4/2-4/13 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I visited with Uncle Charles on the way up and arrived at Camp Serendipity at 1:10. It was a warm, beautiful, sunny, spring day. After moving my gear in, I tested the AFCI and GFCI breakers and recorded the septic pump run count. It now reads 47, which means that it has started about 50 times since installation. It is a good feeling knowing that the septic system is running exactly as designed and that I can depend on it without worrying about it.

After lunch and a nap, I got started on the project for the week: laying the flooring in the bedroom. I got the first two planks cut and fit around the ventilation pipe in the closet when Bill called. We had been playing phone tag for about a month ever since his birthday and this was the first time we connected.

It was great hearing from him and we ended up talking for more than two hours catching each other up on a wide variety of topics. Among them was the sad news that the giant sequoial tree that I had named after him was probably lost for good. Bill took the news in stride and agreed with another good friend of mine that the universe probably didn't want me naming a tree after Bill, this being the second such tree that didn't make it.

After we hung up, I went back to the flooring and laid a couple more planks. To my great consternation, I stepped back from the last plank I laid and noticed that the color was a lot darker than the rest of them. It really looked out of place.

I checked the labels on the boxes of flooring and discovered that the pattern numbers on them were not all the same. The dark plank had come from a box with "15" in the pattern number and all the rest of them had a "14" in the number. After a thorough check, I found that of the 32 boxes of flooring that I had, eleven of them were "15"s and twenty-one of them were "14"s.

I immediately called Haight Carpet, from whom I had bought the flooring, but they were closed for the day.

After having my dinner, I set up a hair dryer to blow hot air over the seam where the off-color plank was glued to its partner, and after a while the glue let go so I could remove the plank and put it back into the box.

On Wednesday I went back to work laying flooring planks, but I was careful to take them only from the "14" boxes.

Shortly before 10 o'clock, I called Judy at Haight Carpet and explained the problem. She was very helpful and sympathetic. She explained that the mix-up had to have occurred at the manufacturer because they prepared the pallet for my order right at the factory. She anticipated a problem of getting replacements because of the long time that had elapsed since the order, but she assured me that she would take care of it. We agreed that I would deliver the eleven boxes of "15"s to their warehouse in Woodinville on my return trip the next day, and that we would arrange for pickup of the replacements later on. I explained that I couldn't take delivery of them until I got my driveway cleared enough so that I could get my truck through.

I spent the rest of the day laying flooring and by 5:30, or so, I finished the job in the bedroom. It was very gratifying to look at the bedroom with the new floor. It looks so much better than that paint-splattered plywood subfloor that I have been walking on for so many years. It will look even better when I get the tools picked up and the mess of boxes and flooring remnants cleared up and out of there. I was just too tired and sore at the end of the day to do any cleanup. I took my shower and had my dinner with a sore and tired back from all the work.

On Thursday morning I tackled the job of getting those eleven 40-lb boxes of flooring loaded into the back of the truck. Judy had told me that her warehousemen would unload the boxes, but to make it easier I decided to load them on a pallet so that they could unload them using a forklift. It would also keep them up off the floor of the truck bed in case it rained, which it was threatening to do.

The pallet weighed upwards of 60 pounds, according to my estimate, so it was not all that easy to take it down the hill. I lashed it to the frame of my trusty trapper Nelson back pack and packed it down the concrete staircase, across the precarious footing over the big log across the driveway, and set it down into the truck.

I had already decided to use the trapper Nelson to carry the boxes of flooring, but I didn't know whether I could carry two at a time, or whether I would have to make eleven separate trips taking one at a time. Carrying that pallet convinced me that one at a time would be the only reasonable and safe way to do it.

I also wasn't sure whether to lash the box of flooring horizontally to the pack frame or whether to carry it vertically inside the pack's bag. After looking at the 4-foot long boxes, it became clear that I should carry them vertically in the bag.

Of the eleven, there were three boxes in the bedroom on the first floor and eight boxes in the loft. I didn't want to walk up and down the loft stairs in my muddy boots and load the boxes into the trapper Nelson up in the loft, so I decided to carry the loft boxes down and stage them somehow in the utility room where I would load them into the backpack. I would carry them down the loft stairs holding them in my hands.

To even out the work, my strategy was to stage the three bedroom boxes in the utility room, pack those down to the truck, take a break and wash the breakfast dishes, then carry four loft boxes down and stage them in the utility room, pack those four down to the truck, take my muddy boots off and take another break for water and a little rest. Then I woul carry the last four boxes down from the loft, stage them, put my boots back on, pack the last four boxes down to the truck, and then strap the boxes to the pallet and tarp the load.

The plan was a good one, which I followed with only a little variation. I had already moved the three boxes from the bedroom to the utility room, but they were stacked on the floor. Bending over to pick them up off the floor convinced me that I didn't want to do that for all eleven boxes. My back would never tolerate that. So to stage the rest of the boxes, I set up two tall stools in the utility room so that when I carried boxes down from the loft, I could set them on top of the stools. I didn't have to lean or bend over at all to set them down, or to pick them back up again.

Loading the boxes into the trapper Nelson and securing them was pretty efficient and easy on my back. To do that, I first laid a big plastic shopping bag on the heavy drafting table in the utility room. The bag was on the right side of the table with its open end on the left. Then I set a box of flooring on the table so that the right end was somewhat into the plastic bag and nearly half of the box was hanging out over the left end of the table. Since the drafting table was only a little higher than the tall stools, I could move a box from the stools to the table without bending my back at all.

Next, I looped a strap around the box at about its mid-point with the buckle end hanging down toward me and the other end lying on the table. Then I threaded the trapper Nelson bag over the left end of the box by holding the backpack horizontally with the frame up, and the bag hanging down with the open end to the right. I could get the box all the way to the bottom of the backpack bag this way which brought the top ends of the frame in line with the strap.

