Nov 25 - where to start ?

I have a long list. Yes, a long list. There's a long list of things that I didn't do, perhaps should have done, yesterday.

I didn't do any more deck staining, nor did I do any painting inside. I did not go for a bike ride, or a boat ride. I didn't play golf -- oh wait, I'm not a golfer :).

What did I do ? Well, I got out the Christmas lights and for most of the day they were strung back and forth on the deck by the house and down the decking to the dock. I went to Home Depot to get some screw-eyes and for mini sprinkler parts and started working on the garden sprinkler, opting to do that instead of finishing the project that I'd started with the lights.

The sprinklers took a while. Once I figured out the spacing that I wanted I ran into the deck running between the two gardens. That's a ground-level deck ... so I removed a board ... found that it's on a concrete walkway ... rats. I had to burrow under the concrete with the sprinkler line -- running water helps that -- and then was able to continue. All in all I probably spent 3-4 hours working on the silly sprinklers.

I'm not finished. I think that I'm going to either eliminate or replace a large head that runs off the same circuit and sprays half of its water on the deck and pavers. It doesn't appear to be adjustable. The heads are only a couple of $ each ... the bigger problem is just digging around them to do the swap.

I then got the Christmas lights up, running up and down the deck-to-dock handrails and around the boat-covering roof. They are pretty. We have not gone over to the SYC Tiki yet to see them from that perspective ... perhaps tonight.

Next up, go over to visit Riley, with Sandy in attendance this time. Riley gave her the full tour and we sat and chatted for a while. Their house is really looking good.

We are so lucky that when we were first buying down here we couldn't afford, or didn't want to spend that kind of money, on a place right on the ocean. The effects of the salt are terrible. Everything is constantly bathed in salt. Riley put in a new A/C unit, on the back-side / road-side of the house, out of the direct salty wind. It's already rusting. His truck is covered even though it's parked at the back. Dolly cannot grow anything -- and she's a gardener. She used to spend a couple of hours per day tending gardens here at Keely. Yes, the roar of the ocean is great ... but perhaps you'd get tired of the constant wind, the constant roar, the constant dampness ?

The maintenance costs would wear out me and my bank account !

Speaking of salt, I stopped at the Saxon house and dumped a bag of salt in the water softener. I'd planned on doing that before we turned it over and since they had given me permission to go in for the dryer, I did this deed. The new occupants are still in Louisiana for Thanksgiving.

Tuna looked good at the fish store, looked good on the counter and tasted excellent along with sauteed zucchini and rice. I see that George had steak for dinner too, just that his was off the hoof and mine was off the ... fin ?

I did some Christmas shopping yesterday, online of course. I had to do my part on Black Friday to help the economy. I did not use PayPal, even though that was an option. I did exchange emails with PayPal, in fact two emails, with their customer service people over a recent e-blast from them.

It seems that they're going to hold PayPal deposited funds from eBay buyers for 21 days on my account (and probably thousands of others) due to (I'm guessing) limited selling activity. Of course their real reason is that they can hold those funds and no pay interest. My feedback has always been 100% but my selling activity has been sporadic. They have this laundry list of reasons that they keep quoting in cut-and-paste responses but it's BS. They keep saying that their actions will increase my revenue ?!?! not bothering to read my emails that I'm not a business. One rep actually phoned here and left a message. I'm glad that I missed the call; I might have blown a gasket !

Speaking of gaskets, the X5 has been behaving itself, coolant staying at "full". That's very good news. The next time that I go into Orlando I'll take the X5, making sure that the tires (i.e. balancing), wheel bearing (i.e. noise), and temp (i.e. coolant level) are all ready for prime time, 4000 miles of to/from cottage and sundry trips in between.

I watched another episode of Warehouse 13; we watched another episode of The X-Files as well as Season 1, Episode 1 of Law and Order. All 14 years of L&O are on Netflix. Can we possibly see them all before they take it down ? I'm not sure !

Today ? Well, there will again be a long list of things that I won't be doing ... but high on my to-do list is going for a bike ride. I've had enough of a break !

Onward !