OK – I skipped a day. Yesterday just wasn’t a good day to write anything. I don’t even remember doing anything yesterday. Oh ya! I went to the Kozy Korner and had coffee with the guys from church. We talked about everything – even politics and religion. I believe we may have solved a world crises or two. Maybe three. I don’t remember which ones, but they were really important at the time.

Oh! Jeff and his friend Tim, I think, came up yesterday and removed the old lawn mower that’s been “yard art” for the last 1.5 years. It quit one day and I just left it where it died. Tim thinks he can fix it, and Diane’s glad it’s gone. A real win-win.

It’s coming back now … yesterday afternoon I built a grid thing for the driver’s area ceiling in the RV. This is what it looks like …

This is what it looked like after I put the “skin” on it and clamped it down until the glue dried (I didn’t have any half inch nails or I would have used those) …

I don’t have enough clamps, and the ones I had were already in use, so I just tossed on all the heavy, and semi-heavy things I could find in the garage. Seemed to work OK until I started drinking the Pepsi. The clamps were busy holding the other grid, for the slanted part of the ceiling …

Today I removed the RV door so I could remove the rotted interior wood, and kinda straighten up the frame a little. I got all new screws to this evolution. I got stainless steel ones because the old ones got all rusty. Very unsightly. I spent hours, literally, taking it apart, making the new inner door skin fit, cleaning up all the metal, and putting it all back together. When it got to be 9 pm I decided I’d had enough and just closed the garage door and called it good. Diane made me go back out and put the screen door in the RV door so animals couldn’t get in and do something bad. I put the step ladder in front of it so it wouldn’t fall out. Made her happy.

Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures of progress on the door, but will take one tomorrow when I install it. Honest. Instead, here’s a pictue of Panzee to make up for that omission …

Breezie snuck into that one. Sorry.

My fingers are all black because I used Liquid Nails to put all the wood stuff together. I have gloves, but didn’t want to get them dirty. Probably a bad choice. I think if I stand in the shower long enough, with really hot water, it will just fall off. I’ll let you know how that works out, if I remember.

News from Connecticut – Lyle is still home. The hospital scheduled his next test for June 21st which really wasn’t a good idea because it made both him and Ruth mad that they moved it out so far. But, his doctor took over and got it moved to next week which makes much more sense to everyone … except the hospital staff, I suspect. The first obstacle was the insurance company becaue they had to get a pre-auth for the test. Glad they’re doing it sooner. More news when available.

Tomorrow the door goes back on the RV, then we take Lydia to Clantskanie to play ball and eat hotdogs. Playing ball is a definite, but I’m guessing at the hotdogs. Maybe we’ll go to Fultanos and eat pizza instead. I think I’m hungry, but it’s 10:30 pm. Maybe a banana …

Speaking of ball, it’s been reported that Maryssa’s team lost a heart breaker 4-3 for the state 4A championship. To get there, they had to beat another really good team and Maryssa did it in the bottom of the 7th inning when she hit a double allowing the runner on first to score. Steffani said Maryssa’s batting average is around .450 or so. She had it over .500 for a while, meeting a personal goal she set. We’re looking forward to their visit in June where we’ll have a chance to watch her play a few games. Yea!

OK … that’s all folks.

Oh, wait! I forgot to mention that my epiglotimus, that little thing that hangs down in the back of my throat, is apparently swollen and is hanging down further than normal. It’s dangling on my tongue. Cool, huh?

Greetings Everyone … miss me? Probably not, and that’s OK because I haven’t been faithful to any of you. My mind is straying and I’m involved in new endeavors which drain my brain to the point that I don’t know what I did most of the time. I was able to salvage a wee bit of information that I will now gladly share with you in the hopes it might hold you, once again, for a few days. If it doesn’t, feel free to let me know you need some sort of data dump and I’ll share whatever is pertinent at the time.

Let’s, see … last Friday we loaded the RV with everything we could find that we could easily pick up, then went to a couple of the neighbors to get some of their stuff. Even then there was a little room left so we stopped at Fred Meyers to fill in the voids. It’s important to take six times as much stuff as you need for any kind of trip, especially one like this. One of the most important items we took was Diane’s contribution to the Friday and Saturday pot luck. She made a crock pot full of taco soup. I mean, it was really, really, full. There may have been 1/8 of an inch between the soup and the top of the pot. We put it in an Avon box, hoping it would contain the spillage, and were amazed that it hardly lost a drop. Guess the rig rides OK. But, when I parked, we weren’t perfectly level so had to find a shim to put under the pot so it would run over while we heated it up. Had to do that with the coffee pot, too.

