Concours warranty problem, NetFlix Instant Movies, Start of vehicle-prep for next trip, House-painting marathon
(posted from home)
(this post covers 12-31 May, 2008)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 31 May-
Today I spent the morning updating the blog. We had a thunderstorm pass through in mid-morning and it took out the cable and computer for a few hours but everything came back up okay by mid-afternoon.
After our long week we were ready for a movie marathon. We watched the last five episodes of ‘The Wire- Season Three’ and then another two hours of extra features about this remarkable series. VERY highly recommended viewing.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 30 May-
Today Labashi and I spent the morning meeting with a department-head of the home where Mom stays. It’s time to consider the next level of assistance for her and that would mean a move and an adjustment period. Afterwards we drove to Lowe’s to pick up another gallon of special paint for the bathroom. While Labashi finished up the bathroom I painted the basement stairwell. Then we removed all the plastic tarps and blue-tape we had down to protect the trim and hardwood floors and cleaned up, finally finishing the project at 1730 today. After pizza with Maypo and family, we headed home and just vegged in front of the TV.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 29 May-
Another painting day today. We rolled another coat on the living room, kitchen and hallway. I painted the hallway to the attic while Labashi did detail work in the bathroom and we then rolled on a coat in the bathroom. We worked until 2030 and then Labashi wanted to go back to Applebee’s for a reprise of the grilled-shrimp fajitas she had last night (excellent!). On the way back to our ‘home’ driveway we pulled in to the local Panera and used their wi-fi hotspot to check email. I normally buy something from the host of the hotspots I use but the Panera was just closing up tonight.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 28 May-
Today was another painting marathon. We put a second coat on the three bedrooms and then the first coat on the living room, kitchen, and hall. I was shot but Labashi and a friend went out to the local Applebee’s for dinner that evening. I visited the local ice-cream stand and picked up some supplies in Mocha Joe.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 27 May-
Today we continued painting. We got a late start but were painting by 0900 and worked until 2100 except for a lunch and supper break. We finished three bedrooms and again were so tired we couldn’t sleep for awhile but then made up for it.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 26 May-
A few weeks ago I volunteered to paint the interior of a house in the Chambersburg area. I spent today painting around the trim with brush and trim-painting pad and Labashi spent it patching cracks in plaster. The constant up-and-down wore me out and by 1700 I bonked because I hadn’t eaten all day. But supper refreshed me and I was then able to finish all the trimming and Labashi finished all the patching by about 2100. We were so tired we couldn’t get to sleep at first but then slept VERY heavily. We’re very glad to have Mocha Joe as our portable base of operations. We’re staying in Maypo’s driveway for a few nights, then the driveway of the house we’re painting for the rest of the week.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 25 May-
We had a beautiful day today after so many rainy ones the last several weeks. We all got up late and talked yet some more before the ladies decided to go shopping and we guys drove out to the Michaux State Forest. We picked up the map for the dispersed camping sites from the forest office and looked for the closest sites. The idea was simply to go look at these sites for a later stay, perhaps in the Fall. Dispersed sites are free but generally only consist of a clearing with a fire-ring but nothing else. Water may be nearby in the form of a creek or spring but of course must be treated. A permit is required from the Forest Office and that can be a hassle since they are only open weekdays and only until 1600.
We found site 14 to be a great one but it’s about 175 yards behind a locked gate. I know you can get the key to some sites but maybe not this one—I’ll have to call. The site has a nice view and has nearby trails (including a fitness trail) and a nearby lake or pond. A Natural Area lies to the east and it appears you could just start walking into the forest in any direction and have an interesting day.
Late in the day we had a cookout and then Labashi and I walked over to take Mom for a sunset wheelchair ride around the campus.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 24 May-
This morning I finished up the Kawasaki letter, printing the pictures, making copies, and making up the envelope.
We then drove to Maypo’s home for a Memorial Day weekend get-together. My other brother, Orat, is in town and we all had a great afternoon together.
That evening I walked over to see Mom at the nearby assisted-living facility and spent a few hours with her then came back and joined a card game which lasted late.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 23 May-
Today I spent much of the day writing a letter to Kawasaki Motors regarding the denial of extended warranty coverage by my local shop. I took photos of the thermostat and bolt to send along given that I don’t quite buy the shop’s explanation of reasons for the denial. It took me awhile to get good-enough photos and my letter ran to a little over two pages of explanation.
