Another 400 mile day

Yesterday I did a quick down to Massachusetts to pick up my lovely wife. She went with her parents down to my daughter's place. My in-laws were flying out of Boston the next day. I stayed at home to deal with the guy who was looking at my woodstove. It was a lot of extra travel, but I did get to see my daughter and grandkids one more time so totally worth it.

The road loop around Boston does not seem to ever have a slow time. Unless, of course, you count those times when traffic is so heavy the highway becomes a huge parking lot. The good thing about driving in that kind of traffic is realizing it's an occasional thing for me. My gratitude for not having to commute like that on a daily basis is endless.

There are a few more outside projects that really have to be done before the snow flies. The next one is changing the door that goes out onto the deck. The old wooden one has seen better days and never was very well insulated. That wasn't a problem when we were going south for most of the winter. Now that we are definitely staying here for at least most of it, we need something better. One of my daughters and her husband renovated a house and no longer needed one of the outside doors. It's a fairly new steel clad insulated door, perfect for my needs.

Not sure if I'll switch it out today or just do the prep work. Feeling a bit worn out and just might take it easy. Changing an outside door goes a lot better if the weather is nice and today will be only so so. That just might be enough of an excuse to wait a day.

I must admit to being a bit sore. The road trip didn't really give me much of a rest after moving that heavy cast iron stove. The young guy who came to pick it up was supposed to have help with him to move it. He's young, over 6 feet tall and in his 20s yet could barely lift his end of it. Never mind carry it any distance.

However, he was willing to buy the stove so I was determined he would leave with it. With the use of scrap lumber, a dolly, steel ramps, ratcheting straps, and a come along, we made it happen.

-Sixbears