Archives for 2020

Hey Darlin’!
I think I’m ready. I worked my butt off today to try to get everything as packed as possible, and all I have left are the electric cable and the water hoses, and of course, the last minute horse stuff we always did after we loaded the horses, though I’ve rearranged some stuff and even that’s down to a minimum now. I was a bit delayed because Jeff asked me to drive him to the store since none of his vehicles seemed reliable enough to get him there and back, so I figured it was safer just to take him rather than risk having to waste time towing him back. Fortunately, Walmart’s shelves were still mostly full (with the exception of ice cream! though I got some at Publix on the way home), and he got good and stocked up. He’s been really worried about running out of supplies, because the media has been really promoting some of the hysteria, but then, folks in Austin apparently can’t get bread or milk anywhere! One of Jeff’s neighbors that I met at the end of the driveway told me she shipped six loaves of bread to a friend in Austin! Here at the Walmart, they had full shelves, including dozens of bakery-made sliced Italian bread for just a dollar! Jeff got himself plenty of canned goods (I picked up some tuna and canned chicken, too, since I haven’t been able to get much of that lately), so now he feels more confident that he’s prepared for the food shortages he believes are coming. We’ll see. I’ve got plenty anyway, so I’m not worried, and I always have my bread machine if it gets that bad! Once we got back I started really finishing off the packing. I was having problems yesterday getting off some bad black marks on the side of the RV and remembered I had some of that streak remover, so I got that out and tried to use it, but the cap clogged up immediately on both cans I had. Since they were old cans, I decided to do an old school fix and got out a pin and started poking. Sure enough, I was able to get one working, and it was truly a miracle! I’d already tried bleach spray and hydrogen peroxide and nothing touched it, but this streak remover cleaned it right up. I only did the worst spots, though, so at some point I’ll need to go around the whole trailer, though I have to say, it looks pretty darn good right now! Of course, Jeff’s road is dusty as heck right now since we haven’t had rain in weeks, but at least it will be clean going out the driveway tomorrow! Late in the afternoon, Jeff finally decided to take his work van over to a mechanic shop in the farms, he’s so frustrated after not having it run for more than a month, so I followed him over then brought him back. My plan to be finish early and sit by the pool turned out to be a pipe dream, of course, though I did finally get in a swim around 6:00. Lola’s new ball machine started acting up again today, darn it, and I didn’t get a chance to order new sensors, so that’s on my list as soon as I get an address of where I’ll be staying once I get to Tennessee. I’m a bit ticked off at Lola, though. I had stripped the bed and was washing sheets, and forgot to close the bedroom door for a few minutes, and sure enough, Miss Lola got her feet good and muddy, then climbed up onto the bed, leaving tracks all over the cover that I had just washed last week, as well as my pillow. That added an extra hour of laundry to my day, since I had to use Jeff’s big washer for the cover and pillow, and couldn’t use the dryer for my sheets until that was done because of the power sharing problem. So it was nearly 10:00 before I was able to finish it all off. Grrrr! As if I didn’t have enough to do! I’m sure she’s a bit discombobulated after watching me pack everything. I’ll be glad to finally be able to feed the horses on my own schedule, though, instead of having to wait for Jeff. It was after dark by the time we got halfway started tonight, and the mosquitoes got me, of course. As comforting as it has been to be there during this tough time, it will be great to get back on the road again, and I have to say, I’ve never felt so prepared, with everything so clean and put away, than I ever have before. And if all goes well with the sale of the house, by the middle of next month, I’ll be living free, with no tethers to any place. Can’t wait! Well, that’s all the news for now, off to bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Busy day today. First a run to Walmart, where I was happy to see that most of the shelves were fully stocked, though there weren’t many patrons in the store. Of course, Wednesdays are generally slow anyway, but this was truly light. Traffic on the roads were like the middle of July about thirty years ago! From there I went to my meeting with a potential financial advisor, then stopped at the gas station to fill up with fuel at just $2.49 a gallon for diesel! There was already a glut on the world market, and now with so many less cars on the road, the prices are really plummeting, perfect timing for me getting back on the road. Got back to the house and started doing more cleaning and putting stuff away. I’ve been pressure washing everything in sight these days! I cleaned all the furniture in the screen room, washed the screen room itself, washed the side of the trailer inside the screen room, washed the awning, and on and on. I’m a bit ahead of schedule, and I’m feeling more prepared to go on a trip than I think I’ve ever been, which I guess is appropriate since I’m starting this new chapter of my life. I’m hoping I can finish early enough tomorrow to actually spend a few hours just sitting by the pool and relaxing before I hit the road on Friday. I managed to play with Lola for awhile, she was playing with her fetch machine, though, and one of those smaller balls got jammed so far back in her throat I had to push it out from behind her jaw. Not using those size balls again! I helped Jeff order a new fuel pump assembly for the Bronco. Poor guy, none of his vehicles are reliable, I’m not sure how he’s going to make it until he gets the new part next week. It was pretty late by the time we got done with that, so I only got in two SHIELDS tonight. Ready for a shower and bed, so goodnight, my love!

