...and now it's fall.

  The time is flying fast.  Leaves have taken on an amber hue and are swirling down to the ground.  Temperatures are in the low 30's at night rising only to the low 50's during the day.  The vista is spectacular.

  Finally caught site of the swans who've been waking us up some mornings.  Caught them feeding on a neighbor's lake the other day.  Ducks and signets all together.

We finally got the arctic entry and skirting painted. Now I need to get some Goo-Gone to remove the paint smears on the RV. 

  John says we are now "Haze gray and underway".

  I've noted a few areas of light/cold air intrusion and have filled them with insulation.  The small ceramic heater we got is keeping the arctic entry nice and toasty.

  Note to ourselves.  Replace water lines after a couple of years.  (Note the waster on the ground).  We awoke yesterday morning to zero water in the RV. We only got to 34 the night before so freezing should not be the issue.   A quick check outside. revealed the water was coming  from a section of hose that we'd added on to give us the length we needed.  After removing the insulation, we discovered a 4 inch split in the hose.  John thinks it was because that hose had a kink in it at one time.

  So, now a trip to town to get a replacement hose, replacement line heater (John accidentally sliced through the other one while removing insulation --- he's dangerous with a blade), and replacement pipe insulation.  Once supplies were at hand, it only took us 20 minutes to rewrap, reconnect, and re insulate the water line.  We were so thankful it wasn't blow dryer time to find a frozen section.

  On a positive note, John said it was definitely warmer under the RV than it was outside.  I guess our insulation is working good for us.

  Just as we finished working on the water line, as John was coming out from under the RV, the rig suddenly started rocking--badly.  My first thought was a jack had given way, but then I noticed I was losing my balance too.  A really nice 6.2 quake located just 60 miles from us.  We started giggling when we realized what had happened.

  Our only damage was a jar of peppercorns by the stove fell over.  What a chore that was to clean up.  Our poor cat Snickers was crouched down with just the tip of his tail twitching and for over an hour, he tip toed around the floor as if afraid it would start moving again.

  We have final word from MTA now on completion of our installation.  A tech will be out sometime today to qualify the line (don't know what that means), then Monday 9/30 another tech will be out to hook us up.  Hooray, it's only been 2 months.  One last thing to do---buy a telephone.  We've used our cells for so long, but for local calls, it will be better to have a local phone number.

  We hired an electrician to come out and install 4 outlets on the electric pole so we'll have a place to plug in the vehicles this winter.  He was great.  Came out, gathered the info he needed, went to a local box home improvement store & called us back within an hour with the quote.  We accepted and he came right back and had everything installed in less than an hour.  We were both very nervous however, as he was working with electricity in the rain.  Scary.  We will hire him again in the spring to install a 50 amp RV plug so all our RV friends who are coming to visit will have power.

  Finally got some word on my hip problem.  According to the orthopedic surgeon I saw, "Your hip is trashed"

  Replacement surgery is scheduled for October 10th.  I will be one step closer to my goal of becoming the "Bionic Woman"

  To keep myself amused, I started a humor FaceBook page.  It's tough being an administer of a page as there are a few people who get offended by something, then blow it out of proportion.  As I told one of my readers yesterday, "I do have a life outside of  Facebook and cannot check every post before someone sees it."  I REFUSE to approve each post before it is posted.  Some "adults" are just so childish.  Geesh.

  Enough rant.  Going to knit some more sweaters for my puppies.