The Tucker Stories

As I sit here on the skeleton of the old El Jardin dock, I am amazed with how much things have changed in my ole stomping grounds. So many stop-lights on Bay Area. A **field house** at CLHS?!? The cruise ship port just down the street from my old house. Change is good, kills complacency but when did I get this old??

Cheers!!

Yesterday, Kelly got the keys to her library at Owen Elementary School and I got my Final DD-214!  So, Kelly can now be the bread winner whilst I putz around the house.  Naw, not really but it sounded good.  To me at least!  After the last of the Unaccompanied Baggage arrives today, we’re into the house re-arranging today and the house remodeling/repairs continue.

Cheers!!

So we’re back in town, dealing with Bragg to get our stuff and cleaning up the house from the renters.  Friday night, Kelly tells me there’s leak from the back bathroom toilet.  OK, no problem.  I look and confirm there’s water coming from the base after the flush.  Saturday morning, Matt has his first driving lesson by taking us to our local Ace Hardware to pick up the bits and bobs of toilet repair.  Job’s a good ‘un before noon.

Today, Kelly had a plan of action to get us further along with all of these boxes and immediately steps into a puddle of water in the bathroom.  We’re thinking its the toilet leaking again, but, nope.  Matt and I did a good job there.  Naw, there’s water coming from underneath the cabinet and the bottom of which is completely rotten through.  So I tore the whole cabinet out to get into the wall to find a leak in the hot water line to the sink.  It looks like that has been going for quite some time as the water has soaked up the gypsum behind the wall about 6 inches.  As for the sink from that cabinet, I had Matt use it to replace the front bathroom sink which had rusted out!!?!!  How does that JUST happen??!!  I’m not happy with our rental manager as I was expecting them to keep this sorta crap from happening.

Now I’m looking for a plumber to come in and fix this little leak as I don’t know how to weld/solder/seal copper pipes.  But I must admit that I’m still digging the joys of home ownership as this is MY HOUSE!!

Cheers!!

OK, yesterday those things that were stored for the duration of our European Vacation were delivered and mostly put out into the garage.  Cool, no problem.  Christmas in July for Da Kidd as I get to play with my toys tools.  Today, our stuff from Holland was delivered so it was Christmas in July for Kelly, though I was glad to see my clocks again.  BUT, I found something that I had COMPLETELY forgotten about and was truly the bestest find of the WHOLE day!!  I found a new Microsoft Trackball Explorer.  Now, that may not seem like too big a deal, even for an IT dude.  However, when you consider that this trackball is going for >USD$200 over on eBay and USD$478 – 499 on Amazon, that might perk your interests!!  Naw, I don’t think I’ll sell this one but hold on to it as a spare.  Now, what else do I have squirreled away in there??

Cheers!!

Alright, we left Brussels  on Tuesday to fly back to Bragg, where I’m gonna retire from on Friday.  And that’s about the end of the goodness.

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Today, the Clan Tucker starts another Grand Adventure by moving back to the United States and me getting ready to retire from the US Army.  We’ve spent the last 1613 days enjoying European living and are really, really looking forward to returning to the US.  Sure, there are things we won’t miss, however, there are just as many things that we will miss.  Regardless, yet another adventure kicks off this weekend and I’m sure that it will be very exciting.  Now, if I could only find a job that does NOT require 6 to 12 month deployments on a rotating basis!!  Who’da thunk that working in the Tool Bin of Home Depot was SOOO demanding??!?!!??

Cheers!!

It took a while but I was finally able to get all of the photos uploaded from our last trip in Europe.  Yup, there are a lot but it truly was an EPIC trip.  I really do hate to admit it but MIUK (Maggie In The UK) was a better trip that MITA08 (details here and here).  Over 9 days we went about 1200 miles driving across Scotland, Ireland and Wales and it was Awesome!!  Here’s an example of just how great the trip was.  Happy Snaps posted and details after the break.

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Today, 17 days until we leave Europe, the Clan Tucker will depart on our final European vacation to see Scotland, Ireland and Wales.  If there was another MINI goin with us, it’d be MINIs Meet The Kings, however, for now I’ll settle for Maggie Meets The Kings!  Over the next 10 days, The Crew and I are all piling into Maggie  and are gonna see Edinburgh, Inverness, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, Liverpool, and some Welsh towns to get the last little bit of “culture” before our triumphant return to the United States.  This trip includes two over-night ferries, two short ferries, castles, the Glenfiddich and Glenmorangie distilleries, the Guiness brewery and the possibly the largest selection of used book stores in the UK or at least all of Wales!!  Dunno how much Intarwebz we’ll have access to during the ride but I will try to keep ya’ll posted.  Of course, we’ll take some pictures.  Lots and LOTS of pictures.

Cheers!!

This was a very, very busy weekend with Matthew graduating from AFNORTH International School on Friday and being presented his Eagle Award on Sunday!!  All in all, not too shabby and my work here is DUN.

Cheers!!