Day 178

It was a pretty uneventful day.  I got up, fed the animals and myself, and read the paper.

Then I went out to clean up the mess that I'd left in the well house yesterday.  That didn't take very long, so I went to the garage to charge the batteries for the sprayer and the mower.  It was too windy to spray, but I wanted to be ready when a calm day shows up.

While I was there I noticed that the cabinet I put up last fall was coming off the wall.  Apparently I'd put too much weight in it.  So I put a spare shelf bracket under it.  Doing it required me to use a floor jack and a piece of wood to lift the shelf up as I screwed in the support.  It was kind of fun.

Working with that shelf support got me putting up two in the well house.  I'll get a board for them tomorrow when I'm driving the truck.  I guess I was just into doing small jobs today.

After lunch I went to the post office and the vet to get some more dog pills. 

I noticed that after dinner the wind died down.  I may end up spraying in the evening.  I'll check it out tomorrow.

Day 177

I got up fairly early this morning and read the paper.  Then I went to Costco to get some veggies for the block party.  I also stopped at the pet store to get some kitty litter (Lucy got a treat).  I was going to stop at Circle C, but I forgot.

I went out to work on the layout.  I was sorting through the electrical stuff I've collected when I realized that the dog hadn't had a walk.  So we took a walk around the neighborhood.  When we got back I had lunch and then went out and did some more sorting.  After awhile that got boring, so I went back to the house and started playing with the label maker I bought.  I kind of got into it and ended up making a whole lot of labels for the wiring.

After the labels were done I decided to look for some of the electrical parts that I still need to get.  They all comes from China, so I'll have to wait to order them.  The good news is that they don't cost much.

Then it was time to go to the party.  There was quite a turnout.  I talked to several people and had a good dinner - quesidellas, turkey, veggies, and some kind of fruit dessert.  Lucy got a few carrots.

After the party I just surfed.

Day 176

I got up this morning and went to a tool sale and the gun show.  The tool "sale" was a bust.  It was some guy who was selling his home.  In preparation he was selling some old wrenches, ladders, a wheelbarrow, and some other miscellaneous junk.

The gun show was OK.  It was cramped and not all the big.  That's because the building wasn't that big.  I'd say it was about half the size of the ones at the fairgrounds.  The selection was really good though.  I did see some funnies.  One was a brick of Remington .22 for $75.  There was a brick of German .22 for $110.  There were AR's all over the place.  Prices were pretty good as a whole, especially on pistols.  Ammo was way expensive.  The going price for any hunting rounds seemed to be $35 a box.

I'd left the dog at home because it was sunny.  I stopped at HEB for some stuff and at the pizza place next door for lunch.  The sandwich was good, but the service was slow.  It took them half an hour to make it.

I went home with the intention of maybe doing a little on the layout.  The first step was to check the label maker i bought at an estate sale a long time ago.  Unfortunately it didn't work.  Crap.  I also quickly determined that I'd need a small table and a chair in there.  I also noticed that there were ants crawling up and down one of the interior walls.  Time for a shopping trip.

I stopped at Target and got ant spray and a label maker.  They didn't have cheap chairs or tables.  So I went to Wally world.  They had a table and chair for $25.  They also had the bar soap I ran out of last night.  Success.  Then to Circle C to walk the dog and home.  Lucy had been subdued in the morning, but she sure wanted to go in the afternoon.,

I sprayed the inside of the well house.  After that I decided I shouldn't work in there until the atmosphere had cleared.  So I sat on the deck and read instead.

Day 175

It was a real estate sale day.  I went to five sales.  They ranged from almost downtown Austin, to Cedar Park, to almost Bee Cave.  In all of that I bought 2 shelf support sets, a light socket adapter, and a small ratchet handle.  $8 total.

I didn't even go into the first house.  There was a line, but I could look through the garage.  The prices in the garage were so high that I didn't think it was worth waiting.  The next three houses just didn't have anything I was interested in.  The last house had a couple of things, and a pinball machine.  Unfortunately the pinball machine was sold and the other things were too expensive.  Apparently they aren't one of the people that drop prices on Sunday.  Oh well.

Lucy had a good time.  One of the places was just across 360 from the bull creek park.  So I stopped there and let her explore.  When we got down to the lower parking area there wasn't anyone there.  There's a pool there, so I let her swim.  I wasn't really counting the number of retrieves, but I'm sure it wasn't more than about 15.  She's a really tired dog tonight.

When I got home the package with the BCG was here.  PSA never sent me a shipping notice, it just showed up.  It was 90 degrees out, so I just went inside, ate lunch, surfed, and read for a few hours.  After I took Lucy up to get the mail I went out and attached the AC frame to the well house.  It worked out pretty well.

When I got finished it was 77 inside the house.  So I turned on the AC.  It works great.  Lucy got off the couch and laid on the living room floor below the vents.  She was happy.

Day 174

I got a wakeup call from the AC people a little after 8 this morning.  It was raining and cold, so they wanted to come by in the afternoon.  I told them fine.  About half an hour later, another guy called and said he wanted to come up.  He was in Bastrop, so it took him an hour to get there.

