The Toaster Obsession, Part Two

It's been a quiet week here at the Green Acres Garage. Gary had some major dental work done on Tuesday, and he's been tired and weak ever since. I've done my best to be helpful and to make him comfortable. My A/C is running constantly, and he has spent most of the week sleeping away the days and nights with me watching over him. Needless to say, there hasn't been any work going on around here at all. Gary is taking a much needed break, and he's doing everything he can to heal properly. Since I have had very little to keep up with here in the garage, I thought I would take an inventory and some fresh pictures of the toaster salt and pepper shakers and related items that I told you about back in February. Thanks to lots of online and antique store shopping, our collection has grown considerably. Who knew there were so many items that are shaped like me? Gary has found most of these, but I've surprised him and have come up with a couple of them with my online shopping prowess. Most of these are salt and pepper shakers, but a couple are Christmas ornaments. The biggest one is a sticky notes holder called "Toasty Notes". Gary found that one in an antiques store in Jacksonville. My favorite find is the aqua and white one. It was in Serro Scotty colors, so I HAD to have it. As I said before, I usually don't collect anything. But now that I have seen how much fun collecting is, I'm on eBay every single day looking for these little jewels. Gary is probably sorry that he taught me how to use the computer, and even worse, that I know how to access his PayPal account. This could be dangerous! Anyway, he doesn't seem to mind when an unknown little package arrives in the mail with a new toaster inside. It's kind of a father and son obsession.

I'm In A BUSY Place!

It's been about ten days since the garage I live in was essentially an island on our property. Luckily, we've had many sunny days here in St. Augustine, and things have pretty much dried out around here. There has been a CRAZY amount of activity here in the Green Acres Garage. Gary has been out here every single day, and working past sunset on most nights. I can't say that he's worked on me very much. Other than gutting my kitchen base cabinet, I remain untouched. However, I have literally been surrounded by lots of other work. My brother Henry, who used to be a Scotty Hilander, was brought back over from the driveway to the garage. He had 1/2" plywood flooring that Gary removed, and will replace with 3/4" pressure treated plywood. And then, sides and a tailgate will be made, and Henry will officially be a S.L.U.T. (Serro Lawn & Utility Trailer). Gary comes up with some VERY creative names, doesn't he? To stabilize Henry's wooden sides and to beef up his frame for hauling the new riding lawn mower that Gary just bought, he was taken over to the local welding shop to have some steel tubing welded onto the back of him. At the moment, he looks like a rolling football goal post, but I know that he will look radically different by the time Gary get's finished with him. Most of that stack of wood that was piled in front of me has been cut into pieces for Henry's transformation. Gary, being the considerate guy that he is, has been cutting the wood outside with the garage door closed so that I won't get dusty. He's so nice to me. One of our friends wants the bumper off of my brother Scotty, so Gary cut it off with a saw yesterday. And if all of that activity wasn't enough, Gary has also been cutting wood for some other kind of creation that I know absolutely nothing about. He made a square wooden tube, and laminated three pieces of wood together to make a little square thing with a LOT of holes in it. There's also a heat gun mounted on a board involved in this project. When I find out what the heck all of these things are, I'll let you know. Gary continues to spend every night "gamping" (garage camping) with me, as he has done every night for over seven months now. Even though our camping season on the road is over, I'm thankful that he's still willing to spend his nights with me here at home. It's so much fun to hang out with my favorite camping buddy. That's the latest news from here. More soon!

My Island Home

It's been kind of a wierd week here at the Green Acres Garage. I have no clue what Gary was doing on Monday. All I know is that I didn't see him very much. Tuesday, he was in the garage from time to time, but he wasn't working on me like I thought he was going to do. He gathered up ratcheting tie-down straps, blocks of wood, and miscellaneous tools, and put them in the van. He always has a plan, so I didn't want to bug him and ask what he was up to. I knew I would find out soon enough. Wednesday morning, he climbed out of bed early, got ready to go, and took off with the van. A couple of hours later, he was back at home with a big U-Haul trailer and a brand new Husqvarna riding lawn mower. I know nothing about riding lawn mowers, but that sure looks like a nice one. By then, I knew what all of the hoopla was about from the previous day. The wood and straps were used to secure the mower to the trailer, and the tools were taken along "just in case". Gary has been wanting a riding lawn mower for a long time. It takes him a full day to mow our nearly one acre of land with the push mower. With this big and powerful rider, it should take MUCH less time. That will give him more time to spend with me, and I DEFINITELY like that idea. After returning the U-Haul trailer to where he got it, Gary had planned to test out the mower. But it looked like it was going to rain any minute, so he held off to test the mower on Thursday. Unfortunately, he should have done his testing while he could. We woke up early on Thursday morning with the sound of rain beating heavily upon the garage. It rained all day and all night, and continued throughout the day on Friday. It stopped momentarily around 6PM Friday evening, but before long, it was raining once again. Gary went out and took these pictures during the few minutes it wasn't raining. What I saw when he showed me these pictures REALLY surprised me, and honestly, it scared me too. Our nice green yard is under water! Almost all of it is. Only the two driveways and little spots in the yard remain high enough to not be covered. I've never seen it like this in all the years I've been living here. I've been assured that the water won't come into the garage, but it's much closer than I'd like it to be. Gary has to wade from the house to the garage, wearing tall rubber boots. YIKES!!! I never imagined I'd be living on an island, but here I am. I've got it made being in the garage. Although I've never cared for that big ugly Terry trailer that used to be in the garage with me, I feel sorry for him sitting out there in the back yard in all that water. That's just plain sad. Gary says it will probably be two weeks or more for all this water to sink into the ground. So much for test driving the new lawn mower right now, but it's really going to be needed when all this grass starts growing from all this rain. As for me, I'm going to be on my best behavior. I don't want to irritate Gary at all, or I might get voted off the island like those people on "Survivor". That just CAN'T happen! Wherever you are, I hope you're safe and dry. I'll give you an update when I can. Bye!