Hi Sweetie,
Well, more cleaning and getting ready. Today’s chore was the exterior of the Trail Rider, starting with the roof, which felt like it took me a couple of hours! Probably not, but it just seemed to go on forever! I even scrubbed underneath the hay loft/attic box, where it was really bad. Of course, doing the rest of the outside was next, everywhere except where the screen room is, I’ll do that tomorrow or Thursday after I clear it out. It took most of the day, but I finally got it done, and it certainly looked better when it was done! I still managed to take a swim and sit by the pool for an hour or so, so Lola got her playtime in. Jeff had trouble with his van again, so he took the Bronco out today, and ended up have his friend tow him home because it died on him. He thought it might be the fuel pump, but when he put some gas it in, it started up okay. Not sure if it was just that he was low on gas (his gauge doesn’t work so he tracks it by mileage), or if there’s a more serious problem. All these vehicles around his yard, and none of them seems to work properly! Anyway, it was a busy day, so it’s time for me to head to bed. Good night, baby! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Another day of busy, busy work to get ready to try to leave on Friday. After my usual morning chores, I moved everything that was in the small horse trailer, finished painting a few of the rusty areas I cleaned up, pressure washed inside the tack room, including taking out the water tank to get under it, reorganized the tack room on the big trailer while I was at it, and generally got a lot more organized than I think I’ve ever been before leaving on a trip! I put a new cover on that TV antenna on the Open Range (the old plastic one disintegrated) this time using a tin can, so hopefully it will last longer, and I pulled the slides in, and surprisingly, the one in the living room seemed to go in okay, though it’s still going to need to be replaced at some point. A busy day, but productive, and I feel like I’ll have no trouble getting out of here on Friday, short of me or Jeff getting sick. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Tennessee isn’t very good. Though it’s 70’s here this week, by next week it’s highs in the low 60’s and lows in the 40’s, so I’m glad I didn’t clip the horses! It’s been really wet up there, so I definitely don’t want to try to get the trailer up to the house or I’ll never get out again, so I talked with some folks about finding an alternative, and Wayne, who owns the campground nearby, says he can fix me up somewhere for a few weeks while I finish getting the house cleared out. Jeff is talking about coming up again to get whatever stuff he can use, which is fine, but I’m hoping if he really wants to MG that he finds a place to store it, I’d hate to see it rot in the yard like he’s got all the rest of his junk doing.

Hi Darlin’,
Well, I had planned to take it easy today, but of course, there were too many jobs starting me in the face, so I had to get some of them done. The day started out with my usual routine of cleaning the pool filters (the pool is looking really good these days, though the water level is getting low, since we’ve had no rain for the past two+ weeks), then taking the horses down to Loxahatchee so the new vet could provide me with health certificates and a new 6 month EECVI. The inspection too less than half the time than him trying to get on the Vetlink website and giving them the information to get the documents. In the end though, I think he only gave me a 30 day and not the 6 month, so I’ll have to get back to him on that. I didn’t realize that till late, so I’ll have to get in touch tomorrow. Once we got back and I let the horses out, I decided I needed to pressure wash the inside so it would be clean when I get back next season, no sense leaving it dirty. While I was doing that I noticed some rust along the bottom edge, so I put some naval jelly on it and cleaned it up, I’ll spray it with some of that Rustoleum paint I got for the upper panel on the big horse trailer tomorrow when it’s dry. Then I saw that one of the net mangers had split along a seam, so I took that out and sewed it. Also, Apollo stuck his head out during the trip and ripped one of the corners of the screen panel, and I couldn’t get it out because the clips were too rusty, so I had to sew that on while standing next to the trailer. I did the outside as well while I was at it, and swept out the other trailer where I had been storing hay this year. I also had bought some lamp wicks, because I wanted to resurrect that big citronella candle pot, but those dinky wicks drown out so fast, so I cut the lamp wick into thirds, made a hole in the soft wax and shoved them down inside. Can’t wait to try that out! I finally wore myself out, so I put on my bathing suit and took a swim, floated around the pool for awhile, then sat down a read a bit while playing with Lola. My sister-in-law Dena came out to the pool shortly after that, she managed to score some of my brand of toilet paper for me, so we swapped out some rolls. Hard to believe that there’s a shortage of toilet paper in this country, not to mention lots of other things. A lot of the shelves in the stores are completely empty! Hope this plague is over soon, it’s starting to look like a post-apocalyptic movie around here! I’m expecting to see zombies or aliens any day now! Then brother Glenn came out and eventually Jeff, too, and we had our own little happy hour. Glenn had brought some venison steaks wrapped in bacon from Texas, so he fired up the grill, I steamed some corn on the cob they had brought, and I put together a salad for everyone, so we actually had a family meal together, on a beautiful Florida evening, and it was quite nice. Only meal we’ve had together, actually. I lit my citronella pot, and two of the wicks burned like crazy, though the third, which was lower, got drowned out a bit. By the time I blew it out an hour later, it had leveled off nicely, and the wicks were still looking really good, so I think that’s going to work! It kicked up some nice fragrance and a bit of smoke, and I do think it helped, though it will work better inside the screen room. Once mosquito hour started, we got the animals fed, and we all retired to our respective abodes, where I watched a few more Agents of Shield, and now it’s off to shower and bed. Good night, my love!

