Feb 12 - what goes around ...

... repeats itself. I looked back at my post from the Everglades 200k last year and guess what, I was doing drywall work on the closet in the Saxon house. Sheesh.

After getting back from Mass (yes, today and last year too !), I started sanding. That went well -- only found a couple of places where I did a little touch skim that dried in an hour -- and I then started work on the light fixture.

Sandy had picked up a fixture so I had a target. The old fixture was centered in the room, since the mirror took all of that wall. The new fixture was going to be centered over the vanity.

Well, a number of things went wrong. First off, I expected that since Riley had put up those big mirrors, that there was an electrical box over the vanity ... wrong. I assumed that the wire going to the center and popping out into the fluorescent fixture came across the wall ... wrong, it comes down the stud from the ceiling nside. I expected the fixture to be fastened to the wall and have to plug, at most, a couple of extra screw holes ... wrong.

The fixture was glued and screwed. It left large holes in the drywall getting it down. I had to drill a hole in the stud and push the wire through, adding a junction box off-center that will be hidden by the light fixture. From there, a new wire led to the center box on which I'd mount the light.

That went sort-of well. I did get it installed. The bad news is that this LED fixture throws great mood lighting but doesn't light the room. Great. Down that came. Sandy has to do some more searching !

I hung a light pigtail so that I'd be able to work and taped and put mud over the holes left by the old fixture. Although that will require more work, I went ahead and brushed primer on all the areas of wall upon which I'd worked. Having removed those two cabinet spaces and covered large holes in the side wall and along the baseboard, that was a fair amount of painting. In retrospect I could have used the roller ... but I'll do that in one overall coat later.

I'm at a standstill now, mud drying, no fixture, no paint, no mirror. Once I can paint, the toilet will get reinstalled. I can then get rid of the bucket into which the hose drips since the valve doesn't quite, no not quite, shut off.

We had ice on the fountain this morning. I hope that I don't see that again this year but probably will tonight.

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More ice on the fountain. It was 29F this morning. I wimped out and didn't go to the gym, not wanting to brave the cold. How quickly we Canadians get soft ! I did go out to the dock and run the water until it got warm (air vs ground temp) to forestall any pipes freezing.

It was 63F in the house, since the heat was off for the night. It's taken forever for the furnace to get the main floor up to living temperature, since the heat comes out at the ceiling vents ... great for cooling, not-so-great for heating !

Thank goodness that we don't have guests right now. It was even colder in the "guest wing". It doesn't even have heat, since when Riley replaced the heat pump, he simply put in an A/C unit, figuring that heat rises. Well, it does rise but doesn't travel laterally. It will warm up in there over the course of the day and hopefully that's as low as we'll see the outside temperature this year. I said that in January too ... hmmm.

Visitor plans are firming up so it's time to make our own plans to get to the west coast and visit Jason/Lo & Nancy/Ron. In this case "west coast" is that of Florida, not Arlene's west coast.

I did some basic bicycle maintenance yesterday, cleaning off the Lynskey from the 200k ride. I have to wash the car, since it's got mud on it from the truck stop parking lot.

I also did that mud work in the bathroom and can probably finish that off today, with some sanding either late today or early tomorrow. Sandy is going to finish washing the walls, since there's a little section that hasn't been completed yet. By tomorrow sometime I should be able to do an all-over primer coat. Then, assuming that Sandy has picked out and picked up, paint for the walls, I can move forward. I really want to get that toilet back in service.

New Smyrna Glass will cut down the large mirror for us @ $10. I'm going to frame it, either on the wall or set it up for hanging ... likely the latter. To that end, I need to pick up some trim and of course I need to pick up some baseboard too.

I will likely NOT go for a bike ride today, although it would probably warm up enough as the day wears on. I'll check out that situation but at this point, thinking not. I've got the 300k coming up on Saturday after which I get a break from scheduled rides until March 10th.

I submitted my application for my 3rd R12 today ... the R12 being awarded for 12 continuous months of riding at least one 200k which can be a Permanent in the U.S. or a brevet in other countries. My continuous period started in Feb 3 years ago, so this one also started in Feb 2011, running through Jan 2012. Nine months of the year were already in the RUSA website since those rides took place in the U.S. but I had to send three months via email scans of the brevet cards -- July (Toronto-Ottawa-Toronto 1000k), August (Paris-Brest-Paris) and September (Markham Woodville 200k).

I think that's it ...

Onward !