Yep. Goooood day.

Well, we didn't make a lot of progress on the shower today. I had a bit more energy than the previous two days, but my mind was mush this morning and I wasn't going to take on an unfamiliar plumbing job on an expensive piece of equipment. But we did get the trench dug for the drain pipe, and then we got to working on the composting toilet in the barn. My poor friend M has been without a working bathroom for nearly a week now, so since the toilet was a simpler project and we no longer have outside contractors poking around what-all we're doing, that seemed like a good thing to do. That toilet is now (hopefully - I've still got questions about how pleasant it will be to live with) on line. We have a date to hit the shower first thing in the morning.

Along about 3:30 we went to visit D&L to cut the 4X4 legs for the shower pedestal, and while there I asked to borrow D's water level so I can measure and cut the pier forms for The Secret Lair. Turns out they'd needed a much longer one for the big house they're building, and the pack rats had chewed little holes in their old one which they've sealed here and there with tape and RTV, so they just gave it to me.

This evening we three got together for a nice dinner (we've been sharing dinner duties day-to-day) and then sat out for an hour until it got too dark. Very pleasant. Ghost, I'm very happy to report, has made a friend. I've often noticed that Ghost has been getting kind of sour: I think he's bored. The older dogs don't want to play, and Little Bear is just too clumsy and clingy to provide Ghost's kind of fun. But Beauty, W's dog, is an excellent match for Ghost. They both love to run and chase rabbits, they're about equal in size and age, and they've really hit it off. When we're having dinner they play constantly, with Little Bear blundering between them like a stereotypical annoying little brother you tolerate but don't really encourage. Actually the two packs have been mingling much more this time than they did on previous visits, with much less friction. There have been a few scraps, but nothing serious or chronic. One that particularly amused me happened early on: W's aging pit bull Bruno took a dislike to something that Little Bear did and proceeded to teach him some manners. Magnus - who is not at all averse to knocking Little Bear for a loop when he deserves it - saw this and lumbered into action. There were teeth and snarls and flying slobber for a few seconds between Magnus and Bruno, Bruno backed off, and then Magnus knocked Little Bear down and disciplined him for he knew not what.

All in all we're settling in as well as can be expected and better than I feared. And now I'm going to bed.

Propane!

This is actually a couple of days old, but I was too sick to care. Al the Propane Guy came and, apparently finding no objections to our system plausible enough to continue denying us propane, actually installed a propane tank. Yes, we have gas.

Since this is after the advent of our new residents, both of whom are possessed of a good deal more energy and initiative than I have plus access to transport, this was immediately celebrated by the appearance of a new shower! At this time of year that's substantially more exciting than a furnace in the barn, let me tell you.

As further celebration (?) this morning I received the below link from my landlady:

At long last, we're moving again!

Ah hab a code. Ids in by dose. Coodent sleep, cus I coodent breed. Dose all stobbed ub.

Yesterday was worse; yesterday I really felt like shit and couldn't have done anything strenuous if you put an RPG to my head and said get productive or die. Today was not quite as bad, but I definitely wasn't as gracious as I should have been when my new neighbors showed up on my porch at 6:30 and wanted to get moving at the build site. "You don't have to do any work," they assured me, "Just come and supervise." Uh huh. I sighed and grabbed my hat. We loaded up half a dozen bags of concrete and a full barrel of water in the trailer, and set out to fulfill my worst fears about whether the Jeep could pull a loaded-down trailer through the soft sand in the wash. It can't.

We dug out the tires twice, then started dumping weight and pushing in hopes of getting the Jeep to firmer ground. First the concrete went; that helped a little. Then half the water; that did the trick. We unhitched the trailer at the build site, then went back and loaded the concrete sacks into the Jeep. I'm very, very glad I didn't try that when I lived her by myself. It was one of the things I anticipated going wrong, and I had no clue how I'd get out of it alone.

After that it was just a matter of measuring and digging some holes, then mixing some concrete and pounding in some rebar. We got all the pier foundations done! I'm exhausted and surely good for nothing for the rest of the day, but it feels so good to be making progress at last.

Next step: The pier forms!

Sweet. Mary. Jane. This is truly...

Uh...surreal. Yeah.

I've managed to catch the cold the stakeholders brought back, and it's untimely as hell. The very morning I hoped to make some serious progress on converting the secret lair from a series of holes in the ground to a series of concrete-filled holes, and instead I'm dragging myself around filling tissues with phlegm and feeling like I tried to swallow a large pincushion.

I'm a wuss about being sick, and I really hate being a wuss. So I'm blog-surfing and trying to forget my troubles, and one thing leads to another which leads to another which leads to...well, this:



And suddenly, on top of all my other problems, reality ceases to have any meaning at all. I can only speculate that they didn't actually know what a "toke" was.

Real ID is Dead? Yay!

Oh...wait.

Yes, our dear Safety Czar, Janet Napolitano, has saved the day. Napolitano actually signed Arizona's version of the Middle-Finger Law opting out of Real ID last year, but that was then. Now she's playing for the big leagues, and that changes all your convictions the rules.

The new proposal, called Pass ID, would be cheaper, less rigorous and partly funded by federal grants, according to draft legislation that Napolitano's Senate allies plan to introduce as early as tomorrow.

The rebranding effort follows months of talks with the National Governors Association and poses political risk for Obama as well as Napolitano, a former NGA chairwoman who wants to soothe strained relations with the states without appearing to retreat on a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission.

Since the new Real ID Light tastes great AND is less filling, no doubt a number of governors will drop their treasonous objections and we can get down to inventorying and tracking government property the way civilized totalitarian nation-states should.

Sunday Cute,

Dovetailing nicely with the song in my head.



Wonderful baby, living on love
The sandman says maybe he'll take you above
Up where the girls fly on ribbons and bows
Where babies float by, just counting their toes...