Day 3390

 I woke up around 8, got up, did the pet stuff, and had breakfast.  Then I went outside to poison the environment.

The weather was pretty good.  It was high 60's, cloudy, and there was a slight breeze.  The sprayer worked perfectly when I got it out and tested it.  I had some trouble muscling the mower out of the shed, but it wasn't too bad.  I did have just enough Roundup, but plenty of the other chemicals.

The replacement pump I got last year for the sprayer worked really well.  Because it was so consistent I managed to do the whole property with one tankful.  With the spraying done I put away the sprayer and mower.  Then I got out the applicator and spread out a bag of Casoron.  I only covered the lower part of the parking lot.  I think that will be enough since that's where most of the emergent stuff is growing.

I put the applicator away.  Then I put salt in the water softener and took a sack of bird seed down to the deck.  It filled up 1.5 cans.  With all that done I went inside and had a long extensive shower.

I was pretty tired after that and spent about 45 minutes in the recliner recovering.  Then we went to run the dog.  By then it was in the 70's and sunny.  We went to Circle C and ran Abby on a somewhat truncated course.  She still got her miles in.  Unfortunately twice she didn't obey the whistle.  That earned her a couple of zaps. 

When that was done we went to the post office and Doc's Backyard.  Doc's was having a 1/2 price sale on their hamburgers.  The hamburgers were really good and so were the fries.  I had a "whiskey icee" which was expensive, but great.  They were 1/2 lb hamburgers, so half of each one came home with us.

When we got home I more or less finished sorting the box of RC lights.  Then I sat down to videos and a nap.

Dinner was the leftover hamburger and fries.  It was still really good.  After dinner was more videos.

I'm really glad to have the poisoning done.  The only pains inn the ass left to do are wash the vehicles and spread a little gravel.

 

Day 3389

 I woke up at 8, played games,ad then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was about 70 and cloudy, so I went outside to get some stuff done before it got hot.

I got out the battery charger and hooked it up to the mower.  The battery was at 70%, so I had to wait for a while while it charged up.  In the mean time I got some ant poison and poisoned the ants that were invading the toy house.

I got out the blower and blew the leaves off the gravel and the front entrance.  By the time I was done it was time to switch the charger to the sprayer battery.  I went inside to surf for a little while while it charged.  When I went to check on it the "smart" charger hadn't charged it.  I got out the dumb one and hooked it up. 

I surfed for a while more and then went out to check the charger.  The dumb charger said that the battery was charged.  I switched to the smart charger which said it was 70% charged.  I left it charging while we took Abby to Circle C.  It was still cool and Seattle pissing - perfect weather for her.

Circle C was jammed.  Most of the fields were being used and there was literally NO parking spaces in the whole park.  We went to Beckett.

It was really muddy, so we walked around the park on the paved path.  Abby did great.  She covered a lot of ground, but always checked back. That was until we were back near the parking lot.  She didn't come back after several calls and warning zaps.  Finally Ellen gave her a continuous boosted zap.  She came up from a long way behind us.  She was also muddy.  Her collar was caked in mud.   I think that she went off chasing birds and lost track of where we were.

After that we went to the Italian place for lunch.  We also stopped at Tomlinson's for 30 cans of cat food and HEB for milk and OJ.

When we got home I took the cat food to the trailer.  I put the chargers away and rolled up the electrical cords.  Then it was inside for videos.

I wasn't very hungry, so I ended up having a bowl of cereal for dinner.  After dinner was a few videos until I got bored.  Then I got out some parts for the Reflex and figured out what to do with them.  Then I started sorting and labeling all of the LED lights that I've collected.  I spent over an hour and a half on it and aren't done yet.

Day 3388

I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was cloudy and mid-60's, so I went outside to work.

I assembled the pole trimmer and proceeded to trip all of the trees along the driveway.  The trimmer isn't overly heavy, but it's awkward to use, especially when going for the highest branches.  Also the temperature kept going up (it was humid from the start).  I was tired and soaked with sweat in the 1.5 hours it took to cut everything and pick up the debris.

When I was done I went inside, packed up the dog, and then we left for Circle C.  I was proud of myself for going there immediately even though I was hot and tired.  When we got there the place was packed with soccer rugrats.  We ended up walking the walking path to avoid disturbing the games.  Abby ran like a wild dog, but she was tired by the time we were done.  We walked about 1.5 miles. 

After that we ate lunch at Culvers and then went home.  I had Ellen give me a haircut.  That way I'll be ready for another just before we leave.  After that was some surfing, which morphed into videos.  Amazingly I didn't nap.  At least I don't think I did.

Dinner was leftover BLT stuff.  It was followed by some more videos.  I got bored quickly and started working on some tie rods that I'd purchased for the micro-b.  When that was done i started cleaning up all of the stuff that's accumulated on the bed in the second bedroom.  That takes time and it needs to all be put away before we leave. 

I'm planning to get things ready to do spraying tomorrow - charge batteries, pump up tires, and generally get things out.  That will make for a fairly easy day.

Day 3387

 I woke up around 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was raining this morning, which negated any outdoor work.  I got out the micro-b stuff to work on instead.

I modified some connectors to allow me to connect the ESC to the receiver without having them stick up much above the receiver.  The trouble started when I tried to test them.  I couldn't get the ESC to drive the receiver.  It didn't help that the ESC receiver wire didn't have a color code.  Of course there isn't any documentation either.

I finally tried to connect the ESC using it's Bluetooth connection and my phone.  That failed too.  That's when I came to the realization that the ESC was garbage.  Of course it is too late to return it.  I ordered another one from Amazon.  There goes $80.

