Day 3278

 I woke up about 6:30.  I had a belly ache and needed to pee.  When I went to the can I could only shit a dribble.  I went back to bed.  A little while later I needed to shit again.  Again, only a little dribble.  That happened one more time before my gut settled down.

I played games for quite a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I surfed while I waited for it to warm up a little.  Eventually I went out to the garage and finished up almost all of the RC sorting.  The last thing to do is about 15 minutes of putting plastic bags away.  YEAH.

When I got back to the house I had Ellen show me how to work the gift list app that Hooch wants to use.  That's when I discovered that the stuff I'd added to my Amazon list was no longer there.  I had to revisit Amazon to locate the items.  I also added a couple from Amain.

Somewhere in there I had lunch (more leftover brisket).  Then I went to work on the new picture frame.  It took a while, but I got it working.  Then I spent more than an hour adding pictures to its memory.  I could spend several more adding additional ones.

That was the end of the useful activities.  I started watching videos and fell asleep.  When I woke up it was more videos until I ate a late lunch.  It was frozen, I'm sick of turkey.

After dinner I actually had two semi-liquid shits.  That's a great improvement over the morning.  You're really getting old when the number and type of shits is something that you are concerned about.

The MRI and it's prep were in the back of my mind all day.  I have to take laxatives tomorrow starting about 6pm.  After that it's no eating until after the procedure on Monday morning.  I have to get up at 6 and have Ellen squirt water up my ass.  After that I have to fight traffic to get to the MRI place by 7:50.  I'll probably have to take Mopac to do it.

Day 3277

  I woke up at 7:30 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I also cleaned up the counter and some of the cooking stuff.  It was cold today and I spent a little time surfing and Black Friday shopping.  Then I went out to the garage to sort RC stuff.  Ellen went with me and we put the new cover on the Ranger.  It looks nice.  I hope it survives Texas.

I spent the rest of the morning sorting RC stuff.  I made a lot of headway.  There's nothing very interesting about the process.  I just picked a group of parts, identified it, and decided where it needs to go now.  There's just a lot of stuff to go through.  I stopped about 2 to eat lunch.  It was brisket because we have some left and I don't want it to go to waste.

I went back to Amain one last time.  After a little poking around on the web I located a motor that would fit the kit that I wanted to buy.  Not only that, but it was on sale at Amain.  I ended up ordering the kit and the electronic for it.

Ellen spent a lot of time cleaning things up and cutting up the rest of the turkey.  That produced two large bags of garbage.  I took them out to the garbage and went back to the garage.

I went back to sorting RC stuff.  I stopped when I just didn't want to do any more.  The good news is that I'm really close to having it all done.

I finished up the day with some more Black Friday shopping.  I found a couple of good deals.  I also watched a little football.

Dinner was turkey leftovers.  After that was videos.

I was really happy with today.  I got some Black Friday deals and I got very close to finishing the RC stuff.

Day 3276

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I got out everything I needed to finish the Jeep.  Ellen started cooking.  I helped by taking the turkey outside and draining it.  That removed any possibility of a big mess.

Ellen worked for hours making all of the ingredients for a complete Thanksgiving dinner.  She did a really good job.  

I started by finishing up the work on the frame of the Jeep.  I installed the rest of the body magnets, dressed the wires, and mounted the power switch.  Then I moved to the body.  I spent some time cutting and stripping wires.  Then I twisted them together and soldered them.  For once I didn't forget the heat shrink on any of them.  The final step was attaching the mounting magnets.

When I was done I put the body on the frame and it fit perfectly.  After that I put it away.  I still need to test and program it, but I didn't feel like doing anything else.  Instead I took out the garbage and put the cans out.

Ellen finished with the cooking about the time I finished with the garbage.  She surfed and I watched videos.  Eventually the turkey was done and she started serving everything up.  That took a while, there was a lot of stuff.  I felt bad that after all that work all I ate was turkey, mashed potatoes, and rolls.

After dinner I went back to Amain to shop.  I kind of wanted to buy another kit, but I couldn't justify buying an expensive motor for it.  The trouble was I couldn't find a cheap one.  I finally gave up and went back to videos.

The videos turned into a nap, which eventually became videos again.  All in all it was a good Thanksgiving.

Day 3275

 I woke up at 7:30, played games for a while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I took out the garbage and recycle.  Then I opened the weather station/alarm clock that came yesterday.

I plugged the station into the wall and set it by the window near the outdoor sensor.  It picked up the sensor almost immediately.  That was a good sign.  I decided to leave it there for a while to see what happens.

Just before I got started Ellen made a big mess in the kitchen.  She we brining the turkey and spilled a lot of fluid on the counter, dishwasher, and the floor.  I helped get the brining done and the turkey in the refrigerator.  Then I spent a lot of time cleaning everything up.  The fluid was a mixture of water, sugar, and vinegar along with little seed like things.  I decided that while I was doing it I would flush out the sink pipes and scrub the sinks.  It took at least an hour to do everything.

I got out the Jeep I was working on last Spring.  I also got out a whole lot of stuff to work on it.  My idea was to spend a couple of hours finishing up the lights.  Yeah, right.  The first thing I discovered was that the rock lights that I'd installed and wired in had to be totally redone in order for the body to fit.  Then I had to fix a part of the body that I'd installed incorrectly.  By the time I had that done it was after lunch. time.

I ate lunch (salad) and watched a few videos.  Then it was back to work.  I routed all of the wires (6 lights) and the body contacts.  Then I soldered everything together.  That doesn't sound like much, but that's 14 wires all total.  Then I soldered everything up.  When I was finished I tested it.  Everything worked fine.

