Well we have been busy. My mom and dad stopped by on the way back to Florida and spent a couple of days. It was great spending time with them. We have continued our quest to get the house basically completed. The den is looking lots better. It will be the last to complete, I'm sure. We picked up a couple of area rugs for the great room. One in the family area and the other under the table. Lizzie has given this her whole hearted approval. Running on wood floors is tough for a dog. She streatched out on the carpet and rolled around. She is a happy doggie.
My workshop in the basement is finally shaping up and I have been working on computers for the past 2-3 weeks. My sister's computer died while mom and dad were there so they brought it by. I have it rebuilt with a new hard drive. Strangest hard drive failure I have experienced. Drive spins up but doesn't respond like a drive. I suspect circuit card failed.
I fired up my test computes two of which were loaded with pre-release Windows 7. So the update time had expired. I had to re-install the OS on both systems. My multimedia system is getting close to functional with some strange recovery problems and my multi-touch table system is back together. Now I have to build a table again. I trashed my table I was building in CA. I broke my home grown first serface mirror while packing and as we got the pod loaded it was clear that there was no room for the table. I pulled it apart and it ended up in the trash. All that experience was all I brought with me and the projector.
My R1900 large format printer is not loving the move and i am having trouble getting it cleared out and printing. I need some cartridges and none are available locally so I guess I need to order some online.
Linda's computer from CA is being a problem, so I am trying to fix it. I updated drivers on the mother board from the MFG (MSI) and went from bad to worse. The sound was not working. Now the onboard sound, onboard video, and onboard network are not working.
I have a mother board from Fry's I had purchased several months before we moved and tried to use it but the Pentium D processor would not work in it. So..... I ordered another processor from Tiger direct and hope to get it working so I can get Linda on line with sound.
I have been having a bug problem in the basement not related to the PC's that are full of bugs.
It stated with worms coming in and having to clean them up every morning. I used foam sealer everywhere I could find and the worms were gone. Now I am having crickets by the bucket load. I found that the mat I put outside the door on the grass, was a breading ground for them. It seems that the area is having more crickets than old time locals have ever seen. They were coming under the door. I adjusted the door jam up to seal better but they are still getting in but only a few each day. I sprayed all around the basement for bugs. Got a few spiders who decided thay didn't like the spray so they have been showing up belly up. Now I see that stink bugs are in abundance this year. I have only seen two or three outside.
Now for the yard. Or should I say the weed garden. The front yard is all weeds. I sprayed a weed killer a couple of weeks ago and it killed the weeds. Guess what, No green exist in the front yard after that. The back yard has only a few weeds and I sprayed it. It looks much better. I have a mess for sure. I need to get out there.
I have a camera system I bought to put in the house. It will allow me to monitor the house over the internet which will be great when we are gone. It will send emails along with pictures when motion takes place. I turned it on and got a couple hundred emails in about 6 hours. I think it works. Now I have to install it. THE HARD PART.
Ken, Carmen and Linda and I went to DollyWood. That is a great park. We really loved it. Awesome music groups and shows. Steam train ride that is really cool and a bold eagle bird of prey recovery facility. Carmen and I topped it off with a wood roller coaster ride. We headed to local communities that Linda and I remembered as kids. They look a lot different now. Grown up these past 40+ years. Serierville and Gatlinburg areas. There was an old car evet going on in Gatlinburg. We crawled down the main strip and thousands of people were sitting along the road watching the activity. Every parking lot was full of old cars and muscle cars. Ken and I were drooling all along the way. We wrapped up our day with dinner at 10PM in Johnson City.
The same weekend was an event in Bristol called Rhythm and Roots Reunion. This is a full weekend of bluegrass. Bluegrass has it roots in Bristol. We attended the event Saturday until after midnight and then Sunday after church until it ended at 6pm. As with the Nascar event they shut down State Street, the VA, TN state line road and set up venue's on side streets, in theaters, and in local shops. There were lots of groups of verious tallent performing. It was a great weekend.
