Day 147

I was planning on going to the mall today to get a watchband.  However, it got too warm to leave the dog in the car.  I did get over to Harbor freight to get some more small drill  bits.  They didn't have a pin vise, so I had to go to Hobby Lobby.  I wish I'd had a coupon.  It cost me $20.

I stopped at the post office to pick up my package.  It wasn't in the box.  I stood in line and showed them that the status was "delivered".  They went back and brought back a package.  I went outside and opened it because it didn't look big enough.  It wasn't.  It was a package for Ellen.  So I went back in and asked again.  The tall hippy guy found it for me.  I also go notice today that my upper has shipped.  I hope it isn't a hassle, too.

We took the dog to Circle C.  It was sunny and warm, but she still was really active.  I think she tired herself out.  She put herself to bed about 8:30 tonight.

When we got home I started working on the viaducts.  I figured out the heights I need.  I started to measure them out.  I only got one done before I decided that I wasn't having fun.  So I stopped and surfed instead.

Day 146

Today we went and voted.  We had to drive to Dripping Springs to do it.  We could have gone to Buda, but I didn't feel like it.

After that we drove back to the Post Office.  The viaducts were supposed to be there, but they weren't.  We'll look again tomorrow.

On the way home we stopped at Circle C to walk the dog.  We went all around the park.  The rain yesterday actually had start up the creek a little.  Not much, but a little.  Yesterday I cut back on Lucy's narcotics.  Today she seemed to do just fine except she favored the leg just a little when she was running.  I'll see how she does the next few days.

I really wanted nachos, so we went to the nacho place.  Afterwards we went to the ice cream place.  They have really good ice cream, but it's expensive.

When we got home I spent two hours working on the layout.  I drilled holes in a lot of track, stripped a lot of wires, and tacked down the first pieces of track.  I'll probably do more tomorrow.

Day 145

It was 35 degrees and raining when we got up.  Ellen called the vet and got an appointment for 1:30.  We spent the morning surfing and reading.  It seemed that everything that I read pissed me off.  So I quit and played solitaire until it was time to go.

The vet said Fletcher had an allergic reaction to something.  He gave Fletcher a shot that he said should clear things up.  It was amazing.  The spot on his leg was twice as big as it was last night.  All in 12 hours.

After the vet we stopped at Carl's Jr. for lunch.  It was one with Mexican food.  So we ordered Mexican.  It was really good for fast food.

We stopped at the hobby store to buy some paint.  Ellen got another metal model and a 1:144 Corsair model.  Then we stopped at the Spec's next door and bought some Louisiana root beer.

We stopped at HEB on the way home and bought stuff for dinner.  I would have gone to get the mail, but it was 4:30 and traffic was beginning to get ridiculous.

Day 144

The washer fix seems to be a success.  There was no water on the floor after all the wash was done today.

When we got up it was raining.  It rained really lightly for all of the morning and a little of the afternoon.  The temperature was about 70.  I went out to the garage to put track in the display case.  I wasn't able to do anything else because the paint isn't dry yet.

I felt like doing something, so I went into the well house and cleaned up all the stuff I had stacked on the table saw.  That way I'll have a secondary workspace when I start working on the layout.  I would have started tacking down some of the track, but I can't until I get the new viaduct pieces.  The whole layout is a connected system.  I can't be sure of the positioning of any part unless I have everything connected together.  I did set up the wire stripper I got for the lead wires.  I also figured out a good way to do the track connections.  I'm kind of excited to get started.

As part of the cleanup I looked through the pieces and kits I accumulated.  I'd forgotten some things.  If I'd been on ebay I probably would have bought stuff I already have.

I still felt like accomplishing something, so I hung the picture we bought in Fredericksburg.  I got lucky.  The new picture replaced the one already there perfectly.  I took the old picture and hung it in the entry way.  When I measured where to put the mount it was 1 inch from a stud.

I spent the rest of the day surfing with a little bit of TV watching.  Not much though.  I got bored.

The dog was full of energy today.  She ran around when I went to get the paper and stayed out patrolling.  I guess she went out several times while I was in the garage.  She also did some running around when we went to get the mail.

Late in the evening I picked up Fletcher and noticed a bare spot on the inside of his left rear leg.  He'll be going to the vet tomorrow.

