So nobody has anything to say?

[Hank70SS]

Okay, I'll start.

So my sister and brother in-law bought a travel trailer last year. Site on seen because their son said it was really nice and good deal. Of course the fresh water tank was removed so they can't carry fresh water. It weighs over 7,000 lbs, they have a Mini Cooper and an 02 Explorer, yes the ones that rolled over. No problem, their 'guy' that works on their vehicles says the Explorer will tow that no problem. The Explorer will move it but I and others finally convinced her that it's like the 'tail wagging the dog' towing that trailer with an Explorer. It's over 7,000 lbs before she loads it with all her stuff. Short trips, ok, cross country, not me.

The other day she tells Lynda that she saw a Ford F650 and maybe they would look for one of those? I told her good idea, she already has an extension ladder so she can get in it and they could just set the trailer on the back and not have to tow it, thing has a 26,000 lbs GVWR.

Then her son tells her to get a '99 Suburban because he can work on it, it still has the older style engines. A 14 year old truck, guaranteed he has to work on it, a lot and frequently. He only works 7 days a week and is just making it so he should have plenty of time to work on their 14 year old truck. Oh, they live in FL, he lives in TN.

She just bought a new Samsung S4 or whatever, the latest. Her old phone, same as mine but few months newer was just painfully slow. It wouldn't do anything without waiting and waiting and waiting. Mine works fine. So she tells me about her new phone and how slow the old one is and the fact that she has over TWO THOUSAND text messages saved on her phone and has never cleared the call log. She doesn't want to delete the text messages because there's lot's of pictures in there she wants to save. I told it was time to empty the garbage can and maybe it would run a little better.

I don't know where she came from, sometimes I think she was adopted.

[flash]

Im here Hank ,not much going on here lately ,Im trying to get the yard and garden under controll from all the rain we have been getting lately .I hate to go on vacation and leave my chores unfinished so I finally got done .We are heading to Maryland on Thursday after Joan gets off work ,I will be cleaning the Chevelle next.

[Ms Grumpy]

Hank, I have had my hands full lately, sorry.

Anyway, I think that every family has someone who thinks they know everything. My younger sister says that is me because I tell her when she is making a bad decision, and I am right probably 95% of the time.

I think that your sister wants to "trust" that her son will take care of her. But the 1st purchase of a travel trailer should have been an eye opener. It is so hard watching people making "mistake purchases" and they don't listen to the people who are really trying to help them and know what they are talking about. I hope that she does, soon, listen to you.

[Bowtie-Bri]

I'm here Hank, Not a whole lot going on. Carol and I just got back this past Saturday from a vac. in Utah. Saw some beautiful country and the weather wasn't bad either! Might have the Camaro sold to a guy in Texas. Then I'll be down to just one car again. One is enough for me. My latest ride is in Chicago getting a nice performance upgrade! Can't wait to get it back home. I'll be taking it to the Camaro Superfest in Ypsilanti, Mi. next weekend!

In regards to family making poor decisions. My sister-law and her husband are perfect examples of this. I can't tell them anything, because they already know it all, so I don't even try.

[FlintTony]

I've been cutting up all the trees that were blown over last Monday. Burned up my Poulan chain saw. Kathy bought me a new Stihl farm boss for my birthday. Man, what a difference. This thing cuts! Today I start on the 7' tall wood fence that got beat up. 40' of board and 6 posts broken. I have to dig out all the concrete that holds the posts in the ground, then replace them. Been fighting with the insurance company. Tree company gave me a 3600 dollar estimate. Insurance will only cover 1000. Minus 250 deductible. I rented a Cat back-hoe to get the bigger limbs that were stuck in the tree tops down. A little scary.

Hank, I think we all have relatives like that. A couple of my brothers are constantly asking for my advice. They do the exact opposite of what I recommend, with bad results.

[Hank70SS]

Brian, sounds like a good vacation. We visited Utah and several other western states a few years ago. The Grand Canyon is definitely impressive but Utah, wow! That whole state could be a national park, Bryce Canyon was my favorite.

Tony, sorry to hear about the damage, didn't realize you got hit hard by the storm.

I've been kind of busy too. We had the beam replaced on the 2nd story deck. It was 2 2x12s, 22' 9" long married together. The ends were rotting and a previous owner had replaced the 4x4 posts with steel posts. The numbskull sat the posts on top of the concrete patio below which wasn't designed to hold that much wait. End result of the rot and concrete slab sinking was the outside corners of the deck sagging.

