All the progress goes to M today...

The guy's an animal. I hate him.

I just flat overslept, not going vertical until after 6:30 and not feeling like doing a damned useful thing except spreading the hoses out where they can do some good on the property and changing the generator oil. M, on the other hand, was out filling trenches before my feet hit the floor at all.

He got S the Road Guy back out today, tearing New! Better! gigantic boulders out of his excavation (M's Lair will be set into a hillside) and digging the entire footer. Bastard.

Er...he also got S to fill in the whole upper-ridge part of my trench, saving me days of work. So...I hate him more. Such insolent efficiency cannot go unpunished.

Heh, heh...S&L heard the diesel commotion and came out to see what we were up to, at a time when neither I, M or W were there at all. Having determined this, they went to turn around in the driveway...and backed their jellybean car right into my water trench. They hiked out to where we actually were, M and I went out to help, and found the poor little thing so high-centered that the left rear tire wasn't even touching dirt. After a short, sweaty attempt to move it ourselves, M went and got S the Road Guy to bring his monumental backhoe to the top of the ridge with a tow chain. He didn't even have to change gears: he pulled the little car out of that trench like there was no trench at all. He then went back to nonchalantly removing gigantic boulders.

I hate him, too.

Ghost's eye is all better, having healed much more quickly than I would have guessed. He came back from his weekend at S&L's this afternoon and immediately began stalking over to W's lair to pick a fight with Bruno or anyone else convenient. He'd have gotten away with it, except he's got a telltale red flag: When he's looking for trouble, his fur stands up along his entire spine. This is a phenomenon I seriously never noticed before. As soon as I see it, I know it's time to head the little bastard off.

Tomorrow we've got to head to town about 8:30. Yesterday morning, in an effort to move some stuff between build sites, I found that the Jeep's starter wouldn't work at all. I checked the fuse, the relay, everything I could find, and it all tested fine. I suspected a problem with the neutral switch, and the voltage readings at the solenoid seem to support the guess, but they really hide those damned things. I couldn't find it, and can't say for certain there's anything I could have done about it if I had found it. Then while I was screwing with that my phone rang, with my neighbor J calling to remind me that I'd promised to go to his place and help him put his dismembered generator back together. So (sigh) I hiked to his place, fixed the genny, and then scored the service of him and his massive diesel pickup to tow the Jeep to the shop in town. Massive diesels seem to be my fate lately. The shop was closed, of course, because everything useful is closed on Saturday in our little town. So we parked and locked the Jeep, and nothing good will happen till M and I go back tomorrow morning. I figure that if I stop playing Lazy Bastard I can get a couple hours' digging in before we have to do that, for Only Then! Can I! Be! Happy!