What a great week we’ve had.  Our outhouse project made the San Juan Mountain Association centerfold. “All of your unique talents really make a difference in the quest for stewardship on our land we love so much.” Holy shit, 10 photos in the centerfold of a publication that probably has over 350 copies.

Where to begin. Finding and repairing the fuel hose leak in the power washer was a big deal at the start of the week.  Sussing out the location of my nephew’s new townhome and having a great visit with him was fortuitous and indicative of the luck and fortunes in the week ahead.

We’ve been planning, researching and maneuvering to cut the cord on a number of monthly expenses related to our phones and broadband.  This week we pulled it off when we moved both our iPhones to pay-as-you-go 10¢ a minute.  We’ve never used anywhere close to our “contract” allotments and hated paying the high monthly to AT$T so now we expect to spend far less on our phones per year.

The real coup was “porting” our home phone number to Stanna’s cell phone.  Now when you call our home phone Stanna gets it on her iPhone.  Only disadvantage is this last week of the political robo calling that our hopeful and elected representatives feel is their God-given right to invade our privacy and convenience.

Sticking with the digital theme: We also changed our broadband provider from the pitiful 3 MBPS DSL service to 30 MBPS of cable joy.  I don’t expect Netflix will ever buffer again. Also I managed to solve a broadband cut-out problem for friends Jack and Paula by running a “hard wire” in their home this week as well.

Another digital triumph this week was getting bluetooth in our car.  We love listening to books-on-tape or podcasts when driving cross-country and had never worked that out to our satisfaction.  It took finding a used car at an auction thru a local dealer, but we now have bluetooth for both books and hands-free phone usage.  We took delivery of our new used car this week.  Pretty special. The Avalon is history.

Of course the best part of each week is getting younger next year and getting back into the routine of exercise each day and becoming guilt-free by 8AM.  I can tell in my spin class when my heart rate peaks above 160 that I’ve been slacking and getting out of shape from my Portland binge. Getting in a couple of hikes this last week has helped bring down the extra pounds gained on that ice cream orgy as well.  Plus I was able to break-in a new pair of hiking tenni’s for my up- coming 8-day Grand Canyon hike.

I shouldn’t leave out a full day with my sister Donna in Silverton knocking out a double turn-over in the Highlander.  We rock when working together cleaning, scrubbing, painting and repairing.

A really super week. I can’t remember a week when so many special things happened and I still have one day to go.