Chimney-sweep visit, 'Whip It', 'Dust to Glory', Miata door-switch problem, 'Cold Souls', Theo's, “Annie Liebovitz:Life Through A Lens”, Emergency-room visit, 'Villa Rides', Wiccans at Pinchot Park, end of 'Firefly'

(posted from home)
(This post covers 15 – 26 June, 2010)

---------------------------------

Saturday, 26 June-

This morning I went out to re-stow some of the stuff we had taken out of Labashi's car in preparation for its body-and-paint work earlier this week. I looked a bit more closely at the new paint. It looks great but I'm not sure the shop did all the work specified by the estimate. Supposedly the rear quarter window was removed but I don't see any evidence of it. Hmmm. I'm going to have to look into this more.
I also noticed the deteriorating battery box of the fishing boat so back inside I spent an hour or so researching replacements and ended up ordering one from Minn Kota via Amazon. I had gotten the original at Wal-mart but they don't carry them any more. I also came close to making a mistake. Cabela's has one at a much-reduced price but only by reading the reviews did I learn that the Cabela's version doesn't have one of the main features-- a 60-amp circuit breaker to prevent your trolling motor from causing a fire. It has circuit breakers but only for the accessory sockets. So THAT's why it's cheaper! In the photo the box looks just like the Minn Kota version and any reader would assume it's the same box, just marketed with the Cabelas name. That seems a bit much.
That evening we watched the extras on the 'Firefly- The Complete Series' disk. We really liked this short-lived series. A 'space Western'! What a great idea. And then mixing in Chinese dialogue and a very cool spaceship design.
I've since queued up 'Serenity', the two-hour movie which was done after the cancellation of the series.

---------------------------------

Friday, 25 June -

This morning we finished washing the back of the house, then washed the front and end. I blundered upon a solution for the fly-specs on siding but it turned out not to be the greatest ever. I had gotten some Magic Erasers recently and we tried those on some of the tougher areas on the siding. They didn't do a lot there but they worked great on fly-specs. I did have enough sense, though, to try the fly-spot removal process in a small, out-of-the-way area and then let the siding dry. Sure enough, after drying I could shiny areas where I had used the Magic Erasers. Unless I'm willing to 'erase' the entire side of the house this may not work! But I'll just let it go for now. If I see the shiny spots dull-down I could still use this method. In any case, I now have a solution for the fly-spotting I've seen on the fiberglass of Mocha Joe's top. In the past I've had to use rubbing-compound and LOTS of rubbing to get them off.
In the afternoon we picked up Labashi's car from the body shop. It looks great!
After supper I rode the GS over to Pinchot Park for a 90-minute walk. On this one I had a little surprise. In back section of the campground were Wiccans! This weekend must be the summer-solstice full-moon celebration. I saw something on the order of 100 people of all shapes and sizes, wearing black robes and most of them carrying wooden staffs. Some of them had white scarves.
I also noticed what must have been Wicca-Central for the weekend. There was a sign-up table of some sort with a schedule posted beside it. Friday's events included Ghost Hunting while Saturday had several events about Celtic-this, Celtic-that (I was just walking by and didn't see it very clearly).
And for an idea of what they may be doing this weekend, here's a link to a 1996 event at Pinchot: http://www.unc.edu/~reddeer/fmr/fmr.1996.11.el.html .
That evening we watched the last two episodes of 'Firefly'.

