Dave & Sandy -- life in the bicycle lane

Jan 30 - the taste test

2012-01-31T06:53:00.003-05:00

I'll start at the end of the day ... we had tuna for dinner. Lo always wants hers cooked but she'd had an appetizer sized piece of tuna with Sandy when they were shopping that wasn't, so she was willing to try seared. I cooked a piece to pink and she had that side-by-side with a seared piece and she concluded no question, seared is better.

We win 'em over one at a time ... next up, sushi ?

Ha. Anyway, the tuna was accompanied by sauteed zucchini and brown rice, three types of scotch and one red wine ... I'll have to cut back on the zucchini tonight :).

Jason and I had a busy day, as did Sandy and Lo. First up, we changed his brake pads. For $39 that's the cheapest brake job that he'll ever have ! We only did the front -- the rears are not likely very worn and they're drums+shoes anyway.

We then had a full-scale breakfast, complementing the earlier cereal. Sandy and Lo tried the "baconator" -- actually a ceramic dish shaped like a vertical flower pot with a handle and saucer attached to the bottom. The bacon is hung over the sides of the pot and the pot has a small hole in the bottom to drain into the saucer. It's cooked in the microwave -- excellent ! I had a bacon sandwich; the three of them had bacon and scrambled eggs. Three of us, not Sandy, had my "seedy" bread. That turned out to be our lunch too.

Next up, Jason and I packed our bikes onto the back of the X5 and drove to Ormond Beach, doing the tail end of my northern route through Tomoka Park and back along the ocean. Jason kept up well but by the end his hamstring was really tight. He massaged it later and applied some heat ... all was well.

Judy, next door, had been heading out to a physio appointment and she and Jason compared scars. Apparently she has the "new technology" knee where Jason has the old model. Old, that is, compared to Judy's, but the latest thing when he had it done. I guess that it makes sense that this kind of technology changes as well, but I'd never thought about it before.

That, but not in correct order, comprised our day.

Today we might go boating. It depends on what the forecast looks like.

Onward !

Jan 29 - stop and go

2012-01-30T06:55:00.003-05:00

You can tell when a change of calipers works ... you stop when you want to and after stopping, upon releasing the brake pedal, you go. That sounds obvious, but it's the last part that indicates that you've fixed the problem. I stop in the driveway, which is almost level, and if I take my foot off the brake, the car will roll a little ... indicating that the calipers aren't sticking ... yay !

It was a project in two parts -- Jason gave me a hand in the a.m. as I cranked up the car, removed the wheel, removed the caliper, couldn't get the hydraulic brake line hose off the caliper -- reinstall the caliper so that's it's solid -- loosen the hose -- remove caliper again -- remove hose -- screw hose into new caliper after dripping a 1/4 teaspoon of fluid -- add pads and reinstall. We then bled that brake without any trouble, cleaned up and I took it for a test ride ... one fixed ! No stickie !

We then got on with the rest of our day, of which the lion's share was going to the art show "Images" along Riverside and Canal streets. The dogs came along and were well behaved even in those mobs of people. We were walking for a long time -- it's over a mile to where the tents start, which is a quick walk, and then a slow visit-every-tent walk for the next couple of hours. Our dogs weren't the only ones out there so there was some heavy petting and sniffing going on :).

Back home, we had a late lunch and then Lorraine headed out for a run. Jason had put his bike together and I gave it a cleaning so he accompanied her. Since they were gone ... I got out the jack and tackled the drivers side. The only thing that I was unsure about on that side was the brake wear indicator connection but after seeing where that connects, I recalled how it detaches and re-attaches from when I replaced the rotors and pads last summer. That wheel took half the time, because of course I didn't have to re-attach the old caliper, now knowing what I was doing. roughly a half-hour after I started I was ready to bleed the brakes and Jason was back and did the honors at the brake pedal.

