Day 370, Lazy Sunday

I really  had no plans for the day other than going to church.  Usually I go to the late traditional service but today I wanted to keep my late morning open so I went early contemporary service.  I got to church right at 8:30 and was pretty much the only one in the balcony until a few other late stragglers showed up.

The message was good and I enjoyed the program, but I much more enjoy the traditional service.  Immediately after church I ran a few errands including stopping off at Lowes to see if I could find something to fix my broken kayak paddle.  I had snapped the paddle the last time I used it and I just needed to find something to fit in between the the two halves that I could glue in for strength.  With a small piece of PVC pipe I thought for sure I could rig up something.

When I got home I changed cloths and went to work on gluing my paddle back together.  Shockingly it went together very easily and I was thinking I should go try it out.  I tried calling Doug but didn't get any answers.  I knew Tracy was having a birthday party for her sister, so I thought I would just go alone and the afternoon on the lake.  I left about 1pm and got to the lake about 2pm.  The parking lot was packed and cars were lining the edge of the road for quite some distance.  Luckily I found a spot close to the lake and soon I was paddling off into the lake.

One of the coves at Sparks Lake

There were lots of boaters and people camping on the shore.  I paddled around most of the lake and even got out and hiked around a bit.  It was a beautiful day and the sun felt so good.  I feel truly blessed to be able to spend time at the lake and to live in Central Oregon.  I left the lake about 5:30 and headed home.

It was such a nice weekend I hated to see it end.  Around 8pm I got phone call from my Mom saying that there lots of fire trucks and ambulances all over their neighborhood and they didn't know what was going on.  I walked down my driveway and looked their direction and I could see lots of smoke.  It turns out that two vacation condo just up the street from them burned down.  The fire department had called in all kinds of support to keep the fire under control and to prevent the resort from going up in flames.  The fire was quickly under control with the just the two structures the only loss.

Day 369, Flash Back Cruz weekend

1934 Dodge

Today is the big car show in Bend at Drake Park called the Flash Back Cruz.  This is always a great show with many unusual cars and lots of them.  I spent my morning working around the house and texted Tracy if she wanted to go the show. She was up for it and I picked her up around 11:30am.

1957 Austin Healey

There were lots of cars as expected and even Justin from Flyte Camp was there with his 1948 Sequoia trailer.  When there are so many trailers it's kind of hard to figure out where to start, so we started in the middle.  It's amazing how many cars were there and I would guess around 300.  I'm still looking for the ideal car to pull the my little trailer and there were several that I thought would be awesome.  Two of my favorite cars were not cars you would pull a trailer with, but they were beautiful.  One is a 1934 Dodge and the other is a 1957 Austin Healey.  They were both convertibles and awesome.

Tracy and I spent several hours there and we talked with the guys from Flyte Camp for quite awhile.  The trailer was showing very well and they had nearly 1000 people walk through the trailer.

I could spend all day looking at cars and I really enjoyed the day.

Day 368, Friday night at the fair.

I do love Friday, there is no question about it.  Tonight I'm meeting up with friends Wanda, Conan and Tracy to go to the Deschutes County Fair and to see REO Speedwagon in concert.  I'm not sure any of us are dieing to see the concert, but it should be a good flash back to high school and the 80's.

4H Cows

The work day went pretty quick, Tracy picked me up at 5:30pm and we met Wanda and Conan about 5:45pm on the fairgrounds.  The concert starts at 7pm so we  had quite a bit of time to kill, which allowed us time to go look at the animals.  We all have a mutual friend who enters chickens at the fair and sure enough she had pretty much won every category she entered.  Her chickens are very impressive, to say the least and she has even been featured in an episode of Animal Planet.  We checked out all the animals from bunny's to beef.

We got to the concert a bit late and to our surprise the place was packed and there were no seats available.  We stayed for about 4 songs, had a good laugh and then decided to go check out more of the fair.  It was a fun time with friends and we were done around 9pm and we left to beat the concert traffic that would soon be letting out.