----------------------------------

Thursday, 24 June-

Today was another house-washing day. We had had a new chimney topper added earlier this week and had noticed our painted chimney needed a good washdown. Though the extended ladder looked a bit rickety up there, the washdown actually went well and made a big difference. There are still a few rust stains we'll need to take care of, though.
We then started out across the back of the house, washing the upper siding, the outside of the rain gutter, and the windows and shutters. Labashi was doing much of the on-ladder work and I swapped in to do a section about half-way through. I only made a few brushstrokes, however, before whacking the side of my thumb quite forcefully against the ladder upright. I yelped, of course, but then saw something I've never seen before. My base of my right thumbnail had been exposed. The skin around it had been pulled back by the force of the blow, the cuticle base had slipped out, and the skin had then retracted, leaving about 3/8 of an inch of the cuticle base exposed. I had a bit of bleeding but the real problem was what to do about the future.
I called the nurse hotline and (as always) was told to see a doctor. My family doctor, though, apparently didn't want to deal with it and suggested I go to the Emergency Room.
I spent the afternoon at Memorial Hospital's FastER (get it?). After shots of numby-juice to the nerves running up the thumb, the physician's assistant lifted the corner of the nail and clipped it off with surgical scissors. She then used a pair of tweesers with an ell end to manipulate the skin back into place about the clipped-off cuticle base.
Back home I thought I'd skip my walk tonight but after supper it was so nice I wanted to get out. I walked the four-mile out-and-back course along the creek.
That evening we watched 'Villa Rides', a truly pitiful movie with Yul Brenner, Charles Bronson, and Robert Mitchum. We had gotten interested in Pancho Villa at the New Mexico state park of the same name and I queued up several Villa movies in Netflix at that time. But this one was terrible.

----------------------------------

Wednesday, 23 June-

This morning I went out to the barn to get something and again saw we have a bit of green growth on the siding on the north side of the house. I've noticed it while mowing but today I didn't have the excuse of being busy mowing! It was starting to get hot but we still had shadow on that side of the house and if I hurried I'd still be working mostly in the shade.
I made up a batch of Clorox and water (1:20 ratio) and used my car-washing brush to wash down the siding (as high as I could reach), the window frames, and windows, taking only about an hour for the entire process. Looks great!
Afterwards I rewarded myself with a Miata-ride to lunch at Fuddruckers and then walked for 1:46 at Rocky Ridge (my end-to-end loop). I had the trails entirely to myself for most of the walk and though the temperature was now in the Nineties, I had a pleasant breeze.
That evening we watched the last two episodes of 'House”- S1D4. We like it but when are they going to tire of the obligatory first-we-almost-kill-the-patient plotline?

-----------------------------------

Tuesday, 22 June-

This morning we took care of some financial stuff. In the afternoon I rode the GS down to Rudy Park for a walk. Thunderstorms were due later in the day and I thought I'd go to Rudy so I could walk the trails. These allow you to do quite a bit of walking but you're never all that far from the parking lot and there are several large pavilions around the park. If rain threatened (I thought), I wouldn't have far to go to get out of the rain. Once there, however, I decided to see if there has been any more construction on the Heritage Trail segment. That was about a 40 minute walk and I just headed back when I first heard thunder. By the time I got back to the park, it was raining lightly but the harder stuff was coming very soon. I made it to rest room complex and was stuck there for about 20 minutes while the rain poured down. Afterwards I walked for another half-hour or so to let the roads dry out a bit for the trip home.
That evening we watched two episodes of 'House-Season One'.

-----------------------------------

Monday, 21 June-

This morning I tried to catch up the blog a bit, then went back to work in my office. I also replaced a stop-light on Mocha Joe. There appears to be a recurring problem with the right-side light. I believe this is the fourth time I've had to replace it.
At lunch time I put the Miata top down and drove in to Fuddrucker's for a burger and to test whether my fix to the door switches had indeed fixed the alarm-buzzer problem. Not a peep out of it!
After lunch I worked on the blog a bit more and checked messages I've posted on Miata.net to see if anyone has replied to a question I posted about the engine idling very badly while I was having the door-switch problem. The only thing we can come up with is non-specific grounding problems. But the good news is the car is running great and I really enjoyed the wind-in-your-hair drive on this hot (but airy), sunny day. It could be a lot worse!
That evening we watched 'Cold Souls' with Paul Giamatti. It's the story of a Paul the actor in a role as himself. He's depressed and tries to resolve it by putting his soul into cold storage (after seeing an ad in the paper). And when that doesn't seem to help, he 'rents' the soul of a Russian artist, presumably to help him in his latest role in 'Uncle Vanya'. This one had some interesting ideas but got bogged down a bit-- at least for us. Too much of it just didn't make sense, particularly the final scene.
Then again, we're not exactly among the cognoscenti on this type of thing.

