Earlier this year, Richard had driven up from California in order to drive his mom from Washington to her new place to live at the Hummingbird House in Oceanside, California. Patria, had reached that age in her life that she was requiring a lot of assistance in order for her to survive.

So, Richard has found another home in the same mobile home park where he was living, contacted me come there in order to help him remodel the home and now arrived at the Oak Harbor House to take Patria back to California to live.

In the process of moving his mother out of Washington, Richard had made arrangements for me to arrive at the Oak Harbor House and do the work in preparation for the home to be sold.

I am at the end of my twelfth and final week here at the Oak Harbor House during which I have been finishing all the remaining jobs of painting, repairing, clean up, trash removal and general fix up tasks that have for me long seemed to be a never ending job.

Once I have come to the completion of my work here, I do a walk through and take my completion photos of the property.

After the city trucks empty the garbage and recycle bins, I fill the two bins one last time and then put them back in their place. Finally, on my way off of the island, I park at the end of the driveway, step out of the jammer to take one last photo.

Awake, dress in my fall blues, step outside of the jammer and walk the trash and recycle bins to the curb for emptying. Then, I start the jammer, drive to the w-mart for coffee, com and computer.

When I return to the OHH, I put on my work blues and resume the painting of the front of the house. Yesterday, I had spent the entire day first scrapping the front door frame and painting it with oil base primer, after which I paint the door frame white and the front of the house green, both colors from leftover cans of the original paint. Today, when I return to the OHH from the cafe, I resume the work of painting the front of the house.

With Richard now back at his home in southern California, I am left here to complete the list of tasks he had given me to complete. One of these tasks is to scrape and paint the deck, especially those areas where the old paint is peeling.

During the scrapping portion of this job, I call Richard to tell him the reason why so much of the paint on the ramp was peeled off. I say, The person who constructed the ramp did not use primer before he painted.

The work today takes me about seven hours after which, except for cleaning the front deck hand rails, I take most of the next day off. However, I also drive to hw-mart to purchase the interior paint that I will use for touch up inside of the OHH.

This requires quite a bit of scrapping with my paint scrapping tool before I can apply the paint, but the end result when I put on the white stain makes the deck look so much better.

Last evening, when we were packing the trailer for a dump run for this morning, I told Richard I wanted to change the garage sale schedule to have the Free Sale today from 9 am until noon, and then be closed Sunday. This will allow us to pack out everything remaining, so that we can have time to pack the trailer for his drive back to California. He agreed to my suggestion and said that it would probably work better doing it that way.

Then, this morning, after I make a Free Sign, I go outside to the garage to begin pulling out the display tables and begin setting up. Richard then leaves for the dump to unload the trailer. Upon returning, I close down the sale and together, we begin bagging up everything to go onto the trailer for the dump.

In what seems like almost no time at all, we are close to having an empty garage.

The entire week before Richard arrives on Tuesday morning, I spend cleaning the house and moving things out to the garage. By the time he arrives, all that is left is a small pile in the living room, well, of course, what is in his mom′s room because it has been locked.

He tells me that he is really impressed with what I have accomplished

The next weekend of the garage sale begins in September with each successive week end after this one having more and more of the displays being moved into the garage and less and less of it set outside.

At about eight, I walk outside, open the garage overhead door and resume pricing items. I have been setting up whole rows of shelving that have everything on it the same price, one row with all one dollar items, a second row with two dollar items, and a third row with three dollar and higher items.

There is still a large stack of suitcases and bags covering most of the garage, so I have set the sale up outside for now, hoping to slowly bring the sale displays inside the garage as the stack is slowly whittled away at.

Awake, dress in my summer blues, walk inside and clean up and organize the kitchen so that I can begin using it for preparing my meals. This takes about two hours, after which, I boil water for my coffee, repast and a cup of tea. Then, I sit down on the sofa, turn on my computer and begin my journal entry for today.

My primary goal for the next couple of weeks is to begin setting up for a garage sale that will commence during the last weekend of August and continue through September. Too, I have been trying to clean up the yard by cutting grass and pulling weeds, all along thinking, Wow, there is so much to do!

Awake, drive to the Oak Harbor House and go inside to take a shower but when I see the bathroom, methinks, I can not take a shower here, but, I have to clean it first. So, I begin early this morning, cleaning the bathroom and laundry room.

Too, I go back to the jammer and get out my dirty clothes so that I can do my laundry while I am working at cleaning the bathroom. Then, after more than four hours, I take photos of what I have accomplished and then send the photos to Richard in Oceanside, California. He calls back and tells me that this is what he had hoped that I would do.

In the late morning, while I continue to pound keys, Richard calls to encourage me to stay at his mom's home and for me to take showers there. Too, he tells me that any food left there is available for me to eat. He also would like me to clean up both the inside and the yard. I tell him that I am good with that and will get to work on it right away.

Leaving the w-mart, I drive to the Oak Harbor House to use an electric string edger in the front yard because it is so overgrown. However, because it is still very hot outside, I park and wait for the sun to drop to the horizon before beginning the lawn work. Yes, I still occasionally do this type of work, but even so, the frequency of doing any such work is decreasing deliberately. I am able to cut most of the front yard before it becomes too dark to continue.

When I arrive, I can tell that not much has been done since my last visit here. Too, even though I really do not wish to do this work, I am willing to help my friend Richard again.

So, I get right to work arrive, I can tell that not much has been done since my last visit here. Too, even though I really do not wish to do this work, I am willing to help my friend Richard again.

Awake, dress, drive to the w-mart and take my seat at the table by the wall. One of the baristas see me and says, Welcome back Thom. I begin pounding keys and after a while, in walks a couple of my friends from the Oak Harbor Congregation. I do not say anything because I am trying to stay incognito but one of the friends sees me and says hello. I greet them in return but ask them to please not tell anyone else.

Also, I talk with Richard and he asks me to go to his mom′s home to get the key for the five acres wooded property on Boon Road to check it. So, a little before noon, I pack out, drive to Deception Pass state park, purchase an annual park pass, and then drive to the Bowman Bay campground for a hot shower. After donning clean clothes, I then drive to the Oak Harbor House to retrieve the key to the wooded property, drive three miles south of town and begin looking for the chained gate that Richard told me would be there. When I go to the location where he said near the north corner, I can not find the gate but see that the area has been bulldozed, so I take photos and sent them to Richard.

Then I decide to drive the property line to search for the gate and find it near the south corner instead. I park, get out and find the gate to be breached with a sofa being dumped on the property. I get out my lock lubricant, lube up the two padlocks, and only then am I able to open both locks. Next, with the tools that I currently carry, I re-hang the chain between the two four by four posts and then install the two locks, one one each post.

I will still need to return and replace the chain ring that is only screed to the post with an eye ring that required drilling and twisting into the post, but that will be later.