By then it was almost 5.  I put everything away.  I was going to feed the cats, but Ellen beat me to it.  She fixed BLT's for dinner while I switched to videos.

We watched videos for the rest of the evening.

Hopefully I can finish the Jeep tomorrow.  I just have to do a little more work on the frame and then do the body.

Day 3274

I woke up at 7:45 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I surfed for a while and then decided to choose what I was going to buy at the Amain black Friday sale.

I'd decided last night what truck I was going to buy.  Today I had to decide what upgrades I wanted.  There were quite a few choices to pick from.  I spent way more time than was necessary making the decisions.  I settled on a motor, transmission, and ESC upgrade.  I already have the receiver.

After that it was on to other choices.  I wanted some batteries for the mini-trucks.  Unfortunately the only way to find them is to look through every 2S and 3S battery that Amain had.  That took a lot of time.  I also looked for upgrades for the TT-02 kit I have.  Again a lot of choices, but I didn't choose anything.  Finally I looked for upgrades for the motor/esc for it.  I got some Hobbywing stuff because ti was 20% off.

I forgot to look for Fazor upgrades.  It was getting late in the afternoon and I was tired.  Things fell apart when I tried to check out.  Amain's checkout process isn't particularly user friendly.  I had to go to an old email just to get my member's discount.  Then I checked the wrong shipping box.  That caused the total price to double.

I went around and around trying to get the right price.  I finally did a rest of my computer.  Finally I figured out the shipping box problem.  The website was remembering the preference and filling it in each time I tried to check out.  

I also had to split the order into two orders in order to get the Hobbywing discount.  Unfortunately I forgot to use the Hobbywing coupon code.  Luckily I caught that, cancelled the order, and reordered with the right one.  The coupon was worth $30.

I was disgusted and tired of computers by then.  Ellen left to go to archery and I had leftovers for dinner, followed by videos for the evening.

Day 3273

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I'd decided to sell off the old Lego stuff today, so I started on that after breakfast.

I went into the spare bedroom first.  I collected the unopened sets (5) and several built items.  I also collected some RC cars.  They filled up on large plastic box.  I got another box and filled it with stuff from the bathroom closet.  I also found all of the instruction booklets.

Ellen reconstructed a Star Wars set while I did a space shuttle one.  We ended up with two large boxes and one small one of Lego.  We went on ebay and tried to price things out.  All of this took the whole morning.

We went to the Lego store and sold it all.  I wanted $400, and settled for $350.  We had fun poking around in their parts bin while we waited for the seller.  When we were done we went to Doc's back yard.  We stopped at the cookie place first and got key lime cookies.

Doc's had half priced hamburgers.  They were huge.  Afterwards we stopped at the post office and HEB.  HEB was crowded, but not terrible.

When we got home I watched videos and had a short nap.

Ellen fixed clam chowder for dinner.  After dinner I watched football and looked at Amain's Black Friday sale.  I think I'm going to build a 1/24 basher.

Day 3272

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games until 8.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast followed by a little surfing.  Then I went to the garage to sort RC stuff.  The wind was blowing pretty hard, so I had to close the garage door to keep it out.

I decided to move all of the stuff from the compartment box to the new tray box.  That will allow me to access things more easily and also have it more organized.  I started with the LED's.  That involved testing each group (there was 10 to 15), labeling it, and bagging it.  That took quite a while.  Then I tackled servos (3) and servo accessories.  After that was pinion gears.  I finished up with some miscellaneous parts.

I quit after about four hours.  I still have a few servos to test and a lot of wiring and battery connectors to sort through.  It's at least another four hours of work.

I was planning on going for a walk in the afternoon, but I didn't.  My bad.  Instead I surfed and had lunch.  After lunch I turned on a football game and shopped Amazon Black Friday things.  I bought a digital photo frame to replace one of the ones we have that is going wonky.

Dinner was frozen pizza.  After dinner was videos.

I have to say that I enjoyed my first nothing to do day.

Day 3271

 I woke up about 7:30 and played games for a while.  then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  As soon as that was done I went outside to wash the truck and the trailer.

I got everything prepared - towels, hose, soaker, brush, ladder.  That's when I found out that I didn't have any car wash.  I got in the truck and went to HEB.  Luckily they had some.  The store was packed with pre-Thanksgiving shoppers.

When I got home I started on the truck.  It was the same as in Oregon - hit a section with the soaker, scrub it down, and then rinse it off.  The difference was that without immediate drying the whole surface was covered with water spots.  I had Ellen come out to wipe things down as I finished the rinsing.  That worked pretty well.

When the truck was done we moved to the trailer.  I repeated the same process with Ellen handing me the hose and brush so I didn't have to get off the ladder.  I had to scrub pretty hard to get the bugs off.  The result is pretty bug free though.

After that I put everything away.  When I finished I was soaked in sweat and very tired.  I went back into the house, got a beer, and did some surfing.  After a little while Ellen said a package had been delivered.  It was the extension cord for the palm tree.  I took it to the deck and installed the palm tree in the planter by the flamingos.

When I got back inside I took a shower.  I felt almost human when I got out.  I had lunch and then started shopping on Amazon.  I sat in the recliner and looked through 2,000 RC parts.  This took hours both before and after dinner.  There was a nap in the process also.  I ended up buying about 4 things.  

After dinner I ordered what I'd found and then watched videos for the rest of the evening.

This officially concludes the pre-Thanksgiving tasks.  Tomorrow I can start doing thins that I choose to do.

Day 3270

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games for about an hour.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After a little surfing I went outside to do a few things.

