At one point during our Summer break, the fan went out on the A/C unit (giggity) at the Brandon Shack.
With some help of the internet, we fashioned a homemade air conditioner out of a styrofoam cooler, PVC pipe, ice packs and a tiny fan.
Opie took full advantage of the surprisingly effective little cooler.
Fortunately, our heroes at Huft Heating & Air saved the day by replacing the fan in our A/C unit within a day or two!
Phong from Huft Heating & Air was the technician that came to work on our unit (giggity), and he was quite impressed with the ingenuity behind this design! Maybe I have a future in HVAC!
Video: One of the things that I promised myself over vacation was to finally get my home office/studio in working order. I should have taken a “before” picture, but trust me, this is a HUGE improvement to the “storage” area it was before…
Video: Walter the Treeing Walker Coonhound always knows when it is dinner time. Around 5pm he starts staring at you, and watching your every move to make sure you don’t forget to feed him at 5:30pm (dinner time). This video is a demonstration of Walter giving us the “what for” while on our bed. On rare occasions do we let the dogs on the bed. This was just too cute not to share.
Opie the nearly 2 year old German Shepherd and one of our two Bengal kittens, Bishi, absolutely love each other and have grown to play with each other more and more.
Video: Walter, on the other hand, can get jealous of the cats getting too much attention. With 6 cats and 2 dogs at the Brandon Shack, we have to make sure we spread the love around evenly.
Video: As much as possible, I try to get out and hike around local watering holes like the Yuba and American Rivers. Helps keep the mind clear and the body active.
Over this past weekend, my wife and I had to travel back out to Wyoming in our rental car to pick up the vehicle that had broken down while on a road trip to Yellowstone. 30 minutes into our drive on I-80, a rock flies directly into the windshield creating this lovely crack! Damn it!
I was so furious, that my wife had to take to filling in the crack (giggity) at a local auto part store parking lot.
While this sweet Angel took her time to patiently patch up the crack so that it wouldn’t spread, I was sent into the grocery store for food since I was hangry and of no help to her.
This put us an hour behind schedule.
Back on the road and you can barely tell the crack is there!
Wide open road…. 10 hours until we reach our destination.
Video: A vacation recap isn’t complete without a rainbow! Can you see it?!
Video: This is where the trip takes a turn for the worst. Just picked up our vehicle from the service center in Evanston, Wyoming. 5 minutes down the road, literally getting on the freeway to head home, and the engine starts billowing smoke due to an oil leak. We had to turn right back around to take the vehicle back to the shop. We then had to make the trek back in shame without our vehicle, still… For the full story, listen to Episode 126 of the RAD Prodcast.
We noticed that the further East you get outside of CA and NV, they really love their Reese’s! I don’t blame them… I love them too! At this gas station, there were more varieties of Reese’s than I have seen before.
On our trek back home, without our car (again), we came upon a dust storm in Northern Nevada.
At first glance, we were worried that it was a wildfire.
After a quick trip to the Google cave, I read the story about the potential dust storms in Northern NV. What a sight to see!
Video: Here is a quick video of what it looked like as we drove into the dust storm.
As we emerged from the dust storm, which felt like driving through really thick fog, the beautiful skyline of Nevada appears.
Despite all of the crap we have been through over the last few weeks, we remain humbled and take away lessons of humility, patience, preparedness and resilience.
Things could be much worse, especially these days, it is so important to count your blessings and seek peace.
