Sunday 4-5 Reading and Working Out

Another relaxing day

We had an overcast day but it didn't rain. It got into the 60's.

I finished reading a great book called Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan. It was a historic fiction that took place in Italy. It was about a young Italian teenage boy (Pino Lella)  growing up in Milan, Italy while it was occupied by the Nazis. It's about his adventures helping the Jews and the Resistance.

Reading is fun

In the afternoon I worked out for a half hour using Gold's Gym. I did my daily challenges and The Event:Solitaire World Tour of 30 games. It took me 3 hours, 11 minutes and 20 seconds. I came in 10th place in my group.

Working out

In the evening we watched a couple of episodes of Midsomer Murders. I started to watch the first season of Single-Handed, it's a police series that takes place in Ireland. Acorn said I already watched it but I didn't remember it. I did 20,000 steps.

Saturday 4-4 Rainy Cool Day

It drizzled on and off all day

The rain stayed around all day and the temperature didn't get out of the 40's.

Larry has a Minnie project he wants to work on but he couldn't because it was too damp. Instead we stayed indoors all day. We read mostly of the day. We watched some YouTube videos. 

Reading is fun

In the evening we watched a couple of episode of Midsomer Mysteries 18th season. Then I finished watching Doctor Finlay series. I did my daily challenges and 22,000 steps. We had another relaxing day of doing hardly nothing.

Watching television

Friday 4-3 Keeping Dry

The rain came in last night and it's suppose to stay around for the next week. We will make the best of it. In all honesty since we are trying to follow the social distancing guidelines it won't make much difference. At 5:00 our local weatherman (Andy Anderson) said todays temperature had gotten to 70 degrees but in about 15 minutes time it had dropped to 45 degrees. During the weather report I went outside to get rid of some trash and the temperature had certainly dropped and there was a north wind. It rained on and off all day.

Yesterday, Larry ordered the parts for our next Minnie project, which is adding a propane line to the dining area. Most of the parts came in today but Larry won't be able to do the project until the rain goes away. That's ok because we're not in any hurry.

We spent the day reading. I worked out for an hour and a half using my Wii Fit program, Gold's Gym and Just Dance. I did my daily challenges and the Event: Two Games Tango, which was 10 Spider and 10 Tri Peaks. It took me 1 hour, 50 minutes and 28 seconds. By the time I went to bed I was in 10th place of my group.

We watched some YouTube videos on how the coronavirus has affected people who are living full-time in RV's and vans. We feel for those folks because some of them really don't have any place to stay to isolate themselves from others. Some of them are in other countries and the countries have different rules. They're told they can't stay in an area but aren't told where they can stay. A lot of them have decided to go back to their home countries but it's not that easy since the countries they are currently in are locked down. Many of them are having to get their embassies involved and then travel great distances to an airport. Even people who are in their home countries have problems since many times they don't have a home other than their RV. A lot of the campgrounds are closing and some of the people don't have any place to go. In the videos we are watching the people are actually very positive and are going with the flow.

In the evening we finished watching the 17th season of Midsomer Murders. Then I watched a few episode of Doctor Finlay. I did 22,000 steps.     

Thursday 4-2 Heat Pump Repair

We woke up to overcast skies. The rain was suppose to be here at 11:00 am but it arrived around 4:00 in the afternoon.

Rainy afternoon

Larry started the day out by doing his morning routine of checking his e-mail and reading the blogs he follows. I got out of bed around 8:00 and made breakfast. I did my daily challenges and The Event: World Tour Mini of 8 games. It took me 27 minutes and 35 seconds to finished the challenge. Then I read.

A while back Larry noticed that our heat pump (heater / air-conditioner) wasn't working correctly. Tuesday Moore Air came out and checked the system, it was out of freon, while they could not find a leak they were fairly certain it was the coil. He came back today and installed the new coil, he had to solder it in. It took him a couple hours to do the entire job. When the gentleman finished everything worked. Hopefully that fixes the problem. Last summer it ran out of freon, we had Lockridge Priest come out and work on it, they put stop leak in and filled it back up with freon, we were not really happy with their process so we decided to try a different company. Larry was not overly impressed with Moore Air either so the next time we need service we will try another company.

I haven't used my Wii Fit in over a week, I will blame that on doing the Minnie floor project. I lost interest in working out. Larry teased me about it so I felt guilty and got the Wii Fit balance board out. I ended up working out for an hour and a half. I did the Wii Fit for a half hour, Gold's Gym for a half hour and Just Dance for a half hour. During my workout I had to turn on the ceiling fan because I was hot. When I was finished Larry had Alexa turn off the fan because he was cold.

Working Out

   

In the evening we started watching the 17th season of Midsomer Murders, we watched two episodes. I finished watching the third season of Doctor Finlay and started the fourth season. I did 22,000 steps.
 

Wednesday 4-1 April Fools Day

It's April Fools Day

We had an outstanding day with a lot of sunshine. The temperature was a cool 75 degrees with a little breeze.

Larry did his monthly activities of putting bleach in our septic tank and backing up our data to the cloud. I read a bit.

