July

Vic headed off to get her hair done by John, one of the hang glider pilots, so I went to get supplies for a barbecue.

In the evening we had John, Johnny and Jason from the hang glider mob over, along with Vince who's met them all before. I burnt meat, and a good time seems to have been had by all. We used the AppleTV to look at the pictures from hang gliding at Hat Creek at the weekend. Not a bad use of technology, IMHO.

We put off soaking Tilly's foot until after they'd all left, so that she could run around without her lampshade on.

I spent the day pottering around the house keeping an eye on Tilly - she seems resigned to having her foot soaked, but isn't happy about having to wear her lampshade until the scab on top of her foot is dried out again. At least it looks like the swelling's going down a bit.

Vic took the Subaru out to get food for her brood, only to have the Check Engine light come on again. I disconnected the battery, checked all the fluid levels and suchlike and reconnected it. The light stayed off. Hmmm.

I got the electrickery bill, and we only generated an extra 27KWh with the solar panels, as the air conditioning's been on a fair bit.

At 10am, I took Tilly to the vet and dropped her off for her operation. I spent the rest of the day waiting for them to call me. They couldn't find anything, so we're left with her in a lampshade taking stronger antibiotics. And soaking the foot for 10 minutes, twice a day, in a mixture of epsom salts and some antibiotic they've given me.

On the way home we stopped at the SPCA so Vic could see that Tilly's still alive and kicking, and everyone could see what she's like when she's drugged and wearing a lampshade.

While Tilly let us bathe her foot in the evening after her prescribed half supper, I can see that being a struggle from now on. She finally settled down on her bed after figuring out that she couldn't get under our bed with the lampshade. Idiot dog.

I spent the day emailing a guy who's selling a bunch of paraweenie stuff, including a vario. We finally agreed on a price, so after I dropped Dad at SMF, I went into Sacramento and bought the thing. When I got home, several hours later, Tilly's foot had swelled up quite a bit, so we took her to see the vet. They decided the best thing to do was get her in in the morning to cut into her foot and take a look at it. She's still not bothered - we'll see how she feels after missing breakfast tomorrow.

We packed up the van and Tilly, left Hat Creek and headed home. Vic went with John in his truck, as the air conditioning's better (well, it works), and somehow we beat them home - I think it's because we only stopped the once :o)

As it was Dad's last night, we went to the only restaurant I know in the area that serves liver and onions.

We bummed around all day again, and in the evening, went to Hat Creek so Tilly could run around like a lunatic, and Vic could go hang gliding - she got around an hour and a half. John bodged his bent downtube with a tent pole to strengthen it, and flew too.

Paige had brought along a disc frisbee that Tilly loved, and we could fling a hell of a long way. We did that until it got dark, then headed back to the camp site to sit around the fire.

We bummed around all day, and some of the mob swam in the cold looking pond. In the evening, we ate early, then went to Hat Creek so Tilly could run around like a lunatic, and Vic could go hang gliding - she got around an hour and a half. When John was preflighting his glider, he found one of the downtubes was bent, which sucked. Especially as the spares we have for Vic's glider are about 3" too short :o(

Paige brought along a triangular frisbee that Tilly chased, then tried to chew, but it helped wear her out a little.

We packed everything up in the van, put the hang glider on John's truck and headed to Hat Creek. After a long assed drive to get there, we set up our camp, then headed out to the rim so that Vic and the guys could go hang gliding. We got to meet Paige, the local guru who moved there from Oakland to fly more, and he's a top geezer. There were several gliders there before us, and then a crapload of paragliders showed up, but Vic got 45 minutes, most of that above launch.

We took Tilly to the vet's so they could look at her gimpy foot. She wasn't in favour of that, and tried hiding under chairs, behind me and so on until the vet gave her a mild sedative, at which point she settled down completely. I asked for a gallon of that and a box of syringes, but never got them. Still, we ended up leaving her there for X-rays and poking, where they found a lump in her foot between her first two toes, as I'd expected. We went away with antibiotics in case of infection, and an anti-inflammatory to cut down the swelling. Strangely enough, Tilly seems happier with her foot now it's been looked at.

