Kathleen & Paul Smith's RV Travelblog

10/31/09 - Happy Halloween
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No pictures today - some will follow shortly.... A few years ago we were in San Felipe, at KiKi's, enjoying the Halloween festivities, always captivated by the local children singing "Tricky, Tricky Halloween" - they never used the "American" - "Trick or Treat", but rather sang a lilting little ditty, always enjoyed by all the campers.

Today has been a little different. No Trick or Treaters here, but as we drove to two different Home Depots we saw a number of costumed adults and young people along the streets.

Today we had our own "Treats" - not of the "sweet" variety, but much more appreciated.

As soon as we arrived at the apartment, Kathleen climbed up on the roof to continue the work of stripping the paint from the two clerestories, applying a preservative (to help stop the decaying wood), applying wood filler (LOTS of it), sanding it down again and by tomorrow, hopefully being able to apply the first coat of primer.

While she was sanding down the first application of wood filler the waving of a broom from the kitchen below attracted her. It was our daughter-in-law, Miriam, come to help out. Miriam has to travel on business on Monday, but would not go home and get ready, as she said that she wanted to do "something". That something was to paint both sides of all the doors in the apartment that Paul Jr was cutting down so they'd fit with the new floors. Every door (9 of them) had to be shorter because of the increased floor height caused by Paul Senior's beautiful Prego-like floors. God bless her, she painted all the doors before finally going home! (Treat #1)

Paul Jr outdid himself in getting all the doors cut down, put in a closet (bi-fold) door, measured, cut and nailed in two important pieces of wood around one of the windows on the large clerestory, and helped Paul Sr with some of the trim. It is amazing what doors will do to give the apartment an "almost finished" look! The door to the bathroom was especially appreciated :o) (Treat #2)

After Miriam and Paul left, we finished our respective work for the day, Paul climbed up to the roof and covered the larger of the clerestories with tarps while Kathleen covered the smaller clerestory. Then he carried the heavy bucket of supplies she uses on her various tasks up there. He was ready to "call it a day", but agreed to visit Home Depot tonight (so we don't have to go there in the morning) to pick up a couple more stripping disks and a few other items. The first Home Depot declared that they "no longer carry" those little triangular pieces of metal that gets inserted in the window prior to glazing, so we went to a second HD where they had plenty of them. I think the 2nd Home Depot had more knowledgeable staff! Anyway, we completed our building supplies, headed for home, but stopped at our friendly Safeway for salad and a prepared roasted little chicken. Paul does not usually eat chicken (reputedly inflammatory) but he acquiesced tonight, meaning we could go home and "open" packages for a quick and easy meal! (Treat #3)

Sometime during the evening we discussed how much different the apartment looks - almost like it is getting in the final stages of work. Paul feels it is possible (and hopefully probable) that we can finish our work that must be done on the apartment so it can be put up for rent - and leave northern California on or about November 9th!!! This is our hope! (Treat #4)

We feel we had GREAT treats today, and hope all our readers had a happy Halloween, with good treats, too!

So we are getting ready to leave for the apartment, filled with dreams and hopes of getting our work complete and heading south.

Of course, we will definitely miss the kids - Paul Jr and family and Christina and family, but our gypsy feet are itching and we are ready to move on.....

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"NO DEAL BASICALLY means that if we can't find a solution that wold benefit us both, we agree to disagree agreeably--No Deal. No expectations have been created, no performance contracts established. I don't hire you or we don't take on a particular assignment together because it's obvious that our values or our goals are going in opposite directions. It is so much better to realize this up front instead of downstream when expectations have been created and both parties have been disillusioned.
When you have No Deal as an option in your mind, you feel liberated because you have no need to manipulate people, to push your own agenda, to drive for what you want. You can be open. You can really try to understand the deeper issues underlying the positions." (9/9)

Paul & Kathleen Smith | 173 Rainbow Dr #7329 | Livingston, TX 77399-1073 | (510) 386-8973

Life on the Road with Paul & Kathleen: "Not bad for two dumb kids from Ohio" - Proving once again that it's never too late to have a happy childhood

Our Lazy Daze at Kirk Creek Camp on CA Hwy 1 40 mi N of Hearst's Castle 11/24/03: Shortly after full-timing began.	Foretravel & Toad at Parkview RV Park, Fort Stockton, TX 5/24/06