This past Tuesday, after bible study, Ken and I went to a Bluegrass jam session that is around the corner from Bristol Motor Speedway. The place only holds bout 30 people. It was awesome. Different people show up there and they just jam. Some professional players and others new to music like one young man who is in high school was playing. It was really fun being there and listening to the music and having people share their tallents like that. All accustic instruments. Ken pointed out how as people left as the night wore on that the accustics of the room changed and got crisper. When we arrived I noticed the bass was very soft and almost hard to hear and it was only 10 feet from me. By the evening the bass was crisp, rich and vibrant.
Along with all the other computer stuff I am trying to get going, I purchased a program to identify duplicate files so I can clean up my pictures and file system in general. It found that my notebook had about 60 percent of the files duplicated, some several times. I am cleaning that up in the mornings for an hour or two before I get out of bed. I have a long way to go. Thousands of files are duplicated.
So if you have seen Collin's post on FaceBook of the picture of Lizzie and I crashed out on the couch with surround sound and remotes and drink you will understand that it was a well deserved nap!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Lots to share. Still getting it together.
Well, LouAnn spent a weekend with us. It was great having her here.
We continue the quest of making our house a home. Linda has been working on the Den. It actually has the floor open. Things are appearing on shelves and it won't be long before it is functional. At least it will be when I rebuild her computer. It seems to have an issue that developed prior to moving out of our CA house. It is time to resolve the issue... As soon as the basement is ready, YEA that's it.
Speaking of the basement, I finally finished out the extra circuit I had run. It only had one plug in the basement, so while having the circuit run for the rv, I had them pull another circuit for the basement. There are two drops, so I have a 20 amp circuit to run my computers on. While I was at it I picked up a couple of light fixtures and mounted them. the basement has 4 individual light bulbs in the celing. One switch down in the basement to turn them on. Strange arrangement. I added a florscent light fixture and replaced an indivigual bulb fixture with a three light arrangement that is directional. I have also run some more wires up through the wall into the master bedroom and the family room so we have more options for our tv viewing and computer stuff. Seems that a number of devices require network connectivity in the tv area these days.
I also did a tour of duty in the Attic over the garage. Fortunately there is an entrance to the attic in the garage. No insulation so it is relatively easy to get there. At my age and conditioning, attic's and easy are not something that belong in the same sentence.
I put a full sized antenna in the attic. Spreading out the radials amongst the rafters was an expierence. I pulled a coax and a computer network wire through the wall in the garage to make connections. the coax for the antenna and the cat6 wire to drop a network connection to my computer in our family room. That little project is still in the works. Not as easy as I had hoped. Yep another trip to the attic. Should be cooler in the next couple of days. Maybe I can spend a few more hours up there without having to come down and cool off as often.
So it has been a busy time since our last blog. We are expecting more company, the sheets are clean, so make your way here and we will enjoy some hugs and a good time. Hope to add some pictures before long. Time for the second half of my nights sleep. Good night.
We continue the quest of making our house a home. Linda has been working on the Den. It actually has the floor open. Things are appearing on shelves and it won't be long before it is functional. At least it will be when I rebuild her computer. It seems to have an issue that developed prior to moving out of our CA house. It is time to resolve the issue... As soon as the basement is ready, YEA that's it.
Speaking of the basement, I finally finished out the extra circuit I had run. It only had one plug in the basement, so while having the circuit run for the rv, I had them pull another circuit for the basement. There are two drops, so I have a 20 amp circuit to run my computers on. While I was at it I picked up a couple of light fixtures and mounted them. the basement has 4 individual light bulbs in the celing. One switch down in the basement to turn them on. Strange arrangement. I added a florscent light fixture and replaced an indivigual bulb fixture with a three light arrangement that is directional. I have also run some more wires up through the wall into the master bedroom and the family room so we have more options for our tv viewing and computer stuff. Seems that a number of devices require network connectivity in the tv area these days.
I also did a tour of duty in the Attic over the garage. Fortunately there is an entrance to the attic in the garage. No insulation so it is relatively easy to get there. At my age and conditioning, attic's and easy are not something that belong in the same sentence.
I put a full sized antenna in the attic. Spreading out the radials amongst the rafters was an expierence. I pulled a coax and a computer network wire through the wall in the garage to make connections. the coax for the antenna and the cat6 wire to drop a network connection to my computer in our family room. That little project is still in the works. Not as easy as I had hoped. Yep another trip to the attic. Should be cooler in the next couple of days. Maybe I can spend a few more hours up there without having to come down and cool off as often.