I gave up on the micro-b, did a little surfing, and had lunch.  I wanted to accomplish something today, so I started doing trip planning.  It was fun.  I decided that this trip we'd stop and smell the roses along the way.  We identified a bunch of stuff to do in Amarillo and Albuquerque.  We'll stay an extra day in both places.  We'll also shoot there.

I mapped out the travel from Albuquerque to St. George.  At that point I got tired of trip planning and quit.

I let the dog out while I was going to the can.  When I got back Ellen was picking up the body of the gray squirrel.  Abby had killed it.  I'm kind of sad.  That was a really cool looking squirrel.  She can kill all of the brown ones she wants, but I wish that she'd left the gray one alone.

I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon and the evening watching videos.  Dinner was something frozen.

Day 3386

 I woke up about 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was raining.  It rained off and on for most of the day.  We got .9 inches overall.

Rain is incompatible with all of the chores that I need to get done - tree trimming, spreading some gravel, and poisoning the environment.  That left trip planning.

We decided on the first week of travel.  It will involve shooting at 2 or three different places.  Ellen made some of the reservations.  I've roughed out an additional 6 days, but I haven't finalized it.  That leaves about 20 days to go.

That's all I got accomplished today.  We went to lunch at Waterloo for the last cheap hamburger day.  We took the truck while the car is in the garage and left the dog at home because it was raining.  We also made a short stop at HEB.

When we got home I sat down to watch the YouTube weather video.  It says rain for the next 1 or 2 days.  I ended up falling asleep even though I hadn't done anything.  I think that the afternoon naps are the clearest evidence there could be that I'm no officially old.

Ellen fixed BLT's for dinner.  After dinner was more videos.

Day 3385

 I woke up a little before 9.  I didn't play games, I just got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I went outside to deal with the Ranger.

The problems started immediately.  I thought I had Stabil, but I didn't.  I drove over to the station on 45, they didn't have any.  I stopped at HEB, they didn't have any either.  I ended up having to drive all the way to 290 and William Cannon to get some. 

When I got back I put the Stabil in the gas and the gas in the Ranger.  When I tried, the Ranger wouldn't start.  The battery had died overnight.  I tried to use the battery charger to jump start the Ranger.  The indicators on the charger have dies, so I couldn't set it to jump start mode.  I ended up waiting an hour or so for the battery to be charged.

During the wait I finally cleaned up everything in the trailer.  I also put away the stuff that had been gathering there that needs to go to Oregon.  I also got Ellen to clean out all of the extra plastic bins she had in one of the kitchen cabinets. 

After that the battery was finally charged.  I got the Ranger started and moved back to it's storage space.  Then Ellen helped me cover it.  It's supposed to rain starting tonight and lasting up to 2 days (yeah).  With that done we left for errands.

There was a package at the post office for Ellen.  Then we went to lunch at Torchy's.  There were a lot of Grackles there, which drove Abby nuts.  We also stopped at the pet store, but they didn't have the right cat food.  We ordered some.

The last stop was Circle C.  I walked the dog while Ellen hung out in the can.  It was hot an humid, so I didn't walk far.  I met a couple of hunting dog people and we talked while they watched Abby run.

When we got home I didn't nap.  Instead I soldered up the wires to the bamboo Lego.  It worked really well.  I rearranged the stuff around the crystal box and put it there it's a nice addition.   Finally I cleaned up, put everything away, and glued a broken baby Yoda thing from the trailer.  The damn cheap Chinese super glue tube broke while I was using it.  I spent more time cleaning glue off my fingers than I did fixing the baby Yoda thing.

After that it was videos, dinner (frozen), and more videos.  It's rained 1/4 inch this evening.

I'm really glad about all the stuff that got done today.  Hopefully I'll be able to get another couple of things done tomorrow.  It all depends on how much rain there is.

Day 3384

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast I went outside to accomplish some stuff.

I started by pumping the gas out of the Ranger.  I couldn't get it all out because of the slope it was parked on, so I hooked up the battery charger and switched tasks.  I went to the deck to use the blower to clean off the wisteria blossoms.

Unfortunately the blossoms seemed glued to whatever surface they had fallen on.  I had to use a broom to loosen them up.  Then I could use the blower to remove them.  It was in the middle 80's and humid, so this was a sweaty, tiring, process. 

The battery wasn't charged yet, so I went inside to see how to repair the bamboo light wire that Cooper chewed in half.  It ends in a USB plug, so I found a SB extension cord and a two output wall plug.  That will allow me to plug it into the timer for the crystal light box.  The wires are incredibly thin, way below 20 ga.  I had Ellen untwist them and strip them.  She had her magnifying glass and two thumbs.  They were both very helpful.

By then the battery was charged.  I went back outside and re-positioned the Ranger.  I was only able to pump a little more out.  It wouldn't restart because it was out of gas.  I got Ellen to help push it down the hill.  I won't be able to do anything else until I've got some new gas.

By then it was hot and time for lunch.  I was soaked in sweat, tired, and felt like shit.  We went to Waterloo for lunch.  I had a mango margarita and a kid's meal.  It was great.  I was feeling a little better by the time we were fun. 

We took Abby to Circle C.  We only ran her in shady areas.  She ran hard for a while, but then the heat began to get to her.  She got a fairly good run in though.  I felt pretty good waling, but I wasn't 100%.  The last stops were HEB for break, OJ, and bananas and the gas station for gas.

When we got home it was over 0 and too hot to work outside.  The Ranger will wait for tomorrow.

When I got home I gave the dog and myself) a shower.  Then I sat down in the chair and slept for well over an hour.  When I woke up it was time to feed the pets.  I watched videos after that.

