Day 143

It was 34 degrees and raining this morning.  That provided very little incentive to get out of bed.  So we had the dog come to bed and stayed there until almost 11.  After breakfast I decided we had to do something.  So I decided to go to Red's in Pflugerville.  I had to get the scraper out of the truck and scrape the ice off the car before we could go.

We stopped at Fry's on the way up.  I bought a couple of things for wiring the railroad.  When we got to Red's they were packed.  They didn't have anything I wanted to get, though.

On the way back we stopped at a hamburger place for lunch.  The hamburgers cost $5.50, but they were worth it.  When we got back we stopped at the post office, that's all.  The temp had made it all the way up to 35.

I decided to try wiring some of the block switches because there wasn't anything else I could do because of the weather and the paint situation.  Before that I tried the meter I bought for $3 yesterday.  It didn't work.  I debugged it to BOTH probes being broken.  So I took them apart and fixed them  Then I did a couple of the switches, and then decided to bag it.

That was it for the day.

Day 142

We got up earlier today.  It was cold, but I didn't want to stay in bed as long as we have been doing.  Also, I wanted to go estate saleing.

We went to a place that was east of Capitol.  The GPS said it was a thirty mile drive.  I was pretty happy with the place.  The prices were good and I found a few hand tools that I could use.  Ellen finally found a sewing desk that she liked.  Of course we didn't have the truck, so it was 30 miles back home and then 30 miles in the truck back to the sale.

When we got there some asshole had parked in the driveway.  The house was on a crowded cul-de-sac, so I had to park 3 houses down on a side street.  The desk looked nice, but it was made out of pressboard.  It hadn't been assembled well, either.  The top started to come off as we moved it to the car.  That was made harder because the cabinet door wouldn't stay closed.

On the way home we stopped at the Icehouse for lunch, the bank to cash a check, and Tomlinson's for some Zukies.  By then it was 30 degrees and raining.  That spelled no running the dog.

When we got home, things got worse.  Ellen got in the way while I was trying to get it into the house.  The thing slipped and two of the 6 wheels ripped out of the pressboard.  I spent the next 3 hours fixing things up.  It was a minor cluster fuck.  Just what I needed after driving 140 miles today.

After dinner Lucy decided she was bored after two days of no running.  She demanded that I get on the floor and play with her.  She got a lot of chewing in.  I love that dog.

The evening was TV and surfing.  That's all I wanted to do after all of today.

Day 141

We stayed in bed with the pets and the internet until about 11.  That's fun to do, but we can't keep wasting our lives in bed.  The weather isn't helping though.  It was 50 degrees when we got up.

It kept getting colder.  We went to Home Depot to get some more paint for the panel. We weren't in there for long, but the temp dropped 4 degrees while we were there.  We stopped for lunch at the Thai place.  It was good.  Then we stopped at the pet store because it was next door.  Of course Lucy got a treat.

After the post office we went to HEB.  There was no way we were going to run the dog.  By then it was in the low 40's and the wind was blowing.  So we just went home.

I did a little surfing when I got home, and then I finished the shorting block.  I really wish I could get the painting done, but it's been too damn cold.

Earlier we had stopped by Best Buy and bought Guardians of the Galaxy.  It was a fun movie.  Unfortunately the green guy and Loki weren't in it.  However, some other green guy really thumped a whole group of bad guys.

Day 140

Today wasn't a bad day.  It was in the middle 40's in the morning and warmed up to 65 in the afternoon.  We went to Capitol to practice the stations we did poorly on.  We were disappointed on one, it wasn't the same.  The other was there, though.

We met Walt there, so we shot with him.  He had a 682 trap gun instead of his Model 21.  He went around and practiced with us, and then we did the pro course.  The pro course seemed a little easy.

We spent so much time at the club that it was iffy about going to lunch and then having enough time to avoid the traffic.  I decided not to risk it.  Unfortunately there was an accident on the road from 183.  We sat there for quite awhile, and then got detoured back the way we came.  Before we could go west again we had to wait in a long line of cars to make a left at a stop sign.  It's amazing how many idiots have to wait until they can't see a car in either direction before they will turn.

We stopped at the post office on the way home.  I was hungry when we got home.  The leftover pizza was tasty.

