TX hot!

It's been a quiet weekend...The kids went to Cary's family reunion in NM for the weekend. So needless to say I've been very quiet here! Just me...4 dogs, a cat, 3 fish, 1 turtle...and..."Little Duke" the chicken! LOL

Have been doing some work on Bertha, have a few things to go...but most of what is left I need Cary to help me with, can't sit in right positions long enough due to my ankle. But "we're" getting there!

Speaking of ankle, seems to be doing much better. I really don't need my crutch all the time now. I'm slow (no comments needed! ) but at least I'm moving!

It has gotten to 102° here today. Some spots close by have hit 104°.  But there's a cold front coming tonight and the high for tomorrow is supposed to only be 93°.  And by end of week the highs only in upper 80's.

But I have to be in San Antonio by next Friday & it's going to be in the high 90's there, so I won't get to enjoy the cool for much, because the temps in San Antonio next week are supposed to stay in the upper 90's every day....dang it!!  LOL

Well, this pretty well gets you caught up with the continuing saga of my "early retirement" from truck driving. I'm sure there will be more interesting and strange bends and twists in the coming weeks....so stay tuned and watch the saga grow!!  Heheh   :-)

Time for an Update!!

The healing process continues...and boy is it going to be a long one!!  I have gotten into a shoe, and it helps the feel of the bottom of my foot. This morning both legs were basically the same size...a good sign...so maybe it will all heal up.  And a lot of the pressure/swelling is going from the rear arch of my foot, but it is still quite "fat"!!  But I do now have all my toes and they can wiggle. But I have to get up and move around or get my leg up every hour or so due to the fact that the messed up ankle is limiting the circulation of the leg, so it swells if I don't keep an eye on it.

I have found a job...security with a company for construction sites. It is basically what I have been looking for over the past several years. Most of the sites will allow me to "live" on site with my motorhome, and I will be doing overnight security, but it will be at my pace and I will have the days to relax/sleep/work on Bertha...so it is about perfect.

Now I just have to get Bertha running right so that I can get on the job! And this is not a minor task right now!

Cary has been a god send....with his help I've replaced the thermostat, mounted a luggage carrier on the rear, removed a couple of the seats, replaced the H2O pump, gotten the auxillary battery situation taken care of, moved all my stuff from truck to Bertha and other things so numerous I can't remember them all!  LOL  :-)

 But....what had been a 12-24 month process of getting Bertha travel ready has turned into a 1 week process that looks like it will be a 2-3 week process!!  Went and fueled up this morning and she is running rough! We had done a flush (as well as could be done without pressure) of the cooling system and she is still heating up too much. And when I got back from the gas station, and came back out here an hour or so later......there is a leak in/from the fuel tank...and right now I'm not mobile enough to get under there and see where it is coming from exactly....so will be going to the oil change shop they use in the morning to have an oil change and "professional" flush of the cooling system....AND see just where the fuel leak is and what is going to be entailed in getting it fixed. Not looking forward to that one! This evening I'm going to pull and replace all the plugs and see if that helps get rid of the rough running.  Probably change out the plug wires and distributor cap also.

I have also gotten the little portable A/C unit up and vented and running in Bertha...it is a battle to keep it cool in here somewhat, but for 7600btu it does a pretty good job, as long as I keep my fans circulating the air around.  It is not "real" cool in the heat of the day, but it takes the humidity out of the air and keep it at least 10 degrees cooler than the outside so it feels a lot better!  Have to keep in mind that it is 91 here right now, feels like 97 outside....and supposed to get to 98 or so today....so it is a lot better in here!

Yesterday Tif and the girls took me out to Weatherford to get the Astro cleared out of what I needed to keep. There was more in there than I remembered! But we got out there and got gone...without seeing anyone (I was not surprised). On the way back, we stopped and let the girls have some playtime at the Chick Filet playground...and it went well. As you can tell from the pic, it was Josceline's first time "alone" to go up into the play area....decisions, decisions!!  Julia on the other hand hit high gear in the tubes!! Ahhhhh....to have that much energy again!!

 Well, time to get a little more done while I have the energy and coolness!  Still working on getting the inside of Bertha setup for life! Which now means that I will spend the next 6 months redoing where stuff if depending on just how much I use each thing...and whether I use it at all (which means those items go out the door)!  But I'm about 2/3's of the way there for the time being.

It has been a long week....but.....I am basically down to ONE shortened crutch most of the time. I can stand and move about on the foot, but it will be quite a while before it bends like the left one!  It is still swollen, and I still can't get my right shoe on...LOL!  But at least I can get a house shoe on....that has make life a little easier.

It has rained here all day practically. Of course, we are not complaining....it is a blessing to have the wet! And the temps have been like fall!  It is currently 70 outside, it got up to about 75 today, the low since midnight was 66.  They're calling for 70 as a low tonight, but I have a feeling it will be lower.  And I love it!