The guy messed around with the AC, upstairs and down, for a little over an hour.  He said the filter needed replacing, so I got another from the apartment.  He said it was OK, but that I should get a better one.  He also convinced me to move the CD case away from the vent.

When he left, I decided to go get another filter.  I really needed to mail the paper bill at the post office, but that was another thing to do.  I mailed the letter and got a filter at Lowe's.  Then I went to zpizza for lunch, chiefly because I had a coupon.  I ordered a calzone.  It wasn't anywhere as good as the ones at the Italian place, and it cost the same.  I won't be going back.

After lunch it was still raining, so I went home.  Lucy was disappointed.  She thought the rain was OK.

When I got home I went out and worked on the layout.  I cut the connectors off the switch wires, drilled holes in the benchwork, and fed the wires through.  I also connected the wires for the last small switch.  That was a real pain.  Finally I vacuumed all the crap off the layout and cleaned up some of my tools.  I also finished painting the boards for the AC frame.

By the time I finished that it was sunny and 85 degrees.  So I sat out on the deck and read some magazines.  I'm way behind on my reading.

This evening I made up directions to the estate sales.  There's a lot of them, but none of them are convenient to get to.

Day 173

I was a little burnt out on working on the layout, so I decided not to do anything on it today.  I didn't want to do absolutely nothing, so I went in search of paint.

I stopped by Hobby Lobby and got some paint for the retaining walls on the layout.  I also stopped at Harbor Freight, mainly because I was there.  I saw a couple of things on sale that Dave might want, so I emailed Ellen about them.  I also went to the thrift shop next door, but they didn't have any books on tape.

I went to Lowe's for some paint for the AC frame.  They didn't have any gray paint.  So I went to Home Depot and they did.  Interesting note.  Hobby Lobby had a 30% off sale on their spray paint.  It was still more expensive than Home Depot's normal price.

My last stop was Randall's to get something for dinner.  I ended up with a couple of things.  On the way home I stopped at Circle C for Lucy.  It was really windy, but not very cold.  It was a great temperature for Lucy and she ran around quite a bit.

When we got home I painted the pieces for the AC frame and then painted the retaining walls.  The retaining walls took some time.  It took some effort to get paint into all of the crevices in the brickwork.  Then it was surfing until dinner.

After dinner I put a second coat on the AC frame.  It needed it.  Tomorrow I'll paint the other side.

Day 172

We got up at 7:00 this morning so that Ellen could go to the airport.  The traffic at the Loop 1 stoplights was surprisingly light.  Unfortunately the traffic stalled just at the William Cannon exit.  So I got off and went around to get on 290.  I might have been better off staying on the freeway.  Oh well.  The traffic on the way back sucked.  It was backed up for a mile at the 130 light and was really slow around the exit to 360.  I had the paper though, so I jest read as I was waiting.  I happened to notice that the round trip is a little over 45 miles.

IT'S FINISHED.

I finished laying the track today. 

I started out drilling holes in the base board and then fishing the wires through the viaduct and the base board.  It was a little easier than I thought it would be.  Then I screwed the track to the viaduct.  It doesn't look half bad, but I need to paint the screws black.

After the viaduct was in place I nailed down the switches at both ends of the upper mainline.  Then it was time to lay the track on the upper mainline.  It went really well, except I kept getting distracted.  First, I noticed that the storage 2 siding was too long.  So I ended up taking off both storage sidings and messing with different configs.  I finally ended up adding a short section to storage 1 and cutting off part of the last piece on storage 2.

Messing with the storage sidings got me rethinking the east siding.  I ended up changing several pieces in it.  At least it wasn't nailed down yet like the storage sidings had been.  In doing that I noticed that another one of the short switches didn't have it's wires connected.  So I pulled it up, connected the wires, and nailed it back down.  I still have one of those to do.

Finally, changing around the east siding freed up a short curve that I could use to start the center siding.  So I did it.  Because I didn't have any short straits left, I decided to cut a long one in half.  I messed up the first one I tried, but luckily I had another spare one and that one worked fine.

I finally got around to nailing down the upper mainline and the east siding.  It sure was great to have that done.  In fact I wrote this early because I feel so good about it. 

Poor Lucy had to be outside while I was doing all of that.  She would have rather been inside on the couch.  She came into the well house several times to try to get me to do something other than work in there.  I plan on having lunch now and then taking the dog to Circle C.  She deserves it.

Day 171

I forgot to do a writeup yesterday.

I started out the day all gungho to work on the layout.  So after breakfast I went out to work on it.  The problem was, I had to do a lot of prep work.  I had to move several of the supports on the upper mainline.  Of course each one had to be resized.  I also had to fit the viaduct and drill wire holes in the top and base.  Unfortunately in doing that I broke part of the base away from the pillars.  So then I had to reglue them. 

I also had to glue the pillars for the curved viaduct.  They were a pain because the track was already laid.  I should have done that first.

I had to use the dremel to cut a slot for the wires at the end of passing siding 2.  That was another thing that would have been easier to do before the track was laid.  I also used the dremel to fit the retaining walls to the ends of the viaduct.