Because it was warm, I decided to try to paint the top coat on the control panel.  The damn paint can was defective.  It sprayed for about 30 seconds and quit.  There's still a lot of paint in the can.  All I got done was about a quarter of the panel.  I'm pissed.

I decided to add another shorting block for +12V from the block switches.  In doing so I decided to label all the pins on all 4 connectors (62 total pins).  This required me to work out where all of those wires were going.  It took hours, but I feel good that a lot of the wiring is now specified in writing.

The wiring took all evening.

Day 139

Today was warmer than yesterday - about 2 degrees warmer.  It felt a lot warmer because it wasn't raining.  We still stayed in bed until noon.  There didn't seem to be much point in getting up just to surf.  Lucy was so cute.  She laid between us with her feet in the air getting petted.  The cats sat on the edge of the bed.  It was nice.

After breakfast/lunch we went to the post office.  That was really just an excuse to get out of the house.  Then we stopped at Costco to pick up some batteries.  The last stop was Circle C.  It was cold, but we had on warm coats.  Lucy did a whole lot of retrieves.  She ran fast on all of them.  That's because a lady showed up with a lab that wanted to run with Lucy.  It didn't want the bumper, it just wanted to run.  That caused Lucy to go flat out on each retrieve.  We had fun talking to the lady.

When we got home I worked a little on the control panel design.  I think I've finally worked out all of the wiring.  I also soldered up a shorting block for 12V.  That way I have 15 positions to connect +12V and 15 positions to connect -12V.  That will keep me from running too much current through a wire.  It will also reduce daisy chaining.

Ellen had dinner ready before I had a chance to make the labels for the shorting block.  Oh well, that leaves something for tomorrow.

The evening was all TV and surfing.

Day 138

It was really cold today.  It didn't get above 34 degrees all day.  So we stayed in bed surfing with the pets until 11.  After breakfast I went out to the well house to get some stuff and turn on the heater.  There was freezing rain on the car.

I did some more surfing when I got back.  Then I decided to get started on wiring the control panel.  There's little I can do with the painting not complete, but I did wire connectors and capacitors for the 20 track switch connections.  That's when I noticed that I'd bought the wrong rotary switches.  I'm going to have to order some other ones.  Crap.

After that I really didn't feel like doing anything else.  So I just surfed and watched TV for the rest of the day.  Apparently it's going to be just as cold tomorrow.

Day 137

It was raining this morning, so we stayed in bed with the cats and dog until 11.  The last thing I did before I got up was check to see if there was a gun show.  There was.

So after we got up we went to Trudy's for breakfast.  Their breakfast's are surprisingly cheap.  Then we went to the show.  I say a purple 938, but I couldn't get Ellen to buy it.  There wasn't anything else of interest.

After that we went to Tractor supply for some bird seed.  We bought 50 lbs.  It was really cheap, also.  I found out that 50 lbs is a lot heaver than it used to be.  I can barely lift it.

We didn't do anything except surf when we got home.  Ellen fixed an early dinner and then went to archery.  I watched TV.

Day 136

We went to Capitol today.  The weather was OK.  It was cloudy and windy, but warm.  I did OK, but I didn't do anywhere near good enough to get a punch.  I screwed up both seperator stations and had way too many 7's.  Crap.  Ellen punched out of E.  That made her very happy.

Lucy was a really good dog.  After we were done I threw the bumper for her.  She didn't do a lot of retrieves.  That was OK.

Lunch there was really good.  It was catfish, beans, potato salad, and banana pudding.  After lunch we went over to McBride's.  We didn't see anything that really rang our bell.

We stopped at the post office, and then HEB on the way home.  The last stop was Circle C.  Lucy really acted like she wanted to go.  However, she decided to quit after about 4 retrieves.  I guess the idea of retrieves was better than the experience.

When we got home it was 80 degrees.  So I went to the garage to look at the control panel.  I was afraid that the yellow paint would screwed up the overcoat.  It did.  So I had to use the Dremel to remove a whole bunch of stuff that looked like massive orange peel.  Then I gave it another light coat of gray.  We'll see what happens.

When I went back to the house I soldered the resistors on the 16 5mm LED's.  That's the last LED's that have to have resistors attached.  I'm ready to wire the control board except for figuring out the roundtable polarity LED.

The evening was reading and TV.

