Senior target shooting, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, sea kayak trip-prep, ‘The Secret Life of Words’
(posted from home)
(This post covers 18-24 June 2007)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 24 June -
This morning I started working on my blog update but then broke off for a trip to town with Labashi. I’ve been trying to come up with a good solution for the registration stickers for the kayaks. The stickers don’t stick well to the slippery polyethylene and Royalex surfaces and in fact, one of mine blew off last year, just from the wind rush of being carried atop the van. I think I’ve come up with an attachment solution but need a good material. So Labashi and I went to Home Depot and Lowe’s looking for the ‘right’ base material—one which doesn’t corrode, is impervious to water, doesn’t deteriorate under intense UV radiation and takes a sticker well. We also spent much of our time looking for the ‘right’ solution for a recessed light above the lower foyer.
That evening we watched ‘The Secret Life of Words’. Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins are terrific in the roles of two people suffering from tragic events in their past. We loved the acting and the use of an off-shore oil rig as main location. The film takes a hit for some plot contrivances but is well worthwhile. RottenTomatoes scores it a 71 and that seems about right to us. Here’s a good link to insightful production notes on the film: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/secret_life_of_words/about.php
---------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 23 June -
This morning I rode the Concours up to Blue Mountain Outfitters for some deck line and 303 Protectant. On the way home I stopped in at Koup’s motorcycle shop and there sat one of the new KLR’s. I have to agree Kawasaki did a good job on the update (the bike had been the same except for paint colors for twenty years!) and you’ve got to respect a motorcycle company willing to sell an updated quality adventure bike for under $5500 in 2007- but it just doesn’t make sense to spend money for what is very close to the bike I already have. I’ve not been riding the KLR much lately and an upgrade wouldn’t change that. Here’s some info on the new KLR: http://www.kawasaki.com/Products/Detail.aspx?id=221. But I think I’d be more inclined toward THIS: http://www.kawasaki.com/Products/Detail.aspx?id=246.
Later in the day I took down the kayaks (from the van) and did some more prep work for the trip. I took off the hatches and thoroughly cleaned out, sanitized, and dried out the storage hatches and cockpit. The kayaks weathered the long winter layover very well—no growth, no bugs, no corrosion, minimal moisture in the hatches. I had stored the PFDs, spray skirts, registration documentation, and paddling accessories (like sunscreen, gloves, booties, etc) in dry-bags and sealed them in the cockpit (using rainproof cockpit covers) along with the paddles for the winter. I was afraid I might not have dried everything out well enough and would see growth inside the bags but everything was just the way I stored it. I also added a more secure means of locking my kayak to the van’s bumper (Labashi’s already has a solution for this). I added a stainless-steel eye-loop to use with my locking cable.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 22 June –
This morning I took a beautiful motorcycle ride down along the Susquehanna to Shank’s Mare kayak shop at Long Level. I picked up another set of Landshark saddles to complete the upgrade from foam blocks. On the way home I stopped by the Kawasaki shop in Hallam, hoping to see the new KLR-650 I’ve been reading about in Rider Magazine and Motorcycle Consumer News. A new KLR just came in this morning but it’s still in its shipping crate. Bob invited me back next week to ride it and give him some feedback on how it compares to my ‘old-style’ 2004 KLR. Sly dog!
I spent the afternoon finishing up the kayak loading with the new Landsharks. I also had a mental breakthrough on the strap-down process. I had abandoned use of the awkward-to-use Thule tiedown straps and had used ratchet-straps and hooks for the last several years. But the ratcheting straps can be tricky. They jam and can stain and dent the kayaks if you aren’t extra careful. And the ratchet mechanisms rust. I’d prefer to use the ultra-simplistic Thule straps but until today it was an awkward proposition to get the buckle back up over the kayak from the other side once you throw it over and loop it under the carrier bar. I’ve tried throwing the buckle over, then the loose end over but the loose end won’t go if there’s any wind at all. But today it struck me… If I put the tail end of the strap into the buckle BEFORE throwing it over the kayak, both ends go over easily and I can simply reach under and undo, pass the two ends past the bar and put them back together. Then I can haul on either of the two pieces of strap on my side until the buckle is in the right place and voila!, all the work on the far side is done and I’m ready to secure on my side. No more ratchet-straps!
