What was that about "Time Flies When You Are Having Fun"?

 Humph!  Of course we aren't really having all that much fun these days!  My wife's ankle surgery went well enough but, oh boy, it ain't pretty.  This x-ray shows both the long screws in one area and the plate in the other.

The outside is pretty nasty too.  This long incision is the plate.  The nurses who have come to help have both said that this is looking really good.

The other side, where the big screws were placed isn't so great.

The doctor's assistant covered the nasty part there with a bandaid.  It was a 2" x 4" bandaid that we are changing once a day.  What fun.  And then we got a boot which I neglected to photograph.  I would imagine most people have seen someone wearing one.  It's not comfortable so my wife is avoiding it as much as possible!

So now I've got a new job.  I'm the cook, housekeeper and wheelchair attendant just about 24 hours a day.  Happily we almost always have leftovers from a meal so that cuts the cooking down but it is still quite a day's work.  Of course I'm happy to do it but it is very different from when there were two of us splitting the chores.  This house was designed for older people and we really see how much difference that makes now that we are wheeling around.  It is one story with a tiny bump to go over to get into the garage.  The doors and halls are all wide. There aren't any grab bars but you can bet we'll be installing a couple in the near future. 

Sometimes we talk about moving from our home here to some place more temperate.  But we do have mountains on almost all sides here.  This is the sun rising on one of the mountains to the West just over the line in California.

Watching that every morning is pretty special.  And we get to see the sun go down on the mountains in the East.  It doesn't get old and makes us reconsider ideas about moving.  

Gotta go check on my patient.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Well, that was different.

I started this post on Tuesday 2 March but got interrupted and here we are days later but the facts are the same!

*****************

Today I can't complain about how things are so dull; at least not this morning!  My wife and I had a quiet night as usual and I got up about 06:30.  I was wandering around in my robe and decided to open the blinds in my office which is right next to the front door.  I didn't see anything but after a few minutes there was a loud thud!  I looked and someone was trying to get up.  He'd fallen against the house.  Apparently he'd spent at least part of the night sheltering there.

Soon after he was wandering down the path towards the road but decided to relax in our driveway.  He just lay there once in a while looking for something in his backpack.  This guy was clearly under the influence of something so I called the Sheriff making it clear that this was no emergency.

 

After a while an officer showed up.  Our visitor was still just taking it easy in the drive.  I should say it was about 25F out there.  After quite a bit of discussion, we had another officer show up and then another and then some EMTs.  Apparently the guy was just under the influence because the EMTs had a look at him then left.

That photo was taken as a screen shot from a Ring video.  After a whole bunch of checking him and his possessions, the original deputy took our visitor off.  And that was that.  For us the mystery is what the heck was he doing here?  You can see from that photo of the four emergency vehicles that this isn't actually downtown!  I mean it is at least 2 or 3 miles from the nearest place you could buy a beer and he had several in his pack.  We aren't on the way to anywhere except more isolated homes.  There aren't any places out here where the homeless have their camps.  It is just strange but I guess we'll never know the answer.

 

However I was curious and had to go back and check the Ring history and, sure enough, there was our visitor at 02:42 a.m. coming stumbling up the walk to the front door.  Yes, that is a beer in his hand.  

So that's the excitement for today.  Well, not all.  Our son and daughter-in-law are coming to visit us on Thursday and staying the weekend.  Getting the place ready for visitors is work!  Take care & thanks for stopping by.

Jeez, I'm getting worse!

Ok, I haven't updated the blog in over three weeks.  In my defense, it's been pretty dull around here!  This is our 'monsoon' season so we've had several storms blow through leaving their usual .002 inch of rain.  That ain't much even in millimeters.  The mountains between here and Vegas catch all the rain and they have had some flooding.  We got a little mud on the roadway but not a lot.  We did have one really cool storm in the night with a lot of lightning hitting the desert floor.  Pretty unusual and totally beyond my ability as a photographer but it was cool.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

These days excitement is defined by stuff like having a guy come and powerwash our tile.  Well, at least it is expensive if not exciting.  He suggested we should be sure the gap between the tile and the baseboard is sealed so I spent two wonderful days crawling around with the caulking gun and a tube of silicone.  Then there were the two days laying around groaning about the crawling around.  Gotta tell you 65+ year old guys who are overweight just really don't like crawling very much especially on a hard surface like tile.  I used a pad but couldn't stay on it the whole time and my knees knew.

My wife had a birthday recently and we celebrated by going into Las Vegas for Dim Sum.  We went to a place called Ping Pang Pong in the Gold Coast Casino.  It is pretty well rated and got a good mention in some national magazine (like Travel and Leisure but don't quote me on that).  Two of the other Dim Sum restaurants in Vegas have been closed by the health department within the last two months so we just kind of knocked them out of consideration without hesitation.  Anyway, I was pretty surprised because the place was really quite small.    I've never had Dim Sum before but thought the food was pretty good.  Carts are brought around with various little plates on them.  You get like three dumplings on a plate.  Plates are between $2.50 and $7 at this place and there are a few things that are more.  We got some bbq pork that was a quite large serving for $9.  There were a few things that I didn't like.  First it was so noisy that I couldn't hear the cart ladies nor could my wife so we ended up with a few things we wouldn't have ordered.  (There was way too much shrimp for someone like me with a shellfish allergy.)  Secondly, the cart ladies all circled around at once so we ended up getting lots of food on the table whereas had we gone a little slower it would have been a better experience and the food would have been warmer.  I suppose that is our fault though; they didn't twist our arms to take food!  Finally, and perhaps the largest complaint is that we were standing in line outside the place for a full 30 minutes.  We had read in reviews about the wait but we were hoping that mid-week at 1 p.m. it wouldn't be quite so bad.  It was.  I think next time I might try someplace less popular.

