Comments from the peanut gallery appreciated

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We have a week at home together before we leave for our yearly extended tour, where we go all the way across the United States and back again. This is by far the best trip of the year, and it’s only gotten better because the more we take it, the more people we have to see along the way. We make a point to go from Ohio to Tumwater, Wash., every year. My dad’s brother, Uncle Flip, and his wife, Aunt Michelle, live in an awesome pad up around the Capitol Forest area, and we go up to see them and the cousins at least once a year. It’s a trip I look forward to.

Preparing for both of us to be away for an extended amount of time and the fact that our youngest has his 18th birthday on Friday and graduates from high school on Saturday necessitates a week of planning and progress. I should probably correct myself and say the youngest has already technically graduated from high school – he has opted to go see the Rolling Stones to calumniate his public education career instead of attend the high school walking ceremony on Saturday night, a decision we support 100 percent, because we get to go with him. Our condition is that he has to wear his cap and gown at the concert, since we paid for it and all. I know there are people who will think we’re the worst parents ever, but the kid is just ready to be done, he has no desire to walk, and his grandparents were cool enough to buy tickets for his graduation present, because that’s what he really wanted to do. And it’s the Stones. Seriously.

mouth and toungeSo during our week of progress, we’re replacing the floors in The Precious. The carpet is mungy, and I can’t go across the United States with it again. It’s time for us to break up. I’ve cleaned it, I’ve covered it with throw rugs, but it’s 11 years old and I’d like to be able to take my socks off in the cab, thankyouverymuch.

I’ve been roaming the interwebs for flooring and videos of people who have re-done the flooring in their truck by themselves, and while I have great trepidation about my own abilities to accomplish the task, I’m pretty sure George won’t have a problem doing it. There’s a reason my best friend, who has known him longer than I have, calls him “MacGyver.” He can do pretty much anything, especially if he buys $200 worth of tools to do it with. Apparently, nothing can be done with the same tools, or there are an infinite number of tools to buy. Nonetheless, it’s usually cheaper and more efficient than hiring someone else to do it to just go with the tool thing. (This is 20 years of marriage talking here – you choose your battles and be sensible enough to know he doesn’t really need all those tools, but at least he has a son to pass them on to, and they seem to make him happy, so you just go with it sometimes and take a $200 hit. The same can then conversely be applied to cowboy boots, and used in my favor. It’s a collection I’m obtaining for my daughter to have to remember me by. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

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To recap this riveting account, we’ve got a lot of crap going on this week, and I don’t have a ton of time to research stuff, so I’m interested to hear from the readers who have put laminate or other wood-type flooring in their trucks. I do read the comments, I really do appreciate those who read and take time to comment, even if it’s not nice. I used to be able to respond, but I haven’t been able to sign in for a while, the thought just occurred to me that I may have offended myself and gotten banned, and how ironically funny would that be?

(Do you see why it’s difficult and takes me a long time to do research? Do you know how bad I want to go read an article about a Scythian grave mound that just popped up in the National Geographic feed of my Flipboard, enticing me away and off point? Do you? No seriously, you should read it, it’s really interesting.)

Anyway, tell me about your flooring. I’ll get myself signed in and we’ll get this floor business wrapped up. Thanks for your help. It takes a village to keep a truck.

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