New Normal

     It's been eight months since my last post, and like everyone else, I'm still adjusting to a "new normal". Instead of being guided by US radar maps as I travel, I'm now guided by COVID hot spot maps . . .

      And instead of meetings with a homebuilder and contractors, I'm laying low, watching lumber prices go up, up, up . . .

Watching steel prices too . . . 

And instead of jostling for campground sites with hordes of travelers, I'm cat-sitting for them. This is Simon . . . YouTube has alot of good videos to amuse cats.

Before Simon and Dylan, there was Lily in Woodstock, Maryland, followed by Pete and Roger in Roanoke, Virginia. In Roanoke, I walked daily in a cemetery instead of busy hiking trails . . . hello Ms. Clatterbuck, hello Mr. Trinkle, hello Ola May . . . 

Last April, I planted a dozen baby Norway Spruce trees on my buildable lot . . . 

     See my vegetation above? I got a certified letter from the city claiming I had to mow my overgown vegetation, followed eleven days later by an email from a city erosion inspector claiming I had to sow seeds on my denuded lot. WTF? I pay Sport the Bush-hogger to mow every six weeks.

While I was tucked away in the North Carolina woods with Simon and Dylan . . . 

. . a surgeon fixed my Dupuytren's contracture.

And a dentist in Morehead City made my very first crown when an old filling broke.

Not a very blog-worthy past eight months, eh?

PS: After my cat-sit in Beaufort, NC, I camped at my lot in Salem, Virginia. The clover I planted is coming up nicely according to my 4-legged neighbors.

I was on a long waiting list with a driveway company in October and November. They finally excavated a six-inch deep 140' long construction driveway . . . .

. . . then I laid the weed control fabric . . . 

. . . . then they topped it with a foundation of 4" layer of big rocks and a surface layer of 2" of pugmill.

The construction driveway is now ready for construction vehicles!