My size 35's are now just falling off of me.  If I don't use a belt, they are so loose that they don't cling to anything.  I had a couple of weeks of no improvement and actually going back up a few pounds, but apparently I'm at the end of that run and now going back down again.  My belly has definitely shrunk substantially.  No, I'm still not claiming to be skinny, not at 211 pounds, but the progress is palpable and visible.  

I can fit into 34's now. I have one of my pairs of 34's out I use for outings. I'm still in 35's for working. I've already ruined a bunch of them with dirt, glue and other contaminants, there is no sense in ruining even more of them for working purposes. I'm down 4 notches on the belt as well. Well, almost 4. In between 3 and 4, if I put it at 3 my pants fall off if I put it at 4, it's a bit tight.  If the fat loss continues, I will end up needing a new belt, this one will be far too long.  

I have heard nothing more from the insurance company except that they have it assigned to a local adjuster.  That adjuster hasn't called me and neither has the body shop. I will be calling the body shop today to inquire whether they have approved it or indicated if they will be approving it?  As much as I need my vehicle, I need it whole again even more.  I'll somehow deal with the inconvenience.  I don't know how, yet, I'm not interested in an expensive rental car, that's all I can say. Maybe for a few days, but definitely not several weeks.  I still can't believe this policy rider doesn't have a rental car included.  

_________

Kind of at a standstill here. It is pouring rain outside and has been for hours.  I need some of the lumber out back to finish above the door.  I simply don't feel like getting wet. Walking out there right now, I would be soaked quickly.  I also need a large T frame thing to do the drywall correctly and get good cuts.  I figure I can get one cheap enough at Harbor Freight.  It's been a long time since I installed any drywall.

I could also start installing insulation, that is even further out back and on the trailer. No thank you and anyway, I realized I forgot to get adhesive for it.  It has to be able to stick to the metal with something, lol. Oh well.  I got the big stuff out of the way, this has been a crazy week, there are cases where my thinking just isn't all there.  

The door is up, the framing is up, there is some framing to go above the door but not a lot. It's going to be difficult because it will be hard to reach.  It's probably 8 feet up to the top, maybe higher.  

I like rain - but this is too much. It's flooding everything, it's making life difficult. At least I was able to confirm the power is back on over here. Amazingly, they must have did a workaround on the downed line because it is still down and they aren't even out there working on it. They did put up poles - apparently a new setup to mitigate the lack of power getting over to the other side of the highway and hence, to the property.  I guess they will just come back to it when the weather is better? I can't imagine doing that kind of work in this kind of heavy rainfall.  

I haven't heard from the insurance agency or the body shop, but I don't think I'm going to call them today. I need to make some more runs and that will be much more difficult once they get my vehicle in the shop.  I'm sitting here, in the shed, listening to the rain pounding on the roof - it's pretty loud.  Trying to gather my thoughts - what else do I need besides that T thing and glue?  

My hipcamp wire came in yesterday, I'll need some outlets and a few boxes for that.  Well, and circuit breakers.  Unfortunately, I will have to drive clear to Longview for those, Lowe's doesn't have the brand i need for the breaker box.  I may have to do that today while I still have a vehicle.  Yikes. I hate driving in the rain, not because I am afraid to but because people don't know how to.

It also isn't exactly legal to be driving the vehicle with a busted out headlight.  I have been taking my chances because I have little choice. Get the stuff I need or don't, but if I don't, this project is thereby pushed out for a month or longer.  Hmm, best start writing a list, now that I'm thinking about it. 

The repair guy came by.  He knows nothing about commercial dryers and freely admitted it lol. He did, however, look at my exhaust hose and said "You have the equivalent of 5 elbows which is the equivalent of 25 feet when it comes to dryers. After 20 feet, the dryer has a hard time drying the clothes."....and other stuff I did not know and never heard before. So, I will be pulling the dryer out and cutting the hose to size. I just stuck the whole thing on there - I had no idea it can make a difference.  Apparently this dryer is like most other newer dryers in that it senses the moisture and knows when to shut off.

However, I figured out the mystery of why the dryer never shut off on my own. There is a label pasted to the top of the coin op part that has some writing on it that I never read. I read the instruction manual instead.  That label says something to the effect that there may be an "existing run time" left on the machine - presumably for testing it/quality control. Turn the machine on and let it run until it shuts itself off, which could take up to 8 houirs.

8 hours?!! lol, ok, well at least I now know why.  This guy didn't know either, it was just happened upon.  