Dinner was some frozen stuff followed by videos. 

I feel pretty good about today.  I got some stuff accomplished and I kept on working even thouogh I felt like shit.

Day 3383

 I woke up about 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then I went out to the garage to get the car out of the garage.  With it out of the garage I put all of Ellen's painting stuff back in place.

After that I got out the leaf blower.  When I tried to blow the wisteria flowers off the deck it was a non-starter.  They were still wet and stuck to the deck.  I'll try again tomorrow.  Instead I got a sack of bird seed from the well house and filled up the plastic bird seed cans on the deck.  That didn't seem like enough, so I also cleaned up a bunch of stuff that had been laying around the garage.

It was really getting warm so I went back in the house to get ready to take the dog to Circle C.  She had a fine time running around.  When we first started out she was running flat out for quite a while.  After we finished at the park we went to Harbor Freight so I could buy a pump to pump the old gas out of the Polaris and the tractor.

The last stop was in-n-out for lunch.  When we got home I sat down in the recliner.  That initiated a long nap.  I'm really getting disgusted with being so tired when we come back from walking the dog.  Time is getting short.  I'm going to have keep working when we get back even though I'm feeling exhausted. 

When I finally woke up it was almost pet feeding time.  I watched videos until then and fed them.  Then it was more videos until dinner (frozen stuff).  The rest of the evening was more videos.  I've got to get my ass out of that chair.

Day 3382

 I woke up about 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After a short surfing session I went outside to take out the garbage and walk the fence.

I took the saws-all with me when I went.  It was a good idea.  There were a lot of limbs to cut along the side by the woodpile.  After that it was sections of easy walking followed by sections with harder walking.  I ended up with several cuts on my arms and legs from branches.  There's one post in the SW corner that needs some repair.

The weather was hot and humid the whole time I was out.  I came back soaked in sweat, covered in tree debris, and VERY tired.  I drank a whole bottle of water and sat down in the recliner.  That lead to a long nap.

I felt really guilty about not taking Abby out today.  I was just too tired to do it at first, and later on it was too hot.  She was pretty good about it, but had several attacks of the zoomies.  I gave her a new toy as partial compensation.

I had really old pizza for lunch and then switched between videos and surfing for the rest of the afternoon.  I didn't start to feel human again until close to dinner time.

Dinner was a frozen thing.  After dinner I switched from videos to a movie.

A little after 9 the weather radio went off warning of a thunderstorm.  It said it was going to miss us.  The storm did not.  It started very quickly going from a drizzle to a downpour with hail in 2 minutes.  I ran outside and drove the car to the garage.  I had to move all of Ellen's painting stuff out of the way before I could put the car in.  By the time I got back to the house I was as wet as if I'd jumped into a swimming pool. 

We got 1.75 inches of rain in less than an hour.  The hail didn't last long, but it was about 1/2 inch in size.  I won't know if the car was damaged until tomorrow.

I took a shower when I got back, wrote this up, and went to bed.  The weather radio says that we may get hit again about 1:00.

 

Day 3381

 I got up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I did a small amount of surfing and then started to deal with the stuff that came from China.

I attached alligator clips to the lead wires of the two battery boxes.  I put one in the box under the kitchen table and took the other to the trailer.  While I was at the trailer I started to sort out the things in the boxes in the drawer under the TV.  Some of the stuff needed to be thrown away.  Some stuff is questionable, and the rest needs to stay.  I needed Ellen to help with some of the categorizing, so I went back to the house.

I surfed while she was on the can.  When she was done it was time to go to the Yard Bar.  We got there a little after noon.

The place is kind of like how I remember it, but a little more refined.  I took Abby into the dog part while Ellen ordered food.  You can't eat in the dog part, so she ate outside.  When she was finished we switched.

There were a lot of dogs there and they were all friendly.  Abby was really intimidated.  She played a little bit, but mainly kept to herself.  She wouldn't even play in the pools because there were other dogs in them also.  We hung around for a while and then left.  Unfortunately Abby didn't get much exercise.  Also, they were out of t-shirts.

On the way home the truck went into regen.  I drove to the turnaround by 45, made the turnaround, and then drove back up to Barton tramway where I made another turnaround.  The truck finished the regen when we got back to 45.  Using the turnarounds meant I didn't have to stop at lights.

We were low on fuel when we left home.  Because of the regen we got even lower.  I stopped at the station on 1826 and put in 10 gallons.

It was too hot to work in the trailer when we got home.  Instead I sorted through all of the USB cables in the Chinese chest.  There were a lot.  I got Ellen to help and we threw away a lot of old cables and duplicates.  There's a plastic bag of them for Goodwill now.

After that it was videos until dinner.  I had another grilled sandwich.  I cooked it a little less this time.  It was better that way.

After dinner it was a few more videos and then movies.  I watched one movie and half of another.  I think I'll finish the second one tomorrow.

 

Day 3380

 I woke up about 8 and played games.  Then I got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was cold again, so I surfed for a while.  

Then I switched to attaching some accessory parts to the TRX-4M.  I had originally planned to install them with the supplied screws.  Unfortunately the external roll cage was in the way and couldn't be removed.  I ended up gluing them on.

When that was done I went back to surfing.  Abby was driving both of us nuts with her zoomies.  We just put up with it because it was still cold.

The sandwich griller I bought got cleaned last night, so I decided to make a grilled sandwich for lunch.  The griller worked great and the sandwich was really good.  I'll be using the griller whenever I want a sandwich.