----------------------------------

Sunday, 20 June-

This morning I jumped onto Miata.net's forum to do some searches on what might be going on with the alarm buzzer and courtesy lights. It only took a few minutes to find descriptions of similar problems and decide it might be related to the door-switches. One guy had my symptoms and found he had accidently shut the passenger door on a seatbelt so the door switch wasn't closed. Something was making my car think the door switch was open.
I didn't have a cracked-open door and the switches appeared normal-- indeed, very clean-- from the outside. But when I removed them, the driver's side had a light covering of corrosion on the metal parts. I cleaned the switches on both sides using electric-contact cleaner and a toothbrush. After re-assembly, the problem was gone. But then again it was gone for a short period after my walk yesterday. I drove it for about twenty minutes and did not have any instances of the buzzer sounding or the courtesy light coming on unexpectedly.
That afternoon we dropped off Labashi's car for its body-shop appointment. The damage from the parking-lot accident is scheduled to take about a week to fix and will cost $2400. Fortunately it's covered by insurance but of course may have an impact on our future insurance costs.
I had driven Mocha Joe to the drop-off so we continued on in it, running a few errands. We bought a windshield sun-screen for Dad's car and then bought 18 bags of mulch at the Stauffer's of Kissel Hill in Dover on the way home.
After wheelbarrowing the mulch bags to the right places around the flower beds, I was free to go for my walk. I rode the F650GS to Pinchot State Park and took a 90-minute out-and-back walk to the dam spillway from the east-side parking lot.
That evening we finished the extras on the Annie Leibovitz disk and watched the third episode of 'Top Shot'-- the longbow and cross-bow episode.

-----------------------------------

Saturday, 19 June-

We were planning to go out to dinner with Mom and Dad this evening so I thought I'd better get a walk in early today. For the first time this season I drove the Miata for pleasure (i.e., for something other than a quick chore or between the garage and home when I was having work done on it.)
Everything was jolly for the first ten minutes or so but then I started hearing an odd sound. The seatbelt/ignition key buzzer began sounding a bit, then went on continuously. I continued on to Rocky Ridge Park, where I took a 96-minute walk on my regular end-to-end loop trail.
I had no buzzer sound when I re-started the car at Rocky Ridge but within five minutes it was back. I also noticed that the courtesy lights on the mirror were on and couldn't be turned off.
Back home I found I was completely exhausted from my five-mile walk. I've not been walking nearly as much recently and today tried jogging the downhill sections of the my loop. That was a mistake. Fortunately I didn't injure myself but I wore out quickly in less than an hour and then had to push to get back to the car. I think I was a bit under-nourished because I've been back on the low-carb diet this week. I had that 'bonk' feeling.
In any case, I tried taking a nap but that didn't seem to work and for some reason I was a bit nauseous. The problem went away after about two hours, just in time for me to get ready to drive to Mom and Dad's.
We had dinner at Theo's Restaurant near the Capital City Mall. I think I have a new favorite! My 'Black Jack Filet' was wonderful and so were Labashi's crab cakes. This was our first visit to this restaurant and we have LOTS more menu choices to explore. Example: Saganaki-- a pan-seared-cheese appetizer. Now THAT's an appetizer for my low-carb diet!
That evening we watched 'Annie Liebovitz: Life Through A Lens', a documentary about the famous celebrity photographer. Excellent!
Late that evening as I was closing up the house for the night I noticed that the courtesy lights were still on in the Miata. I was unable to turn them off so ended up pulling the plug behind the mirror for the night. The car was still able to start so I didn't have to get out the battery charger but I did notice I had a rough idle. Now what?

