Monday, May 4, 2020 – Day of Oddities

Hi Sweetie!
What a strange day today! Well, maybe strange isn’t the right word, it just was kind of directionless, which just feels odd to me, I guess. I’ve always had something to do (too much!) so not having a list of things to tackle did feel strange! It was cloudy and there was an uncertainty to the weather, so I didn’t want to go riding, especially since there was rain last night and the trails are bound to be sloppy. I had to fix a drain hose, it was so kinked the water couldn’t get out, so I cut that shorter so that it would work properly. The stock market started out down (and was down a couple of days last week, too) so I decided it would be a good day to finally put the proceeds of the house into the financial plan I had developed last Sunday, and by the end of the day, the market was actually up, even though it was down 200 points when I started. That took several hours. Then I considered going shopping, but I had to find some hay first, and for the first time in a long time, I couldn’t find anything nearby, not through Marketplace or craigslist or hayexchange.com, nowhere! I finally had to call the farmers coop in nearby Henderson (yep, that’s the name of the nearest town!), and they have some for the hefty price of $7.25/bale, but I don’t have much choice. I saw at least one hay field when I was driving here that had just been cut, so it shouldn’t be long before the market is flooded with it, but right now, there’s nothing! Then I saw there was a storm front due in a few hours, and figured I didn’t have time to get back and keep the hay dry, so I abandoned that idea. After the first round of rain, I had dinner early, then Lola and I took a walk around the grounds, played on the jungle gym in the playground for a while, she’s really gotten the hang of going down slides and through tunnels! They have a nice bathhouse here, too, and a riding stable that I passed by. When I got back to the trailer I did some dishes, and all of a sudden I had a flood coming out from under the cupboard. Turns out the OTHER drain hose had clogged, too, and backed up all the way to that break in the drainpipe I already knew about (and did a temporary fix on only, because a true fix means dropping the entire basement cover and I haven’t had time to even consider that yet!), so I took off the hose and the coupling outside and water poured out everywhere, I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. So then I had to mop up all the water inside with towels, which meant every single pot, pan and container had to come out from under the cupboards, including the bottom drawer in the kitchen. Then I discovered another water leak coming out from under the refrigerator, just a slight one, which would explain why when I’ve got the water pump on it pumps up every once in a while. I knew I had a small leak somewhere, I just hadn’t had time to look for it, but now I’ve found it! I pulled off the back of the refrigerator from the outside and found a tiny pinprick hole in the icemaker line. The water pressure is really high here, and even though I’ve adjusted it down several times, it’s still pretty firm, but it also looks like it’s been rubbing against a piece of metal which might have contributed to it. Also, I found the hot water plug had a little drip, too. I tightened that carefully (you know how those plastic plugs can strip so easily!), and I cut back the icemaker pipe back far enough to get rid of the leak, but the end piece leaked when I put it back, and I quickly realized I was going to have to get a new and improved end before I could truly fix it. That meant I had to turn off the icemaker line underneath the trailer, which of course was all wet from the draining and the leaking, so I got wet and smelly doing that. In the meantime, it was getting dark, and another thunderstorm started to come through, so I had to wait for it to pass before I could put the water back on, all piling up at the end of the day! Fortunately it didn’t take long for the storm to go through, I was able to put on the water, take a nice shower, start a load of laundry with all the wet towels I had used to mop up the floor before settling down for the late evening. The pots and pans are still all over the place, I’ll have to clean them before I can put them away, which I’m not going to do until I’m sure all the leaks have been fixed. Oh, and I discovered a roach under the cupboard, gave it a good spraying, and the next time I looked under the cupboard I saw a bunch more! I sprayed it pretty good, but obviously I’m going to have to keep after that little problem before it becomes a really big problem. So, an eventful day after such a slow start! Now I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow, with shopping, getting hay, finishing the icemaker repairs, and trying to figure out how to make these drain pipes both working and accessible, something I thought about but never really solved since we’ve had this unit, washing and putting away all the pots and pans, and who knows what else is likely to come up! Well, that’s okay, it’s supposed to be nice weather later in the week, so I’ll have a couple of good days for riding. I’ve kept the horses on the highline since it started raining, otherwise the lawn would be a total mess, so I’m going to have to do something soon about giving them some exercise. There’s an arena here, I was thinking about maybe putting them in there for awhile, but there’s a post down so I’d have to jury-rig something to fix that. Or I could just put Apollo on an anchor and let Flash wander, there’s a lot of grass around, and absolutely no one else here, though the rangers do come through occasionally, and one even delivered a couple of pieces of mail to me today! Very nice! Don’t know what’s they’ll say about letting them wander, if anything. But I can’t do it tomorrow anyway, since I won’t be here most of the day, so it’s a moot point. Anyway, enough about my mundane day, I’ve had my tea, and it’s time for bed! Good night, baby! Love you!