And When You Pray ...: It’s Been a Long Time

This morning, after going to Camping World and getting a 50-amp to 30-amp adapter and installing it, I went to Brandon to meet some friends for brunch. Every few weeks, I meet my friends Joan and Joyce for breakfast/brunch, but today a friend of ours whom we haven’t seen in three years or so was supposed to meet us also.

As I usually do, I arrived a little early. We were meeting at the Brandon Hometown Buffet, which is located where the old Village Inn used to be. After about 20-25 minutes, Joan and Joyce showed up. Since the restaurant wasn’t open yet, we stayed outside to wait.

After 10 or 15 minutes a lady got out of a car near us. Joan said, “Nita!” She said, “Joan!” She looked a little different, but people do change after 3 years.

We all hugged one another and began talking. It soon became apparent that Nita had lost her mind. She was talking about her husband of 47 years who had died 13 years ago and when we mentioned her current husband Bob, she acted like she didn’t know who we were talking about. Well, Joan had just spoken with her on the phone and Nita had told her that she and her husband Bob had a house in Riverview.

I finally asked her if she was Nita. You’ve probably guessed that she was not. She was a lady Joan had worked with at K-Mart 30 years ago. That is why she knew Joan.

As it turned out, Nita never did show up, but we had a great meal, the pleasure of which was enhanced by re-living our case of mistaken identity.

Lots Done

Today, I installed my smoke detector and was able to use one of the holes from the old (missing) one. Doesn’t it look great? I feel a lot safer now. Wouldn’t you know that the battery that came with it was practically dead – it started beeping ever 15 seconds or so. Fortunately, I had some 9-volt batteries.

Following is a picture of the neat step rugs I installed yesterday:

A while ago, I mentioned the cookies and neat tin I got for my birthday. As you can see, I’ve found a good use for the tin: a place to store my bungee cords. Awesome, huh?

The electrical box in the next picture may seem familiar to you if you are a regular reader of this blog. The adapter is my favorite (<—this is sarcasm, in case you don’t know) color. The red thing on the 30-amp plug is called a “Plug Dog” and allows you to pull the cord out straight.

I also removed my sewer hoses and adapters from the boxes so I could stow it in my magnificently-fabricated (heh heh) PVC pipe. You can see it peeking out at you in this picture:

The piece shown here has the fittings already installed. I also have a 5-foot pipe I stowed in the other side that I have yet to put the fittings on.

The last thing I worked on today was my 9’x12’ patio mat. You can see that it came in a fairly compact package, which I hope to be able to fold it back into.

It starts out being folded into thirds lengthwise, then is folded back and forth. I just hope I can get all of the fire ants, dirt and other stuff out of it before packing it up and slipping it into the carry bag. It looks easy, but we’ll see.