I took the clamps off the mower seat.  My tape job seems to have worked.  We'll see when I use the mower again in the spring.  I also measured the Ranger so that I could order a new cover for it.  Finally I did a little bit of RC parts sorting in the garage.

I went back in the house after an hour or so to get Ellen so we could order a cake for her sister.  We drove to Dripping Springs and made the order - $100 for a birthday cake.  We also ordered 2 dozen cookies.  I didn't catch the price, but it was expensive.  Then we drove back to HEB with a stop at Dutch Brothers.

We bought a few groceries at HEB and then went home.  I did a little more surfing and then went out to the garage to continue to work on RC parts.  I made some progress, but there's still a lot to go.

At 4 I went  to Lee's to look at his new car.  It's a Volkswagen sedan that looks a lot like the A5.  Of course it shares a lot of parts.  It's really nice.  I might have purchased one if I'd known that they exist.

When I got home there were three packages waiting.  The first was for Ellen.  The second was the foamer for washing the truck and trailer.  The third was the lighted palm tree that I'd ordered.  I spent quite a while putting it together.  It looks nice, but I can't put it outside until I get an extension cord for it.  One has been ordered.

Ellen fixed pork chops for dinner.  After dinner was videos.

I think tomorrow will be vehicle washing.  Then I will be free to work on anything that I want with no guilty thoughts about not doing something "necessary".

P.S. The kitchen tiles really need repair, but I'm going to put that off at least until after Thanksgiving.

Day 3269

 I woke up at 9 and played games until 10.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was time to tackle previous purchases.

I unpacked my new razor.  I'm going to like it, it has a built in trimmer.  I also unpacked the trimmer and gave it to Ellen so she could choose which accessories she going to use (there were 20 of them).  I also unpacked the Milwaukee inflator and put it in the case.  That produced a lot of cardboard, so I took it out to the recycle can.

I took the inflator out to the garage.  I tested out using it with a DeWalt battery and it worked fine.  I even found some new in box batteries I'd forgotten about to use with the inflator.  I went to the Ranger and connected its battery.  Then I started it up.  It ran fine.  When it warmed up I took it for a run through the neighborhood.  Then I parked it by the well house.

The next task was the mower seat.  It took a while to remove all of the plastic from the pieces of double sided tape.  The job was made fun by all of the mosquitos biting me.  I finally removed all of the plastic, put the cushion on and clamped it down.  Hopefully the fix will hold.

That was it for chores.  There was another AliExpress package at the post office, so we left to pick it up.  We stopped at Culvers for lunch first.  Then it was back home.  Traffic sucked.  It wasn't heavy, but everyone was driving like maniacs.  Lee called while we were in the car.  He wants to show me his new car tomorrow.

When we got home Ellen and I put the cover on the Ranger.  It's toast and I'm going to have to get another.  Then I started putting together the 5 of the mini RC car stands.  I used three for the 1/24 cars.  I put together to more that I might be able to use on 1/10 cars in the garage.  I might also be able to use them on the Groms.

Ellen went to archery.  I had a salad for dinner and then surfed while I "watched" football.

Day 3268

 I woke up at 7:30, played games for a while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then it was outside to do stuff.

I started by cleaning up the broken bungee cords on the Ranger cover and uncovering it.  Then I hooked up the battery charger.  Then I got out the double sided tape from Amazon and went to the shed to fix the mower seat.

I cleaned both the underside of the cushion and the metal seat with 409.  Then I placed the double sided tape all over the metal seat.  I had to stop there because the seat cushion needs to dry out before I can remount it.

After that it was back to the garage to sort more RC stuff.  I emptied out a unorganized box of stuff and organized it.  That doesn't sound like much, but the box had a lot of stuff in it.  Now I'm waiting for more plastic boxes - due today.

While I was doing that Ellen planted some bluebonnet seeds.  Hopefully they'll come up next spring.

I went back into the house for a few minutes.  Then we left for errands.  The trip started out sucking.  We drove halfway down 1826 and it was blocked.  We had to take back roads to Escarpment.  Then when we got to Walgreens, the pharmacy was closed.  At least when I drove to Goodwill they were open.

The next stop was Home Depot to get parts for a future project and look at the Dewalt sale.  I might buy something later.  After that was lunch at the Thai place.  It was very good and provided dinner, too.  We made a quick stop at the pet sore for kitty litter and then went to the post office.  There was an AliExpress package there.

Our last two stops were Costco and Walgreens.  We bought water and a new shaver (on sale) at Costco.  We also got a hair trimmer for Ellen.  At least Walgreens was open when we stopped.

1826 had another surprise for us on the way home.  It was about 4:30.  Traffic was backed up almost to the North Madrone entrance.  We had to wait a while until we got to our entrance.  FUCK CALIFORNIANS.

It was too late, and a little cold, to work on the mower seat, so I just closed up the shed.  I was feeling tired, so I just sat down to videos.  Later I got up to open the package from AliExpress.  Unlfortunately I'd ordered the wrong car stands.  Oh well.

Dinner was leftover Thai.  After dinner was videos and two trips to the gate to pick up packages from Amazon.  I was too lazy to open them or the stuff from Costco.

Day 3267

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  When breakfast was over I went outside to trim the lawn.

The effort didn't start out well.  I needed to put new line in the string trimmer.  That turned out to be a mess.  The instructions on how to do it left much to be desired.  I ended up "loading" the line, taking the edger out, and finding out that the line feed didn't work.  The line cutter didn't work either.

After three attempts to load the line and two attempts to improve the line cutter I finally had a working string trimmer.  After that things went pretty smoothly except that it was hot, dirty, and tiring work.  I also had to change batteries 3 times.

