Day 1288

We got up at 7:40 again today.  No special reason, just woke up and didn't want to go back to sleep.  After pet stuff and breakfast it was time to fix the trailer.

I started on the inside step.  It took a fair amount of time to remove all of the stuff in the basement and put it on the picnic table.  Once that was done I took the panel off the basement wall.  It held an antenna connection and a wall plug, so I turned off the AC and batteries first.  Fortunately the panel came off fairly easily.

Access to the step was good, so the next stop was Menards for materials and tools.  The store is incredible.  It's a better hardware and home store than Lowe's or Home Depot.  It also has a lot of home oriented stuff including groceries.  I wish there were some in Austin.  I came back with a 2x4, long wood screws, a hand saw, and some shims.

I measured the length of 2x4 support I needed.  It was kind of a guess, since I couldn't get really good access to the bottom of the steps.  It turned out that I measured it perfectly.  I put in two supports and screwed them down.  Then I put the panel back and put everything back in the basement.  Not actually, I identified a few things that I didn't need.

The next project was to put the patch material on the bottom of the bedroom slide.  That went pretty well, except it didn't stick well.  This part went pretty fast because I had Ellen clean off the old sealant while I was working on the step.  I didn't put new sealant on because I wanted to wait for the patch material to dry.

The final trailer project was to put a handle on the power cable storage panel.  That will save grief if it jams up again.  I also vacuumed out the truck.  It was full of food crumbs from Ellen eating.

By then it was noon, so lunch was a sandwich and crackers.  Then we went on errands.  We stopped at Menards to return the shims and get some paper towels.  Then we went to Sam's club for water, almonds, and hearing aid batteries.  We stopped at CVS for a back scratcher, but they didn't have one.

There was a sporting good place next to CVS.  We went there just to look around.  It was really a lot  like Cabela's.  They had a fantastic collection of high class hunting rifles.  They also had a 20 ga Browning BSS.  I had to remind myself that I'm not buying guns any more.  They also had an indoor mini bowling alley that Ellen really liked.

The last stop was Goodwill to leave off the stuff from the trailer.  Hooch called while we were there.  He had Mom and brunch and said he'd have her call when they were done in 20 minutes.  We drove over to the Fireman's restaurant downtown, ordered some food, and waited for the call.

Mom sounded much better than in the past.  I think the new doctor and reduction in drugs was a very good thing.  When I was done talking we sat and ate for awhile before going back to the trailer.

Lucy hasn't had an interesting couple of days, so I took her for a walk around the perimeter of the park.  She liked that.  Then I surfed and Ellen watched chick flicks for a couple of hours.

Since we'd eaten at 3, we were planning on having salmon and cheese for dinner.  Unfortunately the cheese was moldy.  So we drove to Safeway for more.  I also fueled up for tomorrow.  I think we'll go to Devil's Tower.

When we got back it was 8.  We had salmon and cheese.  Then I surfed and Ellen watched chick flicks.