Researching possible South Africa trip ; more work on Cburg house 2 ; visit with Labashi's brother
(posted from home)
(This post covers 18 – 31 May, 2011)
-----------------------
Tuesday, 31 May -
Today the temperature was 94 degrees and I had lawn work to do. I had a regular checkup appointment with the dentist and learned the two chips I've accumulated over the last few months will require two new caps.
I also made calls about immunizations for our proposed trip. If we were to get the entire set, they would cost us something like $1200 (yikes!!!) That kind of number tests our resolve. With the flights, vehicle rentals, park camping fees of up to $50 per person per night, etc, this is adding up quickly and is looking less and less possible. On the other hand, it's Africa!
That evening we watched 'Tsotsi', another South Africa story.
----------------------
Monday, 30 May -
Today we read through the response from the South African company on our enquiry. That led to a long research session on whether or not our credit cards' car-rental benefits could save us some money on collision-damage waiver insurance. After very frustrating long calls with Mastercard and Visa I learned that our cards' features don't apply to renting a pickup truck or any of the 4x4 vehicles or SUVs rented by the South African company (Land Rovers, LandCruisers, Fortuners, etc). So much for that!
That afternoon I rode the motorcycle to Rocky Ridge for a walk. This one took an hour and 47 minutes.
------------------------
Sunday, 29 May -
We spent the morning with Labashi's brother and his wife, then took them to brunch at the Accomac Inn. We had a great time with them and very long brunch there on the porch.
Our friends left for DC after brunch and we returned home. I then rode the motorcycle down to Rocky Ridge County Park and walked for 1:36.
------------------------
Saturday, 28 May -
Today we drove to Mechanicsburg to visit Labashi's parents and her oldest brother and his wife who had driven up from DC to visit. We went to supper at Theo's and then at home we watched 'Casino Jack' with Kevin Spacey.
--------------------------
Friday, 27 May-
This morning I sent off an enquiry to a South Africa 4x4 rental company (Bushlore) which features 4x4s with rooftop tents for 'self-drive safaris'. We then spent a few hours cleaning the house for visitors coming this weekend. I also finished up the air conditioner installations and, since I had the ladder out, cleaned our the rain-gutter jams.
That afternoon I walked at Pinchot for an 75 minutes. It's the Memorial Day weekend and the campground was rapidly filling up. That evening we watched the first disk of Entourage's last season available on disk.
--------------------------
Thursday, 26 May-
This morning I rode the F650GS up to Harrisburg to pick up my replacement glasses. I've been very disappointed in my latest lenses and had them replaced on warranty. We'll see how the new ones do. These don't have the anti-reflective coating and I'm hoping they'll be easier to clean.
On the way home I stopped at Pinchot State Park to walk for an hour. It was a very hot and humid day so an hour was plenty.
Back home we decided it's time to install the air conditioners. We normally wait until at least the Fourth of July to install our two airconditioners (and most years install only one of them) but we have very hot weather (around 95 degrees) coming soon so why wait?
That evening we watched 'Red Dust' with Hillary Swank, a South Africa movie.... and a good one!
--------------------------
Wednesday, 25 May-
Home-- I spent the morning catching up my work log, a handwritten log book I keep of the work we've done on the houses. That afternoon I took the Concours in to Starbucks and then went to Best Buy to look for a better Netflix Instant alternative. I looked at Roku and Sony and Logitech solutions and now need to do some research on the web.
---------------------------
Tuesday, 24 May -
Today I finished up the vent installations, then fixed two 4x4-sized holes in the block foundation using hydraulic cement and chunks of old concrete. These holes had apparently been used in construction of the front porch but I don't quite understand how. Maypo had demolished the porch and perhaps had removed 4x4s from the holes in that process. I used the hydraulic cement left over from our patching work in the basement. I also again planed doors. I'm amazed how they've expanded in the warm, humid weather.
That afternoon Labashi caulked the bathtub and surround and I mounted the tub hardware so we can begin using it for our showers. We've been taking showers at Maypo's house and that's disruptive so we really should be taking advantage of this alternative.
Late in the day we drove home.