Hey Sweetie,
Busy day of hard work today. I started out rinsing out the pool filters and pressure washing the deck, which has become my morning ritual, then I finished pressure washing the water tank in the truck, then I washed the truck, then after lunch, I carried the pressure washer up to the roof of the Open Range and took most of the afternoon washing the outside of that. Hard work, but it looked great afterward. The only problem was that the slide topper on one side of the living room has come loose, and I think it may have to be replaced because I don’t think I have any way to fix it, but you know me, I’m liable to try! Just have to do some research to figure out if I can. Meanwhile, I signed the contract to sell the house, so hopefully that will be closed next month and I’ll be officially “homeless,” but it a good way! I’m focusing on trying to move on later this week, but I just remembered that the horses health passport expired last month, so I have to get that renewed before I can go. Unfortunately, there’s only one vet within 50 miles that is part of that digital network that issues the Equine Extended CVI, and he’s located in Loxahatchee, so I messaged them to set up an appointment. I got a call from him around 9:00 tonight saying I can come by any time after 11:00 tomorrow (he works on Sunday!), I get the impression he works out of house, but then, so did our Jupiter vet, so what’s the difference? Anyway, we had another family gathering at the pool, another habit we’ve gotten into while Glenn’s been here, but they’re apparently heading out on Monday now, since virtually everything has closed down here, all the restaurants, bars, even the beaches for Spring break! Crazy. Though apparently it’s the same in Austin, but I guess he has stuff he can do at home. So it’s going to get quieter here soon, and even quieter when I leave, whenever that will be. Thinking maybe Friday if I can get everything done. I have a place to stay the first night, with a woman in met on the OTL who lives just north of Jacksonville, a perfect stopover point. I’ll probably spend the weekend, as she’s next to a preserve and I haven’t had much of a chance to ride lately with all the stuff I’ve been doing. Maybe I’ll try to get to get a ride in this week, but it’s going to be so hot, I may just wait until I get to North Florida, where it’s likely to be cooler. Anyway, time for my shower and bed. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hiya Babe,
Well, it looks like I might have a buyer for the house. The realtor who listed it last year has kept working on it, despite a lapse in the listing agreement, and some folks that have looked at it a couple of times have come back with a pretty decent offer, so it looks like I might finally have that burden taken off my shoulders. Of course, they want to close in mid-April, which means I’m going to have to get up there and finish clearing the house out before then, though they seem to be fairly flexible about letting me leave stuff there until I can do something, but frankly, I’d rather get it out of the way so that once we close, I’ll be footloose and free, and homeless, I suppose! I can live with that! The job I was supposed to fly out for at the end of the month has been postponed due to all this corona virus panic, so now instead of Vegas in the springtime, it’s going to be Vegas in the summer, so happy 115 degrees! Never mind, I’ll be in the hotel the whole time anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. So now since I don’t have to hang around here for that (which I was only doing so my brother can look after the critters while I went west), there’s no reason for me to stay any longer, and since the weather forecast is getting hot, hot, hot, it’s time to moving north anyway. Naturally, that means my focus has turned to getting ready to pull out of here. I treated and painted the top corner of the front of the trailer, which was showing rust spots, and now it looks fantastic, I pressure washed the water tank in the truck (though, of course, I ended up breaking a hose connection, so I had to fix that in the process, but it’s all better now, I ran up to Ranch Feed and stocked up on grain and hay so I can be ready when the time comes, and started doing a bunch of other things to prepare for departure. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but the starter went bad on the tractor a while back, and we finally got a new one that Jeff picked up yesterday, so I put that on today and got the tractor emptied out and moved out of the way. Did a little shopping for essentials as well, then got back in time to sit by the pool with the family for a bit before it was horse feeding time. Settled down for the evening and fell asleep watching TV, so I took my shower, now I’m heading off the bed. Good night, my love!