Here’s what the Hood River County Fair Ground grounds looked like …

Our rig is the one on the right. There’s another one directly behind us that looks like the one next to us. There were seven old Winnebagos there and we had a great time with their owners.

The reason we gather in Hood River, besides getting the RVs out, and visiting, is to attend the annual Blossom Festival at the fair grounds. It’s an artsy crafty event at which we spent far more than planned, but they were essential to our well being.

I mentioned that Friday & Saturday were pot lucks, but that’s not correct. Every moment of all three days was a pot luck. It was awesome. The theme was Mexican so we had some excellent food choices in addition to some traditional favorites like snicker doodles, German chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake, and other necessities like that. No one went away hungry, even one of the vendors who let her dog stray into our area and just stuck around to eat once she caught up to it. No one was willing to dis-invite her after she sat down. Interesting evening.

We had an arts & crafts table …

when it wasn’t full of food …

We had an impromptu dump station competition which was really unfair because there was only one entrant … of course he won first place with a combined total of 33 points from the four volunteer judges …

The area surrounding the fair grounds was a sea of orchards bursting into bloom and the scenery was quite stunning …

Kind of like one of thos 1000 piece puzzles, isn’t it?

We stayed an extra night and drove home today. It wasn’t a sad parting because we’ll all be going to Moses Lake next month for a huge Winnebago/Itasca ralley. Should be fun.

Everyone will be pleased to learn that we got 9.05 mpg on this trip. That’s pretty good because the general average for these things is 8 mpg.

Now, if the generator only ran, and the back window didn’t leak, we’d be in fine shape. Guess you know what I’ll be working on …

Today’s word is “Fix The Turn Signal Thingie” on the RV. OK, that’s really five words, but it’s only one task that involves a whole bunch of steps. After Diane left me alone, again, this morning, to take her Mom, Jean, to quilting, at the church, I followed orders and got busy. I  studied and studied the steering column, and removed a bunch of bolts holding it all together, but had to wait for Diane to return so I would have a ride to NAPA to get a new tool to pull the steering wheel off. I was actually allowed to go to NAPA by myself, in Diane’s car, so I went real slow to ensure I didn’t bruise it in any way. I got the tool for a bargain $9.85, returned home, pulled the steering wheel off, and totally dismantled everything I could find under the steering wheel. Now I need to go back to NAPA, tomorrow, and get a new blinker and wiring harness then figure out how to get it all back together without having any parts left over, or running out of parts before I’m done. I’m very confident I can do it. I tear stuff apart all the time and always manage to get it all back together. It’s a knack I have. They don’t always work right, but I get them back together.

I also fixed the clearance lights on the RV. That should count for extra credit.

Tonight was Taco Thursday at the Moose Lodge in Warren. I took Dan, Cedric, Lydia, and Jeran with me. I wasn’t going to eat, but it looked good so I had two hard shell tacos. They were only $1.50 each and two was way more than I could eat, but I did anyway. They are very generous with the food at the Moose Lodge. A plus this evening was I got to visit with Doug and Caroline while we ate. They never miss Taco Thursday. Tonight was special for another reason for me because it was the first time I had a chance to use my newly acquired key card for the lodge. Turns out I didn’t have enough knowledge to make it work until I visited with Doug. Now I have the proper education that will allow me entrance any time I want.

Now I’m home and that’s really good because it’s cold outside. It was cold inside, too, until I cranked up the heat a couple of degrees.

All that’s on the news right now is the autopsy report on Whitney Houston. Apparently that’s something everyone else in the world is really wanting to know about. The most shocking fact, we’re told, is that there’s evidence the Whitney had breast implants! OMG! I’m totally shocked! I mean, that just totally shatters all the good things I thought about her but, wait a minute. Isn’t it, like, a requirement that everyone in the entertainment industry, that wears a dress, must have breast implants. Seems to me the shocker would be that she didn’t have bigger hooters than what God gave her. Personally, I think they should just leave her alone. There’s way more important “stuff” going on in the world to consider.

It’s early, but I’m going to quit. Diane just came in the computer room to watch the pilot for “Missing”. We have two other episodes recorded, but she needs to see the pilot first. So, I queued it up on HULU for her to watch on her computer.

First, I gotta tell you that I was pretty excited yesterday because 102 people viewed the blog. I had no idea I knew that many people! Then, today, 2 people from Cuba looked at it. Amazing! I wonder why … They were probably just accidents when someone clicked the wrong button.

