Hi Darlin’,
A good night sleep, my usual morning routine, then I settled down to do a few odd jobs that needed doing. I finished the job I started the other day, by using that canned expansion foam that hardens around the drain under the shower, hopefully that will finally be the last place for bugs to get in that I’ve managed to plug up. I put all of that back together again. I fixed a paddle fan, I had notice one seemed to be running not quite smoothly, and discovered that one of the screws that connects it to the blade was gone, so I jury-rigged it with a drywall screw anchor since I didn’t have an actual screw the right size and it worked just fine. I picked up a few palm fronds, did my rounds a couple of time since a few new campers came in, and then, I decided I had to tackle my phone problem once and for all. I’ve been getting all kinds of errors, and it’s so packed with stuff that my memory is so limited that nothing is working properly. I was convinced I had to reboot it all the way back to a factory reset, but wanted to make sure everything was saved beforehand, so I called Verizon and the guy walked me through what was supposed to happen. Unfortunately, I was under the mistaken impression that since everything was supposedly backed up, everything would come back once it was rebooted. Boy, was I misled on THAT one! It didn’t seem to keep ANY of my settings, so I ended up spending a good part of the day trying to get my phone back to where it was, though hopefully with all of the problems solved. My texts weren’t working right, I was getting notifications but then I couldn’t get the rest of it to open, Whenever I turned the phone on I was getting several errors, and lately, it’s weirdly been giving me the wrong date and time! I’ve looked at it a bunch of times and it’s telling me that it’s August of 2002! Crazy! Anyway, so far it seems to be working better, but I’m still adding my lost apps, so I don’t know how much room I’ll have in the end, though I really don’t have THAT many apps, not compared to a lot of people I know! Fingers crossed I get it all back in the end. Meanwhile, other than that, I had a relatively relaxing day and evening, though I watched a very violent “chick flick,” not my favorite. I don’t really get why Hollywood thinks that true feminine equality means that women behave just as poorly and stupidly and violently as men, cursing and screwing and bloodletting as crudely as you can imagine. What can I say, I liked it better when movies showed the better side of us, not the worst possible side of us. But I digress! Good night, sweetheart! Love you!

Hi Babe,
Another good night sleep, chores, rounds, breakfast, getting to be quite the routine! My phone died early and often today, so I finally shut it off and put it wholly on charge for a bit, which finally got it working again. Dang cord I bought at Verizon a few weeks ago is hardly working already! Glad I picked up a couple of cheap ones on clearance at Publix, they’re working better! Anyway, finally was able to use the phone, confirmed that both the light bulb I needed for the stove and my Balance feed was in, so mid-afternoon I headed into town, just as James was saying he wanted to come by. I suggested someplace cool, and the timing was perfect, I was able to pick up what I needed at Ace and Tractor Supply before meeting him at JR’s Saloon, a nice little pool hall tucked away next to a gas station. We had a few beers and a lot of laughs. I also stopped at NAPA because my truck hasn’t been starting very well, I suspect the fuel filter needs changing, though it still has 4,000 or 5,000 miles before it’s supposed to need changing. I also put a little oil in it, it was a little low (still on the stick!), and that seemed to help. They quoted me the ridiculous price of $99! For a simple fuel filter! Crazy! Then one of the guys told him to look it up under another account and said it was $58 something, over $60 with tax. I was sure I didn’t pay anywhere near that much last time I bought it, so I passed, figuring I could order it again online. Sure enough, when I looked it up this evening, I confirmed my last purchase was less than $39, so guess where I’m going to buy it? Anyway, I managed to start the truck each time, but at the Tractor Supply when it first happened, it gave me fits. Whatever, it was better when it cooled down. So James and I had a few beers at the saloon, then I stopped at the IGA for a few groceries, and got back to camp just after 6:00, did my rounds again, fed the horses, had dinner, and settled down for the night. Once again, time for shower and bed! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
A good night sleep, though I went to bed later than I expected, but woke up early and read for awhile. Got my chores and breakfast done, then went about doing some repairs on the trailer, trying to seal up whatever leaks I might have. I put some duct tape over the top “drain” holes in the window in a way that will shunt the water away, and it that works to keep the rain out, I’ll do some king of permanent seal over them. I was looking at one of the camper’s trailers here, and it looked like she actually had some kind of plug over it, shaped like the plug over the brake adjustment hole on the trailer, so maybe that’s what I’m supposed to have. Never noticed them before. Then I went up on the roof and put a liberal layer of lap sealant around where I think the rain might be coming in from the roof, and a few other areas while I was at it, hope that does the trick! I tried to seal the drain under the shower with that poofy insulating foam, but I couldn’t get the trigger to work, even though I cleaned it out pretty good. Just not enough pressure left in it. That’s the trouble with those things, if you only have one little job, you end up wasting the whole rest of the can because you can’t get it out. Pity they don’t have smaller cans! So I didn’t get that done, figure I’ll run into town