Fishing Arizona & The Colorado River

How Did It Go?

I took off Thursday. I’m not sure its going to be my official day off every week, but it was my first official day off in a long time. I made myself a cup of coffee and flipped on some machining videos on the big screen while I made breakfast. No real change. I do that every day. Then I started prewashing dishes… HEY NO HOUSE CHORES. I didn’t unload the dish washer though. I stopped myself.

Then I realized there was a load of Patti’s work clothes in the drier. If I left those until today I might have to atleast toss them back in the washer for a quick rinse or they would wrinkle. Okay I hung laundry. HEY NO HOUSE CHORES! Yeah, no if I put it off it would just create more work later. I finished hanging clothes.

Then it was out to water the fig trees, and carry out the trash. For most of the country it still winter, but those trees are going to start budding out any day now. I’m going to try to plant a few rows of early corn this week if I can make some time. I don’t think we have another frost coming. If we do I have more seed.

Finally I stopped with the house chores. I had a check arrive so I wandered out to the shop, got on the computer… and paid bills.

Finally I got off the property. I did have fishing rods in the Jeep(tm), but I was headed to the metal yard with a trailer. 240′ of 2×2 11ga steel tube and a long pleasant conversation with the manager in the yard later I headed back. This was the first two day off type things of the day. I didn’t mind standing out in the yard shooting the breeze, because I wasn’t working whenever I got back anyway. The other was the steel tube itself. Its for a project I want to do. I have some on hand already, and lots of steel plate. The plan is to make a continuous (8′ sections) work bench down the back wall of the shop. Its something I WANT. Not something I NEED. Yeah, it should help organize the shop and make work flow a little more efficient with all the various projects I have going, but its also fun. Not just hunching over the computer hacking out another design to go on the mill.

Then I did some true day off stuff. I emptied most (not all) of the fishing rods out of the Jeep and sorted out some in The Tin Can that need some repairs.

With space cleared in the back of the Jeep I thought, you know I really should get some new batteries for the truck. I haven’t been using for a while due to the price of diesel, and the last time I checked it the batteries were dead. They were also well over 3 years old so there was no warranty benefit to being in a rush. I think that was two months ago. I toted out a few tools, wrangled out the batteries (neither seems to come straight out), and headed inside to check with the wife before heading off to the store. She was making dinner noise, but I could tell she didn’t want to cook so I headed off to the store.

When I got back I made dinner. The new batteries are still in the back of the Jeep, and oddly enough I feel like I got a lot out of my day off. I’ve got one custom job ready to go on the mill this afternoon, some stock stuff cutting this morning, and if all goes well (it never does) I might actually go fishing for an hour or two this afternoon, but right now I need to get this load of laundry started.

That was my day off. I hope I don’t have to wait until my next day off to get the batteries in the truck.