I did manage to lay the mainline track on the west side and the west siding.  That was a real pain because of the need to fish the wires through several closely spaced levels of benchwork.  It took a lot of time and effort for a relatively short length of track.

After all of that I just didn't want to work on the layout anymore.  I'd spent hours doing pain in the ass things and hadn't accomplished much towards getting the track laying finished.

After lunch we went to get the mail and take the dog to Circle C.  She hadn't been anywhere for two days and she deserved an outing.  She seem a little subdued today, but she still put in significant miles.  After that we stopped at HEB for a few things and then went home.

I really didn't want to do any more work on the layout today, so I just surfed for about an hour and then went to pick up the mail.  There was a letter from the census bureau.  It's a warning that we have been "randomly selected" to have them pry into our lives.  Wonderful.  Apparently a big questionnaire is coming.

Day 170

The first thing I wanted to do today was install the new blinds in the bedroom.  I wanted to do it today because I knew it would take two people and Ellen is leaving on Tuesday.  The install went pretty easily.  The new blind is really dark.  When it's pulled down all the way no light gets into the room.

After that I decided to do the blind in the trailer.  I just didn't want to go on knowing that I had to do it.  It went in easier than the one in the bedroom.  Unfortunately they didn't include hooks for the bottom of the blind.

After the trailer I was feeling ambitious, so I decided to clean up the well house to make it easier to work on the layout.  I took a whole bunch of stuff up to the other building.  I even took some of the old sheetrock.  I decided a couple of things should go to Goodwill.  Finally I moved the table saw to some of the space I cleared up.  Now I can work on all parts of the layout without having to squeeze between it and a wall.  I even swept the place out.

After lunch we took the stuff we'd collected to Goodwill and stopped at Lowe's to get the blind hooks.  I also bought a piece of 1x2 and some screen to close in the area where I installed the new AC.  I didn't walk the dog because I was just too tired.

When I got back I put the screen around the outside of the AC.  Then I cut the viaduct on the layout to the correct length.  I also did a couple of small jobs on the track.  Then I quit.  It was time for dinner and I just didn't feel like doing any more today.

Day 169

We went back to the estate sale we went to yesterday and bought the rabbit picture for the $30.  It turned out to be better than we thought.  It's a numbered print in a really nice frame with paperwork attached to the back.  I consider it a real score.

After that we went to Lowe's and Home Dept.  I wanted to look for an AC and find out what was going on with our blinds.  It's been 5 weeks since we ordered them.  It turns out they've had them for a month.  The incoming people didn't log them in.  Crap.  We did get an AC unit and a small fan for the well house.

The humidity is in the 90's and the temperature is in the 70's.  It's like a sauna outside.  So we didn't take the dog on a walk.  Instead we ate at a bagel shop we haven't tried at before.  We ate outside with the dog.  She got some tributes.

When we got home I started in the well house even though it was hot and humid.  It took awhile to put in the small fan.  I wanted to attach it to a shelf.  Of course Mr. Halfass, the previous owner hadn't fully installed the shelf, and hadn't screwed in the power fixture I was going to use.  So I got some screws and fixed it up.  Then I hung the fan.  It did make a difference, but not a big one.

When I tried to take out the old AC, I found the one place where Mr. Halfass had done a good job.  He screwed in the AC and then used an adhesive caulk all around it.  He used A LOT of caulk.  I had to use a chisel to chisel off all around the unit, and then a crowbar to lever it out.  It took a lot of time and sweat.

The new AC went in fairly easily except that it was smaller than the hole.  I had to put up a couple of boards around the hole to mount the new one.  I still need to frame around the outside hole a little.  Maybe tomorrow.

I got finished about 4.  I was too tired to do anything else, so I surfed until it was time to get the mail.  I walked up there so that the dog got at least a little walking around.

Day 168

We slept in a little today and then went to the one estate sale that looked interesting.  They had a rabbit picture we'd like to buy for Pat, but they wanted way too much for it.  Things are supposed to be 1/2 price tomorrow, so we'll probably go back and buy it if it's still there.

We stopped at the credit union so Ellen could get some tax info.  Then it was on to Kohl's so I could get some new jeans.  We felt guilty about yesterday, so we took Lucy to Circle C.  She had been kind of a pain in the ass whining the whole trip.  We walked around the park while she searched for squirrels and mice.  I cut off her narcotics on Wednesday and it doesn't seem to hurt her so far.

Ellen wanted to eat at the Italian place so we did.  It was really muggy, but the wind made sitting outside with the dog pretty nice.  After that it was home.

I kind of messed around on the web for awhile and then went out to work on the layout.  I started to lay the track from the curved viaduct to the plateau.  I immediately found out that the power leads were too short.  So it was inside to make up 9 sets of longer leads.  Crap.  Then I went back outside and got the track laid.

After laying that section I decide that the switches at both ends of the upper mainline needed to be nailed down for positioning.  That's when I remembered that their holes hadn't been drilled.  So I drilled the holes and stripped the wires.  By then it was 6:30 and I didn't feel like doing anything else today.

I bet I have 2 or three more days of work to do before the track is fully done except for the central siding.  I have an idea for that, but it will take another $50 of track.  I'm not sure I'm fond of that.