One real pain: when I got to the septic field the trimmer kept throwing goat heads at me.  They would stick to my shirt and cause pain.  Then they'd cause more pain as I pulled them off my shirt.

When I finished the trimming I got out the blower and blew all of the debris off the gravel and sidewalk.  That was it.  I officially done with the lawn and landscaping stuff.  I have three items left to do.  One is move the Ranger out of the car port and put the truck in.  Another is to wash the truck and the front of the trailer.  The final is to remove the sensors from the trailer wheels so Ellen can program them.  I'll do some of them tomorrow.

The whole effort took almost 4 hours.  I went back into the house and surfed for a while.  Then I had a sandwich for lunch.  After lunch I shopped, buying a few things that we need around the house.  Then I surfed some more.  Ellen was watching some historical soap drama on Netflix.

When the soap opera was over I switched to videos for the rest of the day.  Dinner was a salad.

Day 3266

I woke up at 7:30 and immediately knew that I wasn't going to be doing any yard work today.  It was raining cats and dogs.  I played games for a while and eventually got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After a little surfing I went out to the garage to sort RC stuff.

I managed to sort through all of the stuff I brought back from Oregon.  I also went through a box of stuff that was in the bedroom.  There's still two or three boxes of stuff to go through in the garage.  I did make a lot of progress though.

I called a halt to the effort because I was getting tired of it.  I went back to the house and then Ellen and i left for HEB.  It was time to do the Thanksgiving grocery shopping.  It was still cold and raining though, so we stopped at Dutch Brothers first.

We ended up buying a whole large grocery cart of food - $133 worth.  We haven't bought that much food at one time in months.  It was kind of nice.

When we got home it was beginning to warm up, but only a little.  I decided to go internet shopping.  The Black Friday sales are in full swing.  I bought a lighted palm tree to go with the pink flamingos on the deck.  Then I bought a Milwaukee battery powered air compressor.  The Dewalt one I have is only good for blowing up air mattresses.  This one is supposed to be able to handle full sized tires.

After that I got stuck for hours looking at things that Amain had on sale.  I didn't buy anything, but I have a couple of candidates.

Dinner was a frozen thing.  After dinner it was a little more surfing and then videos.

Day 3265

 I woke up about 7:30 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went outside to mow the lawn.

The process started slow.  I had to take out some garbage.  Then I noticed that I had to cut down some branches in order to mow another part of the lawn.  Finally I had a hell of a time getting the mower out of the storage area.  Eventually I got the battery back in and fuel in the tank.  Then I had to search for ear protection.

The mower started right up and I went to work.  It was very dusty.  At times I was coughing heavily from breathing it.  I had to mow the back road to the storage shed.  That's something I haven't had to do lately.  Other than that is was just a long unpleasant process.  It feels good to have it done though.

I will definitely need to get out the trimmer tomorrow.  That's OK.  I'm actually kind of looking forward to cutting away the "survivors".  

I was hot, sweaty and really dirty when I was done.  I went inside and took a shower.  After that I did a little surfing and then had a salad for lunch.  When lunch was done it was videos.  I might have gone to the garage to work on RC stuff, but it was too hot.

Video watching lasted for the rest of the day.  At least for once I didn't fall asleep.

Ellen fixed steak on the Traeger for dinner.  It was great of course.

Day 3264

 I woke up a little after 7 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Abby didn't want to eat, but Ellen put in some enhancer and then she ate most of her breakfast.  After that We loaded up the car and left for Hondo.

The trip didn't start well.  We got a few miles down 1626 and there was an accident blocking the road.  Luckily we could do a u-turn and take some back roads another way to go to I35.  It cost us some time though.

Once on I35 we made really good time.  Overall we beat the GPS time estimate by over 15 minutes.  We got to Hutto about 10:40.  The BBQ place wasn't open until 11, so we stopped at HEB and bought Abby a toy for her kennel.  Then we picked up some brisket and turkey at the BBQ.

When we got to the trainer I let Abby run a little and then the trainer put her in the kennel.  She's between her mother and her sister.  Then we talked with the trainer for a while about what type of hunting we wanted her trained for.  They said that the training would take 2+ months.  After that we left for home.  I made sure that I didn't look back at Abby as we left.

There was a big traffic jam where 410 meets I35, so we decided to go home via Bandera with a stop at Fredericksburg.  The trip to Fredericksburg was nice with the back roads being mainly empty.  Fredericksburg sucked.  They had a wine festival AND the trade days going on.  There was no place on either the main road or the side road to find a parking place.  We wouldn't have been able to get into a restaurant anyway.  We just drove through and kept going.

We stopped at a burger place in Johnson City that the internet recommended.  It was good.  Then we went home.  Overall we covered over 250 miles.  

I was tired, but before I went inside I got out the pole saw and cut a lot of low hanging dead branches off the tree at the end of the parking area.  That way I can mow the lawn there.  Then I put the lawnmower battery on the charger.  Hopefully I can mow the lawn tomorrow.  That would be the last big job to do.

After that I went inside to watch videos and almost immediately fell asleep.  When I woke up I did some surfing and cleaned up the Aliexpress mail.  They generate a lot a extraneous emails about an order.  I also looked at the tracking for the tire pressure sensors.  They were due today.  Now the USPS says Tuesday or so.

"Dinner" was a snack of brisket and bread.  After that was a little more videos followed by surfing.

Day 3263

I woke up at 7, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that we left for the oil change place to get the safety test.

Today was kind of like a nicer replay of yesterday.  We got to the oil place and the tester guy was there.  They weren't too busy and we didn't have to wait long.  We stayed inside because it was a little cold.  Several people inside thought Abby was a beautiful dog.  One owned a GSP and we swapped stories.  We were out of there in about half an hour.