Day 135

We got up this morning to go estate saleing.  I had two good looking prospects.  The first was in a place we'd never been before off 183 near the airport.  In fact, the place was directly under the landing path.  It was kind of neat (and noisy) to watch the planes go over.

The place itself was a bust.  The pictures on the web page looked good.  In reality it was a barn sized collection of old rusted junk.  There were a few things like old signs that pickers would probably like.  There wasn't anything that I thought was worth a damn.

The second place required us to drive up to 184 and Mopac.  Since we were that far north, we decided to go to Fry's.  I bought a couple of electronic parts just because we happened to be there.

The second place must have been a great sale.  Unfortunately the sale started yesterday.  One of the guys said they had 150 people in line yesterday morning.  That meant that it was pretty picked over.  I did manage to find a couple of tools I needed at a good price.  Ellen found a really high quality pan she wanted.  That's cool, she usually doesn't find anything.

After that we wanted to go to Hop Doddy for lunch.  It was after 1, so it should have been OK.  It wasn't.  The line was out the door.  So we drove to the hamburger place across from the Palmer center.  On the way we stopped at Zilker.  The wind was blowing, so I could throw the bumper a long way.  Lucy did some 80+ yard retrieves.

After lunch we stopped at the post office.  I had to pick up a package.  I waited in the package line for 15 minutes and was totally ignored.  So I got in the long main line.  It took forever, in part because two broads waited until they were at the counter to box up their packages.  I spent at least half an hour there.

The good news was that the sweatshirt I got is perfect.

It was 75 when I got home, so I went to the garage and worked on the control panel.  I finished the pin striping.  Then I painted the whole panel gray.  I'm using it as a primer before the light final coat.  I hope it works.

The evening was surfing and TV.  I did see the male half of our new neighbors.  There wasn't a chance to talk, but he drives a 911.

Day 134

We got up before 9 this morning, but didn't get out of bed until almost noon.  The dog got up on the bed and we just zoned out surfing and playing with her.

After breakfast/lunch I noticed that there was a dead squirrel out in the yard.  Apparently Lucy got one.  She must have gotten it yesterday, because it was really stiff.  I guess my shooting one yesterday inspired her.  I really proud of her.  She's redeemed herself for yesterday's running away.

When we did get up, Ellen went on a paperwork clearing spree.  She went through 2014's collections of paper, sorting out what we needed and what we didn't.  I ended up shredding almost a full bag of paper.  Then she did the credit card bills.  We sure generate a whole lot of receipts.

That took all of the early afternoon.  Then we went to pick up the mail.  The stuff from Amazon was there.  Unfortunately I mis-ordered one thing.  Crap.  We deposited a check at the bank and stopped at Fireman's for a late lunch.  Then we got some water and a yard windmill at Costco.

The last stop was Circle C.  I walked over to the corner, throwing the bumper.  I sat down on the blocks and Lucy started for the creek.  I called once and she didn't stop.  I immediately blew the whistle and she came back.  I guess that is a minor victory.

When we got home I decided to finish designing the detail of the control panel wiring.  It seems appropriate as the painting is almost complete.  I got most it done except for the turntable polarity.  I just got too tired to think about it anymore.

There isn't much of the evening left, I'm going to surf.

Day 133

Today was another one of those days when it seemed better to just stay in bed and surf than to get up and surf.  So we did.  It was sunny and pretty warm today (mid-60's), so when we did get up I went out to the garage.  I did all of the masking for the last two colors on the control panel.  I took quite awhile because I had to do the pin striping for the black (the turntable), mask around it, and then remove the pin striping.  That's because I don't want any black over spray.  I'm pretty sure it would show through the top coat.  I left the paint cans out in the sun to warm up.

Then we went to the post office.  It was a great day for a walk, so we went to Circle C and took the long way to the creek.  I threw the bumper for Lucy.  Things were going well until we got to the corner.  I had a rock in my shoe, so I sat on the concrete blocks to empty it.  Lucy took off towards the water.  She wouldn't stop when I called.  I had to walk all the way to the water, where she was standing in it with the bumper waiting for me.

I grabbed he collar and she got to walk about 100 feet on two legs.  Then I gave the bumper to Ellen and Lucy did a heal all the way home.  We had planned on taking her to Tomlinson's and then lunch at the Italian place.  Instead I drove by Tomlinson's (to make sure she knew we were there), and then locked her in the car while we had lunch.

