Day 1863

 I got up about 8.  It was raining hard.  It rained hard until the afternoon.  I did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then I surfed.  It was 35 degrees, so to cold to try to fix the Traeger.

About 11 we went to Central market to by a bunch of stuff.  I also got Melissa bother cake.  This time it was the correct one.  We also stopped by the post office.  There were two ladies, a 60 yr old and her mother standing near our box.  Neither had a mask.  I told them "thank you for not wearing a mask" as I went by.  Not everyone is an idiot.

We stopped at Mickey D's for lunch.  It wasn't as good as a couple of days ago.  Then we went home.  When we got there it was time to take John to turn in the rental car.  As we were coming back the dealership called to say that Isaac's car was ready.  So I took John there.

When I got home I played games and surfed.  John and Melissa came for dinner.  We had left overs.  Melissa liked the new cake.  After dinner we talked until the appointed 8 curfew.

I didn't bother to stay up until midnight.

Day 1862

 I woke up about 8 and played games for almost an hour.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  I did a very little surfing and then went out to work on the Ranger.

I started by fixing the right side door.  It got bent when the Ranger was shipped here.  I took it off and stood on it to bend it back.  The result seems to be successful.  I also lubed the door latches.  They work a lot better now.

I got out the manual and started through the maintenance stuff.  The oil looks really good, so I don't think I'll change it.  I was going to check the side filters.  I tried to remove one.  After loosening one panel I discovered that the whole back panel has to be removed.  I'll leave that for when I have the tool to remove the fasteners.  It should be here today.

I went on to check the rear end fluid.  The inspection plug is supposed to be torqued to 12 foot pounds.  It wouldn't budge with a breaker bar and I broke the socket.  I gave up on that.

I did have success greasing the 12 suspension zerks.  Even that went bad when I dumped the contents of a grease tube when I was reloading the grease gun.  After that I was hot, greasy, and covered in sweat.  It was also lunch time, so I quit.

I went inside for a quick shower.  Then we all had lunch.  It started raining really hard while we were eating.  The temperature dropped 15 degrees in about 10 minutes.  We sat around talking and surfing until the rain stopped.  Then we went to the post office and the jewelry store.  Melissa got the battery changed in her watch in about 10 minutes.  Then it was back home.

Melissa went to the apartment to surf.  I did some online shopping anf ouidn a tool that should let me get the inspection plug out.  We'll see.

Dinner was hamburgers.  The cover broke on the Traeger.  A screw holding it came out.  I think the screw went under the deck.  I won't know until tomorrow.

We talked until 8, the new quitting time.  I surfed and played games for the rest of the evening.

Day 1861

 I got up about 8 today, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Ellen had a doctor's appointment at 10:30, so we couldn't really do anything,  Instead I surfed.  I also did a little bit of shopping at Amazon's bargain page.  I found a couple of things I wanted.

We took Lucy with us when we went to the doctor.  She was really bored.  Apparently Ellen is doing really well.  After the doctor it was Costco for water and dinner stuff.  Then it was the post office and Mickey D's for lunch.  When we got home I went to the garage and did a couple of things.  I put away the battery charger and labelled the new torque wrench and screwdriver bit cases.

I went back to the house and surfed some more.  John and Melissa came over and we talked the afternoon away.  Dinner was the stuff from Costco - chicken Alfredo, Caesar salad, and rolls.  After dinner it was a lot more talking. All of us are appalled at how fake the whole Covid thing is.

They left at 8 again.  It's become tradition.  Our animals get their 8 o'clock snack and so does Reggie.  I spent the rest of the evening playing games.  Ellen watched chick flicks.  One of them she'd seen before.

Day 1860

 We got up at 7:15 and did the pet stuff.  We were on our way to the doctor by 7:43.  It only took us 40 minutes to get to Far West blvd.  There was almost no traffic in either direction the whole way.  

I left Ellen at the doctor and went to a coffee place and a donut shop.  Then I sat in the HEB parking lot and played games while Ellen was in surgery.  There happened to be a pet store there, so I bought dog and cat food.

Ellen was done about 10.  Of course she was out of it when I picked her up.  There was actually a lot more traffic going home than there was coming up.  When we got home I put her to bed.  Then I surfed and played games.  I couldn't do anything else, I had to baby sit her.

John and Melissa came over at 2.  I took John to an Enterprise rental place near Dripping Springs.  This time he got a car.  When we got home I went out and put the new battery cable and dis-connect on the Ranger.  Then I put the battery on the charger.  It only had a 45% charge.

I went back into the house and continued surfing and talking with John.  Melissa came over and started fixing dinner.  It was good.  

After dinner we all talked for hours.  I gave Lucy and Reggie yogurt.  Reggie seemed to like his, but only ate half of it.  Lucy ate cleanup.

When John and Melissa left Ellen watched chick flicks and I surfed.

Day 1859

 I got up about 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then I did some cleaning up.  There were bottles to pick up, garbage to take out, the table needed cleaning, and I even straightened out the table and the cowhides underneath it.  Finally, I put away some of the presents that I got.

I went out to the garage and got out my old mountain bike.  I wanted to see how it fit me.  The short answer is that it doesn't.  I'm too old to comfortably lift my leg over the top bar.  That settled whether I'd get a regular e-bike frame or a step through.  I need to get Ellen out to check her.  I'd like her to get a step through rather than a scooter type.

That was pretty much all I actually accomplished today.  I went inside and watched a bunch of e-bike videos.  I found a different vendor that has a bike I like a lot better than the one I found yesterday.  The problem is they aren't shipping them until sometime in January.  l may wait.

John and Melissa came over.  Melissa found a rental car at the airport.  We went out lunch at Torchy's and then went to pick up the car.  We left them at the airport and started home.  We were at Central Market when they called.  The rental place didn't have a car even though the website has taken money for the rental.

We went back and got them.  Melissa felt better because we'd bought her a birthday cake.  John and I surfed, Melissa painted, and Ellen cooked until dinner.  She fixed chicken thighs on the Traeger.  The also cooked some roast for me.  I consider the stuff she fixed for Christmas raw.  So she put some on with the chicken.  It was good.

The cake wasn't Melissa's favorite kind, but it was the only one they had.  It was good though.  After dinner we talked and then everyone surfed.  They went back to the apartment at 8 when I fed the dog her treat.

I watched e-bike videos for the rest of the evening.

Day 1858

 I woke up about 7:30, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Daniel wasn't up yet, so I just took all of the stuff out to the truck.  By the time I was done he was up and over at the apartment getting coffee.  I went over there and fetched him.  Ellen didn't come, she said she was sick.

We got in the truck and went to Marble Falls.  Daniel signed up to get his driver's license and car license changed to Colorado while we were traveling.  Because of the backup caused by the Chinese flu he won't be able to do it until about two weeks before they expire.  Then we talked about stuff.

The weather was great - 60 degrees and sunny.  I took him around to several stations.  I would shoot half a dozen shells and then let him shoot.  He did really well.  We got about half way through the course when Ellen called and said to come home.  Isaac and Bella wanted to drive back to Dallas and he needed to go with them.  They are taking his parent's car.  Their car is at the dealership and won't be looked at until Monday.

Melissa was not happy about the car.  She wasn't happy about the new phone she got today either.  The salesman at Costco screwed up the initialization feature.  John spent quite a while screwing with it.  He finally called Verizon, sat on hold, and eventually got a tech that more or less fixed it.  It still has some rough edges though.

We sat around all evening talking.  Melissa did sewing, John worked on her phone, I started the Lego Yoda John and Melissa bought me, and Ellen played scooter.  It was fun.

They left about 8:30.  I spent until 11:30 listening to song covers from a list that I found on the web.  Some of them were really good.  I stopped to go to bed.  There are more to listen to tomorrow.

Day 1857

 I got up about 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Daniel wasn't up, so I just surfed.  He got up after 9.  We talked for a little while and then he went to the apartment for coffee.

I continued looking for e-bikes.  It turns out that adding a kit to my bike will leave me with a less than optimal solution.  It would be workable, but it wouldn't have some important features or the quality components that a production bike had.  I ended up being pretty sure I'd of the one I wanted to buy.  It's between 50 and 100% more than a kit.  I'm rich.

Later on Ellen found out that Cliffy has an e-bike by the manufacturer that I picked.  He really likes it.  That pretty much cements my decision.

John and Melissa came over with Daniel.  We talked for a while.  John called Isaac, the car was still sick.  John went to look at it.  Melissa started working on dinner.  Ellen was cooking the roast.

Eventually John bought Isaac and his girlfriend.  We spent hours sitting around the kitchen table talking and surfing.  Daniel had all of the NBA games on.  Apparently he'd bet on all of them.  Of course we opened presents.  Everyone got cool stuff.  I think Isaac and Bella liked all of the stuff we'd put aside for them to sell.

Dinner was a production again.  We had roast beef, loaded baked potatoes, and grilled asparagus.  After dinner was more surfing, NBA watching, and talking.  Isaac started playing online poker with his dad.  They won a little.

Melissa wasn't finished.  She fixed bread and cheese about 2 hours after dinner.

John took Issac and his girlfriend home about 8:30.  Daniel went with them.  I spent some time cleaning up.  I made two trips to the garbage and one to the recycle.  The recycle is getting pretty full.  After that we just waited for Daniel to get back.

Daniel wants to go shooting tomorrow, so we'll get up early to go to Marble Falls.  We have to go early because everyone wants to get together to have lunch to celebrate Melissa's birthday.

Day 1856

 I woke up after 8 and played some games before getting up.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I went to the HEB in Dripping Springs for some last minute food items.  I went there because I thought it would be faster and less crowded.  The problem was the trip was slow due to jerks who couldn't drive the speed limit and construction on RR12.  I took 290 back.  The store was fairly empty, especially the 10 item line, which is what I used.

