“The Yearling”, “Winchester ‘73”. fluorescent swirling, “Thank You for Smoking”, 'very coarse' sand (posted from home)
(this post covers 12-19 December)
--------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 19 December-
Today we spent the day writing a response to a contractor’s proposal for work to resolve our occasional drainage problem at the end of the house. The proposal leaves too much open to interpretation so I worked on editing the words and Labashi did a spiffy aerial-view drawing to nail things down. Doing this forced us to really think through how this would work and whether the proposed plan is likely to play out the way we want. This led us down some interesting paths. In researching the requirements for installing the special drain pipe we want (Varicore Multi-Flow), we learned that it’s critical the contractor use sand graded as ‘very coarse’—and that has a very specific meaning. ‘Very Coarse’-graded sand has a particle size between 1 and 2 millimeters. We called up a local sand supplier and asked if they have (and know they have) such a sand. He said they have ‘concrete sand’, is that ok? It took awhile but we learned that no, their ASTM-standard-C33 ‘concrete sand’--- as well as their ASTM-standard-C144 ‘mortar sand’—would be too fine and would eventually clog the geo-textile cloth around the drains. That started Labashi and I on a long conversation about whether we could take this on ourselves. At this point we have a long list of questions and a re-written, much-more-detailed proposal to go over with the contractor. He seemed like a good guy when we met with him to see the problem. He may well be able to show us he’d do a good job. In any case we now have a much better understanding of what we’re getting into.
That night we happened to catch the last episode of "Everest: Beyond the Limit". All I can say is WOW. The helmet-cams give us incredible views, both of the mountains in the distance and the very scary views of the 'trail'. This episode is also controversial in that members of the team happen upon British climber David Sharp who lies freezing to death along the trail and they determine he's beyond help.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 18 December-
Today I made the mistake of thinking the end of deer hunting season would mean I’d be able to get on the shooting range at Dillsburg on a beautiful (63 degree!) day. I was surprised to find the parking lot and both the rifle and pistol ranges full. Ah, well— I needed to warm up the bike for its oil change anyway so nothing lost. Back home Labashi helped me grunt the bike up onto the center stand and I took my time getting the oil and filter changes done and in doing a general check-over of the bike’s fasteners. And that meant, of course, that I had to do a checkout ride, right? What a great day it was for riding.
That evening we watched “Thank You for Smoking”, a real treat of a movie. It’s brash, it’s hilarious, and it has lots of little surprises. Here’s an example: as the camera pans past the local Catholic school we see its name on the brick sign out front: “St. Euthanasia”. No mention of it, no lingering camera shot. Perfect font, perfect low-key lighting. It’s just there.
----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 17 December-
Today we visited my high school buddy and his wife. We’ve not seen them for six months so we had a lot to talk (and laugh) about. We went out to lunch and spent the rest of the day chatting, showing pictures and just having a good ol’ time. That evening we made it home in the nick of time. We had forgotten all about the special two-hour Survivor Finale. Fortunately we didn’t miss much in the first hour. From our perspective the vote worked out great—we were both pulling for Yul.
--------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 16 December-
In the morning I was cruising the web doing some Christmas shopping when I blundered upon a notice posted by the vendor for a critical item. Today’s the last day to order and get the delivery by Christmas. YIKES! Is it that late already? I had to make a couple of quick decisions but got’er done.
Today was another extra-nice day weather-wise so I jumped on the Concours and rode down to Rocky Ridge Park for my end-to-end jogging route. I forgot my watch but figure I did about a 1:32 or so. And good news—no toe-joint pain this time.
That evening we watched ‘Pirates of the Caribbean- Dead Man’s Chest’ with Labashi’s favorite actor- Johnny Depp. I thought it was OK. The effects were pretty amazing but the tomatometer (at RottenTomatoes.com) tells the tale: 54% critics rating. And this review snippet: “Mr. Verbinski (the director) is a very skilled traffic director” (meaning: there’s lots of action but where the heck is the storyline?)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 15 December-
Today I attended the Christmas party for my former work site at a local bar/restaurant. I really enjoyed this get-together. It was great to catch up on the latest news and see my buddies and several other retirees who went out shortly before me. It’s amazing how young and vital retirees are these days!