This morning I'm waiting for a guy from DIGIS, our internet provider.  They use some kind of radio signal to get to our house so we have an antenna, much like a DirectTV dish, for the internet.  They put a new one on a couple weeks ago so we have quite good service. (Ping is 61ms; download speed 10.94 mbps, upload is 1.98 mbps for those who know about such numbers.  They are claiming that when the installation is right and their tower gets upgraded next week we should see 15 mbps download.  We'll see.)  Unfortunately they used 4 lag screws to hold the dish on and two have already fallen out.  Not exactly a wonderful installation so they have to come back and fix it.  Not something that's worth taking photos of either! 

Our staghorn cactus is trying to have a flower.  It's not quite open yet but I need to get a photo when I can.  The flower doesn't stay around very long.

If it sticks around and I can get better photos I'll do so. 

Anyway, that's life in the slow lane.  We'll do something crazy soon, I promise.  Until then, thanks for stopping by.

No I'm not dead....

We've been having more fun than you can imagine getting that oven installed.  We bought the oven from an Amazon affiliate; mostly because it was $800 less than at Home Depot or Sears.  However, there was a slight delivery problem.  It was a week late arriving here.  Grrr!  My wife was about ready to fly to New York and kill someone.  However, finally it showed up.  The guys unpacked it and we inspected it carefully.  Happily it was just fine.  The only problem is that the thing weighs something over 300 lb (135kg)! 

Now that we had the oven we felt comfortable getting in touch with the electrician.  They couldn't come immediately so it took a couple days and we had the new oven sitting in our nook.  Now we felt comfortable about taking the old one out but it was a little heavy for my wife to help me.  So we waited for the electrician.  He showed up and was great.  He helped me pull the old one out and unhooked it.  Then he wired up the new one and helped me put it in.  It fits like a glove!  Happy days.  Well, almost.

The instructions for the oven tell you to remove the oven doors prior to installation so we did that; then we couldn't get them back on!  Jeez, let me tell you, we tried!  We tried time and again but finally had to admit defeat.  I called our local appliance repair person and got on their schedule.  Finally, the day comes around and the guy shows up.  I've got to give him credit; he didn't even laugh!  It took him about half an hour but he did get the damn doors back on.  Finally we could trip the breaker and we have an oven again.  Jeez!

We've tried a couple things and so far it's working well.  It has all kinds of bells and whistles that will never be used.  For example, you can connect it to your wireless network so you can use a smartphone to fire up the oven before you get home.  Really?  Gradually we are getting the various settings modified to our liking.  There are a few things to get finished, like painting, but nothing too challenging.  And we get to eat in the meantime. 

We did take the old ovens and microwave to the recycling center.  It was 300 lbs of various metals and glass; we got $20 for it.  It's hardly worth doing but I like the idea that it will be something else someday rather than just taking up room in a landfill. 

There are a few other things going on but I can't talk about them right now.  Besides, I have some kitchen duties calling me.  Have a good one!

I just don't know!

The title of this post should be either "On the Road Again" or "I've fallen off the blogging wagon and can't get up".  Because we are kind of on the road but I sure haven't been blogging!  Anyway, here's the scoop.

We put a new closet system in our master bedroom closet but first, of course, we had to paint the room.  It was a giant pain!  So then we install this closet; we like the style we chose because you mount a bar thing on the wall and hang everything off it.  This way nothing is touching the floor & you can easily vacuum under it.  So now the attached bathroom and toilet room look kind of dull.....  You can see where this is going of course.  Our house has 10 foot ceilings (> 3m) so there is lots of climbing around on ladders, even on the counters!  It's enough to make me want an ibuprofen just writing about it.  Here is proof that I actually can work!

Of course this would also be the ideal time to replace the lights in the bathroom which we have never liked.  We go into Home Depot where we have looked at the lights many times.  This time however we come to a stop in front of one and say, almost in unison, 'I kind of like that one'.  So now we have added a little electrical work to the project.  Grrr!  Among the three fixtures we replaced one was wired incorrectly and another is slightly different.  Hmmm, same manufacturer, same SKU, different light; this is just depressing.  However we pressed on; put the odd light where it is alone on the wall.  I doubt any but someone with OCD would ever notice.  The wiring was no big deal but in killing the breaker we discovered that the bathroom lights are on the same breaker with 1) the other bath room on the other side of the house, 2) the garage, 3) the outside lights and 4) both spare bedrooms.  Our neighbor insists the guy who wired the house was very good but I'm holding out for weird.  We did finally get the room put back together a week ago yesterday. 

