Solar Panel and Christmas Tree

We woke up to a cold, grey day this morning.  No wind, though.  YAY!

Roger focused his energy on getting the solar panel for his UPS (unattached power source, or as I call, it the portable power thing) mounted outside today.    It took some time and a trip to the hardware store in town, but he finally got it set up so that it will charge the UPS.  He should be able to have lights in the shed now.  It won’t run any of his power tools, but all he really has is a drill anyway.  The UPS battery had completely gone empty, so he hooked it up to the AC power to charge.  Didn’t work.  Weird, that.  Thought it was operator error.  But, then, he got thinking about it and checked the power cord that came with it with his voltmeter and discovered one of the wires was not attached to the plug.   Hmmm.  Explains why it wasn’t charging.  Ah, but, then he remembered a brand new cord that we had stashed that fit the UPS and voila!  It’s charging.  Now he’s all set.  When the sun comes out he will maintain the charge with the solar panel.  

Maggie was a pill all day.  She didn’t want to walk.  She was bored and pestered us continually.  She even “talked” to us a few times, which she only does when she’s excited.  She was driving us crazy all day.  I kept sending her out to Roger - he kept putting her back in the RV.  She finally gave up and curled up in her bed for an hour or so.  Hopefully, she will be back to normal tomorrow.  Although, we are supposed to have rain tomorrow and she doesn’t like the rain.  It could be an interesting day as getting her outside will be a challenge.

I put up Christmas decorations today.  I pulled our Charlie Brown tree out of the box and it looked like a Charlie Brown tree reject!  I decided to take all the decorations and lights off and try to make it work.  The lights we had on it were really too big for that size tree, so when we went to the hardware store I found some smaller ones - and a new tree!  It’s a little larger and fluffier!!  Not quite so scraggly looking.  Even better, it was on sale.   Because we have less counter space in this rig, it has to go on a stool on the floor under the counter.  

I tried listening to Christmas music as I worked - it usually gets me in the mood.  Couldn’t work the radio, couldn’t figure out how to play the few songs I have on my phone, and didn’t want to use data to listen to Pandora or the like.   I kept thinking that there should be grandkids and cookies while I was decorating, but there wasn’t.  So, no music, no grandkids, no cookies.  Oh, well.  It turned out to be more work than fun, but it’s done and looks nice.  I was also wishing I had some of my ornaments from home.  Will have to pack a few and bring with us next year.  I also was thinking about how I have made a gazillion ornaments for kids and grandkids over the last couple years, but did I make any for us?  No.  I was wishing I had some of them today.  

We had a very nice lunch yesterday with our friends, the Morlans.  We tried an Italian restaurant that we’ve been wanting to check out.  It was very nice.  Table cloths, good service, good food, and good friends.  It will be a place for special lunches, though, as it was a bit on the pricey side.  

Yesterday was laundry day.  Rog and Maggie were outside on the patio (oh, that feels good to say!) when I left in the truck.  When I came back an hour and a half later, Rog was in the shed and Maggie was sitting in the same spot in the same position as when I left.  She was watching the street for the truck.  Rog said she had not moved the whole time.  Crazy dog.  

We talked to the landscape guy this morning and we are on his schedule for the week of the 15th of January.  He will come by next week and help us with design plans, give us an estimate, and collect a down payment.  I’m thinking we will tell him what we want, he will tell us how much, and then we will start subtracting from what we want!  We do have a budget after all.  Although, recently it’s been ignored a lot. 

As I mentioned, we are supposed to have rain during the night and part of tomorrow.  It will be the first since we’ve been here.  Glad it waited until we  got the patio in so we won’t be walking in mud.