Day 143

I'm pretty happy today.  We got a late start.  I woke up at 9, but it felt so good laying in bed with the dog that I decided not to get up until I felt like it.  Basically I dozed for about an hour and a half.  Then I had to get up because it was past time to medicate the dog.

After breakfast I decided it was time to try to fix the washer before wash day tomorrow.  I pulled the washer away from the wall and spent some time cleaning the mess behind it.  Then I removed the back panel.  It was obvioius that it had been leaking.  What wasn't obvious was from where.

I watched while it went through it's shortest wash cycle.  That meant about 15 minutes of sitting on the floor.  Just before the beginning of the spin cycle water started leaking, but I couldn't see from where.  It looked like it could have been coming from the top of the machine.

I was about to give up when I noticed that I could remove the top easily.  So I did.  There were a lot of small hoses at the top of the drum.  One of them had come loose.  I put another clamp on it.  I'm pretty sure that will fix the leak.  Wrestling the washer back into place was a lot harder then moving it out.  I'm not sure why.  I am happy that I don't have to give some repairman any money.

I ran out of bananas, so we took the dog to Circle C and then went to HEB.  The dog was really happy to go.  She sniffed around everything while we just walked.  We got some shrimp and bacon at HEB and that's what we had for dinner.  It was just as good as last time.

Ellen did a second coat of paint on the display case we bought.  It looks really good.

Day 142

It's Sunday, so the morning was mainly surfing and reading the paper.

The dog is really recovered from yesterday.  While I was reading the paper she was trying everything she could to get us to go somewhere.  So we took her to Circle C.  There were some kids playing there, but they were little and playing short field 6 a side.  That wasn't interesting, so we didn't watch long.

We walked Lucy around the park.  She had a good time in the trees.  She tried to stay in the trees because it was near 90.  I have to say it was a lot more comfortable in the shade than in the sun.

We were running low on starfish, so we stopped a Tomlinson's and got some more.  Lucy even got to socialize there a little.  After that we went to the Italian place around the corner.  We sat on the patio with Lucy.  She layed out flay on the concrete to cool off.  We ordered a large pizza so there wold be something for dinner.  I had a beer.  I'd been thinking about one since we pulled up at Circle C.

After that we just went home.  We didn't really have anything that needed doing and yesterday's traffic had soured me on going anywhere on the weekend.

At home I did a little work on the viaduct pieces.  I won't be able to do any real work until the parts I ordered come in.

The rest of the afternoon was reading an napping.  The evening was watching TV.  Lucy is on the bed with Ellen right now.  It looks like she wants to sleep with us tonight.

Day 141

It was a little cooler today, but still nice.  Lucy's ass was dragging today.  At first I was worried, but then Ellen pointed out that yesterday we gave her the flea and heartworm stuff.  That always slows her down for a day or two.  I might be worse with the other stuff we're giving her.

Lucy slept with us all night last night.  So we stayed in bed with her this morning and surfed.  When we got up it was more reading and surfing.  We did the cat's nails and started on the dog's.  The battery ran out after 1 paw.  About 11:30 we went off to look for a window air conditioner.  I was going to get something accomplished today.  Unfortunately I'm too early.  No one is stocking them yet.

The traffic was really pissing me off.  I really shouldn't try to get anything accomplished on the weekend.  So I just drove home.  Ellen made lunch.  Then we surfed away the rest of the afternoon.

I took the dog to the mailbox.  She was acting a lot perkier, but not up to her usual level.

Day 140

We went estate saleing today.  We went to three places.  Two were kind of low rent places and one was a much higher scale.  The prices were all pretty good except for one place.  There all the junk was priced reasonably and anything that might be desirable was way overpriced.  We didn't buy anything anywhere.

When we were finished with the sales we took Lucy over to Zilker to swim.  We parked on the south side of the bridge and walked over it.  She did at least 20 and maybe 30 retrieves.  She wanted to continue, but I don't want to over work her.  After that we walked over to the high school parking lot.  There was a roach coach there selling pop, chips, and candy.  You know - the stuff Mooshell won't let them sell in school anymore.

Since I couldn't run Lucy, we still needed to dry her off.  We walked on the north side of the river for a little while and then crossed back over to the south side.  Then we walked over to the drinking fountain.  Lucy ran around and did a lot of socializing.  By the time we got to the drinking fountain Lucy was just about dry.  So we walked back to the car.