After lunch we bought a few things at HEB and went home.  I used the warm paint cans to put on the last two colors.  Now I have to decide if I should use gray as a primer before putting on the final cover.  I'll have to do a test of gray on yellow first.  Earlier it hadn't worked well.

While I was getting the mail I met the lady that moved into Beav's house.  She seemed nice.  Apparently they won't be living there fulltime until March.

The evening was almost all reading.  I finished several magazines.

Day 132

We woke up reasonably early today, but the pets and the tablets kept us in bed.  There just didn't seem to be any reason to get up.

When we did, breakfast was almost lunch.  I decided I needed to do something, so I soldered resistors onto 41 LEDs for the control panel.  This almost finishes the resistor soldering.  I'll have 11 more to do when the LEDs I ordered yesterday come in.

It was cold in the morning, but by mid afternoon it had warmed up into the 50's.  So I went out to the garage.  I took off the masking on the control panel and did the pin striping for the three areas that were painted the other day.  I didn't do the new masking because I just got tired of it.  I couldn't paint anyway, it was too cold.

I went back inside and played pinball for a little while.  I sucked, so it was back to surfing.  I ended up surfing for the rest of the day and evening.  All in all I wasn't too productive today.

Day 131

We didn't do much today.  For one, we didn't feel like doing much after yesterday.  For another, it was cold (below 40) and the wind was blowing hard.  So we stayed in bed with the cats, dog, and tablets.

When we did get up, I had a slight case of cabin fever.  So we went to pick up the mail.  Ellen had a package from the archery place.  After that I decided to go to Kohl's to find a sweatshirt.  The only heavy ones they had were pull over.  We needed some groceries, so we decided to go to the yuppie market.  I made a wrong turn and we ended up on Lamar.  I keep screwing up that exit.  We ended up in Target's parking lot, so we looked for a sweatshirt there.  No joy.

After the yuppie market we stopped at Tomlinson's.  We told Lucy about it earlier, so that was what she'd been waiting for the whole trip.  She got some treats.  I was feeling guilty, so we stopped at Circle C.  It was 39 degrees with the wind blowing.  Lucy loved it and did an amazing number of long retrieves.  That was quite a change from yesterday's lackluster effort at the gun club.

When we got home I noticed that I didn't have my pocket knife.  I'd used it that morning at home.  So I took the car back to the park and Tomlinson's.  No luck.  So I got out my spare.  A little later I found the knife under the kitchen table.  I'm not sure how it got there.  I put the spare away.

Something cool happened in the evening.  I let Lucy out.  She went into the back yard and started barking.  She wouldn't stop, so I went outside to see why.  The wind had blown over the archery target and she was barking at that.  I told her it was all right and she quit.  That's an amazing behavior.

The evening was shopping (I bought the sweatshirt at Amazon), surfing, and TV.

Day 130

We got up at 6:30 this morning and drove to Kerrville.  The weather was cool and cloudy, but not unpleasant.  We thought it started at 8:30, but it really started at 9.  So we were there early and had plenty of time to be first on station 1.  We made good time around the course and were done by 10:45.  The only problem was going around 3 old assholes that passed us to start, but only went forward to the next station.

Oh, and by the way I shot like shit.  It was a pretty easy course, and I only shot a 79.  I kept either missing one or two birds at a station, or deciding that I couldn't hit one bird of the pair at all.

There was too much cow shit on the course to throw the bumper.  So I did it on the skeet fields.  She did quite a few, but not nearly as many as I expected.  They were serving lunch, but it wasn't going to be ready for another 30 minutes, so we left.

When we got back to Fredericksburg we stopped for lunch.  We went to the non-music place that likes dogs.  Unfortunately it's now a burger plate.  The burgers are huge and really good, but they cost $10.  We'll  probably eat at the music place from now on.

We walked up and down Main street twice.  Once with the dog, and once by ourselves.  That allowed us to go back to see the stores we wanted without the dog.  We were in a buying mood.  Ellen bought a new purse and some earrings.  We got a s'mores bbq cooker for Dan, and some bubble makers for the nieces.  I got this cool key holder thing.  We also got a bunny rain gauge for Pat.