Day 167

Happy birthday to us.  Ellen's now qualified for old people's discount.

We got up early and went to a promising estate sale.  It was good.  I bought a whole bunch of tools for the club.  We also bought a really nice framed pheasant photo which we'll give to the club.

After that we went to Redbud to let Lucy swim.  The water there was yucky, so we went to Zilker.  The water there was yucky, so we went to Auditorium Shores.  The water there was yucky, so Lucy didn't get to swim.  Both she and the two of us were really disappointed.  I threw 10 land retrieves for her, but that's as much as I wanted to do.

We stopped at the trailer park up the street from the Torchy's one for lunch.  The taco truck there had really good tacos.  There was a donut truck, but we couldn't bring ourselves to pay $4.50 for a donut. 

We went to the ice cream place at Circle C for dessert.  Then we went to HEB to buy some needed groceries.  We bought bacon wrapped scallops for dinner and a birthday cake.

When we got home I sorted out all of the tools I bought and added some extras that I had.  They all went into the basement in the trailer.  I didn't do any work on the layout because it was just too hot (80+).  Instead I wrote Dave an email about the tools and sorted through some more train electrical parts that I ran across today.  Unfortunately I don't think any of them will be useful.

Ellen traegerized the scallops and they were really good.  So was the cake.

Day 166

I wanted to spend the day working on the layout, so I did.  I started out by putting the plateau and top mainline sections back on temporarily.  That allowed me to hook up all of the track and position it.  It was gratifying that the two ends fit up really well.  I tacked down the two connection points.

I wanted to start laying track, but I ran into two problems.  First, none of the remaining track has the holes drilled in it.  Second, the plateau has plywood under the homasote, so all of the power lead were too short.  I also noted that the East siding needed some changes.  I started by using the computer to figure a better East siding.  It wasn't easy because I don't have many pieces left.  I did drill the holes and strip the wires as I redid it.

I needed 6 pairs of longer power leads.  So I went inside and made them up.  I'm really sick of making power leads.  Then I went out and used them to lay the plateau track.  Just then I discovered another problem.  The short switches didn't have their control wires installed.  I took apart the storage track to fix that one (it was a pain).  The second is under the top main section and will have to wait until I remove that.

The plateau track covered two of the mounting screw holes, so I changed the holes.  I'll have to do the same thing with the upper main.  I'll probably have to move some posts instead of just drilling new holes.

There's a really good estate sale tomorrow.  It has tools and I talked to Dave about what he needed.  Going to that is going to limit how much I do on the layout tomorrow.  I'd like to at least lay the rest of the track that's not part of the upper mainline.

Day 165

I spent most of the day on the layout.  I measured the places for the four retaining walls that I built yesterday and cut them to size.  Unfortunately I couldn't paint them because the paint I bought yesterday is too dark.

I spent much more time organizing all of the stuff I've collected.  I had train stuff in boxes all over.  I'd bought organizers for it at estate sales, but I hadn't done anything with them.  So I spent literally hours collecting stuff, sorting it out, and organizing it.  It took time, but I think it will make life easier going forward.

I kept finding stuff that I didn't know I had.  I found other things that I'd been looking for.  I even found a few things that didn't belong with the train stuff at all.  One was some emitters for the IR repeater that we use for the living room TV.  Maybe they'll work to replace the broken one on the satellite box.  That would sure make it more convenient to use the remote.

About 2 I decided to call a halt.  I had lunch and then we took the truck for errands.  It hadn't run in two weeks.  Given the state of the batteries, it wouldn't have been long before it wouldn't start.  Hopefully the driving we did recharged them.  We went to the post office and Costco for water.  The people in front of us bought $990 worth of stuff.  It filled three carts.

The last stop was Circle C.  It was 82 and windy.  The wind made it better for us, but the dog was hot.  She still did a pretty good job searching for mice and squirrels.  We stopped in the middle again to water her and wet her down.  I think that helps her on hot days.  She was still moving slowly when we got back.

When we got home I had the overwhelming desire to get something done on the layout.  So I cut down the last viaduct pillar to use on the curved viaduct.  Then I installed the viaduct and it's power leads.  It's the only track I got laid today.  I was going to do more, but that's when I discovered that all of the remaining track needs holes punched in it.  So I punched holes and stripped wire in the west siding track and all of the plateau track.  I still have all of the upper level mainline track to do.

It was after 6 when I got done with the plateau.  That seemed like enough for today.

Day 164

We had to get some more pills for Lucy this morning.  I called in and they said they'd call back.  So I started out going to the post office.  Then it was to the hobby shop for some paint and the bank to cash a check.  We also stopped at the grocery store and a place to eat lunch.  The vet still hadn't called.  So we just went there anyway.

It turned out that they had lost the note to get us drugs.  So we waited while they got them ready.  No harm done.

The dog had been bugging us all day to do something, probably because she hadn't gotten to go anyplace yesterday.  So we stopped at Circle C.  We walked around the whole park.  Lucy was really active.  She didn't seem to be sore even though I didn't give her any narcotics last night.  She really kept going because half way through we got her a drink and wetted her down a little.  It was only about 60 degrees, but it was sunny and she really has solar gain.

