I have pictures, but not available just this moment.

Mr. Tbend and Buddy the Interstate Cat drove here from Las Vegas last Friday. They came through Denver and hit rush hour; stop and go traffic with Buddy crying the whole time because Buddy doesn't like slow, windy roads, or canyons.

Project one is a leaking water pipe at the red cabin. It's under the house where the pipe comes from the pump into the house. The connection is plastic and has a number of cracks from last winter. When he tried to remove it, the threaded plastic part broke off in the threaded metal part. He had a hard time, but finally got it out by using a rasp file to cut notches in it, inserted a larger file, and while heating the outside of the metal pipe he used a larger file to turn the broken piece.

Trip to Estes Park (7 miles) to get a part, but in the dry fitting process he discovered that 3/4 inch didn't mean 3/4 inch diameter pipe, so now we have to go to Loveland (22 miles) to Home Depot. So that's on hold.

Project two was a dead beetle killed pine tree in the back yard. He used his bow saw to cut it down, and then got out the chainsaw to cut it into pieces. He always uses the chainsaw as a last resort; I think it is some kind of Zen thing where he communes with the tree while sawing away, and that's hard to do with a power tool screaming in your ear.

Project three, which has been alluded to but not directly discussed, is painting the south side of the Brown Palace because it has faded and doesn't look so nice. The other sides will be fine with a little touch-up. I am going to buy a new power painter of some sort in hopes that will make it easier.

Project four, which is beyond the horizon, but will gradually come into view, is painting inside our house, including the living room ceiling. There is a ton of woodwork to worry about not getting paint on - beams across the ceiling, but a professional painter told me he would apply a color similar to the old one, and feather it near the woodwork so the new paint doesn't actually get near it. Sounds good to me, so I'll pick up some paint chips while we're at the store to get a start on finding a good match. Beyond that, I'm not doing more planning on it until the other projects are done.

We don't want to overwhelm the poor man.