Mar 4 - coming together, maybe

We heard from Jim Brendel; the windows will be in on the 21st, clearing the way for him to get his part finished in March (windows replacing doors in powder room and master bedroom) as well as removing the so-called lanai.

We still haven't finalized the stone for the main event work, i.e. removing the deck and replacing with pavers but if we can get some revised numbers from Shane, and material delivery works ... maybe.

This gives me a deadline for "freeing up" the grill from its surrounding material.  That shouldn't be too onerous.

I got some feedback from Stephen Jones and Peter Grant on the new routes that I'm designing for this year for Randonneurs Ontario and, in another country, revised and submitted the revised fleche route to be ridden on Good Friday.

Angelika has nailed down her plans for a visit -- did I say that in the last blog ?  Oh well, so I'm repeating myself.  We've got quite a string of comings and goings, including construction !  The tentative dates are all on the left side of this blog -- I only say tentative so that I'll get excused from any errors or omissions !

There was a possibility that I'd do work on the laundry room this season but that ain't going to happen.  I did the dock work instead, which was / is much more urgent.  The laundry room is functional albeit ugly.  I have to do some more mangrove trimming before we leave and, as usual, take the bananas to the ground.  Once the work outside starts, I know that I'll have plumbing (sprinkler), gas (grill) and electrical work to do in the middle of that.

I should also get my a'ss in gear and list some bicycle parts (and an entire bicycle) on ebay.  I've also got dvd's to list -- stargate sg1, stargate atlantis, law and order ... I need to take some pictures and get this all up and going.

I got a call from the monitoring service for the cottage while I was riding yesterday.  Yes, I actually heard the phone and was able to stop and answer it before missing the call.  Apparently they were getting a "low battery" warning from both cordless keypads.  This happens all the time and there's no easy way around it.  If there's a power outage the units run on the 4xAAA batteries and it doesn't seem to take very long before they are exhausted.  One of these days, perhaps, I'll test that and see exactly how long.  I was worried that we might have a power outage and of course there would have been but by the time I called the cottage after the ride and heard "welcome to your thermostat" the inside temperature was the same as always, 49F and "The Thermostat is in heat and is running".  Sometimes it's idle, sometimes it's running.

In the Spring I'll have to show David what's involved in turning the generator on so that if there's an extended outage during the winter, he can run up and turn it on for a spell.  The house must retain heat for a long time; I don't know how long it would take to fall from, say, 49F to 35F, if it's cold out.   That would be hard to test because someone would have to hang out while the temp drops and of course it would have to be cold outside and the temperature would fall more and more slowly as time went by.  Right now the outside temp is around 10F ... I suspect that it would easily take 24-48 hours.

If the temperature got down that low, I'd get a call from the monitoring company re the freeze alarm and then when the power came back on the furnace and the emergency electric heaters would both kick in.

-------------

Back again - the gang got back just before midnight.  They maximized their return at Disney, taking advantage of the late hours provided to those who stay at a Disney resort.

Matty was great, even though he's sporting a snotty nose and likely a sore throat.  He won't have any part of me unless it suits him -- like having me pick him up to go over the barrier to the dock, yeah !  having me pick him up to go in the stroller and then go for a ride, yeah !  He cuddles with Sandy though and when he was fussy, the stroller and I took care of that.  He wants to follow me outside ... yeah, these are Papa things; snuggling is a Nana thing.

I decided to tackle the grill, so it's free standing / rolling now.  I also did the gas work, removing and fixing pipes, attaching a quick disconnect to the grill.  We definitely have garbage for Monday.

Shane is supposed to work up another set of numbers using Travertine over the weekend.  The shell just wasn't working for the steps as they didn't have the proper bull nose pieces in that color.  The price keeps inching up.  I suggested that perhaps instead of "working up" another set of numbers that he could "work down" another set of numbers ... don't expect that to happen though !

The agenda for today, Saturday, remains to be written ... onward !