Later in the day I took the strapped-down and locked-down kayaks on a little ride. Today is a windy day so it’s a good one for a test. I shot down I-83 South at 70-plus miles per hour (running with the wind) then turned around at the exit and drove into the wind at the same speed, listening for a whistle, whine or flap from the kayaks, saddles, straps, or rack. All was quiet. Back home I applied a coat of marine wax to the top.
That evening we watched the extras on the ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ DVD.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 21 June -
Today I added a hold-down bracket to the roof-rack track. As I attached the kayak carriers to the track the other day I had noticed the rear of the track lifting a bit off of the fiberglass roof. Though there’s a good course of sealer around it, the lifting of the track isn’t good. If the kayaks get to rocking about because of winds or rough roads, the back of the track could get pulled up, perhaps even leading to a roof leak. During installation years ago I had a problem with the anchor fastener in this area and apparently it has pulled out a bit. I can push it back down but that isn’t permanent. I therefore made up a small metal bracket from steel stock and epoxied it across the end of the track and onto the roof. It’s solid as a rock now.
That evening we watched some ‘Pirate Master’ and went to bed early to read.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 20 June -
Today I went to the dentist to replace the temporary crown installed last week with the permanent one. The temporary didn’t want to come off even as the dentist jumped up and down on my chest, jerking the vise-grips back and forth (ok, maybe that’s a stretch but that baby was ON there). He ended up using the dentist’s drill to cut through the sides of it to get it to finally release. But after that the placement of the new crown was a cinch.
I took Labashi’s car in for service that afternoon. The CD player now refuses to eject the disk and we sometimes hear a grinding noise in the front brakes, just before the vehicle comes to a complete stop. The brake problem turned out to be a known issue for which there was a service bulletin. New brake pads and truing of the rotors took care of that. The CD problem will require replacement of the audio unit and that has to be ordered so I’ll have to return again next week. Both issues were handled under warranty but I’m starting to wonder about having these so many problems on a 15,000-mile car.
That evening I mowed the ripple. The lawn looks more like mid-August than mid-June.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 19 June -
I spent most of today working on the sea kayaks to prepare them for our upcoming trip. The kayaks needed a good cleaning and that’s easy enough but the bigger problem was the coating of oxidation on Labashi’s kayak. I had made the mistake of buying a locally-built kayak made of a Royalex knock-off. It has an outer covering of vinyl which looks great when new but rapidly fades with exposure to prolonged sunlight. I had read of this characteristic so I treated the hull with 303 Protectant a couple of times a year. But that didn’t do it. I apparently didn’t treat it often enough and her kayak accumulated an unsightly covering of white oxidation on its yellow hull and deck. Several years ago I had taken the oxidation off my old Grumman aluminum canoe with a Scotchbrite pad so I tried that on the hull and that seemed to work. But I was concerned it was too abrasive so I bought 1500, 600, and 320-grit automotive sandpapers to give them a try. The 1500 and 600 grits took off a little of the oxidation but jammed up, even with a flow of water under them. The 320 did okay but it turned out the Scotchbrite pad worked best—but only if used dry. The oxidation is now off and with a new coating of 303 the kayak looks great--- for now.
That afternoon I installed my Thule racks on Mocha Joe and added a set of Yakima Landsharks (a type of kayak ‘saddle’ or holder) to them. I’ve been using generic kayak foam blocks for the saddles (hoping to avoid the $70-per-kayak cost of the Landsharks) but they’ve become a pain. Because I slide the kayaks into place from the rear of the vehicle, the foam blocks resist the push forward and tend to roll forward. But the bigger problem is they are too flat—they don’t help the straps to keep the kayaks in place in a gusty headwind. I bought one set of Landsharks with the intention of replacing only the front blocks but thought I’d first try a full set on one of the kayaks. Foam blocks gotta go!