From there we went to the county office.  We had to wait there for a while.  Our luck.  Went we got there the seating area was full.  When we left there were only 3 people waiting.  We got both the truck sticker and the trailer sticker.  It's ironic that we'll need another trailer sticker before it's on the road again.

We stopped at Tractor Supply for some bird seed.  We also stopped at a BBQ place that I'd been wanting to try to pick up brisket for later.  Then we stopped at Walgreen's for Ellen's stuff.

After that it was a lot like yesterday.  We took Abby to the park and then ate at the pizza place.  After that we went home.

I tried to watch videos, but fell asleep.  When I woke up I watched them again and fell asleep again.  Eventually I managed to stay awake.

Dinner was brisket.  It was pretty good.

After dinner was more videos.  I got an email about the MRI.  It will be on the second.  The prep is almost as bad as for a colonoscopy.

I've been kind of sad all day.  We're taking Abby to the trainer tomorrow and it will be a long time before we see her again.

Day 3262

 I woke up at 7:30 (it's getting to be a habit).  I played games for a while and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then it was outside to finish weeding the driveway.

It didn't take long to pull all of the weeds.  It does feel really good to have that task done.  Then I put out the garbage and recycle cans and went back to the house.

We needed to get the safety inspection for the truck license.  It also needed an oil change.  We went to the normal place to have both done.  Unfortunately their inspector person wasn't working today.  That lead to a very frustrating time driving up and down 290 looking for someone who could do the inspection without a 1 hour wait.  We went to 6 places, no one could do it.  FUCK.  We'll have to go back to the original place tomorrow.

We drove to Dripping Springs and ran the dog at the park.  She had a great time running full speed everywhere.  Unfortunately there's a lot of construction adjacent to the part.  It looks like Californian breeding hutches.  The construction has messed up everything adjacent to the park where Abby used to play.

We ate lunch at the pizza place next to the HEB.  I had a mango margarita.  It was great.  Then we went home.

I spent some time going through the RC stuff.  I needed to buy some car stands and receivers.  The AliExpress price is almost $100 less than Amazon.  I spent forever fighting with their website to get the order in.  I tried a second order, but their website refused to validate the card they'd just accepted.  I gave up.

After that I started surfing.  Ellen went to archery.  I fixed frozen stuff for dinner and then watched videos for the rest of the evening.

Day 3261

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games until a little after 8.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that was a little surfing until it was time to go to the doctor.

Loop 1 was backed up past Davis.  That's much longer than I've ever seen it before, and this was after 9.  Fortunately it wasn't completely stopped.  I got off at William Cannon and got around part of the backup.  We made it to the doctor in plenty of time.

It turns out that my PSA is unchanged, but still high.  The doctor seemed happy when I chose an MRI.  Apparently it will be about a month before I have the MRI and the results are known.  Hot dog.

We stopped by the post office to mail the box that we couldn't mail on Monday.  Then we stopped at Circle C so the doggy could run.  She wasn't as energetic as she has been, but she had a good time.  After a stop at Tomlinson's for a treat we at Italian place for lunch.  Then it was home.

When we got home I went out to the garage to put away some RC stuff.  It was over 85 degrees in the garage, so I didn't last long.  I went back into the house and surfed for rest of the afternoon.

Ellen fixed sausage and waffles for dinner.  After dinner I watched the John Wick 4 DVD.  It was good, but I afraid there isn't anything left in that story.

Day 3260

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games until a little after 8.  then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went outside to pull weeds.

I started with the weeds (mainly grass) on the strip between the rocks and the truck and trailer.  It was about 20 feet long, but there were a lot of weeds.  The mosquitoes were out in force.  I killed about 6 of them while they were feeding on me.  I don't know how many got away clean.

When that was done I got out the trimmer and cut back the tree by the flat bed trailer.  I cut and disposed of 3 loads of branches  Then I pulled up all of the weeds behind the trailer and disposed of them.

I'd run out of weeds, so I got out the string trimmer.  I cut all of the tall grass around the flamingos.  I also cut the grass along the rocks by the garage.  That made a mess, so I got out the blower and cleaned everything off.  That officially makes the lower yard complete except for mowing.  I still have the driveway to go.

I went back into the house to do some odd stuff there.  I unloaded and put away a "for Texas" box from Oregon.  It was mainly button batteries, old software, and miscellaneous stuff.  I was all from drawers in the old Mobile Suites trailer.

After that it was time for surfing.  That turned into simultaneous surfing and videos.  

Dinner was leftovers.  The alarm for the HOA meeting went off just as I sat down to eat.  I hurriedly ate and then went to the meeting.

I met Lee at the meeting and we got to talk a little.  The meeting was mainly about the formation of an architectural control board.  Apparently it's required by Texas law.  Nothing was really accomplished.

When I got home I continued with the simultaneous surfing and videos.

Day 3259

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games for about an hour.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went outside to the garage.

I got out a wrench and the compressor and started to drain the water in the trailer.  It took longer to drain all of the water out than I remembered.  While it was draining I took a load of stuff to the back storage building.  Eventually all of the water was out of the lines.  I put everything together and put the tools away.

Then I started pulling up the tufts of grass that had grown up in the gravel.  Eventually I cleared all of the area up to the beginning of the driveway except for the area on the side of the truck and trailer.  It was getting hot and I was tired.  I'll have to do that tomorrow along with the driveway and the area around the flat bed trailer.