Had a steel i-beam installed to replace the wood. By going to steel we could get by with 2 posts instead of 4. I removed all the screens on the deck because I didn't want the frames buckling when they lifted the corners up. It was also an opportunity to paint the posts holding the roof. It's all painted now and I have some of the screens back in, should finish that up today.

It's a lot cleaner look with only 2 posts and the i-beam is 8"x8". That's only 3.5" smaller, in height, than the 2x12 but it opened up the view a lot. It was sure interesting watching them lift the i-beam up. An 8"x8" i-beam weighs 31 lbs/ft. So at 22'9" it weighs a little over 700lbs.

Glad everyone is doing well, sorry about the storm damage Tony.

[Bowtie-Bri]

We visited the Grand Canyon last year when we were in Arizona. I did the "Sky Walk". The view was breath taking! Carol wouldn't do it because she's afraid of heights. Utah is definitely an awesome state! We went to the Dinosaur National Monument (altot of dinosaur bones) Bryce Canyon and saw the "Hoodoos" and then we went as far west as Nevada and then Bonneville Salt Flats.
We put over 1600 miles on the rental car. Had an awesome time!

Sorry to hear about all the damage Tony. I remember seeing that storm front coming through there and thought... Oh oh, that's not good.

Originally Posted by Hank70SS

Brian, sounds like a good vacation. We visited Utah and several other western states a few years ago. The Grand Canyon is definitely impressive but Utah, wow! That whole state could be a national park, Bryce Canyon was my favorite.
Tony, sorry to hear about the damage, didn't realize you got hit hard by the storm.

I've been kind of busy too. We had the beam replaced on the 2nd story deck. It was 2 2x12s, 22' 9" long married together. The ends were rotting and a previous owner had replaced the 4x4 posts with steel posts. The numbskull sat the posts on top of the concrete patio below which wasn't designed to hold that much wait. End result of the rot and concrete slab sinking was the outside corners of the deck sagging.

Had a steel i-beam installed to replace the wood. By going to steel we could get by with 2 posts instead of 4. I removed all the screens on the deck because I didn't want the frames buckling when they lifted the corners up. It was also an opportunity to paint the posts holding the roof. It's all painted now and I have some of the screens back in, should finish that up today.

It's a lot cleaner look with only 2 posts and the i-beam is 8"x8". That's only 3.5" smaller, in height, than the 2x12 but it opened up the view a lot. It was sure interesting watching them lift the i-beam up. An 8"x8" i-beam weighs 31 lbs/ft. So at 22'9" it weighs a little over 700lbs.

Glad everyone is doing well, sorry about the storm damage Tony.

[Hank70SS]

We didn't do the sky walk, we started in Colorado, Pikes Peak and a few other sites. Then Mesa Verda, Monument Valley, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, in the park on the south rim. Then Zion, Bryce, Arches and Capital Riff in Utah. We were going to go to Rocky Mountain National park but we were worn out by then and headed home. We drove the whole trip, around 5,000 miles.

It's tough to decide, the Caribbean, Hawaii, the western trip. They're all beautiful but different. Next we want to do the northern central part of the country. Glacier National Park, Old Faithful, etc.

Glad you enjoyed it, this is a beautiful country.

[Hank70SS]

Brian distracted me with his post about his trip and I forgot, or maybe I have ADD.

Anyway, I was working on the back wall of the house inside the 2nd story screened in deck Today. It was about 5:00 and I was done, hot and muggy again today. Sat down with a beer on the patio under the deck to relax. I look out and near a tree, I'm guessing about 75' away, I see this cloud, close to 20' up At first I thought flying ants. We have them and every year or so they just rise up out of the grass, millions of them. They hang around for 30-45 minutes then they're gone.

So I kept looking at this cloud but it's not dark like flying ants, it's yellow, and I can see individual whatever's flying around. So I keep looking and listening and I can hear a buzz from them. Bees, thousands or them. Now there is a lawn service cutting the lawn across the street next to our house, we're on a corner. He's using a commercial zero turn and they're loud and I can still here the buzz.

Went and grabbed the camera but the battery was dead, thought about using my phone but it was too far away for that. No way I was going out there to get a picture. Lynda was upstairs in our bathroom and I told her to take a look. She didn't have her glasses on, she was looking through the window and the screens on the upstairs deck and she could see the cloud of bees and she can't see shit without her glasses.

The tree is about 50' tall, has several knot holes where small animals go in. Don't know if I need tyo have something done about it but I know I'm staying away from it.

[RBeckman]

I've been working adding to the GDP so all of you can enjoy your lives. Your welcome