tomorrow and pick up a few things, including more of that foam. I’m getting a little low on some essentials, so it will be worth the trip, though I was hoping my feed would be in. I’ll call Tractor Supply in the morning to see when they’re truck comes in. While I was working on the window, I managed to stab myself pretty good with my sharp scissors, so now my palm is all swollen up, and it’s expanding down my wrist a bit. I cleaned it out good, and it looks like it will seal up nicely, just a little worried about the swelling. Reminds me of that time that dog nipped your finger, and we didn’t clean it out right away, and it ended up putting you in the hospital! So much for the idea that a dog’s saliva is antiseptic! We learned that lesson the hard way, didn’t we! So I’m keeping a close eye on it. Settled down and waited for the rain in the afternoon, and even though there was some thunder and clouds, it managed to slip around us, so I wasn’t able to test my repairs, darn it! I did put the horses out on the grass over the septic tank for awhile, though, it’s the only long grass left in here, so I figured I would let them chomp down on it. It helped, but I need to put them back on it again tomorrow, or else see if I can crank up the little hand mower that’s in the shed. Steve said it worked, and it’s starting to look a little overgrown around my trailer, so I’m going to have to do something! Relaxed the rest of the day, watched an action movie this evening, now it’s time for you know what! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Another good night sleep, been getting a lot of them lately! Did chores and breakfast, then spent some time cleaning out a couple of paddock, using a tarp to drag the windrow over to what I’m calling the “burn” pile, hoping that people will come fetch stuff out of it for their campfires, which a few people have been doing, so it’s been going down, though I added some more to it today. Did a little incidental housekeeping, not my intention but it happened anyway. One of the burners on my stove quit working awhile back, finally took the lid off and found a loose wire, snapped that back in, then cleaned it all out. Then it began to rain like crazy, looks like it’s going to be like this all week, and I found my bedroom window leaking again. This is the one I put the new seal on last year, and resealed last week, so either I have a serious problem with the seal, or it’s coming from somewhere else. There are two “drain holes” on the top and bottom of the window frame, I’m not sure why they have some on top, I’m thinking of putting some duct tape over the top ones to see if that’s where the leak is coming from, if not, I’ll have to think about taking the window out and sealing it again, apparently I must have done something wrong last time, though I don’t know what. I also found a puddle coming out by the bathroom door, and had to take out the vent cover on the cold air return as well as under the shower to try and find it. Haven’t quite pinpointed it, but I think I found out where my little ant problem is coming from. I’ve put foam insulation around all of the pipes in this trailer except the drain under the shower, which I didn’t think I could reach, but with the duct cover off the shower, I should be able to, so that’s a chore for tomorrow. I could hear water dripping, but still can’t figure out exactly where it’s coming from, but I suspect it may be around the sunroof over the shower, maybe along that edge, since that would put it just about where the wall joint is, and that seems to be where it’s coming from. So tomorrow I’ll be on the roof with some lap sealant doing that whole section again. Hopefully, those two fixes will make me watertight again. Nothing worse than a leaky trailer! Mostly read and watched TV again today other than that. Time for shower and bed again! Good night, hon! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Had a pretty quiet day today, just did my chores and rounds in the morning, got a toilet in the women’s bathroom working, cleaned up some palm fronds in one of the corrals, then some serious rain came in in the afternoon, which we still need really badly. It was a lovely long hard rain, too, so everything got a good soaking. Really didn’t do much of anything else today except read, watch TV and play computer games. Mundane, boring, I need to get busy doing something! I let James know that I was thinking about staying through the summer, but that I only would if I could get the tools I need to work on the trails (i.e. a UTV), otherwise I’d be heading out. I’d really like to stay, but not if I’m idle all summer, I have too much life left in me to sit around like today for months. If I can be useful, I’ll stay, otherwise I’ll get back to traveling. He’s going to talk with Land Management, but he’s not very hopeful. We’ll see. Anyway, heading off to shower and bed shortly. Good night, babe! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Spent most of the day finishing off my intersection assignments for the new map, and double checked them to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I’d prefer to have a few more signs, but I’m keeping it to a minimum in the hopes that the genius of the system will grow on others. It’s enough to keep people from getting lost, especially on the horse trails, which is the point of the whole exercise anyway. Now all I have to do is find the means to start putting all these posts in, whether it’s my tractor or a UTV. I’d rather it be the latter so I can carry more stuff with me, like my laptop, to make sure I’m putting everything in the right place, but that’s evidently going to take a lot more doing. Otherwise a very quiet day, kept waiting for it to rain, but so far, it hasn’t, even though it looks like there’s a big swath moving in from the west, it still hasn’t gotten here yet. Watched a fun movie for a change, now I’m ready for shower and bed! Love you, babe! Good night!