When I got back to the house I did some surfing and had lunch - the last of the brisket from Tucson.  Then we went for some errands.  We stopped at VS so I could transfer my prescriptions.  Then it was HEB for OJ and bananas.  We drove through the Y just to see how the construction is going.  They have moved a lot of dirt and even completed some roadway sections.

The next stop was the post office.  We wanted to mail Mark his flashlight, but the package bin was overflowing.  Then we went to Harbor Freight.  I got some rubber bungee cords to replace the ones that broke on the side by side cover.  I also got a new parts box for the RC parts.  The next stop was Circle C.  Abby ran around the fields for a little while and then I threw the bumper for her.  It was almost 90 and she didn't want to do much more.  The last stop was Walgreens so Ellen could get drugs.

When we got home I started to watch videos, mostly liberal tears.  It was educational.  There are a lot of really broken headed people out there.  

Dinner was frozen pizza.  After dinner we watched SpaceX unload the crew from the latest flight from the space station.  It was being broadcast live.

Ellen got a hold of the trainer today.  We'll be taking Abby there on Saturday.  I'm going to miss her, but she needs the training.

Day 3258

 I woke up at 7:30 and payed games for an hour.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  When that was done i went out to the garage to work on the ammo.

When I opened the garage door the mosquitoes went in with me.  In a few minutes they were buzzing around me.  I shut the garage door and tried to work.  I really didn't have any piece until I killed two of them.  I have a bite on my elbow that shows at least one got away.

I used tape to fix the six boxes that were damaged by the water and filled them with shells.  The case box was a total loss.  Then I started to unpack some of the stuff from the trailer basement.  I put away some of it and took other stuff to the house.  Most of what remains is RC stuff.  I also put the dehumidifiers in the safes.  They'd been sitting on the kitchen counter for days.

I got one of the Wally World balls from the garage and put it in the trunk.  Then we took Abby back to the Beckett park.  She made short work of the ball, but it was fun to watch.  Then we walked through the woods again.  We walked a little over a mile.  She went a lot farther.  She obeyed flawlessly, just like yesterday.

We decided to have lunch at Waterloo because I wanted a pancake.  It was really crowded and service was slow.  We didn't mind, it was a nice day to sit outside.  Abby got to play with a set of 2 year old twins.  She was great and they had fun.

We went home after lunch.  I decided to turn on a football game and read magazines.  I finished all of the ones that had come while we were on the road.  Then I got the Apple tablet and looked for Amazon sales.  Football is almost interesting when you have something else to do at the same time.

When the game was over I switched to videos.  It was another session where I watched stuff that was new to me.

Ellen fixed spaghetti for dinner.  After dinner was more videos.  I'm going to keep working on the things to do list tomorrow.

Day 3257

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games for an hour  then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went outside.

The first task was to put up the new bird feeder pole.  I need to cut down the branch that we used before, but I'll do that later.  Then I went out to the garage to work on the ammo.  Unfortunately the boxes weren't dry yet, so I couldn't do anything.

The third task was to run the dog.  We took Abby to the park on Beckett.  It was crowded with some sort of kid thing (it's Sat.).  They were taking up the whole field, so we ran Abby through the woods.  She had a great time.  She also obeyed really well each time I used the whistle.  We had to stop twice while convoys of bicycles went by.  She was good for that, too.  We finished up with about 10 really long retrieves and some playing in the dog fountain.

After that we made a great circle starting with the post office.  Then it was PetSmart for dog food followed by Nature's Pet for cat food.  We ate lunch at Fireman's.  I got a large sandwich so that I would have dinner, too.  Then it was home.

When we got home Ellen cut my hair.  It's been over a month and I needed it.  I also ordered more transmitters for the trailer tire monitor- 3 at $40 a piece.  After that the rest of the afternoon and evening was filled with surfing, magazine reading, and videos.

Day 3256

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games until after 8.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was outside to work on the three things that I wanted to get done today.

The first was to clean up the back yard and deck.  Abby had taken cardboard out of the recycle, chewed it to pieces, and spread it all over the deck and yard.  I picked it all up and took it to the recycle bin.  The I got the trimmer and cut down the azalea branches that were attached to the gate and the house.  I loaded them and some of the leaves in the recycle bin and dumped them in the woods.  I did that a few more times until the deck was clear.

By then I was hot and tired.  I went to the garage to sit down before a fan and finish cleaning up the ammo.  I boxed the shells from yesterday.  Then I got to work on the 150 shells left.  I ended up with a little over 30 rusty shells.  I got out the Dremel and cleaned them all out.  I won't be able to box them until the boxes dry out.

The third task was to empty the trailer basement.  There was a lot of stuff in it.  Food got taken to the pantry.  Some of the RC stuff went to the spare bedroom.  The rest got stacked in the garage to be dealt with later.  Other stuff got put wherever it belonged.

While I was doing all of these tasks Ellen was out with a scoop and bucket cleaning up the fox shit.  It was all over the gravel all the way to the gate.  It took her a long time and she did a great job.

When I finished up it was past lunch time and I was ready to eat and surf.  So that's what I did. Eventually I turned to videos.  There was a little politics and a lot of other stuff.

Ellen fixed stir fry for dinner.  After dinner was more videos.  I did take Abby out for a short run around the property while I picked up a package.  She had a great time.  She also came back as soon as I whistled.  Maybe that was because she hadn't had dinner yet.

Day 3255

 I woke up about 8 and played games for an hour.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went outside to work.

I started by putting air in the car tires.  The car had generated a tire alarm yesterday, so I balanced the tire pressures and then had Ellen program them.  Hopefully that will take care of it.  Then I got out the leaf blower and cleared off the entryway.  It had a large collection of leaves and nuts.  I was sick of walking through them.