We went to south Lamar to eat.  We were going to stop at the roach coaches, but they aren't there any more.  So we stopped at Red's Porch.  We ate outside with the dog.  Of course she got a few morsels.

The last stop was HEB.  We bought a bunch of needed groceries.

When I got home I went out to the well house and got the rest of the pieces for the viaducts.   That's when I discovered that the guy I'd bought them from had destroyed ALL of the pier parts.  In order to do what I want, I'll have to buy two more kits.  That's not terrible.  I had to buy one more anyway.  It still sucks.  I have to order them because Austin doesn't have any hobby shops.  So I've been surfing the web fo hours now.  It is entertaining.

Day 139

We went to the RV show today.  We saw some really cool trailers.  We saw the latest Mobile Suites.  It's a whole lot nicer than ours.  It also costs $20K more.  It's a nice rig though.  We also looked at a whole lot of toy haulers.  A couple of them were really nice.  They weren't that expensive considering.  The two we liked the best were $65K and $85K.

After the show we went to south Congress to eat a late lunch.  We ate at the Hop Daddy.  We ate outside at a table on the sidewalk.  It was entertaining watching the denizens of Austin walk by.  There were lots of students and liberals.  One thing though.  Austin may think it's weird, but it doesn't hold a candle to Portland.  The view from the pizza place in Portland is much weirder.

Afterwards we walked along Congress and looked at the shops.  There wasn't anything really interesting.  There was one antique place with some interesting stuff.  Unfortunately it was all priced at twice to three times what it should cost.

On the way home I stopped at the hobby shop on 290.  I bought the track base that I wanted and a really neat coil car.  Of course it isn't Chessie, but it's CSX.   I think I'll have to order the arches.

When we got home I walked the dog up to get the mail.  It was the only time she got out today.  She was disappointed.

I found 3 estate sales that look pretty good for tomorrow.

Day 138

We stayed at home today.  I finally finished the train model.  I do need to put decals on it, but I don't feel like it for now.  Instead I went out to the well house and looked at what had to be done to replace the viaducts with stone arches.  It turns out that I have almost enough arches to do the job.  There's a lot of modification that is necessary.

I needed to grind off a lot of the internal features on the arches.  I also had to take apart two that had been glued together (I bought them used).  Then I had to fabricate some new pieces to fill in the arches.  All in all it was a lot of work with the Dremel.  Then I glued the new pieces to the arches.

I'm not finished.  I have 13 towers to build to mount the arches.  Each tower is 1/26 of an inch higher than the adjacent one.  That's going to be fun.

I plan on buying an air conditioner for the well house.  That will allow me to work there as the weather warms up.  It's already in the high 70's here.

The pants I ordered aren't available any more.  The website emailed me saying I needed to order something else.  So I spent an hour or so finding a replacement.  I emailed them the choice and they have already processed it.

By the middle afternoon Lucy was getting very antsy.  Every time one of us got out of a chair she would get up and try to convince us to go somewhere.  I decided to make the trip to the mailbox a long one.  We walked all the way around to Madrone Trail and back.  Unfortunately Lucy had to be on leash for most of it.  I think she still had fun.

Tomorrow is the RV show.

Day 137

We woke up at 8 this morning, but the dog came onto the bed when we called her.  That resulted in us lying in bed with the dog and surfing until 10.  We had to get up then because it was time to pill her.

The vet kind of pissed us off.  We left a message yesterday about getting drugs.  They didn't return it.  We left another in the morning and they didn't return it.  So we added one stop to today's errands.

We took the truck over to the oil change place and got it a safety certificate.  We also got the title out of the safe deposit box.  We stopped at the vet and personally talked to the lady who is supposed to contact the pharmacy.  Hopefully she will.  We ate a late lunch at Golden Corral and stopped at Circle C on the way home.  I didn't let Lucy do retrieves, but we walked around the park while she explored.

We're cutting back on Lucy's pain meds.  It didn't seem to affect her today, but we'll have to see what happens in the next couple of days.

When we got back home it was about 4.  I sat down to surf while I waited until time to get the mail.  I fell asleep and didn't wake up until 6.  So I bagged the mail.