So it has been a busy time since our last blog. We are expecting more company, the sheets are clean, so make your way here and we will enjoy some hugs and a good time. Hope to add some pictures before long. Time for the second half of my nights sleep. Good night.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Yep another week has passed.
Well we have had a busy time. Lots going on. We made major progress on the house. The place is finally relatively un-cluttered. We have pictures on some of the walls, we have the place organized so it can be lived in. The guest room is ready and already used once. My mom and dad arrived from Florida and spent the night on the way to Cincinnati. It was a stressful trip for them but they arrived ok and we were able to go to dinner and spend an evening together. We had breakfast the next morning and then they headed to Cincinnati. This trip for them went much smoother which was great.
We continued to work on the house and today Linda got the den organized and almost totally cleaned up. I continued to work on wiring for the computers and was able to get a good rough system working. The Dish network controller and our Sony blue ray player are connected to the net now which enables us to keep our video options open. We signed up for netflix and watched a movie this evening over the internet. The wiring is kind of convoluted but works well at this point. Lots of wire splits but hay it works.
Our magic jack is working but not well as it is on a wireless computer. I hope to get it running better shortly. Just have to figure out more wiring.
Well, company is coming so back to work. Busy weekend with LouAnn Lee in town doing a concert at our church. She is recording in Nashville this week. It will be good to see her again.
Later, Mr Ed.
We continued to work on the house and today Linda got the den organized and almost totally cleaned up. I continued to work on wiring for the computers and was able to get a good rough system working. The Dish network controller and our Sony blue ray player are connected to the net now which enables us to keep our video options open. We signed up for netflix and watched a movie this evening over the internet. The wiring is kind of convoluted but works well at this point. Lots of wire splits but hay it works.
Our magic jack is working but not well as it is on a wireless computer. I hope to get it running better shortly. Just have to figure out more wiring.
Well, company is coming so back to work. Busy weekend with LouAnn Lee in town doing a concert at our church. She is recording in Nashville this week. It will be good to see her again.
Later, Mr Ed.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Now What?
Hi there. Once again, days go by and you hear nothing from me. I think we have established a pattern. For blogging it isn't good. Oh well maybe I will change my ways after we get settled.
Lots to talk about. Our basement is still empty. Even emptier (is this a word?) than before. I decided to epoxy the floor. Well my friend Herb pulled a Walker on me, long story I will get to some day, he told me about epoxy and the benefits of it on garage and basement floors. So I slow down a bit more with the move in plans because I am now going to do the floor and the time to do it is when there is nothing on it. So we made many trips to the local hardware stores to find all the stuff needed to allow me to make the floor nice. What a lot of effort. So far I have etched the floor to get it ready for epoxy. I had two gallons of etch which should have been enough. NOT. I had to go get anoter gallon. An all day event. Now it is drying. After I did the etching and was almost done, a thunder storm came through, then another and another. It is raining every day which is good for the locals. It has been dry. But the humidity has gretly slowed the drying floor. There are no drains in the basement so the gallons I put down had to be vacuumed up. New wet vac. Maybe today I will be able to put down the epoxy and wait for seveal more days for that to dry before I can start organizing stuff down there. I need to get it out of the garage so I can pull in the cars and we can stay dry when we get home from being out. OH wait, i am going to epoxy the garage as well. More days waiting. At least I don't have to suck it up. Just shove it out the door.
Now to continue. I have my wiring sorted out and now have no place for phones. I converted all wire runs to ethernet for computers. So what there is of it, it is working. I have a few more run's to make to get everything working. I need to run ethernet to my blue ray player so I can watch web content through the player. Wireless is working on it but wired would be better. So far my attempts to put a wire through the wall in the family room have failed. I used a 3/8's in long drill bit to drill up from the basement. First pass it went in perfect through all the layers and into a box already in the wall. I was so happy. Then I figured out that the hole was not big enough to pull a coax through so I did what any self respecting do it yourselfer does. I put the drill bit back in the hole and proceeded to try and grind out the hole so it would take a bigger wire. MISTAKE, the drill bit broke off in the wall and it is plugging the hole. Now I have another mess to figure out. Another delay getting the sat dish mounted in a more permenant location. That project is on hold for the basement floor at present. Drilling holes from the basement create mess. I need the floor clean soooooo.