That evening we watched Bill Moyer’s Journal and almost half of the last disk of ‘When the Levee’s Broke’.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 22 May-
Today I drove in to the West York Wal-mart for tires for Mocha Joe. The old set had just under 50,000 miles on them and their tread was down to the legal minimum. I had considered leaving on our next trip and getting the new tires en route in order to get all the miles out of the old set. That led me to looking at Wal-mart for tires (since we stay in Wal-mart parking lots when we’re just stopping for a night as we pass through). I found an excellent deal but the tires may not be available at all Wal-marts and the excellent deal may not be there. And if I happened to get into heavy rain on the old tires, I could have a hydroplaning problem and make the idea of stretching the tread to the limit very ridiculous. I decided to go ahead now rather than wait.
As I signed up for the tire replacement I saw I could also get the oil changed for just a little more than it would cost me just for the oil and filter and would include lubing the chassis and a check of fluid levels, belts, etc. That made it an easy decision.
That evening we watched more episodes of ‘The Wire-Season Three’.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 21 May-
Today I picked up the replacement motorcycle windshield at the shop. I decided not to have the shop install it (as they offered). This particular windshield design has a tendency to develop ‘star-cracks’ around the mounting screws. I’d rather do the installation myself and take my chances on the cracks developing than have the shop to blame if it happens. I’m also going to try cutting down the old windshield so I have a summer-shield for more airflow. I’ll first have to duct tape the broken shield to the fairing at different heights in order to test for the optimum height. The full-size one directs air over my helmet now I need to find the height for smoothest airflow. Too low and I’ll get too much wind-blast to the chest, too high and I’ll get too much turbulent air around the helmet.
That afternoon I re-installed the built-in shelving in the closet of my new office and then did some research on tires for our upcoming trip.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 20 May-
Early this morning we drove to Chambersburg to join Mom in her medical appointment at the assisted-living facility. We collectively decided to try a ‘drug holiday’ for one of the drugs which is known to have side effects similar to the problems Mom is experiencing. We’ll return in two weeks for an update. After the appointment we also talked with the director of assisted living about Mom’s case.
Back home we moved Labashi’s file cabinets into her new office. I cut new trim to fit in an area previously hidden by built-in shelving while Labashi painted in my new office. I also disassembled and cleaned the storm windows in our bedroom.
That evening we watched two ‘The Wire-3’ episodes on DVD and then an episode of ‘The Alaska Experiment’ on TV.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 19 May-
This morning we learned Mom has been scheduled for a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at her assisted-living facility. She has been having some problems which may mean it’s time for a higher level of assisted care or may be the result of drug interactions or side effects of those drugs. We spent much of the day researching her list of drugs and gathering options for the next level of care. Labashi also went grocery shopping.
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘The Wire, Season Three’.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 18 May-
We had a slow start today. We dawdled around the table, watching and endlessly photographing the babies right up through lunch time. Then Labashi and I went with JustJeff and family to see Mom at the nearby assisted-living facility. It was great to see Mom brighten up as she met her great-grand-daughter. Their birthdays are 89 and a half years apart!
The ladies then loaded up all the baby-wrangling gear and headed out shopping while we boys (Maypo, JustJeff, and I) went shooting at the State Forest range. We had the pistol range to ourselves for about a half-hour before a guy brought his three kids in to shoot. We offered to share the range but the guy said he’d rather wait than have the kids taking their turns with someone else on the range. That led to us shutting down a bit earlier than normal but we all had a chance to shoot all four pistols. I was shooting exceptionally low with the .22 so turned it over to JustJeff to see if he could do any better. His pattern looked just like mine and we then noticed the front sight was cracked and it was tilted up slightly—just enough to explain our two-inch-low patterns. It appears the hold-down had been cranked down too tightly onto the plastic sight blade at the factory. While the guys were packing up I changed front sights but we had already turned the range over to the other folks so I’ll have to confirm the fix another time.
After a long supper with ample entertainment by the little ones, Labashi and I headed home.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 17 May-
Today we drove to my brother’s home to see babies. My nephew JustJeff and his wife drove down from the Rochester area with our new grand-niece. She was born while I was in Florida and this is the first time we’ve seen her. Another nephew and his wife live near my brother and they had their daughter a few months earlier. Both are spectacularly cute.
We spent the rainy day with the little ones and then Labashi and I slept well in Mocha Joe.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 16 May-
Today we worked in Labashi’s new office. We spent the day assembling the new storage/platform bed and setting up her computer. Those two tasks kept us busy most of the day. The bed was more complex than I had expected but it seems to be well engineered and assembled into a very strong structure. Labashi now has a place for her middle-of-the-night reading.
