Nov 12 - catching up

The good news and the bad news ...

Sandy called Jeff this morning, returning his call from earlier in the week. Well, he told her that he was taking his entire crew off next week .... great .... that's the week that we expected him to do our Master Bath ! So why, oh why, did he come in this week and remove the floor tiles and toilet ?

Ok, we can live with the delay but we want to use the bathroom in the meantime -- so I called him back and asked him if he'd be finished before Thanksgiving, and he couldn't commit to that since there would only be three working days. Ok, then give me a small piece of carpet and I'll reinstall the toilet, no big deal, life moves on. He called back a while later to say that his brother-in-law Ritchie -- who is the one that does the tiling -- is going to stay and work on this project. Not necessary I told him when he dropped by later in the afternoon, but in the meantime he'd convinced himself that he needed to do things this way anyway because they have a big immovable project the first week of December that requires Ritchie so they'd better get this underway.

Anyway ... in the meantime, I started removing the existing tile & wall around the bathtub. On the outside wall I found a lot of termite "work" but it didn't look like a work in progress, i.e. it looked like it was old news. I called the pest control people, since we have a contract with them, so that they'd come over later in the day and double check. Sure enough, when their guy came late afternoon he confirmed that there was no current activity. That was not a surprise since the outside had been treated with Termidor 1.5 years ago, which is supposed to last 10 years. p.s. talk about chemical exposure -- by law the soil has to be treated with Termidor before a house is built. Don't grow any vegetables close to the house !

In the meantime (there's lots of in the meantime here) Ritchie came back and removed the tub; gave me some additional instructions on what he wanted done vis-a-vis additional studwork in the wall so that he'd have something substantial to which he could screw his cement board, etc. etc. Since I had agreed with Jeff that I would do anything that I could do to expedite the work, I dragged out the miter saw, used some of the leftover 2x4's that I had from the other work and added three studs screwed to the damaged ones from termites, cleaned up the rest of the rip-out work, and straightened out the cuts in the existing drywall to make things easier for Ritchie etc.

In the meantime, the garbage man came and took away all the mess -- what a great deal to do this on the morning of garbage day ! I had two partly filled garbage cans and a half dozen sections of drywall & tiles max 3'x3' in size.

When Jeff came in the afternoon, he gave me the schedule for next week -- Richie on Monday to build the bench and entry lip; plumber on Tuesday to do the floor pan & plumbing rough-in; Richie back on Wednesday => Friday to do put up cement board, tiling etc. I'll work with his schedule vis-a-vis removing the existing vanity and doing other work.

In the meantime (I told you that there was a lot of this) I decided to test the furnace. I had not done so back when since it was hot outside but figured that this was a good time since it's below 70F outside today. I cranked up the thermostat and ... nothing. Rats. At this point I could have called the installer but curiosity got the better of me ...

I moved the shelves to take the front off the furnace, cranked up the thermostat again and watched while the flu fan started, the igniter lit up; then everything shut down. I got out the manuals, did my thing again, read the flashing codes, looked them up in the manual, found that there was a small electronic switch inside the furnace that turns off the gas valve. Great. "On" with the switch; Off with the breaker; pause for 10 minutes; Off with the heat at the thermostat; On with the breaker; On with the heat at the thermostat; on went the fan; on went the igniter; on went the burner. Success ! Why didn't the installer test the furnace ? One will never know since I'm not going to call him to complain. It's not worth the effort. He's a good guy, according to Vic and based on my interaction with him, but as he said when he was over looking at the cooling problem, "we're still learning about these new models" ... perhaps I should get a job with him ?

We're going over to the SYC for dinner tonight. It's one of their advertised functions that Patti and Norm will be attending, so what the heck.

In the meantime ... I pumped up the air in my tires on the Lynskey (light bike) and marveled again at how light it is. Tomorrow's temperature is supposed to go up to 74F so I'll be riding. Sandy has a followup appointment at the kidney stone center in Orlando and will also be seeing the granite people (and the Whole Foods people ...). What's happening with the marble that we brought down ? the color doesn't work. It's similar but with a lot more yellow than the tiles. It doesn't work. The second choice for the bench in the shower is the granite that will be the vanity top, if there is enough in the remnant since it's not a whole slab. The third choice, which I expect will be the final decision, is to simply tile the bench.

I've now moved that "rock" that originated in Portugal, made its way to North Bay when we were kids, from the cottage to St. Catharines (I loaded it for my Dad), from St. Catharines to the cottage and thence to NSB. Will I continue to move this rock ? Perhaps I should send it to Arlene ... perhaps she could take it back with her when she visits in February ... perhaps ... rock of ages ?

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Other stuff was dealt with today (in the meantime) -- call to AT&T re canceled cell phones, call to insurance agent re house insurance, organized bills etc. electronically ... all in all, a little bit old, a little bit new ... like most of life.

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It's morning again. At 52F outside at this point it's almost like the afternoon up north.

We had fun at the Old Men and the Sea last night at the SYC. I was getting fidgety though after 1.5 hours of presentation by the organizer going back into the history of the thing. There was a good crowd out, lots of old men :). Sitting in front of us though were a young couple (didn't talk to them) who appeared to be in their 30's -- quite young for this group -- who'd recently sailed around the world. Yes, that's as in planet earth. Now that's what I call sailing. The present organizer (forget his name) of the Old Men and the Sea got quite emotional at times as he went through the history listing members, many of whom are now deceased -- don't forget that the SYC has been around since the 20's -- making the point that they'd made too many trips to discard ashes. Anyway, it was interesting.

Norm Himes participates in this. There are several boat owners who sail every Wednesday and all you have to do is show up and crew. There is no test of skills. You learn on the job. It's pretty well an all day affair as they sail or motor out Ponce Inlet and then sail a variety of GPS courses out in the ocean. They go around named islands (GPS waypoints) and then back in late afternoon. They race once per month and then tally the results at the end of the year.

These sailboats are mostly live-aboards, 30-40 feet, not exactly racing vessels, and of course they are all different. It's all good fun ... they may establish handicaps depending on the boat, I don't know. That would certainly make it more fair, but since it's all in fun, who cares ? The only objective is having a good time and they seem to do that.

It's 6:38 a.m.. Sandy just got up because she has to leave around 7:30 for Orlando. If I was making her leave at this time she'd give me a hard time, but she willingly switched to an earlier appointment for the doctor's convenience ... hmmm.

One of the items that she got in the mail (among all the bills for our part of the kidney stone work) was an analysis of her kidney stone -- calcium oxalate. She has to cut down or eliminate some foods -- tea, green beans !? ... many other things ... or she might have to go through this again. The most important thing though is drinking a lot of water. That is going to be the hardest thing for her.

I cannot think of anything else ...

Onward !