Finally.

You never know how much you depend on shit until you don’t have it, right Tort?

Erin that is. After a 10 day absence, she’s headed home. I have to tell you that I miss her when she spends extended days away from me.

Tori’s place is getting close to finished. Tori’s working hard on moving in and setting things up, but the impatience of youth has her thinking she’s not doing enough. Chill Tort, it will happen in its own time and you’ll be happy again.

Other Stuff

The ladies are still here and while SH is now under hospice care, she appears the same to us. ML was given a book about naughty history and she’s been reading that and chuckling to herself. We’ve had that book sitting on the toilet for years and I figured she might enjoy it. She’s a twisted old bat.

I’m freaking tired of summer.

Well, next week we close the store for 4 days, maybe 5, so the construction company can replace our gas lines. We really don’t have to close the store, but we feel that it will give us a chance to clean things really well and maybe make a few changes to things like layout and inventory. Monday the 16th will be the first day closed. I also feel that closing for these days will reinforce our importance to the community to those that take us for granted.

Merry Christmas everyone!

They’ll reopen on Friday the 13th. I don’t like the implications! Now where are we going to eat tonight?

31 years approaching fast. 9/11/13. We’re gonna spend the night in Alb. and have dinner with friends. The Elephant Bar at 7:00.

Nina says Steaksmith tonight. Been a while since we were there.

8 Harleys sitting out front now. Nice looking rides.

Tori got her permit and letter of compliance from the county today. That means she can get electric run to the house and move in afterwards. The electric co-op is closed today. My little bundle of joy and lightness was less than joyous and light when she found out that she couldn’t file the letter with the co-op. Monday is the soonest she can file it. I’m expecting a quiet and calm weekend, a weekend of quiet meditation and whispered conversation, a weekend of deep reflection.

BULLSHIT! This weekend is gonna suck big time.

I get up in the morning and I can feel fall is on the way. It’s brisk and I love it. Cool weather is my weather. This morning I heard the weather liar tell of frost tonight in the northeast, the first of the season. I can’t wait for it to happen here.

Looked at Harleys the other day. Nice stuff and not as bad $$ as I thought they would be. Wouldn’t hurt my feelings to own a bike again. We’ll see what Nina says if I get serious.

I have influence! With my friends that is. Diane is the third friend to go the Apple route with new computers. Catherine should fall in line soon. Apple kicks ass when it comes to computing.

Delays with Tori’s home. Stupid stuff. She’s about ready to kill people slowly if they don’t comply and let her in.

Peace

Studies have proven that people who celebrate more birthdays live longer than people that don’t.

I decided to start walking there again. Called Dennis to see if he’d wish to join me and we met there at 10. He found out there was a tour, the last of the year and we joined them and learned quite a bit about the park.

On a earlier visit, a very early visit, I learned that they never found any dead there, but today I learned that not only did they find dead there, but because of the 1990 Native Remains Repatriation Act, they were returned there and reburied in a secret location in the park.

Over 2000 people lived there during their peak periods and they had enough food reserves to feed them for 2 years. Farming, hunting and trading were their staples and they had 500 warriors.

Just a file pic of the place with my little buddy.

Today we took a drive to Fort Sumner, home of the Billy the Kid Museum and Gift Shop. $5/head entry fee paid and we were wandering the place looking at the old stuff that they have. Take a minute to check out the pictures below.

After the museum we did lunch at an old style diner in Vaughn. Good food eaten at the counter.

We had a nice day out.

Ham & eggs: A days work for the chicken, a lifetime commitment for the pig.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another. The combination on the ATM is stupid simple. It’s designed that way. The average customer is too stupid to remember a hard combination so they give you a 100 number wheel and a basic combo that most morons can remember easily.

The problem? The lock seems to be dirty and the locking mechanism just ain’t working right. Tori and I worked on it for over a half hour last night and there was no joy. Not a huge problem since there was still money in the cassette, but when the time came to load it again we’d have a big problem.

While lying in bed last I came up with an idea that I figured to try this a.m. While in the tub this morning I was wracking my brain trying to remember what my great idea was and cursing myself for not writing the idea down. While toweling off I was thinking how warm the bathroom was when I remembered what I thought of last night. HEAT!

I got our heat gun out and warmed the area around the lock to the point that it was almost too hot to touch, dialed in the combo . . . . JOY.  First try. What I remembered about last night was thinking that the dial seemed sticky and tough to turn. It turned easily, but not as easy as it should. Heating it was the solution! Yay me.

Other shit (i.e. Tori’s house)

Tori’s house is now on hold, sorta. Holiday weekend and all that shit. No power and that probably won’t happen until Tuesday. Skirting will happen this week. She needs to sign up for an alarm service. All the services are now covered since they’ve been inspected and approved. Fencing the place will start this week and a deck will need to be built in both the front and back. Larger deck in front and smaller deck in back. Both will be supported by some of the old telephone poles we have on the property and will give Tori and Erin some outdoor space. She’s got more projects for me that I will be willing to attempt, the joys of homeownership.

Peace

Tori started moving it out already.