That evening I ran the ‘Seraphim Falls’ disk back to the video store and learned why it didn’t work. Apparently the last renter burned a DVD and stole the original disk! The store gave me two free-rental cards so, well, good enough.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 18 June –
I spent the morning updating my blog and patrolling my favorite news sites on the web. In the afternoon I rode the motorcycle down to Freedom Armory for a target shooting session in their fancy indoor pistol range. For the summer the range has a ‘Monday two-fer’, meaning you pay for ½ hour ($11) but get an hour of range time (now that’s more like it!). I’m doing okay keeping everything in the inner scoring area on a silhouette target so long as I take the time to aim well but accuracy deteriorates more than I’d like as I speed up the firing rate. More practice needed! I had two failures-to-eject (‘FTEs’, also known as “stovepipes”) and a failure-to-feed (FTF) with the .380. Until yesterday I had had no feed or ejection failures whatsoever so I now have a problem to solve. We had the first-ever stovepipe with it yesterday but I thought that was due to ‘limp-wristing’ but now I’m not so sure. More practice needed!
The other pistol, a .22 target model, has a history of FTEs, particularly with some brands of ammo. But it did well, suffering only one FTE today.
After my session I was approached at the range check in/out desk by two friendly older gentlemen. They started asking questions about the targets I was using and then said they were here for the shooting competition. They apparently thought I worked there but once we cleared that up they went on to tell me the competition is sponsored by the York County Agency on Aging. One of the gents said he had just ‘graduated’ to the 85-and-older shooting group and the other said he was only 83 so he was in another group. They said the groupings went as low as age 55 and suggested I consider it. Back home I got on the web and learned that this was part of York County government’s Senior Games. Very cool!
That evening we attempted to watch ‘Seraphim Falls’ but the DVD wouldn’t read. Fortunately we had another so switched to ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’. LOVED it!
(posted from home)
(This post covers 18-24 June 2007)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 24 June -
This morning I started working on my blog update but then broke off for a trip to town with Labashi. I’ve been trying to come up with a good solution for the registration stickers for the kayaks. The stickers don’t stick well to the slippery polyethylene and Royalex surfaces and in fact, one of mine blew off last year, just from the wind rush of being carried atop the van. I think I’ve come up with an attachment solution but need a good material. So Labashi and I went to Home Depot and Lowe’s looking for the ‘right’ base material—one which doesn’t corrode, is impervious to water, doesn’t deteriorate under intense UV radiation and takes a sticker well. We also spent much of our time looking for the ‘right’ solution for a recessed light above the lower foyer.
That evening we watched ‘The Secret Life of Words’. Sarah Polley and Tim Robbins are terrific in the roles of two people suffering from tragic events in their past. We loved the acting and the use of an off-shore oil rig as main location. The film takes a hit for some plot contrivances but is well worthwhile. RottenTomatoes scores it a 71 and that seems about right to us. Here’s a good link to insightful production notes on the film: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/secret_life_of_words/about.php
---------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 23 June -
This morning I rode the Concours up to Blue Mountain Outfitters for some deck line and 303 Protectant. On the way home I stopped in at Koup’s motorcycle shop and there sat one of the new KLR’s. I have to agree Kawasaki did a good job on the update (the bike had been the same except for paint colors for twenty years!) and you’ve got to respect a motorcycle company willing to sell an updated quality adventure bike for under $5500 in 2007- but it just doesn’t make sense to spend money for what is very close to the bike I already have. I’ve not been riding the KLR much lately and an upgrade wouldn’t change that. Here’s some info on the new KLR: http://www.kawasaki.com/Products/Detail.aspx?id=221. But I think I’d be more inclined toward THIS: http://www.kawasaki.com/Products/Detail.aspx?id=246.
