Tuesday, March 5th

Happy birthday Brennan, it was great having a facetime chat with you and your family, especially Paityn.  Hope your day was wonderful.
  Our day started out like usual.  It was a nice day in the making so five of us went for a bike ride.  There was a pretty good breeze off the mountain, so we went for the short ride.  Uphill and into the wind but the return trip was downhill, so we got some gliding in.  The bike I have now is a great glider, in fact most guys are pedaling well before I start.  You might question whether this is in keeping with getting some exercise, well rest assured, I still get in lots of time on the pedals.  We made about 7 miles today.
  After I discovered some gaps in the breezeway on top of the Az room.  The carport sits on the Az room and acts as it roof, but the roof is corrugated aluminum, so doesn't sit flat,  As a result is gaps that provide access into the ceiling insulation.  I have mesh or foam fillers I put in the gaps, but sometimes they get blown out.  The birds, mainly cactus wrens, go in there to steal pieces of insulation for their nests.  A couple were taking twigs and things into the attic space to build a nest, so I had to plug it off.  They kept coming around for quite a while and eventually dropping their twigs, etc.  Then they would sit there and chirp away, raising quite a racket.  They eventually tired of it, I think, and went away.  Before I blocked it off I checked and I am pretty sure there isn't one trapped in there.
   Then we went out looking for some flooring material to match ours.  I took a piece with me and we went to 3 or 4 places.  The first one we stopped at gave us a suggestion and it turned out to be the best one.  As it turns out our laminate is 12 mm and the had a pretty good choice of colors, styles and thickness.  It was by far the largest flooring & tile store I have been in.  The salesman was very helpful, the prices were very good.  While we were unable to get an exact match, you really have to look close to tell the difference.  Got an opportunity to use the skill saw I bought a couple of weeks ago and it works very well.   I got the flooring installed, it was only 4 pieces to replace a damaged area.  While doing this I discovered a problem under the closet in the bedroom, a support piece was loose, so I fixed that as well.  The only problem is my shed is so small I end up moving a bunch of things to get at what I need.  Tends to make the jobs more time consuming. Installation required a bit of creativity, but the salesman gave us some good suggestions on how to do it.  Marg is pleased with the end result, so it's all good.
  On the way back we stopped to fill the 5 gallon bottle of water for our water cooler.  We don't really drink tap water here and with the warmer weather we are using a lot more water now. 
  It was hot today, reaching 80F, so I took a break and re-hydrated.  Marg went to Safeway and the vegetable market.  Among other things she got another bag of oranges, we go through a lot of those here.  We prefer the locally grown navel oranges, they are so fresh, juicy and tasty, unlike any we get at home.
  Happy hour was on the patio today.  There were lots of folks there and even though it was noisy we had a few laughs.  We also learn things, like one of the guys was having fuel problems on his Kenworth.  He tows his 5th wheel with it.  It turned out he has a check valve in the the fuel line and it was plugged with crud that appeared to be rubber bits and leaves.  Oh yes, Marg got a new job, Director of the Entertainment committee, so she handles the money and is a board member for the association now.  Her reaction - I knew we shouldn't have gone.
  Supper was bbq pork chops and the egg salad and coleslaw.  It was great and quick so we were able to make bingo.  We were both close all night, but alas success was not to be ours.