With that done I went to the garage to deal with all of the wet ammo.  There was 2 cases of it.  I cleaned off all but four boxes.  Tomorrow I'll have those four boxes and about 8 heavily rusted shells to deal with.  At that point I got sick of ammo cleaning and went to the trailer to move out the rest of the my stuff that I had left in it.  I also wanted to move the plants.

It took a while, but I ended up with two bags of small stuff plus a couple of loads of bigger stuff.  I took it all to the house and put it away.  I was devoted to finishing all aspects.  That meant installing the monthly CPAP stuff and gluing a glass flamingo that we'd bought at Las Vegas.  I did leave unloadidng the basement for tomorrow.

After that it was lunch followed by computer timer.  It was getting too hot and muggy to work outside.  I emailed Blendjet about the blender they never sent me.  I also got on Amazon and ordered some stuff we needed - dog whistles, dog shit rake, bird feeder pole, and a new entry carpet for the back door.

After that I called a halt to work for the day.  I sat down and watched videos, some entertainment and some political.  

I'd done something stupid yesterday.  I'd left the water I bought at HEB in the cart rather than putting it in the trunk.  That means that we were almost out of water.  We made a short trip to HEB to get water, OJ, and TP.

When we got home dinner was leftovers.  After dinner was more videos.  There's so much left to do.

Day 3254

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games until 8.  Ellen immediately told me that Trump had won.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I am so glad that Trump won.  The country was headed straight for the toilet if Kamala had won.

We left for the piss doctor a little after 9.  It was just for a blood draw, so it didn't take long.  I was surprised that the normal traffic jam on loop 1 at 290 was still going on even though we got there at 9:30.  It didn't delay us much though.

After that we went to Circle C to run Abby.  She had a great time running everywhere.  She met two dogs that she got to play and run with.  She also got to chase a whole lot of Texas starlings.

It was after noon when we were done.  We went to the bank to cash a check.  Then we went to Torchy's for lunch.  After that we made a short stop at HEB and then it was home to work.

Ellen moved the pantry from the trailer to the house.  I moved the guns.  One of the struts on the bed was broken and I fixed that.  Then I got the guns from under the sofa and moved them to the apartment.  That's when the trouble started. 

It turns out that the newest safe was too short to hold some of the guns.  When I tried to open the old safe I couldn't.  I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure it out.  Eventually I found a copy of the right combination.  It had been stored with the others, but the display wasn't showing it.  I ended up having to completely rearrange the contents of both safes to get everything in.

After that I went into the house and put away the other guns.  It took quite a while to find the key.  By then I was hot an tired, but I wanted to get the truck unloaded.  I went outside and unloaded everything.  I didn't put the ammo away, just moved it into the garage.  One of the bags had leaked.  There's one damp case of shells and another that looks like it was dumped in a bath tub.  I'll leave that for later.

I went back inside and turned on the TV to watch liberal tears.  It was great.  After a while I got tired of politics and started watching random videos.

Ellen fixed sausage for dinner.

Day 3253

I woke up at 7:30 and played games until 8.  Then it was up for breakfast and hooking up.  Hooking up took longer because I had to  drain the tanks.  We go on the road about 9:30.

The trip home was only 30 miles.  I thought there might be voting traffic, but there wasn't.  When we got to the place everything looked all right.  There was the usual high grass and a few weeds, but nothing serious.  The worst thing was that all of the gravel was covered with fox shit.  He must not shit anywhere else.

Things got bad when I turned on the water pump power.  The pump didn't go on.  I called the well people and they said that they would have someone out in an hour and a half.  We put the pest in the house and started to park the trailer.

That was a cluster fuck.  I had a new idea on how to do it.  The idea didn't work out.  We spent about an hour backing and filling.  I got the trailer about lined up, but I ran it into a combination tree and bush.  It was the same one that I broke the truck tail light on.  I got out the tree trimmer and pole saw and chopped the hell out of both plants.  I should have done that years ago.  With the tree out of the way I backed the trailer in just where I wanted it.

The pump guys came.  The dinged around for a while and said that the motor start capacitor was dead.  They replaced it and the pump ran again.  It only cost $140.  Yippee.

With the trailer parked we went to get the mail in the car.  I inflated the tires first.  We had to wait at the window to pick it up.  There was a whole box full.  Then we went to Longhorn for a 3:00 lunch/dinner.  We had a lot of food.

When we got home we moved a bunch of stuff to the house.  That included dirty clothes, underwear, toiletries, CPAP, razor, etc.  It was wash day, so Ellen started the wash.  I also moved everything in the refrigerator.   Ellen had to fix the internet.

By then we were both tired.  I'd avoided election news all day.  I just didn't want to hear about it.  That meant no internet or TV.  I sat down to read, but almost fell asleep.  I got up, took a shower, and went to bed.

Day 3252

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games until 8.  Then it was up for breakfast and hooking up.  We left the park a little before 9.

The trip was uneventful (yeah) except for me having 2 bouts of diarrhea.  Luckily the first hit right at the exit to a gas station with truck parking and the second a short distance to the only rest area for 80 miles.  We got 10.4 mpg, helped by a tailwind.  That meant that we didn't have to stop for fuel.

We got to the park about 2.  We unhooked and went back to Johnson City for fuel and DQ.  I only put in 9 gallons.  That gave us about 1/3 tank.  That's enough to get home and not have a lot in the tank.  We also went to Perdanales Falls State park.