That evening we watched “Bill Moyer’s Journal”.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 15 May-
Labashi started painting the ceiling and trim in her new office yesterday and today began painting walls. I repaired and cleaned the windows and their tracks and removed the storm windows and screens, cleaned them, and re-installed.
In mid-afternoon Labashi drove me down to the motorcycle shop to pick up the bike. The shop reduced the $574 bill to $325 but that’s still a heck of a price to pay for a thermostat and fan switch. I’ll have to write a letter to Kawasaki to pursue.
Late in the day I took my walk along the creek. On the way back I found a large black snake on the road, warming itself in the sun. I tried to get the snake to move off but it wouldn’t budge. A guy came along and saw what was going on and pulled over to help. While I kept passing traffic from hitting the snake he went for a stick to lift the snake and ‘help’ him off the road. He was a big one— somewhere around five feet long and nearly as big around as my forearm at it’s thickest.
That evening we watched ‘The Wire- Season 3’, episodes 3 and 4.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 14 May-
Last night Maypo called to ask me to drive Mom to a doctor’s appointment in Chambersburg today since he has a conflict. That went fine but took up the morning and I didn’t get back home until mid-afternoon. I fixed some trim problems in Labashi’s office, mowed the upper lawn before supper and the lower after, finishing up just as a light rain started. Looks great!
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘The Wire- Season Three’ on DVD.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 13 May-
This morning I drove over to the range to work with the .22 target pistol. Looks like I need a lot more work with it. At 50 feet I’m grouping shots at 4 o’clock — a classic flinching pattern for us lefties. I finished up with a few mags of nine millimeter and see I’m a better shooter with that gun than the .22.
Labashi drove me in to pick up the Concours at the shop that afternoon but I ended up leaving it there. I was presented a bill for $574 for diagnosing the overheating problem and replacing the fan-switch and thermostat. I thought that quite high but I don’t care if it’s covered by my extended warranty. Unfortunately, they claim to have found a bolt in the thermostat and are refusing warranty coverage. The service manager and the guy I normally deal with there are both off today so the owner asked if it would be all right to leave things as is and have them review it tomorrow with the Kawasaki rep.
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘Weeds- Season Two’ on Netflix Instant Movies. The instant movies are better than not having a movie but we also have some problems. Perhaps the biggest disappointment for us is lack of sub-titles and lack of extra features—they just aren’t available on the Instant Movies version of the title. The picture also leaves something to be desired because we are sharing a view of my laptop screen. It’s a decent 17-inch TrueLife widescreen but we’re both a little too far off-center for optimum viewing and the picture is a bit fuzzy at full-screen size. Since I have Media Center on the laptop I thought I’d pipe the picture to our television but our TV doesn’t have an s-video input and I don’t think composite-video would give me an acceptable picture when the quality on the laptop LCD is already barely adequate.
I’m surprised the movie plays continuously most of the time given how much trouble I’ve had in the past with the router locking up. If we watch more than about two hours worth of viewing the movie will come to a stop and we get a warning that the internet connection has stopped. But I can simply pull the power plug on the router and plug it back in and the movie will pick up again in about a minute and will continue to the end without further interruption.
The best thing about Instant Movies is we can pick one out and watch it anytime. This works out well, particularly when all the Netflix DVDs are en route one direction or the other.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 12 May-
Today was rainy all day. I spent the morning on the web and then went to the indoor shooting range at the Sportsmen’s Association after lunch. This was my second visit to the range. I again found I didn’t have to use the gate combination since the gate was standing open. And on a rainy day like this I assumed that meant I’d have company on the indoor range. There were several cars in the parking lot and as I pulled up I noticed people in most of them, apparently waiting for something. As I entered the building I saw the outer room was set up for instruction and I met the instructor. Today he’s teaching a basic firearms-safety course for new parole officers but said I was welcome to use the range—it wouldn’t bother them at all. Very cool!
I turned on the lights and exhaust fans and shot for an hour, varying distances, shooting positions, targets, lighting, pistols, and ammo and then did a thorough sweep-up of my brass and a thorough wash-up of my hands with ‘D-Lead’ heavy-metal removal soap (provided in the range bathrooms) before leaving. I LOVE this place!
I arrived home just after Labashi’s return from running errands in town. She’s gathering materials to paint the bedroom and our offices before we move the furniture back in.
After supper we worked on the web awhile and then watched two episodes of ‘Weeds’ to finish Season One.