Heya Sweetie,
Though it didn’t intentionally start out that way, today turned out to be mostly all about Lola! After a good night sleep, chores and breakfast, I noticed when she was rolling on her back to scratch that she had a bunch of fleas on her. That surprised me because I had put flea treatment on her about 10 days ago, and didn’t expect to see them, so I bathed her and sprayed her well with some flea spray. Then I decided to work on her GoDogGo machine. I had brought it out of storage last week, but it wasn’t working right, so I decided to see if I could fix it. The switch that you press to take it from stand-by to how many seconds delay between throwing the ball wasn’t working. I look it apart, tried to clean it, but it all seemed to be about the circuit board, so I tried to put a little more solder on it, and that seemed to have a minor effect. I put it together a couple of times before I got it right. It worked for about one throw, then the ball sensor wasn’t working, which I knew already was going bad, but since I bought a bunch of extras, I went ahead and replaced that, and then it started working beautifully! I was almost tempted to not turn it on because she’s still limping a little bit, but she hasn’t gotten any exercise so I decided to try it. Her leg does seem to be a bit better, and she did play for a bit, but not too long, fortunately. Then I dragged her big bed out side, gave it a thorough spray to get rid of the fleas, then once it was dry, I sewed up some long rips that she had scratched into it. I took out the interior padding last week, she kept chewing it into small pieces and scattering it all over, so I figured I was better off without it. So sans padding, I sewed up all the long scratched, sprayed it well with Febreze, and finally got it back into position in the laundry room. I had managed to do one load today, so fresh sheets tonight! I probably should have gotten out the sewing machine to do that job, but that bed is so big and cumbersome, I figured it would be easier to do by hand, though it took a long time, like everything else today. I had a couple of riders come in, ones I had met on the Cracker Ride, and they were out a bit later than planned, I was starting to worry we had another case of lost riders, but they made it back just after 5:00, fortunately. Lynda went out with her friends day riding, but came back here for the night, so she’s here. The place is mostly empty now, though one guy with a really large, triple-axle trailer came in, he’s scheduled to be here a few days. So that was about all the excitement for today, I settled down to my binge-watching for a few hours, got my evening chores done, and it’s time for shower and bed once again! Getting to be a pretty mundane life these days! Probably a good thing, for a little bit at least. Anyway, good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Had a pretty good night sleep, but didn’t sleep too late. I had decided to take the day off, so I just took one brief round around noon, and another at 6:00 or so, but otherwise spent the day reading, napping, and binge-watching another Netflix old series. Still feeling tired at the end of the day, but I think with a good night sleep tonight, I should be back to normal tomorrow. Good news is that a new well pump was installed, so the bathhouse and the water to me is back in working order, just in the nick of time! Was afraid I might have to pull out a bunch of hoses to reach the nearest spigot to fill up again, but fortunately, that turned out not to be necessary. Anyway, I’m heading to shower and bed here shortly, hoping to get a ride in tomorrow with Lynda and friends, but I’m also waiting to hear back from the mowing contractor about the trails as well, so don’t know how the day will turn out. Meanwhile, off the shower and bed! Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hi Sweetie,
Despite going to bed at 1:00 a.m., I woke up before 7:30, and got up because I had too much going on today. Did my rounds, did my chores, was worried momentarily about Flash, he was laying down when I was getting food, which is unusual at this time of day, but then after I gave him his feed bag, I looked over after a few minutes and he was laying down again. That made me REALLY nervous, so I went in and managed to get him up, got a halter on him, and walked him from the paddock to the little horse trailer, got the doors open, but before I could even get him in, he pooped like I was hoping he would, so I walked him back to the paddock and he went straight out to the hay, looking perfectly fine. I kept an