The order of the day was waiting for the kids to show up.  They didn't show up until 5.  Most of the day was spent talking with John and Melissa, watching car shows, and surfing.  I did go out to put the battery shutoff on the Ranger.  I couldn't because it didn't fit the battery cable.  I ordered one from Amazon.  I also spent quite a bit of time looking at e-bikes.

Melissa spent a lot of time preparing dinner.  Ellen helped a little when I chided her.  We had the brisket Ellen fixed.  It was good.  The rest of the dinner was salad, bread, lobster bisque, and crab legs.  It was quite a meal.  After dinner was a lot of talking.

Isaac and his girlfriend left about 9.  They are staying in Bee Cave.  We got a call a little later.  Their check engine light was on and the engine was making funny noises.  John told them to drive it to the hotel.

After that John and Melissa left.  I sat in the living room and talked with Daniel for a couple of hours.  He and I agree on just about everything.  Then we went to bed.

Day 1855

 I woke up before 9, but played games until 10.  Then I got up and had breakfast.  After about an hour John and Melissa came over.  I left with them and we went over to Circle C for a walk.

When we got back I went out to the garage to put one of the new batteries on the charger.  That devolved into trying to securely fasten the charger to the peg board.  That turned into a comedy of errors involving several different types of peg board hooks and a lot of wasted zip ties.  I finally got what I wanted done.

I went back to the house, had lunch (leftovers) and did some more surfing.  Eventually I went outside and talked with John on the deck for a while.  It was 80 degrees and Melissa came too.  We didn't spend a lot of time out there before the mosquitoes drove us inside.

We did a little more surfing and then ordered dinner from the Italian place.  John and I ad pizza.  Ellen and Melissa had spaghetti and meatballs.  John and I went to pick it up.  He got the food while I made a quick stop at HEB for stuff for tomorrow.

After dinner we all sat around playing games and surfing.  There was very little talking,  It was actually very comfortable.

Day 1854

 I woke up a little after 8.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  I surfed a while and then it was time to go with John and Melissa to Costco.

Because we were early it wasn't too crowded.  We bought $150 worth of groceries.  Then we went to HEB and bought a whole lot more stuff. After that we went home and unloaded everything.

I did a little more surfing and then John and I went to the Texas state surplus place.  It was interesting.  There were bins of knives and hand tools that had been confiscated at airports.  There was also a lot of old office furniture and office stuff like staplers.  John bought some tools and I bought another 5/8 wrench.  We stopped at the post office on the way home.

When we got home it was surfing.  Melissa was knocking herself out cleaning.  She was even scrubbing the floor by hand.  I let her bee, she likes doing it.  She also fixed ham steaks and potatoes for dinner.

After dinner we watched the greatest Christmas movie ever filmed - Diehard.  When it was finished they went home and we went to bed.

Day 1853

 We got up at 5:30, did the pet stuff, and left for the doctor.  We got there in plenty of time, there was almost no cars on the road.  I dropped Ellen off and then went back home.

All I could do today was wait for phone calls, so I just surfed.  They finally called for me to come get Ellen about 1.  I got her, put gas in the car, went to the post office, and bought some lunch.  We were home about 2.

Ellen was completely out of it.  I put her to bed and went back to surfing.  John and Melissa came over about an hour later.  We sat around, talked, and surfed while Ellen snored.

Dinner was sandwiches made up of leftovers.  After dinner we watched the last two Mandalorian episodes.  Apparently there won't be a 3rd season.  That means we'll be cancelling Disney.

We went to bed after the show was done.

Day 1852

 We got up about 8.  After pet stuff and breakfast I did some internet shipping.  I wanted to get brighter lightbulbs for the truck's fog lights.  No  luck.  I went outside to look at access to the lights.  That lead me to looking under the hood for the first time.  It was pretty impressive.

I ended up getting out the step stool from the garage.  John came out and we talked for quite a while.  Then we both went into the house.  Melissa followed shortly.

We all sat around surfing and talking for a while.  Then we went to the Cajun place for lunch.  After that we went to Central Market.  We bought shrimp for dinner and a roast for Christmas dinner.  From there it was back home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at the table talking and surfing.  Ellen fixed the shrimp on the Traeger for dinner.  After dinner we watched the Mandalorian on the TV.

It was early to bed.  Ellen needs to be at the doctor for surgery at 6:30 tomorrow.

Day 1851

 I got up about 8 and played games until after 9.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast it was surfing.  I also did a few little things in preparation for John and Melissa.  I took some stuff to the apartment and garage.  I also finished preparing the guest bedroom.

We went out to get the mail and a few things at the grocery store.  Then we came home for lunch.  While we were out the alarm company called saying that the alarm wasn't responding to queries.  I called them and was on hold for half an hour.  When they finally answered the tech ran a query.  The alarm worked fine.  Oh well.

After that it was surfing until John and Melissa showed up around 4.  We talked for awhile and then they went to the apartment to unpack.  Then they came over and we had dinner.  Ellen fixed steaks on the Traeger.

After dinner was hours of talking.  About 10:30 we called it quits and went to bed.

Day 1850

 I woke up about 8.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I did a little internet shopping.  When that was done we went to an estate sale.  I scored a couple of small items.

We were completely out of bird seed, so we went to Tractor Supply.  We bought 105 lbs of it.  Then we stopped in Dripping Springs for lunch.  The last stop was Home Depot for some stainless steel cleaner and water softener salt.

When we got home I put away the salt and put the bird seed in the containers.  I also mounted the two battery powered lights in the shed.  They were my estate sale score.

After that was a little surfing.  Then there was a lot of TV.  I watched half a dozen episodes of Roadkill.  Ellen fixed sausage in the middle of it.  About 9 I got tired and surfed for the rest of the evening.

These last few days have been quite a change from the heavy pace I had for the first5 or six weeks we were here.

Day 1849

 I woke up at 7 today, but played games until almost 9.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.

John and Melissa are coming tomorrow, so today was cleaning day.  I started out by clearing off the table and cleaning it.  Then I started on the kitchen counters and sink.  That took quite a while.  When that was done I took out the garbage.  I also took some stuff out to the garage and put it away.  I plugged in the refrigerator and the air freshener.  That makes the place fairly livable.

It was cold last night - mid 20's.  It warmed up to 70 though.  I had to change from a heavy shirt to a t-shirt.  After lunch we went to the post office.  Ellen filled out a whole bunch of Christmas cards yesterday and they needed to be mailed.  Then we stopped at HEB for a couple of things.  We also stopped at Tomlinson's to buy Lucy a treat.

We cut Lucy's toe nails when we got home.  She really didn't enjoy the process.  She did enjoy the after dogacure treat though.

The rest of the afternoon was surfing.  Dinner was BLT's.  After dinner was more surfing while Ellen watched chick flicks.

Day 1848

 We got up at 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then we left to go to Ellen's eye appointment.  It was up at Far West Blvd, but we were there in about half an hour.  I sat in the car while she went in.

After she was finished the last thing I wanted to do was go home.  So we went to Harbor Freight instead.  I needed a 5/8 wrench to put in the truck.  It's the only way to remove the trailer hitch now.  They had what I wanted, but they were sold out.  I tried both Lowe's and Home Depot also, neither had what I wanted.

It was only 40 degrees, so I stopped for coffee.  When that was open we went to lunch at a place we hadn't been to in a long time.  It was OK, but a little expensive  Did I mention I didn't want to go home.  After lunch though there wasn't much else to do.

When I got home I surfed for awhile until the temp warmed up to 55 or so.  Then I got out the new leaf blower and blew the leaves off the parking area and the deck.  The new blower isn't as powerful as the 110 one, but it does the job.

When that was finished I had Ellen cut my hair on the deck.  It was warm enough and I really needed a haircut.  Then it was TV followed by TV.  Dinner was leftovers.

After dinner we watched a movie and then more TV shows.

Day 1847

 I woke up a little after 8.  It was cold, but I still just got up and did the pet stuff and breakfast.  When that was done I went to work on the surplus computer.

My original intent was to delete all of the applications on it since I couldn't reset it.  I started with Firefox.  Just getting the history stuff off it was a nightmare because it was so slow.  After a couple of hours I decided that no one is going to want this thing.  I wiped all of the identifying info, changed the password, and put it in the closet.

I really wanted to tie up loose ends, so I went into the guest bedroom and finished cleaning it up.  It's ready if the nephew comes for Christmas.

After that it was a little surfing and lunch.  Then we went to the post office and the grocery store.  We went to Randall's because they have some stuff I wanted that HEB doesn't have.

When we got home I went out to the garage and drilled out a hole for a model Ellen is putting together.  It was the last useful thing I did today.

The rest of the day was a little surfing followed by a lot of TV.  I'm getting really tired of surfing.

Day 1846

 I didn't get up until almost 10 today.  I actually woke up at 7, again at 8, and then 10.  Finally I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I took out the garbage - it was 33 degrees out.

I decided to start to acquire stuff for an electric bike.  Finding a kit was easy, and they are not very expensive.  The problem is finding a battery that will match.  All of the batteries are right at the limit of what will fit on the bike.  I'm really not sure if the ones that are available will fit at all.

After looking at kits and batteries for hours I decided to quit and try more some other day.  Instead I went back to the computer we want to give away.  Ellen found a way she thought would do a factory reset.  It took a lot of time to find out it didn't work.  That's because the computer is so slow.  It takes several minutes just to boot.  I gave up on that, too.  I'll have to delete all of the applications by hand.

After a little surfing it was time for dinner - leftovers.  After dinner I did some more surfing and then switched to TV for the rest of the night.