Now, the cat. We appreciate the three suggestions we had for names – Beazus, Razor, and Oreo and had a hard time choosing. Finally, after an extended period of time in the bathroom, I decided Oreo wasn’t too bad. The only problem was it didn’t adhere to the criteria of having a “z”, or beginning with a “B”. Thankfully, that didn’t matter because Diane made the final decision by choosing “Breezie” which is is more fitting, and descriptive, because she really wasn’t a porch cat, she was a breezeway cat. What a perfect name. So, all the criteria was observed. She’s currently laying in Diane’s lap, playing with a sock monkey, watching Dancing With The Stars. I think Diane’s watching it, too.

Today was a beauty and things are good. My ditch is still draining off water from up the hill, keeping the driveway dry, Jeff returned my cutoff saw, I got all of the lawn mowed, bagged, and dumped, the cat got a name, and my cat scratch is healing nicely. So is the dog bite. Here’s what the cat looks like — kinda like a Jersey Cow, don’t you think?

Interesting thing, before I started mowing, I went to the Chevron station to get a gas can filled because I knew I’d run out before it was finished. Actually, it’s not a can because it’s plastic. It should be a gas plastic for grammatical correctness or, as Jack would say, “true speak.” Anyway, I left the gas “thing” in the driveway while I mowed the front, worked my way around the side, to the back, and was about halfway done before the mower quit. So, I walked all the way back up the hill, to the driveway, carried the “thing” to the middle of the field and filled the tank. Wore me out because it’s about a mile and a half. At least. I would have filled it before I started, which was my initial intention but something else got my attention and made me forget. I think it was when the mower started. But, I got the lawn finished just in time to get cleaned up so I wouldn’t embarrass Diane at our Lion’s Club International meeting this evening. Lyle and Ruth are Lion’s members, too, but they never show up at our meetings. Probably because they live in Connecticut. Tonight’s meeting was important to me because I was in charge of the program. It was an easy one, however, because our friend, Randy, did all the work. You can see what he does by checking out his web site: http://www.nowimthinking.com/ — what a guy! Randy is open for speaking engagements, if you’re interested.

I  just looked at the clock on my trusty computer and see that, once again, it’s 22:22. Interesting. That happened last night, too. I think it was last night. There’s something odd about recurring numbers in people’s lives, don’t you think? Maybe that should be the topic for tomorrow, unless something really interesting happens. So far all that’s on the schedule is that Diane has jury duty for a local mass murderer, and I have a dentist appointment. She always gets to do the fun stuff …

Hi All – Today I got up real early and discovered that it was going to be another glorious day in St. Helens, so I figured I’d take advantage of the sun and try to kill a few trees. Four, actually – 3 apple trees and a weird plum tree we have. Though it’s past time to trim them, I did it anyway. Some of the branches hang so low they just about kill me when I try to drive the mower under them. So, I hacked off all the ones that were in my way. I’ve threatened to do that for years but just today did I find the necessary Zen motivation to get it done. “Zen pruning” is the only way to go. Just cut stuff until it feels good. The result is branches laying all over the ground under the assaulted trees. So, being the good neighbor that I am, I decided to ignite the burn pile that’s been building for the past couple of years so I could just toss the amputated branches into the inferno.

Then Diane said, “aren’t you going to vacuum the yard?” to which I said, “sure.” That required me to unhitch the trailer from the mower and adding the grass catcher, no easy task. But I did it. Complicating that was the fact that just as I was pulling out to dump the current trailer load of branches, the mower refused to move, but it emitted a bit of smoke from under the engine which immediately alerted me to shut it down. So, I dragged my handy dandy mower jack down to the bottom of the field so I could raise the mower and see what was wrong.

Once up on the jack, I discovered that the belt had slipped off the drive pulley for the transmission. Getting it back on was a breeze and I was soon on the way to vacuuming the yard as directed. Although in mostly involves sitting, it’s still time consuming because I have to make multiple trips from the yard to the burn pile, which is near the burn pile, to empty the bags when they get full. For our mower I have a 3 bag bagger and I have to empty about 20 times at last. Well, maybe not that much, but it’s a lot.

I left the jack in the yard. I didn’t bring it up when I was done because I just didn’t want to. I’ll get it tomorrow. I didn’t get back to picking up sticks, either, so that’s another chore for tomorrow. And, the burn pile only got about 1/4 burned up. A sat down there for a long time, staring into the flames, mesmerized, losing track of time. I don’t know how long I was there, but sincerely believe I either had, or was on the verge of having, a heart attack. from all the manual labor I was doing to get the solidified burn pile parts near the flame. Wore me out after pruning all those branches. Now my arms are sore, and I have an apple tree wound on my right cheek from a branch that was having a difficult time separating from the tree. I swear it attacked me.