-----------------------------------

Friday, 18 June-

I tried fixing some scratches on the hood of Dad's car with a clear-coat scratch remover but it made very little difference. The only scratches it seems to help with are light swirl marks. The scratches come from attempts to manually remove tree sap blobs (I think) with a small piece of sandpaper or hard-edged tool. I really shouldn't be surprised the scratch-remover didn't work.
I worked in the office for the afternoon, trying to find my desktop through the accumulated piles. I have the poor habit of setting paperwork aside, sometimes with good reason but often-times just because I don't like the hassle of filing.
That evening we watched 'Dust to Glory', the documentary about the Tecate/SCORE 1000 Baja off-road race. This is another I had forgotten we had seen previously but the photography is so compelling that we were happy to watch it again.

------------------------------------

Thursday, 17 June-


Today I thought I'd buzz up to Harrisburg to renew my driver's license. It's time for a photo-renewal so I have to go in, though I can take up to 60 days to get that done. But with a nice-weather day here, why not take care of it?
I had recently taken Mom and Dad to the driver's license center so knew what to expect and where to go. It actually took me longer to get through the heavy traffic at the York Split on I-83 than it took them to get me a new license. I bet I wasn't there ten minutes. All you do is hand them the photo-card, sit down to have your picture taken, answer questions about organ donation and voter registration, check to be sure the card and photo looks right, and you're done.
I then rode over to the East Mall and bought two pairs of my favorite summer pants (ultra-lightweight zip-offs) at the Bass Pro. I looked around briefly at other gear but realized Bass Pro's prices are terrible. I guess they have to make up for lack of volume by making more on individual items but for me it just means being wary. If I don't know what the 'right' price is, I'm certainly not going to trust Bass Pro to do me any favors. The pants, on the other hand, are a bona-fide bargain. Where Columbia and North Face versions (which you can also get there) are in the $40-60 range, the World-Wide Sportsman brand is $20. If you want a narrow little belt and an extra back pocket, there's also a $40 version but the cheapos have served me very well. Some people complain about them being too light for winter wear but I've not noticed that at all.

----------------------------------

Wednesday, 16 June-

This morning we had a chimney sweep guy come by. I had put a flue-cap on many years ago and it has rusted badly and has been rust-staining the painted chimney blocks to the point where we need to re-do them. I had bought a stainless steel flue-cap some time ago but wasn't enthusiastic about trying to deal with the rusty mounting bolts of the old one from a high, precarious position.
Our guy today was Andrew and he was very good. He did have a bit of a battle with rusted bolts. He thought he was going to have to cut the cap off at one point but persisted with the WD-40 and managed to get the bolts (actually machine screws) backed out enough to work the cap off. He installed the new one with no trouble.
We talked for a few minutes about my options for repairing or replacing the clean-out door and about what we would want to do if we (or a subsequent owner) wanted to use the chimney again (we don't). That would mean a video inspection and then repair of any problems found. We did visually inspect using a mirror in the clean-out door and I noted that we have no creosote at all-- just some light blackening from the smoke.
Of course the clean-out door chose this time to break off it's hinges. After Andrew left I re-attached it by drilling and using self-tapping screws.
I spent a few hours cleaning off my desk and that evening went for my four-mile walk along the creek.
We then watched 'Whip It', a charming movie about (of all things) a young girl joining a roller derby team in Austin. Ellen Page played the 17-year-old geeky girl (“Babe Ruthless” on the “Hurl Scouts” team!!!!). The movie was directed by Drew Barrymore, her first. We LOVED this movie. It's completely unrealistic of course but very witty and well-written.

----------------------------------

Tuesday, 15 June-

(Note: Lost day! I can't remember what I did today. We were home and I know we had a rainy afternoon since I remember having to delay putting out the trash (Tuesdays are trash day) until the rain had stopped. But that's about it!)

