05-19-11

It’s Thursday and I am up at the cabin. Patti didn’t want to come up this time.

A friend of mine (Doug) called me last week and said that he wanted to have a group of guys up at IC to do an all weekend drum. It has been a long time since I have been to a drum and thought it was a great idea so being retired and free and always looking for an excuse to come up here I drove up today. The others will arrive tomorrow evening.

I am still having problems getting the right shocks for the van. It looks like I will have to do some modifications to the latest ones. It shouldn’t be to hard , the bushings and spacer have to be trimmed down.

The generator is still out of action. I haven’t gone looking for the parts yet. I did find the entire fuel cock on line so if worse comes to worse it can be ordered.

I didn’t bring many tools with me this time as I came up in the jeep and didn’t have much room. I even forgot to bring a tape measure which is one of the most important tools. Oh well, I can always use a string or a measure board if I decide to build something.  Not much work will get done this weekend anyway so it doesn’t matter.

About 3 years ago, Peter had brought a “Paloma” tank-less water heater up for the shower. I was always too busy with the cabin to do anything about installing it so took it home last week and tried to get it to work, without success. The pilot light would not even light. On further investigation I found that there was no gas getting to the pilot. After several hours of trying this and that and after breaking the spark lead, I gave up.

Fortunately, Dave and another friend Kris both have camping, propane fired, “on-demand”, water heaters. It is complete with a shower wand and is small enough that we can hang it on the wall in the shower. The water inlet accepts a garden hose and I had already plumbed a hose bib in the shower room. The gas inlet is a long rubber hose with a regulator on one end so all we need to do is hook it to a propane bottle. We tested the system last fall and with a few modifications it should work perfect and will save me some work. Now all I have to do for the shower is build the enclosure.

The drummers showed up around 5:30 Friday evening. There where only four of them Doug, Ken, Terry and Mark. The first thing they unloaded were he drums. and the beer.

Terry and Ken took up residence in the Dining hall.

Doug and Mark set up on Dave’s deck.

Ken,

Terry and Doug

Terry and Mark

Terry and Mark are very entertaining, they were always playing off of each other doing improvisational comic skits.

We drummed until the wee hours of the morning. I went to bed at midnight but the boys kept going.

I had to get up around 7:00 am Saturday to go to the privy. As I walked by the dining hall, I saw Terry laying on the ground fully dressed and sound asleep, near where they had parked the vehicles. I guess he couldn’t find his way to his sleeping bag. He and Mark had stayed up until dawn and consumed copious amounts of alcohol.

Later on in the day the guys took a hike to the slag heap and brought back some fire wood. Off and on during the day someone would start a rhythm on a drum then someone else would fill in the gaps on a drum or other percussion instrument. This went on through out the day and into the night. I finally had to go to bed around 2:00 am but like the energizer bunny they just kept drumming. Ah, youth!! Well, they are a little younger than I.

 

It was a very enjoyable weekend.

Around 9:30 Monday morning we got into Patti’s Trailblazer and headed for Glendale, Oregon; we arrived at Kathi and Bob’s at 5:30. Kathi and Bob’s youngest daughter Anna-lee and her baby (A cute little guy named Lucas)

are staying with them for a while. We will be here until Thursday. Patti and Kathi are going to go to Seven Feather’s Casino today and the rest of us will meet them at the Mexican restaurant in Canyonville for supper.

Patti came out ahead at Seven Feathers.

The weather has been kind of crappy with rain off and on the whole time we have been here.

Wednesday we just hung out at K & B’s all day and went to supper at the Village Inn in Glendale.

I’m Cool.

Patti came ahead there also.

We left Kathi and Bob’s around 8:30 am and headed for home. We stopped for a short visit with Becky and Dennis at their vineyard.

It was really great to visit with them. They have been working very hard to get the place in shape.

We finally got home around 7:30 pm. an 11 hour trip, about 8:00 hours of driving.

We are going to Indian Creek for the Memorial Day weekend with Joanne and Dave.

More later.