Diane yelled at me that it was time to quit, so I did. After getting in a few extra stares at the pretty flames. She didn’t really yell. She was actually very calm, and nice.

Cedric and Jeran spent most of the day with us but since I was outside, I didn’t see much of them. Knowing they were here, however, altered my normal routine for entering the house and dumping my work clothes in the laundry room. No sir. Can’t run through the house naked when we have company, even if it’s relatives. I’ve learned my lesson about that for sure. Instead, I trundled to the bathroom with two glasses of water, to rehydrate myself while the shower warmed up. Then I cleaned almost every part I own, and even shaved.

Diane was happy that I shaved since I haven’t shaved since we left Las Vegas. No, I think I shaved once in Nampa. Yeah, I’m sure I did.

Being all cleaned up rejuvenated me but not enough to eat anything for supper, as Diane demanded. Instead, I ate a banana. It was a good one. The dogs liked their bitty banana bites, too. We all love our bananas.

Diane and I sat at the table while the kidlets ate supper. I worked on Jennie’s iPhone, erasing pictures so she’d have enough room to do the iTunes update. She told me to do that. So, I did. I erased almost 900 pictures. But, I made sure they were on her laptop because she told me to do that, too. I get told to do all kinds of stuff. All the time.

After dinner, the boys sat on the couch and I read stories to them. Not real stories, but ones I’ve written over the years. I read two and a half stories. The half story was boring, I’m told, so I quit and got another one. They said they liked my story about what really happened to the world vs. what the Bible tells us. They new it was fiction, and that I was really lying to them, but it’s ok to lie to your Grandkids. I’ve been doing it for a long time, so I know.

Jennie showed up when I was almost done with the last story so we kind of lost continuity to what happened at the Arkansas bed race, but I finished reading it to them anyway. Jeran insisted. He said he liked it.

Then it was time to terminate for the night. As I was heading that direction I heard Diane say, from the basement, “Jerrie.” She has about sixteen different ways she says my name and I’ve been trained to respond immediately to the tone and lilt of her voice because each way has a totally different meaning. Like, when I driving she’ll say “Jerrie” instead of telling me to watch out for the car about to pull into our lane, or a car backing out of a parking space. Other times, it means that I better immediately stop what I’m doing because she’s annoyed. This evening she used her Jerrie voice to let me know there was water on the floor in the laundry room. It came from the floor drain and didn’t smell bad like  it did during one of our trips to Hawaii. Then it was sewage. This time it was water fro the deep sink. Apparently, the 3 foot of pipe, buried under about 3 tons of concrete, is mostly plugged causing the washing machine and deep sink to back up onto the floor through the floor drain.

Diane took the soaked rugs outside, I washed my feet, and we agreed this was something to be solved tomorrow. So I will.

Oh! Jack dropped by to deliver our tickets for the musical he’s in at his church. He’s the lead tenor and has six solos over the course of 120 pages of music. He said he’s been over it so many times that he has it memorized and I believe him because he’s my brother.

Also, I received a notice from the VA that they made a flagrant error on my medical evaluation and decided that I’m not 30% disabled, I’m really 50%. Now I’m going to be evaluated for my right hip and leg pain which is excruciating most of the time when I’m sitting. I hide it well. Sometimes.

That’s the end.

It’s late, 11:16 pm, and there’s no hope of getting this sent out tonight, but have to document the events of this day.

We eft on this leg of the trip much earlier than any of the other days, mostly because Diane got up right away of accusing me of pretty much impossible things. I admit that I woke at 5:16 am and, after laying there for a bit, decided that I wasn’t going to get back to sleep. I didn’t dare get up for fear of waking Diane, so I reached out to my other constant companion, my iPad. I sequestered it under the sheet, and the quilt covering the bed, then turned it on. It made no sound at all, and created a cozy glow. Diane jumped out of bed shortly thereafter and I didn’t say a word because I’ve been trained to wait for her to initiate contact. She did, and I sensed there was something wrong. Asking her what it was revealed that my cozy glow woke her up because it made the entire bed glow, and she could feel it. So I immediately turned it off, saying not another word. Neither did she.

