POOL SHARK, SNEAKY PINE TREE, WRONG PAINT & 3 OPTIONS

We played 8 games of pool a few weeks ago & I lost every one again. In fact we've probably had 60 games of pool in the last 4 years & I've lost 50 of them. Guess that makes me a pretty poor pool player, right!! Well, not exactly. It's just that my nearly 92 year old Uncle Harry in Woodstock has a few more years on the end of a pool cue than I do. He's quite a hustler:))

Have you ever had a pine tree sneak up on you when you weren't looking. Happened to me last Saturday morning. I had walked out to the motorhome to unplug the electric cord because I intended to move the rig ahead about 20 feet to wash it. Opened the bin door, unplugged the cord, turned around & laid it on ground. Did you just catch my mistake!! I turned my back on an open bin door therefore making it a non existent open bin door. Kelly came out of the house with the dogs for our morning walk & off I went.
Upon returning I hopped into the motorhome, started it up, took a quick glance in the mirrors (no such thing as a quick glance!!) slapped it in drive & motored ahead. There is something about the sound of crunching & tearing metal that just kind of takes your stomach out on ya. You know you have just done something bad alright & by the sound of it there is probably going to be a costly repair somewhere. I knew there was no need to panic because whatever it was I screwed up would be out there waiting for me. I hazarded a look in my drivers side mirror & yup, there it was alright. A pine tree had sneaked up alongside the motorhome when I wasn't looking & all but tore off my (open) bin door. Trees will do that to motorhomes sometimes. But, I never thought a tree was smart enough to open the bin door first before attempting to wrench it right off the coach. Afterall, I had closed it...right??
Took my sick feeling stomach & exited the coach, walked around behind the motorhome to the drivers side. The bin door was twisted at an upward angle with the apparent & appropriate damage of course. Took it in my hands to try & twist it down but the whole door just came right off leaving an open & gaping electrical bin hole. The whole upper hinge mechanism was all torn to ratsheep. Torsion bar hanging askew, body flange bent, etc. etc. Amazingly enough the bin door itself was still intact. Wasn't twisted or bent, & no paint missing but that still didn't alleviate that awful feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you've just screwed up by not seeing a pine tree sneak up on you. I remember my Dad having a brand new Honda generator years ago at his cottage, leaving it behind the car, & then promptly backing over it. The look on his face that day was the same look I had on my face last Saturday morning!!
No point in me trying to fix it because I'm still attending my 4th year night school class on how to change a light bulb. We have an auto body repair shop near us so Monday morning I took the rig over there & left it with the professionals. Picked it up Tuesday afternoon all fixed up but I'm too embarrassed to tell you how much that tree cost me. Let's just say it took a huge bite out of our income tax return this year.
Kelly was quick to point out to me that things like that don't happen to her. I was quick to point out to her that's because she never drives the motorhome or moves it around. She quickly pointed out to me that maybe it was about time she did!! Case closed:((
The photo shows the repaired bin door back on the motorhome & the rascally pine tree that not only took a bite out of the bin door, but also our income tax refund:((
You can see a nick in the tree where it had it's way with the bin door & & beside that I sprayed a mark on the tree for future removal!!

It was a good week for painting so decided to finish the motorhome interior slide section that I had started back in Casa Grande, Arizona a few months ago. Back then I bought a quart of paint at Wal-Mart figuring to only paint the wall the mirror is on but since getting back I figured it would look nicer if I carried that paint theme through & did the whole slide. Slipped up to Wal-Mart in Goderich with a paint sample on the American can lid. No problem, right. Wrong!! The lady said the label was different on the paint can here in Canada but figured it would be alright. The American paint had a Satin finish. I failed to notice after she mixed up the new quart that she did it with a flat finish so off I merrily go & proceed to paint the rest of the slide. Not sure exactly when I noticed the difference, but there it was. Flat vs Satin & guess what, the new quart was a tad lighter. Awwwwww nuts!! Now, if you walked into our motorhome you probably wouldn't know the difference so I've decided not to tell anyone.........ok!!

The daily merry-go-round of discussions regarding our future continues. I think the most up front debilitating problem is the daily rising price of gas. It is pushing our trip to the southwest later this year farther & farther out to sea. As we see it right now, we are facing 3 options. 1.Stay home. 2.Travel half the distance to Georgia or Florida. 3.Bite the bullet & head for the southwest anyway.
First & foremost number 1 is not a consideration. "Stay home" are two dirty words that we will not allow in the house & besides, we didn't buy a motorhome a year ago just to have sit in the driveway like some big oversized flower planter!!!! Now, # 2. I am very reluctant to head down to Georgia or Florida for a number of reasons. I don't care for the topography at all & Florida is so flat it's probably going to slide into the Gulf of Mexico this winter because of the number of people scrambling around on it's surface. Just toooooo many people, traffic congestion, etc. etc. I don't think they have the boondocking areas like out west either & the thoughts of languishing in some boring, crowded, noisy & way over priced RV park with not a mountain in view is totally unacceptable to us. And for sure it's going to get a lot worse with the high gas prices because a lot of people who would normally head for the southwest will now be forced to do the Georgia-Florida thing. I can just see the whole retail industry down there right now with big grins on their faces as they get ready to pump up their prices on everything & nail those "snow birds" right smack in their pocket books when they get there.
Number 3 of course is the most illogical choice because of the soaring gas prices but compared to numbers 1 & 2 it's probably just going to have to be a bullet biter for us. The southwest just has soooooo much more to offer in every way imaginable & we just do not want to miss out on it's beauty. We'll just have to cut down on expenses to compensate for the gas. Let me see now, hmmmmm, 10 cases of Kraft dinners just might get us there, sustain us, & get us home again. Yes, I think that's it:))