Backyard work party

All we had to do was call it a house warming party and we got some free labor today.  My Mom, sister Pam, brother-in-law Duane, daughter Erica came to help.  Thom's friends Jenny, Justin, Kelsy, Rex and Derrick put in some hard hours, too.  Boone and Wendy showed up, too.  It was so nice to see everyone.
We had too much food, just enough water, pop and beer - it is warm today.

I should have taken a 'before' picture - but here are some 'afters'.  The grass and weeds were over our heads in some places.

Da boys depart

Dave, Rob and Steve left today for Port Angeles, the beginning of the 2010 BC ride.  Every year our little group goes on a ride around a designated area.  We started in Washington, then Oregon, last year Idaho and western Montana, and this year British Columbia.  Pat bowed out early citing his intention to spend his vacation money in Ireland with his daughter Erin, then I dropped out due to my prostate problems.  It was sad to see them leave without me.  To be fair, they offered to delay the ride a couple weeks, but there is no guarantee that I would be ready then either.

You can read Dave's full report on Weenerbago Tales in my blog list to the right.

Retaining wall and fountain

When I got here you couldn't see all of the retaining wall and the fountain was a pile of rocks with some slimy water in the bottom of the pond.  It isn't much, but it's all progress.

Stained deck

Another neglected part of Thom's house - the deck.  I don't think it's been stained since it was built.

Progress in Thom's yard.

Thom bought a nice little house on the Key Peninsula near Gig Harbor.  Over the years it has not had the tender loving care that it deserves, but Thom wants to make up for it.  This past week has been spent pulling some weeds, cleaning/staining the deck, fixing the fountain/pond - but mainly addressing the curb appeal of the front yard so visitors will feel welcome.

In these photos, Thom is working to remove an Alder root, and enjoying the finished burm at the front of the yard next to the ditch.  I threw in a before and after shot, too.
I'm able to help a couple hours each day and light a fire under his butt to focus on one small part of the yard and not get overwhelmed by the big picture.  The lot is a half acre, with most of the back yard undeveloped.  Lots of weeds and brush to worry about back there.  We aren't going to get it all done in one summer visit.

A Safe Trip, I guess.

Well, I made the trip from Thorp to Gig Harbor without incident - mostly. Boy, the wind was blowing. It felt like I was flying a brick. As I was heading on to I-90, I realized that I had left my wifi antenna sticking out the window. "No problem" I thought, I'll just pull it in when I get to the rest area. I wanted to dump my tanks anyway. The antenna broke loose about half a mile before the rest area. Oh, well.

I stopped in the rest area and hooked up my hose and pulled the valve open - the hose blew apart! I stepped in my own mess and closed the valve, got the water hose and cleaned it up. Threw the hose in the trash and got another (I was carrying three of them). As I twisted the second on to the connection, one of the hooks broke off. Another one in the trash. One last chance. I got the tanks dumped, but the last hose leaked a bit (from age I guess), so it went in the trash, too. I moved the motorhome forward a bit and washed every bit of evidence down the drain, washed my boots (glad I wasn't wearing sandals) and headed for Camping World in Tacoma to get a new hose - and my new mattress. Except for idiots that tried to merge in to the coach (do they really think that I am going to stop on the hiway to let them in?) and the fools that I see texting as they travel down the road (I refuse to call it driving), the rest of the trip was uneventful.

I pulled in to Thom's place, gave him a hug and got my home as level as I could. He proudly showed me the 30 amp connection that he'd had installed by his high school friend Kyle. Kyle works as an electrician in Ferndale. I don't know if he has completed his apprenticeship yet. I plugged in and we threw the breaker and it immediately tripped. Strange. We checked everything, then I finally checked the power at the outlet - 240 volts! For some reason he thought a 30 amp outlet needed 240 volts. I am lucky the motorhome isn't burnt to the ground. As it is, I had to replace my microwave and the controller for my electric blanket is trash. All of the other electrical safety devices did their job. I normally check the polarity and power output before I plug the coach in to service panels at RV parks, but I gave Kyle the benefit of the doubt (he is an electrician) and almost paid dearly for it. Lesson learned.

We headed for Home Depot and found a microwave, struggled putting my mattress together and had lunch at the Chinese Panda place. Later we spent a hour or so pulling weeds and trimming bushes. We barely made a dent. We need gloves, rakes, weedeaters, tractor and a truck. I'll go back to Home Depot while Thom's at work today and get a few things.

It's a little misty and gray, but I can see blue skies up through the trees.

"The pain boss, the pain"

Okay, I have to ammend my last post. There is some pain - and it starts with P and ends with eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
Sheesh.
I called to make sure this was normal. I was told that it is and that the pain can last up to six weeks following TURP. I may be dealing with something that is 30 times more common in women than men - Urinary Tract Infection or UTI. My urologist is thinking about prescribing something similar to AZO, but has not yet done so.
A lot of things went up my urethra, now it hurts when something comes down it.