We normally camp in the Spring and Fall and sometime it gets cold. In the Minnie we have a furnace that we seldom use because it uses a lot of propane and battery power. If we are plugged into electric we use electric heaters but many times we use our Wave3 catalytic propane heater, it requires no power and uses very little propane. Years ago when we got the Wave3 Larry plumbed it into the stove in the kitchen. It is quite a distance from the kitchen to our bed and while it might be comfortable in the back it is much chillier in front. Larry has been thinking about adding a propane line near the dinette which is in the middle of the Minnie. Today he crawled around under the Minnie and looked around inside trying to determine the best way to do this. He is working on some ideas. 

A couple of weeks ago Larry purchase a digital timer for our septic system. He has been testing it out here in the house and it has worked fine. Today he removed the old mechanical timer and replaced it with the digital timer. Hopefully it will last longer than the mechanical timers and since it is a bit tricky to program he hopes the septic inspection folks won't be able to make changes to it.

Removing the old timer

Old timer on the left, new on the right

Connecting the new timer to power

 
Once again we did our weekly grocery shopping online via Walmart. Lots of things are still not available to order but of everything we could order bread was the only item they did not have. When we picked up our groceries Larry went inside and picked up bread and a few other items. They actually had some of the items we wanted but online they showed as out of stock. They still don't have any paper products (we don't need any) or Campbell's Chunky Soups. For lunch we normally eat either soup or a salad, salads have a very limited shelf life and we are getting low on soup. Since the coronavirus started we have changed our way of grocery shopping, we shop online and only once a week. When we have to go inside Walmart for items that aren't available online Larry goes in by himself to avoid coming in contact with other people. I tried to tip the person who delivered our groceries to the car but the employee said he couldn't accept tips, I was surprised.

Grocery shopping

Last week we bought a pork roast and I cut it in quarters. Sunday, Larry smoked half of it and I froze a quarter of it. This morning I put the other quarter in a crock pot and slowed cooked it on low for six hours. While the pork was slow cooking it was covered with liquid smoke. Once the pork was finished I shredded it. For dinner we had pulled pork sandwiches.

Pulled Pork

Crock pot

In the evening we watched a couple of episodes of Midsomer Murders. I started watching the second season of Doctor Finlay. I did my daily challenges and The Event: Medium Mayhem of 27 games. It took me 1 hour and 47 minutes and 12 seconds. I did 21,000 steps. We had another relaxing day.      

Tuesday 3-31 Another Minnie Project

Awesome Day

We had an awesome day. The sun came out and the temperature was very mild, in the high 60's.

It has been about a month since we last square danced. Yesterday, our friends James and Jeanne, from Sun City called to see how we were. We met them years ago via square dancing and every week we look forward to seeing them. We have wonderful memories of dancing with them not only in Sun City but also at many places including The Rio Grande Valley and at Fun Valley in Colorado. We were thrilled to hear from them. It was so thoughtful of them to call.

James and Jeanne at Sundancers dance

James and Jeanne at Fun Valley, James hired me as his jockey and we won😀

With the flooring being done in the Minnie Larry moved on to another project. While we were in the Rio Grande Valley one of the kitchen drawers fell apart. Larry was able to get it back together but it was in very poor shape. This morning he decided to rebuild the drawer. The drawers are made out of some kind of fiberboard and the drawer has gotten wet so the board had sweld in places. Larry built a new drawer using plywood we had hanging around the house. He cut the board to fit the sides using his miter saw. Then he glued and stapled the boards together. He attached the original front back on. In the drawer we have a plastic tray to hold our silverware and it really didn't fit correctly so he also modified it to fit. Then I put the silverware back in the tray. The drawer looks excellent. 

Old drawer Larry rebuilt

Larry sawing plywood for the drawer

The finished drawer after being rebuilt

The drawer with the original front

Every once in awhile we have noticed the smell of propane near the door of the Minnie. This afternoon Larry started checking all the propane connections with soapy water, he found one connection that produced bubbles, he tighten it up and no more bubbles, hopefully that problem is fixed.

While Larry was doing the Minnie project I read. After dinner I mowed the yards. 

Mowing the yards

In the evening we watched a couple of episodes of Midsomer Murders. Then I finished watching the second season of Doctor Finlay. I also did my daily challenges, I didn't have any event games today. While watching television I did my steps 22,000 steps.   

Relaxing in front of the television

 

   

Monday 3-30 Rainy Day

Smile and have a get day

When we woke up today it was overcast. The weather application we use predicted rain was going to come by 11:00 so we went outside to the Minnie to install the toilet and put on the bathroom door. After installing the new seal and tightening the bolts Larry hooked up the water and made sure there were no leaks. Next we put on the bathroom door. I held the door while Larry attached the hinges. This project is complete and the floor looks outstanding.

From the living area

Bathroom

Step

   

We got done right in time, the rain came in around 9:30 am. When we got in the house I did my daily challenges and the Event: Two Games Tango, which was 10 games of Klondike and 10 games of Spider. It took me 3 hours and 55 minutes and 41 seconds. I was stuck one the 10th game of the Klondike for a long time because you had to play the 9 of diamonds in 75 moves. 

I was busy doing my challenges when lunchtime came around so Larry made lunch for us. 

After lunch I worked on my puzzle until I couldn't keep my eyes open. Then I went and laid down for a couple of hours. While I was napping Larry wrote his Seeds Program review on the Shaw Vinyl Flooring. He also worked a bit on editing my annual book from 2019.

In the evening we started to watch the 16th season of Midsomer Murders. Then I finished the first season of Doctor Finlay and started the second season. I did 21,000 steps. We had a good day.