After lunch Abby won out and we took her to the Circle C.  We stopped at the post office and the China stuff was there.  Unfortunately I didn't look closely and thought it was CPAP stuff.  Then we went to Circle C and ran the dog.  It was kind of a short session because Ellen wasn't feeling good.  The final stop was to HEB to get sandwich stuff.

When we got home I sat down for videos.  That lasted a short time until a long nap.  I didn't wake up until 5:30. 

Ellen fixed shrimp and noodles for dinner.  It was really good.  After dinner I opened the Amazon package.  It had the Chinese rc part I wanted, but the package didn't have all the parts.  I ordered a new one instead of a refund.  Then I discovered the post office package was from China.  I went through a chat with Amazon to cancel the reorder and get a refund.

When I opened the Chinese package the rc part was incomplete, too.  It had the same part number as the one from Amazon.  I decided to just order a second part from the Chinese.

After all of that I spent time on Aliexpress, ordered another rc part, watched Gutfeld, and went to bed.

Day 3379

 I woke up about 8, played games for a while, and then got u for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was cold today - in the 40's when I got up.  I surfed for a while, but then guilt came over me.  I got out the Lego bamboo.

The rest of the steps in the construction weren't hard in themselves, but the flimsy construction of the Lego made them difficult.  In two places I needed Ellen to help.  I needed two hand to keep the bamboo from coming apart while she installed the lights.

There were 6 super tiny connectors that had to be plugged into a distribution board.  It would have been impossible to do without a good set of tweezers.  The last challenge was to rearrange the bamboo "shoots".  That turned out to take quite a lot of work because they kept falling apart.

I will say that the result looks pretty cool.

With that done I cleaned everything up.  I found a card from Diane and wrote her a letter.  Then I did a little shopping on Amazon.  I found a micro-b part that's on order from Aliexpress.  I don't think I'll every see that order, so I ordered the Amazon version. 

I had leftover pizza for lunch.  Then we took the dog to Circle C.  We walked a little more than a mile.  She did a lot more.  When we were finished we stopped at the yogurt place.  Heh, it's our birthday.

When we got home I sat down for videos and ended up with a nap.  I woke up when it was time to feed the animals.

Dinner was a frozen thing.  We were planning on going to an Italian restaurant, but just didn't feel like it.  Eventually we had some cake.  Of course it was really good.  The rest of the evening was videos.

I lost a little sleep last night worrying about getting old.  I'm clearly not as capable as I used to be, and it's not going to get any better.  I really don't want to outlive Ellen, and I also don't want to get dementia.  Unfortunately I can't affect either of those things.  I don't fear death, but I do fear ageing. 

Day 3378

 I woke up a little before 8, played games for a while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was a little cold this morning, so I surfed until it warmed up.  When it did I took out the garbage and recycle and then we went to Dripping Springs.

The first stop was the park so Abby could run.  We covered as much ground as we usually do, but Abby just didn't seem to get tired.  We went a little farther than usual and she still didn't get tired.  We were tired though, so we went to the next stop - the olive oil place.  We just spent enough time there to get the oil and then left.

The cake place called while we were coming back, so we stopped there and picked up the cake.  It looks great.  We also ordered some Easter cookies.  After that was a stop at HEB for fuel.  We had lunch at the pizza place.  The final stop was HEB for OJ, milk, bananas, etc.

When we got home I sat down for videos.  I've been really tired all week.  I get back from walking the dog and all I want to do is set in the recliner for the rest of the day.  That's what I did today.  I really did want to accomplish something, but I just couldn't bring myself to put forth any effort.  I have to break out of this.

Ellen fixed rice and beef for dinner.

 

Day 3377

 I woke up after 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.It was a little cold in the morning, so after some surfing I went back to working on lighting up the Lego bamboo.

Today's activity involved reinstalling the bamboo shoots, taking off pieces of the base, threaded wires and lights through the base, and then putting it back together.  It was a pain in the ass.  The light studded wire was hard to thread through the partially assembled base.  What was left of the base kept falling apart because it was lacking pieces.  Finally, the bamboo shoots kept falling off because they're barely attached to begin with.

Just like yesterday when I got the install finished I didn't feel like doing anything else.  I'll get back to it tomorrow.

Ellen was in the garage painting the Reflex body.  She's been working on ita little bit for the last week or so.  It's looking good so far, but she's got a way to go.

I got more "we're late" coupons from Aliexpress.  Tracking says that the package has been at the Chinese airport for the last 4 days  Usually it's only there for a few hours.  I think that Trump has killed Aliexpress.

When Ellen was finished painting we went to the post office to pick up Ellen's present from her sister.  Then we took the dog to Circle C.  We went a mile and a half or so.  Abby did her usual multiple of that.  The final stop was Walgreen's for drugs.

When we got home it was leftovers for lunch followed by videos.  Once again I ended up watching them for the rest of the afternoon rather than doing something useful.

Dinner was leftovers again followed by more videos.

Day 3376

 I woke up at 7 by choice.  I couldn't get back to sleep.  I played games and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was cold today, in the 40's, so I surfed for quite a while.  Eventually it got up to 63 and we left to run the dog and get drugs at CVS.

We went to Circle C because I was hoping that there would be dogs at the park.  There weren't.  We did meet one while walking though.  It was a young Brittney.  It was happy to run all over with Abby.  It was actually getting warm by then.  We actually walked back to the drinking fountain to refill her bottle.  We finished by walking from there past the baseball field and the upper soccer fields.

Abby did a pretty good job.  She did get zapped once when we called her and she ignored us instead of coming back immediately.  When we got back to the car Ellen said she'd lost her phone.  We retraced our whole route, but we didn't find the phone.  When we got back to the car she discovered that she'd left it in her purse.  Overall we walked 2.2 miles today.  Of course Abby did a lot more.  She's was pretty subdued for the rest of the day.

