Two Days Later

Today is Wednesday. We've been in John Day less than 48 hours. Lots has continued to happen.

On the night of our arrival, after unhitching the trailer, initially we emptied the trailer refrigerator and packed our large cooler with the frozen things; plastic bags for the other things. We took those to the house that is being provided by the Forest Service. Another volunteer, Dee, who will be leaving on Friday, greeted us. She said she had planned to take us to dinner, but it was too late for that now. We looked around to decide on our rooms. Liz took the second downstairs room because of her arthritis and inability to climb the stairs to the second level. I took the room upstairs that had the most windows. Then we went to dinner.

After a nice dinner of pizza and beer we went back to the trailer to get some of the clothes and other things we would need in the house. When we came back with our things we found that the bed-making angel had made our beds! We were so grateful to Dee. We finally put ourselves in bed, to begin learning about our projects the next morning, 9:30 a.m.

Tuesday, July 1, we met our boss Don Hann at the Forest Service office. He got us started on the paper work for badges, and then we learned about the projects available to us. We decided to concentrate on making a plan for the historic landmark house we are staying in. It is in need of some TLC and upgrades, and we will make an assessment and write a plan for this. In addition we will be participating in an archaeological dig in a couple of weeks. We will also be making monitoring stops at selected sites throughout the forest. I will report more details later.

We finished our first day at about 4:30 p.m. I had managed to contact my auto/trailer insurance company to make a claim on the trailer. We were invited to dinner by Don and his wife Ann, and along with Dee we had a marvelous steak dinner at the Snafflebit Restaurant - hello to Su and Liz, and farewell to Dee.

This morning we prepared to go to work on our house project, but I wasn't sure we were to show up to the office. I placed a call to Don and left a message. I went out to truck to clean it up a bit and get some paper work. That's when I noticed that I had a flat tire on the truck - the front passenger side. So I called my road service to request assistance. They sent a fellow from Les Schwab Tires on the west side of town. I needed a new stem valve. Off with the tire, on with the spare, after some hassle getting it from underneath the truck. I followed the service man to the garage and after waiting a few minutes I could leave, only paying the $7 for the stem. I am grateful for the road service - at $110 a year it's a bargain. Today's service call would have been $42.50 in addition to the stem.

Now I'm waiting for the insurance agent to contact me for assessing the trailer on site. I'm also grateful that they decided to look at the damage before denying the claim as a mechanical failure that is not covered by the insurance.

I thought Mercury retrograde had passed, but I understand that it's shadow will continue until July 6. I can't wait!!!

This afternoon here we sit at a Subway wi-fi hotspot where we had some lunch and tried to do some online work. Luckily we aren't tied to a set schedule and we can work from the house and do some of our own field work. This will be a fun project!