Day 1845

 I woke up about 8:15 and lay in bed for a little while.  then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was take out a lot of garbage.  I also switched the container in the apartment that had the nephew's stuff for another one.  That was about all the chores for today.

I spent hours today cleaning off files from the computer we're going to give away.  I finally got everything I wanted on a hard drive.  I used a "shredder" program to kill all of the files that don't want anyone to be able to recover.  Then I did a de fragment, which makes recovery more difficult.

The final jog will be a factory reset.  I'll do that tomorrow if what Ellen found works.

After that it was lunch and surfing.  Eventually we left to go to a pet store for cat food.  We also stopped at the post office.  There was a package there.  There was another at the gate.

When we got home I did a little more surfing and then started watching TV.  That's what I felt like doing, and I was sick of listening to chick flicks.  I watched TV for the rest of the night.

Ellen fixed meatloaf for dinner.  It was really good.

Day 1844

 I didn't get up until 9.  I purposely slept in because it felt good.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast it was outside.

I installed the new hitch pin lock on the truck.  It was easy and didn't take much time.  Then I put away all of the stuff form the guest bedroom that belonged in the garage.  That took quite a bit longer.  That pretty much completed the tasks I had for today.  I went back inside and surfed for awhile while Ellen worked on her model.  I also plugged in the two tablets and computer that we want to give away.

Just before noon we left for the grocery store.  We needed quite a few groceries.  We stopped at Dominos and the coffee place for lunch first.  We sat outside with the dog.  We had a Hawaiian pizza, so she got some pineapple.

When we got back home I started to clean off the two tablets that we want to give away.  After checking everything that was stored on them I used the "set to factory default" function to clear both.

The computer was a lot harder.  First of all, it's dog slow.  It can take 30 seconds for File Explorer to come up.  I really can't see how I lived with it.  It also had some sort of problem that kept it from recognizing a USB drive.  That took quite awhile to fix.  I'm still not sure how I managed to do it.

Then I started examining and moving files.  After several hour's work I managed to go through the Download and Document directories.  I still have to go through Music, Pictures, and a few others.  Ellen said there's a way to do a factory reset.  I hope so, otherwise it's going to be a long hard process removing the apps.

Ellen fixed bacon wrapped quail on the Traeger for dinner.  It was really good.

I quit about 9.  I'm going to see if I can pry Ellen away from chick flicks so I can watch something else before bedtime.

Day 1843

 I got up about 8:15 this morning.  After pet stuff and breakfast I had very little to do.  There was a little more stuff to do in the guest bedroom, but I didn't feel like it.  So I surfed.  Ellen retrieved an airbrush and a couple of half finished models from the back storage building.  They've been there for 10 years.

One model is a Model T that she was building.  The other was a self propelled canon that I was building.  She started working on the Model T.  I kept surfing.  I'll probably finish the model when I get some adhesive.

About 11 it was time to go to the post office.  We had a package that needed to be mailed.  I also wanted to got to an estate sale and Rudy's.  I actually got what I wanted at the sale.  I bought two plastic storage boxes for $2.25 a piece.  I filled them up with the stuff for the nephew when we got home.

The rest of the day was surfing - did I mention it was raining?  Ellen switched to chick flicks around dinner time.  Dinner was mac and cheese with ham.

After dinner was more surfing until I got bored and did some reading.

Day 1842

 I woke up at 9, I didn't sleep well last night.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I did a little surfing.  Then I attacked the next items on the todo list - put on the new trailer hitch and clean up the guest room.

The trailer hitch was easy and didn't take long.  The guest room took hours.  I cleaned out the closet.  A little bit of the stuff stayed, but most went either to the nephew or Goodwill.  I also had a bunch of old Legs that I set aside for the nephew.  I even found a few knives.  I also found a cool multi-tool which I put in the Ranger.  There's also a box of other stuff for the garage that I took out, but didn't put away.

While I was doing that Ellen was cleaning out the files.  There was a whole bunch of Medicare stuff from years past.  I sure seem to spend a lot of expensive time in the hospital.  By the time we were finished it was after 2.

We got in the car and took all of the stuff to Goodwill.  Then we had a really late lunch at Sonic.  There was just enough time to stop at CVS before Ellen had to go teach the kids.  Just after she left the Dewalt blower and trimmer came.  I opened the box and put both of them together.  Then I surfed until dinner - leftovers.

After dinner was TV until 9.  That got boring, so I surfed for the rest of the evening.

Day 1841

 I woke up at 8, but played games for awhile before getting up.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  I did a little surfing and then went out to take out the garbage.

When I got to the garbage can the package with the diodes was out by the gate opener.  It wasn't there last night.  Hurray.  I could finish the Ranger.  I went back to the garage and started work.

It wasn't hard.  All I had to do was solder the diode to a lead and connect the lead to the timer.  That went well.  The most work was getting out the stuff I put away when I finished the earlier work.  The new soldering iron and heat gun made it easy.  I also shortened to the radio.  It was almost a foot longer than it needed to be.  The last step was cleaning the windshield inside and out.  We could barely see through it when the sun shined on it.

It's really great to have the Ranger done.  Now all that remains is to wait and see if the battery still dies.

While I was out the hitch people called.  The hitch was in.  So we went out to get it.  I also wanted to buy Ellen lunch since she spent the morning shortening and patching my pants.

We ended up eating at Central Market because the place we liked to go to on 290 died due to the Chinese flu.  We actually saw the owner at the store.  Then we went home.

I unloaded things and then surfed for the rest of the afternoon.  Dinner was leftovers from lunch.

After dinner was TV and some game playing.

Day 1840

 We got up about a quarter to 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then we went to Ellen's eye doctor appointment.  She was there for quite awhile.  The doctor said he could justify the surgery to Medicare.

While that was going on I made an appointment for a yearly checkup.  I also did some internet shopping.  When she was done we went over to a place that had the trailer hitch I wanted.  They didn't have it in stock, but said they would have it tomorrow.  By then it was about noon, so we went to the post office.

There was a lot of stuff in the mailbox, including a couple of letters from Medicare about my surgery in August.  If we are reading it right, they sure don't pay much for the services.  We went to the Italian place for lunch.  Of course Lucy got a treat at Tomlinson's.  The last stop was HEB.

When we got home I surfed and Ellen went to teach the kids.  I had a frozen dinner for dinner.

After dinner was TV.

It felt good to have a day not working.  I won't be doing anything tomorrow, someone stole the package with the diode.

Day 1839

 I got up a little after 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then it was back out to the garage.

I started out by looking through all of my train stuff for a diode.  The only ones I found were electronics ones which wouldn't handle the power.  So I made a quick trip back into the house and ordered some from Amazon.  My only alternative was driving to Fry's.  They should be here tomorrow.

Then it was back to the garage.  I started to work out how the switch for the dash worked.  I needed a 12V supply, so I got one out of the well house.  It didn't have clips on the leads, so I got out the new soldering iron and installed some.  That took linger than it should have because I kept doing things wrong.  The new soldering iron was great though.

I used the supply to identify the switch leads.  Then I went to look at the leads in the Ranger that I removed from the old switch.  I found something puzzling.  Both were ground wires.  It turns out that I'd marked a +12 wire as a ground when I was doing rewiring a few days ago.  It's good I did, it would have caused a short to ground.  I fixed the wiring and removed the extraneous wires.  By then it was after 1 and time for lunch.

After lunch and some surfing I went back out.  I finished the wiring harness for the dash switch.  Then I installed the switch and the harness.  That actually completed the wiring except for one wire that I can't do until the diode gets here.  I tightened down all of the terminals and tested everything.  To my delight everything worked.  The phantom leak in the interior light is still there though.  I have no idea why.

After the successful test I put the Ranger back together.  I can finish the last wire under the hood.  Then I put away all the tools and cleaned up.  There was quite a mass of wire that I removed.  It all went in the garbage.

When I was finished I got Ellen and Lucy and we took a ride around the development in the Ranger.  Lucy really enjoyed the smells.  The rig really needs a tune up.  I put it back in the garage with a battery charger on it.

Ellen fixed BLT's for dinner.  After dinner I surfed and watched some TV.  It's great to have the Ranger back together.  I hope the battery drain issue is fixed.  It will  be awhile before I know.

Day 1838

 I woke up at 8 and got out of bed about 9.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was back out to the garage.

The first task wasn't on the todo list.  I had to put new heat shrink on the interior light wire, tape it up, and put it back in the wire protector.  I also got the first thing on the list done, connecting the clock.  Then it was on to figuring out the timer box.  That took the rest of the day.

It turned out that the schematic that I'd put in the box had an error in it.  I finally figured that out.  I decided to trace every wire and make a new schematic.  That took awhile.  Then I got out the multi-meter and started measuring things.  I wanted to make sure that my schematic matched what was really happening.  That's when I ran into Chinese engineering.

The IN input on the timer relay is connected to +12 on the battery.  For some reason when the relay is off there is 12V between it and the NO relay output.  If I try to measure the current flow (.1A), the timer turns on.  If I Ohm between the NO terminal and the GND input there is no connection.  I'm not sure how that could happen.  I do think that that potential is what drains the battery.  

I didn't get any lunch and it was about 4, so I decided to quit for the day.  Also I was being attacked by mosquitoes.  After some time I went back out to run a couple of tests that proved that the circuit works the way I want it to.  

All this accomplished three things.  I have a correct schematic.  I discovered a design error - I need a diode in one of the connections.  Finally, I located how to put the dash switch to insure that there is no leakage from the circuit.

All in all the effort was successful, I'm just unhappy that it took most of the day.  Hopefully I have a diode in the railroad stuff so I can finish up tomorrow.