The park is about 10 miles from Johnson City.  It's pretty nice with lots of trails.  We drove to the Falls parking lot and walked .3 miles to the overlook.  We might have walked all the way down, but there wasn't enough water to make it worthwhile.  It's interesting.  Apparently I10 crosses the Perdanales close to its headwaters.  When we crossed it on I10 it was nothing bu a shallow gravel ditch - no water at all.

We watched videos when we got home.  A heavy thunderstorm moved in about 7 and lasted until 9:30.  There was a lot of lightning and loud thunder.  I worried for a while that we might get hail.  We didn't.  Cooper spent a lot of time in my lap.  I had to play games on the laptop because the rain was heavy enough to block Star link.

We just snacked a little instead of dinner.

When the rain finally let up I took a shower and then went to bed.

I'm looking forward to getting home tomorrow even though there's a lot of work to be done.  I hope that I won't have to deal with any problems at home.

Day 3251

 I woke up at 6.  I thought I'd woken up at 7, but I'd miscalculated the time zone that we were in.  There was no point in getting up, so I played games for quite a while.  I finally got up at 7:45.  Then it was breakfast and hooking up.

Hooking up went as it usually did with the addition of tightening the lug nuts.  The nuts on the new axle seem to get a little loose each day.  We were on the road a little before 9.  It was Sunday, so traffic through El Paso was fairly light.  There wasn't even any problem through the construction.  After that it was clear sailing until we were 20 miles west of Van Horn.

Some asshole semi driver had done something stupid.  His trailer was crashed on the side of the road and on fire.  I'd first seen the smoke about a mile away.  The crash was off the right side of the road and all of the traffic was moving to the left lane.  Folks were slowly driving past until some asshole about 6 vehicles in front of us decided that it was too scary to drive through smoke.  Traffic came to a standstill.

Eventually the police (3 cars) and firefighters got to the scene.  We sat on the road for about an hour until the fire was converted to a smouldering load of either cabbages or lettuce.  At least we were close to the front of the jam, so once the road was opened (1 lane) we got going fairly quickly.  One of the worst part of the ordeal was that there was no internet.  That meant that we couldn't listen to pod casts.

We got 11 mpg for the trip.  That was probably because we had a tail wind for most of the way.  That kind of makes up for the head wind when we were going west.  The rest of the trip to the park was uneventful.

We got to the park and set up.  Then it was back to Fort Stockton to fuel up.  We went to the same station that we did the first trip west.  It had inexpensive fuel and we'd used it before so we knew it was good.

We went back to the trailer and watched videos.  Ellen took Abby to the dog park.  Abby met another dog there and did a lot of rolling in the dust.  When Ellen brought her back she immediately got a bath.

Dinner was a frozen pizza followed by more videos.

Day 3250

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games until 8.  Then it was up for breakfast and hooking up.  All of that went well and we were on the road a little after 9.

The trip was the same boring trip that we'd made about 10 days ago.  There wasn't any problem with traffic, but both of us had intestinal problems.  We pulled off at a gas station in the middle of no where for Ellen.  I ended up having to stop the trailer on the side of the freeway so I could go in the trailer.  I'm getting tired of this problem.

We got to the park about 2:30 (we'd lost an hour).  We got 11.3 mpg.  That compares to 12.2 a couple of days ago going in the opposite direction.  We set up and then went to Wally World for orange juice and bananas.  We also stopped for fuel and a hamburger at Mickey D's.

When we got back we watched videos until 6:30 when the park was having a social.  There was only one other couple.  They were stuck in the park waiting for parts for their Reflection to arrive.

When that was done we went back to the trailer.  We both had snacks and then watched videos for the rest of the evening.

The next two days are slightly longer - 300 miles instead of 270.  After that we'll have a "empty the tanks morning followed by a less than 50 mile trip home.  I really hope that everything is alright at home.  I've had enough big problems to last me for a while.

Day 3249

 I woke up at 7:30 and played games until 8.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I surfed until 9 when the repair guys showed up.  They got right to work on the bedroom slide.

Apparently it was a little difficult to repair the slide due to the tight clearance between one side of the slide and the shower stall.  They spent hours getting things to work.  They got it done though and it works well now.  When they were finished they started switching the microwave.

They to the old one out fairly easily.  The new one was a pain in the ass.  It didn't have the same mounting type as the old one.  They had to drill holes in the roof of the slide.  They also had to go to ACE to get longer mounting bolts.  Finally they had to line up the holes in the slide with the mounting holed in the top of the microwave.  It was a long, difficult process.  They got it done though.  All in all it took them 6 hours to do everything.  I thought the $1,100 cost was reasonable.  

I looked over the recall info from Grand Design.  The refrigerator fix is a pain in the ass.  I looked at the back of the refrigerator.  It appears to me that the wire is already secured pretty well.  The repair guys didn't want to do it and I didn't push them.  I'll have them do it next time we're through here.

While The repair was going on Ellen and I started cleaning the trailer.  Ellen did the stove and the refrigerator.  I wiped down all of the woodwork in the living room and kitchen.  I also cleaned the marks off the ceiling and cleaned the glass in the drawers.  That leaves only the bathroom and bedroom to clean.

After the repair guys were done I drained the tanks.  Then I put my clothes back in the closet (Ellen did her's) and I put the boxes in the basement.

At 4:30 we went to a get together at the clubhouse.  We were the only ones there.  We talked with the club people for a while and then left.  We went back to the trailer and got Abby. We took her to the park.  She had a great time chasing birds.  Several other dogs came and she had more fun playing with them.  Finally I brought a box for her to tear up.

Abby had gotten filthy at the park.  We gave her a bath on the way back to the trailer.

Dinner was TV dinners.  The new microwave works well.  After dinner was videos.

It's wonderful to have a working bedroom slide again.