**************** END OF POST *************

Medical appointments, 'And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself', F650GS first-service, wall-mount for TV, 'Firefly'

(posted from home)
(This post covers 7 – 14 June)

---------------------------------------

Monday, 14 June -

This morning we drove to Hershey's Mohler Senior Center to take our AARP driver course renewal. We took the last one three years ago and we needed to renew before Winter to keep our car insurance discount (and catch up on changes in driving laws!). We looked into taking the online course but when we saw the estimated time as six hours and this renewal course a live course for four hours, the choice was easy. Besides, how many times have you started an online course only to have something go wrong and lose your work?
We thought the course was very well done and we wrapped up at 1300. We had lunch at the nearby Fuddrucker's and then I had to take care of a problem. While looking for my driver's license to fill out my paperwork for the course, I realized I must have left it at the motorcycle shop when I picked up the loaner. I remember the tech using it for the loaner agreement. I called the shop and spoke with the service manager and he said he remembered having it but wasn't sure what he had done with it.
We drove the 40 miles to the shop only to learn that the manager had in the meantime remembered what he had done with my license-- he had put it in my motorcycle saddlebag! (Why hadn't I seen it??)
Back home the first thing I did was check the saddlebag and there it was-- under my bike's manual.
We spent the evening working on the web and watching National Geographic specials on cougar attacks on Vancouver Island and an Expedition Wild episode about Yellowstone grizzlies.

-------------------------------------

Sunday, 13 June-

This morning Labashi and I installed the Sanus wall-mount for the tv. We had a few minor problems but all in all it went well. Oddly, the provided selection of machine screws were each either too long or too short for our TV. And somehow our kit didn't have the right selection of fender-washers ; we had twice as many small washers (which we didn't need) and no medium washers (which we did need). Fortunately I had a selection of other washers we could use both as spacers to shorten the too-long machine screws and as washers to fit the mount assembly properly.
I bought the wider heavy-duty model and am very happy with it. This one has much more flexibility than the smaller model and is a lot stronger. The wall bracket is 30 inches long so I was a bit concerned we'd be able to see it behind the tv (from a side angle) but that's not the case. It provides good clearance from the wall to allow the cables to be connected without crushing them. The wall bracket is attached very firmly across two studs and it's capable of holding 130 pounds while our tv is only a little over 40 pounds.
Around lunch time Labashi drove to her parent's apartment and picked up Mom for a garden tour sponsored by the local garden club (while I re-connected the tv cables and tested everything).
Later that afternoon I took Mocha Joe to the apartment and we all went out to dinner. We had wanted to try Theo's but it was closed so we again went to Texas Roadhouse.
That evening Labashi and I watched 'Gia' with Angelina Jolie. It's the story of Gia Carangi, a late-Seventies, early-Eighties model who rose quickly and spectacularly but then burned out tragically at age 26. Angelina's performance is fantastic.

------------------------------------


Saturday, 12 June-

This weekend promises to be another extra-hot one. The temperatures are only in the high Eighties but the humidity is very high. My main goal today was to pick up the wall mount for the tv but I first hit the local Autozone for some high-temperature paint. I had painted the KLR's rusty exhaust header a week or so ago but the barbeque-grill paint I had used had burned off the header. It stayed on the heat-shield but not the header pipe. That paint was good for about 500 degrees. But the new paint is designed for exhaust headers and it withstands 2000 degrees.
Late in the afternoon, when the shade had covered our back patio, I wire-brushed and sanded the header pipe and hear-cover and gave them two coats of high-temp primer and two coats of high-temp color (flat black). They look great but I still have to go through the bake-it-on process, running the engine 10 minutes, letting it cool 20, then running it 20 and cool 20, then run it 30 and cool 20.