On the way over we gassed up at the Shell station east of town.  On the 130 mile trip from there to Kerrville and back home we got 33.4 mpg.  That's the best the car has ever gotten for that long a distance.  It's still a lot less than the 40 it's rated at, but I was going 74 for most of the way and we did stop/slow down for some towns.

We got back at 3:45.  That was a little over 9 hours.  It really felt like a full day.  To think I used to spend that long every day at work (forget the commute time).  What a waste.

Ellen went to archery in the evening.  I watched TV and surfed.

Day 129

It was a nice day today, almost 80.  But we didn't leave the property.  Instead it was a project day.  I started by replacing the heating rod in the Traeger.  It was actually easier to do our small one than the larger ones I'd done before.  The problem here was that I didn't have any instructions and I couldn't find any.  So I ended up spending a lot of time trying to figure out what to do.  I also took a couple of things apart that didn't need to come apart.  Add a couple of stripped screws and a loose jam nut and you have a time consuming pain in the ass.  It's done though, and now all we need is something to cook on it.

The second task was to sight in the pellet rifle.  I missed a great shot at a squirrel today and that finally motivated me to do it.  I got out the new rifle rest and discovered that it was a piece of shit.  The main pieces were loosely held together with press pins.  What good is a wobbly rifle rest?

So I drilled out the three pins and replaced them with bolts.  Now the rest is stable.  I used it to confirm that the rifle is pretty much zeroed.  I did discover the two reasons I think are causing me to miss.  First, I've been resting the barrel on the fence when I shoot.  This causes the rifle to shoot high.  The second reason is that I'm not really a very good rifle shot.  I have to be more careful when I pull the trigger.

The last task was to pinstripe the control panel area I painted earlier, mask off new areas, and paint them.  I'm a little worried about the yellow paint I used.  It seems to pull off easily.  I may end up doing a lot of patching.

That was pretty much a full day.  The evening was TV and movies.  We watched Ironman on Blu-ray.

Day 128

Because it it estate saleing day, we woke up fairly early this morning and didn't spend a lot of time in bed surfing.  I called up Jeff, but he couldn't come.  That was just as well, because there were only two places, and both were busts.  The first didn't open until 1 (I didn't notice the start time), so we didn't get in.  The second was a not-too-affluent estate where the children had obviously already taken anything that was worthwhile.

The second house was near Bull Creek, so we went over there so the dog could swim.  The water was really clear, but there were signs that said it had bacteria.  We let the dog swim anyway, and she had a great time.  She would swim out, and then walk back in the shallows.

After that we went to County Line for lunch.  I had this "bar-b-que baked potato" which was really good.  It was a baked potato filled with brisket.

After a trip to the post office we went home.  When we got home I went out to look at the control panel.  I was going to do the pin striping on the second color, but it wasn't dry yet.  So instead I soldered some resistors onto LEDs.  I did 22 yellow LEDs, which will be used for the switches.  I still have 22 green ones to do for the switches.

While I was doing that, Ellen was doing bow and arrow.  She's really gotten into it.  She also got Rosetta Stone for Spanish today.  So she started doing that.

I need to buy some orange LEDs.  I looked on the internet, but I haven't found what I want yet.

The evening was TV and reading.

Day 127

We stayed in bed with the cats, dog, and the tablets until 10.  I went out to the garage and finished masking off the control panel.  It was cooler today, about 60.  I decided to wait until the afternoon to paint it.

So we went for the mail and then to HEB.  Then we went to Circle C.  The wind was blowing, so the retrieves were long.  I had Lucy do 25. I thought that was enough.

When we got home I painted the control panel.  I have three colors and the top coat left to do.  It will take a few more days.

I wanted to continue work, so I decided to solder resistors and leads to the flashing LEDs.  I did all 7 of them.  It's time consuming, but the result works well.  I think I'll do the power LEDs next. 

The evening was a little reading and a couple of movies on Netflix.

Day 126

We went to Capitol today.  It was a little cool in the morning, but by noon it had warmed up considerably.  After we had shot a couple of stations a guy drove up and asked to join us.  Of course we said yes.  He was a pretty good shot.  He had a Model 21 that was built the year I was born.  After we were finished he let me shoot it.  I actually hit a few targets with it.  It was nice.

