Apr 12 - busy busy

... or so it seems !

1) I finished up the taxes and mailed them off, last year's and the 1st quarter installment.  That hurt.

2) I exchanged emails with Garmin (I'm quite impressed by them, by the way) and talked to them live and my "old" 705 is on its way to them for refurb (actually for a fixed fee of $110 they replace it with a refurb unit).

3) I packed up the handlebars and stem to return to Alex

4) Using my UPS account (quite handy), I setup the shipments, printed the labels and then dropped them at the UPS Store.

5) While at that strip mall I dropped into Radio Shack, expecting to be able to pick up the small spade connectors for my bike headlight ... no luck ... nothing that small ... so I've ordered them from Peter White.  Had I known this yesterday, I wouldn't have two separate teeny-tiny shipments on their way to me !

5) Also in that strip mall, picked up beer, diet pepsi, milk, envelopes, ...

6) I printed off some more checks, since I was out.  I've been doing this for years now with a check-printing program and check (Canadians can read that as cheque) paper.

7) more ?  yes, cleaned up the den/loft floor, filing stuff away (mostly taxes).

8) I checked over that Schwalbe tire.  I'll ride it until the tube pokes out and pops.  Mind you, I can easily spend the price of a tire in tubes too by using a tube per ride.  Perhaps I should insert a boot ...

9) more ?  well the day ain't over yet !

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10) Talked to Peter White (actually Linda White) and ordered the 3mm connectors and a length of their sturdy coax for the tail-light connection.

11) had stir-fried leftover pork loin with an Indian sauce (Sandy did this)

12) watched some of a movie

13) had a snooze until about 11:30, then headed for the airport

14) picked up Mary and John just before 1am .... sheesh.   Their flight was about 45 minutes late.

15) back home at 2:30 a.m.

M&J went straight to bed.  They were doing pretty well considering.  Mary is using a cane due to her Parkinsons but she's actually walking quite well.  I wasn't sure what to expect. 

This is a planned / cancelled / re-planned trip for them.  Originally they were going to overlap with Jeffrey and Sara at the end of March and then head to Miami to take a cruise.  Mary's doctor advised her not to travel and they cancelled the cruise but then he/she relented and said that they could come to Florida so we picked this date.  They're here for a week (leave next Saturday), flying back to Vancouver.

It's been a few years since we've seen them.  They live on our driving route to Seattle from Whistler in Port Coquitlam BC.  We stopped and had lunch with them a couple ... no several ... years ago.

Long ago, actually 1986 (whew !), sitting at a table at my cousin Scott's wedding we were commenting that we'd booked points flights to Maui but were finding that we could get air+hotel cheaper than hotel only !  Mary said that they had a friend with a condo in Maui who rents it out and so we planned that and stayed at the condo for $35 per night.  Now that was a long time ago and prices have gone up since then, but it was still incredibly cheap. 

On our way to Maui that year, we stopped in Vancouver and stayed with Mary and John for a couple of nights and went to Expo '86.  

Memories, memories ...

Oh yes, and George noticed that my blog yesterday said "Aug 11" rather than "Apr 11". I told him that I'd been in a coma since I hit that gate 4 months ago ... his response ... ROFLMAO.  I had to look that one up !

I've been pricing out re-doing our computers.  They're now 5 years old and somewhat showing their age.  The one up north is especially slow.  I should have replaced the processor long ago but didn't and now I cannot buy a processor with that socket.  At the time, I bought the one (Florida) with a dual core and the other (north) with a quad.  The quad has a slower bus and it really makes a difference.  The additional processors do not in any way make up for the slower bus. 

While I could cannibalize some parts, they're the cheaper parts.   I'll continue to look at it.

Onward ...