This morning I installed new trailer wiring on Obie. Shortly after we bought Obie a couple of weeks ago I had cut off the tangled, mangled mess of trailer wiring that was on the car.
This afternoon Joanne went grocery shopping by herself. I remounted the living room mirror in the fifth wheel trailer. After ... < having to think about how old Harvey is > ... eighteen years, and about a quarter of a million kilometres of travel the mirror fell off the wall. Where it had been mounted by the manufacturer with ... < sputter > ... double sided tape ! What brilliant factory engineering ! Using double sided tape to mount a mirror on the wall of a trailer ! By the way ... double sided tape that had been applied ... or so it looked ... by a retarded eight year old !
I did some Water Pik maintenance. The hard water here left deposits in my Water Pik bowl and I had to clean that off using CLR ( Calcium Lime and Rust remover ). And
I had to glue repair the Water Pik nozzle that I broke when I dropped the Water Pik machine. < sigh > I've been on such a losing streak lately ! Well ... except in the stock market. < snicker >
After Joanne returned home we went to the storage yard and washed the camper. We didn't finish. In the few weeks that the camper has been in the storage yard, the road grime, and especially the bugs on the front, have been baked on by the intense desert sun. DARN ! Should have got to that job sooner ! We stopped working on the camper at 5:30 PM in order to allow ourselves a half an hour before darkness to go for a two lap walk around the dog park ( more or less ) with Bo. He usually lasts for one full lap, which allows him a daily opportunity to have a "fence fight" with the free roaming pugnacious little Pug that lives across the road from the far end of our dog park. It's amazing how brave and ferocious two little dogs can be when they have the safety of a chicken wire fence separating them.
After our walk Joanne did our Christmas decorating. Thank you. I have been suffering pretty severe depression recently, and putting all of our very special ornaments on our little tree boosted my spirits a bit.
Monday ; Sunny and very warm. Joanne made a wonderful beef stew in the Sun Oven today.
My morning was taken up with making phone calls. I dislike "phone work".
Just before lunch we did a two lap walk around the dog park. After lunch we did some cleaning work inside Elsie the truck camper, and late in the afternoon we finished cleaning the exterior of the camper, scrubbing bugs and grime off the front, and cleaning all the windows. I did some maintenance work on the radio in Obie the SUV ... again. We finished the Christmas decorating, mounting exterior lights on the patio, and interior lights in the Arizona room. I sharpened all the kitchen knives in Harvey the trailer and Elsie the camper. I cleaned Bo's ears and administered some ear drops because he seemed to be suffering an ear ache in one ear when I cleaned it. We cleaned the range hood fan filters in both the trailer and the camper. And ... we walked another two laps around the dog park just before dusk.
Tuesday ; Sunny and very warm.
I was recruited by the Humane Society of Yuma for a special assignment this afternoon. I was a "dog handler" for a photography club that came to the Humane Society for an afternoon of photographing cats and dogs. Joanne came with me to the Humane Society for a regular Tuesday afternoon shift of cat cuddling, but she spent some of her time being a "cat handler" for the photographers. I was hoping that the photographers I was going to be working with were going to select little fluffy dogs for me to take out of the kennels and bring into the play yards and "handle" for photography, but ... NOOOOO ! Of course, they selected the largest, ugliest, most unruly, unneutered male pit bulls they could find, because ... "his face is so ... dramatic". Yes, yes ... it certainly is. Tonight I am exhausted from two and a half hours of "wrangling" big dogs.
I did a lot of exercising today. Two laps around the dog park this morning, two laps late in the afternoon, bicycling at sunset, and of course, an afternoon of dog wrangling. Late in the morning we visited with a couple of neighbours who dropped by while we were in our Arizona room. In the evening I did a bit of online Christmas shopping. Joanne did laundry. DARN ! My ear plugs and spray canister of Nitroglycerin were laundered again ! Got to remember to empty my pants pockets !
Wednesday ; Sunny and very warm. Joanne baked a cake in the Sun Oven today.
Immediately after an early lunch I left for a day of running errands by myself. Joanne cleaned the interior of Lanoire the truck. I took clipper blades for sharpening. I bought a couple of drive belt "O" rings for our evaporative / "swamp" cooler back at home in BC. I went to quite a few different automotive service businesses to discuss maintenance / repairs required on Obie the SUV. I bought a steering wheel cover for Obie at Pep Boys.