I didn't throw the bumper for Lucy when we were done.  She got to run around the whole course and I thought that was enough.  We went to the hamburger place for lunch.  Only it wasn't a hamburger place any more.  It's now a Mexican restaurant.  They fixed the place up a little - new paint and furniture.  The food was OK, but it was American Mexican.  That was surprising since all the signs in the place were in Spanish.

It was pleasant, in the low 70's, when we got home.  So I went out to the garage and started to do pin striping on the control panel.  I did all of the mainline except for one small piece where I hadn't painted the panel correctly.  So I painted it and then quit.  I'll mask some places and do more tomorrow.

I met Lee when I went out to get the mail.  We talked for awhile.  Hopefully we'll be able to go to Capitol next weekend.

The evening was TV, reading, and surfing.

Day 125

We stayed up until 1:30 watching TV last night, so we didn't get up very early.  After breakfast I went out to the garage to work on the control panel housing.  I cut up a piece of wood to fix the screwup I'd done yesterday.  I still needed to get another piece though.

So we went to Lowe's.  I bought two pieces of wood in case I screwed up again.  Then we went to Penney's so that I could get some underwear.  It was buy one, get one half off.  It was still really expensive.  The next stop was Rudy's for lunch.  Lucy was really happy with her brisket tributes.

We stopped at the post office.  It was 1 in the afternoon and they were just getting around to filling the boxes.  The last stop was Circle C.  I didn't want to run Lucy too hard, so we took the short way to the creek.  She did 20 water retrieves and then we went back to the car.  I did retrieves both wasy, and about 10 more at the car to dry her off.

When we got home I went back out to the garage and finished the control panel enclosure.  It came out pretty nice.  Everything would have lined up perfectly if I hadn't trusted the lengths the boards were cut to.  It still came out only a little off.  With the new board, both my previous screw ups were corrected.

When I went out to get the mail, Lucy just walked beside me.  She didn't go off the road at all.  When we got to the top of the hill, she waited in front of Dola's place rather than walking all the way to the mailbox.  She's one tired doggy.

The evening was TV and surfing.

Day 124

The dog had a better day than I did.  She got to be in bed with us this morning while we surfed.  After breakfast i went out to the garage and the well house.  I planned out how to wire some of the control panel.  I also planned out the rest of the control panel enclosure.  I wrote out a bill of materials.

It was a great day.  Sunny and in the low 80's.  So we took Lucy to Circle C.  We walked the long way to the creek (throwing the bumper on the way) and let

her swim.  A lady showed up with a large black dog.  It wouldn't swim, but it would try to take the bumper away from Lucy when she came out of the water.  I ended up really wet from the black dog jumping all over me.

A while later a gray dog about Lucy's size showed up.  It and the black dog were running around and acting kind of aggressive.  So I called it quits and we walked back, throwing the bumper again.  Halfway back we stopped and I threw a lot of retrieves for Lucy.  By the time we got back to the car Lucy was pretty tired.

We stopped by the post office and then went to Culver's for lunch.  That way we could sit outside with Lucy.  She had some chicken strips while we had hamburgers.  The final stop was Lowe's where I bought the wood for the enclosure.

When we got home I went out to the garage and cut the pieces for the enclosure.  It involved, the miter saw, router, and jig saw.  Just as I finished I realized that I'd screwed up one of the side pieces.  I'll have to go buy more wood.

The trouble wasn't over.  When Ellen tried to cook dinner she discovered that the Traeger wouldn't light.  That means I'll have to replace the lighting rod.  I remember that that is kind of a pain in the ass job.

The evening was reading and TV.

Day 123

We had sort of a doggy day today.  We started out by letting her up on the bed while we surfed.  It was a wonderful day though, sunny and warm.  So after breakfast we decided to go to Zilker.  We walked all the way around the park.  I threw the bumper for her the whole way.  By the time we got back to the car she was pretty tired.

I still wanted to enjoy the weather, so we walked over the Mopac bridge.  When we got to the other side Lucy really wanted to swim.  I didn't want to let her though.  I thought she'd already done quite a bit.  After all, she is getting a little older.  We walked back and went out the back way because of the line to go out the front way.

We had been talking about going to a pizza place on the north side of the lake.  Only last time we passed it, it was closed.  When we passed it this time it was open, so we stopped.  If we'd known it was open, we could have walked there earlier.  Lucy ate on the deck with us.  I got some chicken strips out of the trunk for her so that she could eat with us.  It was a good lunch for all of us.