That evening Labashi and I watched the bonus disk for ‘Desperate Housewives’. They did a great job on this bonus disk, giving us a feel for the pressures and difficulties associated with producing a hit series.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 14 December-
This morning we hung the two 30W x 24 H x 15D cabinets above the washer and dryer. This will allow Labashi to get all the washing supplies up and out of sight and still have storage room left over for other stuff. Then we hung two 4x8-foot pieces of drywall in the rec room plus two smaller pieces in the hallway.
That evening we watched Survivor, Cook Islands.
---------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 13 December-
Today I installed the final of four fluorescent shop lights in Labashi’s workshop in the basement. A simple thing like buying and installing a few shop lights had turned into emails and phone calls back and forth with the bulb manufacturer and with Home Depot’s resident electrical expert. I learned that the ‘swirling’ effect we occasionally saw in the T12 bulbs could come from many things--- high voltage, low voltage, improper fill on the tubes, inadequate burn-in of the tubes, and wrong or inadequate ballast. The bulb manufacturer suggested I simply wait to see if it goes away (further burn-in time) but did say it’s unusual for a fixture to be designed for both T8 and T12 bulbs as claimed by the fixture manufacturer. The Home Depot guy says the most likely cause is the ballast-bulb mismatch. Bottom line: if the problem persists, I’ll have to either swap out the bulbs for the smaller-diameter T8 bulbs or swap out the fixtures for higher-quality ones. I’ve since noticed that the new fixture has some swirling but the others seem to have settled down. We’ll see. That afternoon we installed drywall on the wall behind the washer and dryer, then assembled two wall-hung cabinets for that spot. It only took us 25 years to get around to closing in this wall.
That evening we finished off the Season Two episodes of ‘Desperate Housewives’. I think we were expecting a little more of a bang on the season-ending episode but it did its job in laying the groundwork for new directions next year. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed this season and look forward to more (after a rest!) on Season Three.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 12 December –
I spent the morning on the web and blogging. That afternoon I rode the Concours into town to good ‘ol Starbucks for coffee and papers. I love sitting there in the big softie chair reading the New York Times and one or the other of the York papers. I had thought I’d take a walk at one of the parks on the way home but then decided I’d better change the oil in the bike. Once home I rounded up all the oil-change tools and supplies but then I hit a problem; I couldn’t get the bike up on its centerstand. This is a common problem with this model bike and I believe my aftermarket tires are slightly lower than the stock profile, making it even tougher. I generally have Labashi give me a hand but she was out shopping. I tried the old trick of leaning the bike over on its kickstand in order to get a board under the tire and that additional height ALMOST did it. But the bike nearly fell to the opposite side (away from me) and that was enough of that. I’ve read too many stories about other Concours owners doing the ‘thousand-dollar-drop’, i.e., incurring a thousand dollars-worth of damage to the bike’s fairing because of a simple drop on its side.
That evening we watched two movies on TCM. We blundered upon ‘The Yearling’ just as it was starting. We’ve been wanting to see it since our Florida trip last winter when we stayed in the Ocala National Forest and learned about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s Pulitzer-prize-winning 1938 book of the same name. Good movie!
Next up on the evening’s playbill was ‘Winchester ‘73”, a Jimmy Stewart potboiler about a guy who wins a one-in-ten-thousand rifle in a shooting contest only to have it stolen from him the same day. The storyline follows both the rifle as it changes hands among various ne’er-do-wells and Stewart’s character. I’ve found I really like these older movies for their sets and costumes as well as their portrayal of historic events and people. In this one, for example, we see the tough-as-nails cowboys about to draw on the marshal (played by Will Geer) after he demands their guns before they can enter the town saloon. Lead is about to fly when someone happens to call the marshal by name—Wyatt (as in Wyatt Earp). The cowboys suddenly decide it’s a fine idea to hand over their weapons after all. It’s very clear that the cowboys know not to mess with Mr. Earp. We also learn that the local Indians are particularly dangerous right now—have you heard the news about the Little Big Horn? The bloodthirsty local Indian chief (“Young Bull”) is, of all people, Rock Hudson. And Tony Curtis has a two-line bit part as a soldier. Interesting, interesting.