Ellen fixed bacon wrapped chicken for dinner.  After that it was TV and a little reading.

Day 1837

 I woke up at 8, but didn't get up until almost 10.  I had a cool game going.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  Then it was out to the garage.

I started by making a couple of connections that I'l left from yesterday.  Then I started investigating how the radio control box worked.  Fortunately I'd left a schematic in the box.  Unfortunately there were parts I couldn't under stand.  I started with one of the box inputs.  I traced out one of the inputs.  Things didn't make sense.  After a lot of work I removed one of the switches in the circuit.  It was broken.  That cost me a lot of time.

The next step was a wire pair the disappeared under the body.  I had to take some of the flooring out to trace it.  It turned out to be an unused wire.  By then it was 1:30 and time for lunch.

After lunch I put the flooring together and started on some other wiring.  I decided to change the way the battery and clock maintenance were wired.  Then I tore out the top button wiring.  I'm going to need to use that switch to replace the broken one.

By then it was almost 5.  I wrote a todo list for tomorrow and went inside.  After some surfing Ellen fixed sausage and pancakes for dinner.

After dinner I surfed the whole evening.  I'm hoping that I get the whole rig together tomorrow.

Day 1836

I woke up about 8:30.  After pet stuff and breakfast we left to get the car a safety certificate.  I had Ellen drop me off at Lowe's while she got the certificate.

I walked around Lowe's looking for a terminal block.  No luck.  I tried several combinations of things before settling on the simple - two bolts in an electrical box.  By then Ellen was finished and picked me up.  We stopped at the post office and then went home.

I went out and started work in the garage.  Finding the right combination of bolts and lock nuts for the box took quit awhile.  Then I installed the box.  Somewhere along the way I tore a label off a wire - that's tomorrow's problem.  I ignored the label and started reconnecting everything that I took off yesterday,

I stopped for lunch about 1, did a little surfing, and went back out.  I got rid of a lot of unnecessary wire.  It took time though because I had to make a lot of new connections.  I worked until after 5.  I had two connections left to do, but they were fighting me, so I just quit.

Ellen fixed ham and cheese omelets for dinner.  After dinner I watched some TV and a movie.  Ellen is taping every damn Christmas chick flick that's broadcast.  She'll be watching them until the fourth of July.

Day 1835

 I woke up about 8 and got out of bed about 9.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I took out the garbage and put the ranger in the garage.

I spent a lot of time figuring out the wiring I'd installed.  I'd done it over time, one device at a time.  Nothing was labelled.

The backup camera was hosed, so I removed it.  Just tracing those wires was a chore.  Then I started tracing power and ground leads.  I labelled every one I found and removed the connections from the terminal block.  Eventually I'll install a secondary terminal block under the dash.  Unfortunately I will have to go buy one.

I managed to identify all of the wiring except for the wiring of the power delay.  I use that to make the radio and interior light turn off after the key is turned off.  I spent a lot of time trying to find out why the interior light is half on with the switch off.  I didn't come up with anything.

I didn't come up with anything as a cause for the battery dying.  The only wire connected to the non-switched terminal is a factory wire.  At least I think it is.

I quit at that point since I'd been working more than 5 hours on it.  Tomorrow I'll get a terminal block and install it.  I'll reconnect everything and see what happens.

I had a phone call from Grant.  He's going to get the set up paperwork to me.  He says the government is likely to keep the estate from being closed for at least 6 months.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening surfing.  Ellen fixed me a mojito and ham for dinner.

I'm getting really tired of Christmas chick flicks.  Adding Christmas to an already crappy genre should be considered criminal.

Day 1834

 We woke up at 8, but played games until 9.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  It was a lot warmer than yesterday.

When that was done there was a little surfing.  The it was time to get some stuff accomplished.  I took the rest of the Christmas stuff back to the apartment.  then I took the recycling and the garbage to the cans.  That took three trips.  Then the cans went out to the street.

Ellen had to go to the doctor, so that was the next activity.  It turns out that her thyroid nodes are bigger.  She's going to have it removed just before Christmas.  Then we went to HEB for some much needed groceries.  After that it was back home and leftovers for lunch.

There was a package at the gate that contained some lights for the playhouse.  I took them out and installed them.  I also took off the door latch and modified it to make it work better.  After that I'd run out of things to do.

It was warm, so I wanted to drive Lucy around the neighborhood in the Ranger.  Unfortunately the battery was dead.  I put a charger on it.  I also have a project for tomorrow - find the battery drain.

I did some reading and then watched TV until dinner.  Ellen fixed ham.  After dinner I watched a movie and some more TV.

Day 1833

 We woke up at 7, but didn't get out of bed until 9.  It was another cold morning, a little below freezing.  After breakfast and pet stuff it was time to get out the Christmas tree.

The latch on the tree container broke while I was hauling it into the house.  The container was expensive, around $100.  I assembled the tree and then took the container back to the garage to try to fix it.  I tried several ideas to fix it, but I couldn't assemble the parts I needed.  I finally decided on quick and dirty - two bolts with wing nuts.  It looks like it will work fine.

The I went out and put the lights up at the gate and on the back deck.  Untangling them took some time, maybe more than the actual installation.  

After that it was lunch and some surfing.  I was tired of accomplishing things.  Ellen went to teach the kids.  A little after she left Hooch called.  He wanted to talk about Mom's estate.  Apparently there's some complications due to Oregon law.  He really just wanted to discuss it with someone.  We decided to hire a lawyer.  The whole call took almost 2 hours.

I called Ellen and told her to bring home some food.  She brought hamburgers.  They were OK, but really big.

After dinner was TV.

Devon has been acting strange all day.  It's like he's really disoriented.  I hope that polyp isn't growing back.

Day 1832

 We didn't get out of bed until after 10 today.  We were up much earlier, we just stayed in bed.  It was cold last night and cold this morning.  We didn't have any reason to get up.  When we did it was pet stuff and breakfast.

After breakfast I started to load up the truck with the stuff for Goodwill.  There was a big box in the house, bag of stuff and several other things in the garage, and the old garage cabinet.  Once it was all loaded we left.

I needed one thing - an extension cord.  I looked in Goodwill, none.  I did get a hedge clipper though.  I looked at the home store - none.  BTW it looked like the locusts had hit it.  There were many bare and almost bare shelves.  A week ago they were full.  I also looked at Target - no cords.  At that point is said fuck it - that's why God invented Amazon.

We stopped at Costco for toothbrushes (on sale) and water.  We also got a cake.  Then we went to lunch at Kerby's.  It was pretty good.  I'm going to have to remember to go there more often.

When we got home we put everything away.  I did a little surfing and then glued together the Lego baby Yoda.  Devon is going to get a surprise tomorrow when I put the two glued together figures out.

Ellen fixed pork chops for dinner.  They're good, but I'm getting tired of pork chops.

After dinner was recorded shows.  I started to watch a taped movie, but it wasn't a good one.  I deleted it after about 15 minutes.

Day 1831

 I woke up at 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  After that it was back out to the garage.

The first task was to move the stuff that I'd earmarked for the playhouse.  It took three trips to move everything,  I also installed another battery powered light there.  There's still a lot of room left if I want to put in more.

After that it was back to work on the garage shelves.  I still had several shelves left to go over.  I ended up throwing a few things away, but mainly it was just rearranging stuff.  It's amazing how much less room things take when they are carefully arranged rather than just heaped on a shelf.  The effort took until a little after noon.

I went back to the house and spent a little time surfing.  Then we left to go to Wally World.  I had a list of things to get to finish the garage organization.  We didn't go anywhere else except lunch at a Thai place.

When we got home I didn't feel like doing anything , so I surfed.  Eventually that got boring, so I went back out to the garage.  I put the last few things away.  One of the big things was putting all of the instruction manuals in a file folder.  I threw a couple away because they were for things I no longer had.

Ellen had dinner ready when I got back to the house.  It was sausage and scalloped potatoes.  After that I watched a couple of movies that I'd taped the other days.  I choose some good movies.

When the movies were done I did a little surfing and went to bed.

Day 1830

 I got up at 8:30 - I decided to sleep in.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  It rained all day, so I wasn't going to be hauling anything to the playhouse.  Instead I just went out to the garage to continue the cleanup/reorganization.

I started by cutting a replacement shelf for the cabinet I'm going to take to Goodwill.  That makes it useful and I was going to through the material away anyway.  Then I started on a big mess - the cleaning stuff.  Some of the bottles had leaked, covering the containers and the shelves with a sticky mess.  It took quite awhile to clean it up.

Somehow that morphed into cleaning up the pile of scrap wood.  It was so disorganized that I really couldn't make use of it.  It took a long time to straighten it out.  Now I can easily see and access what I have.  While I was doing that I noticed a piece of insulation had fallen off the wall, so I reattached it.

At that point I needed to get some more plastic containers to organize all of the stuff that had just been piled on the shelves.  It was also past lunch time.  So I went back to the house for some lunch and surfing.  After that we went to the post office and the Home place.  I got several plastic containers.  We also stopped for coffee and Domino's sandwiches (for dinner).  When we got home I went back out to the garage.

The containers were just the ticket.  I got all of the cleaning stuff put away along with the sanding sponges.  That cleared up a lot of formally messy shelf space.  I also cleaned up the rope/cord and nails/screws stuff.  It all looks pretty nice now.

That was as much as I wanted to do, so it was back to the house for some more surfing.  I fed the dogs.  We had the Domino's sandwiches for dinner.  They were good.

After dinner I watched two movies that I'd recorded off HBO.  They were both really good.  After that I was tired of movies, so the rest of the evening was surfing.