On the way back I stopped at the boot place to look for a sweatshirt.  They didn't have one.  However, the store on the other side of the yuppie market had the shoes I wore last summer.  So I bought another pair.  Then we stopped at the market for some bananas.  We also got some Bison and some shrimp for a couple of dinners.

As we were going home we remembered that we'd forgotten hamburger buns, so we stopped at HEB for them.  Then it really was home.

We got home after 4:30.  That was too late for Ellen to fix dinner before archery.  Since it was 80 degrees, I went out and put the first coat of paint on the control panel.  We'll see how it comes out.

The evening was archery for Ellen, and a zombie movie for me.

Day 122

After breakfast we went to Wally World so I could pick up some drugs.  I found a new sweatshirt there, too.  It was on sale for $7.  It's too lightweight for year round use, but it will be OK for this spring.  After that we picked up the mail and then went to Circle C.  It was a really nice day, in the mid-60's.  Lucy ran for quite awhile, and then we walked over to the creek at the west end.  There was a whole lot of water in the creek.  Of course Lucy wanted to swim, but we didn't let her.

When we got home it was time to go to Lola's birthday party.  It was fun.  Only two other couples showed up.  Apparently everyone else was dealing with the flu.  I hope we don't get it.  There were some Norwegian rugrats there.

We had a god time talking with everyone.  I don't think we left until after 5.

When we got home it was surfing before and after dinner, along with some TV.

Day 121

We went estate saleing today.  The first place was a mile down 1826 from us.  It was in an area we'd never been in.  It's divided up into a bunch of small gentleman's farms, most with horses.  The people running the sale were nice, but they had everything way over priced.  There was a 70's TV they wanted $50 for.  There was a Black and Decker miter saw, well used, that they wanted $195 for.  We bought a cookie cutter ($2, it should have been 50 cents).

The second place was a little up river from Mopac.  It turned out to be a small one bedroom apartment.  We got this cool bunny trivet for Patty.

After that we went to Dick's in Bee Cave to look for a sweatshirt.  No luck.  No luck at two other store there.  So we ate lunch with the dog at one of the restaurants and then went home.  It wasn't really super warm, but it was warm enough to be comfortable.

When we got home I walked the fence to see if I could figure out how the dog got in last night (we haven't seen him since).  The fence is intact, but I found two places where animals had dug underneath it.  One was by the power line easement and was about rabbit size.  The other was at the back fence behind the house.  It was large enough for the dog to squeeze through it he really wanted to.  I filled both of them with rocks.

While I was doing that Ellen tried out the new backstop.  She missed with one arrow and the backstop worked perfectly.  I went to the garage and set up a test of all the pin striping tape that I bought.  I also masked the control board.  I didn't paint it because it was a little too cold.

After that I used the BB gun to destroy another can in the back yard.  That thing is fun.

Day 120

We woke up at a normal time today, but stayed in bed surfing and playing games until at least 9:30. 
After breakfast and some surfing it was time to go out.  We stopped at the post office and then went to Academy.  I wanted new sandals and a new sweatshirt.  I got the sandals, but apparently grey zip up sweatshirts are out of style.  Then we stopped at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and got a present for Lola's birthday.

We went over to the Chinese place on Lamar for lunch.  We did that because we then drove into town on Lamar to a dogwash.  Lucy got a bath.  She didn't like the bath, but she did like the post-bath treats.  She is now soft, fluffy, and good smelling.

When we got home I spent the rest of the afternoon working out how to wire the polarity warning LED's for the control panel. I'd done that before, but I couldn't understand my explanation.  Also, it didn't cover the roundtable.  The new version is pretty easy two understand and wire.  It also covers the roundtable.  I rewrote the whole group of sections of the notes that discusses polarity LED's, switch connections, and roundtable wiring.

Two kind of weird things happened today.  A stray dog showed up at the back door.  It walked away before I could try to catch it.  That means that either it got in when the gate was open, or there's a hole in the fence.  I'll have to walk the fence tomorrow.

The second weird thing came at dusk.  I let Lucy out and she just stood very still on the porch.  As I watched a rabbit hopped up and started eating bird seed on the ground.  Lucy was 10 feet from it and just looked at it.  I was disappointed.  I was hoping for rabbit stew.