(this post covers 12-19 December)
--------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 19 December-
Today we spent the day writing a response to a contractor’s proposal for work to resolve our occasional drainage problem at the end of the house. The proposal leaves too much open to interpretation so I worked on editing the words and Labashi did a spiffy aerial-view drawing to nail things down. Doing this forced us to really think through how this would work and whether the proposed plan is likely to play out the way we want. This led us down some interesting paths. In researching the requirements for installing the special drain pipe we want (Varicore Multi-Flow), we learned that it’s critical the contractor use sand graded as ‘very coarse’—and that has a very specific meaning. ‘Very Coarse’-graded sand has a particle size between 1 and 2 millimeters. We called up a local sand supplier and asked if they have (and know they have) such a sand. He said they have ‘concrete sand’, is that ok? It took awhile but we learned that no, their ASTM-standard-C33 ‘concrete sand’--- as well as their ASTM-standard-C144 ‘mortar sand’—would be too fine and would eventually clog the geo-textile cloth around the drains. That started Labashi and I on a long conversation about whether we could take this on ourselves. At this point we have a long list of questions and a re-written, much-more-detailed proposal to go over with the contractor. He seemed like a good guy when we met with him to see the problem. He may well be able to show us he’d do a good job. In any case we now have a much better understanding of what we’re getting into.
That night we happened to catch the last episode of "Everest: Beyond the Limit". All I can say is WOW. The helmet-cams give us incredible views, both of the mountains in the distance and the very scary views of the 'trail'. This episode is also controversial in that members of the team happen upon British climber David Sharp who lies freezing to death along the trail and they determine he's beyond help.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 18 December-
Today I made the mistake of thinking the end of deer hunting season would mean I’d be able to get on the shooting range at Dillsburg on a beautiful (63 degree!) day. I was surprised to find the parking lot and both the rifle and pistol ranges full. Ah, well— I needed to warm up the bike for its oil change anyway so nothing lost. Back home Labashi helped me grunt the bike up onto the center stand and I took my time getting the oil and filter changes done and in doing a general check-over of the bike’s fasteners. And that meant, of course, that I had to do a checkout ride, right? What a great day it was for riding.
That evening we watched “Thank You for Smoking”, a real treat of a movie. It’s brash, it’s hilarious, and it has lots of little surprises. Here’s an example: as the camera pans past the local Catholic school we see its name on the brick sign out front: “St. Euthanasia”. No mention of it, no lingering camera shot. Perfect font, perfect low-key lighting. It’s just there.
----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 17 December-
Today we visited my high school buddy and his wife. We’ve not seen them for six months so we had a lot to talk (and laugh) about. We went out to lunch and spent the rest of the day chatting, showing pictures and just having a good ol’ time. That evening we made it home in the nick of time. We had forgotten all about the special two-hour Survivor Finale. Fortunately we didn’t miss much in the first hour. From our perspective the vote worked out great—we were both pulling for Yul.
--------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 16 December-
In the morning I was cruising the web doing some Christmas shopping when I blundered upon a notice posted by the vendor for a critical item. Today’s the last day to order and get the delivery by Christmas. YIKES! Is it that late already? I had to make a couple of quick decisions but got’er done.
Today was another extra-nice day weather-wise so I jumped on the Concours and rode down to Rocky Ridge Park for my end-to-end jogging route. I forgot my watch but figure I did about a 1:32 or so. And good news—no toe-joint pain this time.
That evening we watched ‘Pirates of the Caribbean- Dead Man’s Chest’ with Labashi’s favorite actor- Johnny Depp. I thought it was OK. The effects were pretty amazing but the tomatometer (at RottenTomatoes.com) tells the tale: 54% critics rating. And this review snippet: “Mr. Verbinski (the director) is a very skilled traffic director” (meaning: there’s lots of action but where the heck is the storyline?)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 15 December-
Today I attended the Christmas party for my former work site at a local bar/restaurant. I really enjoyed this get-together. It was great to catch up on the latest news and see my buddies and several other retirees who went out shortly before me. It’s amazing how young and vital retirees are these days!