While waiting for the floor to dry down below, I decided we need to pick up some of the furniture we had to part with in CA. End tables, book cases, computer desk's and the like. Well i am going simple( interpreted cheap ) and got furniture that has to be put together. So yesterday I was on a roll. I got two end tables with drawers, a book case, a pantry cabinet, a metal shelf system for a closet, and a computer desk put together. That was the easy part, now I have a garage full of trash that needs to be processed, ripped, cut, compressed and in the trash. And yes, I am going green and will put the cardboard in a recycle facility. Green, right? NOT, It just keeps me from filling up my can so I can't get real trash in it.
Now while I was getting wires to work, I was setting up stuff. Like Linda's computer on a computer stand I brought from CA. Yep one made it from the garage to here. I also setup my disk farm that has 1TB of stuff on it. It came by way of our van.. It was stored in the well under the back seats. It fired up and took some time but was running. I have been able to reference it from my notebook and all was well. WAS. I did not have it plugged into the UPS unit yet. While etching the floor and having thunder storm go through, we had a power failure and then another with in seconds and then another one a couple of minutes later. It lasted all of about 60 seconds. Before I could get upstairs to disconnect it. So it crapped out. It would not start. Yesterday I finally got to a point I was going to open it up and see if I could do anything to get it going and I pressed a switch that you are not supposed to hit. It was taped on one position. I started to press it and the box went off and then sprang t0o life. I saw it doing something, I wasn't sure what. Maybe that switch would reset the unit to factory new. I figured all would be lost. I sat down at my notebook and pinged the unit. It responded. Progress!!!! It still was not talking in a normal tone of voice. I continued building furniture and later in the day the unit was responding normally again. All my data was there! Yep, lucked out. It is now on the UPS. I hope to capture the data to some other drive before I turn it off again. I suspect the unit is almost toast and the company went bankrupt several years back. New plan needs to come together on this one but hopefully later.
Yesterday Lizzie got a new dew, her first in Bristol. The groomer is just up the street from Bristol Motor Speedway. This week is Nascar at Bristol again. So the environment is starting to change there. Lots of rv's, motorhomes, temp camp grounds, people showing up from everywhere. I got a call yesterday and my friend received two tickets to the Nationwide series race for Friday night. Guess where I am going. Friday is my first day off in some time. YeeHa.
So I better get busy and do something today. Time keeps ticking.
Lots to talk about. Our basement is still empty. Even emptier (is this a word?) than before. I decided to epoxy the floor. Well my friend Herb pulled a Walker on me, long story I will get to some day, he told me about epoxy and the benefits of it on garage and basement floors. So I slow down a bit more with the move in plans because I am now going to do the floor and the time to do it is when there is nothing on it. So we made many trips to the local hardware stores to find all the stuff needed to allow me to make the floor nice. What a lot of effort. So far I have etched the floor to get it ready for epoxy. I had two gallons of etch which should have been enough. NOT. I had to go get anoter gallon. An all day event. Now it is drying. After I did the etching and was almost done, a thunder storm came through, then another and another. It is raining every day which is good for the locals. It has been dry. But the humidity has gretly slowed the drying floor. There are no drains in the basement so the gallons I put down had to be vacuumed up. New wet vac. Maybe today I will be able to put down the epoxy and wait for seveal more days for that to dry before I can start organizing stuff down there. I need to get it out of the garage so I can pull in the cars and we can stay dry when we get home from being out. OH wait, i am going to epoxy the garage as well. More days waiting. At least I don't have to suck it up. Just shove it out the door.
Now to continue. I have my wiring sorted out and now have no place for phones. I converted all wire runs to ethernet for computers. So what there is of it, it is working. I have a few more run's to make to get everything working. I need to run ethernet to my blue ray player so I can watch web content through the player. Wireless is working on it but wired would be better. So far my attempts to put a wire through the wall in the family room have failed. I used a 3/8's in long drill bit to drill up from the basement. First pass it went in perfect through all the layers and into a box already in the wall. I was so happy. Then I figured out that the hole was not big enough to pull a coax through so I did what any self respecting do it yourselfer does. I put the drill bit back in the hole and proceeded to try and grind out the hole so it would take a bigger wire. MISTAKE, the drill bit broke off in the wall and it is plugging the hole. Now I have another mess to figure out. Another delay getting the sat dish mounted in a more permenant location. That project is on hold for the basement floor at present. Drilling holes from the basement create mess. I need the floor clean soooooo.