Hi Sweetie!
Happy what would have been your 86th Birthday! I got a letter from your daughter Kim yesterday, she evidently didn’t get my email back in January, but I filled her in and she wrote me a long letter in return. I spent most of the day doing computer work, writing proposals and agreements for future work in the morning, then spent most of the afternoon watching webcasts from my broker about retirement, which didn’t really help me much, it was pretty basic. The market went down again today, to numbers where it was before 2016, so we have quite a long way to make up, but I’m sure it will once this corona virus scare straightens itself out. Had happy hour out at the pool with the family again, though Audrey flew back to Austin today. Her flights apparently only had about 30 people on them, on a plane that seats 170, just to give you an idea how crazy it’s become. It’s like living through a plague! Except everyone is aware of it, and is practicing what they’re calling “social distancing,” i.e. all the restaurants have been closed or kept down to 50 percent occupancy, they even closed down the beaches for spring break! Anyway, we all shared some of the ribs Glenn cooked on Saturday, with leftover salads on the side. By then it was evening, so I watched a little TV, and now I’m headed off for a shower and bed. Good night! Love you, babe!

Hey Babe,
After a morning of putting more stuff from the party away in the morning, I packed up the old GoDogGo machine and headed out the driveway on my way to the Post Office, and the UPS was just arriving to drop off a package, so I gave him mine to take. My first stop was the Publix, trying to find some toilet paper. I know that sounds weird, but with the corona virus mania, it’s been flying off the shelves and is getting ridiculously hard to find. They didn’t have any, though they were stocking shelves with paper towels, which has been another hard to find item (along with hand sanitizer and alcohol, though I understand the need for that!), so I kept going down the road looking for some. Just before I left the Publix I had checked the Walmart app on my phone, and when I looked up toilet paper, it showed some out of stock, some limited stock and some IN STOCK so I headed straight there. As soon as I walked in the door I saw several people pushing carts that had nothing in them except one package of toilet paper, so I immediately asked where they had got it and was told there was a line at the back of the store. A line? I suddenly felt like I was in Russia during the Moscow on the Hudson days! I got back to the designated spot, and there were a couple of people lined up, and several people opening cartons and handing out packs of tp and paper towels. Crazy! I was lucky they had Charmin, which is what Jeff uses anyway, though I mostly saw Scott, which you know I hate, it’s so rough. I took a roll of paper towels, too, because I wasn’t sure if anybody needed any, and I didn’t want to take any chances. I felt like I had scored some kind of victory by just getting my hands on the stuff! That’s how insane it’s become! Anyway, after Walmart I went to the Post Office, Michelle had accidentally left her makeup kit behind and asked if I could sent it to here, so I did. After that I came back home, changed into my bathing suit, inflated my new pool float (the other one had deflated during the party, but there was a patch kit with the new one so I fixed the old one, so now I have two), and proceeded to float around for awhile getting some nice sun. Lola played with her machine until she knocked it over (the fuzzy ball started getting stuck going down the ramp, so she was trying to get it to move), then she brought me the chucker and I threw some by hand while I was still on the float. Now THAT’S the way to play fetch! After about an hour, I got out and made myself some dinner, and was eating just about the time the family came home from boating. Once again we sat by the pool for awhile until the mosquitos came out, though we fed the horses early so we didn’t get bitten up. I retired back to the trailer, except I came out to watch a great space station flyover, spent the evening mostly watching TV but also following up on some texts from our realtor. Seems I might actually get a bonafide offer on the house, at a much better price than has been previously offered, though not as much as we had hoped. I guess this is the best time of year to do this, though, but it means I’ll probably have to stay up there (in the trailer) until I can finish clearing the house out. I just don’t know what to do with some of that stuff! Guess I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it. But once that job is done, I’ll truly be footloose and free, going wherever I want, whenever I want, except for jobs, of course. This pandemic has been playing havoc with the stock market, it’s lost nearly 8000 points in the last two weeks, though it finally did go up today, so you can imagine what our portfolio looks like. That’s a concern, but I have doubt it will come roaring back. If the house sells, I’ll have a little breathing room, and some more money to invest to secure my “retirement”. That’s enough for today, I’m up too late, so I’m off to bed. Good night, Babe, love you!