====== end of post ======
(posted from home)
(this post covers 12-31 May, 2008)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 31 May-
Today I spent the morning updating the blog. We had a thunderstorm pass through in mid-morning and it took out the cable and computer for a few hours but everything came back up okay by mid-afternoon.
After our long week we were ready for a movie marathon. We watched the last five episodes of ‘The Wire- Season Three’ and then another two hours of extra features about this remarkable series. VERY highly recommended viewing.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 30 May-
Today Labashi and I spent the morning meeting with a department-head of the home where Mom stays. It’s time to consider the next level of assistance for her and that would mean a move and an adjustment period. Afterwards we drove to Lowe’s to pick up another gallon of special paint for the bathroom. While Labashi finished up the bathroom I painted the basement stairwell. Then we removed all the plastic tarps and blue-tape we had down to protect the trim and hardwood floors and cleaned up, finally finishing the project at 1730 today. After pizza with Maypo and family, we headed home and just vegged in front of the TV.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 29 May-
Another painting day today. We rolled another coat on the living room, kitchen and hallway. I painted the hallway to the attic while Labashi did detail work in the bathroom and we then rolled on a coat in the bathroom. We worked until 2030 and then Labashi wanted to go back to Applebee’s for a reprise of the grilled-shrimp fajitas she had last night (excellent!). On the way back to our ‘home’ driveway we pulled in to the local Panera and used their wi-fi hotspot to check email. I normally buy something from the host of the hotspots I use but the Panera was just closing up tonight.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 28 May-
Today was another painting marathon. We put a second coat on the three bedrooms and then the first coat on the living room, kitchen, and hall. I was shot but Labashi and a friend went out to the local Applebee’s for dinner that evening. I visited the local ice-cream stand and picked up some supplies in Mocha Joe.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 27 May-
Today we continued painting. We got a late start but were painting by 0900 and worked until 2100 except for a lunch and supper break. We finished three bedrooms and again were so tired we couldn’t sleep for awhile but then made up for it.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 26 May-
A few weeks ago I volunteered to paint the interior of a house in the Chambersburg area. I spent today painting around the trim with brush and trim-painting pad and Labashi spent it patching cracks in plaster. The constant up-and-down wore me out and by 1700 I bonked because I hadn’t eaten all day. But supper refreshed me and I was then able to finish all the trimming and Labashi finished all the patching by about 2100. We were so tired we couldn’t get to sleep at first but then slept VERY heavily. We’re very glad to have Mocha Joe as our portable base of operations. We’re staying in Maypo’s driveway for a few nights, then the driveway of the house we’re painting for the rest of the week.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 25 May-
We had a beautiful day today after so many rainy ones the last several weeks. We all got up late and talked yet some more before the ladies decided to go shopping and we guys drove out to the Michaux State Forest. We picked up the map for the dispersed camping sites from the forest office and looked for the closest sites. The idea was simply to go look at these sites for a later stay, perhaps in the Fall. Dispersed sites are free but generally only consist of a clearing with a fire-ring but nothing else. Water may be nearby in the form of a creek or spring but of course must be treated. A permit is required from the Forest Office and that can be a hassle since they are only open weekdays and only until 1600.
We found site 14 to be a great one but it’s about 175 yards behind a locked gate. I know you can get the key to some sites but maybe not this one—I’ll have to call. The site has a nice view and has nearby trails (including a fitness trail) and a nearby lake or pond. A Natural Area lies to the east and it appears you could just start walking into the forest in any direction and have an interesting day.
Late in the day we had a cookout and then Labashi and I walked over to take Mom for a sunset wheelchair ride around the campus.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 24 May-
This morning I finished up the Kawasaki letter, printing the pictures, making copies, and making up the envelope.
We then drove to Maypo’s home for a Memorial Day weekend get-together. My other brother, Orat, is in town and we all had a great afternoon together.
That evening I walked over to see Mom at the nearby assisted-living facility and spent a few hours with her then came back and joined a card game which lasted late.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 23 May-
Today I spent much of the day writing a letter to Kawasaki Motors regarding the denial of extended warranty coverage by my local shop. I took photos of the thermostat and bolt to send along given that I don’t quite buy the shop’s explanation of reasons for the denial. It took me awhile to get good-enough photos and my letter ran to a little over two pages of explanation.
