Mar 24 - man about the house

Went to Mass, feeling naked without my watch but I don't think that anyone else noticed.  What do I need a watch for anyway ?  I'm retired !  Pondering this, I was determined to find a solution anyway.

How do I describe where the pin broke ... it's in the part that flips up inside when it's latched ... once home, I put it into the vice, somewhat gently, and using a sharpened nail and hammer ... gently ... I got both sides of the broken pin out of the "fork".  Then I found a needle, turned out to be a tapestry needle (unopened package, Sandy doesn't do tapestries !), that was "just" the right size to press in with some friction.  I then broke the needle off at both ends.

Voila !  Bingo !  I now have a working watch band again with a stainless steel pin (needle). 

In the meantime, I exchanged emails with the place in China and am going ahead with the alternating polished/brushed band.  They don't have the other any more.  I'm sure that I could get a band re-assembled from the combination of both, but I'll keep that band in reserve until this one breaks again.  Once I go through both bands, it's time for a new watch !

Believe it or not, that was the major event for the day.  We got some rain and thunder-dunder, so I didn't go biking.  Abby and I got a little wet as we went for a walk. 

I cut down the rest of the bananas closest to the dock; they looked silly with only a few spindly ones standing.  They'll grow fast enough.

I exercised my shoulder ... not getting any better.  I reached out to pull at a vine and had some excruciating pain.  It's like I'm going to pull my shoulder out of its socket.  I'm calling the Dr today to get an MRI.   I need to know what's going on in there.

Sandy went to BB&B, her favorite store, armed with about 500 coupons from Angelika.  I think that she's got enough coupons to buy the store now, perhaps the entire chain.  She came back with "stuff", including a Sodastream.  Now, of course, we'll need a second Sodastream. 

We had shrimp for dinner, our normal Saturday or Sunday fare.  That will last about six weeks and then we'll go north and not have it for months.

I did a bunch of stuff on the computer, pinging volunteers for their t-shirt sizes and exchanging a million emails.  That was quite fruitful as it got some responses as to who was actually going to volunteer for the Granite Anvil.  It looks like we're doing quite well on that score.

Today ... hope to ride.  Tomorrow ... the gang arrives.

Stef & Aaron have been looking at cars and houses, thinking ahead to July when their Oakville house closes.  They are looking in the Barrie area, perhaps south and east of that a little in Stroud.  Their latest test-drive was a VW Golf TD. 

That's about it ... Onward !