A week ago today we pulled the trailer out of it's storage area and up to the house where we could load it.  By Sunday morning we were headed out for San Diego where Number One Son lives.  He and his SO have just bought their first house and we were overdue for a trip here anyway.  So we've been doing the sightseeing thing interspersed with seeing the house and helping them move.  Yes, that calls for more ibuprofen!  The good news is that they found a nice little house in a pretty good neighborhood. It is badly in need of new paint but otherwise quite nice.  Owning it should be a great way for them to help the local economy; at least the home fix-up part of the economy.

It hasn't been all work though; this park is way expensive but this is the view out of our rig.  We get to look at ducks here; not so many sparrows or finches.

And we've been sightseeing.  We finally got to see the mission.  The original mission is kind of off the tourist loop.  It is called Mission San Diego de Alcala.  It is no where near any other tourist attractions so just gets missed.  Too bad because it is nicely restored and quite a lovely place.  Here is the front of the church.

The mission included much more than the church but, of course, that's the point of the place.  It is hardly the original building.  The first was destroyed by an attack in 1775.  The second was destroyed by earthquakes in the early 1800's.  By the 1920's there wasn't a lot left but it's been rebuilt again and again.  In 1976 Pope Paul VI declared it a minor basilica.  This is the interior today.

Quite plain but also very nice.  I think it would be a great place to spend some time in contemplation.  Our next move is to spend some time relaxing then heading home on Sunday.  We might even visit the zoo! 

Thanks for checking in.  Have a good one.

Not much to say!

I'm kind of out of news.  The closet has been such a big deal for the last week or so that I haven't done much else.  We planned this to be a quiet day because all the weather forecasters in Vegas said there was a big system coming down from the north that would bring us at least rain but most likely snow.  Well, that didn't work out!  It's about 55F (more than 12C) which certainly isn't anything to complain about.  Not here in December for heaven's sake.  It's been mostly sunny as well.  The wind is blowing but you can't have everything.

We have this huge pile of broken down boxes in our living room.  There are some boxes full of 'protective packaging' but lots of empty boxes.  Here is what the protective stuff looks like: 

On the left is a piece of maybe inch and a half (4 cm) cardboard that is cut into the right size to protect stuff in the boxes.  It's just ordinary but thick cardboard.  On the right is some cardboard that has been sliced up so it still has some strength but is really flexible.  I have serious cubic feet of this stuff!  It ranges from about a foot long (.3m) to 6 feet (almost 2m).  Then there is a pile of flattened cardboard boxes.  I'm pretty sure I've got a pickup truck load.  I'm thinking I'll load it into the truck then wait until next week and take it to the recycler.  Life in the fast lane.

I saw two stray dogs in the neighborhood; one would come to me, the other wasn't really willing.  It's the first time I've touched a dog since our dog died last January.  It was even a black dog much like ours.  It was tough; I wanted to grab them and take them around the neighborhood asking if anyone was missing a dog but don't really have the facilities for that - not to mention the one with a collar didn't want to come talk.  Called Animal Control; I guess that's about all one can do. 

My wife is wrapped around her own axle about Christmas.  It's looking like we'll have both Number One Daughter and Number One Son (and Number One Daughter-In-Law) for the holiday.  That would be great but it brings up questions.  Presents:  should we or should we not?  We are talking 40 year old 'children'; they can buy anything they want.  I'm hoping the don't still believe in Santa!  Food:  everyone has an opinion and everyone but me is a picky eater.  Can't have this; can't have that:  I probably draw the line at bugs but who knows?  Length of stay:  we have one very jealous Number One Daughter.  Can't have anyone else staying longer than she does.  Let me tell you, I'm in search of a place to hide next Christmas; somewhere they won't want to follow us to!  I'm reading Kevin & Ruth's blog and they are making Africa sound really great.  Who knows.

Gotta go.  Time for some feet up time in the recliner before dinner.  Have a good one!

Done! And boy does it feel good!

Ok, no more whining about the closet.  It's done; most of our clothes loaded into it and, gee, we have a lot more room.  Well, that's what organization does for you.  Here are a couple shot of his and her's sides.

You will notice that there are quite a few empty shelves; if you could see into them, there are empty drawers too.  Let's hope we don't go buy more 'stuff' to put into them!  I already have half a dozen shirts I should be giving away.  Anyway, you won't have to listen to any more whining about the closet except possibly for the trip to the recycling place.  All those boxes need to be broken down and carted off; I'm thinking a full pickup load of recycling.  You know I might whine about that.

In other news, Las Vegas is expecting some snow; mostly rain but in the higher elevations it might be snow.  They don't talk much about us but we are higher than Vegas so if it comes this way I might have a snow photo or two. 

Yesterday the birdbath was completely frozen.  It started to thaw around the edges and the pidgeons started fighting over the little slurps of water.  It was kind of funny but I couldn't let it go on.  I broke some of the ice away and filled it with water.  Calm was restored.  AND I was smart enough to go out and empty the water at sunset so they have a full bath this a.m.

I also must announce the suspicion of a bird casuality.  Let the picture tell the story.

The circle of life and all that.  I can't think that one of these birds flew away.  Maybe our friend the hawk visited but I didn't see it.  Anyway, there you go.

