Dec 5 - the inside job

Since it was raining and all my fair-weather sports were no fun, I painted. You'd think that painting a door and the trim around same wouldn't take very long, but a couple of hours easily slips by. I also finished up mounting the tail lights on the hitch rack which included soldering all the wires, using heat shrink tubing etc. The rack is now ready for travel. I tested out the lights using my battery charger, not wanting to bother attaching the rack to the car ... besides, it was raining, remember ?

It was cool, mid 50's, so even when it had stopped raining it took a couple of hours for the road to dry. It did eventually though and I went out on the Harley, meeting Sandy at the beach store at the foot of Flagler so that we could do some last minute Christmas shopping. It's not really last minute, but it seems like it. After I left there, I went up to Radio Shack and picked up two ring connectors -- vs spade connectors -- to attach the ground wires to the rack tail lights.

We ate in, tuna, rice and sauteed zucchini ... mmmm. It's interesting how word usage changes. When we were young, Mom fried things. Now it would be called sauteed. Fried, in today's lingo, means deep fried in batter, especially if you're in the southern U.S.

It's 43F out there right now -- cold, but warmer than 19F which is the temperature at the cottage. Today's predicted high is 68, going down to 58 overnight and up to 75 tomorrow -- I've elected to do my 200k ride tomorrow. I'll have to bring a rain jacket, by the looks of things, but hopefully the "few showers" won't hit me. The winds are going to be from the NNE, so I'll head north. I'll think about that over the course of today -- perhaps I should just go south anyway and work my way back against the wind. It's about time I did the New Smyrna Beach to Palm Shores Permanent for some variety.

Tomorrow night, Monday, Jeffrey, Sara and Emma arrive. The weather is looking pretty good for their week here, but the predictions change daily. At this point the coolest day is one with a high of 70F but most often the daily highs are in the mid to high 70's. Hopefully that will play out. Given that it's 30F in the Philly area right now, being here will be an improvement. We're hoping for more than an improvement though, would like to have it warm enough for all to enjoy some beach time. Perhaps we'll use that cooler day to hit Disney World. We'll have to check the close times that day -- I know that Sandy would like to pick a day with the light parade at the end of the day.

So that's pretty much it -- quiet day, not much to report. Today I'll go to Mass and then probably get out on the Harley later, not while it's 43F. I won't ride the Harley to Mass today !

I did go out in the car yesterday, stopping at North Causeway Marine to drop off pictures that Angelika had printed for Al. He wanted pictures of him driving the fork lift for his family. While I was there I picked up some hull cleaner and silicone spray. Before we go north for Christmas I'll clean some rust stains that are developing and rub down the stainless steel parts with silicone. Perhaps that will be a project for the day before we leave, and then I'll put the cover on.

One thing that we did not do yesterday was participate in the boat parade. Even though it was not raining, and in fact the sun came out just before sundown (figures, doesn't it?), it would have been a cool mid 50's to stand around and watch, let alone participate.

I'm searching for things to say ... I'll wrap this up !

Onward !