----------------------------
Monday, 23 May-
This morning I covered the front and rear door brickmold trim with aluminum cladding and finished replacing the last soffit panel and cutouts for the vents. We also painted the fascia and Labashi caulked the soffit joints. We had supper at Quiznos, then watched two movies in the van-- 'Black Swan' and 'How Do You Know'. 'Black Swan' was just okay and 'How Do You Know' was awful--- surely a contender for a Razzie.
------------------------------
Sunday, 22 May -
We continued the outside work on the Chambersburg house's soffit panels. We installed nice little louvered-and-screen aluminum vents in the panels. I also struggled with a light fixture above the back door for WAY too long. The electrical box had been installed poorly and stuck down a good half-inch below the soffit. That was because the back of the box interfered with a rafter. I found an old-construction shallow-depth box at Lowes which took care of that problem but then had extended difficulties mounting the motion-detector floodlight fixture to it. The 'universal mount' was a miserable piece of engineering which defied assembly with the non-standard design of the fixture. I'm guessing the fixture had originally had a custom mount which would have been much easier. Eventually I prevailed but the fifteen-minute job took me more than two hours.
We worked late then drove out to Ciao Bella near Caledonia for supper.
-------------------------------
Saturday, 21 May -
Labashi and I drove to Chambersburg today and resumed work on House 2. Maypo and I spent the day replacing soffit panels and Labashi painted them. We also planed the badly-weathered front door sill and Labashi then painted it. That evening Maypo joined us for supper at Norland Pub.
--------------------------------
Friday, 20 May -
We finally had a bit of a break with the rains but I had to mow wet grass just to be able to leave for a few days and not return to an impossible-to-mow lawn! We also continued our web research of the South Africa trip. I've also ordered a series of Netflix films about South Africa.
-------------------------------
Thursday, 19 May-
We still have daily rains at this point and the grass is going crazy! We spent the day on the web looking at different aspects of the possible South Africa trip.
-------------------------------
Wednesday, 18 May-
Today is yet another rainy day here at home. I spent most of the day on the web, working on our possible South Africa trip. We're looking for what amounts to renting a vehicle something like Mocha Joe.
************ END OF POST ***********
(posted from home)
(This post covers 18 – 31 May, 2011)
-----------------------
Tuesday, 31 May -
Today the temperature was 94 degrees and I had lawn work to do. I had a regular checkup appointment with the dentist and learned the two chips I've accumulated over the last few months will require two new caps.
I also made calls about immunizations for our proposed trip. If we were to get the entire set, they would cost us something like $1200 (yikes!!!) That kind of number tests our resolve. With the flights, vehicle rentals, park camping fees of up to $50 per person per night, etc, this is adding up quickly and is looking less and less possible. On the other hand, it's Africa!
That evening we watched 'Tsotsi', another South Africa story.
----------------------
Monday, 30 May -
Today we read through the response from the South African company on our enquiry. That led to a long research session on whether or not our credit cards' car-rental benefits could save us some money on collision-damage waiver insurance. After very frustrating long calls with Mastercard and Visa I learned that our cards' features don't apply to renting a pickup truck or any of the 4x4 vehicles or SUVs rented by the South African company (Land Rovers, LandCruisers, Fortuners, etc). So much for that!
That afternoon I rode the motorcycle to Rocky Ridge for a walk. This one took an hour and 47 minutes.
------------------------
Sunday, 29 May -
We spent the morning with Labashi's brother and his wife, then took them to brunch at the Accomac Inn. We had a great time with them and very long brunch there on the porch.
Our friends left for DC after brunch and we returned home. I then rode the motorcycle down to Rocky Ridge County Park and walked for 1:36.
------------------------
Saturday, 28 May -
Today we drove to Mechanicsburg to visit Labashi's parents and her oldest brother and his wife who had driven up from DC to visit. We went to supper at Theo's and then at home we watched 'Casino Jack' with Kevin Spacey.
--------------------------
Friday, 27 May-
This morning I sent off an enquiry to a South Africa 4x4 rental company (Bushlore) which features 4x4s with rooftop tents for 'self-drive safaris'. We then spent a few hours cleaning the house for visitors coming this weekend. I also finished up the air conditioner installations and, since I had the ladder out, cleaned our the rain-gutter jams.
