Author: Steve

Saturday Funny thing. The furnace worked perfectly all evening, last night, and
again this morning. Yeah. Right. Hosing off the battery terminals is
going to fix the furnace. Interesting coincidence, though. Up and off early to get to the train on time. Three and a half hours up
through spectacular scenery. Two hours in Silverton to wander around.
Three and a half hours back, checking out the backside of all that gorgeous
scenery. A lot of motion. A little tired tonight, and the boat is still
rocking, but a nice way to spend the day. A ten-car train plus a boxcar.
Right at the maximum capacity of the locomotive. There are coach cars, open
cars, and a parlor car. The parlor car gets hooked onto the tail end of the
train. We got to stand outside on the back porch as much as we wanted to
get the best view. Full service inside. All the coffee and cokes and
goodies we could eat. Rugged inaccessible gorge that they somehow laid
track through, then they followed the Animas river the rest of the way to
Silverton. Most of the trip goes through land with no roads. There are
some houses and cabins in there, but the only access is by this train, or
horseback. The locomotive is a living breathing awesome beast. Standing next to it,
you can feel the life. It radiates heat, smoke, and steam. Even at rest,
it pulses and pops and creaks and squeaks. There is an interesting tradition. Every Memorial Day. The Iron Horse
Classic. It’s a bicycle race from Durango to Silverton. Fifty miles, from
Durango to Silverton, and an elevation gain of three thousand feet over two
mountain passes. They race the train. The bicycles follow the road. The
train follows the tracks. And the winner is….. The train has never won.
Carol, Michael’s wife came by to walk Annie a couple times while we were
gone all day on the train. She said Annie was good for her. The motorhome next to us is a WanderLodge. It has an interesting feature.
They have a free-standing barbecue outside, with a propane hose plugged into
a fitting on the side of the motorhome. How handy is that? You never have
to mess with propane bottles.
Tomorrow, off to Pagosa Springs.

Thursday. Bright and beautiful. Not too hot. I worked “at home” today. Judy did
morning chores, fed me lunch, then headed out to check on the local hot
springs. Later, a very relaxed Judy pronounced them to be just fine. Steam train. Be careful today. Friday the 13th falls on a Thursday this month. Met with Jan Milburn, of the Milburn Foundation here in Durango. He spends
most of his time in the Copper Canyon in Mexico, working with the indigenous
Indians there. He doesn’t need an audit yet, but we’ll do some work with
him in the meantime to help him get everything in order. Afternoon birds:
Crows
Ravens
Magpies
Unidentified hawk
Turkey vultures
Red winged blackbirds
Brewer’s blackbirds
White breasted nuthatch
Black-headed grosbeak
Black-chinned hummingbirds
Stellar’s jay
Brown headed cowbirds
Red-naped sapsucker
Cliff swallows
Barn swallows
Yellow warbler
No house finches
No sparrows. That’s odd. Gave up and called David at our Wild Birds Unlimited store in Denver. He’ll
send some new binoculars to meet us at our next stop in Pagosa Springs.
Nice new birding binoculars. They will have a lifetime guarantee against
droppage.

Friday Judy went to check out the “spa services” at the hot springs. Hot oil
massage. Last day of fieldwork on this job. Spent a fair amount of time discussing
options with the client about how to deal with the $100,000 problem, and the
$50,000 problem. They both belong in previous years, but only partially in
the year immediately prior to my work. We can either: ignore them and
issue a one-year report, or we can deal with them. We decided to deal with
them. That requires more work, but ultimately, is more satisfying. You know, sometimes you can’t always get what you want. I don’t find myself
saying that much, but it is true for this job. I want to do the entire job
in one week, wrap it, and deliver a completed product to the client before I
go, but it just can’t be done this time around. Too much to sort out. With
some follow-up work, however, we’ll make this job make a lot more sense for
the next time around. A very flushed, relaxed, and limp Judy reports that the spa services at the
local hot springs are just fine. A little more racquetball therapy was in order tonight. Got in some good
work on the backhand. No new victims, though. Michael the local RV repair guy came by tonight. He took a look at the
furnace controls for us. They both still work, but the back furnace
controls aren’t quite as responsive as the front furnace. Sometimes it will
stall out before it gets all the way up to temperature. He figures there is
nothing really wrong with the thermostat controls. He thinks it’s more
likely that it is a voltage thing. He went straight to the outside battery
compartment. The water in the batteries was a little low. We had the
beginning of a little corrosion on the terminals. He said that was enough
to disrupt the digital systems. He says I need to clean and fill the
batteries once a month. I pointed out that we weren’t even using the
batteries; we’re plugged into shore power. No matter. He says everything
goes through the batteries and the inverter. I didn’t know that! We topped off the water in the batteries. We hosed them down. He sprayed
some battery cleaner on the terminals. We hosed them down again. He said
that would fix the furnace thermostat. Yeah. Right. Tomorrow, the steam train. We’ve been watching it go by all week. Tomorrow
we won’t be able to see it because we’ll be on it. We’ll be right there,
watching all the scenery go by. We reserved space in a parlor car. That
could be good.

The Parlor Car.

Wednesday More work. Steam train. $100,000 problem resurfaced. It just won’t go
away. Something the prior auditors didn’t get right. $50,000 problem
surfaced. Different issue. Same source. Had a weather front roar through. It happened while I was at work, so I
didn’t see much of it, but Judy did. Impressive wind. It turned the sky
dark. It snapped a cottonwood tree in two at the park. It knocked down
some stockade fence. It flipped a glider and broke it at the glider port
across the street.