-----------------------------------

Friday, 11 June-

This morning I caught up the blog notes a bit, then unloaded 15 more bags of mulch for Labashi from Mocha Joe. So far she has used 48 three cu.ft bags and estimates she'll need at least 15 more. She is also busy planting additional trees in the flower beds, two Mugo pines and she's going to get another plant (I've not heard the name yet) this weekend. She has been spending hours on the web researching these and picking out just exactly what she wants. Good for her!
I rode the GS in to Best Buy to check out the wall-mounts for the TV. I liked the unit I had picked out from their web site but a sales guy pointed out another to consider. The first is smaller and bolts to the wall on one stud. That would be strong enough but it's limited to about three inches side-to-side movement (of the TV). The other bolts to two studs and allows for about eight inches of movement side-to-side (before the mount shows). The first would work for where we have the TV now but if we ever decided to re-arrange things or bought a larger TV, the second mount would be better.
I was planning to buy today but the larger mount is too big for my saddlebag and I don't have a cargo net in my bag. I rode over to nearby Action Motorsports and bought one but then thought better of the purchase. I'd better research the larger mount a bit more.
Labashi and I watched two more episodes of 'Firefly' that evening.

------------------------------------

Thursday, 10 June-

Today I had my eye appointment in Harrisburg. My vision has seemed stable for many years so I wasn't expecting a change. It turns out my vision has improved significantly! I also learned I have a small cataract in my right eye. I ordered my new glasses and will pick them up in two weeks.
I had ridden the loaner motorcycle to the eye appointment so I could ride on from there to pick up my F650GS at the BMW shop in Lititz. Everything checked out on the first-service appointment but it was expensive-- $180 for a two-hour service (including oil and filter charges). I'll have to decide whether I want to start alternating self-service with dealer-service appointments. I guess that will depend on how I feel the bike is doing as a service interval approaches.
We watched two episodes of 'Firefly' tonight. We like this odd little sci-fi/western series (!?!), particularly the production details. In the episode tonight ('Ariel'), the crew pretends to be an ambulance crew. They wheel two coffin-like body containers into the hospital and we almost-simultaneously shouted 'THULE!'. They were using the swoopy Thule skiing-equipment cargo boxes (model Atlantis 2100) as the body-bags in this series set in the year 2517! Cool!

-----------------------------------

Wednesday, 9 June-

It's rainy today so I'm spending the day on the web and working in the office. Labashi wants to place our TV higher so we placed some wooden blocks and a shelf to raise it to decide whether to do something permanent or not. With that decided I started looking online for wall mounts. We had thought we'd try making a shelf to sit atop the entertainment center but concluded the TV will look a lot better mounted on the wall. I used the stud-finder to determine where the studs sit behind the TV and therefore which mount to get. Now I need to talk to go play with the sample mounts at Best Buy.
I added minutes to Labashi's Tracfone today and once again got a good deal using a promo code. I've been picking the promo codes up from momsview.com. The process is a bit hit-and-miss in that it's tough to tell whether the suggested codes will work for your individual phone but I've always gotten some kind of bonus though sometimes I've had to try multiple codes. Today there were four codes to try and the first two had expired. But the third gave me 90 minutes free. I bought 60 at the regular price, took advantage of 60 more at half price and the code added a bonus 90 minutes. The base price is .33 a minute but the half-price deal and the bonus took the per-minute price to .15. That's not bad given it includes 90 days of service and the minutes don't expire. So when I'm adding minutes the phone costs $10 a month and when I'm just extending service time it's $6 a month. That's for each of our two phones and of course only works out for us because we use so few minutes per month. If I remember correctly, the break point for deciding whether to go with Tracfone or Net10 is 120 minutes a month. I'd guess we average under 10 minutes a month.