Gotta go.  Have a good one!

Grumpy!

OK, Thanksgiving has come and gone.  The remainder of the turkey is still with us however!  Well, it will be a couple more days and we'll have 'disposed' of it one way or another.  Then there is the asparagus.  My wife and daughter think that eating two spears is getting their veggie.  It takes a very long time to eat a pound of asparagus at that rate!  

The closet is still kicking our asses.  First it was paint the damn place.  You know that it would take about 1.2 gallons; not a gallon; not even two but now we have plenty of leftover Pineapple Fondue or whatever if we want more light yellow walls.  Then it is put up this track that everything else hangs from.  Needless to say the walls are nowhere near straight.  I used a whole package of shims!  One spot actually required two.

Like they always say, measure twice & cut once.  Well, there is a missing piece there; check the level twice too!  But we managed.  The blue tape is marking where we are wanting vertical pieces since they are supposed to be pretty close to studs.  I can see it.  This metal track is going to hold up something over 900 lb of shelving PLUS anything we want to put on it.  I guess having it secure will be a good thing.

This is as far as we are now.

Shelves and hanging bars are in but the drawers and clothes hamper are still in the working stage.  It should be ok but we are taking today off.  My wife is going to the dentist and I've got a bunch of errands that have stacked up. Hell, I'm getting used to picking my clothes out of the pile on the floor.  My shirts get to hang in the laundry room over the cat box where, well, there might be odors from time to time but I'm not that pristine either.

Life in the fast lane, huh?  Hang in there.  Life is better than the alternative. 

Vegas again???

Yep, had to make another trip.  I could almost get a job over there for as much as I'm burning up the road.  Anyway, our excuse this time was twofold:  booze and paint.  The booze thing; well it's just a hell of a lot cheaper in Sin City.  The paint is trickier.  When we bought the house there were some Dunn Edwards paint cans in the garage.  The paint in the house is really standing up well so we thought we'd check into that brand.  We found the store and while they will sell to individuals it's not user friendly.  They are more into selling 5 or 50 gallons than 1.  It's also about twice what other stores ask for paint.  Maybe it is worth it but I'm having trouble thinking that.  Anyway, all we came home with was the booze. 

The pass between Vegas & Pahrump is 5,600 feet (1,700m); there was snow on the sides of the road and it was coming down but not sticking to the roadway.  It was not dangerous but did call for caution.  First snow of the season folks!  This is the view from our house today; kind of a gray day.  I love the snow on the mountain with the clouds below it.

Later in the afternoon we went over to our local Home Depot and picked up some Glidden.  We want to paint the closet before we install the new system.  Bought the paint & all the crap you need to clean & prep the wall.  Fun!  Today we unpacked all the stuff from the closet and took the old stuff down.  Let me tell you, whoever invented the pneumatic nailer has a lot to answer for!  One piece of wood, a foot long, had 7 nails!  Here is a photo of the closet as it was.  It's about 10 x 10 feet (3m) almost square. 

It just had a simple bar going all the way around the room with a shelf on top.  I must say though; I was surprised by the material used to support the shelf. 

100% recovered and recycled fiber.  What the heck is that?   It did the job though and was rather tough to take down!  Something to do with all those nails I guess.  Anyway, now we have all that removed and lots of holes to fill.  The closet set isn't supposed to be delivered until Tuesday but we are sure going to be ready for it. 

Gotta go.  Have a good one & thanks for checking in.

Duh, more fire news

The fire on Mt. Charleston is still the big deal for us.  Now we are talking about 25,000 acres (10,000+ ha) burned and 1,100 firefighters on the job.  Big numbers; but here is what it looks like from Las Vegas. 

This photo was taken near the Red Rock Canyon just west of Las Vegas.  From our side it doesn't look like a big fire because the smoke is going north and east.  This makes it more real for me.  There have been a few comercial buildings burned down but no homes so far.  Lots of people have been evacuated from their homes of course.

The weather isn't doing much to help the firefighters but there might be some moisture in the next few days.  I sure hope they get lots of rain & no more lightning!  Having the temp go from 107F to 96F (41+C to 35+C) will probably help the firefighters too.

 While in Las Vegas we looked at range hoods at Lowes.  We have a microwave/range hood now but it has problems:  1) the fan isn't strong enough and 2) it gets really dirty and is a giant pain to clean.  You need a screwdriver to take it apart and still can't get into all the little nooks and crannies.  We wanted to look at something other than what our local Home Depot has in stock.  Lowes didn't do a lot for us; nothing in stock but a nice $700 (!) one in their catalog.  Jeez!  I'm not sure I'm up for all that!

Meanwhile, rather than actually exercising, I'm watching the Tour de France.  Those guys are really amazing.  Of course it doesn't hurt that I'm watching the stage that ends at Mont St. Michel!  What a fantastic site for the race.  I've got to say I'd like to be watching it in person.  Maybe next year.... 

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one.

Thank You!

Thank you U.S. of A. for avoiding the election of Mr. Romney.  Yep, I can't say thank you for electing Mr. Obama but, once again, I had to vote in favor of the lesser of two evils.  Jeez.  What a world. 

