10/5-9/20 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 5 days: Monday through Friday.

I arrived at noon on a beautiful 60-degree fall day. I brought my gear up in two trips, hoisted the flag, and had my lunch. Before I could take my nap, I spotted another small lizard on the floor, but he scooted under the pantry door before I could catch him.

After a short nap, I spotted the little guy again and this time I caught him and took him outside. This one had a complete tail so either it wasn't Bob, or else Bob had grown another tail in a short time.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on a diligent search for a hole that might be the way the lizards get in. I started on the outside Grid 1 wall. I found three cracks that were possibilities, so I got a caulk gun and plugged them all up. One was alongside the bathroom window. The other two were on the sides of the hole through which the plumbing vent stack runs. That will be as much attention as I plan to pay to the lizard problem until another one shows up. If none shows up, I will figure that one of those three holes was the problem and consider it solved.

On Tuesday I got a rather frantic call from Ellen telling me that the roofers had shown up to put a new roof on the garage. They were two weeks early and had shown up without calling ahead of time. We decided to have her open the garage and let them start work.

I immediately called the roofing boss, got his answering machine, and left a message. Then I called the company boss and had to leave a message there also. I decided to drive home so that I could be there during the work and was just about to lock up the cabin when a call came in from the roofing scheduler.

He explained that they had an available crew, and the weather was perfect. Our job was next in line, so they decided to do it. He had tried to call me several times, but he was calling my cellphone and I was out of cell service range. After talking with him, and later talking with Ellen, I decided that it wasn't necessary for me to be there, so I canceled my plans to go home.

Instead, I worked on the crawl space floor. I lifted the workbench and got the plastic under that last leg and then spread it out all the way. Then, one by one, I replaced the old platforms in the reverse order that I had removed them, but this time they were on top of the plastic. I was happy that that job went so smoothly. The platforms were all just as serviceable as they were before.

Ellen called me again and updated me on the garage. I asked her to take some pictures of the work in progress. Things were going smoothly.

After lunch and a nap, I sat down with my new laptop and worked my way along the learning curve getting ready to do some serious writing.

On Wednesday morning, right after breakfast, I started by tying up Rosie, the rose bush, to get it out of the way of the truck. Then I backed the truck all the way up the roadway so that one back tire was resting on the Legal Landing. I had put a wooden ramp against the edge of the landing, and I was pleased that the tire rolled right up over it and rested on the landing without damaging it at all.

Next, I removed the tailgate and set a plank ramp up against the bed. I took a picture and then proceeded to load Leonard's big wooden toolbox, the old freezer body, the old wooden concrete mixing box, and a bunch of other junk into the bed of the truck. I wanted to get it hauled to the landfill before the weather turns bad.

After driving the truck back down the hill, I took another picture of the loaded truck. Then I untied Rosie and went in for lunch and a nap. When I got up, I was just about to start writing when Earl called. We had finally connected, and we had a fairly long conversation to catch each other up on our respective activities.

On Thursday, I worked on spreading the plastic over the Grid C2-E3 corner. The only hard part was to get it under the stuff along the Grid 3 wall. And the hardest part of that was the storage cabinet with all the bins. That thing must weigh 150 lb. and is more than I can just push around.

The cabinet was sitting with the back against the foundation wall, the right side was resting on the edge of the concrete pad for the Grid D3 PSL, and the left side was resting on a stack of two concrete blocks. I decided that the thing to do was to swing it around so that the entire cabinet would be resting on the concrete pad. Then I could remove the concrete blocks and place the plastic under them. Then I would just swing the cabinet back to its original position.

I tried to lift the left corner of the cabinet off the concrete block and found that it was too heavy for me to move it at all. I needed a better strategy. After trying a lot of approaches, I found one that worked.

I found a small piece of steel, about a quarter of an inch thick and about 3" x 6". Using a pry bar, I was able to lift the corner of the cabinet up enough to get the piece of steel slipped between the cabinet and the concrete block with most of the steel sticking out toward me. Then I was able to get a short board under the steel with the other end of the board resting on the concrete pad. That made a bridge, across which I planned to slide the left side of the cabinet from the concrete block over to the concrete pad. The cabinet would pivot around the right side which would just stay on the pad. The piece of steel would make a ramp that would take the cabinet up onto the bridge.

I used the pry bar to little by little ease the cabinet up the steel ramp, onto the board bridge, and finally all the way over to the pad, although it was still resting on the board bridge. That was OK, though because with the weight of the cabinet completely on the pad, the end of the board came up off the concrete blocks so that I could remove them, get the plastic under them, replace them, and then reverse the whole trip the cabinet had taken across the bridge. It worked like a charm and I was pleased with the result.

All the stuff stacked in the corner was a much easier problem. I simply removed it a piece at a time, stacked it on the floor temporarily, or put it in the trash, and when it was all out, I cleaned the debris from the floor and put it in the garbage. Then I spread out the plastic and replaced all the stuff. By then it was lunchtime.

After lunch and a nap, I wrote a draft of the first chapter for one of the books I will write.

On Friday morning, except for breakfast, piano practice, and other routine chores, I spent the morning listening to the President conduct his first radio rally. Then after having my lunch and packing up, I left for home at 12:30 once again feeling very good about the week and eager to see the new garage roof.