-----------------------------------

Tuesday, 8 June-

This morning I rode the GS up to Weber Vision to work on my eyeglasses problem. I had been buying my glasses from there since the mid-Seventies but they can no longer get the frames and my current frames are too far gone to use again. I had made calls to four other shops in the area and none could get the vintage frames. In fact I talked with someone at Weber who said it wasn't possible to get them. But when I found the frames online, I then talked to a Weber tech who said they could use frames I bought and mount the lenses using the demo lenses as a pattern. He gave me measurements for ordering from the factory. One of the measurements fell between two sizes, however, so the factory offered to send me both sizes if I'd return the one I didn't need. Good deal!
Today's mission, then, was to get the size right and also to confirm that they would indeed be able to handle the job. The tech did a very thorough job of reviewing everything and set me up for an appointment for the eye exam later this week to kick things off.
That afternoon I noticed the weather report calls for rain tomorrow and I have an appointment for the first oil-change on the F650GS in Lititz. I called to see if I could bring the bike over today for tomorrow's appointment and use the loaner bike until I could pick mine up Thursday. The loaner is apparently not used much so that was okayed.
I dropped off the bike and picked up the loaner. It's a 1990 Kawasaki Vulcan 500 with a stepped seat and mini-apehanger bars. Charlie said they used to have BMW's for use as loaners but after two of them were crashed and they were stuck with a very expensive repair bill on one, they switched to the Vulcan. What a smart choice for a loaner!! This bike is ugly and uncomfortable so nobody's going to go joy-riding on it-- at least not for long. And the insurance bill can't be much on such an old bike. Also, the insurance policy is a $1000-deductible one and the agreement I have to sign to use the bike lays the cost of any repairs on me. So from my perspective, it's also better to use this old bike. In any case, I'm glad to have the loaner so I don't have to run Labashi back and forth to Lititz to pick me up or drop me off.
That evening we watched about half of “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself”. We had a late start on this one so didn't finish it tonight. We had decided to get this one during our visit to Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, New Mexico earlier this year.

-----------------------------------

Monday, 7 June-

This morning I had an extra-long dental appointment to prepare for two crowns. I've been putting them off for a long time but now need to go ahead. One is a crown on a dental implant I had done several years ago and the other is a crown on a tooth I broke on our Oregon Trail trip last summer.
I had made arrangements to have the work done early this Spring but moved it when I realized in March that I could either go out to see the desert flowers or sit around waiting for my dental appointment. But at some point ya gotta pay the piper!
I spent the afternoon working in my office. I'm trying to get back in the habit of using the office rather than my living-room chair as my workplace. But I have quite a stack of paperwork to work down through to find my desktop.


***************** END OF POST ***********

Buick weatherstrip installations, 'Off the Map', 'Oops' with Labashi's car, 'Crazy Heart', fishing boat cleanup
(posted from home)
(This post covers 1 – 6 June, 2010)

--------------------------------

Sunday, 6 June-

This morning I drove up to the gas station and bought a fresh gallon of gas for the boat motor and filled my portable air tank. I started the boat motor and ran it for fifteen minutes or so (using a motor-flusher (aka 'earmuffs')). I was amazed to have it start immediately-- and on the first revolution of the starter! I aired up the tires on the sailboat, the fishing boat, Labashi's car, the wheelbarrow, and even the hose-cart. I then installed the remaining two weatherstrips on the Buick's back doors and helped Labashi's gardening project by wheel-barrowing bags of topsoil and mulch.
Around 1400 we had a bit of rain so decided to go visit Mom and Dad. We finally had good weather for sitting out on the balcony and watching the world go by while sipping a 'mostly-ice' (manhattan).
We then had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse (EXCELLENT baby-backs!).
Back home, Labashi worked on researching the wooly adelgid on one of our Canadian hemlocks and I finished up the blog post. We then watched the first episode of the new series 'Top Shot'.

