There are no pics this week.

We’ve had a lot of rainy, cool weather. That means there’s not so much bike riding going on. It’s a good time to catch up on chores & stuff. We’re real caught up.

Danita and I spent one entire rainy day filling out paperwork for our volunteer position at Jewel Cave. We aren’t being paid a salary, but we are still employees of the Federal Government. We still have to meet the requirements of personnel. They still want to know when we visited China, along with seemingly thousands of other details of our existence.

We haven’t attended any neighborhood parties recently. There was a casino night. (We don’t enjoy gambling). There was a concert by a violinist. (We didn’t like him last time he was here, so we’re not likely to like him this time either.) We don’t plan to go to the pool opening party. (Free hot dogs at 2:00, with a large number of other people’s grandkids.)

One of the chores I was working on was pressure washing the deck, porch, garage, and other areas of the outside of the house. The pressure washer has a nozzle with a trigger. When I pull the trigger, the pump is supposed to start and shoot a stream of water out the nozzle at a dirt-busting high pressure. When I release the trigger, the pump is supposed to stop. I cleaned the deck and was almost done with the porch. I released the trigger, and the pump didn’t stop. I turned the power switch off, and the pump still didn’t stop. I press the GFI test button, and the pump still didn’t stop. Finally, I unplugged the pressure washer. The pump finally stopped. I was able to finish the porch, but that was it. I looked at getting it fixed. It’s a familiar story. Labor costs are so high that it doesn’t pay to repair anything less than expensive, professional equipment. So I put it on Craig’s List, clearly stating it is busted and describing the problem. I listed it at $30, figuring somebody would want it, but would feel the need to negotiate the price down to $20. I actually had somebody who wanted it so badly they paid the full $30. It sure beats hauling it off to the dump. I have a feeling this guy will figure out how to fix it and get some more use out of it. I’ll get a new one when we come back in October — just in time for Fall cleaning.

I gave a cyber security talk for our neighborhood last week. It was well received. We had a very nice circle dinner at the Bertch’s yesterday.

That’s all the news for this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.