Later in the day I took down the kayaks (from the van) and did some more prep work for the trip. I took off the hatches and thoroughly cleaned out, sanitized, and dried out the storage hatches and cockpit. The kayaks weathered the long winter layover very well—no growth, no bugs, no corrosion, minimal moisture in the hatches. I had stored the PFDs, spray skirts, registration documentation, and paddling accessories (like sunscreen, gloves, booties, etc) in dry-bags and sealed them in the cockpit (using rainproof cockpit covers) along with the paddles for the winter. I was afraid I might not have dried everything out well enough and would see growth inside the bags but everything was just the way I stored it. I also added a more secure means of locking my kayak to the van’s bumper (Labashi’s already has a solution for this). I added a stainless-steel eye-loop to use with my locking cable.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 22 June –
This morning I took a beautiful motorcycle ride down along the Susquehanna to Shank’s Mare kayak shop at Long Level. I picked up another set of Landshark saddles to complete the upgrade from foam blocks. On the way home I stopped by the Kawasaki shop in Hallam, hoping to see the new KLR-650 I’ve been reading about in Rider Magazine and Motorcycle Consumer News. A new KLR just came in this morning but it’s still in its shipping crate. Bob invited me back next week to ride it and give him some feedback on how it compares to my ‘old-style’ 2004 KLR. Sly dog!
I spent the afternoon finishing up the kayak loading with the new Landsharks. I also had a mental breakthrough on the strap-down process. I had abandoned use of the awkward-to-use Thule tiedown straps and had used ratchet-straps and hooks for the last several years. But the ratcheting straps can be tricky. They jam and can stain and dent the kayaks if you aren’t extra careful. And the ratchet mechanisms rust. I’d prefer to use the ultra-simplistic Thule straps but until today it was an awkward proposition to get the buckle back up over the kayak from the other side once you throw it over and loop it under the carrier bar. I’ve tried throwing the buckle over, then the loose end over but the loose end won’t go if there’s any wind at all. But today it struck me… If I put the tail end of the strap into the buckle BEFORE throwing it over the kayak, both ends go over easily and I can simply reach under and undo, pass the two ends past the bar and put them back together. Then I can haul on either of the two pieces of strap on my side until the buckle is in the right place and voila!, all the work on the far side is done and I’m ready to secure on my side. No more ratchet-straps!
Later in the day I took the strapped-down and locked-down kayaks on a little ride. Today is a windy day so it’s a good one for a test. I shot down I-83 South at 70-plus miles per hour (running with the wind) then turned around at the exit and drove into the wind at the same speed, listening for a whistle, whine or flap from the kayaks, saddles, straps, or rack. All was quiet. Back home I applied a coat of marine wax to the top.
That evening we watched the extras on the ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ DVD.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 21 June -
Today I added a hold-down bracket to the roof-rack track. As I attached the kayak carriers to the track the other day I had noticed the rear of the track lifting a bit off of the fiberglass roof. Though there’s a good course of sealer around it, the lifting of the track isn’t good. If the kayaks get to rocking about because of winds or rough roads, the back of the track could get pulled up, perhaps even leading to a roof leak. During installation years ago I had a problem with the anchor fastener in this area and apparently it has pulled out a bit. I can push it back down but that isn’t permanent. I therefore made up a small metal bracket from steel stock and epoxied it across the end of the track and onto the roof. It’s solid as a rock now.
That evening we watched some ‘Pirate Master’ and went to bed early to read.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 20 June -
Today I went to the dentist to replace the temporary crown installed last week with the permanent one. The temporary didn’t want to come off even as the dentist jumped up and down on my chest, jerking the vise-grips back and forth (ok, maybe that’s a stretch but that baby was ON there). He ended up using the dentist’s drill to cut through the sides of it to get it to finally release. But after that the placement of the new crown was a cinch.
