July 22 to 28, 2012

Sunday ; Today was sunny and hot until late afternoon, then it became windy and cool, followed by an evening of steady rain.

Joanne spent most of the day ( again ) weeding lot 4. Not finished yet ! I did some weed spraying. I spent much of the afternoon restringing the bedroom's day / night shade.
I thought I was finished, but after I reinstalled it in the bedroom, it didn't work properly. Either I didn't do something right, or I missed doing something that I should have. This was only the second time I have restrung a day / night shade, and the first one was a "two cord" shade. This one was a "four cord" shade. Guess I'll be starting over tomorrow !

Monday ; Today was cloudy and ... cold !

This morning we went into town to run some errands. Refill a propane tank, buy some fresh cherries and other produce, buy a stamp and post a letter at the Post Office, and buy some groceries.

We spent much of the afternoon in the gazebo restringing the bedroom day / night shade. Yesterday I replaced one of four strings. Something was wrong. Today I restrung the second of four strings. Something was still wrong < sigh >. I restrung the third and fourth cords, and finally the blind functioned properly. Well ... at least now I know how to restring day / night shades, both two cord and four cord versions.

While chatting with a neighbour about his brad nail gun accident yesterday ... fired a brad nail right through the pad of his index finger, and it came out the other side through the fingernail ... OW OW OW OW OW ... a Bald Eagle flew low overhead. It was struggling to gain altitude like an overloaded AirBus. Some fairly large creature with flailing legs was hanging beneath the eagle's talons. Maybe a quail, or baby marmot, or ... ? This is such an interesting place to live !

Tuesday ; Today was sunny and hot. Joanne finished manually weeding lot 4. Tough job, very well done ! Thank you, my dear ! I finalized the legal and financial matters of the purchase. With Joanne directing me ( yes, dear ... whatever you say, dear ) I sprayed herbicide on lot 4. We cleaned out whatever stuff was in the crawl spaces underneath the rear steps landing and the front deck. We will have to make a trip to the dump on Sunday, the only day of the week that the Keremeos dump is open. Then, after having cleaned out underneath the steps landing and the deck, we stored some of our own stuff underneath there. There's no storage shed on lot 4, so temporarily we will use those crawl spaces as storage areas. The risk there is ... once stuff gets stored in areas like crawl spaces, it often remains there "forever".

Wednesday ; Today was mostly sunny and hot, with thunderstorms and heavy rain in the early evening.

We spent the day in Penticton running errands. Mostly shopping for supplies for our new home. We picked up a used desk ... for free. It's not in great shape, and is much larger than I want or need, but I only need it to last until we leave November 1 heading south for the winter. On our way back north next spring I'll buy myself a small desk, probably in Oregon ( no sales tax ). Or ... perhaps I'll buy something at one of those awesome used furniture stores in Palm Springs ?

Thursday ; Today was mostly sunny and hot. It was humid, and again there were evening thunderstorms.

Right after lunch our real estate agent showed up to present us with the keys to our new home. WOO-HOO ! We got the power turned on, then the water. We had the water turned on and off repeatedly, as I discovered and resolved minor plumbing problems. All except one were resolved fairly quickly and easily. The water remains turned off tonight because I have the shower faucet guts removed. The shower could not be turned off due to deterioration of the faucet's internal cartridge due to lack of use. The rubber components inside just dried out and died !

We spent the afternoon and evening working in the new house. It was quite clean and required very little cleaning effort. We moved some furniture around, and moved my new "freebie" desk from the back of the truck to inside the house. Yup ... the "freebie" desk is definitely a temporary piece of furniture ! We opened all the blinds and windows and got some fresh air moving through.

We discovered that the shower, microwave, range top, and oven ... have never been used ! In six years ! ! ! Which would explain why the rubber components inside the shower faucet cartridge have dried out. Shopping for plumbing parts tomorrow and installing them will probably delay our "move" from the trailer on lot 89 into the home on lot 4.

Friday ; And so ... with the ownership of a manufactured home on lot 4, I guess we're no longer full time RV'ers, our lifestyle status for over eight years. I suppose we're just trailer park white trash now ! HA HA HA !

Today was sunny and hot until mid-afternoon, then cloudy and humid. This morning we drove into Keremeos to run a few errands. The priority was to find the Moen shower faucet cartridge I needed. If we were not able to find it in Keremeos, we were planning a fast trip to Penticton to find it. Keremeos Hardware did not have it, but Keremeos Building Supplies did. I was expecting the complex little cartridge to cost in excess of thirty dollars. The actual cost was ... zero ! WOW ! Moen faucet "guts" are guaranteed for life. Bonus !

I installed the shower faucet cartridge. And so ended our new home's minor plumbing problems. This afternoon we moved our gazebo furniture to the new home's deck off the living room. Very nice ! Joanne cleaned, patched, and touch up stained the freebie desk we picked up in Penticton a couple of days ago. It's in rough shape but will do for the rest of this summer season. I puttered around installing some new hardware on the living room's French doors to the deck and the rear entrance door. I cleaned and raked the sloped part of our yard down to the road.

We took Sully to check out our new lot 4 home. He acted as if the sky was falling ( rolling eyes ). He's a bit resistant to change.

Saturday ; Today was sunny and very warm.

Today we "moved". Shortest move we've ever had ! Lot 89 to lot 4 is probably something in the vicinity of ... < thinking > ... 500 feet ?

This morning while walking Bo I tripped and sprained a couple of toes. These are the two toes I broke a couple of years ago, and now they seem somewhat ... vulnerable. They injure easily. And hurt a lot when injured !

We prepared the trailer for departure, hitched up, and ... moved to lot 4. Positioning the trailer on lot 4 was more difficult than I had anticipated. And we had the trailer on the lot for mere minutes when a neighbour began complaining that the trailer was "blocking his view" out one of his home's windows. Tough shit, pal ! There is ... and has been for many years ... the unreasonable and unrealistic expectation amongst some of the residents of this park that they are somehow entitled to totally and completely unrestricted views out all their windows in all directions at all times.

Joanne moved much of our day to day stuff from the trailer into the house. I did some work at the old lot, watering all the planters and gardens, harvesting lettuce, and most importantly, revising our "for sale" sign, directing inquiries to lot 4. Lot 89 has a lot of "curb appeal" now that the trailer is removed. I moved the Sun Oven and the barbecue, and their tables over to lot 4. Joanne cooked a meat loaf for supper in the Sun Oven. We spent some time in the pool just before having supper.

As soon as Joanne moved our bedding from the trailer into the house, Sully's anxieties disappeared. He climbed onto the bed, onto familiar bedding, and spent much of the day snoozing in comfort. When he wasn't snoozing on the bed, he was snoozing on the deck off the living room. We've been leaving the French doors open to the deck, and Sully and Bo both love being out there. The deck is surrounded by a lattice rail, so they're both safe and secure out there.

After supper I set up our "travelling" satellite dish, ran the cable through a window into the living room, brought the trailer's TV into the house, set everything up, aimed the satellite dish, and ... WOO-HOO ... we have TV.

DSK