That evening we watched Bill Moyer’s Journal and almost half of the last disk of ‘When the Levee’s Broke’.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 22 May-
Today I drove in to the West York Wal-mart for tires for Mocha Joe. The old set had just under 50,000 miles on them and their tread was down to the legal minimum. I had considered leaving on our next trip and getting the new tires en route in order to get all the miles out of the old set. That led me to looking at Wal-mart for tires (since we stay in Wal-mart parking lots when we’re just stopping for a night as we pass through). I found an excellent deal but the tires may not be available at all Wal-marts and the excellent deal may not be there. And if I happened to get into heavy rain on the old tires, I could have a hydroplaning problem and make the idea of stretching the tread to the limit very ridiculous. I decided to go ahead now rather than wait.
As I signed up for the tire replacement I saw I could also get the oil changed for just a little more than it would cost me just for the oil and filter and would include lubing the chassis and a check of fluid levels, belts, etc. That made it an easy decision.
That evening we watched more episodes of ‘The Wire-Season Three’.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 21 May-
Today I picked up the replacement motorcycle windshield at the shop. I decided not to have the shop install it (as they offered). This particular windshield design has a tendency to develop ‘star-cracks’ around the mounting screws. I’d rather do the installation myself and take my chances on the cracks developing than have the shop to blame if it happens. I’m also going to try cutting down the old windshield so I have a summer-shield for more airflow. I’ll first have to duct tape the broken shield to the fairing at different heights in order to test for the optimum height. The full-size one directs air over my helmet now I need to find the height for smoothest airflow. Too low and I’ll get too much wind-blast to the chest, too high and I’ll get too much turbulent air around the helmet.
That afternoon I re-installed the built-in shelving in the closet of my new office and then did some research on tires for our upcoming trip.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 20 May-
Early this morning we drove to Chambersburg to join Mom in her medical appointment at the assisted-living facility. We collectively decided to try a ‘drug holiday’ for one of the drugs which is known to have side effects similar to the problems Mom is experiencing. We’ll return in two weeks for an update. After the appointment we also talked with the director of assisted living about Mom’s case.
Back home we moved Labashi’s file cabinets into her new office. I cut new trim to fit in an area previously hidden by built-in shelving while Labashi painted in my new office. I also disassembled and cleaned the storm windows in our bedroom.
That evening we watched two ‘The Wire-3’ episodes on DVD and then an episode of ‘The Alaska Experiment’ on TV.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 19 May-
This morning we learned Mom has been scheduled for a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at her assisted-living facility. She has been having some problems which may mean it’s time for a higher level of assisted care or may be the result of drug interactions or side effects of those drugs. We spent much of the day researching her list of drugs and gathering options for the next level of care. Labashi also went grocery shopping.
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘The Wire, Season Three’.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 18 May-
We had a slow start today. We dawdled around the table, watching and endlessly photographing the babies right up through lunch time. Then Labashi and I went with JustJeff and family to see Mom at the nearby assisted-living facility. It was great to see Mom brighten up as she met her great-grand-daughter. Their birthdays are 89 and a half years apart!
The ladies then loaded up all the baby-wrangling gear and headed out shopping while we boys (Maypo, JustJeff, and I) went shooting at the State Forest range. We had the pistol range to ourselves for about a half-hour before a guy brought his three kids in to shoot. We offered to share the range but the guy said he’d rather wait than have the kids taking their turns with someone else on the range. That led to us shutting down a bit earlier than normal but we all had a chance to shoot all four pistols. I was shooting exceptionally low with the .22 so turned it over to JustJeff to see if he could do any better. His pattern looked just like mine and we then noticed the front sight was cracked and it was tilted up slightly—just enough to explain our two-inch-low patterns. It appears the hold-down had been cranked down too tightly onto the plastic sight blade at the factory. While the guys were packing up I changed front sights but we had already turned the range over to the other folks so I’ll have to confirm the fix another time.
After a long supper with ample entertainment by the little ones, Labashi and I headed home.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 17 May-
Today we drove to my brother’s home to see babies. My nephew JustJeff and his wife drove down from the Rochester area with our new grand-niece. She was born while I was in Florida and this is the first time we’ve seen her. Another nephew and his wife live near my brother and they had their daughter a few months earlier. Both are spectacularly cute.
We spent the rainy day with the little ones and then Labashi and I slept well in Mocha Joe.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 16 May-
Today we worked in Labashi’s new office. We spent the day assembling the new storage/platform bed and setting up her computer. Those two tasks kept us busy most of the day. The bed was more complex than I had expected but it seems to be well engineered and assembled into a very strong structure. Labashi now has a place for her middle-of-the-night reading.