I found two leaks in Bertha today, but it really leaked only when it was averaging .5 inches of rain per hour or more. So that is kind of good, and at least I found the leaks. Now I have to get Cary to help me seal the seams and the front vent tomorrow. I caught one of the drips from the vent leak! That was a decent shot!  The other one is over the passenger side of the top bunk, it is an old leak that had been sealed, but it has struck again, so we will have to get it sealed the next day or so.

I also have to get a tuneup done tomorrow or Sunday. It looks like I will be heading out sometime between Monday to Wednesday.  Oh, in case I haven't mentioned, I got a new job. I will be doing security for a company at construction sites....building, pipeline, windmill, etc...type construction sites. I will be basically overnight work, but, it will be out in the middle of nowhere most of the time. And I am looking forward to it.

But in the meantime, I have to get Bertha ready for the trip. I'm putting a new battery in for the auxiliary batt, replacing the coolant hoses on engine, might see if I can get the vehicle air conditioning working, putting on a new power cable/plug, a new water pump for the house, and a luggage carrier on the rear. Just a few things to get me to the first job.  The I will start tweaking the whole house!

As I said, since it rained here almost all day, I spent the day working on the inside of my Mobile Tiny House, and I actually got quite a bit of work done! Surprisingly!!!  :p   I got the chairs and sofa cleared and straight (mostly).....

Then I got to work on the overhead area. Cary got the mattress out and the hinged boards last night for me. Today I cleaned it off more and got my drawers more or less set up. The are pretty much the way that I will leave them, just have to get them secured well. THEN.....the next important item.....TV!!!!

It actually looks pretty big sitting up there in the front. And you can see it from anywhere in the house (except the toilet and shower!  LOL).  Now I have to figure out what I will store behind it that doesn't have to be accessed very often. And how/where to mount my dvd player and the Wii.

Tackled the kitchen area again and did fairly well in getting it finished. It will of course change over the next several weeks as I start actually living in the house, but for now, it is usable and livable.

I also tackled the "pantry" area...and it came out pretty well. Tiffany went to the store today and picked up a few of the items that I needed for the first week or so that I will be out, and it also made it a little easier for me to figure out just how I wanted to start out my pantry.The cleaners have a home under the sink, but right now they live right there because they are getting a workout!!

Now, I still have to check out the shower/vanity/toilet workings (have to get the pump working first), but I have them cleaned out fairly well. In fact, I had it really straight, then needed tools and moving around stuff, so it got a little messy again....so that was a really good reason to try out the accordian door!!!

It works!!!  LOL  And no holes, all rollers there, magnet latch is good, and does just what it is intended to do....hide people/stuff!!!

But there isn't too much stuff to hide there now. The table is the "main" dinner table that came with the house. I am going to put it on Craig's List because I will never use it and someone just might want to have an original table to use in a vintage rv they are fixing up.  I will just never use it because it is just too much hassle to use. The original TWO posts for it to sit on are also here, so it is complete.

That pretty well catches me up for the past couple of days. It has been a fairly productive time, and healing time. And I am feeling much better, not only physically, but also "mentally/emotionally" since I have found a job that fits me like a good coat!!! And my boss, Buster, seems to be a good boss. The company has been around for 35 years, and in March of next year he will have been with the company for 35 years....that speaks volumes!  And he has quite a few of us contractors that have worked for him 8,10,14-plus years. That also speaks volumes!

Well, that now catches me up!!  LOL...so I shall close for now, watch a little PBS World, and relax. It is supposed to be so cool tonight, I might just crash out here and sleep my 2nd night in my "new" Mobile Tiny House!!!

Catch-up Time!! Again! :)

Time for another "catch-up" session!  I just realized today that I have been here for 4 weeks at 7pm tonight!  My how time passes when you are having fun....or immobilized!

I have to look at pics from day 1 to current to realize that my foot has come a long way towards being almost a usable appendage again....but it still has a long way to go....if I can keep my sanity until then!  I don't make a very patient patient when it comes to myself and being immobile!!  

July 14

July 14

June 16

June 16

 But it is looking much better...especially the bruising and swelling. But the heal area is still quite swollen and I would guess that I only have about 15-20% of the motion back in the ankle so far. I can wiggle my toes now...and bend the ankle some....and even "stand" on it!  But that is just for a second...I don't want to push the issue for it yet. I am able to use just one crutch in my tiny house...but I am trying to stay slightly smart and keep using both crutches until the swelling goes away completely and it can hold weight like normal (or close to normal!).

 I've gotten the motorhome a lot more organized...and cleaned out....and livable....but there is still quite a bit to do before it is ready for the road. But it is getting there. The kitchen area is usable now.

