What's Been Going On

The well drilling outfit. It cost a pretty penny to drill the well but when you look at the equipment being used, there's a bit of overhead. There were two guys with two trucks and about a half day of time invested putting the well in.

Another two guys came back to connect everything from the well to the pump in the basement. The little excavator made pretty quick work of the trenching operation but he did have a little trouble with the sides of the trench collapsing in the soft sand. Fortunately it worked out OK without collapsing on anyone but he had to cut the sides back more than he wanted to. 

They showed up about 9:00 and left about 1:30 and I didn't see them stop working the whole time. They were all business and did a pretty nice job of filling in the trench and cleaning up when they were done. They ran a conduit for an electric line at the same time so when my pump fails, it will be relatively easy to swap out with a new submersible pump. I'm hoping that'll be something the next owner can worry about.

The top photo is a heavy bag from the gym. Nothing exciting about this, just put new chain on it. But that's one of the many reasons I need a truck. Seems I'm always hauling something around. Bottom photo is the sidecar wheel with the new tire fitted. It's mounted up on the sidecar now, so everything on that is finished except trimming the windscreen for clearance on the brace. I'm starting back on the bike itself now. 

I bought a Sirius radio tuner for the truck but ran into a snag there - why doesn't that surprise me? The manual says there's an auxiliary jack and a USB port to connect things but there is no auxiliary jack and the Sirius radio kit doesn't have anything that'll connect to the USB port. I need to get an adaptor and then I can finish that up. I found one on eBay for $1.60, shipping included but it won't be here for four to six weeks. Maybe try Radio Shack instead.

I've about got everything ready for the bike trip. I still need to pack my clothes but the bike is ready and the panniers are packed with food and cooking gear. The laundry's all done so it's just a matter of deciding what I'm taking along and packing in into the duffel bag. I checked the weather out there and as of now, it looks promising. No rain and temps in the mid to high eighties. We'll be doing roughly fifty miles per day, so it shouldn't be too tough on an old man.

Have a good weekend.