I really wanted to make progress on the train model today and I did.  I glued the last three pipe sections.  They were a real pain to attach.  Two of them needed to be repainted because the instructions had the wrong part numbers.  Then I finished the fueling stand.  That means there's only three more parts to attach.  I also glued the tank section to the base.  I'll probably glue the pump house before I go to bed.  The whole thing should be finished before tomorrow.

Day 136

Last night I saw that Palmetto had the upper that I wanted on sale.  So this morning I ordered it.

Lucy had an appointment with the vet today.  We took her to Circle C before we went there.  We walked all around the park while she explored everything there was to explore.  I didn't run her because I didn't want to bring her to the vet all huffing and blowing.

The vet was good.  She explained that we'd be giving Lucy 2 pills a day for at least 6 months.  The pills are expensive.  A 6 month supply it a couple of hundred bucks.  And they have to be ordered from Canada.  One good thing was that Lucy weighed 57.7 pounds.  That's exactly what I want her to weigh.  The vet said not to run her, so she's not going to be eating as much as she has been.

After the vet we stopped at Arby's for lunch because it was convenient.  Then we went to Central Market and bought some shrimp for dinner.  We stopped at Tomlinson's on the way home and bought some more pill pockets.  We're going to need them.

When we got home I glued a few more parts to the train model.  I'm to the point where I can glue 2 or three parts and then I have to wait for them to dry before I can clue any more.  We also gave the cats baths.  They were getting kind of smelly.  They sure looked like unhappy punk rock cats when we were done.  It was warm, so I took some magazines out on the deck and read.

Ellen took the shrimp we bought, wrapped them in bacon, and put them on the Traeger.  The result was really, really, good.  Lucy was really acting like she wanted to play, so I got down on the floor an played with her for awhile.  She got some good arm chewing in. 

After dinner I did some more gluing and we washed the dog.

Day 135

We decided not to do much today.  We were kind of tired from all of the walking that we did yesterday.

After a leisurely read of the Sunday paper, I decided that the day couldn't be a complete lost.  So I took the display cabinet we bought yesterday to the garage and sanded it down.  I also sanded down the wood that I'd cut for the kitchen fan exhaust enclosure.

After I finished sanding Ellen painted the display case.  It looks OK, but it needs a second coat.  She didn't paint the enclosure yet.  While she was doing that I finished painting the train model and glued some more pipes on.  It's getting really near completion.

They all ended about 2:00.  We were hungry and the dog needed to run.  So we went to Fireman's for lunch.  Then it was to the pet store next door for cat food and a z-bone.  We also stopped at Costco for nuts and water.  On the way home we stopped at Circle C to run the dog.  I just had her do retrieves and a little mouse hunting.  She was actually working harder than I wanted her to.  She's been sacked out on the couch since we got home.

Day 134

We went over to Fredericksburg for their trade days today.  It was a 135 mile round trip.  We left the dog at home because it was going to get warm.  We should have brought her.  Lots of people brought their dogs.

We got there about 10:00.  There weren't many people there.  That was nice since we could see everything without having to deal with crowds.  I bought a couple of rusted items for my yard art.  We also bought another display case for my trains.  Finally we bought a cool print that was oil industry related.  We're going to have to take something down to put it up though.

We went looking for a place to eat about 1:30.  Unfortunately there was a lot more people there.  All of the food places had long lines.  So we decided to go into Fredericksburg.  We ate at the outdoor restaurant with the music.  Unfortunately the act they had really sucked.  The food was OK, but we were glad to leave so we wouldn't have to listen to the music any more.

Both before and after eating we walked through some of the shops.  The only thing that we bought was some cookie cutters at the kitchen store.  We wanted to get some sausage at Opa's, but they close at 4:00 and we didn't get there until 4:30.

When we got home the dog was ecstatic.  She didn't want to go outside, she wanted to eat.  Even after she ate she didn't go outside.  It's 7:30 and she still hasn't.  That's 11 hours without going to the can.

Day 133

It was estate sailing day.  We had three places to go to.  The first was an expensive house in Circle C that was filled with collections.  Unfortunately the collections were all things that we weren't interested in.  The prices were pretty good, though.  We waited at least half an hour to get in.  I thought it was interesting enough to be worth it.

The second house was up off Far West.  I swear that it was a couple of houses away from one we'd been to before.  It had some stuff I might have been interested in, but the prices were out of this world.  And they had been set by an estate sale company.  We didn't buy anything.