After the park we went to the pet store to get more cat food.  They only had one bag though.  We went to lunch at Fireman's next door.

When we got home I wanted to get something accomplished.  I made trips to the trailer and garage to take things that belonged there.  Then I started installing a light kit for the Lego bamboo.  The instructions are just a set of pictures.  It took a while to figure them out.  It's also kind of a pain in the ass to take the thing apart, install the new parts, and then put it back together.  I got it about halfway done before I decided to call it quits for the day.

After that it was videos that turned into a nap. 

Dinner was leftover pizza.  After dinner was more videos.

I got a bunch of "sorry for the late delivery" messages from Aliexpress today.  I don't think that the last package has left China.  It appears to be stuck at the airport.  This may be the end of Aliexpress.

Day 3375

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  When that was done I went out to the trailer to put on the new license tag and install the new fan that I'd bought for the trailer.

The fan install went really well.  The old one came off easily and the new one fit perfectly.  The only thing that I had to do was disassemble the clamp mechanism and cut the base with the Dremel.  I think it will be a significant improvement.

After that we took the dog to Circle C.  She didn't run yesterday, so we took her on a long walk today.  We went 2 miles, she went much farther.  We went to Waterloo for lunch afterwards. 

We got home a little after 1.  I sat down to watch videos.  That turned in to a nap.  When I woke up there was a package at the gate.  I got it and then sat down for more videos and another nap.

Dinner was a pancake from Waterloo.  After dinner was more videos. 

I probably should have worked on something in the afternoon.  I just didn't feel like it.  Maybe I was just tired from the long walk, or maybe I'm getting old.

Day 3374

 I woke up at 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that it was surfing for a while.  Cooper got out when Ellen went to the garage.  Abby followed him out and went on point pinning him at the edge of the lawn.  It was a great job.  Cooper didn't know what to do except hunker down.

We left for Bastrop before 10.  The trip there was fast until we got about 10 miles out of town.  Everyone was going 10 mph or more over the speed limit.  That came to an end at a stop light.  The backup on the highway was a good 1/2 mile or more.   There were two more similar stops before we got to Buccee's.

It was still before 11, but the place was pretty crowded.  We filled up (gas was significantly cheaper than Austin) and then went inside.  The temperature was only 70 and there was a strong wind.  With the windows cracked we didn't need to worry about Abby.

We bought Abby a doggy t-shirt.  We also bought a little bit of junk food.  Then we left for the pizza place.  It was still early, so we got a great seat overlooking the river.  Better yet, they had pink stuff to drink.  We shared a Hawaiian pizza (Abby got my pineapple).  When we were done we walked around the downtown.

We were talking about ice cream when a passerby overheard us.  He recommended handmade ice cream at a roach coach place half a block off the main street.  We went there.  Ellen spent a lot of time camped out in the can there.  I had an ice cream cone and listened to the live music they had.  When Ellen finally got out of the can we had crepes.  Everything was very good.

When the food was done we went home.  Ellen didn't want to see the rest of downtown.  The trip back involved stops at the same stoplights, but the waits weren't as long.  We stopped at the post office and HEB (for garlic bread).

When we got home it was videos and a nap.  Then it was more videos until dinner.  Ellen used the bread we bought to make cheese bread.  We added it to the leftover Italian food from yesterday.

After dinner was a little more videos followed by surfing for me and chick clicks for Ellen.  

We've both gotten into watching "things to buy" videos.  It's cost us a little over $200 in the last few days.  We've gotten some really useful stuff though.

Day 3373

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I did a little surfing and then we left to run the dog.  It was going to be hot and we wanted to get a semi early start.

We went to Circle C.  I wasn't feeling very good, so we parked at the rest room and had Abby chase squirrels and birds in the treas across the street.  I was a good thing since in a little time I had to make the trip back to the rest room.

After that was had a good time walking around the soccer fields.  Abby was going a little bit longer than I'd like, but she still always came back to check in eventually.  She did cover a lot of ground.

When we were done we went to Tomlinson's to get cat food.  Then it was the Italian place for lunch.  The last stop was HEB where I went in to buy a lot of stuff that we were running out of. 

It was hot when we got home, in the middle 90's.  Eventually it got almost up to 100, and it's March 14.  I got in the shower and gave Abby a bath.  She was dirty and greasy.  Then we spent the rest of the day hiding out from the heat.

I finished Hooch's present.  The last little bit was somewhat of a grind, but I'm pleased with the result.  I sent Hooch a thank you text with a picture of the result. 

The rest of the day was some surfing and a lot of videos.  There was a nap involved also.

Ellen fixed hamburgers for dinner.

Abby was really tired today and slept most of the afternoon and evening.

 

Day 3372

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that I had Ellen watch a video on the TPMS install while I went out to get the stuff ready and air up all of the tires.

The actual process of setting everything up was pretty painless.  The worst park was crawling back under the slideouts to attach the transmitters.  When were were finished Ellen said he could read the values from the house.  All in all the worst part of the whole thing was getting everything out and putting it away. 

When I got back to the house I organized the TPMS stuff to take it out to the truck.  I also found the instructions to the camera we keep in it.  Then I took everything out to the truck.  That's another important to do before leaving accomplished.

I went back inside and did a little surfing while Ellen did some tax stuff.  Then we left to take the dog for a run a Becker.  It was the mid 80's, but she had a good time running through the woods.  After about 45 minutes we left so Ellen could go to the eye doctor.  I sat in the car with the dog while she went in.  I even took Abby for a short run through the adjacent woods.