Since a chunk of time is simply getting tools out, it's probably a half-hour job for one side and 45 minute job for both sides. The calipers -- genuine BMW -- will have cost me $59 each after I get the $38 return for used parts -- the so-called "core charge". In 2010, I paid Tire Kingdom $1004.82 to replace one caliper + rotor + pads. That too was a rebuilt BMW caliper so we aren't talking apples and oranges. When you figure that the rotor and pads are worth less than $100 ...

So ... what next ? Well, Jason needs a new set of pads. He was planning on getting them done when in Florida so we may do those today. We jacked up his car, looked at the setup, priced the pads online and checked to see that Advance Auto stocks them ... yup ... get out your stopwatch !

By the time we'd checked out Jason's car, it was 5pm and Sandy was agitating to get over to the club. I had a quick shower and off we went. We test drove the car over to the club ... yay, it stopped ! ... and had our usual burger, this time Kobe Beef ... and went home stuffed. It was very busy at the club, busy from Images, we figured.

Today -- well, we have those brakes. Jason and I are going for a bike ride. We don't have any other plans.

Onward !

Jan 28 - two days ?

2012-01-29T05:54:00.003-05:00

The parts that I ordered Friday from Advance Auto arrived in two days -- including the day that I ordered them and the day of delivery, i.e. next day. Opening the boxes, they are BMW calipers, or at least that's what is stamped heavily into the metal ...

I'm anxious to get at those brakes, but I held back. I'd picked them up after my ride, which was great, by the way, and then we relaxed waiting for Jason & Lorraine to arrive.

As I expected, Chili was with them. It sounds like the plan had changed to bring her. Abby was quite happy to have a visitor too ! Also along for the ride was Jason's bike, they mythical bike that I'd heard about but never seen !

We chatted and had supper, sharing status reports on our kids. Kyle has a job; Gavin so-so; Mike's finished his degree; travel plans to Florida for Mike & Jill; Kim, perhaps Gavin ... we shared our stories about Christmas at the cottage and whatever else is happening. The four of us called David and wished him a Happy Birthday.

The wind was from the NW yesterday, cool but pleasant. I was a little warm with my long sleeved jersey but riding the Lynskey, had nowhere to stow it. Besides, it would have been too cool without and I'd rather be warm.

Today ... we'll go to the art show in NSB, which has packed Riverside and Canal streets. I had a hard time getting around it yesterday. We plan on eating at the Tiki. That's about as far as our plans go ... I'd like to squeeze in the front right brake caliper ... no pun intended ...

Onward !

Jan 27 - ok, enough stalling

2012-01-27T12:10:00.006-05:00

After Sandy took the X5 out, I raised the right wheel and checked for resistance. It turns but there's more resistance than the left ... ok, I give in. I just went out to get my hair cut and when I returned I checked for heat at the two rotors -- both warm, the right one not appreciably warmer, but I'd made my decision anyway.

I didn't like the calipers at Pelican, so I went to Parts Geek. I ordered both right and left, immediately getting three emails -- acknowledgement of order; successful processing of credit card; out of stock and credit card reversal. Sigh.

I posed a question to them about other brands, since they stock (or so their website says) several brands, also posing a question to Pelican ... but then checked Advance Auto Parts (retail close to us) to see what they had -- both on the web and on the phone. The unit looked good and I went ahead and ordered it, supposed to arrive at the store in two days. I've found them pretty good to deal with. Also, when I have to return the "core", i.e. used part, it's easier to just take it down the street !

So ... that's underway, sort of. I'm still waiting for my Kroil for the Control Arm / Ball Joint work.

With some thunderstorms all around and gusty winds to boot, I decided to do my riding tomorrow. I've just returned from getting my hair cut. Sandy's out shopping, still trying to find end tables for the guest bedroom upstairs.