In the afternoon I heard from Sara at Stephan's Autohaus to say that they'd found no leaks, but tightened up the differential cover and a powered steering hose (even though ATF isn't gold like oil) and think they've fixed the leak. So we went and picked up the van - Dad got to drive the Subaru home in rush hour traffic - usually a joy.

I peered at the mild oil leak from the van, and it's not from the drain bolt or the filter that I can see, so we ran it to Stephan's Autohaus for them to look at. Stephan's said we can use his 1.8 turbo Syncro for the weekend if they can't fix it in short order, so I think that's the motivation they need to get it done quickly :o)

We met Vince for dinner, as we drove past his place on the way home and he was there. Seems he didn't go to the fly in at the weekend after all, as it was "too hot to fly". Fhag.

Vic was feeling a bit better, so we risked a trip to the Galleria, where we picked up a couple of things we really don't need :o)

In the evening, we watched Bolt, which Dad hasn't seen, and Tilly's obviously forgotten seeing.

We had planned on going to Prairie City to see some supermoto and YSR racing, but Vic was very sick during the night. Exorcist sick. Oh well. We basically spent the day inside hiding from the 110F heat, other than taking a look at the not at all dirty air filter on the van. That was a struggle to get off and back on again :o(

In the evening, we watched Knowing, which I found unsatisfying on many levels, but the peanut gallery enjoyed.

We took the van to Stephan's Autohaus for an oil change and general checking out. Seems it needs a new air filter and one reversing bulb. The rest of the day was taken up playing with Tilly, but I did replace the reversing light bulb.

In the evening Gwen came over to help us eat barbecued beast, and we watched Twilight.

We started the day by washing the van and rotating the wheels from front to back - the edges of the fronts were worn differently due to the adventurous cornering we'd been doing in the hills :o)

We took the trial cell phone back - the coverage was crap, and I didn't really want a cell phone anyway. While we were there, we wandered about looking at gadgets, but nothing major was bought.

In the evening, we all met up with Vince for dinner - he's off to the powered parachute fly in tomorrow.

We left Mosquito Ridge, Diamond Lake, and headed towards Crater Lake. We stopped to take a picture of Mount Thielsen, but the cloud was obscuring the jagged looking peak. Bloody weather. We cracked on to Crater Lake, and dragged our way up to the Rim Village, where we all loaded into Kerry's car and drove all the way around it. It's interesting to see the odd bits of very little growth when you consider that the caldera last erupted an estimated 7700 years ago. We came across a park ranger at one of the stops, and she was saying about how the ancient Indian legends have been generally correct - the Indians said the mountain fell into itself, and the early settlers didn't believe this. Geology has subsequently proved them right. They're trying to figure out how the fish got into the lake - they first thought the early settlers could have dumped them in, but the Indians have a legend of a giant fish in the lake, so now they're wondering if the Indians seeded the lake. We headed South from the lake, and ended up Mazama Village for the night, where we had to take an RV slot for the 2 cars, but got no hookups. We've also picked up a pasenger somewhere - Dad heard nibbling this morning, and I then saw a mouse run under the fridge while we were at the Rim Village. As we're now in bear country, we've taken all the food out of the van. Hopefully he'll take that as a hint and leave, or I'll have to poison him before he starts chewing electrical cables.

We took a last walk around the stalls and static displays before leaving the Fly In behind and heading South again. We stopped at the Mount St Helens visitor park, and took in the lunar scenery that is the park, almost 30 years after the eruption. It's very interesting, and on the way back down we stopped at a couple of the view points to take yet more pictures of the valley, mountain, lava cap and stream. We then headed back to cousin Kerry's for dinner and to crash the night.