Sandy and I actually made it up to see the old year out and the new year in. We made our annual journey to Razoo’s and took our picture at the tree in Sundance Square. Went and saw the parents and made it home by sunset. Spent the first day of the year relaxing and enjoying doing nothing. Tomorrow the year begins in earnest and there are things to get done and goals to accomplish. Best luck to all in the new year!!!

So apologies for the delay in the current content. I’m still struggling with managing content that was developed in the last expedition. And honestly, there’s been a bit of a lag getting back on the computers. It will correct itself in time.
More soon.

We find ourselves docked at a KOA about 12 miles south of Livingston Montana. I’m not the biggest fan of KOA’s but they have full hookups and WiFi which after boon docking for 5 days is a treat. Offline posts will need to be published but it’s next to impossible while I’m still on the road. They’ll appear as time allows.

Today was a R&R day, we woke up late, Sandy went to town for coffee and her Montana Starbucks cup. I got showered and we went back into town for a Y splitter for water and groceries. We loaded up so should be set for the next week. We’re right by a tiny town called Pine Creek and went and hiked up to Pine Creek Falls. Very pretty. I got the tool bag organized and a few chores done, burgers on the grill and a sunset walk. Nice day! Off to Idaho tomorrow, FCFS at Farragut State Park.

So I didn’t realize but the tires on the Xterra were really old and the fact that I would need to replace one means that I need to replace them all. I hate having mismatched tires and told myself when I could afford to do so, I’d always replace all 4. I didn’t go top end, I actually went for the $107 tires, but by the time that you add $20 for road hazard, $20 for lifetime maintenance, mounting, balancing, TPMS, disposal & environmental fees and of course tax, it’s $643 out the door. But tires are the most important safety feature on the car, at least according to Phish.

Also today I got around to freezing the ground beef from Sam’s club. I got 90/10 which is leaner than I like but it was like 10 cents more than 80/20 and talked myself into it. Gotta remember that the freezer isn’t a permanent solution and it needs to be used within a year.

And lastly, I’ve solidified the litter box situation with the cats and put the litter robot in the closet where the old litter box was. They seem to have taken to it after I got rid of the ants (don’t ask) and we’ll monitor the use and compliance:)

It’s been a rough week at work and I felt like pushing a little harder so I did a 5k at the gym today, or more appropriately I walked 6200 steps at the gym today which is my best approximation of 3.1 miles. It still takes me 50 minutes which is a bit off of my best time of 18:20 but that was 35 years ago.

Decided to put in the 2TB (drive? chip?) non-ram memory in the computer and reformat. While the BIOS seems to find the drive just fine, Windows 10 doesn’t. Really? I felt like it was back in the 90’s and trying to install NT 4.0. So I booted with the new chip seated to the old drive, it saw it just fine so now I need a driver for the Windows 10 Pro install to see it, grrrrr.

Work is killing me, the Ross job didn’t pan out so I’m stuck for now. I’m beginning to see some desperation in the company, it makes me sad. But that’s why I got the degree and I’m not one to abandon team-mates but I’m also not one that will take a paycheck I don’t earn. It’s time to find the next gig but I’ll still be there for the crew I’ve been with for a decade. Not looking to burn bridges in this act.

I had a coupon for Great Clips that expires tomorrow. And, considering that it’s 109 in the shade, time for a haircut. The coupon is $10 off so $7 and I still paid $20 but most of it went for a tip which makes me happy.

Life is good, water washes dirt away and makes new, according to STP circa 1992… I got caught in a downpour but not made of sugar…

So for better or worse, Sandy is leaving for her new job today and I become a bachelor for two months. I’m not sure this is a good idea but the money will be good and hopefully there will be a trip to visit her.

In the mean time it’ll give me some introspective time and time to get that Linux certification. Also it’s time to start strength training and I’ll have time to do that. Here’s hoping I don’t get too used to being on my own!!!

While I love all animals, I’m currently living with two cats. The dogs will come when I have property. In any case I was sitting in my office and I hear a din from the kitchen, I heard Sandy say something to the cats and then some crashing. As I got up to see what the issue was, a blur blew by my legs on the way into the bedroom, Sandy was trying to catch her breath from laughing and I realized the cat had gotten tangled up in a bag and was blindly running through the house.

She finally came to rest on the cat tree where we were finally able to cut the bag away from her and freed here from the most traumatic experience of her life. It’s okay Sammy, we still love you:)

I wrote about it a while back but today, I finally sent the 31k payoff check and depending on how slow the post office is, I own the truck!!! And to celebrate that (not really) Sandy and Shelly took it to Erie, PA. This means the first time the truck is out of state under my ownership and I’m not even in it. Sigh…

But the good part is she’ll be bringing the extra tank back adding an extra 50 gallons to the capacity giving a total of ~80 gallons and around 800 miles hauling the RV. Part of me really wants to put in a true transfer tank and I could get a 100 gallon for about 1k, but I already own this one and the pump makes sense if I’m going to use it to fill up equipment at a job site.

And with Sandy and the truck in PA, I’m left to my own devices for the 4th of July, lord help us all:)