Richard Roehm Memorial Ranch Blog for February 2nd, 2016

Tuesday, February 2, 2016, 6:45 p.m., 38°, windy and cold.

Good evening folks,

Sorry for the long delay. Things have been rough for me lately. I’m constantly pulled in many directions. So much to do and not enough time, money or help to get it all done. ARRRGH!! So frustrating!

I wrote my previous blog entry last Tuesday, but it didn't actually get posted until today. While I’m tempted to post my blogs unedited, the reality is good blogs are never rushed and rushed blogs are never good.

As I was saying, it's been rough for me lately. Thursday I went to town to do my errands. It was a 2 ½ hour walk. I went to drop off the packages at the Lancaster Post Office. I can't believe they still refused to accept free matter mail. So I had to walk another hour and half to HQ post office. While there, I spoke to the manager about this matter. He said he will talk to them. He also said the tracking numbers are not accepted for free matter. I know for a fact it’s not true. He removed the tracking number label off the packages, and accepted them as free matter packages without tracking number on it. Someone needs to tell these people that tracking numbers still count for free matter!

I walked back to Avenue I. From there, I took a nice bus ride east until the last stop. Unfortunately, the bus ride ain't cheap and it doesn't give out day passes. Luckily, a nice lady was kind enough to give me a lift as far as 80th Street East.

It was REALLY windy on Saturday, with rain expected later that night. I went up to the roof to check on the cement patches I made and added more patches where it was needed. As I climbed down the ladder, I was so distracted thinking about all the things that needed to be done that I fell off the ladder and landed on my right side. No broken bones — thank goodness — just sore arm and hip. My hip is bothering me still to this day. Anyway, by 7:00 p.m., I decided to call it night.

The next day, I woke up to rain and VERY STRONG wind. I posted a video on FaceBook showing how strong the wind was! WOW! It was raining buckets all day. The front unit started to leak...AGAIN! But I couldn't do anything about it until the rain stopped. GRRRRR!!!! By 3:30 p.m., the rain finally let up. I went up to the roof to check on the leak. We now have a rooftop pool! LOL

Sunday morning: thanks to a leak this time in the rear unit, I now have a waterbed! YIKES! So I got up and wrung out my bed and put down another drip pan to collect the dripping water.

As I was saying, It’s been cold and windy the last couple of days. Good news is the ground has already dried up.

Yesterday I tested the battery between solar panel and Astro van. The solar panel isn't strong enough to power both my printer and laptop. On the plus side: I can run one of the printers and charge all three laptops off the Astrovan battery with the engine running. It takes some time, but it gets the job done.

I ran out of black printer ink. So I went on a 4-hour long trek to Wal-mart. Yeah, I know. The trip really should only take only two hours max. But with my hip still sore from the fall I took, this was as fast as I could go. I eventually made it to Wal-Mart, got the black ink, came back here and got the shipping label printed out, FINALLY!!

As soon as some money comes in, I plan on ordering more black ink from eBay. Which reminds me, I need to take those packages to the post office first thing tomorrow morning. Nice, eh?

I emailed Beth with suggestions how we can improve our communication and working relationship. As soon as we reach a compromise, I look forward to starting the video classes.

Well, that’s about it for the day, until next time!

Bobby Fleener
General Manager, Richard Roehm Memorial Ranch
Vice President, Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center

More information on the Richard Roehm Memorial Ranch: http://www.deafadvocacy.org/the-richard-roehm-memorial-ranch
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