I'm pretty burnt out today. Last night just took it out of me. You can only wake up so many times before it's just shrug your shoulders time and do what you can before you run out of steam.  I guess I will just close up shop here and head up Harbor Freight - my vehicle is parked right outside of the shed.  And there is parking close to the front door of the store.  The rain is unrelenting at least so far and it's been many hours now. 

 Some replies to my boosted facebook ad. I have it listed in something like 20 local facebook groups.  I also got a call - but the person was adamant the lots had to be level.  No ma'am, they aren't perfectly level, I do have boards and such to help you level it easily.  She hung up.  Once I realized that lots weren't level when the park was completed, I knew this would be an issue. But surprisingly, not that bad.  Most of these newer RV's have automatic levelers.  They just push a button and this jacks come down and walaah, no hassle.  I still offer boards in case they want the wheels fully sitting on something.

Well, whatever.  I'm hopeful the ad will result in a couple more long term coming over my way.  I need to join more Shreveport groups, that's where a lot of the oil workers are coming from.  

But it's been one heckuva week.  I could start it over and be thankful if such were possible.  Besides the accident and getting punched in the face, I have smashed a toenail and 2 fingernails, broke a window at the shed - I dropped a 2X4 and it of course landed right on that window, lost the key to my gas cap - I think that occurred during the accident but I cannot find it anywhere, I always put it back in the same place every time so I know where to find it, had the "plumber" tell me that a straight pipe out of a drain is "normal" - I can guarantee you that any real plumber will never say such a thing, if it's a drain, it has to have a p-trap unless it's a toilet that already has one built into it- and he refused to come back out unless I pay him  'service fee' - that after he got back with me and admitted his "mistake".  It was no mistake, he didn't know what he was talking about.

Oh, the power went out at the property yesterday afternoon.  Not for 2 minutes, not for 2 hours.  It was off for almost 7 hours.  And of course, part of that outage was during the time people are coming home from work.  Equally, the people that are mostly always there asking me what happened?  You can be rest assured the power bill has been paid (which it has, I'm good until the 13th of May), I have already sent in a power outage report to Swepco.  

But, after quite a while, Swepco had updated it saying "you power is out" but didn't update what was the cause or how long it will take to restore service.  Well, I went for a drive.  Didn't take long to find the problem.  A giant, humongous tree had fallen over during the storm.  It landed right on top of a power pole, tore 1/3rd of the pole off, downing the lines.  We're not just talking about downing the lines along the highway, it also took out the crossover line and the telephone pole those lines were connected to on the other side of the highway.  And when I saw downing the lines, I mean downing the lines all the way to the ground. 

To top that off, it was heavy downpour, thunder and lightning.  I don't think they allow those workers to do anything until lightning passes.  Even so, Asplundh was out there with 4 trucks cutting that tree back off of the lines and the pole - that was about 2 hours (pretty fast work considering the size of the tree) and then 5 Swepco trucks showed up.  I knew it was going to take a while when, at 5:00 pm,  I passed by again and saw that they hadn't even gotten the destroyed pole out of the ground.  

I just told people at the park, if you have a generator and want electricity, I suggest you use it. It's gonna be a while.  

So, these people had called earlier wanting a spot, they are on their way to wherever and are just passing through.  They showed up - sorry, there is no power here atm and no indication of when it will be turned back on.  Oh, says the older gentleman, well is there water?  Yes, plenty of fresh city water and the sewer of course.  Up to you whether you want to stay or find somewhere else. He looks at his wife, she wants a shower and she wants off the road.  We're staying, we just need water, our tank is empty.  I waived the fee.  I probably could have charged them a parking fee, but it seemed  a bit of a stretch to charge them for a spot under such circumstances. 

I'm sure other parks would have guiltlessly charged them anyway. It's the first time the power has gone out since I had it turned on, it's not a regular, recurring event.  The only thing I ate was a bit of water.  My water bills are quite low considering the amount of people staying there.  It certainly lends to the idea that the septic system isn't getting over-used.  I told them it would be free unless the power came back on soon.  It did not.  It was almost 10:00 pm and I just blew it off.

Another couple showed up hours later.  It was almost night time, they called. Which lot are we supposed to be in? Lot 5, but I have to tell you, the power is out.  I can refund your money if you want to find somewhere else to stay.  Nope, they replied, but is the water still on?  Yes, plenty of water pressure.  I did take their money for they showed up late and it was something like 3 hours later and the power came back on.  Plus they fired up their generator.  Maybe I should do a partial refund to cover the cost of having to use the generator.  

