Sep 15 - Still no rain

When we headed down to Florida it looked like we were foolish (of course that could still prove to be true / knock on wood) -- with Hanna, Ike, perhaps Josephine all taking aim. As it stands we have not had rain since we've arrived, winds have been mild and it's been sunny or mostly sunny every day. It's been hot, yes, but you'd expect that in Florida in mid-September.

Southern Ontario, on the other hand, has been deluged by rain. The cottage has gotten its share too and now temperatures are down in the single digits and teens, Fahrenheit. That's quite pleasant, typical Fall weather, but so is having summer down here since we missed out on summer this year with all the cool and wet.

I've probably jinxed us with the weather commentary.

Yesterday I went for a bike ride relatively early -- 7:30. The sun was not quite up yet and it was 75F. By the time that I got back it was 86F. The winds were from the WSW so I headed down to Merritt Island again, turning around by the Kennedy Space Center which is at mile 34, giving me 68 or 68.5 on the day, same as the other day. Another 2 or 3 miles and I'd be at the visitors' center where I can fill up my water bottles but I was worried that I would not be back by noon ... I need not have worried ... more on that later.

Since the first part of my ride was earlier and cooler I did not get as dehydrated as two days earlier. That might be partly due to getting used to the heat as well.

I did see two things from a wildlife standpoint that were new -- the tail end of a large snake as it went off the road into the grass. I have no idea what it was -- probably only 3 feet long. At the corner where I turn onto Merritt Island there appeared to be scattered small stones about 1/4" to 1/2" across as if a truck had disturbed some gravel. At least that was my first impression until I realized that some of the "stones" were hopping -- frogs ! There were hundreds of them right at the corner and then more, but thinning, for the next 100 yards. I never stopped to look at them closely, intending to do that on my return but by then there were none left -- except some squashed ones and I did not check those out.

I got back a little after 11:30, had my lunch and waited for my delivery. In the meantime I did some organizing in the garage, broke down boxes for recycling later in the week and sorted through bike parts and tools to set aside those that would go back north. I also changed out my Speedplay Frog (mountain bike) pedals for my Speedplay road pedals. I'll ride those tomorrow and hopefully won't suffer any muscle pulls from the slightly different setup. I used the road pedals for years, switching to the mountain pedals this past Spring in advance of the Tour de Superior. It's time to switch back. I will probably bring the mountain pedals and shoes up north when we return ... and then bring them back in November.

The Fedex man called about 2:45 to say that he would be here in 15 minutes and asked the best way to get here ... with his 18 wheeler ! Well, I was not sure if he'd be able to make the corner at U.S.1 and SR 44 but long story short, he found a way. At the very front of this huge truck was my box, big by my standards but not in the cavernous space of a huge truck. There was only one other small package in the trailer -- it looked kind of silly.

Off the truck and into the garage and I played with the dehumidifier for the next couple of hours, getting it operational and draining out of the garage, just to ensure that it worked. It is huge at 23"x24"x23", slightly larger in the box. Now that I think about it, I don't think that it will fit through the basement door ... grrr ... so that means taking it down the spiral stairs to the basement. That would not be a big deal, if it didn't weigh 100 lbs. The box has good hand-holds and is quite sturdy so we'll manage somehow.

It does work and it's almost silent other than the noise from the airflow. You cannot even hear the compressor. It is quite the unit, having all the electronics to open and close dampers for synchronization of operation for integration with the home heating & A/C system as well as drawing in outside air. I won't be using those features at first, intending to locate the unit inside my utility room with vents to the basement ... but in the future I might want to integrate it with the furnace for whole-house dehumidification. It should be a lot quieter than the little Maytag unit and much more efficient. I also might want to pick up the remote control unit at some point so that the humidity sensing is taking place other than at the inlet, ensuring that the entire basement is at a low humidity.

The Fedex guy asked if I could meet him somewhere if he was not able to get here, when I said "no, it's not a business address" -- but that was not going to work for me since Sandy was off with the X5. She did her planned run to Bed, Bath & Beyond etc. in Daytona as well as returning a corked bottle of white wine that we'd bought two days earlier. She got back a little after 5pm.

Since we had not picked up fish in advance of yesterday (the fish store is closed on Mondays) she tried a new recipe -- pistachio chicken -- which was quite good, along with warmed-over white rice.

As we were coming into town from up north I commented that life would sure be different down here if they ever closed our fish store -- that turned out to be partly prophetic because Sandy echoed those comments to the girl in the store (who welcomed her back) and then found out that the owner had passed away while we were gone ! However, there is a new owner and the same staff -- and the same good fish, plus they are now open on Sundays. They're still closed Mondays but one more day open is better. We would always buy for Sunday on Saturday anyway and make Monday our meat day. It's a booming business with people coming from miles around. We are very dependent on this store and we didn't even know that it was here when we bought this place.

I have not been able to sort out the EZPASS situation because there is a transponder in Sandy's car up north from which I need the tag number to determine which passes we have in hand and which we do not. I guess that will wait for a couple of weeks.

Speaking of up north, I talked to Bonnie yesterday and found out that Scott from the Whippoorwill Lodge did pick up the 65hp Merc from the garage and has it at Clapperton's garage to check it out. I don't know yet whether it's working or not. No doubt he will want to negotiate the price down if he has to do any work on it before it works ... Bonnie said something about a clutch problem ... oh well.

We have no plans for today -- Sandy will likely take Abby over to the dog beach so that she gets a run. I have a couple of things to pick up at Home Depot -- a couple of plumbing fittings that I will need for the installation of the dehumidifier and I want to see if I can get the white terry cloth rags that I like to have for my workroom. They don't seem to be available up north.

That's it for now ...