The third place was on the other side of Mopac from the first.  It was an small old house with nothing of interest in it.

The third place was near HopDaddy, so we went back there for lunch.  It was about 1:30, but the place had a waiting line.  So we stopped at an old style hamburger place a few blocks down Burnett.  It had really good hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes.

After that we went to Circle C to run the dog.  We took her over to the creek.  There was barely enough water there for her to swim a little.  She had fun, though.  She also did retrieves over there and back.  It was really a little more work than I think she should have done.  She wouldn't quit though.

While we were there Tomlinson's called.  They had the cat food.  So we stopped over there.  Lucy didn't get anything because of how much work she had done.

The last stop was Randall's.  We hadn't done grocery shopping in a while, so we filled up on e of the little carts.

Day 132

We tried to take picture with the new camera this morning and it wouldn't work.  It wouldn't store the picture to the card.  So we packed everything up and drove back to Precision.  The guy at Precision tried another card by the same manufacturer and it didn't work either.  Then he tried a card from another manufacturer and it worked.  So we left happy.

Then we drove over to I35.  On the way we passed an IHOP.  We hadn't had breakfast, so we stopped and ate there.  We went down 35 to Slaughter to get Lucy some more drugs.  Then we went home because I forgot to get the window measurements.

When we got home I cleaned the Solo and 938 and then we went to Lowe's.  We ordered the window shades - over $500, for 2.  Oh well.

Then we went over to Red's.  We had a good time, but I wish I shot the Shield better.  The Solo worked fine even though I didn't have the right ammo.

The last stop was Circle C.  We hung around the car again.  Lucy did a fine set of retrieves.  Then I let her sniff for mice again.  She ended up with a couple of spines in her nose.  Ellen took a movie of her with the new camera.  It works pretty good.

Day 131

Today was a really good day.  It warmed up considerably.  It was sunny and got up to the low 60's.

I had a lot of errands to do.  We went to Lowe's so that I could get the stuff to repair the antenna.  I also needed to copy Ellen's keys to replace the ones I lost.  While we were there we found that Lowe's was having a 20% off sale on blinds.  So we'll go back tomorrow with the measurements for the trailer windows.

The vet called on the way to McBride's.  Lucy has valley fever.  She may also have cancer, but there's no way to tell without a biopsy.  So next Monday we take her in to start her treatment for valley fever.

After I bought the Solo at McBride's we went to Precision Camera to get a real tripod.  While we were there Ellen saw a compact camera that she liked.  It was on sale for half off so she bought it along with an extra battery, memory card, and camera case.

The shopping center where Precision was at had the yuppie toy store.  So we stopped there and bought some presents for the nieces.  Hopdaddy was there, too.  So we stopped there for lunch.  It was warm so we sat outside with Lucy.  They had great hamburgers and a pretty good IPA.

The next stop was the post office.  Then we stopped at Red's.  Ellen decided she really did want an Equinox, so she bought one.

We stopped at Circle C for the dog.  I had her run retrieves for the first time in awhile.  She had a lot of fun at it.  After the retrieves I let her walk around some and smell the mousies.  The last stop was Tomlinson's for a treat.

When we got home I replaced the cable and bolt on the antenna.  I also went into the trailer and measured the bedroom windows.

Day 130

It was colder today than it was yesterday.  I don't think it got above 34 all day long.  And it rained all day long.

So the dog and I stayed inside all day.  It was even too miserable to walk out to the mailbox.  Lucy just moped around all day.  Hopefully we'll be able to get out tomorrow.

I did the wash.  The washer seems to be leaking more.  I'm going to have to look at it.  It's going to be a pain in the ass.

In between reading and watching TV I worked on the train model.  I've got all of the painting done except a few pipe supports.  I also installed a few parts.  I've got a fair amount of piping to install.  It will take a few days before I'm done because I don't plan on working on it very hard.

Day 129

Lucy woke up early this morning and I asked her if she wanted up on the bed.  For the first time in a while she jumped up.  So I stayed in bed with her surfing for an extra hour.

Yesterday was near 80.  Today it didn't get much past 40.  It was misting and windy also.  Together that made it feel very cold.  Too cold to go outside and do something.