While waiting for the floor to dry down below, I decided we need to pick up some of the furniture we had to part with in CA. End tables, book cases, computer desk's and the like. Well i am going simple( interpreted cheap ) and got furniture that has to be put together. So yesterday I was on a roll. I got two end tables with drawers, a book case, a pantry cabinet, a metal shelf system for a closet, and a computer desk put together. That was the easy part, now I have a garage full of trash that needs to be processed, ripped, cut, compressed and in the trash. And yes, I am going green and will put the cardboard in a recycle facility. Green, right? NOT, It just keeps me from filling up my can so I can't get real trash in it.
Now while I was getting wires to work, I was setting up stuff. Like Linda's computer on a computer stand I brought from CA. Yep one made it from the garage to here. I also setup my disk farm that has 1TB of stuff on it. It came by way of our van.. It was stored in the well under the back seats. It fired up and took some time but was running. I have been able to reference it from my notebook and all was well. WAS. I did not have it plugged into the UPS unit yet. While etching the floor and having thunder storm go through, we had a power failure and then another with in seconds and then another one a couple of minutes later. It lasted all of about 60 seconds. Before I could get upstairs to disconnect it. So it crapped out. It would not start. Yesterday I finally got to a point I was going to open it up and see if I could do anything to get it going and I pressed a switch that you are not supposed to hit. It was taped on one position. I started to press it and the box went off and then sprang t0o life. I saw it doing something, I wasn't sure what. Maybe that switch would reset the unit to factory new. I figured all would be lost. I sat down at my notebook and pinged the unit. It responded. Progress!!!! It still was not talking in a normal tone of voice. I continued building furniture and later in the day the unit was responding normally again. All my data was there! Yep, lucked out. It is now on the UPS. I hope to capture the data to some other drive before I turn it off again. I suspect the unit is almost toast and the company went bankrupt several years back. New plan needs to come together on this one but hopefully later.
Yesterday Lizzie got a new dew, her first in Bristol. The groomer is just up the street from Bristol Motor Speedway. This week is Nascar at Bristol again. So the environment is starting to change there. Lots of rv's, motorhomes, temp camp grounds, people showing up from everywhere. I got a call yesterday and my friend received two tickets to the Nationwide series race for Friday night. Guess where I am going. Friday is my first day off in some time. YeeHa.
So I better get busy and do something today. Time keeps ticking.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Time keeps on slippin into the future...
Well, we are still moving in. Still a big mess. We got rid of so much stuff. Now we find we have stuff with no where to put it. We need stuff to hold stuff. Stuff everywhere but where stuff should be. So we move forward slowly getting things done. No particular order other than to do something because it is in the way of doing something else. Moved lately? You would understand.
I find it interesting how much needs to be done to support doing nothing. Wow we are bogged down with all the things we had to have in our life. It was much simpler living in the RV. No clutter as there was no room for it.
Our day started with the painter coming to touch up some stuff that did not get completed when we moved in. He was here at 7:30 am. Do you know how long it has been since I got up by 7:30. Note I said got up not woke up. I have been up many a night earlier than that and could not sleep. Anyway we had an early day with company.
If you have followed this blog, what there is of it, you have seen all the wonderful trials that have come our way. Some day I will look back and laugh at it all, I think!
