6 October 2010
Back to Virginia in just on nine hours, giving plenty of time to reflect on the building season just completed. These two photos say it best, taken one year apart. Returned the air compressor I had borrowed from Chris Thiel, and discovered that I had left one of the hoses inside Delores. Hope the mice aren't too hungry this winter...
5 October 2010
4 October 2010
3 October 2010
Took Delores down t’ the Leicester General Store for cheap gas, only to find that the price had gone up by 11¢ a gallon since last week. With the gauge reading just above empty, she gulped down 65 gallons… which cost a staggering $175. Glad we only have to top up once a year. Emptied all the leftovers in the refrigerator plus sundry other ingredients (including what remained of the Tanqueray gin) into two pots and made a delicious soup. One pot went to Kate & Dan to have for a late breakfast; the other is for dinner with Marty & Merry tomorrow evening. While the soup was simmering, parged six sections of between-column rocks. Then took a break to help Dan put up storm windows and clear brush over at his place. After a late mac & cheese lunch with Kate and Dan and sad goodbyes for the next six months, returned to parging rocks, getting another three sections done. Baked a couple of cakes after dinner, one for Mr. Glutton and one for tomorrow’s dinner.
2 October 2010
1 October 2010
The rain that was supposed to clear off by this morning didn’t. Worked on dry laying the ninth course of between-column rocks for the same six sections that I did yesterday, they being under cover of the shed deck. Didn’t stop me from getting soaked through by mid-afternoon when, praise Allah, the G. Stone courtesy van came to take me to fetch Delores. When we arrived at the dealership, Delores was still in the shop with the mechanics working on bleeding the new rear brake lines. Multiple attempts failed to extinguish the brake warning light. They tried fiddling around with the emergency brake. No luck. Then they tried bleeding the front brake lines. Voilá, the brake light went out and the brake pedal resumed having that nice firm feel. Shelled over $600 ($70 of which was for expedited shipping of two $50 brake lines… does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?) and drove Delores back to Fern Lake. Now in order to activate the hydraulic pump that operates the leveling jacks and the slide out, the emergency brake has to be engaged. Suffice it to say that the hydraulic system isn’t working and the suspected culprit is whatever the mechanics did to the emergency brake… as the hydraulic system was working just fine just before they did whatever they did to bollix things up. Of course, the time this was discovered was 5:10 p.m. and the G. Stone service department closed at 5:00 sharp… and won’t reopen ‘till Monday. So much for closing up camp on Sunday… Had invited Marty and Merry over for dinner in the mists of time before brake failure. Instead, we had an excellent prime rib repast at Cattails Restaurant in Brandon.
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