Day 1829

 I got up at 8:15.  After pet stuff and breakfast I went out to the garage again.  I started out by putting away some of the stuff that I'd left out yesterday.  I also switched one of the range bags around that I set up yesterday.  All of that took time, but didn't accomplish anything.

The "just switch cabinet contents" has evolved into "rearrange and reorganize the whole garage".  I started with one of the storage shelves.  I moved some of the current contents to the cabinet.  I took some of the stuff and put it in the Goodwill pile.  I even replaced one of the shelves.  When I was done I had a "garden tools, cleaning tools, and other tools" set of shelves.  It looks a lot better and I can now find things easily in those shelves.

I still have several shelves to go.  I'm really pleased with how the first one turned out, so I'm motivated to continue.  However, it is kind of a pain.  I stopped about noon because I just didn't feel like doing anything else.

I went back to the house and had lunch (leftovers).  Then I surfed for a while.  Then I decided to go out.  My two pairs of jeans are years old and pretty worn.  I wanted to take advantage of the Black Friday sales to get new ones.

We started at the post office.  No mail.  Then it was Target to look for Christmas lights.  We didn't find any, but I did find another Lego Mandalorian kit like Devon destroyed.  So I bought it even though it's on my Christmas list. I also bought some glue to glue it together with.

After that it was Kohl's for jeans.  They were $40 a pair, but that's better than the $55 a pair they are when they are not on sale.  We also stopped at the pet store for cat and dog food.  Of course Lucy got treats.

When we got home I started to put the Lego kit together.  I found out that gluing it with epoxy that has a 10 second set time is a little challenging.  The parts are designed to wiggle a little when you are assembling them.  The glue doesn't allow this and makes assembly harder some times.  I got halfway through and quit.

Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner was TV.  I also set up a bunch of movie recordings because HBO and others are free through the weekend.

Day 1828

 I woke up a little before 7.  Ellen was up with her phone and the light woke me up.  There was no way I was going back to sleep.  The light had convinced  my body that it was morning.  So I got up and did the pet stuff.

I'd been thinking about getting all of the iPod stuff together for Isaac to sell.  I ended up looking all over the house for stuff.  It was scattered all over - in the headboard, in the bedroom stereo cabinet, and attached to the living room stereo.  That was the worse.  It took some effort to get it unconnected.  Somehow searching the bathroom closet turned into a major operation.

I ended up with going through the whole closet making three piles - garbage, Goodwill, and keep.  I got rid of a lot of empty boxes for items that we'd bought over the years.  I didn't get finished until almost 11.  Then I had mush for a really late breakfast.

I was kind of tired after that.  I did a little surfing and then watched TV.  Ellen had spent the entire morning smoking the turkey and fixing potatoes, stuffing, and cranberries.  We ate about 1:30.

Hooch had a Zoom meeting set up at 2.  It took awhile for him to get the whole thing set up.  It worked pretty well eventually, except everyone had to be really careful to leave their mic muted unless they were talking.  I don't see how anyone would consider it a good way to hold a class.

When the zoom was done it was more TV.  About 4 I went out to the garage to get something accomplished for the day.  I ended up emptying all of the range bags.  I ended up sorting everything and putting the results in three bags.  I'm going to keep one of the others for a spare and the last one is going to Goodwill.

After that I went back to the house for more TV.  That was basically it for the rest of the evening.

Day 1827

 I woke up at 7:30, but didn't get out of bed until almost 9.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  When that was finished I went out to the garage.

I spent a lot of time moving the stuff from the old cabinet to the new.  Part of that was because there was a lot of stuff.  The other thing was that I tried to organize the stuff in the new cabinet.  I also put some stuff from the garage shelves in the cabinet.  Finally, I moved the new cabinet into position and attached it to the wall.  That seemed like a good idea since there's a lot of weight in it.

When I was looking at stuff on the garage shelves I identified some stuff for the playhouse, so I took it there.  I also started a small Goodwill pile.  There's a lot more work to go in sorting through stuff.

By then it was lunch time, so I went back to the house.  I surfed and had lunch until it was time to go to the doctor.

When I got to the doctor they asked for a urine sample.  Of course I'd just taken a piss before I drove there.  With a lot of effort I supplied half an ounce or so.  The meeting with the doctor was short and sweet.  My PSA is down, although it's still a little high.  There are some other markers that look good.  The normal value is 15 - 20 percent.  Higher is better.  Mine is 29%.  I went home feeling good.

When I got home I went back out to the garage.  I had to sort out my sockets in order to see what I wanted to add to my Christmas list.  I have a lot of sockets.  It took almost an hour.  When I was done I went back to the house and mailed off the list.  Then I had leftovers for dinner.

After dinner was TV until I got tired of it.  Then it was surfing.

Day 1826

 I woke up at 8, but played games until 9.  After breakfast and pet stuff I went to the garage to put together the cabinet we bought yesterday.

There were a LOT of pieces.  That's because it's a 6 foot cabinet packaged in a 3 foot box.  The walls and doors were made up of two panels a piece.  The back was four panels.  Everything was held together with screws.  Unfortunately the screws were cheap Chinese shit.  That meant the using a driver broke them off.  I had to use a screwdriver.

The instructions said use 2 people.  The only place that was really necessary was attaching the walls to the top.  I got by with a 90 degree clamp.  It wasn't easy though.

The result is a pretty cool cabinet.  It took me until 1:30 to assemble it.  Did I mention the huge number of parts?  Then I hauled the packing to the garbage.  The guy that designed it owned plastic bag and Styrofoam factories.  The cans are almost full.

Grant emailed me asking for information for the new accounts.  He had a secure email system, so I spent some time describing our finances for him.

Lunch was a brisket sandwich.  After some surfing we left to go grocery shopping.  We needed a lot, including the last ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner.  HEB was packed.  When we got home it was a little surfing and then sloppy joe's for dinner.  Hooch asked for a Christmas list.  I really don't have much I want, so I spent the evening looking for stuff on the web.  I found a few things.

I also had a long text conversation with Hooch.  We talked about the final things to settle the estate.  He's a little worried about how Tony will take the trust.  I tried to make him feel better.

Day 1825

 We got up at 8.  After breakfast and pet stuff I went out to work out what size shelter I could have for the Ranger.  I'd been thinking about it all last night.

I spent some time with tape measures and some levels to work out I could do.  It didn't take long to determine that I was going to need to move part of the rock boundary.  I had to move about a dozen large rocks.  I also had to cut a few small fir trees.  That took a while.

Ellen came out to help.  I'm glad she did.  We finally figured out how to fit a 10' by 16' building into the expanded space.  It will be a little hard to back into, but not terrible.  It's the biggest that will fit without major reconstruction of one of the boundaries.  Later on I called the manufacture.  It's exactly the right size.  The relocated boundary looks better than the original, too.

After that it was lunch time - leftovers.  Then I did a little surfing and online shopping.  I decided to get a new cabinet for the garage.  I went out and made sure it would fit.  Then we left for San's Club to buy it. We also stopped at the post office. 

It was about 5 when we got home.  I unloaded the cabinet box in the garage and unpacked it.  There will be quite a bit of assembly.  It's basically two 3' cubes stacked on top ow each other.  No pieces are longer than 3 feet.

We had frozen pizza for dinner.  After dinner was TV.

Day 1824

 We were awake at 7:30 again, no particular reason.  After pet stuff and breakfast it was out to haul gravel.  I started to do gravel immediately because Ellen didn't have that much to do.  In fact, she finished weeding 20 minutes or so before I was done.

I hauled between 15 and 20 loads.  I was surprised I could do that many.  The last two went to adding gavel to some bare spots in the driveway.  It looks like I've moved at least half of the load.  That's more than a ton a day for three days.  I finished up by spot spraying some weeds in the driveway.  Everything was finished and put away by 10:30.

After taking a shower I surfed until about noon.  Then we went to Rudy's for lunch.  We took Lucy.  She was very happy.  We couldn't think of anything else to do, so we went back home.  Some Amazon packages were waiting.  I opened them and assembled a dog bowl holder for Lucy.  I also got a cool case for my new computer.  Then I took a bunch of stuff to the garbage and recycle.

I got out the Lego truck and finished it.  That only took a few minutes, there were only three steps left to do.  I didn't feel like downloading an app to control it.  Instead I surfed for awhile.  Then I went back outside to try to figure out what size building we could put on the site.   I got a rough estimate, but I need the trailer dimensions, some string, and another person to finalize things.

The mosquitoes drove me back inside where I watched TV and might have napped.  Ellen fixed Rudy's sausage for dinner  After dinner was TV.

Day 1823

 We woke up at 7:30.  There was no particular reason, we just got up then.  After pet stuff and breakfast it was out to work on the gravel.

Ellen started to dig weeds immediately.  I had to put air in the Audi's tires.  The tire alarm had gone off yesterday.  They were all about 7 lbs low.  After that I did a little weed digging and then started to haul rock.  She should be finished tomorrow.  It may take me two more days.  I figure I have about 15 loads to go.

After that we went in and took showers.  We were both soaking wet.  After that we did a little surfing.  It wasn't noon yet.

We decided to go to Pei Wei for lunch.  Then we went to Central Market to buy some stuff fot Thanksgiving dinner.  The last stop was the pet store.  The cats had torn up their litter mat, so we bought another.

We were both very tired and a little sore when we got home.  I surfed for awhile and then watched TV.  Of course I fell asleep.

Ellen fixed spaghetti for dinner.  After dinner was surfing.

 

Day 1822

 We got up about 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then I went outside to do a little work on the Ranger parking space.  I dug up about 10 feet of the grass at the bottom of the area.  Ellen came out and did a little digging, too.  That's all I had time to do before it was time to go to Costco.