Locally we had a couple of people elected that I voted for and a couple that I didn't.  Isn't it always that way?  We'll stumble along as usual I suppose.  This area was a farming community; during the Las Vegas boom times it became a bedroom community.  Now during the downturn, it has no where to go.  Farming can't support all the people and commuting is pretty expensive so the only support are retirees who can live in this beautiful area without needing to work.  It's a tough place to represent in the best of times and these ain't!

We did refill the hot tub yesterday.  We drained it way last summer when we were traveling and it's been so warm that sitting in warm water didn't sound all that great.  Now, however, when the sun goes down it starts feeling chilly so sitting in warm water is sounding a lot better.  Silly, aren't we.  Anyway, starting tonight, most likely, if you want to see two old naked people come look through our gate or over the fence.  We've been sitting out enjoying the sunset most nights; now we'll have somewhere to go after the sun goes down.

Gotta go.  I've got another set of augers to install to hold the shed down and it will be too warm to work later in the day.  Have a good one!

Election Day

It's finally election day so if you are eligible and haven't already done so:   VOTE!  I know who I would like you to vote for but that isn't the way it works.  Go ahead and make up your own mind.  LOL 

We voted last week and the local election seems to be more agressive than in years past.  One candidate had a big bus conversion parked on the street with a 20 foot (7m) banner saying 'vote for me'.  Another had a little shade tent pitched where they could tell you what wonderful things they would do.  There were even a bunch of people trying to take an exit poll.  Jeez, I don't know what has come over all these people.  Anyway, I'm hoping that we the people make some wise choices and get this country off it's ass. 

We did go into Las Vegas yesterday.  I got roped into helping our daughter fix a mirror attached to a chest of drawers that she has.  This thing was flimsy when it was built and that was quite a while ago.  The mirror is about 3 feet by 5 feet (1m x 1.6m) and is being held on by four pretty short screws.  The maker actually put some solid metal attachment points but the bolts have been long gone and in fact one of the attachment legs has been replaced.  Anyway it was a less than fun hour of fooling around doing a truly lousy job.  What really made it worse is that the ladies both want to advise me on what to do but to about things in opposite directions.  My wife is slow and painstaking; my daughter is hurry and slap it together.  I was ready to rub them together and start a fire.

We also checked out more computers.  While that was fun, we did find a Samsung that was pretty nice.  It was sitting next to a Toshiba.  We currently both have Toshibas - hers a 2005 model, mine a 2008.  It was then that we noticed the Samsung has a matte screen while the Toshiba is quite shiny.  We orginally were basically looking at the new Toshibas and now we have more to think about.  I think I've talked her into only looking at 17" machines with the i7 Intel chip.  If she keeps the new machine for 7 years as well, it won't be a total boat anchor at the end and we don't really care about portability that much.  The new touch screen machines are pretty cool but I'm thinking we should wait a generation or so for the technology to become a bit more mainstream.   

Gotta go.  Here's hoping for the best.  Take care.

Promised Photo

I'm still fooling with the shed.  It's together but we get some really interesting micro-burst weather events around here so keeping it on the ground is a priority.   I bought the thing from our local Sears affiliate.  They had a little demo version put up in front of their store that was bolted to the concrete.  One day they came to work to find it totally knocked down.  It was still bolted down but apparently the wind got in the open door and just ripped it apart.  So keeping it in place might be a challenge.

The maker suggests bolting it to concrete or wood or using an auger type anchor.  We decided to try the augers.  They are kind of a pain to dig into the ground but seem pretty sturdy.  I’ve done the front pair of augers and installed a steel cable going over the top of the building.  The other set will have to be installed another day.  Anyway, here is the promised photo of the building.

I went all crazy and made chili yesterday.  It takes me about four hours from start to eating.  Good thing I’m not competing on any of those cooking shows where you get half an hour to create something!  One time I put about two-thirds beef and one-third pork in my chili and kind of liked it.  This time I tried putting in some chicken thighs (diced up of course).  It didn’t really work for me; the chicken just kind of disappeared into nothingness.  I use ancho chili and chili arbol mostly then toss in a chipotle with a bit of adobo sauce for a smoky touch. 

Tomorrow we might go into Las Vegas and look at computers.  My wife’s laptop is 7 years old; she is still on XP!  It is getting really slow; especially when she is using big files like in some of the games she likes to play.  Still, we are hesitant about going to Windows 8.  Have you tried it?  I haven’t played with it enough to tell if it is actually different or if it is just more of the same with a different face. 

Have a good one!

Not dead; just kind of creaky!

I just figured out that I haven't posted in two weeks!  Bad Don!  I haven't been just sitting around though I am awfully good at that.  While my wife was gone I decided to put up a metal shed that we bought an embarrassingly long time ago.  Well, I decided to start putting it up anyway.  The kit came in this large box; the size you have to unpack rather than try to move around.

The first few steps are where you get a nice level surface for the frame and put together some other parts, like rafters, that you’ll need later.  I spent a couple hours each day getting all that done.  Getting the frame perfectly level was a lot like hard work, I must say, but it really paid off because later in the construction we had very little trouble getting things to fit just so.  Then I got to Step 6 in the instructions (of 20 steps).  Let me quote the note preceding Step 6.