Aside from the car work, I've got projects pending. I'm going to put hardwood in the den upstairs and get rid of the mirrors in the main floor guest bath. That triggers a lot of extra work -- removing wall paper and vanity cabinet, filling in the silly toilet paper well-in-the-wall etc. etc. I'm waiting until after Jason's visit for both projects -- bathroom first.

More later .....

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I had two emails waiting for me this morning -- one from Jason, saying that they were in Witheville and would arrive today ... yay ! and one from Parts Geek, including a link to parts that they DO have in stock. Well, since I've already ordered from Advance Auto, it's largely irrelevant ... but let's check out the link anyway. Well, they've put rear left and rear right calipers in my "cart". Do they know something that I don't know ? I don't plan on touching the rear brakes.

Duh.

We had chicken for dinner -- I picked one up at Publix and quartered it, cooking it the way we used to all the time when the kids were younger -- smother in barbecue sauce in a glass dish, nuke for 20 minutes and then onto the barbie for 10. However, I didn't do it the way that we used to where you'd have to pick all the black out of your teeth afterwards :). Sandy did some potatoes and rice and we ate well, leaving enough for lunches or another meal. The chicken would have tasted better on the rotisserie but this was faster.

... and another day was done.

Onward !

Jan 26 - am I getting too good at this ?

2012-01-26T15:25:00.004-05:00

I called the makers of Kroil this morning to ensure that they had my order (they did) and to ask if anyone retailed the product. I found that Fastenal does, or was supposed to, so I headed over to their location in Edgewater, which is 1/2 mile south of us.

They have a fascinating array of products ... but no Kroil. The guy had heard of it, could get it in, but my order was already underway or was supposed to be. He has substitute products, but I passed.

When I was working on the left hand side of the car, of course I was leaning on the brake calipers all the time and I thought that I should check to ensure that they were working smoothly. I felt that that left wheel was a little sticky. I went on the highway and gave the brakes a workout and sure enough, as I came home, I could feel some stickiness. Lifting the left side, I rotated the tire; lifting the right side, I did the same. The right side was noticeably harder to rotate than the left. These wheels don't spin freely anyway, since they do have a driveshaft, but there was a difference.

There was also a difference in the heat coming off the rotors. Yes, I know what that's from ! So, I worked the caliper a bit with a C-clamp and pumping the brakes and it seemed ok. I gave the brake a break :).

Christie showed up, but not before Abby and I took an unscheduled boat ride. Out front a dolphin was lingering too long in one spot, according to Sandy, so I dropped the boat in the water and we went to investigate. I was pleasantly surprised that the motor started as if I'd been running it only a couple of hours before ... delighted, in fact. The dolphin moved ahead of us as we got there and I followed it around. There didn't seem to be any problem. Sandy was worried that it was caught up in something, but all seemed ok.

Christie's visit was for me to strip her bicycle frame. That took a while -- her mountain bike hadn't been apart since it was built. I did have all the necessary tools though and eventually we had it stripped, leaving the fork on at this point. She's getting the frame and fork painted pink ! I'll then help her reassemble.

Things nag at me ... Sandy went off, in the M5 since I wanted to play with the X5 some more. Up again on the jack stands, I removed the caliper -- I am getting too good at this -- and really worked the piston. Back on the car, I took it for a spin and all seemed ok. I think that I'll probably replace that caliper though -- the other front caliper was replaced two years ago -- who knows, I might replace both calipers at the same time. They get a lot of abuse. There's still a lot of life left in the pads -- I replaced pads and rotors last summer -- but I'll probably do the pads at the same time, what the heck.

Yet again I thought back to when I paid a lot of money to have a caliper replaced. What a waste of money ... it's so simple ! I'll have to bleed that one when I replace it, but that's not a big deal.

I'm sitting outside typing this. It's sunny and 77F. Tomorrow will be colder. 75F. What a life ! We are supposed to get thunderstorms in the a.m. so that might hamper my biking, but that just means that I'll bike on Saturday, should that rain show up.

It's close to 4pm at this point; somehow another day in paradise has mostly gone by.