Well it is amazing how we set ourselves up for problems. The Vacuum cleaner that made it on this journey, trust me many vacuum's did not make it past Goodwill, was prepped for the journey in the pod. I decided to be smart and removed the bag. You know how the thing smells after not using it for a long time with dirt in the bag. Well this was going to be a many month journey. I removed the bag. Well, I decided to sweep the floors a few days ago. The fine dust was on the floors in the cracks etc. The sweeper did a rather good job of knocking the dust loose and picking it up. Toward the end of my sweeping, I did note that it was not being quite as effective. I put it away and continued my meandering style of moving in. You know, what ever is in your way you deal with it and move on to the next thing in your way. Well, I got to the basement and needed to clean it up a little before I consider storing stuff down there. I got out a push broom and swept the floor and picked it up. Amazing how much you can get off a bear floor. I then decided to use the sweeper to pick up the fine dust. I started sweeping and it was not doing so well. So I decided the fine dust was plugging the bag. I open the door and my SMART from CA was looking kind of STUPID in TN. No bag, just dirt, everywhere in the vacuum. All in the motor and the filters, especially the hepa filter. So the next mini desaster story was born.
I decided that I needed to replace filters that were dead and dyeing, like the refrigerator water filter and now the sweeper hepa filter. Also I needed to clean out the vacuum cleaner guts. Oh yea, the air compressor didn't make it to TN. NO Room in the pod. So off to get an air compressor. And while we are out maybe we can stop by a furniture store and see about some things like coffee tables, end tables, book cases, computer desk and chairs. You know more of the stuff that were deamed not fit for the pod and it's space limitations.
I had already spoken to some new friends about where to get my water filter so our first stop was Breakfast. It was 9:30 AM and time for breakfast anyway. It was going to be a quest day. Then off to the appliance repair depot in Bristol. First stop was successful. We found a water filter for the fridge. Unfortunately they did not carry parts for vacuum's so we were directed to a vacuum repair facility, you know the one we passed a few miles back. Next stop vacuum repair store. Success once again, we found a new hepa filter. We may be able to save the vacuum from the abuse. Now to the next town, Johnson City. Made it here once to pickup some items for setting up the house and went through there on the way to Florida. That makes me and expert on finding things in Johnson City;-).
We trek our way to Johnson City. Along the path is a furniture factory outlet. I decide I want to stop as we do need some furniture. It is visible along the highway so no problem. I pass the store and take the next right. Well that simple big store is nowhere to be found. I end up going around the block which isn't a block at all and before you know it I haven't found the store and now have lost my original bearings to my original destination which was Harbor Freight to get an air compressor and all the stuff required for me to blow dust out of the vacuum I am trying to save.
We roam for at least an hour, maybe more until I finally find the original road we were on and once again see the furniture store that derailed me. In finding my bearings, I now have a big clue on how to get to the furniture store, but first, Harbor Freight. I go there and pickup the compressor and enough stuff to use it to blow out dirt and at least put air in a tire or two. Lunch time has arrived and the old bladder ain't what she used to be, so we head back toward a familiar area so we can eat. Along the way we find a Michael's so we stop to see about maybe some material to put on the door windows to kind of cover them up from being a porn site for the neighbors. They send us up the road past McDonalds and turn right to find Hancock Fabrics for the material. So we stop and do lunch along the way and take care of pressing business as mentioned above. We head up the road and find McD's and turn right. Wa la the same place I was lost at earlier. Quest is in my head so I find the furniture store. Only a couple more wrong turns until I found it. Big old warehouse no AC. 97 degrees out and they have big fan's running to stir the heat. I check out the place and there are some potentials but prices aren't that great. On to Hancock Fabrics, so I thought. I head up my lost highway and no place do we see our goal. Back and forth around and around. Finally my iPhone starts to work a bit and it shows me that I am no more than a quarter of a mile from my destination. We twist and turn more and more and finally tucked behind a huge Target store sits this little building called Hancock Fabrics. There was a target on it and I missed it. It is 97 degrees out so I pull into the parking spot and leave the engine running so Lizzie and I won't melt. Linda goes in and we sit and watch people go in and out and in and out and........ No Linda. I catch up on emails on my iphone and catch up on facebook and play a few games of sudoku and then cards. Take a short nap and finally we are at least an hour and a half into this gas wasting stop. Finally I get out of the car and Lizzie and I head in to see if Linda had given up and ducked out the back.
It seems the lady at the cutting table decided that our order was so big that she had to cut other customers stuff while using her spare time to cut our stuff. As it turns out, she had just finished when I got in the store.
Linda is dead tired after standing all that time and rather irritated, so we get back on Lost highway and head toward home. We stop and get some late lunch since it is after 5pm.
