Well, first the bad news. I've had a couple of requests from people to get on with traveling again as soon as possible. With various contractor issues, it looks like we'll be house-bound for another week. I wish I could "take requests" like a disc jockey, but this is real life, not a TV show, so all I can say is "stay tuned". If we get all the house work done on schedule, we'll still have time to visit the Grand Canyon before we head to Lake Mead and Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... we got awoken again by contractors, this time the flooring crew. Today was demolition day (part I). They scraped up all the peeling vinyl flooring and the stained blue carpet, and now our house looks even more like a disaster than ever before. Only the kitchen cabinets and bathrooms remain, and those are coming out on Tuesday. Our "light cosmetic update" has turned into a full-blown makeover. Perhaps our life is a TV show after all, because right now it looks like one of those house makeover programs on cable.

A scrap of the original 1971 linoleum, found beneath the carpeting.

Despite total havoc inside the house, I am somehow managing to get some work done each day, and we even had our first dinner guest this evening. Our neighbor Carol, an adventuresome soul, popped by and accepted a spontaneous invitation to dinner. Since we have no furniture and the house is virtually gutted, we built a table from sawhorses and a spare door, brought out our folding chairs, and grilled up dinner on the back patio, which included s'mores for dessert. Life is good, even though we are temporarily stationary.