We got there a little before 10, but got in because they are open for old people at 9.  I went immediately to the Surface Pro display.  They had plenty of stock.  The we went looking for toothbrushes, but the sale hadn't started yet.  After that it was water.  We ended up walking the store and buying new silverware, peanuts and walnuts, Traeger pellets, and towels.  It's the most we've purchased at Costco in a long time.

We stopped at the post office an Mickey D's on the way home.  The happy meal had a Mickey Mouse toy for Martha.

When we got home it was back to work.  I started hauling gravel while Ellen dug grass.  I ended up hauling 12 loads before calling it quits due to fatigue.  Ellen kept in front of me.  We managed to get at least 1/3 of the area covered, maybe a bit more.

After that we went inside and took showers.  Then it was surfing and TV to recover.  I also started the configuration of the new computer - loading apps, moving data, choosing options, and updating software.  That process took the rest of the day and evening.

I washed the new silverware.  Unfortunately it doesn't fit in our drawer organizer.  The stupid drawer is too narrow to fit current ones.  I finally found one on Amazon that I think I can make fit with a little cutting.  I also bought a case and a cable for the new computer.

We did go out toe Waterloo for dinner.  It was good and they had happy hour prices on drinks.

Ellen spent the evening on the TV.  I was on the computer.

Day 1821

 I woke up at 7:30, but stayed in bed for awhile.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast, followed by a little surfing.

It was cool and misting, so I decided to go out and do a little test case on making the Ranger parking area.  I got out the pick and the cart.  I used the pick to clear away all of the grass between the truck shelter and the basketball court.  I also cleared a 2 foot strip along the part of the court that I think will be in front of the parking area.

The work didn't take an hour.  I was tired though.  I'm really out of shape.  I planned on moving rock n the afternoon, so I put air in the cart tires.  I also made up a gallon of weed killer to spray on the ground before  I put down the rock.

There was a estate sale I wanted to go to in Lakeway.  So I stopped about 10:15 and we left for it.  There must have been a lot of people there early, because most of the stuff I had been interested in was sold.  I did pick up a hand vacuum and a book for John.  I also got a cool handheld sprayer.

We went to lunch at the Oasis.  The weather was warm and it was nice sitting outside.  The food was expensive though.  We stopped at the super yuppie Lakeway HEB on the way back.

When we got home I got out the implements of destruction and started loading rock into the cart.  I only had three cart loads of rock left.  I used them to fill in some of the area between the truck shelter and the court.  That was enough to show that the 7 tons of rock that is coming tomorrow will be enought to cover what I want to cover.

After that I went inside and took a shower.  Then I surfed until dinner.  Ellen fixed pork chops.

After dinner was TV, with surfing during the commercials.

Day 1820

 I got up at 6 PST.  I had a banana for breakfast, packed up, and checked out.  I was on the road at 6:30.  Of course it was raining.

I was surprised at the amount of traffic on 26.  It was stop and go from the zoo to 405.  It was a relatively quick stop and go though.  405, 84, and 206 were all moving at speed.

The only glitch was Hertz.  They were supposed to have a place where you could turn in the car.  The place was there, but no one was working.  Everyone was just leaving their cars, so that's what I did too.

I waited briefly in line at baggage.  I'd printed out the info at the hotel yesterday, but I wanted to make sure it was correct.

I think I had to wait for one person at the TSA line.  They did X-ray me though.  I guess I looked suspicious.  I was on my way to the gate area by 7:30.

The flight wasn't until 11.  Luckily the gate across from mine wasn't being used that morning.  I sat by myself in it and watched movies.The flight was on time and actually arrived in Austin half an hour early.  Baggage was quick again and I was in the car in half an hour.

When we got home I spent quite a bit of time unpacking.  I think I spent more time doing that than I did packing.  I got everything done.  That way I can resume normal life tomorrow.

The evening was mainly surfing.  Hooch sent some paperwork that has to be filled out for the estate.

Day 1819

 I got up at 8 CST (6 PST).  I drove to McDonald's and got a pancake breakfast.  I also got some snacks at Safeway.  Then it was back to the room for breakfast and to wait for the funeral.  

The funeral was at 11 PST, so I spent the time surfing and watching a movie.  When it was time I got into my suit and went to the church.  The funeral itself was a mass.  The priest gave the eulogy.  Hooch had it live streamed, so I'm not sure how many people actually attended.  After that we all went to the cemetery.  Of course it was raining.

The priest said some more words and put Mom's box in the cubicle.  It's actually quite nice, with a marble face and a gold nameplate with her name and the dates.  It's even relative easy to find and get to.

Throughout the funeral and commentary service I kept my distance, especially from Hooch.  I did explain to everyone why.

After the ceremony I stopped at Safeway to by stuff for lunch and dinner.  The restaurants have been closed by Oregon's dipshit governor.  I got stuff that could be put in the room's microwave.  It was small, but worked really well.  I spent the rest of the day on surfing, games, and movies.

Day 1818

 I woke up at 8:30 and did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  The highest priority was packing.  I put all of the toilet items in the suitcase.  I'd had the tablet on charge all night, but it was still only 15%.  so I left it on the charger for another 3 hours.  Then it was full and ready to go.

After that I did some surfing.  It was the first time I'd really looked at anything political.  It sure seems like there's strong evidence of voter fraud in every swing state that Trump lost.  We'll have to see what happens in the next three weeks.

After that I went out to do some work.  I cleaned up all of the painting stuff in the garage.  I also rearranged the two drawers of painting stuff so that it's more accessible and they are easier to close.  Then came the electric kool-aid acid test.

I drove the mower down to the playhouse and put it inside.  I was able to get through the door fairly easily.  Then I moved the sprayer and the power washer down there.  I also moved some miscellaneous stuff from a shelf down there.

It was a little difficult to get the mower of the edging rocks, so I rearranged some to make it easier.  I also cut some low hanging tree branches to make accessing the playhouse from the parking are easier.  I'll cut more next spring when I can tell dead branches from live ones.

After that it was lunch and killing time until it was time to go to the airport.  The flight leaves at 6 and I need to be there by 5 to get my baggage checked.  Give it an hour for the TSA line so I targeted being there at 4.

I had plenty of time at the airport.  There was almost no one there.  I dropped off my bag with no waiting.  I think I had to wait for one person in the TSA line.

The flight was great.  The plane was an Airbus.  Each seat back had bot an USB and a 11 outlet.  No worries about running out of battery.  I spent the whole flight watching movies.

We got into Portland right on time.  I didn't have to wait for either the luggage or the rental car.  Of course it was raining.  The hotel was at the corner of 26 and Cornell.  I went to the room, surfed for awhile, and went to sleep.

Day 1817

 I woke up at 8:30, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  I'd been thinking about the shelter for the Ranger,so I went outside to get an idea of how hard it would be to remove the grass.  I gout ou the weed eater and tried a spot.  It was surprisingly easy.  Of course there are a few heavy spots that will be much harder.  All in all it is doable.

Then I took the broom to the playhouse and swept off the porch so Ellen could paint it.  After that I went inside to do what I'd been avoiding.

While Ellen went outside to paint.  I began packing for Portland.  I put my suit and two day's worth of clothes in the suitcase.  The cats were happy to help.  I also got together the electronics - the big tablet, noise cancelling headphones, chargers, and cables.  I got all of the paperwork together and put it in my carry-on.  That's when I discovered that you need a passport to rent a car nowadays.  This country is getting more fucked all the time.

After that I really didn't have much to do for awhile.  I killed time surfing until the headphones were charged.  Then I paired them with my phone and made sure that they would work with phone in airplane mode.

Ellen came in and showed me how to download Netflix movies to my tablet.  I spent a long time in the afternoon and evening looking for things to download.

About 4 the porch paint was dry so I went out and painted the floor of the playhouse.  It didn't take very long with the roller.  Then I got out the power washer and washed the rabbit planter I bought yesterday.  It cleaned up really well.  Then it was back to searching Netflix.

Ellen interrupted my fixed leftover shrimp and some chicken for dinner.  After dinner was more Netflix search followed by some reading and TV.

Day 1816

 I got up at 6:45 today because Devon dumped the Lego Baby Yoda off the desk.  I put it back together and then did the pet stuff and breakfast.  After that we left for Hog Heaven.

Ellen said we should be there by 8.  We got there a little before then.  There was no reason to get there that early.  There was nothing for us to do but sit around until the shoot started at 9.  There weren't enough trappers for all the stations, so each squad had a trapper that went with them.  I did two squads.  Then I did a third one with Ellen.  At least we had a cart for that one.

We got finished about 2:30.  We went to the metal building place in Dripping Springs, but he wasn't there.  We also got some bird seed at Tractor Supply.  We had a late lunch at the outdoor place in Dripping Springs.  They are doing a good business.  The parking lot was full.

After that we went home.  We were both too tired to do anything.  That meant the rest of the evening was TV.  We didn't have dinner - only some snacks.

Day 1815

 I woke up at 8:30 today.  The 8 o'clock cat alarm didn't go off.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.  Ellen went out to paint.  I went out to work on the pressure washer.

I hooked up the pressure washer down by the house.  I connected the water, turned it on, and pressed the trigger.  It started right up, just like the manual said it would.  The new GFI worked perfectly, too.

I started by cleaning the front sidewalk.  It was almost black from moss.  The washer did a good job cleaning it off although there's a few black spots that I couldn't get off.  Then I cleaned the dirt off the bottom of the brick.  I've been meaning to do that for as long as we've owned the house.