Day 367, Thursday

Yesterday I actually got feedback saying "Keep Blogging", so I will keep blogging.  Today was a routine Thursday and I was busy working on the Leadership Redmond program for next year.  Securing the Day Sponsorships, Scholarships and getting people to take the class are the first steps in being able to offer the program that will start next month.

At noon I received a call form Marshall's saying the Rolls was done.  The minor issues I had with dash lights and the passenger front side window were all quickly remedied and the car was ready to picked up.  At 3pm my staff was going to run to the store next door to Marshall's, so I grabbed a ride with them.  Today is workout day, so I asked if my mother would meet me at my house so I could drop the car off and then after the workout she could drop me off at the office I could pick up the car I drove to work.

The workout was at 4:15pm in Bend, and the thunderstorms were starting to build in Bend and I worried about my car back at the office with the top down.  My trainer has a 1984 Alfa Romero and she had the top down and I thinks she was getting worried about her car out in the parking lot.  We finished up our workout and we headed home hoping to make it before the rain.  As it turned out Redmond was fine, but Bend later got hammered by heavy rain and hail.

Seriously, how many big cars does one man need?!

Since it's Thursday, I dragged my garbage can down the driveway, started my laundry, in order to get a jump start on my weekend chores.  I then made a phone call about a 1993 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham that I saw on Craigslist.  The guy was great, and the car sounded awesome, but what do I need with another full-size big sedan - I DON'T!  I really can't help it, I have the car bug so bad, I think I need medications.  After that, I ate small dinner and was feeling kind of restless, so I thought I might as well mow the lawn too.  It was  now 8pm and I would just enough time to mow before dark.

I was finished by 9pm and covered in lawn mowing dust and grime and was in real need of a shower.  Ten minutes later I was clean and I spent the rest of the evening sitting on the deck with the two cats and thinking life is good.

Day 366, Playing hooky

Wednesday started off as another typical Wednesday and around 9am, Tracy emailed and wanted to know if I wanted to play hooky and go kayaking.  I quickly checked my calendar and with more than 390 hours of vacation on the books I said sure.  We planed on leaving work at noon and taking the afternoon off.  It was a beautiful day and I couldn't think of a better way to spend the afternoon.

Tracy got to my house about 12:30, we loaded the truck with the two kayaks and I needed to drop the Rolls back off at the mechanics to have the dash lights worked on.  After dropping the car off we needed to get our National Forest parking permit and I was sure we could get that at Dick's Sporting good in Bend, which we couldn't.  We then had to go to REI in the Old Mill District and it was now 1:40pm, which meant we would get to the lake at just after 2pm.

South Sister from Sparks Lake

We went to Sparks Lake again and the lake was beautiful, with very few people.  This time we decided to explore the north end of the lake, but we quickly learned that's was were all the gnats were hanging out, so we paddled back to south end.  After about two and half hours of paddling we decided we had enough and headed in.  With the truck loaded we drove down the long gravel road and I had to stop and take a picture of a 50's Shasta trailer camping on the lakes edge.  It was a great looking trailer and it was in a perfect setting.

A vintage Shasta Trailer, sans wings.

Seeing the Shasta got me thinking about my trailer and I asked Tracy if it would be okay if we stopped off to see my trailer, which said sure.   It was now almost 6pm and the guys were still there working on trailers.  There were even more trailers than before and the Shasta trailer they had been working on was re-skinned and sitting outside in primer.  They were figuring another week or so, and then they should be getting to mine, so I figure at least another 2 weeks.  I am really getting excited, but it's pretty clear that it will be October before I get my trailer.

Back home I unloaded the boats and spent the rest of the evening pulling weeds and working in the yard.  The chickens were out except for two.  It seems I now have 2 broody hens and they both want to hatch the three remaining hatching eggs.  Sometime next week the three eggs should hatch if they are going to at all.

It was another great day.

