Long wait

September 14, 2007

(6:08am)39º F, Clear, NNW Wind, 5 mph.

Good morning,

It is good to be home again. A very long couple of days. We go a late start and got home again later than we expected - and a lot more tired than expected. Didn’t even unload the truck, other than the perishables.

The major reason for the timing of the trip was a doctor’s appointment for me. That was a success I guess you could call it. My blood pressure is down and so is my weight. Not a great deal, but the doctor was pleased and I was surprised. Dr. Zenner walked into the exam room with a laptop computer as did the CMA who took my blood pressure and pulse, besides filling out the “paper work,” now computer work. I teased him that if when I come and see a computer with out him carrying it, I would be out the door. He said he hoped he would retire before that happens. I’m sure I would have expired by then! I can see the need for the computer as it makes everything legible, especially for the pharmacist in filling prescriptions, or at least should. The doctor writes the prescription on the computer, presses a preprogramed key, and it is faxed to the pharmacy immediately. Or at least that is the way it is supposed to work. A half an hour later, when we went to pick up the prescription, the fax had not arrived yet! An hour and a half of waiting and the fax still had not arrived. We finally went over to doctor’s office and the office gal printed it out and we physically handed it to them - I got my medications. The doctor’s office was having some problems with their computer system. I offered my 4# riveting hammer for adjustment purposes to the office gal and she was ready to accept the offer!

The blood pressure being down was a real surprise, since not only is the moving and packing rather stressful, but I also evicted a family of raccoons from the space under the roof! That happened between 1:00 A.M. and 3:30 A.M., so I was very tired too. I didn’t have much to dissuade them from staying as most was already here. Didn’t want to shoot them up there as I really didn’t want to remove a body - if I could. If I couldn’t the results would not have been good either. I finally thought of the can of fly spray I had packed earlier and dug it out again (I have used wasp-spray in the past with some success as I can “shoot” it a pretty good distance). Through one of the ceiling tiles in the sunporch, I filled the space with the insect spray. Apparently they didn’t care for that and tried to leave, finally jumping/falling from the roof. I did manage to get a couple of hours of sleep after that. It is a good thing the truck was more or less completely packed the day we got there.

We took some of the large furniture this time, so the truck filled rather quickly. About all that was left was a 6' long wall cabinet to load and some boxes to keep things from flying around while traveling. We also took most of the pictures from the wall and our remaining clothing. The clothing protected the pictures some and both rested on the upholstered chair arms. The cabinet my Dad had made for my Mom to hold her pots and pans next to the stove also came along with all of the contents of it. Most of what we brought will go into the main house, except for some pots and pans and like that. The clothing mostly was our “winter” clothes, so it will be traded out for the summer clothes we now have in the Hobbit Hus.

On the way down, we stopped and picked up a piece of counter top to temporally fit between the range and refrigerator. The whole deal cost less than $25.00, less than I think I could have built one for. We knew we could not pick up a color match to what is already in the kitchen, Margriet picked a somewhat contrasting color. The best thing is that it will provide three more feet of counter space for her. We also picked up the interior part of the woodstove chimney - the stovepipe to connect the woodstove to the hole in the ceiling. This woodstove has a 5" connector and the chimney has the standard 6" flue. They do make a reducer, but we could not find one, so I probably will need to manufacture one to fit. I did buy a crimping tool to do the job more effectively than a needlenose pliers I have used in the past. This is much tougher steel than dryer venting. If I find a commercial one, I will get it as they are at least much neater looking.

Checking the internet before leaving, I saw the price of gasoline was 10-15¢/gallon cheaper in Green Bay than here. We had enough left in the tank to make it to Green Bay. It was $3.039/gallon when we arrived, so put in $20.00 worth to get us to Kewaunee and back to Green Bay, if the price was too high in Green Bay. As it turned out, the price was $2.949/gallon in Kewaunee! We would much rather buy from Dean than some big company in Green Bay, so packed in as much as I could. Hope it will not need to be filled until we return next time and the lower price than here. We saved about $15.00-20.00 on the fill. Wished it only cost $15.00-20.00 for a fill!

Not too sure why we got such a late start going down, but we at “lunch” about mid afternoon. Didn’t eat any supper, but ate a couple hard-cooked eggs we brought along for breakfast, thinking it would be enough to last us until about 2:30 P.M. when we would be finding the Old Country Buffet again. With all of the waiting at the pharmacy, we missed their lunch and were in time for their dinner menu. The price was about double the lunch price, so we passed and went to the Pancake Place instead. We stopped going there when the place was sold and then it was remodeled. The food was great (roast pork loin dinner) and the cost was about 60% of the Buffet. It was more than we should have eaten.

We had rain from just north of Green Bay all of the way back, finally only a few drops falling when we arrived. Both trips were very uneventful other than seeing a few deer, but no bear! There is a hard frost warning out for tonight. We have had frost warnings out before, but this one is predicating lows in the mid-20's for tonight. That should put an end to most gardens around here. It was a shock to see corn fields picked clean and being plowed around Kewaunee! There are no corn fields up here and very few farms of any kind. We also noticed how noisy it is at FISKLAND compared to here. In 1997 when I moved there, 95% of the time the only manmade noise was the foghorn, now there are many more trucks and tractors going by on the road. Here there are almost no airplanes flying over and all of those are small private planes. No wonder we can hear the coyotes howl at night. There are coyotes around FISKLAND too, but I have never heard them howl there.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><