I was held up. What can I say.
We spent a week in Manila, a week during which we had a typhoon (a non event in a high rise hotel), daily rain, oppressively hot and humid weather, some touring, lunch with Redg and Lily, some walking in the heat etc etc. Then we headed to Mindoro for my eventful, albeit short, ride. The aftermath of that event will weave through our lives for some time. Sandy planned diving - she did get in one dive - and then we were back to Manila and flying to Toronto. Plans from Manila onwards to Perth and Jakarta were scrapped. Oh well. I'm here to tell the tale.
Once back at the cottage, David and Vanda were up for the weekend and did a marvelous job with closeup. I had a long list and they prevailed! Still, once they were gone, we were left with loading the car but Kim and Jason rose to that occasion and moved the heavy stuff. D&V had already loaded the trailer for us.
I had hoped to retrieve the 4-wheeler from Booth service centre before leaving but that was not to be. The 5x8 trailer went back into the barn, ready for a Christmas pickup and we closed up shop. Jason et al closed up the day before us. We expect to see them on Saturday, here in Florida. Our original plan would have had us back here early November ...
Everything was more or less ship-shape here in Florida. We had lost a few shingles at the peak, which Jim Brendel promptly fixed. We have a stain on the living room ceiling that Duane, our painter, will have to correct in due course.
We had sprinkler problems while we were away; zone 2, which is the side and back gardens. The valve had failed but before that, a sprinkler head had broken at the riser. I dug that out and it's ready to be repaired. At the valve, I found that the identical valves are still available, so I purchased one and replaced the working parts without having to redo the plumbing -- great! However, sometime during digging all that out I cracked one of the lines and that now needs repairing. I'm going to try, as a temporary measure, some of that silicone repair tape. I expect to see that today. With the sprinkler outages, the back and side gardens have suffered. It's a single point of failure :).
I also did a couple of mini electrical projects, replacing two switches - one in the kitchen and one in the living room, with Kasa programmable versions. That allows me to turn the lights on and see what's happening when we're away. I had the switches from a bulk pack so I put them into service.
Some things I can do, albeit with difficulty, straight-legged, some things not so much. I've got an appointment with Keller, my DO, on Thursday and will start an investigation of my left knee, the biggest problem right now. It's fine when I'm sitting and mostly fine when I'm standing; moving is the problem. I drove almost all the way to Florida save the last bit approaching Erie PA. The issue at that point was that I was sleepy. In fact it's easier to get into the left side of the car than the right.
The M5 started right up, well it started right up after I gave it a boost. I knew that the battery was just about done and yes, it's just about done. I can't drive it because I can't operate the clutch.
We had Sushi when we got back on Saturday; Tiki on Sunday; the usual crab cakes on Monday. We'll get back into the routine ...
Onward.
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