Day 1251

We got up about 8:15, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then it was some surfing before going out to raise the pole for the weather vane.  I admit to delaying the start some because I was dreading the effort.  I finally got started at 10.  At least the weather was cloudy and relatively cool.  The humidity was about 90% though.

I hauled out all of the things I needed to do the work.  That took awhile by itself.  Then I backed the truck up to the garage.  At that point I had Ellen join the effort.  We slid the pole into the truck.  That actually went much easier than I thought it would.  Then I drove the truck down to the hole.  I lifted the pole out of the bed while Ellen guided it in.  That worked better than I expected also.

The wood brace that I'd built worked as designed.  I had to cut some more of the bush away to give it a good foundation though.  I braced the pole in the other two directions with boards.

I mixed the two 50lb bags of cement with some of the pea gravel that John had bought.  Unfortunately it only filled the hole up about half way.  I left Ellen holding the pole straight while I went to McCoy's for three more bags.  Of course I had to clean the tools first.  The trip took longer than it should have because they were working on Nutty Brown Road.

When I got back I mixed up the rest of the cement with some more pea gravel.  It just filled up the rest of the hole.  Ellen did a good job.  The pole is almost exactly vertical.  We left the supports up.  I cleaned the tools and then put everything away.  It took three hours to do the whole thing.  I was tired and soaked in sweat when we were finished.

I went in and took a shower.  Then I had a turkey sandwich for lunch.  After that we left for the vet to get some more pills for Devyn.  I needed milk and bananas, so we stopped at Central Market.  On the way back we stopped at Lowe's for some more paint for the pole.  It got scratched up when we were installing it.

I'd been promising myself a diet ice cream cone since I took my shower.  So I stopped for one.  We'd had som much fun watching Lucy and Cooper with her hamburger cookie yesterday that we stopped at Tomlinson's for another.  It's Friday and the restaurant across the parking lot was open, so we went over there and sat on the deck.  It was really nice.  They had happy hour, so we had appetizers and drinks.  I had three - the most I've drunk in a long time.

Ellen's asshole was giving her grief so we went home.  It was 5, so I didn't take the dog to the mailbox.  Instead I just fed the pets.  Then it was TV for the rest of the evening.  I just had a couple of snacks.

One note: The pills for Devyn cost $50 - $10 per pill.  Highway robbery.