---------------------------------

Saturday, 5 June-

Today I took on the dreaded task of cleaning up the fishing boat. I spent the entire day on it, removing everything and cleaning each individual item and wiping them down with an antifungal treatment. The anchor line was green with mossy growth so I treated it with a diluted-chlorox bath and then a good pressure spray. The anchors, their chains, the bilge pump, and the flares container were all slippery-slimy (though not yet green) as was the bow storage compartment. The rear compartment was even slimier since a small amount of oil had leaked from a spare oil bottle. I cleaned the batteries and all the stowed gear (and the gas tanks) and restowed it all. I drained the gas into my spare gas cans for use in my beat-up old Seventies mower. It won't care about the year-old gas but the boat motor's fuel injection is a lot more sensitive to the old gas. I also leveled the boat side-to-side to enable it to drain all the water rather than let a few inches lie in it after any rain.
With a storm threatening for late in the day today I stopped working on the boat by mid afternoon and got out the ladder. I cleared the rain gutters of their accumulation of pine needles and small branches. It's amazing how these little pine needles can clog things up.
That pretty much exhausted me for the day.

---------------------------------

Friday, 4 June -

Today I was expecting return phone calls on some business stuff and when they didn't come for awhile I was getting antsy. I spent the time going over the estimate to fix Labashi's car. I called up the estimator with a series of questions and that made me feel better about the estimate.
My expected calls came later in the day. Shortly afterward Labashi came home wanting to go out for dinner. We drove down to the Accomac Inn and had the outside porch to ourselves. We've not been to the Accomac for many years but recently found they have a bistro menu which better fits what we're looking for--- tastes, variety, and reasonable prices. We had a summer sangria and a watermelon-tequila soup then I had a Kobe beef burger and Labashi a shrimp and sausage dish. Wonderful good!
That evening we watched 'Crazy Heart' with Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal. We both liked it very much.

---------------------------------

Thursday, 3 June-

We had an 'oops' with Labashi's car the other day in the Home Depot parking lot. I took it in for an estimate today. I guessed it would take $1000 to fix but the estimate was $2400. I hadn't anticipated that to repair damage on the lower half of the side, the tech would have to remove the side glass but I understand that's the case. I guess it doesn't matter a lot in that I have a $500 deductible and whether it's a $1000 repair or a $2400 repair, I still have to pay $500.
That afternoon I chased a problem with my local bank. I then installed one of the weatherstrip assemblies on the driver's door of Dad's Buick. That went surprisingly well and it looks great, completely transforming the look. Where before the old weatherstrip called attention to rust damage (of the assembly itself) the new one looks clean and new and very sleek against the rich maroon color of the car. Good decision.
That evening we watched 'Off The Map', a nice little film about a family living 'off the grid' in rural New Mexico. Good one!


-------------------------------

Wednesday, 2 June-

Today Labashi headed to town for garden supplies and I worked on financial tasks. In the afternoon I rode the GS in to Starbucks to get a break from the numbers. I nearly made a mistake in parking the GS. The parking spot sloped downward from right to left quite a bit. I leaned the bike onto its kickstand and realized the lean was more than normal. But it wasn't until I returned that I realized the lean threw the weight of the bike well over to the side. At first I couldn't lift it, mostly because of the awkward position I was in astride the bike. With another effort I was barely able to stand the bike upright. If I hadn't made it I would have had to get off the bike and stand beside it to get it upright, then walk it backwards and turn the back end downhill and put the kickstand back down to mount the bike.
That evening I walked my four-mile creekside course and cleaned up three bags-worth of trash along the way.

-------------------------------

Tuesday, 1 June-

This morning I caught up the blog with its end-of-month post. I finished mowing the woods, finally with the okay from Labashi to mow down the remnants of her daffodils. While I was mowing our neighbor came over to talk about two fallen trees on our common property line. The trees had fallen in a recent windstorm. Fortunately for me, my neighbor heats with wood and enjoys working his chainsaw so all I had to do was okay him taking the full length of the trees for himself. Not a problem!
The weatherstrip assemblies for Dad's Buick arrived today as did two pairs of frames for my eyeglasses. I had to order the latter from the manufacturer since my optometrist can no longer get them. There was some question as to size so the manufacturer sent two sizes and I'll return the one I don't use.
That afternoon I walked my four-mile road-walk along the creek. My six-mile course is temporarily interrupted by bridge construction but since I've not been walking much lately, the four miler seemed plenty.

*********** END OF POST *************