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Things have improved a bit since my last report of "One of Those Weeks", but my luck is still not completely back to normal. Early this week I decided it was time to permanently install the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. I removed them, and prepared the various spacers for priming. My can of zinc chromate didn't work - drat. Wednesday at lunch time I drove over to the closest Canadian Tire to pick up a new can of primer. As soon as I got home I zipped down to my basement paint shop to prime the spacers, so they could dry while I was eating. But this brand new can of primer just gave a very short "Psst", then stopped. Nothing would get it going again. Drat. Terry was out for the evening, so after eating I decided to head to the closest Canadian Tire to pick up another can - but they were out of stock. Back in the car to the next closest Canadian Tire, and bought two cans, to improve the odds that at least one of them would be good. The whole exercise of driving around to purchase primer consumed 75 minutes. Grrr.

Back home, primed the spacers, and went to check e-mail while the primer dried. Then, I put the horizontal stab in place and started to bolt it in place. I had expected that I would be able to put nuts and washers on the front four bolts by sticking my arm down through a hole in the top of the rear fuselage, then sticking it forward through a hole in the 811 bulkhead, then reaching up and back to put the washers and nuts on the bolts. I managed to get the washer and nut on one bolt, but my wrist wasn't limp enough to do the other three. And I got my arm stuck in that hole in the top of the rear fuselage - it took several minutes of twisting to get it out.

So, I realized that I would have to crawl into the rear fuselage to get at those bolts. I grabbed three washers and nuts, and climbed into the cockpit. I noted that the battery (mounted on the bottom of the fuselage behind the aft baggage compartment) was in the way, but it would take several minutes work to remove it. It looked there was enough room to crawl over it, so I decided to give it a go. I managed to get over the battery, and crawled downhill into the rear fuselage. I got the washer and nut on one more bolt, but found that the other two bolts tended to push up when I tried to get the nuts on. Drat. I needed to find a way to hold those bolts down.

Got to crawl out the rear fuselage. Uphill. I got to the battery, but couldn't manage to roll over onto my stomach. My leg kept getting caught on the battery, which prevented me from rolling over. I eventually had to crawl over the battery on my back - my back still hasn't forgiven me for that. I took five minutes to remove the battery, which is what I should have done in the first place.

I stacked some bucking bars on top of the bolt heads to hold them down, and crawled back into the rear fuselage. I got one more washer and nut on, then dropped the fourth washer, and it bounced way back out of reach. Drat. Crawled back out of the fuselage, and grabbed a whole hand full of washers and nuts. Back into the rear fuselage, and got the last washer and nut in place. Time for a beer, to sooth my aching back.

The next evening, Thursday, Terry held a wrench on the bolt heads, while I crawled back in the rear fuselage with a torque wrench to tighten the nuts.