So I spent a lot of the day casting around for something to do.  I did some magazine reading and some pinball.  Then I decided to work on the train model some more.  I did some painting, put together some parts, and built up the base.  The base worked out well.  I was able to use the scrap from the last model.


Lucy was going crazy.  She kept wanting to do something.  Finally I got down on the floor and played with her.  She chewed on me some and tore up one of her toys.  So I gave her another.  She went out once during the day.  It was one of the fastest pee stops ever.  I don't think she was gone for much more than a minute.

The dog has a great sense of time.  She knows time to get up, time for pills, time for newspaper, time for mail, time for Kong, etc.  The problem is that her clock usually runs half an hour to an hour fast.

The only time we let the house was to walk up to get the mail.  By then the temperature was about 38 with the wind blowing and a light rain.  It wasn't pleasant, but Lucy seemed to enjoy herself.  She was happy to go back inside though.

Tomorrow is supposed to suck even worse.

Day 128

Today was why we live in Texas.  It was sunny and near 80.

I spent the morning reading the Sunday paper and waiting for it to warm up.  A little before noon it was warm enough to go to Circle C.

For the first time that I remember the small parking lot out front was completely full.  We were lucky and got a parking spot by the play area.  So I took Lucy from there across the creek and over to Escarpment.  She had her normal fun checking out every place that there might be a mouse.  When we got to the garbage cans there were a lot of people playing frisbee.  So we continued on to the creek.

The water is down now, probably too shallow to swim.  Lucy just walked into it belly deep and drank.  She didn't act like she wanted to do retrieves at all.  We continued around.  I was really proud of her.  Some people were coming the other way.  They had three dogs on leads and obviously didn't want them near Lucy.  Of course Lucy wanted to meet and greet.  I told her to "leave it" and she left them alone.  One of the owners complimented me on her training.  I told Lucy she was a very good dog.

When we finished the walk I went over and bought lunch at the concession again.  I wanted to support them.  I watched the games for a short time.  It was younger girls and not very interesting.  So I went home about 1.

I spent the next hour and a half washing the outside of the trailer.  It was nice and warm for the job.  Lucy was really bored watching me.  After I was done I went inside to get something to dring and some magazines.  Lucy jumped right up on the couch.  I didn't let her stay.  We went outside.  Lucy laid around and tried to get me to go inside a couple of times.  She even decided to go explore for awhile.  When we did go in a couple of hours later she hit the couch and went to sleep immediately.

In the evening Ellen called and suggested that I call Andreas.  I talked to him and Theresa.  Apparently he's really having a hard time working with the business owner and superstar.  I told them both to hang in there, some change may be coming.

Day 127

It was nice and warm today, almost 70.  So of course I took the dog for a walk.  She had a great time except I walked steadily.  That meant she didn't have as much time to stop and smell the mousies.

There were a couple of rugrat soccer games going on, so I went over to watch.  They were 13 or so year old girls.  Some of them were really good.  I got talking to one of the parents.  She said one team was down from Dallas.  They play two games today and one tomorrow.  She said their team would do the same up in Dallas in March.  That's quite a commitment.

I stopped at HEB afterwards and got some groceries.  I was getting low on frozen stuff.  Of course Lucy got to stop at Tomlinson's for a treat.

When I got home I didn't feel like sitting around.  So I cleaned the interior of the truck.  It was filthy since it hadn't been cleaned since we left Oregon.  That was almost 5,000 miles ago.  It took me a good two to two and a half hours.

By then it was almost time to get the mail.  After that it's dinner and a movie.

Day 126

Absolutely nothing happened today.  It was 31 degrees and misting this morning when I got up.  When I got the newspaper the gate keypad was covered with ice.  The car was covered with water.  It stayed around freezing for most of the day, but warmed up to 36 in the afternoon.

I didn't feel like going anywhere and I was concerned that there might be ice other places.  So I cleaned the house instead.  I cleaned the counters, stove, and sinks.  I also vacuumed the whole house.  Lucy was funny.  About half way through vacuuming she decided she'd had enough.  Even though it was cold she went outside and stayed there until I was done.

Then I ate a late lunch.  After lunch I sat down and watched some old TV westerns.  They were entertaining, but somewhere during them I napped for a while.

Lucy is looking pretty depressed about the lack of activity.  I took her to the mailbox to give her a little break.  Hopefully we can go out tomorrow.