------

It's a.m. again and we've had a smattering of rain overnight and a rain system is passing through. If it goes soon enough, I'll bike ... if not, then tomorrow. I checked the weather for Gainesville and it's showing showers next Saturday. If that holds, I'll probably skip that ride. I've got enough without opting for a rainy 300k. I can always do a Permanent. We'll see.

We had shrimp on the barbie last night, along with rice and broccoli. Simple. I used the wok on the grill.

I'm continuing to watch the Torchwood series by myself and I put on X-Files when we're both watching TV. I can handle one episode of each. Torchwood is pretty hoaky. X-Files has much better writing and dialogue.

Jason is supposed to leave for Florida today and we're expecting him and Lorraine either tomorrow late or more likely on Sunday. They'll leave here on the 1st, heading for their rental in southwest Florida.

I talked to Jerry last night and he's going to come down for the 1st week of March and do the 400k with me on the 10th. That could change, but that's the plan.

Onward ...

Jan 25 - where's the Kroil

2012-01-26T05:52:00.004-05:00

I ordered this Kroil stuff but haven't received an acknowledgement from the website yet. I should have ordered from Amazon, I guess, because at least there I'll get an ack ! I was tempted to put some Liquid Wrench on the ball joint carrier etc. but thought that perhaps Kroil would do a better job attacking dry than wet.

Another product, LPS KB88, is supposed to be as good but is equally unavailable on a retail basis. I've been tempted to order it ... but haven't.

The "product" that tested the best in my research is a 50/50 mixture of acetone and ATF. No, I haven't tried that. It's one thing for them to do tests on a rusted bolt, quite another where I really need penetration. We'll see, but I'm anxious to continue the project ... get it done !

There are these stupid videos by the manufacturers of these things of penetrating oils poured into styrofoam cups to see which one penetrates the cup faster ... this is totally dumb because if I pour gasoline into styrofoam it dissolves immediately. Give me a break !

Anyway, as much as the X5 is pulling at me to do some more hammering, I did not. I did go for a bike ride on a sunny and warm day, south, into a headwind of course. Sandy spent the day working at the garden.

For dinner we had leftovers -- salmon, the wild rice mixture, couscous and salad. Sandy passed on the couscous. I had a bit. It's totally boring, worse than plain white rice.

That's it ...

Onward !

Jan 23/24 - two wonderful days

2012-01-24T15:56:00.004-05:00

The highlight of the 23rd was our boating; the highlight of the 24th was getting the car back together !

Backtrack ...

We headed over to the marina at 10:30 in two cars, because the X5 wasn't going anywhere. I had gone over to HD early in the a.m. to pick up metal chisels and a big pry bar, but that would wait for another day.

The weather turned out to be great. At first I was worried that we'd have cloud all day but it cleared up, we bounced around out on the ocean for a while and then headed to the island. There wasn't any wildlife out there -- no rays, dolphins, turtles ... but it was pleasant nonetheless.

We walked the beach and then re-boarded, Abby having had her fun. Sandy and Linda had discussed lunch and decided on The Grill on Riverside, so we pulled into their dock and had a delightful lunch. It's pretty close to home, but a good spot especially on a Monday when the SYC is closed. They do offer a broader selection than the Tiki for lunch anyway.

From there we putted up a canal to Calalisa Creek, until we ran out of water that is. We turned around, cruised up past the club and then back to the Marina. Al immediately pulled us out of the water and I did the normal rinse-off. Come to think of it, I didn't fill up the fresh water tank, so I'll have to do that before we head out again. I'll also need more fuel, as we're getting down to 1/4.

Back home, we rested, ate and drank. We sat outside until the mosquitoes showed up; it was getting dark anyway. Linda loved the Hot Mamas Lime and Tequila ! Alec doesn't go for spicy, so it was just Linda and I partaking of that appetizer. We all liked Sandy's mushroom spread; she wasn't as keen on it -- but then she knows how much work it took.