When Ellen was done we went to Waterloo for the Thursday discount hamburgers.  We had a good talk with a GSP enthusiast while we were there.  We stopped at the smoothie shop afterwards.  The last stop was CVS to pick up some drugs.

When we got home I did some surfing and then switched to videos.  There wasn't any nap today. 

Dinner was something frozen followed by more videos.  No work on Hooch's present.  I just didn't feel like it.

Day 3371

 I woke up about 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  When that was done we took Abby to Circle C.

It was nice weather, a good day for us and the dog.  Abby seemed to be running a lot farther than normal, but she always either checked in or came back when we called.  We walked down to Escarpment and back on the golf course.  Abby spent a lot of the time screaming through the woods.  When we were done we went home.

When we got home I did a little surfing and then had a somewhat early lunch.  After that I went out to the trailer.  It was hot inside today just like yesterday.  After some searching I found the vacuum attachments.  They weren't optimal, but I did manage to get most of the dust off the radiator.  Then I put everything back together.  It was good that I'd taken pictures yesterday.

With that done I started on the bedroom AC.  It was easier because I didn't have to stand on the step stool.  Also, I'd already done one.  It still took a fair amount of time and a lot of sweat.

When I got done I put everything away and then took three or four laps around the property.  I decided to get serious about losing weight again yesterday. 

When I got back to the house I started watching videos, which turned into a nap.

Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner I decided to work on Hooch's present.  I managed to get the gun done.  I still have the magazines to go.  The gun work was a pain in the ass, so I decided to leave the magazines for tomorrow.

Day 3370

 I got up at 8, didn't play games, and just got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Costco didn't open until 10, so I had time to accomplish two things.  The first was to screw the hair dryer holder to the bathroom cabinet.  The red mounting tape just didn't do the job.  After that we left for task two - run the dog.

We went to the Becker park.  We took Abby through the woods because there were lots of people walking dogs on the sidewalk.  She got in a good run and we still made it to Costco a little after they opened.

We didn't spend a lot of time at Costco because Abby was in the car.  We bought the on sale items we went there for along with some more water.  We stopped at the post office on the way home to pick up the package from China.

When we got home I opened the stuff from China and put it away.  It was a bunch of improvement parts for various RC cars.  I don't thing that I'll get to all of the work before we leave.  Then I went out to the truck to try to find the magnetic attachment for the new TPMS.  I ended up going through both glove compartments, the center console, and the safe.  The attachments were in the safe.

The effort wasn't a loss though.  I cleaned out a bunch of stuff that didn't need to be there.  I also reorganized things and made everything more accessible.  When that was done I went inside for lunch.

After lunch I started an install of Windows 11 on the Microsoft portable.  It took hours.  The good news is the result is something that I can live with.  I'll be converting my main laptop soon.

Ellen was working on taxes.  When I finished lunch I went out to the trailer to look into upgrading the AC ducting.  The good news is that I won't have to purchase $200 worth of stuff.  The company doesn't make anything that fits our AC units.  However, I did learn how to make things more efficient.  The short version is lots and lots of aluminum tape.

I spent hours taking the rear AC apart and taping up everything.  It wasn't fun standing on the stool to do it with the inside temperature almost 90.  I did get the taping done, but I still need to vacuum things out before reassembling things.  Doing that and the bedroom AC is tomorrow.

I got back to the house.  Ellen was watching chick flicks, so I surfed.  When she was done I turned on videos.  That turned into a nap with the dog.

Ellen fixed hamburgers for dinner.  They were Bison burgers and really good. 

After dinner was a few more videos.  Then I decided to do some more work on Hooch's present.  I didn't get as much done as I could have because I misread some instructions.  That took some debug time followed by redoing some stuff.

Day 3369

 I woke up a little before 8, played games for a while, and then did the pet stuff.  We got kind of a late start, so we had to forgo breakfast in order to get Abby to the vet on time.

We made it to the vet with minutes to spare.  The vet gave Abby a clean bill of health along with several shots.  When we were done we went to the field behind HEB to run Abby.

Abby did a great job.  She crisscrossed a soccer field several times at full speed chasing birds.  She also did a fine job of searching the grassy spots for anything shootable.  I didn't let her go into the woods because I wanted to see if she would shit.  The vet wanted some.  She did, just as we were going to leave.

I was feeling a little down.  I think it was because I took that pill, but didn't have any breakfast.  It cleared up though.

It was a little too early for lunch, so we stopped at HEB to by the fixings for hamburgers.  Then we went to the pizza place for lunch.  It was really good.  It was a nice sunny day and we spent a lot of  time on the deck.  When that was done we went home. 

We got home about 1:30.  I got out Hooch's present (a wooden Tommy Gun kit) and got to work.  I spent the whole afternoon, until 6:30 on it.  There's a huge number of pieces.  I'm about halfway done.

Dinner was leftover pizza followed by videos. 

I got emails saying that there's some Chinese stuff at the post office.  We'll get it tomorrow when we go to Costco.

Day 3368

 I woke up at 7 (sort of by choice).  It was really 8 though, because DST started today.  I played games for a while because it was only 50 degrees out.  When I got up I reset the clocks, did the pet stuff, and had breakfast.  Then I surfed hoping that it would warm up.  It really didn't, but I decided to install the new towel rack for the trailer anyway.

It was so cold in the trailer that I got out the small heater and set it up in the bathroom.  That worked well.  I took down the old rack and drilled new holes for the new one.  Unfortunately I decided to use the supplied wall anchors.  They were Cheap Chinese Shit and didn't work at all.  It took some effort to remove them so I could put in better anchors.  The result looks nice.  I'm going to keep the old towel bar until we've gone on the road with the new one.