We both awoke at 9:30 am and regretted that we’d missed breakfast which was from 6-9 am. So we packed for the day’s journey and trundled down in the elevator, about 10:00 am, to discover there was still food laying out and we were invited to help ourselves. So, we did. I had a bacon and egg sandwich which consisted of a “rethermed” omelette, an some “rethermed” slices of bacon. I chose to not eat bread and just opened the prefolded omelette and stuffed it full of bacon. It worked nicely as it was all protein and no sugar. “Rethermed”, incidentally, is the new word I learned from one of the nice ladies in charge of the food. It just means the food was cooked in a different country, shipped to places with retherming devices, where they were rethermed and served. It was quite tasty. Diane ate two pieces of peanut butter toast with a bowl of cereal smothered in brown surgar that looked like brown yeast. She said it was good, but I think it was fake. Regardless, we both ended the meal with a cup of coffee to go and left. Diane thought the coffee was terrible, but I liked mine because I poured 5 of those little creamers in it before the coffee. It wasn’t the best, but I drank it.

A couple of hours down the road Diane felt the need to wash the taste of the bad coffee out of her mouth so we stopped at a McDonalds and got two of their cinnamon treats and two large caramel mochas. The cinnamon thing was exquisite! I swooned, nearly dropping it in my lap. Fortunately, I was wearing my bib. Diane insisted. She was wearing her’s, too. I was driving and wanted to get back on the road quickly so I ate my snack quickly. Diane tested the coffee and told me it was too hot to drink right away and that I needed to wait. It was then, I’m sure, that she sucked all the whipped cream off the top of mine, but I didn’t actually see her do it so can’t prove it. It was just gone. Perhaps she made me wait so long it just melted away into the coffee. It was pretty tasty, too, and I nursed it along for a long time.

The I settled in to serious driving because the weather was turning bad quickly. Diane read her book. Every once in a while I’d make a comment about something, that didn’t really require an answer, and she would close her book, place it in her lap, turn to me slowly and say “what did you say?” I would repeat it for her and learn that she really shouldn’t be bothered with random thoughts that didn’t require her attention. I responded by telling that I’d been saying stuff all along that didn’t require an answer and that I didn’t expect one. I further explained that if I needed her attention for anything (I paused here), then raised my voice about 9 notches and said “I’F I NEED YOUR ATTENTION I’LL TALK LIKE THIS!!: Not expected a loud retort like that caused all of her active sphincters to spasm which raised her a good 3 inches off the car seat, and caused her to almost through her book over her shoulder into the back. It was a wonderful experience. Had she not just used the restroom she would have spotted for sure. I learned that she’s a lot faster than I though and took a mental note to remind never to do that again. But I will, once I forget about this episode.

In an earlier entry I failed to mention the loss of my bright yellow baseball cap with the big O on it. I’m sure I left it in the pool area in San Diego, and asked the desk if they had it in lost and found. By the time we were packed and back down to the desk we were told no one had seen it. This had is very important because it’s the one I wear when we go into large stores so Diane fine me. It kind of makes me stand out with that hat on. Now I won’t be able to visit another Costco until I get a new one. I couple hours later the hotel called and said they’d found it and would be happy to send it to me. All he needed was my credit card number because they send everything FedEx. That wasn’t going to happen so I just wrote that hat off as a loss, and it was one of my favorites.

The day wore on, the weather got worse, and the temperature started dropping. For this reason Diane made me keep driving as she doesn’t do bad weather in a car where t he steering wheel is on her side of the seat. As a result, of this 6 hour driving day, I did the last 5 hours.

We made it to Mt. Home, Idaho and stopped for some sustenance at Arby’s. I called Jim at that point to let him home we were in the vicinity. He wasn’t equipped to deal with the short version and kept me talking until my sandwich was cold. Finally he released me to eat so we could be on our way again.

When we left Arby’s, the snow was coming down harder making it necessary for me to continue driving until it quit and the sun came out to dry everything off. Since that wasn’t going to happen I was doomed to finish the trip.

Agnus took us directly to Jim and Donna’s abode without nary a missed turn and we arrived about 5:30 pm local. Jim was alone putting his PJs back on while some one slipped out the patio door. There was some hemming and hawing but not a lot of substance was contained in the opening greetings. He apparently thought we weren’t getting her until tomorrow and had the their net door neighbor’s maid over teaching her how play cribbage. There were several visual clues laying around that totally refuted this notion. First was the cards with no game board or pegs. Second was the card holder that made it obvious he was teaching her canasta. Or, perhaps, canastynasta. He would neither confirm nor deny so I dropped it.

We told each other more lies until Diane returned with Bob, Steff, and Maryssa. Then we spent about 4 hours visiting until it was time to go to bed.

I took a bunch of pictures yesterday but haven’t downloaded them year, and can’t until we either build a wi-fi set up for J & D, or visit a Starbucks that already has one. So, this will receive a bit of editing in the morning. Day Seventeen will be spent with me trapped in the back of a small van helping deliver meals on wheels.