieces that were already sold.  The second sale was a bust.  It wasn't really an estate sale.  The people were movingh and just selling a bunch of junk that they didn't want to take with them.  I did buy a couple of tools and a bag of hardware.

The second place was only about two miles from Cabelas.  So we went there.  Because it was raining we could leave the dog in the car.  We didn't really see much we were interested in except for a couple of light coats for Mom.   She liked them, but unfortunately they weren't the right size.

On the the way home we stopped at Randall's because they had some stuff on sale that we wanted.  It's interesting that the closest Randall's to Cabelas is the one on Brodie and Slaughter.

When we got home I sorted out the hardware that I'd bought.  Then I took a little nap before dinner.

Day 155

I wasn't planning on doing anything today, but cabin fever set in.  We didn't get up early, but by noon I was bored.  We took the truck because it hadn't been run.  The excuse was to get it washed.

The dog was going nuts, so we took her over to Circle C.  She really didn't want to retrieve, she wanted to walk.  It took a little time to convince her that that wasn't going to happen.  Then she did a respectable number of retrieves.

After that we went over to the car wash.  We had a frequent washer card that got us a $20 discount on a wash and wax.  Then we went over to Petco and got her some treats.  No reason except that she'd had a bad week.

We had lunch at Culver's and then went over to Lowe's.  I'd been meaning to go over there to get a retractable screen.  They had one on sale for $40.  That was $100 off.  I'll probably install it on the weekend, since tomorrow is estate sale day.

Day 154

Today sucked.  We got up in the morning and went to the hospital.  We spent the whole damn day there doing nothing.  The doctor didn't show up until 3:30.  Of course because he was a replacement he didn't know anything about Mom's case.  He asked how she was feeling, that was about it.  I mentioned the urine test and he went out and came back and said it was normal and she could go home. 

It took them another hour and a half to decide they could let her go.  We didn't get out of there until after five.  Of course traffic sucked.  I stopped at Cheddar's because the Mopac wasn't going anywhere.  The service was OK, but the kitchen was really slow.  They screwed up Mom's order, so I gave her mine and ended up eating a potato and some rolls for dinner.

The worst part was that Ellen didn't get home in time to go to the Women's shooting thing tonight.

Day 153

We got up today and went to the hospital.  We waited until after rush hour and then drove there.  We got lucky.  The doctor showed up only a little while after we got there.  The condensed version is that she was really dehydrated and they were going to keep her another day for the culture to come back.  Apparently she's only been drinking a fraction of what she was supposed to.

We hung around the room until noon.  Then the nurse told us that no more doctors were going to see her today.  So we left and went over to the book store to buy her some books.  We took them back to her and then left her for the rest of the day.

Of course the dog was really happy to see us.  I didn't feel like going out again, so I ran her on the driveway.  She went a lot of times.

The whole evening was watching TV.

Day 152

Today sucked.  We started off going to the range.  Ellen and I were having a good time when Mom decided to collapse.  We drove over to the dealership to get the license plates.  Mom was still feeling bad, so it was off to the Emergency room.  We spent the rest of the day at the hospital.

Of course they weren't going to let her go, and she's in the hospital tonight.  I suppose that they'll cut her loose tomorrow.

Lesson learned: don't make Mon stand up for any period of time.  Her cardiovascular system won't support it anymore.

Day 151

We got up today and spent the morning reading the Sunday paper.  When I was finished with that I was bored, so I decided to go do my build.  The parts kit wasn't as good quality as the first one I used.  There was one part that wouldn't fit without filing and a pin that needed to be hammered in when it should have gone in under finger pressure.  It took longer than it should have because I installed one part wrong and I had to take some stuff apart and redo it.

While I did that Ellen took Mom over to JoAnn's.  They were having a sale.  Apparently it was pretty crowded.  They did have fun and bought a couple of things.

While I was building Beaver climbed the fence in order to invite us to come over to sit on his porch.  We went over there and spent about two and a half hours talking.  It was a great time.  We're going to have to invite them over here.

After that it was almost 7.  We ate leftovers for dinner and now we're watching TV.

Day 150

We didn't really have anything to do today.  We spent the morning reading, but then I got bored.  The day was sunny, but only 60 degrees.  So we went to the club.  Before we got there we stopped at the hamburger place we saw on the web.  It was great.  The food was good and the prices were less than a fast food chain.  The guy who ran it was really fun and a great server.  Unfortunately we were the only people there.

There were a lot of people at the club.  Most of them were either new or pretty inexperienced.  We had a good time there, but the dog didn't.  Because of the people she had to be on the lead the whole time.  I did throw the bumper for her when we were done, so she was tired when we left.

When we got home we just watches TV.

Day 149

We went estate sailing today.  The first two places were expensive houses.  They were filled with really good stuff, but nothing that we wanted to buy.  The second house was a long way north, almost even with Fry's.  On the way back we stopped at the County Line.  It's the first time we eaten there.  It was really good barbeque and the place has a really nice location right on the river.

The next two places we went were decidedly lower class.  The first had nothing worthwhile.  The second was filled with an amazing amount of junk.  I bought an old rusty pan filled with rusty iron balls to put in the yard.

When we got home I took a nap.  Then it was time for dinner, surfing, and TV.