That evening we watched “Bill Moyer’s Journal”.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 15 May-
Labashi started painting the ceiling and trim in her new office yesterday and today began painting walls. I repaired and cleaned the windows and their tracks and removed the storm windows and screens, cleaned them, and re-installed.
In mid-afternoon Labashi drove me down to the motorcycle shop to pick up the bike. The shop reduced the $574 bill to $325 but that’s still a heck of a price to pay for a thermostat and fan switch. I’ll have to write a letter to Kawasaki to pursue.
Late in the day I took my walk along the creek. On the way back I found a large black snake on the road, warming itself in the sun. I tried to get the snake to move off but it wouldn’t budge. A guy came along and saw what was going on and pulled over to help. While I kept passing traffic from hitting the snake he went for a stick to lift the snake and ‘help’ him off the road. He was a big one— somewhere around five feet long and nearly as big around as my forearm at it’s thickest.
That evening we watched ‘The Wire- Season 3’, episodes 3 and 4.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 14 May-
Last night Maypo called to ask me to drive Mom to a doctor’s appointment in Chambersburg today since he has a conflict. That went fine but took up the morning and I didn’t get back home until mid-afternoon. I fixed some trim problems in Labashi’s office, mowed the upper lawn before supper and the lower after, finishing up just as a light rain started. Looks great!
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘The Wire- Season Three’ on DVD.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 13 May-
This morning I drove over to the range to work with the .22 target pistol. Looks like I need a lot more work with it. At 50 feet I’m grouping shots at 4 o’clock — a classic flinching pattern for us lefties. I finished up with a few mags of nine millimeter and see I’m a better shooter with that gun than the .22.
Labashi drove me in to pick up the Concours at the shop that afternoon but I ended up leaving it there. I was presented a bill for $574 for diagnosing the overheating problem and replacing the fan-switch and thermostat. I thought that quite high but I don’t care if it’s covered by my extended warranty. Unfortunately, they claim to have found a bolt in the thermostat and are refusing warranty coverage. The service manager and the guy I normally deal with there are both off today so the owner asked if it would be all right to leave things as is and have them review it tomorrow with the Kawasaki rep.
That evening we watched two episodes of ‘Weeds- Season Two’ on Netflix Instant Movies. The instant movies are better than not having a movie but we also have some problems. Perhaps the biggest disappointment for us is lack of sub-titles and lack of extra features—they just aren’t available on the Instant Movies version of the title. The picture also leaves something to be desired because we are sharing a view of my laptop screen. It’s a decent 17-inch TrueLife widescreen but we’re both a little too far off-center for optimum viewing and the picture is a bit fuzzy at full-screen size. Since I have Media Center on the laptop I thought I’d pipe the picture to our television but our TV doesn’t have an s-video input and I don’t think composite-video would give me an acceptable picture when the quality on the laptop LCD is already barely adequate.
I’m surprised the movie plays continuously most of the time given how much trouble I’ve had in the past with the router locking up. If we watch more than about two hours worth of viewing the movie will come to a stop and we get a warning that the internet connection has stopped. But I can simply pull the power plug on the router and plug it back in and the movie will pick up again in about a minute and will continue to the end without further interruption.
The best thing about Instant Movies is we can pick one out and watch it anytime. This works out well, particularly when all the Netflix DVDs are en route one direction or the other.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 12 May-
Today was rainy all day. I spent the morning on the web and then went to the indoor shooting range at the Sportsmen’s Association after lunch. This was my second visit to the range. I again found I didn’t have to use the gate combination since the gate was standing open. And on a rainy day like this I assumed that meant I’d have company on the indoor range. There were several cars in the parking lot and as I pulled up I noticed people in most of them, apparently waiting for something. As I entered the building I saw the outer room was set up for instruction and I met the instructor. Today he’s teaching a basic firearms-safety course for new parole officers but said I was welcome to use the range—it wouldn’t bother them at all. Very cool!
I turned on the lights and exhaust fans and shot for an hour, varying distances, shooting positions, targets, lighting, pistols, and ammo and then did a thorough sweep-up of my brass and a thorough wash-up of my hands with ‘D-Lead’ heavy-metal removal soap (provided in the range bathrooms) before leaving. I LOVE this place!
I arrived home just after Labashi’s return from running errands in town. She’s gathering materials to paint the bedroom and our offices before we move the furniture back in.
After supper we worked on the web awhile and then watched two episodes of ‘Weeds’ to finish Season One.
====== end of post ======
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 22:17
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