That afternoon I walked at Pinchot for an 75 minutes. It's the Memorial Day weekend and the campground was rapidly filling up. That evening we watched the first disk of Entourage's last season available on disk.
--------------------------
Thursday, 26 May-
This morning I rode the F650GS up to Harrisburg to pick up my replacement glasses. I've been very disappointed in my latest lenses and had them replaced on warranty. We'll see how the new ones do. These don't have the anti-reflective coating and I'm hoping they'll be easier to clean.
On the way home I stopped at Pinchot State Park to walk for an hour. It was a very hot and humid day so an hour was plenty.
Back home we decided it's time to install the air conditioners. We normally wait until at least the Fourth of July to install our two airconditioners (and most years install only one of them) but we have very hot weather (around 95 degrees) coming soon so why wait?
That evening we watched 'Red Dust' with Hillary Swank, a South Africa movie.... and a good one!
--------------------------
Wednesday, 25 May-
Home-- I spent the morning catching up my work log, a handwritten log book I keep of the work we've done on the houses. That afternoon I took the Concours in to Starbucks and then went to Best Buy to look for a better Netflix Instant alternative. I looked at Roku and Sony and Logitech solutions and now need to do some research on the web.
---------------------------
Tuesday, 24 May -
Today I finished up the vent installations, then fixed two 4x4-sized holes in the block foundation using hydraulic cement and chunks of old concrete. These holes had apparently been used in construction of the front porch but I don't quite understand how. Maypo had demolished the porch and perhaps had removed 4x4s from the holes in that process. I used the hydraulic cement left over from our patching work in the basement. I also again planed doors. I'm amazed how they've expanded in the warm, humid weather.
That afternoon Labashi caulked the bathtub and surround and I mounted the tub hardware so we can begin using it for our showers. We've been taking showers at Maypo's house and that's disruptive so we really should be taking advantage of this alternative.
Late in the day we drove home.
----------------------------
Monday, 23 May-
This morning I covered the front and rear door brickmold trim with aluminum cladding and finished replacing the last soffit panel and cutouts for the vents. We also painted the fascia and Labashi caulked the soffit joints. We had supper at Quiznos, then watched two movies in the van-- 'Black Swan' and 'How Do You Know'. 'Black Swan' was just okay and 'How Do You Know' was awful--- surely a contender for a Razzie.
------------------------------
Sunday, 22 May -
We continued the outside work on the Chambersburg house's soffit panels. We installed nice little louvered-and-screen aluminum vents in the panels. I also struggled with a light fixture above the back door for WAY too long. The electrical box had been installed poorly and stuck down a good half-inch below the soffit. That was because the back of the box interfered with a rafter. I found an old-construction shallow-depth box at Lowes which took care of that problem but then had extended difficulties mounting the motion-detector floodlight fixture to it. The 'universal mount' was a miserable piece of engineering which defied assembly with the non-standard design of the fixture. I'm guessing the fixture had originally had a custom mount which would have been much easier. Eventually I prevailed but the fifteen-minute job took me more than two hours.
We worked late then drove out to Ciao Bella near Caledonia for supper.
-------------------------------
Saturday, 21 May -
Labashi and I drove to Chambersburg today and resumed work on House 2. Maypo and I spent the day replacing soffit panels and Labashi painted them. We also planed the badly-weathered front door sill and Labashi then painted it. That evening Maypo joined us for supper at Norland Pub.
--------------------------------
Friday, 20 May -
We finally had a bit of a break with the rains but I had to mow wet grass just to be able to leave for a few days and not return to an impossible-to-mow lawn! We also continued our web research of the South Africa trip. I've also ordered a series of Netflix films about South Africa.
-------------------------------
Thursday, 19 May-
We still have daily rains at this point and the grass is going crazy! We spent the day on the web looking at different aspects of the possible South Africa trip.
-------------------------------
Wednesday, 18 May-
Today is yet another rainy day here at home. I spent most of the day on the web, working on our possible South Africa trip. We're looking for what amounts to renting a vehicle something like Mocha Joe.
************ END OF POST ***********
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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