“The remainder of the building assembly requires many hours and more than one person.  Do not continue beyond this point if you do not have enough time to complete the assembly today.  A partially assembled building can be severely damaged by light winds.”

I was alone so I needed to stop then once my wife returned to assist/direct me, the wind started.  Grrrr!  I had the individual sheets of metal all set out on the ground divided into piles according to the instructions and couldn’t do anything.  There were 12 different types of panels and 23 other braces, trim strips, brackets, channels and frames.  It wasn’t until Monday of this week that we got calm conditions.  By then a few of the panels had been blown around and a couple had dents even.  But what can you do; just make it happen.  So that’s what we did.

I must say that the idea of completing assembly in a day seemed pretty optimistic; and it sure was!  We worked about 4 hours on Monday; 5 on Tuesday and another 5 on Wednesday.  We finally finished the thing with an extra hour or so this morning.  That’s a total of 15 hours (30 since there were two of us working) in addition to the 6 or 8 I’d already put in. 

So what do we have?  It is a 10’ x 11’ (3.04m x 3.35m) Arrow storage building that mostly just covers our well and the associated parts:  the control box, pressure tank, etc.  There is room for some other things but not a whole bunch.  You can however get all around the well should you need to work on it.  Another part of the reason for such a large building is that the pressure tank is over five feet tall and smaller buildings just weren’t tall enough.  In the end, the fact that we had a couple of dented panels didn’t really matter a lot.  It made fitting the panels a bit more difficult but it wasn’t that bad.   Most of the requirement for a second person was to stabilize the building while the other was putting in a screw or to tighten a bolt that the other person put in.  We managed it ok and we are both in our sixties so it isn’t all about strength.  

I must say that the kit was complete and the instructions quite good.  We ran out of the little plastic washers near the end but that was about it.  We had extras of the screws, nuts and bolts used.  They did have a habit of saying something like ‘only put one bolt in the beam at this time’ but not saying WHY you were only using one.  There was always a reason that we discovered some way down the line but it was kind if disconcerting to leave things half done hoping to find a finish later.  You also had to be very attentive to the instruction AND the diagrams; one of the reasons we stopped work after 4 or 5 hours was because we were getting tired and making silly mistakes:  like losing track of which end of the door was the top.  Still, I’ve got to say it is a pretty good product and it’s ‘Made in the USA’. 

Photos?  Ah, well, my wife took a few but hasn’t downloaded them yet!  The good news though is that it will make for another post.  LOL  Have a good one!

Lots of fun stuff.....

Thursday I took the F-250 over to the Ford dealer in Las Vegas for a service.  This is a 30K mile service so they do extra stuff - sale price is $500+.  This would be a reason not to buy a diesel!  However, pulling those mountains out here in the West is a reason TO buy one.  Decisions, decisions; well, the truck needed the service.  Took it in and was told that they couldn't really give me an estimate of when it would be done!  WTF?  Well, but it would be today.  Then the guy offered me a 'loaner'; a rental car from an Enterprise agency that was right on the property.  They would pay the fee and all I would have to pay would be the gas used and the taxes.  Weird but I jumped on it.  It meant I got to have lunch, check out some of Las Vegas and not be bored silly sitting in the showroom.  It was a great deal all around!  I arrived around 10:00 and decided to return to the dealership about 15:30 - the truck was done and it was pretty painless.  It cost me an extra $10 for the car but that was a heck of a deal! 

There was a very interesting (to me) article on Yahoo talking about the fact that Ford has decided to stop building the Econoline van series - the E-150, E250 & E-350's are gonners.  They are going to be bringing over vehicles that have been built in Europe (and perhaps other places) for at least 15 years.  The new vans will be taller, thinner and powered by more efficient engines both gas and diesel.  Van people know that an E-250 will be lucky to get 15 mpg; a Sprinter (by Mercedes) will do 22 mpg.  In Europe Ford has vans like the Sprinter but they haven't bothered to bring them/build them here.  The article suggested there might be some level of collusion to keep the status-quo but it's unlikely anyone will ever prove anything.  Still, better vans are something we need in this country.


We did make yet ANOTHER trip to Vegas on Friday.   My mom was the last of nine kids so I have a few cousins on her side.  There is a family get together back in Missouri that we are going to miss this year but one of the cousins was coming out here visiting friends so we had to get together.  We met at a Red Lobster restaurant; had a meal and a nice talk.  I met this guy maybe once or twice when I was a kid then didn't see him until I was over 60.  Not a close relationship (!) but I don't seem to have much trouble re-connecting with my cousins.  It was a nice visit but short.  (As an aside, I haven't been in a Red Lobster for probably 25 years.  They have changed and have food that is much healthier than way back then.  I'd definitely go back.)


So now we've had a couple quiet days.  Hanging around Pahrump isn't too exciting at the best of times.  We went out to breakfast yesterday; went out to lunch today.  We manage our usual couple of mile walk most days.  It's definitely low key stuff.  I've got to admit that we are planning yet another visit to Vegas.  We are cheese addicts and the local stores just don't have the stuff we crave.  I don't blame them; they probably wouldn't sell five pounds (10kg) of gouda a month not to mention some of the more common French and German cheeses.

