Wednesday July 24, 2013

I spent the morning putting the pumps back in the hot tub.  It was quite a job since they don’t give you much room to work inside the bottom of the tub.  I also had to replace the Ground Fault Interrupter circuit.  After getting everything back together I used a small bucket and sponge and got the rest of the water out of the bottom of the tub.  Now I am letting it dry out and then will use a vacuum to clean up the rest of the dirt and critters.  There must have been at least 20 dead scorpions in the water.  They were all dead but I wonder why and how they got in there in the first place.

Tomorrow I will fill it with water and check for leaks and hopefully the pumps will be okay and the bearing still good.

Saturday July 20, 2013

Not much to write about lately but did want to put something out here for the regular readers.  The weather has been unusual for south Texas this month.  It seems we have gotten a brief shower almost every afternoon.  I almost think I am living on the beaches of FL.  The rain is welcome of course especially this time of year when we don’t normally get a  lot of rain.  I know it is sure making my weeds grow fast.

Friday July 5, 2013

I was sitting at my desk this morning and looked outside to see a wild Turkey Hen and her two chicks getting something to eat in my front yard.  They were off to the side so you will have to excuse the quality of the pictures since I had to take them from an odd angle through the window.  After I took these pictures, I went out the back door and walked around to try and get a better picture but they saw or heard me and took off down the road.  It is no wonder that wild Turkeys are so hard to hunt.  Their instincts about when perceived danger is around is uncanny.

It feels good to be posting something besides flood control and clean up.

Early Wednesday July 3, 2013

We have spent the last two days at Margaret and Jack’s house.  The two men from Home Depot installed the carpet in their house over the past two days and we have spent that time moving furniture in and out of the rooms.  It was quite an effort but at least it is done for the big stuff.  Margaret still has a  lot of work putting the little stuff away and getting her house back in order.

They also got their new big screen TV and the Chavez Brothers came over and installed the entertainment center around the new TV and it looks good.  We had all the TVs working and everything hooked up correct with the surround sound and the DVD players, etc. working and all was good in the world of TVs at Margaret and Jack’s house until Margaret called me and said the TV in the Master bedroom was able to change channels.  I went down and did what I could but nothing worked.  Finally Margaret called Dish Network and it turned out that they have a bad remote.  They will ship one and it will get here on Saturday.  What a bummer, you spent all that time getting new stuff set up and running and then an old item that you wouldn’t think would go bad, goes bad and you are thinking it is something that you didn’t hook up correct and spend time double checking everything you have done.  Oh well, at least it is something easy to fix. (Maybe)

It is starting to get light outside and I noticed that the Hummingbirds are gathering around the feeders.  I have three feeders on the front porch and they are about 2-3 feet away from each other and one was empty.  The other two had sugar water in them but the Hummers had decided that they wanted to drink out of the empty one.  There were about five of them hovering around the empty feeder and none around the two with water in them.  So what do I do but stop writing and go fill up the empty feeder and now they are about 20 Hummers and they are feeding off all three feeder.  They seem to be most active early in the morning and just before dark at night. 

Monday July 1, 2013

Margaret and Jack are getting their carpet installed today and tomorrow.  They were supposed to have it done on Wednesday and Friday but Home Depot called this morning and said there was a cancellation and so they came out this morning.  They will be doing the living room, family room and master bedroom today and the other three bedroom tomorrow.  I don’t know how these guys are doing it for the price.  Home Depot is offering a special of carpet installation for $97 for the entire house regardless of size and I know they use private contractors for these jobs and I don’t think the contractors are paid extra by Home Depot.  Wow, two guys, two days and all day at that doing hard work for $97.   Does anyone think the economy is doing well?

Now that the carpet is going down in the family room, Jack is anxious to have the new big screen TV installed.  They have ordered it and it is due to be in next Monday but Jack wants Margaret to call other Best Buy stores in town to see if they have one in stock that we can go pick up.  I doubt anyone has one in stock.

A lot of their furniture is sitting on their back porch.  I sure hope it doesn’t rain.