Day 365, One year of blogging about the Traveleze trailer and Chickens

August 3, 2010, the day I brought the Traveleze home.

Well here it is, one year of me blogging on what was supposed to be about the restoration of my 1950 Taveleze trailer.  I bought it August 3, 2010 and started cleaning the up and assessing the work that needed to be done.  After a month of work I quickly realized that it needed much more attention then I wanted to give to it, so I looked for help.

The Traveleze is currently sitting in the parking lot of Flyte Camp Vintage Trailer Restoration awaiting its turn for restoration.  I had hoped to have the project completed in less than a year, but here it is one year to the day.  My love of restoring old cars has taught me great restraint in wanting something done quickly, it just never happens.

Throughout the year and as the waiting process began on the trailer, I turned my blog from one focused on the restoration, to that of raising chickens and my random life as middle aged guy living in the heart of Oregon.  My blog is about as random and routine as my life, but it's me, and it reflects the events that take place throughout a year in my life.  I don't know if I'm living the American dream, but I'm living my dream.  I get to travel, play with unusual cars and someday camp in an old trailer.  I have great parents, family and friends and my job is for the most part fun and rewarding.

I really did want to finished up this blog in a year and to have covered the restoration of my trailer as well as a few adventures of the Traveleze out on camping trips.  Since the restoration has not yet started, I'll keep blogging as I enter the start of the second year.  I truly hope that August will be the month that the restoration gets started and that sometime in September I'll get the trailer back, who knows, maybe I'll even have time to take it somewhere before winter sets in.

Sitting in the parking lot wait it's turn to be restored.

So as my first year as the owner of a 1950 Traveleze Trailer comes to an end, I'm still just as excited about seeing this little canned ham restored.  I'm a year older and will turn 46 in a few weeks.  I've survived another year and I'm just a little worse for the wear, but still hanging in there.  My 7 chickens are now a year and 5 months old and are laying about 4 eggs a day. 

Tomorrow begins year two and we shall see where the random life of a middle age guy, his chickens and the restoration of a 1950 Traveleze Trailer end up going.

Day 364, Monday Monday

What can I say, it's another beautiful day and the temperature is expected to reach 88 today.  I drove the convertible and parked behind my office and put the cover over the car.  I could put the top up, but I find it's easier to just toss the cover over it.  The cover does many things, one it keeps the dirt and leaves out of the car, it protects the leather, it keeps me from having to put to the top up which would fade, prevents the plastic back window from rotting and it keeps the sun off the paint and rubber, so its an all around win.  It is however some what of a hassle and I have to close the cover in the door, so it doesn't blow off, but it works.

At noon I ran home for lunch and let the chickens out and then I ran to the airport to buy my plane ticket to Oklahoma City.  I was supposed to have bought the ticket on Sunday, but I forgot to go to the airport so I called to extend the hold on the ticket until today.  My friend Ann in OKC had given me a Delta Airlines gift certificate and I needed to use the certificate by this September, so the timing was perfect.  The gate agents had a little difficulty figuring out how to redeem the coupon, but they got it done I went back to the office.

Rain storm August 1, 2011

By 5pm the weather was starting to have that black ominous look with thunderheads brewing as the afternoon temperature started to climb.  I left the office at 5:20pm and I was a little worried I might get wet with the top down, but I figured I would just make it home if I drove quickly.

I was about 3 blocks from the house when the rain started to fall, but it wasn't to hard at first and I wasn't really getting wet.  I parked the car in the garage and by the time I got in the house the thunder and lightening was really starting to act up.  Within 20 minutes it was a complete down pour, I had just made it home in time.  The chickens scrambled for shelter and I watched the rain and the storm blow through.  The storm lasted about 45 minutes and it really soaked the ground good.

After the storm passed I spent some time out in the yard and cleaned my gutters that were showing signs of being plugged.  I love a summer rain storm and the air smelled fresh and clean, with a hint of wet juniper, which for those of you don't know smells a lot like cat pee.  Yuck.

It had been a great day.