I recently re-discovered a nifty bit of knowledge that probably most men of my age already know and didn’t forget. That would be this … before applying any kind of analgesic, especially if it smells like wintergreen, to you old, sore muscles, take care of personal needs that require you to grasp the business end of your urinary tract. If you forget, remember to perform a surgical scrub after the fact before taking care of such personal matters. Failing to do both of these will result in a great deal of discomfort that will not quickly go away no matter how hard you scrub it. Additionally, if you’re married, or involved in a long-term relationship, there’s a distinct possibility that you may have to vacate your home for a week, or two, because of their inability to stop laughing. Leaving the room seems to diminish the glee, but returning always gets it started again. They always laugh, then they tell all their friends. Seems like we men  should have some sort of legal recourse, but we apparently don’t. But, I’m still looking. So far, my best solution is to move in to the RV for a while until things calm down.

Junior and I went golfing the other day. Doug didn’t show up because he’s out in the woods with his weapon looking for Bambi. It’s hunting season. So, Junior and I decided we’d golf really well, which we did. Legally. Had Doug been there I might have had a chance to beat him. When he’s with us he insists on keeping score ensuring he never gets beat.

The fresh water leaks in the old RV have been repaired, and a new shelf was manufactured to replace the one I righteously destroyed in the process. When those things are put together there’s no consideration given to the possibility that someone might need to fix something. Consequently, some parts must be sacrificed for the greater good, no matter how useful they might be. The solution involved replacing small portions of the water line with new PEX connectors and fixing the sink drain. Twice. I had to fix the drain twice because it made me mad and I broke something. I needed to go to ACE anyway.

We went to Crosscut Hardwoods in Portland and bought a bunch of oak wood so I can create and install sills and casings for the new windows. We got about 140 board feet of lumber, three of which were 11 feet long, and it all fit in the Impala with the trunk closed which amazed both of us. I almost didn’t get any because this store is a woodworkers dream and I was a bit overwhelmed in the same way that Diane gets overwhelmed when she walks into Best Buy and is confronted with a very large wall of TVs that are all on the same channel. Crosscut is a large store with racks and racks of exotic wood from all over the world. There were so many choices, and pretty wood to touch, making it tough finding the simple oak I needed. Perseverance paid off, however, and I finally trundled out my $293 load of wood to the car and my lovely bride who was waiting for me. She had a great opportunity to ditch me, but she didn’t. Here’s the wood laying on my shop floor, blocking Diane’s way to he Girl Room.

The RV holding tank (black) has been kinda repaired with fiberglass. Once it dried I determined that I’d need to do it again because my effort to make it OK with one big piece of fiberglass was the wrong choice. So, I’ll use a bunch of small, overlapping pieces and that should take care of it. There will be no further reporting on this topic unless I run out of other stuff to share.

Our new tarp garage has been completed. It’s 10 x 20 feet and has plenty of room for the tow doll, the lawn mower, and pretty much anything else I might decide to put in it. The next task will be to take all the yard tools out there and devise a good way of making them presentable for use at a moments notice without a lot of searching. Since I don’t mind searching for the proper tool, I just leaned them all against a saw horse I set up. I’m going to put all 452 of Diane’s plant pots out there, too. And her gloves. That should get me in trouble. Maybe I’ll build some shelves one of these days in my spare time, too.

That’s enough for now except to report that fall is officially here. Oure dogwood tree said so.