Not a pleasant stay for anyone considering the constant rain.  It also rained all night long, the power went out here, at the house twice but came back on.  However, couple those outages - which wake me up instantly since my fan goes off - and the thunder claps and the noisy heavy rain?  Yeah, sleep was fleeting.  I managed to get back to sleep after another awakening only to have the power go off again at 6:00 am. This time, it didn't come right back on.  Wide awake, I thought about just getting up and getting going. Which I did, sort of.  Went out, saw everyone getting ready to leave. 

Even discussion about one of them possibly having to stay home from school - when our power goes out, a lot of times, that school's power also goes out.  But, thankfully, the power came back on.  Toasted tired, I went back to bed. 3 hours later and I finally woke back up.  I have no regrets.  My sleep because of all of this last night was not very good.  I still have a fog in my head. It's 9:30 am.  I do intend on going over there to the park and continuing on with the framing.  If I work several hours, I should get the framing done.  Then I can start installing the drywall.  It doesn't have to be completely finished for me to be able to say it's ready to use. It just has to be functional and of course the walls up so there is privacy.  

I only mean that it doesn't have to be taped and textured to be called finished. I am going to do that, but I will be advertising pretty quick that the bathroom is available.  All except that damn p-trap they didn't install. The trench is muddy and half filled with water.   I am not getting down into that stuff to install a p trap, I would literally be bathing in mud.  There is rain forecast for the next several days.  It will be next week before I can install it.  What does it mean? It means there is the possibility of odors coming out of there. I had the other p trap open for many days when i was installing the washer/dryer setup.  Mostly never smelled anything unless someone was dumping their black water holding tank and even then, it was a mild odor that went away quickly. 

So yes, I will post it ready to use despite the p trap.  It's not a hard job, at all, I am just not going to get completely covered in mud to install it.  Plus the sewer line needs leveled, another thing they didn't do.  Well, they started to but apparently the rest of that is my job.  Lol.  Ok. I don't care at this point, I'll level it, backfill it and be done with it - next week.  You can't level line like that in the mud. The dirt needs to be dry.  

The laundromat, if you want to call it that, is being used by 3 trailers worth of people.  They all have keys and they are happy with the results. That drain line is on the other side of the shed and is unaffected by the setup with the shower drain. 

Anyway, there is plenty to do inside the shed.  It's cool, it is raining on and off, but the work inside will keep me out of the rain.  The door is installed, swings freely and closes squarely along the wood it comes in contact with.  I just need to install the door handle.  The hard part today will be trying to get the studs going from the top of the door setup up to the ceiling.  I am not going to frame over the top of the bathroom setup, it's a waste of time and the logistics would be ridiculous.  It's still going to be a chore doing it the way I'm going to do it now, but much easier than what I originally planned. I was just trying to save space for a vending machine.  I have another area for that where it can go.  

This is why I didn't finish the electrical over there. I didn't know where I would need outlets and switches.  Now I know I will need another outlet near the entry door.  I also know where to put a light switch and where to install a ceiling wire for the bathroom light.  

Ok. Well, the repairmen for the dryer called. He is supposed to come out today to look at it. He found out it's a commercial dryer and at an RV park. Well, we aren't really supposed to work on commercial units.....lol. I'll have to find someone that does work on commercial units to change the price on that dryer, or sit there and attempt to figure it out. There are instructions - as clear as a muddied windshield. It's very complicated, actually, from what I am seeing on how to take half the top of the unit apart to even get at the coin setup.  I don't really want to do it but I also don't want to leave the price where it is. 

It's at $2.50 for a full load - wash and dry - that's not enough. it needs to be $3.00 total price.  I based my calculations for the machines to pay for themselves off of $3.00, not $2.50.  They didn't bother to ask me what prices I wanted set on them and I didn't think to tell them - I have never done this before, kind of hard to think ahead about things you have no prior experience with.  

I'm down to 3 lots rented for overnights for the rest of April - so far anyway.  That's not good.  I dunno what's going to happen with that, I'm just pushing my Facebook ad all over the place and hopefully it will pay off with a couple of new people moving in. 

Well, one of the people staying overnight just called and said they aren't going anywhere. It's raining and they don't like to drive in the rain.  Fine by me, I'll be over there soon - to collect up lol.  They get the first night free but the second? No. The power is on and they can sit there and enjoy themselves.  

With that....I'm hungry, it's getting late in the morning and I have stuff to do.  

G'day