When we got home I decided to make sure that the track I'm laying down is structured so that I can easily identify possible polarity problems.  I don't want to blow up a locomotive.  I spent the afternoon and most of the evening (except dinner) figuring out how to do it easily.  Then I wrote it all down.  It's a lot different than what I was planning earlier.  I hope I have the right switches to do it.

Day 163

It was really windy today.  It wasn't overly cold, just windy.  We were going to go over to Dola's in the afternoon, but she cancelled because Lola got sick.

I spent almost the whole day working on the layout.  I replaced all of the short power leads that I thought I needed to with longer ones.  After that was done I installed the lower mainline siding.  That required lining up the grade up to the plateau.  That's when I noticed that I'll probably have to replace a few more leads.  Sigh.   I do have a little over half the track laid now.

Building new leads and installing them took a long time.  Lining up the siding took more time.  It was about 5 when I was done, but I really wanted to do more.  So I scared up the retaining walls I bought years age.  I needed to cut 8 of them and then glue them together in pairs.  That's really the first scenery that I've done.  I'll need to install them at the ends of the viaducts before I can finish laying the track.

I'll probably try to do more tomorrow, but I'm really tired of making up leads. 

Day 162

Today was train show day, and it was fun.  When we left it was raining.  We were running a little late and of course I ended up behind some Texans who couldn't drive in the rain.  We still ended up getting there about 20 minutes or so after the show opened.  That was OK.  We got a good place to park and didn't have to wait very long in line to get in.

There wasn't a whole lot I wanted in the show.  Most of the prices were kind of high.  One of the last tables we stopped at were two people who were selling left overs from their layout.  They were selling everything really cheap.  I bought about of micro lights, a soldering iron, and some nice scenery parts for $20.  I really got a deal.

After the show we went off to a place Ellen saw on the web for lunch.  We didn't get there because on the way we saw an IHOP.  So I stopped there.

As soon as we got to New Braunfels Lucy got excited.  When we stopped at the show she was excited.  When we stopped for lunch she was excited.  After lunch we headed to the park.  Before we got there I stopped at an auto parts store (they didn't have the light bulb).  She was excited there to.  She was really excited when we got within 4 or 5 blocks of the park.

There were a fair number of people in the park including scuba divers and inner tubers.  I took Lucy to one end of the steps and threw 25 retrieves for her.  The water was really warm and she had a great time.  It was still cloudy and misting while we were there, so she didn't dry out when we walked through the park.  Of course I couldn't through any land retrieves.  I did let her off lead for a minute so she could chase a squirrel up a tree.

We timed everything perfectly.  The park rangers drove up just as we got back to the car.  We had to towel Lucy off.

I stopped at a couple of more auto stores (no luck) and the feed store to look for cat food (no luck).  When we tried to get back on the freeway it was packed.  We drove along the frontage road, which wasn't bad.  We didn't lose much time because we didn't have far to go until we got to the exit for Camping World.  I went in and got the right bulbs.  Ellen had a $10 coupon, so I got some water treatment also.  When we got back on the freeway things had cleared up and we went almost 80 all the way to Kyle.

When we got home I went out to work on the train.  I pulled all of the old wires off and got a start on the bottom siding.  I can't do any more there until I make up some power connectors with longer wires.

Day 161

I boxed up the upper and shipped it off today.  The worst part was finding the UPS store.  Google had it blocks away from where it really was.  After that we went to two estate sales.  The first didn't have much that we were interested in, but we did get some cheap Christmas ornaments for an outdoor tree.  The second was way overpriced.  I knew that before we went, but I wanted to see the neighborhood.  The neighborhood was a disappointment also.

After that we headed to County Line for lunch.  On the way we passed a park by a creek.  So we stopped so Lucy could walk in the park along the creek.  It wasn't deep enough for her to swim in, but she had fun wading in it.  One part of the path was muddy, and Ellen fell on her butt.  No harm done though.

After the park we did make it to County Line.  It was pretty good although a little expensive.  They don't have any worthwhile beers, so I had water.  Ellen had ribs and took half of them home.  After lunch we just drove home.

At home I went out and spent more time laying track.  Today I stopped when it was time to get the mail.  I have 34 feet of track laid.  I'll need to do two things before I can lay more.  First I'll have to remove the old wires that I had left underneath the layout.  I thought I might use them, but now I know I won't.  They are in the way of doing the new wiring.  Second I'll have to make up some track leads with longer wires.  I messed up and didn't make enough of them when I made up all the leads.  I hope I can remember how I did it.

Day 160

Today started out with a call from PSA.  They were really helpful.  I explained what happened and they said they'd get back to me.  Late in the day they said that I could return the merchandise at my expense.  I'll do that tomorrow.  I wonder how long it will be until I get another chance to get one.

It was getting warm, so we took the dog to Circle C before noon.  We walked all the way around the park.  Unfortunately I forgot to bring my FitBit.  After the walk we went over to the new burger place by the theater.  We had hotdogs and fries.  The fry was huge.  They also had a great IPA on tap.  The chilli on the hotdog I had was really hot.  When I was finished my mouth was burning.  So we went over and got some ice cream.  We talked to the people and yes, they did get stuck with the inventory from the Kite Day.

