Grandstanding in the Gulf

Yesterday the news reported that the First Tourist went swimming in the Gulf of Mexico.  Or maybe that should be the Traveler in Chief.  Damn sharks – there’s never one around when you need it.

We’ve moved a lot in the last few days.  From Buchanan we headed across the province to Landis. 

We spent a couple of nights parked in Lorne & Karen Hadley’s yard while I did some farm inspections in the area.  We haven’t seen the Hadleys for several years so it was a good chance to catch up on visiting and their yard was about as centrally located for me as it could possibly have been.  After that we moved to Saskatoon and parked in front of our favorite laundromat there.  Its very convenient to just park in front of a laundry and do everything with the bus to relax in while the machines do their thing.  We can’t always do that but in Saskatoon we’ve found one with good on-street parking. 

While we are at Landis I replaced our water heater.  It was only 5 years old or maybe only 4.  Me and the lady plumber in Nipawin installed it but I don’t remember exactly when we did it.  Her involvement was limited to selling me the parts and lending me her Pex crimper but she was still a pretty important part of the process.  I guess I should complain to her though because even a 5 year life is pretty shabby for a water heater.  The bottom had rotted completely away and it was starting to leak badly.  We noticed that the pressure pump was cycling fairly regularly and I traced the source to the water heater.  By the time we left Buchanan there was a pretty steady trickle of water running out of that bay.  Between the plumbing I did in Buchanan and my water heater adventure I’m getting to know my way around Pex pretty well and I kind of like what I’m learning.  There’s still a certain satisfaction in making a perfect solder joint on copper but Pex is definitely easier.

This morning we woke up behind Crossroads Esso at Wakaw.  Its not my favorite place to buy fuel – in fact I consciously try to avoid buying fuel there – but it sure was convenient to park there last night.  And really quiet too.  The parking is far enough off both highways that we didn’t hear a thing all night.  We didn’t even hear the brunch crowd rolling in this morning and were surprised to see how full the parking lot was when we finally got up.

Today we’re back in Prince Albert.  Our tenants have given notice and are in the process of moving out.  That isn’t all that bad from our standpoint.  We really wanted to sell the place but they were such good tenants that we had held off putting it on the market.  In fact this spring we met with them and asked what their intentions were.  At that time they assured us that they had no plans to move within the next year.  I guess that assurance and 2 bux will buy you a cup of coffee.

Now we don’t have anything to hold us back other than a lethargic appraiser who wanted to be paid in advance and now doesn’t seem particularly motivated to deliver her report.   We’ve got some work to do on the house but for this trip we mainly want to get some signs up so that anybody looking for a home before school starts will at least know its on the market.