January 20, 2006

January 20, 2006

La Feria, Texas

YEAR 2 DAY 217

 

Today was sunny and very warm, temperature in the mid-80's. The news and weather people on the local TV channel are excited about the "cold front" that's blowing in over the next 3 days or so, driving the day time temperatures all the way down to the mid-60's ( snicker ) and bringing a 20% probability of rain. Apparently the locals are desperate for some rain. The humidity rose throughout the day, so that by evening, it was 87 %, making it feel quite muggy.

Our first few days here in the Valley will be mostly devoted to getting caught up on chores and projects. This morning we got a late start, because we didn't have to hitch up and drive anywhere. I did preventive maintenance, then set up Teddy's tent. Ever since Yuma, Teddy has been demanding to be outside a lot, often dashing out the door of the trailer when we open it, running down the entrance steps, and doing "floppies" as soon as he's off the steps. I did some work on cleaning and polishing shoes. Now that we're finally off the dusty desert, maybe I can keep my shoes clean. Joanne spent much of the day slowly dealing with a lot of laundry. I did a "purge" of the truck console storage area between the seats, and a large Rubbermaid tote I have mounted in the bed of the truck between the "tool" storage chest and the fifth wheel hitch. Every six months or so I need to do a purge of areas that are becoming overcrowded. This mobile lifestyle does not permit hoarding of stuff that isn't used regularly. I try to adopt the approach that if I haven't used something in over a year, it should be discarded.

We had lunch. I read a book, then napped for awhile. After napping, I tackled the job of replacing the MaxxAir roof vent cover with the new mounting hardware I bought at Camping World yesterday. First Joanne cleaned the grime off the MaxxAir cover. Then I hauled a pail of soapy water up onto the roof, and cleaned the grime off the bedroom roof vent that the MaxxAir cover was over. Yuck ! Finally, I installed the new mounting hardware, and reinstalled the MaxxAir cover. Joanne continued working on laundry, and I took Bo for an obedience training session. I continue to increase his challenges, and he continues to respond well. Today I made him "sit & stay" on the road beside a trailer where a Schnauzer was tied up. I walked 100 feet away, forcing him to hold the stay, and ignore the other dog. Good dog. Did that twice. Good, good dog, Bo ! I needed to retrieve e-mail, and update my blog, so I went with Joanne to the clubhouse. While she worked on laundry, I tried repeatedly to connect to the park's Wi-Fi. They told us when we checked in that it hasn't been working properly. I made about 2 dozen attempts to connect to Wi-Fi over about a half hour period. About half were unsuccessful. About half were successful, for 10 or 20 seconds. One attempt was successful for about 5 minutes. I finally got disgusted, pulled out a phone cord, and got online with a dial up connection, which I will do from now on here. I did what I needed to do in about 10 or 15 minutes on the dial up connection, after wasting much more time than that with their lousy Wi-Fi. While I was trying to use Wi-Fi, there was a steady stream of people walking by the table I was sitting at in the clubhouse, looking over my shoulder, seeing me attempt to use Wi-Fi, and grumbling about the Wi-Fi system in this park not working, on an ongoing basis. I don't understand business owners who do nothing about an ongoing problem that is annoying their patrons.

While Joanne prepared supper, I fed the animals, walked Bo, did today's accounting, did some planning, and started today's journal entry. After supper, we watched some TV, Joanne washed supper dishes, and I finished up this journal entry.

DSK