Last stop was HEB.  We didn't really need to stop, but they had pineapple upside down cake on sale.

We got home about 4.  I went out and started laying track.  Since it was the first sections, it was a little time consuming.  I was out there until 7 and laid 20 feet of track.  After dinner I looked at the last layout I did on the computer.  It was never brought up to date with what I actually built.  So I took the computer out and entered the changes while looking at the layout.  I'm glad I did.  One of the sidings wouldn't enter correctly on the computer.  It turns out that I had used a wrong piece on the layout.  Luckily I had one of the correct pieces left over.

Tomorrow is a little estate saleing.  Then I'm going to work on the layout some more.  Laying the track gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

Day 159

I sent off an email to PSA today.  They didn't reply immediately, but that's not surprising.

We took the dog to the vet today.  The good news is that the swelling on the leg isn't any bigger.  That tends to indicate that it's not cancer.  The bad news is that it isn't much, if any, smaller.  We are still waiting on the blood tests.

After the vet I decided to drive down I35 to the hobby store.  The ramp from 290 to I35 was a parking lot.  So I took surface streets.  Unfortunately, so did a lot of other people.  It took quite awhile to get southbound.  When we did, we saw that the northbound lanes, and the northbound frontage road, were parking lots.  Ellen looked on the web and saw that it was jammed up from Austin to Buda.  I'm not sure what happened, but it must have been major.

I got some basswood for the viaduct and Ellen got some paint.  We got some root beer at Spec's and stopped at Pet Smart for the dog.  Then we ate at a Chinese buffet there.  It was great and not very expensive.  We'll be going back.

On the way back Ellen wanted to pick up the mail.  The northbound traffic seemed to be moving, so I got on the freeway.  Big mistake.  After about 3/4 of a mile it was backed up again.  I got off and the frontage road was backed up also.  I ended up driving across on Stassney to Congress.  Congress was backed up, too.  I finally made it to the post office, but it was a long haul.

When I got home I cut the basswood and glued it to the viaduct.  It worked well.  Tomorrow I'll do some painting.

Day 158

I'm pissed.

The upper was finally delivered today - to the house, not the PO Box.  That's OK, except that they shipped me the wrong things.  The upper is the wrong upper and they left out the charging handle.  To make manners worse, the upper is one I never would have bought on my own.  The packing ship lists the wrong upper, but the right BCG/handle combination.

Of course the order confirmation email is the only one I ever deleted.  I'm trying to log into my account on the website, but I've forgotten the password.  When I try their recovery mechanism it isn't working for me.  I'll write them an email tomorrow if I don't get a password reset by then.

Other then that today was pretty good.  We took the dog over to Zilker and she swam 20 retrieves.  That was all I wanted her to do.  She didn't object to stopping.  It's spring break and 80 degrees, so there were a lot of people there.  After swimming we walked all the way over to Barton Creek.   Lucy did a little meeting and greeting and a lot of walking around searching every tree for squirrels.  She was pretty tried by the time we got back to the car.

We were going to eat lunch at the place near the east end of the bridge.  Unfortunately it's changed into a coffee shop.  So we went to the Torchy's roach coach on 1st instead.  We finally figured out that it was on first, not Lamar or Congress.  After that it was a quick stop at HEB and then home.  That's where I found out about the mixup with the upper.

Day 157

The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was to call the dealership about an oil change for the Hyundai.  They gave me a 1:00 time.  So I read the paper and did some surfing while we waited.  I also started gluing the viaduct together.  I got some of it done before it was time to leave.

We went to the dealership and they said it would be an hour.  So we went across the street to look at a Mazda 6.  We figured out that we wanted a mid level with an option package.  Then we started waling down the road.  We stopped at the Toyota place.  They are out - too expensive and the mileage isn't good enough.

We passed by the Audi place.  There's no value there.  We stopped at the Nissan place.  The Maxima is too expensive and gets bad mileage.  The Altima looks nice though.  It's got some pluses and minuses versus the Mazda.  Ellen doesn't like it as much though.  We'll have to do test drives to decide.

The oil change took a little over an hour and wasn't really expensive.  Afterwards we went to the Dan's that had been doing a remodel for lunch.  They were doing a land office business.  Their menu is a lot more limited than the one by Cabelas.

Next stop was the yuppie grocery.  We just bought a few things.  Then we stopped by the post office.  It was nice to have a key to the box again.

We stopped by Circle C because Lucy was on lead all the time we were looking at cars.  We didn't take a long walk, but she got a fair amount of running around in.  When we got back to the car she was acting tired.

Last stop was Tomlinson's so that we could get some more pill pockets.  Lucy got her treat.

When we got home I finished the viaduct.  I would glue a piece, hold it while surfing, surf for another 20 minutes, and then glue the next piece.  I got finished about 9.  It looks pretty good, but I think I'll glue a base to it.

The upper was supposed to make it to the post office today.  The status the morning was "out for delivery".  When we got home it was "A UPS error has delayed delivery".  This is supposed to be a one day delay.  WTF?