Before I left to run errands, and after I returned, we walked two laps around the dog park. I went bicycling at sunset. We went out for supper tonight at Famous Dave's Barbecue. Great meal ! Except ... HMPH ... for the barbecue sauce bottle lid malfunction ! Oh, well ... another shirt ruined. Good thing I buy most of my shirts for no more than a few bucks at thrift shops. HA HA HA ! After returning home after supper we spent the rest of the evening watching the three hour season finale of Survivor.
Thursday ; Mostly cloudy, warm, very light drizzle briefly in the evening.
Joanne took Gail for a "girls' day out" of shopping. I repaired the kitchen sink drain plumbing, and cut / trimmed two Cholla Cacti ; one in the dog park behind our rear fence, and one in the flower bed against our north side front yard fence. Trimming / cutting down Cholla is an extremely difficult ... and painful ... job. I still need to dispose of the cuttings, another difficult job. I'll probably do that on Saturday. And ... I will probably continue to slowly work on cutting down the two Chollas in our front yard, branch by branch, until I can dig them out of the ground and eliminate them. Note to self ; don't plant any more Cholla Cacti. And stop watering the ones that I already
have !
In addition to getting some of the barbed Cholla quills in my knuckles, I got one in my lower lip. No, no ... I don't know how that happened ! But it sure hurt like hell when Joanne pulled it out with tweezers ! The picture below is a photo of my shin after pulling a batch of Cholla quills out of my leg.
Friday ; Happy 63rd Birthday to our friend Laszlo
A desert storm ; warm, very windy, sky obscured by blowing sand / dust.
This morning we headed southwest to the village of Somerton, to check out an automotive repair facility that a neighbour recommended. Somerton is a "Mexican" village ( in the United States ... there are many ) with lower overheads, so cheaper labour rates. After a brief discussion with a "service writer" at Yepez Auto, I arranged to return Obie on Monday and leave it until Tuesday to get some estimates for repairs. On our way back home we stopped at Wal-Mart on Avenue B and did some shopping before returning home for lunch.
After lunch we undertook what proved to be a very difficult job. We chopped up the Cholla Cactus "branches" that I cut down yesterday into smaller pieces, loaded them onto a plastic tarp, and hauled them from the dog park, over our rear fence into our back yard, then through our yard and out to the street, and down to the end of the street where we dumped it in the dumpster. Four large loads ! Very tiring ! Very painful !
I sorely regret planting Cholla cuttings four or five years ago. I still need to cut down and dig out two Chollas in our front yard flower beds. When we were finished I went to nap with Bo and Joanne went shopping to The Foothills.
After napping I wrapped Christmas gifts, did some maintenance on Lanoire ( the truck ), and took Bo for a two lap walk around the dog park. Bo and I finished our walk, and Joanne returned home, just at dusk. I went bicycling. Tough to breathe with all that dust blowing around.
After a late supper we went over to visit Laszlo and Gail, at Gail's invitation to come over and have a piece of Laszlo's birthday cake.
Saturday ; Sunny, chilly in the morning, mild in the afternoon, cold in the evening.
After this morning's two lap walk around the dog park we headed out to the Goodwill Thrift Store for one of their infrequent 50% off everything sale days. Our friend Gail came along with us. Joanne bought a couple of tops. Gail bought some clothing for Laszlo. I bought twelve t-shirts, and a GM car radio. Joanne and Gail spent quite awhile searching for me when they were finished their shopping. First I was in a change room, then in a long line up at a check out counter ... < shrug >. We went to Burger King for a late lunch. On the way home we stopped at Lowe's, who had neither what I needed nor what Joanne needed.
Back at home ... HMPH ! The car radio doesn't fit in Obie, and the wiring harness socket is incompatible with Obie's radio wiring harness plug. DARN ! I did some maintenance in the camper. I remounted a clothing peg unit that I accidentally ripped off the bedroom wall in the trailer a few days ago. I did a cosmetic repair underneath the front overhang of the trailer. I used rubber roof membrane to repair the cracked fibreglass panel. I repaired the leaking kitchen sink drain ... for about the third time in as many days ! Hope today's "Plan C" methodology works better than Plan A and
Plan B did ! We walked two laps around the dog park, and I went bicycling.
We had a somewhat unusual four course dinner tonight. First course was home made mushroom soup that Joanne made at home in BC a few months ago with freshly picked Shaggy Mane mushrooms. Today she added a bit of Crema Casera to the soup. MMMMM ! Next was a fresh, steamed artichoke served with a seasoned dip.
MMMMM ! Then stuffed, baked Portobello mushrooms served with a Kumato ( brown tomato ) and basil salad. MMMMM ! Finally, Christmas fruit cake we bought in Canada before we left. I ate my fruit cake with a glass of egg nog. MMMMM !
DSK
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