I can report the air compressor doing it's thing and replacing the filters, saved the vacuum to sweep another day. I re-swept the hard wood floors, at least the parts I can see still. It was a sucky thing and that is good. Got a couple of other small task done so not a total wasted day.
Basement is still empty and dusty. Today we try again with a happy vaccum.
I find it interesting how much needs to be done to support doing nothing. Wow we are bogged down with all the things we had to have in our life. It was much simpler living in the RV. No clutter as there was no room for it.
Our day started with the painter coming to touch up some stuff that did not get completed when we moved in. He was here at 7:30 am. Do you know how long it has been since I got up by 7:30. Note I said got up not woke up. I have been up many a night earlier than that and could not sleep. Anyway we had an early day with company.
If you have followed this blog, what there is of it, you have seen all the wonderful trials that have come our way. Some day I will look back and laugh at it all, I think!
Well it is amazing how we set ourselves up for problems. The Vacuum cleaner that made it on this journey, trust me many vacuum's did not make it past Goodwill, was prepped for the journey in the pod. I decided to be smart and removed the bag. You know how the thing smells after not using it for a long time with dirt in the bag. Well this was going to be a many month journey. I removed the bag. Well, I decided to sweep the floors a few days ago. The fine dust was on the floors in the cracks etc. The sweeper did a rather good job of knocking the dust loose and picking it up. Toward the end of my sweeping, I did note that it was not being quite as effective. I put it away and continued my meandering style of moving in. You know, what ever is in your way you deal with it and move on to the next thing in your way. Well, I got to the basement and needed to clean it up a little before I consider storing stuff down there. I got out a push broom and swept the floor and picked it up. Amazing how much you can get off a bear floor. I then decided to use the sweeper to pick up the fine dust. I started sweeping and it was not doing so well. So I decided the fine dust was plugging the bag. I open the door and my SMART from CA was looking kind of STUPID in TN. No bag, just dirt, everywhere in the vacuum. All in the motor and the filters, especially the hepa filter. So the next mini desaster story was born.
I decided that I needed to replace filters that were dead and dyeing, like the refrigerator water filter and now the sweeper hepa filter. Also I needed to clean out the vacuum cleaner guts. Oh yea, the air compressor didn't make it to TN. NO Room in the pod. So off to get an air compressor. And while we are out maybe we can stop by a furniture store and see about some things like coffee tables, end tables, book cases, computer desk and chairs. You know more of the stuff that were deamed not fit for the pod and it's space limitations.
I had already spoken to some new friends about where to get my water filter so our first stop was Breakfast. It was 9:30 AM and time for breakfast anyway. It was going to be a quest day. Then off to the appliance repair depot in Bristol. First stop was successful. We found a water filter for the fridge. Unfortunately they did not carry parts for vacuum's so we were directed to a vacuum repair facility, you know the one we passed a few miles back. Next stop vacuum repair store. Success once again, we found a new hepa filter. We may be able to save the vacuum from the abuse. Now to the next town, Johnson City. Made it here once to pickup some items for setting up the house and went through there on the way to Florida. That makes me and expert on finding things in Johnson City;-).
We trek our way to Johnson City. Along the path is a furniture factory outlet. I decide I want to stop as we do need some furniture. It is visible along the highway so no problem. I pass the store and take the next right. Well that simple big store is nowhere to be found. I end up going around the block which isn't a block at all and before you know it I haven't found the store and now have lost my original bearings to my original destination which was Harbor Freight to get an air compressor and all the stuff required for me to blow dust out of the vacuum I am trying to save.