It had warmed up to 60, but there was a stiff wind that still made it cold.  We decided to take Abby to Circle C anyway.  She played for a little while with a couple of dogs in the dog park.  Then we walked all around the park.  Abby ran a lot, but didn't seem to get overly tired.  Just as we got to the car she met another GSP.  They ran around for a few minutes, but the owner was leaving.  We took Abby back to the dog park, but she didn't seem to want to play any more.

We were going to go for lunch, but no one had their weather curtains up and the wind made the temperature unpleasant.  We went home instead.

I spent some time surfing and then sat down for videos.  That turned into a significant nap.  When I woke up it was more videos until dinner time.  Ellen fixed pork chops.  

After dinner I went out to pick up some Amazon stuff.  There were presents from Hooch.  I got a wooden kit that makes a rubber band Tommy gun.  Ellen got a kit that makes an elaborate clock. 

The rest of the evening was videos.

Day 3367

 I woke up about 7 (couldn't get back to sleep), played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After that was some surfing.  I also went out to the trailer and attached the hair dyer holder more securely.  Then I went to the bathroom and mounted the second hair dryer holder there.

When that was done we left to take the dog to run at Dripping Springs.  It was already in the 70's.  The park was really crowded.  Almost every field had kids paying on it.  That was OK.  We parked by the baseball fields and walked around them and the woods.  We made two circuits to make sure that Abby got enough exercise. 

When that was done we went to Tractor Supply.  We were getting bird seed.  We didn't know it, but they have a dog wash.  Abby needed a bath.  She'd rolled in some mud and was really dirty.  The dog wash was really nice and only cost $10.

Abby had cut her self on some barbed wire during her run.  We also bought some vet antiseptic to put on her. 

Then we drove a little down 290 to a distillery.  They were having a craft show.  We didn't see anything we wanted, but the food was really good and Abby got a lot of petting.  After that we went home.

I sat down to watch videos.  That turned into a pretty long nap.  We were supposed to get a lot of Amazon things today, but they were never delivered.  Amazon says that they'll come tomorrow. 

Dinner was a pizza that we'd bought at the distillery.  After that I watched a movie.  I had to start two others before I found one I wanted to watch.

Day 3366

 I woke up before 8, played games, and got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  I did a little surfing and then went out to the trailer to work on several projects.

The first was to install the new hair dryer holder.  It was supposed to be easy, it wasn't.  I had to Dremel out some of the wall trim in order to make it fit.  Then when I tried to attach it to the wall the self adhesive mount didn't work well.  I decided to let it set.  Later in the day I found out it wouldn't hold its own weight.  I'll fix it tomorrow. 

The second project was to replace the holder in the kitchen sink.  The new holder is a great improvement.  However, it too a lot of work to get the adhesive hooks from the old holder off the sink.  The effort involved a pliers, a screwdriver, a scraper, a heat gun, and Goof Off.  I'm really happy with the result.

The third project was putting up a thermal covering over the bedroom window.  The task wasn't hard, but cutting out the material and then cutting out double sided tape for 8 pairs of magnets took a lot of time.  Time will tell how that one works out.

The last project was putting a splash guard around the sink faucet.  Fitting it took about a minute.  Unfortunately it's a little too big.  I may buy another. 

It was after 1 when I got done.  The temperature was 85, so there was no question about taking the dog somewhere.  She wouldn't have run.  I had a salad for lunch and then started going through the list of things we saw on YouTube yesterday that we thought we might buy.  I ordered about half the list.

After that it was videos for the rest of the day.

Day 3365

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After taking out a load of garbage I loaded up the truck to go shooting.  It's the first time we've shot since Nationals.

When we got to the club we found out that we were lucky.  They had both a corporate group and a women's class coming in later.  We were early, so we had the course to ourselves.  Better yet, the competition course from last weekend was still set up.

Neither of us shot well, but we had fun.  Abby got to run about half of the course.  She didn't run much though.  It was in the 60's, but she acted like she was hot.

When we were done we stopped at Waterloo on the way home.  They are having the 70's menu prices special that they have every March.  After lunch we took Abby to the dog park at Circle C.  There were a couple of dogs there that she ran around with.  One kept trying to fuck her.  She was niceabout it,but didn't put up with it either.

When we got home I put everything away and then started opening packages.  There was an Amazon package in the morning and another in the afternoon.  There was a Chinese package at the post office as well as another one in the PO box.  I now have a bunch of stuff to install in both the trailer and the house.

I was tired though, so I sat down to watch videos.  Of course that turned into a nap. 

The rest of the day was videos.

Day 3364

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  It was only 51, so after that I surfed until it got warmer.

It was sunny though, so when the temperature got up near 60 I took out the garbage and recycling.  Then I took the TPMS booster out to the trailer to install it.  

The install took some time, but there weren't any major problems.  I figured out a good place to attach the booster under the trailer.  Then I unhooked the switch to the old booster.  I'm going to leave it attached to the trailer.  Finally I drilled the appropriate three holes, attached the booster, ran it's wire into the front compartment, and attached it to the switch.  The booster wire was just long enough to reach.

After putting everything away I measured the sink in the trailer for a new basket.  I also got out the documentation to determine the type of AC we have.

When I got back to the house I ordered a new sink basket.  I hate the current one.  I was going to order the AC ducting, but it turns out that I'll need to disassemble the AC to figure out which one to order.  Apparently there are a couple of options.

After that I had lunch and a beer.  I felt that I'd earned it.  After that I decided to take the rest of the afternoon off.  I didn't take the dog anywhere because I think that we've been working her hard.  She didn't seem to object.

