Not exactly as planned....

One of the fun things about having the lake cabin is that we never get here too often, so it remains fresh and fun....  And because we aren't here much, the lake equipment isn't used too very much....

But that can turn into a drawback just as quickly for the same reason, things   aren't used too often...   Loyce and Ben spent time cleaning the pontoon boat this morning and had it looking good too...

But when we turned the key, it just went click click tick tick buzz.............   We put a charger on the older battery and waited... ... ... .... .... ..... .....   It would crank a while and then die out, never catching...   Meanwhile the kids were moping around poking each other and looking bored...

There was a sticker on the old battery that said 04/09...  Four years ago??  This isn't going to charge up in the next two days....  Then it will be flat out in the middle of the lake if we turn it off for lunch or swimming or something..

Batteries are like putting gas in the tank, when they're gone the tank's empty..  But its the afternoon of the fourth of July...  Luckily the cables are held in with wing nuts, and the case is held down with a strap..

It took about an hour to find the open Auto Zone and trade batteries...  Once back, the engine started really hard..  I thought maybe the ignition module was gone too..  Eventually the motor started and we were on our way... Of course that was money I hadn't planned on spending....  Such is luck..

Tonight we were playing around making Juicy Lucy hamburgers on the grill...  You have probably seen that on the food channel where you take a slice of American cheese and fold it up four ways imbedding it between two quarter pounder beef patties....  The cheese turns all molten in the middle as you cook it...  and ozzes out when you bite into the sandwich..

We watched fireworks from our deck tonight as a fellow in the end of our cove puts on a nicely done display.......  Expensive too...  He buys those pre wired trays that have 10 or more shots that go off with one fuse...  I think he had about ten trays....

Hope you had a nice fourth at your home.........!

Retired Rod

Happy July 4th!!

We are at the lake cabin celebrating the holiday...Hope you and your family are able to celebrate as well.......

Workers chase me away....

I went on one of my weekly luncheon rides today, to the town of Garden City, Missouri...  We went there last year in the summer, so it was easy to get to...

I rode with my friend Al, that lives here in Olathe...  He had been there twice before, so it was more about going and meeting with all the folks on a really nice day in the mid 80s... A cool day....

Loyce had a landscape planner lady and her team of workers arriving about 9 AM...  I knew we may not agree and that my vote didn't count.... LOL   So it was get out of here before I caused trouble..

When we arrived back about 3:30 the work was mostly done and Loyce was overjoyed...  Me, I was glad too.... that I didn't have to do the back breaking part of taking the sod out of the flower beds and installing landscape bricks...

They had the correct equipment to haul the sod out to the curb and a big truck with a lift to put it in.  I'm not sure where I would get rid of such waste, so it is well that it was done for us...

That was the size of today.....

Retired Rod

Cabinet tops and water sprayers...

I spent an exciting day....... paying bills!!  Well it is the first of the month you know....  And most of my time is spent checking into web sites finding out how much we owe....

We use a bill paying service, so the actual payment is just a few key strokes.... After you know how much to send...

But in the afternoon, I went over to the motorhome...  I can't remember when the last time it was started...  But for sure its been two or more months...  When I opened the door, the steps didn't extend.....!

I thought Oh oh,,  the batteries are deader than a door nail...  So I climbed up the side of the open door and into the coach...  And stuck the key into the ignition....   ......  .......   And much to my surprise....

The dash lit up and the block heater light began to glow....  Diesels crank hard and it kind of sounded slow.... labored and sluggish....  But it caught and went....  They seem to run instantly when its not cold...

With that I went on to take the license plate from the back of the rig and scrape off the old stickers....   There were more than one year, so I must not have been worried about it last year...

I think I did it in the desert last summer, and it was just too hot to be overly particular...    The old stickers came off in a big glob... confirming why I scrape them away....  I know, you all think I am overly detailed... gotta dot those I's...

Anyway we have a top of a counter under the TV that came loose when we were coming back from Az this spring and I need to do something...

Its only about 6 inches wide and covers the back side of the cabinet facing the washer...  If we had one it would be in the bathroom on the other side of the wall, but this side has the pipes and stuff...  It has some spring loaded clips that allow it to be removed for hoses to be installed...

The plastic on these clips has become broken allowing the top to spring free...  But the bad part is that the spring loaded part of the clips in the cabinet are nailed into the front wood before the cabinet was assembled...  Just to remove them, I would have to take the entire cabinet away from the wall and then pull the nails....   This was assembled with a nail gun at the factory...  There was no thought given to ever taking it apart....

While the engine was running charging those batteries, I sat and studied the situation....  What should I do....?  Getting the old clips out doesn't seem to be an option...  without a lot of work..  So I have settled on putting a couple of screws thru the top and down into the sides of the cabinet....  I could glue the top, but then you would never be able to put a washer in...

I hate to drill the top, as its all finished hard wood.  But this is now an older motorhome and not worth the money it was once worth..  And I doubt that two screw heads that will be counter sunk will reduce its value much...

Still I had to mark the underside of the top with the outline of the cabinet and then measure and draw the wood sides onto it, so as to know where to drill the holes...  I will use the drill press here at the house...

I also had the generator running with the AC running as well while I was there...  Exercising all of this should be done more often...  

Later in the afternoon, I drove the car over to the car wash as it was covered with bugs from the Lake Ozark trip...  Biscuit was whining to get out of the house, so I took her along....

She was up on the arm rest looking all over as we went thru the suburb...  And no we don't crate her...  I know, you animal purist folks don't agree.....

But as we drove into the wash bay and the machines began to spray water, she went nuts....  Jumping into my arms going crazy...  I had to hold her as tight as I could hang on to contain her...  I think beyond scared would be descriptive...

Maybe she needs to go over there more often so she can remember that the big water sprayers won't get her......!

Retired Rod