I took Labashi’s car in for service that afternoon. The CD player now refuses to eject the disk and we sometimes hear a grinding noise in the front brakes, just before the vehicle comes to a complete stop. The brake problem turned out to be a known issue for which there was a service bulletin. New brake pads and truing of the rotors took care of that. The CD problem will require replacement of the audio unit and that has to be ordered so I’ll have to return again next week. Both issues were handled under warranty but I’m starting to wonder about having these so many problems on a 15,000-mile car.
That evening I mowed the ripple. The lawn looks more like mid-August than mid-June.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 19 June -
I spent most of today working on the sea kayaks to prepare them for our upcoming trip. The kayaks needed a good cleaning and that’s easy enough but the bigger problem was the coating of oxidation on Labashi’s kayak. I had made the mistake of buying a locally-built kayak made of a Royalex knock-off. It has an outer covering of vinyl which looks great when new but rapidly fades with exposure to prolonged sunlight. I had read of this characteristic so I treated the hull with 303 Protectant a couple of times a year. But that didn’t do it. I apparently didn’t treat it often enough and her kayak accumulated an unsightly covering of white oxidation on its yellow hull and deck. Several years ago I had taken the oxidation off my old Grumman aluminum canoe with a Scotchbrite pad so I tried that on the hull and that seemed to work. But I was concerned it was too abrasive so I bought 1500, 600, and 320-grit automotive sandpapers to give them a try. The 1500 and 600 grits took off a little of the oxidation but jammed up, even with a flow of water under them. The 320 did okay but it turned out the Scotchbrite pad worked best—but only if used dry. The oxidation is now off and with a new coating of 303 the kayak looks great--- for now.
That afternoon I installed my Thule racks on Mocha Joe and added a set of Yakima Landsharks (a type of kayak ‘saddle’ or holder) to them. I’ve been using generic kayak foam blocks for the saddles (hoping to avoid the $70-per-kayak cost of the Landsharks) but they’ve become a pain. Because I slide the kayaks into place from the rear of the vehicle, the foam blocks resist the push forward and tend to roll forward. But the bigger problem is they are too flat—they don’t help the straps to keep the kayaks in place in a gusty headwind. I bought one set of Landsharks with the intention of replacing only the front blocks but thought I’d first try a full set on one of the kayaks. Foam blocks gotta go!
That evening I ran the ‘Seraphim Falls’ disk back to the video store and learned why it didn’t work. Apparently the last renter burned a DVD and stole the original disk! The store gave me two free-rental cards so, well, good enough.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 18 June –
I spent the morning updating my blog and patrolling my favorite news sites on the web. In the afternoon I rode the motorcycle down to Freedom Armory for a target shooting session in their fancy indoor pistol range. For the summer the range has a ‘Monday two-fer’, meaning you pay for ½ hour ($11) but get an hour of range time (now that’s more like it!). I’m doing okay keeping everything in the inner scoring area on a silhouette target so long as I take the time to aim well but accuracy deteriorates more than I’d like as I speed up the firing rate. More practice needed! I had two failures-to-eject (‘FTEs’, also known as “stovepipes”) and a failure-to-feed (FTF) with the .380. Until yesterday I had had no feed or ejection failures whatsoever so I now have a problem to solve. We had the first-ever stovepipe with it yesterday but I thought that was due to ‘limp-wristing’ but now I’m not so sure. More practice needed!
The other pistol, a .22 target model, has a history of FTEs, particularly with some brands of ammo. But it did well, suffering only one FTE today.
After my session I was approached at the range check in/out desk by two friendly older gentlemen. They started asking questions about the targets I was using and then said they were here for the shooting competition. They apparently thought I worked there but once we cleared that up they went on to tell me the competition is sponsored by the York County Agency on Aging. One of the gents said he had just ‘graduated’ to the 85-and-older shooting group and the other said he was only 83 so he was in another group. They said the groupings went as low as age 55 and suggested I consider it. Back home I got on the web and learned that this was part of York County government’s Senior Games. Very cool!
That evening we attempted to watch ‘Seraphim Falls’ but the DVD wouldn’t read. Fortunately we had another so switched to ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’. LOVED it!
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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