 

 The seats and the sofa are also usable now. I have to admit that I have thrown out about 5 bags of stuff that I either have no use for or I ended up looking at it and saying "Now why did I want to have that in here? (Or why did I have it in the truck????)  LOL 

 

I get up fairly early everyday (between 5-6am) and wander out to the house. It's cooler and quiet and I don't sweat quite so much! And I have gotten power out to the house (light power, but power) so I have my coffee out there and watch/listen to the morning news. It's a small screen...but it works!!  :)

I do believe that about gets me caught up for today. Not much else has happened. I have spent several hours online looking at the job market here...and there is not a lot to say, except that there really is not a lot of job market here. You either get to do "manual labor" type work or you better have a degree and not be "overqualified"....that is about the main job lines around DFW. But I just keep looking and reading!!

Still mending

It has been 3 weeks since "the fall". And I was able to get a house shoe on my foot yesterday. to the healing process continues! I can walk Around with one crutch, but I'm mainly sticking to the use of 2 crutches due to the fact that I can't put fullweight on that foot yet. It is also still quite Swollen through the heel and the arch. thebruising is mainly gone but it still can't handle alot of weight.

Tomorrow morning I plan on seeing if I home enough or the right adaptors to try to get power into the motohome. Right now I get out into itaround 6 Am each morning and I'm out of it by 9-10 each day. Just a bit warm.And Sunday is supposed to be 100°!

Recovery is a little slow!

   It has been a pretty peaceful weekend, even for a "holiday weekend"!  :-)  And I am getting a little better each day....but I'm not even a good patient for myself!  LOL  I just can't wait until I have both of my feet back so that I can move around for longer than 15 minutes.  But I have to admit that I can put some weight on it now, not full pressure, but some fairly substantial pressure. Maybe in the next few days I will be able to graduate to one crutch and at least I will be mobile enough to spend some time in the motorhome in the mornings to start getting it settled/put up (as far as all my stuff goes), and start getting the things fixed/updated that need to get that way so that I can start looking around for something to do.

   This is going to be a rather healthy update....have several days to go back and get caught up with!

   July 4th started out with an early morning July 3rd!  Josceline can be an early riser...so Thursday started out with an early morning on the front porch with me and Abbie.

 

Then we head into July 4th!  The red, white and blue day!  Julia decided to stay with normal clothing for the day, but Josceline decided that she would go all out for the day....all she needed was Wonder Woman's crown and rope of truth and we all would have been in trouble!!

 

And then Abbie got all wound up and here we went!  When she gets on a roll, she gets on a roll!  I tried to get her running with the girls, but missed it both times, so I'll try to do better and get some video of that soon, too.

 

I stayed at the house the evening of the 4th...fireworks were just not really on my list of exciting things for the evening.  And maybe it was good that I stayed at the house....because when the neighborhood started "blasting off" I ended up with a lap full of Paisley, Abbie, Sammy (at one time) and Mischief at my feet for a while....they were not impressed at all with the booms!  LOL

 

And you know that you have been somewhere for a while when your dog knows how to use the cat door and even knows the command "go inside, Abbie"!  LOL

 

Saturday was another "good day" for me...when it came to relaxing and sitting around!  BUT....I found several different motorcycle races on the tube....and then.......

 

I found football!!!!  It might have been CFL....but it was live and actual football in July and I was in heaven!!!! And it was a good game...good enough that I do believe that I will try to keep up with the CFL for a while and see how it goes.

 

Now today was a totally different scenario!  It started out about 6:45 this morning with Cary and me leaving the house headed southwest of the city.

We met a few friends, and then headed further out of town...a lot further out of town!  In fact, we were out in the middle of cattle and oil country...and it was a beautiful place...

 And the reason for this adventure so early in the morning in the middle of nowhere in Texas.....

AAAhhhhhhhhhhhh....time for the boys to play!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 And play we did...and it was a blast!  As you can tell, there was a "minor" arsenal at our disposal...and we made the most of it! There was everything from 22cal pistols/rifles to AR's chambered with 308cal. And a whole lot in between!

 

 And you can get some good ideas when you go to new places....THIS is an excellent use for a 3-wheeled stroller when the kids out grow it. I mean, a man has to make sure his "babies" are riding in safety and security.

 

 And after playing with pistols of all calibers, we settled in for a while at the rifle table....and had a blast putting holes in the cardboard targets and seeing just how good a pattern we could make.  (and I must admit....my patterns lacked a very tight grouping!).

 

 But it was a good day and a fun time....until the Texas sun got up and decided to make it just a tad warm out there in the sand pits!!!  Boy, does it get hot fast around here when that sun finally gets up to the 10-11am hour....in fact....it's a pain in the you know what!!!!

I'll just end this edition with.....HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!!