Day 156

We lost an hour to daylight savings time today.  So we didn't get out of bed until after 11.  I ate lunch, read the Sunday paper, and then went out to the garage to finish up the viaduct pillars.  I only had four of them to do, so it went pretty quickly.  It's kind of neat to see the whole set of 13 lined up in order.  A pretty accurate description of a 3% grade.

The dog was lobbying to do something from the moment we got up.  So after I finished we took her with us.  I wanted to find some really small screws to connect the track to the viaducts.  We went to Lowe's, Home Depot, and Michaels.  We really didn't find anything, but Lucy had fun being petted by customers.

The final stop was Circle C.  We walked around, Lucy ran around.  She really covered a lot of ground.  She also had a few chance to meet and greet.  She was more interested in looking for buggers than she was in socializing. 

We were going to stop at Tomlinson's on the way home, but they were closed.  We hadn't figured in the lost hour.

Day 155

I got what I wanted today.  It rained last night and all of today.  Most of the day it was a light rain.  However, about 5 it really started to rain in earnest.  At about 7 the thunder started and it's still going.  The rain has slacked off though.  I'm hoping we didn't get too much rain.  I bet the roundup I sprayed yesterday is useless.

I went out to the garage to cut more viaduct pillars.  It's way too messy a task to do in the house.  I got 5 or 6 done before I decided to break for lunch.  After lunch and I little surfing I was suffering from cabin fever.  Not as much as Lucy though.  She'd been bugging us to do something all day.  So I went to the post office and Spec's for some root beer.  After that we stopped at Best Buy and looked at toys.  I found a computer I really liked, but Ellen wouldn't let me buy it.  We also stopped at AutoZone so that I could get some license plate holders for the truck.  The current ones block the "Lone Star State" logo.

The rain really started hard while we were in AutoZone.  Of course on the drive back home I had to deal with all of the Texas drivers who thought they had to slow down 20 mph because it was raining.

When we got home I went back to pillar cutting.  I finished a total of 9 today before it was time for dinner.  With all of the thunder and rain I decided to do the rest tomorrow.  I've got 4 left to go.  I've got it down to a science and they won't take long to finish.

Lucy and Fletcher are not happy about the thunder.  I think they would both be in my lap if I were sitting in the recliner.

Day 154

There's a 60% chance it will rain tomorrow.  So I spent an hour and a half this morning spreading Casoron all over the parking area and driveway.  I also went over the back, front and side yards with Roundup spraying thistles.  I was tired and my back hurt when I was done.  Of course I immediately took a shower.  The hot water sure felt good.

It was 1 by the time I was finished.  I didn't feel like eating at home, so we went to Chuy's.  It was pretty good food.  We also found out why it was so crowded in the afternoon.  They have happy hour from 4 to 7 every weekday.

After that we went to Randall's to buy some of their Friday specials.  Then it was off to Circle C for a walk.  I was tired so I really didn't want to do it, but the dog deserved it.  That's especially true if it rains tomorrow.  She had her usual good time.  She really ran around a lot.  There were a lot of people playing frisbee even though it was cold and windy (67 degrees) by Austin standards.

When we got home I spent an hour cutting down viaduct pillars.  I managed to do the four on the two approach arches.  I'm going to have to break it apart and reglue it.  For some reason it's not straight.

I didn't get to the mailbox until 5:15.  The mailman hadn't been there yet.  He came by as I was walking back.  I didn't bother to walk back to see if he left anything.

Day 153

We got up at 8 this morning and went to the estate sale in Buda.  It had some interesting stuff.  I bought a few small items and a painting of a roadrunner attacking a rattlesnake.  We got there about an hour and a half after it opened and it was obvious that a lot of stuff had already been sold.

Then we went to Cabela's.  We wanted to kill time until noon.  It wasn't hard.  I got some ammo and an extended magazine for the Solo.  Ellen got some shorts.  We also got some fishing stuff on clearance sale.  It was a good trip.

I tried to get a light bulb for the trailer.  Unfortunately I forgot to get the bulb out of the trailer.  The trailer place couldn't tell me what I needed w/o the VIN of the trailer.  WTF?

The reason we wanted to kill time until noon was because that's when a gun shop in Kyle that I read about on the web opened.  It's in an old bank building and still has the original vault.  They've restored the vault door and it looks really cool.  Unfortunately there wasn't anything I wanted to buy there.

We ate lunch at a BBQ place there.  It was so-so.  Lucy liked it because she got a brisket tribute.  We ate dessert at the Texas Pie store.  It was really, really good.

On the way back we stopped at Circle C.  It was only 60, but the sun was shining and it was nice.  Lucy had her usual good time.  She might have learned something yesterday since she didn't have any spines in her nose when we were done.

When we got home I did the final measurement calculations for the viaduct.  I'm going to have to shorten the pillars on the part that's already built.  That makes 17 pillars to cut instead of 13.  Oh well.  If it's warm I'll do some cutting outside tomorrow.

