Quoted From A Fellow Traveler:

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile. Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Save The Last Dance For Me

Two of our six granddaughters have been taking dance lessons since they were about six years old. For the oldest of the two, Jessica, this was her last dance performance. She is going to be 18 next month and will be starting college this year. Joyce and I have been to just about every show that the two girls have been in.
Megan is the younger of the two sisters and she will enjoy one more year of dance before she moves on.
It was a bit of a sad moment as the two performed their final dance together which they dedicated to their father who recently survived cancer for the 2nd time.
Proud dad stands in for a picture with the girls.

Monday, June 28, 2010

The Jeep Is Back In The Garage For Repairs

Two days ago I found an oil leak under the front of the Jeep and after cleaning all the oil off of everything, I discovered that it was steering pump fluid that was dripping down from the end of the steering box.
This shot shows where the steering column goes into the steering box, and the fluid is running out here. Looks like all the seals on the Jeep are drying up from old age....wow, I can relate to that!
So I took her back to the garage so I could give the mechanic some more money that I could have used for fuel on our trip. Wow, at this rate I may never get out of Massachusetts.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Good News

Last week my son-in-law had a problem with his lawn tractor not starting and it turned out to be the starter gear was broken.
I figured that I would take a look at my starter and when I removed the cover, I was amazed to find that the same thing happened to my starter. The only difference was the gear had jambed the flywheel on mine and made it seem like the engine was seized.
Once I removed the starter, I was able to turn the engine by hand so the good news is that it's only a $10.00 repair. It's just strange that my starter failed one week after my son-in-laws did.

Oh yes, and I did top off the oil level with fresh oil.

I got out of bed this morning, went to the bathroom and found this when I came out. Casey is not allowed on the furniture so I was a bit surprised to find her stretched out. Hmmmm...I wonder where she got this from?

Yesterday was a hot and humid (dog day) and Casey figured out that cool air came out of those registers in the floor so that's where she spent most of her time.
Joyce's eyes are coming along good and it looks like I will have my navigator back by the time we leave. Speaking of leaving, I'm not sure if I mention it but our tentative departure date for the Dakotas is 7-5-10 so stay tuned.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

What's Next?

Tomorrow is Father's Day and the realtor is doing an open house at our home. Joyce fine turned the inside of the house while I gave an extra trim to the yard.
I noticed that the lawn tractor was starting a little slow so I figured that I would put the batery on the charger after I finsihed cutting the lawn.

A couple hours of trimming a cutting and I parked the tractor next to the garage to charge the battery. Left it there for a couple hours, checked the voltage and it was fine. The problem is it wouldn't start the tractor, in fact it wouldn't even turn the engine over.

Well, after doing some checking, I found that the engine was seized. Yup, after 21 years of faithful duty, she is dead. My fault!!!!!!!
I checked the oil and she was bone dry.....oh man how could I be so dumb. I can't believe it because she didn't make any noise or show any signs of dying.

Oh well, now I really have to sell the house because I don't want to have to buy another tractor!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY to all you fathers.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Time To Check In

It's been a while since I posted, wow time flies. Not to much to report, I have been working on finish waxing the coach. I do a little everyday and should be done by the beginning of next week.

Joyce had surgery on her right eye today so now it's just a matter of doing eye drops for the next three weeks. Already she can see things at a distance better.

I have been working with the pup to get her to walk without pulling. We go to a large parking lot everyday and practice for an hour. She is improving but still has a ways to go.

Well, I don't want to bore you to death so I'll say goodnight for now.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Joyce Has Her First Eye Done

Joyce went in yesterday to have her left eye done to remove cataracts and replace the lens. It's amazing what they can do in fifteen minutes with a laser.

She came through the surgery fine and her eye has improved already. It should continue to get better as the eye heals. Hopefully she will only need glasses for reading.

Now she waits for two weeks before having the other eye done.

Today I received a call that the Jeep was ready. As you recall, the Jeep was in the garage to have the transfer case repaired due to bearing failure, then I received a call the the rear end was also making gear noise. The rear end noise wasn't bad but I didn't want to take a chance of bearing failure while out in the boonies so I had those bearings replaced also.

I picked up the Jeep tonight and and was shocked to see that the bill was double what it started out to be; the rear end work cost more than the transfer case work. Oh well, it is what it is.

While I was using Joyce's laptop, I got a virus that was caught by my Internet security program. The problem is I can't seem to destroy it, I have tried everything that I could do but it looks like this is a job for the pros. Computers are such a pain in the butt.

Man......sometimes you just can't win for loosing.