We roam for at least an hour, maybe more until I finally find the original road we were on and once again see the furniture store that derailed me. In finding my bearings, I now have a big clue on how to get to the furniture store, but first, Harbor Freight. I go there and pickup the compressor and enough stuff to use it to blow out dirt and at least put air in a tire or two. Lunch time has arrived and the old bladder ain't what she used to be, so we head back toward a familiar area so we can eat. Along the way we find a Michael's so we stop to see about maybe some material to put on the door windows to kind of cover them up from being a porn site for the neighbors. They send us up the road past McDonalds and turn right to find Hancock Fabrics for the material. So we stop and do lunch along the way and take care of pressing business as mentioned above. We head up the road and find McD's and turn right. Wa la the same place I was lost at earlier. Quest is in my head so I find the furniture store. Only a couple more wrong turns until I found it. Big old warehouse no AC. 97 degrees out and they have big fan's running to stir the heat. I check out the place and there are some potentials but prices aren't that great. On to Hancock Fabrics, so I thought. I head up my lost highway and no place do we see our goal. Back and forth around and around. Finally my iPhone starts to work a bit and it shows me that I am no more than a quarter of a mile from my destination. We twist and turn more and more and finally tucked behind a huge Target store sits this little building called Hancock Fabrics. There was a target on it and I missed it. It is 97 degrees out so I pull into the parking spot and leave the engine running so Lizzie and I won't melt. Linda goes in and we sit and watch people go in and out and in and out and........ No Linda. I catch up on emails on my iphone and catch up on facebook and play a few games of sudoku and then cards. Take a short nap and finally we are at least an hour and a half into this gas wasting stop. Finally I get out of the car and Lizzie and I head in to see if Linda had given up and ducked out the back.
It seems the lady at the cutting table decided that our order was so big that she had to cut other customers stuff while using her spare time to cut our stuff. As it turns out, she had just finished when I got in the store.
Linda is dead tired after standing all that time and rather irritated, so we get back on Lost highway and head toward home. We stop and get some late lunch since it is after 5pm.
I can report the air compressor doing it's thing and replacing the filters, saved the vacuum to sweep another day. I re-swept the hard wood floors, at least the parts I can see still. It was a sucky thing and that is good. Got a couple of other small task done so not a total wasted day.
Basement is still empty and dusty. Today we try again with a happy vaccum.
Monday, August 2, 2010
We are in the house, barely...
Well, we made the trip to Florida and the Ford made the trip without smoking a tranny. I still need to check the fluid to make sure it really did it correctly though.
We closed a week ago Friday and the pod was delivered Tuesday. I started pulling stuff off the end. Like the Bear that was strapped in the end and all the stuff that Karen, Steve and I shoved in there. It didn't have much room to shift so we did good. I started pulling off boxes and staging them in the garage. I did pretty well and by the evening I had better than half the pod unloaded. Our friend Ken came over and we were able to get the couches off the pod and one in the house and the other in the garage waiting for me to decide if it goes to Texas or stays here. We got the piano off and into a bedroom where it will spend it's time. The refridgerator just barely fit in the space provided. It fit though. I connected the water line and turned it on. Water started running and I could not figure out where. Finally it started running out from under the unit and we ended up soaking up water like mad. I figured that it was busted while moving. We left the water disconnected for the time being. The second day I continued my quest to empty the pod. When I got to the piano it was over. Since that time the pod has departed back to POD HQ and we are shifting furniture what little there is of it and empting boxes. It is hard to empty boxes when there is nothing to put them in. We are realizing just how much storage was in that CA house. The built in cabinets in the family room, and den really heald a lot. We will have to purchase some book cases and shelves and the like to store the stuff we kept. arg! I am ready to take pictures. But who has time?
We closed a week ago Friday and the pod was delivered Tuesday. I started pulling stuff off the end. Like the Bear that was strapped in the end and all the stuff that Karen, Steve and I shoved in there. It didn't have much room to shift so we did good. I started pulling off boxes and staging them in the garage. I did pretty well and by the evening I had better than half the pod unloaded. Our friend Ken came over and we were able to get the couches off the pod and one in the house and the other in the garage waiting for me to decide if it goes to Texas or stays here. We got the piano off and into a bedroom where it will spend it's time. The refridgerator just barely fit in the space provided. It fit though. I connected the water line and turned it on. Water started running and I could not figure out where. Finally it started running out from under the unit and we ended up soaking up water like mad. I figured that it was busted while moving. We left the water disconnected for the time being. The second day I continued my quest to empty the pod. When I got to the piano it was over. Since that time the pod has departed back to POD HQ and we are shifting furniture what little there is of it and empting boxes. It is hard to empty boxes when there is nothing to put them in. We are realizing just how much storage was in that CA house. The built in cabinets in the family room, and den really heald a lot. We will have to purchase some book cases and shelves and the like to store the stuff we kept. arg! I am ready to take pictures. But who has time?
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