Hot!

Good golly, if you were outside the last two days you know exactly what I'm talking about. I thought I was gonna melt down! What is August going to be like?

Thankfully we have a chance of rain the next several days, a cool front will take us down about twenty degrees. Now that's more like it.

Most of my day was spent working on the fence project. As my luck would have it, it was between the houses on the sunny side of the fence. No wind, no shade. Also as my luck would have it, most of what tools I needed were in the travel trailer. This fence is a tubular steel structure with cedar palings which are screwed on with floor screws. It has been maintenance free for ten years, but thanks to the really wet year last year and also to the lawn service jerks, it needed some spot repair. Initially I had thought eight fence palings would complete the repair, as it turned out it was sixteen. I thought for this small project I would be able to complete it with the 18V cordless drill and circular saw. Wrong. Half my day was spent working, the other half was spent jockeying batteries to and from the charger. I continually thought about the big half inch electric drill in the storage bay of the RV.

The only break Krl and I had was around four o'clock we left to pick up Black Sheep 2 and went on to retrieve the company travel trailer from the repair shop. We stayed on task, the trailer was ready, but this errand still took two hours by the time we returned home. When we put the trailer into storage Krl had a short list of things she needed from it. Just before we left she asked me if I wanted to get the big drill. I thought for a moment and told her "No, I only lack sixteen screws and two cuts, the batteries have had two hours to charge so I should be good to finish".

I hate it when she is right.

This morning I lack installing one screw and making one cut.

The RV shop made a run at us to trade trailers. It was interesting to see what is out there. It was also interesting to see what the company trailer is worth. If the company had thirty or forty thousand dollars lying around I might be tempted , but it doesn't and I'm not. So there.

Today appears to be sparsely filled. Finish the fence and then take Black Sheep 22 to the body shop and back to the office. I swear, some of the government agencies are totally worthless. You submit a report, they do a half ass analysis and then send you a notice telling you they changed your report and to send money. The frustrating thing is the reporting period is over a year old, which means you have to dig out the records which fueled the report initially. Actually, they have thrown down the gauntlet and I'm going to throw it back. It appears they have left one month of activities from their report. I know, you can't fight city hall, but I can make them actually work.

We have one contractor continuing to work outside here at the house. I was not in favor of spending any more money but if Krl is paying and she and Trc think it needs to be done, so be it. We had already discussed the need to paint the outside of the house this year. Let me go on the record right now, I don't like painting. I don't care what kind of painting it is, I don't like it. However, if it comes to spending money to pay someone to do it, I might suffer through the task. Trc's painter really wanted to paint the outside. He gave her a price, paint included. I told her to negotiate. She did, he didn't. Krl stepped in and told the gentleman to start. Actually he had already began, caulking and priming.

As it turns out, this has been a blessing in disguise. I have enjoyed visiting with this man, he has a very colorful history. Kind of a rags to riches to rags story. He was a young teen when his mother married "money". His step-dad helped to develop a work ethic in him and give him a vocation that he uses today. He has lived in Texas and Colorado, been a wheeler dealer, and on the verge of poverty. But this man is a happy man. Hardworking, honest and appreciative. He is currently living on a small ranch owned by a family trust (he only has to pay the taxes to continue to live there) with his wife and five small children. He has two grown children by a previous marriage. It was a very heart warming moment the other day when he told Krl and I he wanted us to know how much he appreciated the opportunity to work, and that our project had come at a time when he was looking at living on the streets. Our job got them through a rough patch and now he has work lined up for the next several weeks and possibly months.

Kind of gives a guy a warm fuzzy feeling.

This isn't getting it done. Have a day!

Be the real deal.

FATHER, today is on YOU. YOU are going to have to carry me. Thanx.