Jul 16 - good news and bad news

The good news:  I caught two nice sized bass for dinner; a third jumped out of the water and shook the hook.

The bad news:  When I went to pull up the stringer with the two fish into the boat, I discovered that it had broken, rusty.  Now there are two fish attached to a stringer no doubt having become snapping turtle food.

I guess that there is no good news on the fishing front.  Rats.

Apart from the good/bad fishing trip, I basically stayed in the house.  It was brutally hot, with the thermometer hitting 96F in the shade.  The internet was showing the same temperature here as in Daytona Beach.  The only difference is that the "feels like" temperature was hotter in Daytona.

I did some house maintenance and prep for LEL.  On the maintenance front, I finally got around to flushing the tankless water heater with vinegar.  That's supposed to be done occasionally, actually annually according to my US supplier.  I'd like to do it again but with more pressure; the sump pump that I used didn't create much pressure.

To do this, I had to add a faucet to the cold water line after the shut-off after the pressure tank.  Then, closing off the tank, pump water into the line with the sump pump in a bucket and attach a hose to the faucet in the darkroom feeding back into the bucket.  Running the sump and opening the hot water faucet then completes the circuit and I let the water run through, replacing it with vinegar. 

This is supposed to dissolve any minerals that have accumulated in the fine channels of the water heater.  Ideally it should have been installed with a faucet on both the cold and hot water feeds right at the heater.  The U.S. one was done that way.  Before I do it again I will cut into those lines.  The problem is that the cold water feed is that funny Pex that the plumber used.  I can only tap into that with a Shark-Bite connector.

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On the bicycle front, I changed wheels on the bike and swapped tires, prepping for LEL.  I also did some maintenance on my pedals which actually had a little water inside from the monsoons that I've been riding in.  The spindles and bearings were still covered in grease, so well protected, but they needed cleaning and repacking.  

Boy does my bike need some work.  The saddle is worn through in a couple of places.  These pedals should be replaced.  The "drive train" components are reasonably new and of course I have a new handlebar and stem from that gate-accident ...

Also on the LEL front, I did some computer prep, printing out stuff for the trip -- rider packet, directions to Harrogate, etc. etc. I also setup my phone for Global Data and Voice.  The Global Data is a joke, 100mb for $25 ... when I first got the phone that was "unlimited".  Global Voice is simply a 20% discount, will barely pay for itself.

Of course if I had the $92 quadrillion that Paypal credited some person's account with, I wouldn't worry about the price of Global Data on Verizon !

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Paul Lamb didn't show.  I called and talked to his wife, who said that he had a brake problem on the float and the parts hadn't come in.  I don't know if he's coming today.  I'm running out of time.

Sandy went into town.  I'll likely go in today or maybe tomorrow, to pick up the new Amex card that is supposed to be delivered.  DHL shows it still enroute somewhere in Ontario.

Sandy is planning on going into Sudbury today.

We had chicken and veggies on the grill.  Both were slightly underdone.  Oh well, can't win them all !  I was ahead of my time ...

Onward ?