Yeah, we're still here. Just Quiet recently

It's Catch-Up-Time, after a long absence from the blogosphere.

Of course we’re back home. Within hours of our arrival the hot tub was up and running and the washer and dryer were cranking out clean laundry. All is right with the world.


Since returning home we’ve taken care of a number of things. That “haircut” in Redmond has been nicely repaired and my head is now the same on both sides. Phew! I fixed the Seth Thomas regulator clock in the dining room (to tell the truth it had not worked for a number of years—sometimes I’m a little slow to move on some things) and now it has to go to the clock shop for a bigger repair than would have been the case had I just left it alone and taken it there in the first place.
Have I learned a lesson? Probably not. Oh, don't forget that Jeep thing that was the subject of the posting that preceded this one.

While here in town we’ll reacquaint ourselves with several of our physicians, get new eye glasses, and prepare for our Halloween departure. Leaving the house empty on Halloween is not a problem in this neighborhood. They only kids who ever come around are the grandboys and sometimes they’re accompanied by their girl friends from down the road. We’ll leave their goodies with their parents. Do kids still soap windows? Do kids even know about soaping windows? When one comes to your door and says, “Trick or Treat” ask him to show you his trick. We had one who did a little song and dance at the door many years ago.

I’ve had the opportunity to have coffee with my friends, Ken, Don, Wes, Brent, and John twice since returning. The “Olde Farts Kaffee Klatch” meets every Tuesday morning and we sit around and share developments in our life, tell a few off color stories, and work on solving the problem of World Peace and Industrial Pollution. Maybe that’s an overstatement? Well, it’s a nice break in the week with good friends.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the wildfire in Southern California, at Big Bear Lake. Son Kevin was dispatched last Sunday on a strike team to that fire and is still there today. He hasn’t done much besides spending several very cold nights out in the little village of Fawnskin, in readiness to try to protect the buildings should the fire make a run at it. Many of the crews that were called to respond have already been sent home and Kev’s crew may be included tomorrow. The bad part of that is Kevin will miss his son Alex’s very first kindergarten stage performance tomorrow night. That’s a big deal for him as he’s a living example of “Mr. Mom.
Like all kids, Alex enjoys dressing up. Though not much of a costume, the glasses certainly made a Harry Potter statement.

The fire has quieted down significantly and there’s even the slight chance the area will experience rain and snow or rain mixed with snow in the next couple of days.

When we had the coach inspected in Oregon, they discovered what they believed was a vacuum leak in the system that controls the vents on the dashboard. They also recommended replacing the battery cables due to corrosion. Well, the cables are new but the vacuum leak isn’t. It seems the system is not vacuum but air pressure and the relief valve on the little storage tank has failed. Sooooo, we’re waiting while the garage searches for a supplier of that little valve. It’s probably obsolete or the only remaining one in the country will be a solid gold display model. After our experience with the Jeep’s window mechanism I’ve become very cynical.

The weather was warm and smokey when we arrived home but has improved during the past 10 days or so. It’s been very comfortable. Fall seems to be in the air today with a strong breeze stripping some of the leaves off the black oak trees and a definite chill to the air. We may even get a little rain in the next 48 hours. That would be nice to dampen the dust on the road a little bit.

Speaking of the weather, it does get snowy here sometimes. The pic shows an overnight snowfall just before we were due to load up our camper on the truck and head south. That lump on the right is our other car. This is also the reason we’ve become “Snowbirds” leaving here to spend much of the winter in the Desert Southwest.

We had to hire a plow to come up the hill and clear the driveway so we could get out.

I’ll be laying in a supply of wood pellets for our stove in the next week or so, before they become scarce again. We’ll want them when we return home for two weeks for the Christmas Holidays. Last year suppliers locally actually ran out of pellets, leaving some people with no stove fuel.