Stuff to do...

We left the park we were in, wanting to see how "full" the park we'll be in for February and March actually is... while it is more full than we've seen it in January in years past, there are plenty of open sites.  In all likelihood, there may not have been a site available for a whole week, but there are damn sure plenty of sites that would have been available, even if we would have had to move every couple of days.  They were just too lazy or indifferent to try to help.  Another case of a business turning away sales that can't be recovered.  Stupid.

We did some shopping, then over to Steph and Dan's place.  They have good high speed internet, so I was able to download an update for my MacBook Pro.  And, spend some time with the grandkitties.  I pulled out a guitar - on the first strum, the two big ones ran off, scared.  The little old girl was fine with it.  She stayed by me even after I put the guitar away...

Joan had another project in mind: the fast-paced, high-paying job of appliance repair.  Steph and Dan's stove control panel had come apart...

You can see what I am talking about in the upper panel on the stove in the photo above.  Joan cleaned all around, inside, and under the stove, and we took the back panel off.  There are plastic brackets that have a hole in them to screw to the housing... all four of those brackets were broken.  The bad news: they are in integral part of the housing for the control panel... no way to replace just the brackets.  I'm guessing it would have been a couple hundred bucks for the control panel, if you could still get one like it.

Joan is handy, and I am pretty and good at holding tools.  Together, with a healthy application of Gorilla Tape, she used what bits of plastic were salvageable, I gave guidance where my ham-hands wouldn't fit, and we put it all back together.  I would say, "Good as new," but we'll have to see how this repair holds up over time.  On the bright side: it works.  And, the price was right.

Plus, I now have most of a roll of Gorilla Tape to keep in the car.  You never know when you're going to need to tape up a gorilla.