Back inside, Sandy finished up dinner prep and I grilled the panko encrusted salmon. That was a hit, along with the wild rice and squash (?) mixture and sauteed cherry tomatoes. A simple dinner with great wines supplied by Linda and Alec. I wound things up though with an Opimian Icewine which went perfectly with Sandy's lemony frozen desert. Ah yes, we did well.

We did drink too much though. Not enough to be silly but we all noted in the a.m. that we hadn't slept as well as we might ... serves us right.

-------

Another day dawned and I headed over to see Christie. When I got back, breakfast preparations were underway. Alec volunteered to delay his shower and give me a hand with the ball joint etc. I got the car up on jacks, wheel off and tools out.

Well, it took a few goes and a lot of heat, but eventually the ball popped out of the carrier with a combination of heat, prying and banging from above. The reason that the ball came out was that I'd cut away enough metal for it to be freed. One problem behind me, another loomed. The carrier was still in there. Alec helped for a while as we pounded, chiseled, heated, etc. etc. but no go. He organized to leave and I gave it a break.

Next up, back to the Dremel. Alec and Linda left and I got back at it. Cut, pound, chisel, ... sounds like scissors, paper, rock ? I wasn't winning though.

Ah Ha ! about 1/2 hour after A&L left, it moved ! The carrier rotated a little ... I was going to beat this thing ! Well, it took another hour but I eventually got it out. I used the Dremel to clean the hole and inserted the new ball joint and carrier ... found that my threads were a little spoiled for the torx screw. I worked at that for a while and eventually got it mounted. I was envisaging drilling out the hole and putting a bolt in from the bottom and a nut from the top. There's actually enough clearance so I wasn't panicking. I don't think those threads will take many more in's and out's, however ... but I don't intend to do any more anyway !

It was a simple matter to attach the control arm, put the weight back on the car per the instructions and then tighten up at the ball joint. I took it for a spin around the block and it feels good. Most, if not all, of the jiggle is gone.

I've ordered this Kroil product to try on the other side. I'm not going to touch it until I have a decent penetrating oil in hand. It's interesting though, a 50/50 mixture of ATF fluid and Acetone got the best ratings for freeing up rust ... who knows.

I'm calling this glass half full at this point !

------

I'd missed lunch with the car work, so went inside and prepared a sandwich and also cleared out the lazy susan. It took no more than about 15 minutes to install the cute little water heater ... another job done ! The previous plumbing all held, was watertight, and the new hoses have rubber-faced connectors so they don't take much to install.

I'm calling it a day !

It's not over yet though. Harris and Debbie, from down the street, are coming over for a drink in an hour. I'm pretty wiped but will certainly have a celebratory drink !

Dinner is going to be leftovers from last night and whatever else is around. It's all good.

Onward ... whew.

Jan 22 -- stalled

2012-01-23T05:32:00.004-05:00

With Linda and Alec not expected until 3pm, I started work on the car. Replacing the first Control Arm, same as the one that I'd replaced last year, only on the driver's side this time, took only minutes. I knew exactly what to expect and didn't hesitate to use the pickle fork and the sledge hammer aggressively. Out it came and in went the new.

Next up, the so-called thrust arms and accompanying ball joints. I wasn't totally sure that the ball joints would need replacing but after I got the first arm off, again driver's side, I knew ! There was some play in the ball joint and it's boot was shot.

Removing the thrust arm from the ball joint took the ball joint remover. It did its job perfectly and, as I'd read (and expected) it separated with a bang like a gunshot. Had I not read that, I'd have been mightily surprised ! So far so good.

Well, that's as far as I got ... well not quite. The ball joint assembly is attached to the underside of the wheel carrier (my name) by two torx screws. They came off relatively easily with my ratchet, the 3/8" drive torx bit and a little help from Sandy holding the steering wheel from moving.