Ellen is going to stay in Oregon for a few more days.  The snow up there makes her think she won't get out tomorrow and there's a meeting on Monday.

Day 125

It was cold today.  The temperature never got above 31 the whole day.  The wind was blowing, too.

The first thing I did was turn on the heater in the well house.  Then I went to Lowe's and bought a new door knob.  It only took me 15 minutes to put it in. 

Then I took off for In-and-Out to ask about my keys.  For some reason traffic was clogged up all over.  35 was a parking lot, so I took the Mopac.  It was backed up at Slaughter.  It was also backed up from 360 to downtown.  This was at 10 in the morning.  I have no idea why.

In-and-Out didn't have my keys, so I went back to Pflugerville.  They weren't there, either.  On the way home I stopped at Centex for a new flashlight and the post office to get a new key.  It's going to take 6 weeks to get one.

One the way home I stopped for lunch at the Italian place (I didn't have breakfast).  Afterwards Lucy go to go to Tomlinson's for a treat.  Then it was time to go home.  I've driven almost 300 miles in the last two days, much of it in Austin traffic.  I've had enough.

Lucy is really bummed out.  This is the second day that's she hasn't done anything.  At 5 she wanted to go to the mailbox, but the temp was 31 so I fed her an early dinner instead.

Day 124

All in all today was a piss poor day.

It started at 6:20 when we got up to get Ellen to the airport.  That went fairly well, as she got there in time despite a couple of slow spots in traffic.

I took a bunch of back roads to Round Rock.  I didn't have any trouble getting there.  I had plenty of time and even stopped at Micky D's for breakfast.  Lucy was disappointed that I didn't let her have anything.

When I got to the vet, Google failed me.  It had the place wrong.  In Google's defense, the street it's on is pretty fucked up.  I had to call them to get the final few hundred feet.

Lucy was really kind of wired when we went into the vet.  She wanted to meet and greet every dog and cat that came in.  The vet took a look at the X-ray and said that she wanted to do a blood test.  Apparently the X-ray isn't conclusive and the bulge is in an unusual place for a tumor.  Lucy has been in the southwest enough that it may be valley fever.  I hope so.

While I was there someone from Capital called.  His panties were in a twist because the delivery had come on Monday.  So he took it to his house.  Don't ask me why.  His house was only a couple of miles away, but I couldn't pick it up because no one was there.  So I went to some gun stores.  They didn't have anything that I was interested in.  I also stopped by Red's north.  It's a lot nicer than the one down here.

I drove back home because it was 2 in the afternoon.  I did some cleaning and a little napping.  I also took the dog to the mailbox.  It was the only outing she got.  It was in the low 40's and windy today and I didn't feel like Circle C.

At 5:45 I took off for Pfleugerville.  I took 183, turned off at MLK, and then took some other back roads up.  There were some backups on 183, but everything else was pretty clear.  It took me until 7 to get to his place and it was pitch black.

I had to get out and walk up to several houses until I found the right one.  I had to use the light on my key chain to read the house numbers.

I got the shipment and drove back on I35.  There's an In-and-Out by the freeway just north of the university.  I stopped there and had dinner.  I missed the exit and had a great time navigating both sides of the freeway to get to it.  I was disappointed that they didn't have a cool Texas t-shirt.  I would have bought one.

An interesting point.  Traffic was OK south bound at maybe 7:30 to 8.  But northbound was a parking lot from 290 to downtown.  All in all I traveled almost 200 miles today.

When I got home I discovered that I'd lost my house keys.  I either didn't put them in my pocket well when I was at the Pfleugerville house or they came out of my pocket when I was at the In-and-Out.  So I had to cut my way into the front door lock.  That took about half an hour in 32 degree weather.  It also means that first thing tomorrow I get to go buy a new door lock and install it.  I haven't decided if I'll go back to Pfleugerville, but I probably will.

Day 123

The weatherman said it was going to be warm today, but you couldn't tell by the morning.  It wasn't above 50 degrees by noon.  Then the sun broke through and it started to warm up.  So we went out.  We started at the post office and then went to get the truck's oil changed.  While it was being changed we went next door to Culver's for lunch.  We ate outside with the dog.  We all had a good time and the dog got some munchies.

While we were there I noticed that Lucy had three cactus spines in her nose.  When pulling them out we noticed that she had a lot more in her face.  We pull out a lot, but some required tweezers.

