October 20, 2020 Tuesday

Yesterday, Monday, involved a trip to the big city of Soldotna. This was necessary to get the estimates to repair the bubble fenders on my truck, Spike. One I damaged when the truck slid sideways and bumped the big tank.. DENT!!!! The tank was fine the truck was injured to the tune of $4300. The other side was damaged (Crumpled and dented) by a hit and run in the Home Depot parking lot. This bit of fun had an estimated repair cost of almost $6000. I’m not sure that USAA is going to repair it or decide to scrap it. I guess I’ll get that answer in a few days.

Also, went shopping. Went first to Fred Meyers, a division of Kroger, and could find almost nothing on my list. The place is so jumbled up and disorganized that I, finally, gave up and went to Wal Mart. At Wal Mart they wanted me to wear a mask but I showed them my list with ‘masks’ at the top. That satisfied the young lady and I was allowed to continue on my quest. I picked up a package of masks as I entered the store and then continued my shopping. Up at the Wal Mart you find stuff arranged in some logical order and this makes the shopping go very quickly. It logical arrangement does not preclude being lulled into some sort of trance where you find yourself inspecting stuff that you either can’t afford or for which you have the same need as an extra hole in you head. That which should have taken a quick, crisp 45 minutes, including the time to check out and pay, I was there for for substantially more than an hour. I dropped off the package of masks on a convenient shelf on the way to the check out. I’m not wearing the ‘Coward Sheeple Flag’ that is the mask. On the way home, I noticed that it had snowed a bit. Nothing serious but the real winter snow is fast approaching.

There was an earthquake yesterday. The quake was centered at Sand Point in the Aleutian Islands some 600 miles from Homer. People felt it here in Fritz Creek. I felt nothing 80 miles further north in Soldotna. The quake was a 7.4 or thereabouts. A pretty big quake but centered well beyond the populated areas. There was a tsunami alert and the result was a 4 foot wave after there was an evacuation alert down in the Aleutians.

I have been watching the political scene pretty closely. Here in Alaska we have two Democrats running as Independents one for Senate and one for Congress. Democrat is an increasingly dirty word in Alaska and I suspect In all of America. Both of these Democrats are on tape saying that they will caucus with the Democrats in Washington. The senate candidate is even on tape admitting that ‘most’ of his beliefs are to the Left. Of course, they are promising “free everything”. How we are to pay for all of this “free stuff” is beyond my comprehension. I’ll be voting against “free stuff”.

Been revising my ‘To Do’ list. We are planning to house the bees in the newly constructed green house for the winter. This is going to require making sure that all avenues of escape are closed. That is my major project for Tuesday. In addition, I am still dragging out stuff to sell in this weekend’s ‘garage sale’. I am still finding stuff that I have forgotten that I owned. If I haven’t needed or used it in the last 3 years, it is going to a new home. If someone doesn’t buy that particular, unused widget, the Salvation Army will become the new owner. The next thing on the ‘To Do’ list is installing the siding on the outside of the downstairs bathroom. This should have been done two years ago but everything seems to get in the way of this 3-4 hour project. After that project is complete, I’ll be installing gas lines for two small propane heaters. One is for my bedroom where I have no heat and last winter Suzy’s water bowl skimmed over with ice on on particularly cold night. It didn’t freeze solid but it was an indication that I should, maybe, install some sort of heater. In December, three winters back, I was driving back to Florida to get the balance of our valued possessions (Many of which we’ll be selling this weekend). I spent the night behind a convenience store in Tok (pronounced toke like a draw on a wacky weed bundle). I was sleeping on a mattress in the 28′ cargo trailer. During the night the propane Mr. Heater went off. During that night the dog water bowl, sitting on the floor next to the mattress, froze solid. I bought a new Mr. Heater in Canada the next day. That Mr. Heater quit during the night which led me to discover that that the problem wasn’t the heater but the propane tank. The tank was getting so cold that the propane would not evaporate so that it could be burned. Solved the problem by placing the tank where it got some of the heat from the heater. The dogs and I were toasty warm for the balance of the trip through Canada and on through the Great White Northern States of America. Anyway, a heater in the bathroom will make it comfortable to bathe and one in my bedroom will knock kill the chill first thing in the morning.

Guess I better get to work. These projects aren’t going to complete themselves and the garage sale is starting on Thursday.