Summer Hours

Why does every muscle hurt at the end of the day?

With summer well under way and the weather cooperating for a change, I am attempting to get as much outside work done as is possible at TrippingOverMoose Ranch before...
a. The weather changes to crappy, cold and rainy like most of the last few summers, or
b. The salmon return to the rivers of southcentral Alaska.

Most of the work is being done by a fat, 56 year old office worker, that would be me, with occasional help from the much younger resident son-in-law on the rare occasions when he is not working at his job.

I/we are making significant progress but unless something really interesting happens the blog posts this summer will be few and far between.

Happy Memorial Day! At the very least, let's pause for a moment and give a thought and a thank you to all of America's Fallen Military Heroes who paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be free.
Let us honor them by remaining a country of free individuals, with a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Back at Work

Day 7 of the rest of my life.

Kate's wake-memorial went well, large turn out of friends and family.

Starting yesterday my brother is car pooling with me now and walking at lunch. It helps, gives me a little something to anticipate.

My posts may be sparse again for a while. I don't want to broadcast my feelings. I'll post if and when I have thoughts, observations and or images not related to my emptiness.

Back to the Motorhome

Using extreme care I did get all my studded tires off without further injuring myself. Although my back doesn't seem to be getting better. I have a feeling that I am experiencing a disc issue, not a muscle issue this time. The only time I'm comfortable is in a supportive office type chair or sleeping on my side. Standing and walking are actually getting worse. For now I'll try to get by with Advil and hope the situation doesn't require a visit to my doctor or my parent's back surgeon.

We were going to do our shake down cruise in the Motorhome this coming Memorial Day weekend. However, James started to work on the leaking exhaust manifold last evening. He discovered it was not just one leaking manifold but both and that someone had twisted off 3 studs apparently in an aborted repair attempt. Both manifolds will have to come off and the broken studs drilled and replaced. He also discovered the reason they twisted them off. Several of the studs and nuts he worked on were so tight he couldn't turn them. At least one he's pretty sure is so frozen that it's going to twist off when he comes back this evening with bigger wrenches. We've canceled the trip. I don't want to put any time pressure on my favorite volunteer master mechanic. He is still recovering from back surgery himself.