Day 465 & 466 It's me, not her.

Ever since I arrived back in Colorado, the weather has been crazy.  Not that it isn't in Colorado in August, but we have had rain(lots of it), wind and hail by the bucket load.  This gives me reason to believe that the "Hudson Effect"(we bring weird weather where ever we go) is centered on me and not Tracy as she has been having nice weather back in Port Townsend since I left.   More rain and wind is in the forecast for today.  We will see how it goes.

I took off running on projects first thing Thursday morning.  I spot sprayed the yard with weed killer and checked all the sprinkler heads.  Surprisingly, I found a broken one in the back yard.  It had sheared off far under ground.  Out with the shovel and down I went.  After pulling the broken pieces out of the hole, I took off for Home Depot and got the replacement parts.  Thirty minutes later and all was fixed and now that section of the yard should return to it's nice green self.

Off came the screens around the house since the hail storm back in early June had trashed many of them.  I loaded them up in the car and took off for the Screen Medics to get them re done.  They could have come to the house to fix them but that cost an additional $10.00 per screen.  No reason to shaft the insurance company so I took them in to be fixed instead.  From there, it was off to Air Care Colorado the have the emissions checked on the Mazda I just brought home.  Earlier this year, it had needed to be re registered and with the car being in Washington state, there was no way to get an emissions test done.  The folks at Motor Vehicles had allowed me(after jumping through several hoops)to register it with the understanding that when the car came back to Colorado, I would get it checked.  She passed with flying colors.

With that done, I was off to the Motor Vehicle Department to get our file updated and see about having to register our Toyota that hasn't been driven in sixteen months.  Colorado wanted it registered and an emissions test done on it also.  Well, when we left, we down graded the insurance on it to just cover it as a stored vehicle that was never driven but would be covered if something happened in the garage(fire).  It was supposed to be registered back in May, but since we were well on our way to Alaska, there was no way that was going to happen.  Since I was already several months late and had already incurred a fine for being late, they told me to just not register it now since we won't be driving it for the next several years and the fines for not registering it top out at $100.00.  If I registered it now, I would have to pay the fine twice--once now and once when we got back to Colorado.  So she is no longer registered in Colorado.  I did get them to up date the file on the Mazda and issue me a new registration card so that project is done.

Back to Home Depot for more things.  I needed another plastic tarp to cover one of our boats so rain and snow don't get in and blow apart the hull when the water freezes and expands.  That happened many years ago and I don't want to have it happen again.  I got some caulk to put around the windows in the back of the house to keep the rain out.  Strangely, the caulk in the front of the house(South side) is fine but the caulk on the North side is all but gone from around the windows and the sliding glass door.  We have had rain come in around the windows before and I want to make sure it doesn't do it again.  Ah, the things an absentee home owner must do when ever they get back home.

The pictures at the top of the blog show hail damage from the June 6th storm.  It went right through the tops of my Rubbermaid trash cans.  It also ripped the cover on my barbecue grill and trashed two of our Summer furniture chairs on the patio.  I see signs all around the neighborhood of roofing companies and the houses that are getting redone.  Ours is scheduled for Monday.

Yesterday was more errands.  I'd made an appointment to see the doctor where I had my Lasik surgery done back in 2007.  My right eye had to be redone(late in 2007) as the first try didn't do the job.  The second appears to be no better and I wanted to get them checked while I was in town.  As it turns out, the healing process didn't go as planed and there is no way to correct my right eye to 20/20 as these places promise.  I'm at 20/50 and even with glasses, it will never get better than 20/30.  Oh well, I guess that's just the luck of the draw.  I'm the "one in five thousand" that it "may" happen to that they talk about in their disclaimer when you go in for the surgery.  But 20/30 still beats the 20/650 I was.

Today, more jobs and errands between the rain and hail.  Even our neighbors asked me last night if I'd brought it with me.  Ah, the power I have with Mother Nature.

More to come--maybe not boat related but I'll be back in Port Townsend by the end of next week and then we'll be back to normal.