That evening Labashi and I watched the bonus disk for ‘Desperate Housewives’. They did a great job on this bonus disk, giving us a feel for the pressures and difficulties associated with producing a hit series.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 14 December-
This morning we hung the two 30W x 24 H x 15D cabinets above the washer and dryer. This will allow Labashi to get all the washing supplies up and out of sight and still have storage room left over for other stuff. Then we hung two 4x8-foot pieces of drywall in the rec room plus two smaller pieces in the hallway.
That evening we watched Survivor, Cook Islands.
---------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 13 December-
Today I installed the final of four fluorescent shop lights in Labashi’s workshop in the basement. A simple thing like buying and installing a few shop lights had turned into emails and phone calls back and forth with the bulb manufacturer and with Home Depot’s resident electrical expert. I learned that the ‘swirling’ effect we occasionally saw in the T12 bulbs could come from many things--- high voltage, low voltage, improper fill on the tubes, inadequate burn-in of the tubes, and wrong or inadequate ballast. The bulb manufacturer suggested I simply wait to see if it goes away (further burn-in time) but did say it’s unusual for a fixture to be designed for both T8 and T12 bulbs as claimed by the fixture manufacturer. The Home Depot guy says the most likely cause is the ballast-bulb mismatch. Bottom line: if the problem persists, I’ll have to either swap out the bulbs for the smaller-diameter T8 bulbs or swap out the fixtures for higher-quality ones. I’ve since noticed that the new fixture has some swirling but the others seem to have settled down. We’ll see. That afternoon we installed drywall on the wall behind the washer and dryer, then assembled two wall-hung cabinets for that spot. It only took us 25 years to get around to closing in this wall.
That evening we finished off the Season Two episodes of ‘Desperate Housewives’. I think we were expecting a little more of a bang on the season-ending episode but it did its job in laying the groundwork for new directions next year. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed this season and look forward to more (after a rest!) on Season Three.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 12 December –
I spent the morning on the web and blogging. That afternoon I rode the Concours into town to good ‘ol Starbucks for coffee and papers. I love sitting there in the big softie chair reading the New York Times and one or the other of the York papers. I had thought I’d take a walk at one of the parks on the way home but then decided I’d better change the oil in the bike. Once home I rounded up all the oil-change tools and supplies but then I hit a problem; I couldn’t get the bike up on its centerstand. This is a common problem with this model bike and I believe my aftermarket tires are slightly lower than the stock profile, making it even tougher. I generally have Labashi give me a hand but she was out shopping. I tried the old trick of leaning the bike over on its kickstand in order to get a board under the tire and that additional height ALMOST did it. But the bike nearly fell to the opposite side (away from me) and that was enough of that. I’ve read too many stories about other Concours owners doing the ‘thousand-dollar-drop’, i.e., incurring a thousand dollars-worth of damage to the bike’s fairing because of a simple drop on its side.
That evening we watched two movies on TCM. We blundered upon ‘The Yearling’ just as it was starting. We’ve been wanting to see it since our Florida trip last winter when we stayed in the Ocala National Forest and learned about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s Pulitzer-prize-winning 1938 book of the same name. Good movie!
Next up on the evening’s playbill was ‘Winchester ‘73”, a Jimmy Stewart potboiler about a guy who wins a one-in-ten-thousand rifle in a shooting contest only to have it stolen from him the same day. The storyline follows both the rifle as it changes hands among various ne’er-do-wells and Stewart’s character. I’ve found I really like these older movies for their sets and costumes as well as their portrayal of historic events and people. In this one, for example, we see the tough-as-nails cowboys about to draw on the marshal (played by Will Geer) after he demands their guns before they can enter the town saloon. Lead is about to fly when someone happens to call the marshal by name—Wyatt (as in Wyatt Earp). The cowboys suddenly decide it’s a fine idea to hand over their weapons after all. It’s very clear that the cowboys know not to mess with Mr. Earp. We also learn that the local Indians are particularly dangerous right now—have you heard the news about the Little Big Horn? The bloodthirsty local Indian chief (“Young Bull”) is, of all people, Rock Hudson. And Tony Curtis has a two-line bit part as a soldier. Interesting, interesting.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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