The Deck (01-15-14)

Well, first of all, this is new and somewhat exciting.  This is my first post from our new computer.  Unfortunately we still have not been able to get any information onto it from the old one, so I have none of my files, pictures or music.....yet.  We'll keep trying, but since we have now moved on and are in the desert of Arizona, internet access is extremely slow, making it more challenging.  Not to mention we are sitting in a circle of about 40 friends, which means our time  might be pretty occupied, not leaving much time to work on the PC. 

The only pictures I have of the deck work right now are the ones that were still on my camera, and the ones I stole from Amy, so I'll have to make do.  Anyway,  here's the story:

Paul's nephew Shad, and his wife Amy live near San Diego, and just bought a new house.  They had asked if Paul could add a railing to the existing deck to make it safer.  He, of course, said "sure". Once we saw the deck, he offered to  make more drastic changes. The original deck (below) stood 3 feet high, and was flush with the hot tub.  Not a great set up. 

 

Add to that the fact that the stairs from the master bedroom intruded into the yard and the whole yard looked a little choppy.

 

 

With help from his brother Tom, Shad and Amy, and everyone else who happened to be around, we lowered the deck 28 inches and moved/rebuilt the staircase so it is less intrusive.

 

 

Paul loves a project like that to work on.  It's one of the things he misses about owning a house.

Please stand by....(but here's an update) 01-15-14

Whew,  Paul and I spent the last two days in and out of stores with these logos:

Shopping is probably my least favorite thing to do, and shopping for computers rates even lower on the list!  After doing everything we could to get our laptop to re-boot, including enlisting the help of the IT guy at the campground, we had to admit defeat.  In order to use it again we'll have to Restore it, which will wipe out all of our info.  So, before that happens, we have to get the info off, and onto another computer.

Our laptop is 6 years old, so we knew it was a matter of time.

After learning more about intel processors than I ever wanted to know, we finally bought an Acer V5 touch screen laptop.

As you can see, Paul is pulling the hair out of his head in frustration trying to get this thing set up.  It came with Windows 8 and the first thing we are doing is upgrading to Windows 8.1.

It wasn't as simple as it sounds and Paul gave up because he has stuff that HAS to get done today.   I took over and have been on the phone with Microsoft for an hour.  Looks like they got it to work.  Once its loaded, we can get our stuff off the other hard drive, but for now we still have no computer.

So, what did Paul need to do that is so important?  He had to take care of this mess:

Obviously our hitch and toolbox are not in the bed of the truck.  What we DO have is tons of wood.  All of it had to come out to put the toolbox etc back.  We are leaving here Friday, so no time to relax.

Well, ok, we did take Some time to relax.

Last night we went out with a friend of mine and her husband.  I've known her since I was about 5 years old, and she moved out to San Diego a few years ago.  We had a great dinner at a (surprise!) Mexican restaurant.

Back to the truck.  We emptied the bed to pick up the new-to-us truck camper that we bought last week. We have already dropped it off in Fresno, but that's another story- one that will be told when I can post Pictures with it!  Yesterday we picked up a bunch of firewood because we're headed to the desert for two weeks.  We may have to leave some behind though.  That's a LOT of firewood!

In the meantime we are taking care of all those last minute things we need to do when we are leaving a spot after being there for a month.

We will return to our regularly scheduled blog posts.......(01-11-14)

As soon as my computer gets either fixed or replaced......

 Lots has been happening but I can't upload the pictures from my camera, only those from my phone, so I will wait to post most of what we've been up to.  Also, Blogger for iPad is terrible.

Meantime, we stopped in Los Angeles to have lunch with Jess and Geoff, who happens to be a COLTS Fan!

He served lunch on these plates.  I hope I don't get indigestion!  

The Patriots are playing the Colts tonight in the playoffs.  May the best team win!!  Go PATS!!!