After that we went over to Circle C.  I took the camera so that I could take some pictures.  Another person with three dogs were there and Lucy got a chance to do some socializing.  Then we walked the dog around.  I took pictures as she chased around looking for mice.  She got around really well.  She didn't stay away from the prickly pear though. 

I think I got some good shots.  At the end of the walk I set up the tripod I bought the other day.  At least I tried to.  It broke as I unfolded it.  I did manage to set it up well enough to get a couple of "family portraits".

When we got home we spent about half an hour pulling spines out of the dog.  She had a few left in her face and a huge number in her front legs.  Then we went out to get the mail.  After that it was some more spine pulling.

Lucy looked real good all day.  It was almost like she wasn't sick.  I hate this.

Day 122

We've been having really good luck with our errand trips lately.  Today we went to the vet to pick up papers, to the hobby store, lunch at Steakburger, Petco, and the Post Office with no problems.  We even did some window shopping at Red's. 

At the Post Office was a bunch of paper from one of the investments.  Forty-five (that's 45) pages that have to be attached our tax return.  I blame Obama.

The last stop was Circle C of course.  We took Lucy out to Escarpment and back just like yesterday.  At the very beginning she stuck her nose into a hole under a bush.  Something ran out, but she didn't notice where it went.  From that point on she was spending a lot of time on each place with scent.  She was really hitting the prickly pear.  She knows about prickly pear, so it shouldn't have mattered.  But she was so excited thart she got spines on both her face and her foot.  Crazy dog.

We didn't want to overdo it, so we didn't let her go any farther even though she sort of wanted to.  When she got home she hit the couch, so I think we did the right thing.  At five we took her to the mailbox and she was full throttle.

A weird note.  She shit four times today.  Once when we went out for the paper and another when we came back.  Then again at Circle C and finally at the mailbox.  I've never seen her do that before.

Day 121

It's Super Bowl Sunday. 

Last night I slept with the dog on one side of me and the cats on the other.  Lucy seems to be a little uncomfortable at night, kicking her leg at times.  I think she likes being between us though.

The weather was cold today, it didn't get above 40.  It was windy and in the morning there was a little rain.  We went out to look for a camera tripod and some pill holders.  We found the tripod at Target and the holders at the pet store.

After that we went to Circle C.  We took Lucy for a walk.  She spent time sniffing a lot of interesting things.  She just can't seem to leave the prickly pear along.  She would have gone farther, but I don't want to push it.  When we got home she was running all around the front yard sniffing.  I think a squirrel had been running around there.  We finally had her come in.

Lucy spent the rest of the day going in and out of the house looking for the squirrel.  She would go out for a few minutes and then come back in.  We had steak for dinner.  She really enjoyed steak night.  The steaks had a fair amount of fat on them, which she got.  She might have gotten a little meat, too.  All in all I think she really had a good day.

The Super Bowl game was great from my point of view.  The Seahawks crushed Denver.  The game really wasn't ever in doubt. 

Day 120

We went to Lola's party today.  We had a good time talking to Beaver and his wife as well as Dola and her husband.  We played the washer toss game.  Beaver's wife and I won (because of her).  I think Beaver threw the match.

Lola seemed to like our present - a water bottle with a built in filter for her week at camp.  We also gave her a knapsack kind of thing that we had picked up somewhere, probably at an estate sale.

We had fun talking to some of their friends.  One had a daughter selling Girl Scout cookies.  We bought a box.

Before we went to the party I built some more on the train model.  I glued on some parts and started painting the pipes.  I looked up the pipe color codes and painted two of the five colors.  I'm going to have to buy two of them.

Last night Lucy slept on the bed with us.  Sometime during the night she got down and spent the rest of the night in her pink bed.  Lucy was a little lethargic this morning.  Ellen thinks it's because of the drugs.  She really wanted to be with us in the morning and stayed under the table while we ate, painted, and surfed.  She was really unhappy when we left for the party.  She was her usual ecstatic self when we got home.  We took her to get the mail and she loved it.

Ellen spent some time in the morning on the phone with the vets.  We have an appointment for 10 on Wednesday.  I'll have to take Ellen to the airport and then drive to Round Rock to take Lucy to the vet.  I'm not looking forward to it.