My wife got the itch to clean our bookshelves; now there is a nasty job!  I'm guessing we have in excess of 300 linear feet of books (100 m); taking the book down, dusting it, dusting the shelf and putting it back is a giant pain in the whateverfloatsyourboat.  But trust me, it isn't fun.  It does need doing from time to time though so I'm slaving away beside her.  If there was ever a reason to have electronic copies of books, this is it!  My problem is that I'm a mystery fan.  Not just any mysteries, most of the books I have are copyrighted before 1960.  There aren't electronic versions; not to mention who would buy the electronic version if it were available.  I'll buy some new electronic books and read them on my pc but they will be few and far between.  I don't really care much for modern writers so I'll continue to haunt the used book stores.  Hope to see you there.

Am I here?

Today I got an interesting email from Google-Blogger.  They are under the impression that I haven't accessed my account since 2007.  Hmmm.  Here is what they say:  "You are receiving this message because your email address is associated with an unmigrated legacy Blogger account. As we announced in April of last year, legacy accounts will no longer be accessible after May 30th, 2012 unless they are updated to the Google Account system. Any blog content associated with this account will also be unmodifiable after that date." 

So I haven't any idea what is actually going to happen here.  I'm playing with the addresses they offer for correcting the problem but am not really getting anywhere.  Actually, it might be a good idea to dump this blog entirely and create a new one whose name isn't 'tampabaystuff' - after all, it's 2,334 miles (3,756 km) away from here!  If I disappear, I'll be looking for something like 'nyecountydiary' for my new blog.  Just a warning!

We've had a lot of wind and cloud activity lately so I took the opportunity to make a run into Las Vegas.  Spent my usual $$$ in the liquor store then looked all over for semolina flour.  Jeez!  It took a visit to Whole Foods to find the darned stuff.  My wife has a pasta roller accessory for her Kitchen Aid and tried making pasta from ordinary flour.  It was really very nice but she wanted to up the ante to semolina.  Well, six or eight supermarkets later, I found a small packet of the stuff.  I probably spent more on gas going from store to store looking for it than I did for the actual product!  Anyway, I'll be able to report on the resultant pasta one of these days. 

I also took the opportunity to check out some of the stores we don't have; places like Best Buy (electronics) and Target (general merchandise).  It's funny but as I grow older I seem more resistant to the siren call of buying 'stuff'.  Well, we can hope anyway!  Bottom line is that I wandered through all those wonderful electronic gadgets and all and managed to spend nothing at all.  Cool! 

Today we have a return to calm and sunny weather so I'm going to spend some quality time working on the benches for our new seating area.  I've got one finished; two to go.  I'll post a photo when I get them done and installed.  Getting away from the computer is a good thing!  Have a good one.

AWOL - reason DULL

I haven't blogged in quite a while mainly because life has been pretty dull around here.  We did get a little rain yesterday so have light snow on the mountains.  That makes the place look pretty reasonable!  Otherwise I am still on the photo copying jag.  Most of the photos are ones that I actually kind of remember taking but now I'm into the ones that my mother kept; little Donnie (5.5 months old) in the scale being weighed an all that stuff.  What on earth do I do with that mess???

I don't know how other people do it but we have boxes of photos that have never been put in an album; that's what I'm working with.  (We have tons of albums as well but that's in the future!)  It's kind of fun to stick your hand into a box and bring out a packet of photos not knowing what you are going to find.  Sometimes I find my ex-wife - eek!  Sometimes I find the Eiffel Tower in 1999 when they had a countdown to the new millennium going.

On nice days we've been working on benches for our new outdoor seating area.  Here is a photo of the prototype as it stands now.

As you can see, we aren't really into lawn mowing.  The 'T' shaped concrete pad is new as is the seating.  The seating is pretty minimalistic; just boards on top of concrete blocks but we just want to go out there for a drink at sunset so getting too fancy won't work.  It also has to be pretty solid to stay in place when the wind blows.  We'll do a little more work on it, like painting it, but not a lot.  Yet to be discovered/created/decided upon are tables for the ends of each bench and a fire-pit for the center of the 'U'.  Also, in the background, you can see the new spa.  Yes, those are concrete blocks on top of the spa; we've been having heavy winds lately and the top was straining at the clips that keep it anchored.  We figured we'd rather heave the blocks around to get into the spa than to have to chase the top across the road!  The little stumpy posts are electric outlets.  We had to run 240V electric to the spa so ran 120V to each concrete pad at the same time figuring that at some point we'll want it out there.  At the moment we are not thinking of covering either pad but the sun in July might change our minds.  We'll see.

At any rate that's enough of my dullness, have a good one!

Not so regular posting.....

I've not been very regular about posting lately and I've noticed that quite a few of the blogs I follow are also becoming more irregular.  No idea why; let's blame the solar flare. 