Then I looped the far end of the strap around the pack frame, brought the buckle end of the strap around the near part of the frame, and buckled and cinched up the strap. This would keep the box centered on the frame and hold it snuggly against the frame.

With the box secured to the pack, I pulled the plastic shopping bag over the box and over the top of the trapper Nelson.

Next came the only strenuous part, the effects of which I can still feel in my arms as I type this. The next thing to do was to lift the pack and its box into a vertical position and set it on the drafting table. To do that, I bent my knees so that I could cradle the backpack in my right forearm, lift the pack and its contents up off the table, rotate it left so that it was vertical, and lift it high enough so that the bottom of the pack frame rested on the table. The top of the box just happened to line up so that it could rest against the cabinet up on the wall behind the table. That maneuver was one of the few times I had to add potential energy to those boxes. The rest of the time, gravity was more-or-less my friend. It was mostly a downhill job.

With the pack standing on the table, and with the harness facing me, I could regain my composure, take a few breaths, glance at the kitchen clock to time my trips, and insert my arms into the pack straps. They were just even with my shoulders so I could comfortably stand up straight before leaning forward and taking the weight of the load on my shoulders.

I had to duck down a little to make it through the back door, but once on the back porch, it was a comfortable carry down the back steps, over the shrinking snow pack under the eaves, down the trail to the concrete staircase, down the 35 stairs, then through the fairly treacherous trail over the fallen log to the waiting truck bed.

Unloading the box was fairly easy. I just sat on the open tailgate, rested the bottom of the pack frame on the tailgate taking the load off my shoulders, and then maintaining the balance of the vertical load, wiggle my arms out of the shoulder straps and finally turn around and lay the box on the growing pallet load.

The rain that was threatening mercifully held off. There was only a slight intermittent drizzle while I worked which made almost perfect working conditions. I overheat easily and if it hadn't been so cool, I could have worked up a big sweat. As it was, I worked in a tee-shirt and my broad-brimmed hat.

I had placed a tarp over the pallet as soon as I had loaded it, so each time I delivered a box, I peeled the tarp back so that I could position the next box. Then I replaced the tarp before I returned for the next box. The plastic shopping bag kept the boxes dry while I was carrying them.

I had a choice in making my trips up and down the concrete staircase or on the roadway around the hairpin curve. I think I tried one trip down the roadway, but going down the stairs was so comfortable and easy that I made all the other downhill trips that way.

Going back up was a different story. My right knee began complaining about climbing stairs by shooting a little pain through me. Going back up on the roadway proved to be more comfortable on my knees, so after a while, I switched and finished the job going down the stairs and back up the road. I still had to climb stairs to the back porch and the loft, but I finished the job by a little after 11:00 without too much discomfort or stress. I was pleased to get the last box loaded.

Sometime during this work, Bert and Ernie showed up so I interrupted my routine to give them their expected hugs and biscuits.

On my last trip down, I brought my shirt, which I thought I would need now that the strenuous work was done. By then the drizzle had turned to a light rain. With the last box loaded I put on my shirt and got a raincoat out of the truck and put it on. Then I set about strapping the boxes to the pallet and tying down the tarp so it would be ready for travel.

Just about the time I was buttoning my shirt, a car stopped and a guy came over to see what I was up to. He introduced himself as Ell Dee Sedy. He told me that he was 81 years old, lived in Redmond, and had a place in Plain. He was out looking for firewood that he could salvage.

We had a nice chat and I invited him to come up to the cabin to have a look at my project. I took a couple pictures of him. He said that he had been noticing my cabin over the years and was curious about it. We had a nice visit in the cabin, up in the loft, and out on the front porch. While we were in the loft, I showed him my bronze model of Mt. Rainier National Park. We walked back down to his car around the hairpin turn while I explained more features of the property like our artesian spring and our world-famous rock outcrop. He was especially interested in the rocks. He said he is a rockhound.

After he left, in fact starting before he left, I secured the tarp in the truck, closed the tailgate, and went up to have my lunch and get ready to leave for home. I was on the road with my load by 1:30.

On the way home, I stopped at the Haight warehouse in Woodinville and delivered the pallet of eleven boxes of flooring. There I met Judy's husband who just happened to be there at the time. He was interested in my flooring problem and in my cabin project. I gave him my card and invited him and his family to come up and see the project sometime.

4/5/13 (Friday) I called Judy at Haight Carpet and discussed the flooring problem. She said that the manufacturer had balked at first at replacing the flooring with the correct pattern because so much time had elapsed. Judy told me that she explained the reason for the long delay and that after all, it was his error that caused the problem. He said that it was a "nice story", but it was still a long time. He said that if they had really caused the problem, their inventory system should show a discrepancy. While she was talking to him, he looked at his inventory system and after a pause, said "Oh...Oh...Oh". Then he said that the inventory system did indeed show that there were too many "14"s on hand and too few "15"s. I presume the count was off by eleven in both cases.

Then he said that "There will be hell to pay" for whoever changed the inventory system after the physical inventory that was taken in January. He was going to find out who did it. After another long pause, he again said, "Oh,...Oh...Oh". He discovered that he had fudged the inventory himself.

He should have believed his system, tracked down which customer had gotten the bad shipment, and contacted them (me) right away.

Judy then explained that they will supply me with replacement flooring and I just needed to schedule the pickup date. Since I plan to clear my driveway next week, I told her that I would like to take delivery the following Tuesday morning. Before that, I told her that I was going to do a more careful calculation of how much flooring I will need for the loft, and if I need more than the eleven boxes, that I would let her know Tuesday or Wednesday next week. She said that she could add whatever additional boxes I need to my order with no problem. Life is good.