A typical monsoon-pattern day yesterday, which for some reason kept things roiled up to where I had next to no cell coverage all day. D&L started a cleaning project that busied them till after lunch, so we went to town later than usual.
I put the time to use…
I borrowed Ian’s laser rangefinder to reset all the range markers on his range, all the way back to 400 yards. Since I rebuilt the target stands further back toward the cliff, even the markers last year’s flood left standing were no longer accurate. So I replaced the ones that were missing and relocated the ones I could dig out of the sand.
Then I went around for a long-delayed round of battery maintenance…
This didn’t get done at the turn of the month because leaning over batteries with a filler jug made my back hurt too bad. But I really do seem on the mend at last, so now everything’s back up to date.
I kept waiting for the phone to ring, because I really wanted to get to town for fuel and water and some plumbing parts, but they continued delayed. By the time we met, the afternoon storm was already gathering…
…which meant we had a race on our hands. I’d filled the back of the Jeep with propane bottles and gasoline cans, and that’s right where they stayed. Quick in and out was all there’d be time for – you want to make sure you’re on the right side of the wash when the storm breaks.
Yeah, it was all very dramatic. Sky was black, lightning was spearing down from the sky. I threw groceries into the Jeep on top of the still-empty fuel vessels and drove home as fast as I dared, got the cabin buttoned up for what promised to be a gully-washer of a storm…
…and then the clouds waved jauntily as they slid off to pound somebody else’s house. We got a little rain, just a pleasant shower really, and that was it. What a gyp.
So in the evening I went out with a tube of thread dope and got the new furnace pipe ready for installation…
Ten minutes under the addition with a couple of clamps, and the plumbing for the bedroom space heater will be complete except for the pigtail hoses. They’re three weeks or so away, alas, but it doesn’t matter. I think winter will hold off that long, and I don’t have full propane bottles to connect to them anyway. Stupid storm.
I also struck out on my effort to reduce the tragedy of hummingbird overcrowding…
…because the one feeder I saw in town was an overpriced piece of crap. But that’s life. Something else will turn up, or not.
*Cough*
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