eye on him for a bit, but he seemed okay after that. After breakfast, I headed out to the hospital where Jeff was, arriving around 9:30, but they said they wouldn’t be ready to discharge him until after lunch, so I decided to do some shopping at Walmart since I was so close and I needed some stuff, and shortly after I got back, he was discharged. Got him home before 2:00, with instructions not to push himself too hard for a couple of weeks. Grabbed some ribs, corn and zucchini and headed back to camp. I’m exhausted. Taking the day off tomorrow! I still did my 6:00 rounds, though it was closer to 7:00, but I’m too tired to check the gate tonight, I’m just going to get my shower and head to bed. Hopefully, I’ll be able to sleep well and even late tomorrow! Good night, my darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
After all the hard work yesterday, you would have thought I would have slept through the night, but no, I woke up around 2:00, had to read for a bit before getting back to sleep, then woke up again before dawn, same thing. Finally my phone rang at 8:30, brorther Jeff wondering if I could bring out some ribs that brother Glenn had made for him and his crew of friends who were coming over to help him put on his LONG overdue barn roof. I was already scheduled to do a quick one hour Zoom meeting with an old friend a colleague in Spokane who was teaching a public speaking class (using my book as her curriculum) and has asked if I could chime in for an hour, which I did. When I finished that, I called Glenn and arranged to pick up the ribs at his new house north of Indiantown, and took them down to Jeff’s. Got them in the oven to finish them off, then sent for a quick swim, and was just relaxing in a lounge chair when I got a call from one of the guys in back that Jeff had fallen off the roof. When I got backe there, Jeff was flat on his back, but insisting he was okay, just let him lay there for a minute, but then he started asking some non sequitur questions and we realized he wasn’t himself, so I called 911 and they had paramedics there so quick, they’re only down the road a mile or two, and they got him up on a gurney and rushed him off to St. Mary’s on 45th Street, which is about the worst part of the county crime-wise. When I asked why they couldn’t take him to Jupiter Medical which was nearer, they said he needed a trauma center, and St. Mary’s had the best one around. Not surprising in that neighborhood, I guess. Anyway, they did a CT scan, which they would normally get the results for in a matter of minutes, but evidently some idiot hacked into the entire Tenet hospital system and everything had to be done by hand, which delayed the results for over six hours! We finally got the result at about 10:45 p.m., even though they had been taken by 4:30.. Fortunately, the only problem was his concussion, no bleeding or other complications, but they wanted to keep him overnight for observation, which I definitely agreed with, consider the entire 6+ hours his short term memory was completely gone. He kept asking the same questions over and over, and I would answer them over and over, and then he’d start asking the same questions over and over again, every five minutes or so. Was tempted to take a video, because I know he will never believe it when I tell him, but that would be just plain cruel. Besides my phone battery was low and I had to turn it off, while keeping everyone apprised of what was happening. Anyway, once they cleared him, he was able to get the very uncomfortable neck brace off, and they gave him a couple of sandwiches and some drinks. They didn’t have enough staff to put him in a room, so he has to stay in the holding area overnight, which will probably be noisy since it’s next to the emergency room. Seriously, the guy in the bed next to us had a gunshot wound that shattered his ankle, and I heard over the radio of another 15 year old girl being brough in with a GSW as well. Yeah, it’s that kind of neighborhood. I finally left after 11:00, only to discover it was pouring rain outside, my favorite kind of driving, at night in the rain. NOT!! Fortunately, I drove out of the rain pretty quick, got back to camp, threw some hay to the horses, got my shower, had a bowl of cereal, now I’m heading to bed. Whether I’ll get to sleep is another matter. Going to have to get up and get to the hospital to pick up Jeff, too, so another busy day tomorrow. Not exactly the day off I was hoping for, but maybe there will be some ribs leftover. That’s it, I’m brushing my teeth and heading to bed! Good night, babe! Love you!