Day 119

I stayed up last night, but for some reason I got up at 7:30.  After breakfast it was time to finish the backstop.  I started by cutting the last half dozen boards.  Then I got Ellen to decide where she wanted it (in the back corner of the side yard).  So the first order of business was to haul the pieces and the tolls over there.

Ellen helped with the assembly process.  That was good, it made things easier.  Everything went together pretty much as I planned.  It was a slow process.  We weren't finished until 1.  It looks pretty good.  Now the trick is to see if she uses it.

After that I put the propane tank in the truck and drove to Dripping Springs to get it filled.  We also stopped at Tractor Supply just because we hadn't been there in a long time.  We bought some bird seed.  On the way back we stopped at the pet store for dog food, a cafe for a late lunch, and HEB for some groceries.

I was really tired when we got home.  So I sat down in my chair and took an hour nap.

I've continued testing LED's.  I've tested some of the flashing LED's and some of the switch LED's.  With a 18 to 24 hour burn in it's going to take a couple of more days to test all of them.

Day 118

I was up late last night, almost until 2.  So I didn't get up until almost 10.  When I did it was raining cats and dogs.  During breakfast three squirrels showed up in the yard.  I took a shot at one of them, but missed again.  I'm going to have to sight in that rifle again.

After breakfast I investigated how much it would take to build a backstop for Ellen.  Home Depot and Lowe's prices were almost identical - within a dollar.  So we went off to Lowe's.  We stopped for lunch and the post office also.  It was still raining.  It rained most of the day.  It was Oregon weather - 40 degrees and raining.

When we got home I started work on the backstop.  I proved I'd make a crummy framer.  The worst part was trying to figure out the angle for the braces.  I guess I could have used geometry, but I just didn't think about it.

I got the side structures and the bottom structure built.  I just have a few board left to cut and then it will be time to take it outside and assemble it.

I'm still testing LED's.  I still can't start painting because it's too cold.

To top off the day, the zipper on my sweatshirt broke.  I'm going to need a new sweatshirt.

The evening was surfing and TV.  There's a pattern developing here.

Day 117

It was cold today.  It was in the thirties when we got up and didn't get above 50 all day.  I missed another shot at the squirrel.  I'm going to have to re-sight in the rifle when it's warmer.

We had a minor disaster today.  The toilet in the master bath overflowed.  Water and shit all over that end of the bathroom.  We didn't have either a mop or cleaning solution.  So I made a quick trip to HEB.  Everything worked out all right, but it took about an hour and a half.

Ellen vacuumed the trailer while I did some cleanup.  Then we went out for the mail and some water at Costco.  The other things that I'd ordered were at the post office.  We hadn't gotten lunch, so we stopped at Happy Panda before Costco.  At Costco we finally broke down and got an American Express card.  I'll use it instead of the Costco card I carry now.

Now that I have all of the stuff I need I started testing the LED's.  I've got 11 pink ones and 9 blue ones lit right now.  They've been lit for several hours.  One of the pink ones has failed (I may have blown it up).  Two of the blue ones have failed.  I watched one of them fail.  It just slowly faded out.  If any more die I'll probably buy some from a different vendor.  I need 7 of each color for the control panel.

The orange ones are more yellow than orange.  I may have to buy some of those, too.

The rest of the day was surfing, reading, and TV.

Day 116

Ellen informed me late last night that the shoot was yesterday, not today.  So I turned off the alarm and we slept in today.  The weather started out a little crappy, but it warmed up later.  So after some surfing we went out.

We stopped at the post office.  The switches I ordered were there.  Amazing.  Then we stopped at HEB.  It was a zoo like I expected.  There was almost no place to park.  We had to park way down behind the bank.  After that we took Lucy to Circle C.  She did a fair number of retrieves considering how warm it was.  She did get distracted and let a puppy take her bumper away.  I wasn't happy about that.

When we got home we had a late lunch and Ellen fixed me a mojito.  That put me to sleep.  I woke up in time for an early dinner because Ellen was going to archery.  While she was gone I watched the Super Bowl.  It looked like the Seahawks were going to win until they called the dumbest play of the season.  It lost them the game.

The rest of the evening was watching movies on Netflix.