The rest of the afternoon was surfing and videos.  Ellen fixed coconut shrimp for dinner.  After dinner was more videos. 

Some Aliexpress stuff was placed in the PO box today.  We'll get it tomorrow.

Day 3363

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After minimal surfing I went out to see if I could do some prep work for installing the new trailer TPMS.

I opened the front of the trailer and figured out how I was going to mount the repeater and route the wires.  That was about all I could do until I get the repeater.  I think I have a pretty good plan.

After that I started looking into working on the micro-b.  It didn't take long to determine two things.  First I needed to wait for some of the parts I ordered to come in.  Otherwise I'll be making work for myself.  Second I needed to order some connectors.

Of course that got me on Aliexpress again.  I spent quite a while on it.  While I was looking I suddenly got dizzy.  I had to pay attention to sit upright.  I stood up and could walk, but I was unsteady.  I also started to feel a little nauseous, like mild flu.  I sat back down and continued shopping.

Ellen fixed sandwiches for lunch.  I finished shopping.  We needed to go to the grocery store and post office.  I was feeling better, but not good.  We decided that Ellen would walk the dog inn Circle C while I went to HEB.

It was VERY windy today.  We drove 1826 to the Y.  The light at HEB was out.  Traffic was backed up from there to Convict Hill.  When we got there we found the cause.  The light was out.  We stopped at the post office.  On the way to HEB we encountered a third light that wasn't functioning.  Apparently lights around here don't like strong winds.

When we got home I sat down for videos and some short naps.  Dinner was frozen.

I'm feeling better now, but I'm not 100%.  The TPMS came before we left to run the dog. I decided to leave work on it for tomorrow.

Day 3362

 I woke up about 7:30 and played games for a while.  Then it was up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After breakfast it was surfing until it was time to take Cooper to the vet.  We left a little early so that I could go to CVS first to order some drugs.  I'd run out because they didn't call me.

We got to the vet just in time.  I weighed Abby.  She's not 34.0, or perhaps 33.8.  I'll have to start feeding her a little more.  The vet gave Cooper a clean bill of health, but said to wait a week before giving him kitty kibble.

On the way back home we stopped at the oil change place.  I had them change the oil and replace the battery in the Audi.  The car had barely started when it was cold.   We stopped at P. Terry's on the way home for hamburgers and milk shakes.  We both hate their frys.

We ate lunch and I started surfing.  I was waiting for the micro-b to show up.  It was being mailed, so I thought it would be left at the mailbox.  I also ordered the new trailer tire monitor.  When it finally came, they put it by the gate.

I unboxed the micro-b and started running it on the kitchen floor.  It's actually pretty fast for running in doors.  It was the perfect thing for chasing the cats.  It freaked Abby out.  She jumped into Ellen's lap and wouldn't get down. 

Ellen fixed hot dogs for dinner.  After dinner was videos.  For the first time ever I couldn't find a live stream of Gutfeld.  I hope YouTube hasn't cracked down on the people doing it.

Day 3361

 I woke up a little before 8, played games, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  After a little surfing I decided to accomplish something.

I chose to hang the banana hooks I'd gotten from Amazon a while back.  I put one in the house and the other in the trailer.  The process took some time.  I had to go through my screw collection to find hardware.  In the whole container of screws there were only two that would fit.

In both cases the installation required emptying the shelves above.  In the house I had Ellen put everything back.  In the trailer I had to do it.  The result looks pretty good though.

When I was done I spent some time cleaning up the garage and putting some stuff away.  By then it had warmed it.  It was 60 and windy this morning.

We took Abby to Circle C again.  We didn't find any playmates for her, but she did have a great time running through the woods.  We walked around until she had switched to "I can do this all day" speed.

We ate lunch (really a breakfast) at Waterloo.  Then we went home.

When we got home I started watching videos.  I basically did that and napped for the rest of the day.

Day 3360

 I woke up at 7, played games for a while, and then got up for pet stuff and breakfast.  Then we left to take the dog to Zilker.  I wanted to get there early for a parking space.  It worked, we got a space in the small parking lot at the entrance.

Abby had a great time- unlimited space and lots of dogs.  Her big problem was that she lost track of us several times.  I had to call or whistle several times just to show her which people were hers. We walked halfway around the park with her doing a lot of running and socializing.  Eventually we were a little tired and she was, too.  I was a little worried because she wasn't drinking.

We decided to walk around the rest of the park to cool her off.  Eventually we walked over to the pool.  The train didn't open until11, so we sat for about half an hour until they opened.  It was a nice rest.  Abby rode on the train with us.  She liked it.  So did the little girl in front of us, who kept petting her.

When we got off the train we went down to the pool.  I took off my shoes and socks and took Abby in.  I didn't try to make her swim.  The rocks hurt my feet too much.  I'll come back with sandals.  When I put my shoes back on there was sand between my shoes.  It bugged me for the rest of the trip. 

We stopped at Rudy's on the way home.  Abby got brisket and ribs.  We also stopped at the post office.  There was a big bag of stuff from Chinese.

When we got home I took a shower.  We put Abby in and she got a bath.  She'd gotten pretty dirty playing with all the dogs.  It was great to get the sand out of my toes.

After the shower I opened all of the Chinese stuff.  There was quite a variety - tools, RC parts, car wash towels, and other things.  I sorted them and put a lot away.  I also assembled some RC car lights that had arrived.

 Ellen was watching chick flicks, so I surfed.  Eventually I got sick of that and read magazines.  When the chick flick was over it was videos for the rest of the day.