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 *************
(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.
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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.
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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!)
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posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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