Day 152

Something really weird happened today.  When I went out to get the paper there was a raccoon by the gate.  It was acting really strange.  It totally ignored me and kept walking around in really small circles.  There was clearly something wrong with it.  Luckily Lucy didn't see it.  I got Lucy inside and talked to Ellen.  We decided that the racoon had to go.  I took out one of the shotguns.  The racoon hadn't moved.  It was still walking in small circles ignoring me.  So I put it out of it's misery.  Then I got a shovel and put it in the garbage can.  The truck emptied the can about 2 minutes after I put the raccoon in it.  Great timing.

After that it was time to get the truck licensed in Texas.  We took all of the paperwork to Dripping Springs and $200 later we had Texas plates.  We drove directly to the insurance agent and transferred the insurance.  It was actually about 1% cheaper then Oregon.  This surprised both us and the agent.

We ate lunch at Cheddars and then went to Circle C.  It was 49 degrees, cloudy, and windy.  Lucy had a good time anyway.  When we got back to the truck we noticed that she had two clumps of prickly pear spines in her nose.  When we got home we took a picture of her and then spent quite awhile pulling them out.

I decided to finish putting together the viaduct pillars.  I discovered what made them hard to put together.  The small sides weren't straight.  If I straightened them out they went together much better.  Things went much easier today than they did yesterday.

Ellen found a really interesting estate sale in Buda tomorrow.  I'm going to get up a little early to go to it.

Day 151

We had to go back to the mall today to pick up Ellen's other pair of shoes.  She said they fit perfectly, so she bought them.

It was Tuesday, so we started the wash before we left.  Of course it took all day to finish.

Last night was nasty.  There was a lot of thunder and lightening interspersed with rain.  It was also cold.  When we got up in the morning everything was covered with ice.  The table on the deck had been covered in ice.  As it thawed the ice fell through the table top grate.  It looked like there was a pile of ice cubes under the table.  You could watch as more fell off and added to the pile.

We waited until about noon to leave.  By then the ice was gone from the roads, but still coating the trees.  After the mall and the post office we went to Circle C.  We hadn't really thought about it, but places were pretty muddy.  The dog needed her feet washed afterwards.  After the park we stopped a Tomlinson's for some dog food.  Of course Lucy got a treat.

When we got home I decided to start on the viaduct pillars.  They were a pain in the ass.  They wouldn't line up well and I had to hold them for a long time in order to get the glue to set.  It was such a pain that I only did half of them.

Day 150

It was cold in the morning, in the 30's.  I decided to go to Barton Springs Mall.  I figured I couild get my watchband there.  Ellen wanted to get some shoes.

We walked through the entire mall, upstairs and downstairs.  I got a watchband.  It cost me $30.  It was cheaper than the $40 ones another place was selling.  This is almost twice what I paid for the last one.  I blame Obama.

Ellen got two pairs of shoes that she liked.  They were expensive, but she liked them.  After she bought them we happened to stop at another store.  They had a really cool pair.  They didn't have her size, but their other store did.  We'll pick them up tomorrow.  We also got some things at the kitchen store.  Ellen got a glove so she wouldn't cut herself and a remote thermometer for the barbeque.

My package was at the post office.  We didn't take the dog to the mall, so we went home and got her.  Then we went to Circle C.  We had to do it after her being locked up yesterday.  Also she had been really depressed when she didn't go with us in the morning.

Lucy was getting pretty greasy - not smelly, just greasy.  So tonight she got a bath.  Of course she got a treat afterwards.  Right now there's thunder and lightening outside with some rain.  The temperature is 38.  They're calling for freezing rain tonight and the just might get it.

Day 149

Today was a Texas weather day.  At 10:00 it was 70 degrees.  Half an hour later it was 65.  Now it is 30.  Yesterday's high was 80.  It's been raining all day, sometimes really hard.  The wind has been blowing fairly hard all day also.  Needless to say we didn't do anything.  The dog was disappointed.

We went to the Bitcoin thing at Centex in the afternoon.  It was pretty crowded.  The local news stations were there.  Unfortunately we could only stay for about an hour.  They didn't start the presentations until after that.  We needed to get home to so that Ellen could go to her trunk show.

When we got back Ellen went to the trunk show and I surfed the web.  When she got back the gate went into some sort of weird mode.  It stopped half open and the buzzer was going.  I hit the reset button on the keypad and entered the code.  Apparently that fixed it.  At least it opened all the way and then closed again.

Apparently the clothes at the show were really expensive.  $100 for a pair of jeans isn't expensive in my opinion.  It's stupid.

I turned on the heater in the well house.  I didn't think that I'd really have to do this again this year. 

Day 148

Ellen decided to cook the brisket today.  That meant we had to sit around for hours while it cooked.  I spent the time building some of the viaduct pillars.  I cut the top off of three I had been using and put new tops on.  I learned quite a lot about how to do things.  I'll be building up the other pillars and then cutting them down with the dremel.  The next step is to make up the other ten pillars.

The rest of the time was spent surfing.  When the brisket was done we went to Circle C and HEB.  The poor dog had spent the whole day trying to get us to go somewhere.  We walked around and watched a little soccer.  Lucy seemed to be a little more subdued than yesterday.  She was also favoring her leg when she ran.  She didn't favor it when she was walking.  I'm going to watch her carefully the next few days.

That was about that today.