Next I washed the Ranger.  It was covered with road chemicals.  It even had road gravel in the bed.  I think this is the cleanest it's been since it was new.  It actually looks really good.  When that was done I put everything away and went back into the house.  I ordered a 12x 6.5 tandem trailer for $1,900.  It won't be here for 3 to 5 weeks though.

Ellen was still painting.  In fact, she painted for another couple of hours.  I surfed.  When Ellen was done she took a shower.  Then we went to the Italian place.  We took Lucy so she could have some time away from the house.  Of course we got her treats at Tomlinson's.

When we were finished with lunch we went to a nearby estate sale.  I picked up a heavy porcelain bunny planter for Patty.  It will need a good cleaning.  More work for the power washer.  Then we came home.

Elle said the playhouse door wouldn't shut.  I looked at it.  The last 6 inches of the door bottom were interfering with the rubber threshold.  I got out the sander and used it to remove some material from the bottom of the door.  That seems to have fixed the problem.

Did I mention that the playhouse looks fantastic?  Ellen has painted all of the trim, the porch railings, and the front siding.  She also did some touch-up on the side trim and siding.  All that is left is a second coat on the porch floor.

The rest of the evening was surfing, on-line shopping, and TV.  Ellen signed us up to work at Hog Heaven tomorrow.  That means we get up early.

Day 1814

 I woke up about 8, but played games in bed until almost 10.  Then it was up for breakfast, Ellen did the pet stuff.

Ellen went out to pain the playhouse.  I went out after breakfast.  I went to the garage and found hardware to attach the battery powered lights.  I also drill holes in the cabinet handle I'd bought for the inside of the playhouse door.  Then I went to the playhouse and installed them.

After that I couldn't work in the playhouse because it would get in the way of Ellen's painting.  So I surfed instead.  About 1:30 she was working on the outside, so I went back to work.  I measured and cut four shelves out of scrap wood.  I put to across the back of the playhouse and one on each side.  

By then it was almost 3.  We went inside and both of us took showers.  Then we went for a really late lunch at Torchy's in Belterra.  We took Lucy.  She's been really bored and wanted to go even though she hasn't been walking well.  Of course we took her to Tomlinson's afterwards.  They were glad to see her and fed her several treats.

When we got home it was reading and TV.  There wasn't a dinner of course.

Kessler called to follow up on an email I sent him a long time ago asking for pictures of Tri-county's lower range.  He said he didn't have any, but that he'd try to take some.  We had a good conversation anyway.  After that it was a little more TV and bed.

Day 1813

 I got up at 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then it was outside to give the playhouse a bath.  The first step was getting the washer down to the playhouse and connecting water and power to it.  That went well.

I've never used the washer before, and couldn't figure out how to connect the wands to the gun.  I finally looked up the manual.  It seemed to show that a piece was missing from the gun.  We searched the web and only found one place that might have parts.  When I called them the lady who answered didn't sound very bright.

We drove to the place, on the other side of I35.  I showed the lady what I needed.  She said "oh, we don't carry anything like that".  I was was right, she was a fucking idiot.  We stopped in a parking lot and did some searching.  There didn't seem to be any place in Austin to buy an electric power washer.  We decided to go home and order a part.

As I was taking the gun and wands out of the truck I noticed that one wand had a spring on it's end.  The manual had said "insert the wand against the spring".  I tried inserting a wand into the part with the spring and it worked.  Then the wand with the spring (actually an adapter) screwed to the gun.  This is nothing like the description in the manual.  I'd wasted the whole morning because of a crappy manual.

I took about 45 minutes to wash the entire playhouse.  Then I had to drive over the the urology place for a blood sample.  On the way back I stopped at Central Market and got some fresh shrimp.

When I got back I tried to use the power washer to wash the brick on the house.  It has a built in GFI which kept popping.  I tried different plug ins and cords with no luck.  I finally tried it on the cord and plug I'd used to wash the playhouse.  It still popped.  I took the washer to the garage and busted open the GFI to make sure I could reuse the cord.  Then I order a replacement GFI from Amazon.

While I was doing that, Ellen was sanding the playhouse.

Ellen fixed shrimp wrapped in bacon on the Traeger for dinner.  It was great.  After dinner we watched recorded TV shows.  About 7 the transport driver called to say he wanted to deliver the Ranger about 10.  The catch was his truck was took big to get in the neighborhood.  I agreed to meet him at the gas station at 45 and 1826.  I was not a happy camper.

We ended up meeting him at CVS instead.  That was actually better.  It was amazing to watch him shift vehicles on his truck.  It was a semi with a two level car rack.

We signed off on the Ranger.  I drove it over to the gas station to put some gas in it.  There was a sheriff car in the parking lot.  I put in the gas and then started down 1826.  He either didn't notice or didn't care.  We didn't see a car in either direction from the station to North Madrone.  From there it was easy sailing to home and bed.

Day 1812

 I woke up at 8.  Devon is becoming a kitty alarm clock.  He starts yowling about 8 every day.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast followed by a trip out to the playhouse.

I'd realized last night that I hadn't accounted for the door trim, which means the threshold had to be moved.  I removed it and then discovered that I needed to add some more foundation material.  I cut some, painted it, and installed it.  I put the threshold back and Ellen put the rubber on it.

Things fighting me continued.  When I installed the trim I learned that Swedish lumber is the cheap Chinese shit version of wood.  It splits when you drive a screw into it.  I had to drill pilot holes first.  Then I got Ellen out to fit the door.

The fighting continued.  The door opening measured perfect.  So did the door.  The door did not fit in the opening.  It was too long.  I ended up using the circular saw to cut 1/4 inch off the top of the door.  The blade wasn't big enough to cut all the way through, so I had to finish the cut with the jigsaw.  More pain in the ass.

After that the door fit, but not quite evenly.  Ellen said the door was slightly off square.  That's because of the crooked 2x2's I used for the frame.  They were the only ones available.  With a little messing around we got it to fit, but it doesn't look as good as it should.

Putting on the hinges was the first thing that went smoothly.  The latch went on perfectly as well.  At that point the door was finished.  Ellen went back inside.  I cut the door molding.  It went OK except I'm not good at cutting 45 degree angles by hand.  At that point I didn't car how it looked.  It was fun using the air nailer though.

I put all the tools away and cleaned up the inside.  My work's pretty much done.  I have to pressure wash it and do some sanding.  Then Ellen can finish painting.  I went back inside and had a late lunch and a big beer.

I was too tired to do anything but surf.  By the time Ellen left for the club I had enough energy to take a shower.  After that I went out to the garage and scrounged up a latch to hold the new door open.  I'll have to order something for an inside handle and lights.

Ellen fixed pork chops for dinner.  After dinner I ordered a handle and some battery operated lights.  After that it was TV.  I'm too tired to do Lego.  It feels very good to have the project done though.

Day 1811

 I got up at 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then it was out to the playhouse.

I started by screwing down the  threshold.  I was about to put the rubber seal on when Ellen came out.  She put it in after I showed her how.  While she did that I started measuring for putting up the top of the door frame.  Unfortunately I got talking to her.  I measured one side correctly and measured the other side 1/2 an inch short.

My error resulted in me spending at least an hour trying to figure out why things weren't going right.  I recut the center 2x4 twice.  Eventually I figured out what was wrong.  Things went smoothly after that.

It turns out that my plan to reuse the vertical door trim pieces wouldn't work.  The bottom 4 inches of both were rotten, which made them too short.  Also, they were too narrow to mount the hinges on.  So we left for Home Depot to get two 1x6's and paint for the siding.  Ellen got the paint while I got the boards.

The next stop was Wally World.  It turns out they have the mango juice I like in gallon jugs (not cans).  I bought two gallons.  Then we stopped at the home store to look for Christmas lights.  They didn't have what I wanted.  The last two stops were the post office and Sonic.

When we got home I cut the trim pieces for the top for trim and the two new bottom pieces.  I used the old trim to do it.  I had to cut angles at the ends of the top piece to clear the roof.  Again I measured something wrong and had to recut both.  The 6' 1x6's I bought were just the right size.  When I test fit everything it fit perfectly.  That made me feel very good.

I set up everything in the garage for Ellen to paint - two tables with a tarp underneath, nails in the ends of all the boards, and all of the painting materials.  I also put away some of the tools that I won't need anymore.  Then I left the trim painting to Ellen.

I went inside and took a shower.  Then I did some online shopping, but didn't find anything I wanted.  I fixed leftovers for dinner.  After dinner I sat down to watch TV and fell asleep.  When I woke up I got out the Lego.

I sorted all the parts for part 4 (the last part) of the build.  It's basically the dump bed, so there's not much to add to the current build.  I had several times where I put things together backwards and had to take them apart.  Maybe that's why my measurements didn't work out today.  I stopped building when I got tired.  I have one or two more sessions before it's done.

Ellen's sister called.  They won't be here for Thanksgiving.  Chalk up another crappy thing on the 2020 list.

I went to bed a little early.  I'm getting tired every night.  I'm going to be glad when the playhouse is finished.

Day 1810

 I got up at 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.  Then it was out to the playhouse.

I put the threshold down on the floor and measured how high the door would be.  It will require me to cut some off the top of the opening.  It will also require me to do a bevel cut on the end of the top 2x4.  By the time I done the measuring Ellen was ready to paint.  So I cleaned everything off and took the 2x4 to the garage.

I made the bevel cut.  This time it was easy and perfect.  I guess practice makes perfect.  Then I re-positioned the mounting points for the handle and latch.  I put the outside sheet on the door.  That's when I realized I shouldn't have moved the mounting points.  So I put them back where they were.  

I screwed the outside sheet to the door.  I'd made a rookie mistake.  When I cut the sheet I'd assumed the sheet was square.  It wasn't.  That meant that it didn't fit the square frame.  It was offset on the bottom.  I got some of the pieces I'd cut off the sheet and used then to fill in the "short" side.  I started to use the Dremel to cut the excess off, but it overheated halfway through.  I took that as a sign to eat lunch.

