Dec 10 - good enough ?

I hate that phrase. The only time that I ever use it is when someone else is doing something for me because it's hard to use on your own project ... nothing is ever good enough !

I've now painted that bedroom wall 5 times. Primer, base coat, finish coat ... whoops not enough paint and color too light anyway ... second finish coat ... lots of paint, too dark; third finish coat ... not quite match with adjoining wall, so paint adjoining wall !

Sigh. Some of this was because there was leftover paint that we were using that was mis-labeled, very close but no cigar. As it is I have to stop now because I'm not happy with the corner drywall where the mirror was removed and the other adjoining wall that was supposedly the same color but wasn't ... quite ... but much closer ... good enough ? running out of time ???

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Ok, what's better -- watching paint dry or simply painting the adjoining wall ? I painted. It looks "ok". Is it good enough or am I just out of time ?

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Not much else happened yesterday. I got over to Advance Auto Parts to pickup a couple of quarts of motor oil. For the entire time that we've had the X5 it's gone through about 1 quart of oil every 1500-2000 miles. I asked a mechanic once about "burning oil" and he said that I wasn't actually burning oil in the sense of it getting by the piston rings, that it's a gasket that needs replacing or something like that -- regardless, the oil gets used !

For the last year, with the thermostat not working and the engine running cooler, oil consumption has been way down. I could drive from the cottage to Florida, 1500 miles, and not need to add oil. Now, with the temperature back up, I'm consuming oil again. I need to keep a quart handy for the trip north and then back south. We'll put on about 4,000+ miles over the next month.

We went to the SYC Christmas Ball last night, had a good time. As last year, Patti and Norm organized a table. As last year, it was the same crowd. Patti & Norm, Chick and ???, Bill and Susan, one other couple -- all interesting people. Chick is a fisherman, but he and his wife sat across the table from us so we couldn't talk. Sandy was to my right, then Bill then Susan, so we were in conversation with them. The lady to my left and her husband (I'm drawing a blank on names), were also "within reach" from a conversation standpoint. He had run marathons and cycles, but not huge distances.

Bill, to Sandy's right, owns an airplane and a motorcycle. Their house backs onto the New Smyrna airport. He parks his airplane in his garage ! There's a local flying group and they go out and fly in formation, up to 30 of them, for events. He flies at least once a week. I was asking him about filing a flight plan etc. -- only necessary if you are going to be flying in the clouds or at night. He used to fly a twin engine affair, now a single.

I asked him if his engine had ever failed him and he said yes, when flying in Indiana once his engine didn't actually stop but wouldn't allow him to maintain altitude. He was going to land in a corn field, corn being about 3 inches high, when he spotted a completely empty highway and landed there. He taxied to a pull off -- someone's house -- and fixed the engine, whatever was sticking (he's also his own mechanic). A state trooper held traffic and he took off again. He said that had he been in such-and-such State, they'd have made him truck the plane away, not allowing him to take off from the highway.

I'm guessing that Bill is 75 ... you're only as old and you think you are.

The band wound up at 10pm -- this is an old crowd after all -- and we left close to 10:30. I know, that's late for me. As usual we said that we had to get together in the new year ... but will we ? We're all pretty busy.

We did dance a bit -- yes me. I was getting tired of sitting, don't do that very well ! The last time that we'd danced was last year's Christmas Ball. Time flies. Last year we were introduced to Gene and Judy (next door) because we'd just purchased the Keely house but hadn't closed yet.

Today ... not sure. I don't know whether we'll be leaving tomorrow or Tuesday but not likely leaving at 6am. We have too much to do and a 6am start really makes it tough. Perhaps we'll leave mid-day tomorrow, stop there and then in the Erie area and then go through. I don't know.

In any event ... Onward !