We've been working (irregularly as well) at getting our outdoor seating area trialed.  I put up a prototype bench just to see if we thought it might work, then another prototype and now we have a good idea of what the thing will look like.  We even went out and bought a bunch of paint so that's serious intent!  These are just simple backless bench seats.  It's a  place where we can go out and admire the sunset on the mountains or the stars in the cold night sky.  This is such a lovely valley but you need to get out away from houses and lights to take full advantage of the beauty.  It is also a brutal place.  110F (43C) isn't unusual for a few weeks in the summer and 20F (-7C) is our usual low for several weeks in the winter.  Earlier this month we had wind gusts of 85 mph (135 kph).  Our furniture is being designed so we can leave it out year-round and need not worry about it. It is also designed so that if we decide we don't like it in a year, we can just get rid of it.  Minimal investment, maximum utility is our mantra.

I was reading in Glenn's blog how much he enjoyed reading "Blue Highways" by William Least Heat Moon.  He was so persuasive that I had to go rent it from the library.  My goodness, can that man write!  He convinced me I need to read the book from standing in the library reading the first sentence.  If you haven't read it, I can recommend it most highly.  The author is traveling the back-roads of America in 1978, visiting some amazing places and meeting amazing people.  Thank you Glenn!

I also must admit that this sort of travelog is one of my minor addictions.  I've even become addicted to Larry the Cable Guy's show on History channel "Only in America".  This is certainly NOT the only interesting country in the world but Larry does meet some amazing people while wandering around.  The folks he meets are a diverse group; country squirrel hunters, professional fishermen, rodeo clowns and a whole lot more.  It is presented from Larry's country boy persona but he manages to ask intelligent questions and is clearly impressed by the difficulty of people's jobs. 

I'm going to try to get back on this horse and do more posting.  I hope some of my favorite bloggers do the same.  Have a good one!

Oh NO!!!

This isn't a day I'm going to remember with pride.  Have you seen those cartoons about older people wandering around looking for their glasses while the glasses are on their head?  Well, I just spent about 10 minutes wandering around the house looking on all the shelves, tables and such for my glasses.  Then I put my hand in my pocket and found, yep, my glasses.  Grrrr!  I'm officially an old duffer!

Had a good day yesterday though.  Went in to Vegas and visited the three hot tub dealers that we liked best.  I'm hoping it wasn't just being tired but we bought a tub from the last one we visited.  We got caught up in a traffic jam on the way and I was on the verge of saying 'why not just skip them' but I didn't say it and we ended up finding the most comfortable tub we'd seen.  We had a hot tub attached to our pool when we lived in Orlando and we bought a portable hot tub when we lived in Seattle that we kept for over ten years so we have definite preferences.  We want 'open seating' meaning that there isn't a lounge seat and the other seats are not too defined.  We don't care about a music system or lights or anything else; we just want a big tub of warm water!  Hell, even the jets are pretty optional.  We finally found something like our ideal and didn't waste much time divesting ourselves of about $6K.  Even at that we were doing well, some of the tubs we looked at were in the $10K neighborhood.  For me as a buyer, six is a lot better than ten. So now we have to get it delivered, hooked up, warmed up and we'll be good to go.  We are both really excited about the idea. 

MAYBE there will be photos but I'm not sure.  When we are alone the hot tub or pool has always been a clothing free zone so most of the photos I've got of our previous tubs aren't appropriate for this blog.  I'm expecting the same of this one (optimistically) however our daughter has already claimed a seat in it so I guess we'll have to find those bathing suits after all.  Darn it!

I'm planning on putting a bunch of our old slides through the new scanner today.  Here's a blast from the past - Don circa 1982 on the beach at Daytona and loving life.

I'd never been to Florida, was in love with the idea of Daytona, in love with my 'girlfriend' and just happy to be alive.  Still like Florida and Daytona, have been married to my 'girlfriend' for almost 30 years and am still pretty happy to be above ground.  Sounds like 'happily ever after' to me; guess having trouble finding my glasses isn't so bad after all.  Hope you are feeling as well.

Working around the house

Lots of stuff going on but nothing exciting to anyone but us.  We have been looking for a hot tub but first we needed a place to put it.  For months we've talked about where it should go and finally got a place selected.  We interviewed some contractors and selected one.  This week we got the pad poured.  While we were at it, we got an uncovered patio poured as well.  I was getting up at 05:00 or so to be here when the guys started work.  Boy, if that isn't fun!  Yes, it's still dark but apparently it was ok with them.  The equipment has lights for a reason I guess.  Anyway, now we have our concrete work all completed.  The electrician is coming on Sunday to install power.  Sunday, you say?  Yep, apparently there isn't enough work here to keep him employed so he is going to California to work all week then visits his family and does whatever work comes up here on the weekend.  Well, at least he's keeping it together.  So here's the pad - it is 12x12 ft (4m x 4m give or take).

The other thing we've been doing; doing personally this time, is replacing the toilets in our house with elongated bowl versions.  We've been living with these small round things for too long.  The new ones are more comfortable, quieter and use less water - 1.28 gal (4.8L) per flush.  Not bad, we should have done it years ago.  I'll save you the photographic evidence!

Here is one last photo.  Don't know if you remember but we had to have the cat's fur cut off because he was just so tangled it was impossible to get the mats out.  He's recovered.  This is him sleeping on the couch in the den the other day.  Just part of the 16 year old's everyday ritual.

I also got a new toy:  a Epson V500 Photo scanner.  I'm scanning a bunch of old slides.  Maybe I'll find one or two to share later.  Whatever, have a good day.