After lunch I used the Dremel to cut off the patch excess.  Then I used the jigsaw to cut off the excess on the other side.  That went a lot faster.

The refrigerator delivery came while I was working.  It turns out the new one has a water dispenser and an ice machine.  The delivery guys asked if they should hook it up.  In a fit of abject stupidity Ellen said no.  I'm not going to hook it up.  She can look at the dispenser every time she opens the door and reflect on her stupidity.

I wanted to do more work on the playhouse, but I couldn't because the entrance was all wet paint.  Ellen did a good job, it looks nice.  So I decided to unbox the new DirecTV antenna.

The antenna came in a heavy big box filled with small boxes.  I unpacked everything.  There were no instructions, so I was glad I had the old one to use as a pattern.  I was also glad that about half the weight was the mount, which we don't need in the trailer.  I left it broken down into three easy to assemble pieces and put them in the trailer.  Finally I removed the old one from the trailer and put it behind the well house.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the deck.  I got through a lot of the magazines that had piled up.  Ellen fixed steak for dinner.  It was good.  After dinner was TV.  No Lego tonight, I didn't have time for both.

Day 1809

 I got up at 8 today.  I'm trying to make that my daily get up time.  Then it was pet stuff and breakfast.

The first task of the day was to go to McCoy's for window shims and double sided tape.  Then it was back home to work.  I put double sided tape along the outside wall.  Then I placed the shims along the wall.  I used 60 of them.  The tape held the shims in place when I put the new flooring down on top of them.

I put some screws in the flooring to hold it.  Then I cut pieces of scrap plywood to repair the wood where the threshold is going to go.  Then I finished screwing down the flooring and the scraps.

Ellen volunteered to do the caulking.  However, when I tried to puncture the barrier on the caulk tube something went wrong.  It was very hard to puncture.  I had to pound the nail in.  Something got damaged and caulk spewed out the end of the tub when she tried to apply it.  That was the end of the caulking effort.

We decided to look for refrigerators and convection microwaves before we went to get the caulk.  That was because Home Depot, Lowe's, and Best Buy were the candidates for having what we wanted.  Also, Ellen had determining that some full size refrigerators will fit in the kitchen.  She found one she liked at Lowes.  We didn't find an oven we liked.  We may have to buy one sight unseen.

We went to Lowe's for the caulk.  They had the refrigerator we wanted on sale and in stock.  They're going to deliver it tomorrow.  Amazing.  It was 3 buy the time we were finished.  We went to Jack Allen's for a really late lunch.

When we got home Ellen did the caulking.  I had no problem with the new caulk tube.  I turned on the refrigerator in the apartment.

Later on Ellen moved most of the refrigerator contents from the house to the apartment.  Lowe's says they come between 8 AM and 8 PM tomorrow.  She spent the evening watching chick flicks on her computer.  I watched recorded shows on TV and did Lego.  I finished step 3 (of 4).  That completed the truck cab.  This thing is massive.

Day 1808

 I got up at 8, did the pet stuff and had breakfast.

Ellen informed me that Biden had won via voter fraud.  Just when 2020 couldn't get worse.  Sometime in the future historians will mark this as the point where the US went into a great decline.  We're now a banana republic complete with fixed elections and a one party, socialist, political system.  I'm doing my best to not become extremely depressed, but it's not easy to do.

I needed to buy some stuff before I could do any more work on the playhouse.  So we got in the truck and went to Lowe's.  I bought a 4x4 sheet of plywood ($20!!!!) and had them cut it in half.  I also got a package of window shims (wedges) and some caulk.  Ellen got some deck stain.

After that we stopped at Best Buy and Sam's Club looking for appliances.  We didn't see anything that really range our bell.  The next stop was Randall's.  We got food for the  next few days, but they didn't have my mango drink or butter flake rolls.  We stopped at the post office.  There were two checks ther, so we took them to the bank.  The last stops were a hamburger place and CVS.  I wanted some masks.  CVS was selling them singly at $2 a piece.  Later we ordered 50 from Amazon for $10.

When we got home I went out to the playhouse.  The new decking needed several irregular cuts to fit.  They were made harder because nothing was square.  I spent a frustrating time making small modifications to all of the cuts.  It all fit well when I was finished.

I was going to use the wedges to raise the new decking a little so the water wouldn't flow towards the building.  The wedges only raise it enough to barely slope it away.  That's better than towards the building.  The problem is I need a lot more wedges.  I'll have to buy some more tomorrow.

I was stuck on the decking, so I cut some scrap plywood to repair the water damage under the door threshold.  Then I cut the threshold we bought to fit.  It looks nice.  I took a bunch o scrap to the garbage can and called it a day,  The mosquitoes were thick.

Ellen fixed tacos for dinner. After dinner I looked a craiglist for awhile.  I want to get a trailer for the Ranger and some chain link fencing.  No luck, but I'll keep looking.  I also got out the suitcase for m trip.  I found a case I can use for my tablet.  I added chargers and cables to it.

I got out the Lego.  Right now it's all constructing details.  That takes a lot of small parts and time.  The results don't look like much though.  This is the first time on this build that I quit working on it because it just wasn't fun.

The rest of the evening was reading and TV.

Day 1807

 I got up at 8, did the pet stuff, and had breakfast.  Then it was off to the playhouse.

I started off by moving all of the tools back to the playhouse.  I'd moved almost everything to the garage last night because I thought I might not work today.  Hah.  Then I swept out the whole playhouse and the porch.  That let me see the major water damage on the porch floor.  That made me decide to resurface the porch.  I can do it with one 4x4 sheet of plywood.

After that it was on to demo.  I took off the door trim.  Then I removed the old door threshold.  I cut the overhead door frame with the sawsall.  Unfortunately I poked a small hoe in the siding when I did that.  Then I removed the overhead frame.

I had to remove a bunch of nails that attached the siding to the side door frames.  That was a lot easier than yesterday because I could pry the siding from the frame and then just remove the nails with a hammer.  Finally I removed the side door frames.

By then it was time to have lunch with Lee.  We went to the place in Belterra.  It was OK.  We had a good conversation.  Hopefully Lee liked it.  I hoping we can do it again.

After lunch I went back to work.  I used the circular saw to cut the angles at the top of the new side frames.  I'd never done that before.  I got one "pretty good" and the other perfect.  I also used the sawsall to cut the floor framing.  I did pretty good at that.  I also cut the siding.

The last part was installing the side door framing.  That went well.  I'm leaving the top of the frame open until I see how the door fits.  After that was cleanup.  I can't really do anything more until I have the new porch plywood down.  I'll go get it tomorrow morning.

I cut up some of the garbage wood that I didn't want to keep and took it to the garbage.  Then I went in and took a shower.  Ellen was off teaching.

Dinner was a frozen dinner - there's nothing else in the house.  After dinner I did some shopping on craigslist.  I'm looking for a trailer.  There's a trailer manufacturer in Manor that seems to have some good prices.  I may contact them when the playhouse is done.

After dinner was TV and Lego.  Step 3 of the Lego isn't very interesting.  It's mainly adding non-functional bits to the truck to make it look authentic.  There's a lot of one-of, non-standard, parts.  I want to get back to building things that make it work.

Day 1806

I got up at 8 again today.  After pet stuff and breakfast It was out to the playhouse again.

I started out by adding "hard points" to the interior of the door for the door handle and the door latch.  I also replaced the ones for the hinges with better ones.  Then I went to the playhouse.  The first activity was putting the table in there in the garbage.  I removed about 40 screws to take apart the fram and then cut the top into four pieces.  It all went in the can - garbage day is tomorrow.

I spent a lot of time measuring out where I needed to remove existing structure.  Then I planned how I would do it.  I even had Ellen out for a little while to help.  Once I was sure I had everything down I started to cut.

I quickly learned that I'm no good with a reciprocating saw.  It's a blunt instrument that's no use for fine work.  I managed to do a little damage to the siding that I need to keep.  Fortunately the damage will be covered by the door trim.  I also learned that the guy who did the framing put nails in places that made no sense at all.  In a couple of cases I don't know how he did it.

I started by cutting out some of the framing on the right side.  That went OK except for the hole in the siding.  It taught me that I was going to have to remove some of the nails holding on the siding.  That was a pain because I had to basically dig them out of the siding.  I finally settled on cutting around the nail head with a razor knife and then removing the nail with locking pliers.  With about 20 nails, it took a while.

I had to break at noon to call Dave.  He said the shipper was coming that afternoon.  Later he sent me an email with the shipping info.  I'm glad that part seems to work out.  A little later I had to go the the doctor for a blood draw.  When I got there they said it was next Wednesday.  I was not happy.  I stopped at Arby's for lunch and the yuppie grocery store to buy french bread.

I finished up by cutting some of the framing on the other side of the door.  It was a good stopping place, plus the mosquitoes were beginning to eat me alive.

I went back inside and read some.  I really don't want to deal with the election, so I didn't surf.  Apparently they haven't decided who won yet.  That gives the nod to the Democrats, since they are masters of voter fraud.

Hooch texted me the date of the funeral.  It's the 17th - 13 days.  I talked to him and it doesn't seem like there's much for me to do, so I'll fly in on the 16th and out on the 18th.  Ellen spent quite a bit of time getting the flight, hotel, and car set up.  I love having a travel agent.

Ellen fixed sausage for dinner.  After dinner I did some reading and watched recorded shows (no commercials).  I also finished step 2 of the Lego truck.  It involved connecting the cab to the body.  This thing is big.