By the way -- at this point I had the front of the car up on jack stands.

The ball joint assembly has a plate that attaches to the underside with the aforementioned torx screws and then the head of the assembly, about 1.5" across and high, inserts into the wheel carrier and ends up flush above. It's frozen ... frozen with rust, no doubt. I went online to see if anyone had any solutions and one fellow's post referred to a) banging from above, b) penetrating oil and c) ultimately, for one of his two, cutting out the unit from below with a Dremel tool.

The problem with banging from above is that you can't get at it. The head of the joint is right under the boot from the driveshaft. I banged as much as I could; I pried at the unit from below driving a chisel (actually a screwdriver) between the pieces of metal and alternately using the dremel to try cutting it out. I removed some metal with the dremel but it's very hard steel and I basically chewed through any cut-off wheels that I had without even getting close to removing enough metal to remove the ball from below. Oh yes, I also used my propane torch but again, there's a ball joint boot to worry about (not this one but a good ball joint) from below and the driveshaft boot above, so you're limited as to what you can do with the torch.

Hours later -- yes about four hours of struggling later -- I had to close up shop for the day. The ball joint is chewed up but it ain't moving. I attached one torx screw, not the other since that side is gone, reattached the old thrust arm, loosely, and got the car off the jack stands with the one side elevated with the trolley jack. Linda and Alec were due to arrive and I figured that perhaps Alec might have some suggestions.

After I got the arm re-attached, it occurred to me that I could then pound down on the arm from above with the pickle fork -- which I tried for a couple of minutes without any luck. It was too late for any serious effort on that score. I emailed the guy who had posted the instructions including the cutting, and he responded quickly but without any magic bullets. He did mention the pickle fork, so perhaps he'd tried the same thing.

When Alec looked at it, he suggested that I get a long pry bar -- which I will do -- and try prying at the thrust arm against the frame from below. I'll make a trip to Home Depot and pick up a long bar -- a long pipe -- and try that. Perhaps if I can get 4-6 feet of leverage it might move. I'll have to get the thrust arm tighter on the old ball joint, however, since at this point I have only a few threads of the nut attached. Basically I'm in a position now where I could drive it slowly and clunkily a couple of blocks to a repair shop where they'd undoubtedly put it on the hoist, hit the assembly for 15 seconds with a proper acetylene torch and drive it out.

The other thing that I'll pick up at HD is some better cutting wheels for the dremel, hopefully, so that I might again go at cutting the darn thing out. Of course once I remove the ball, I'm committed to either finishing the cutting or getting the car towed.

It's a good thing that we have two cars !

----------

Linda and Alec arrived a little before 3pm. We sat outside and chatted; Alec took a look at my car situation; I put the wheel back on the car for safety reasons; we drank some wine; we went over to the SYC for dinner. It was an early dinner, as dinners go, because it's nicer sitting over there in daylight. It was a glorious sunset, a pink sky in the east and then a pink sky in the west. We wandered back home and watched TV ... sort of. Alec watched the NFC game; I did too, asking Alec football questions about penalties; Sandy and Linda chatted on the couch. Eventually I succumbed, as did Linda, leaving Alec with his game and Sandy reading her book. Amazingly enough I stayed awake for an episode of Torchwood (now at season 2, episode 8). In the meantime Sandy had come to bed with a minute or so left in the game.

Had you asked me earlier yesterday I wouldn't even have known that there were football games on tap !

Today -- boating. Tomorrow -- Linda and Alec leave for the Florida west coast.

Stay tuned for the X5 saga :).

Onward ...

Jan 21 - what a blast ... 7:32

2012-01-22T04:43:00.005-05:00

A wonderful day and wonderful ride. There were between 80 and 90 riders, making it look like a mini PBP as I pulled into the parking lot. I actually had to queue up to check-in with Tim and found Alain also there assisting. He and Vita were not riding that day and he'd volunteered to work a Control.

Tim had all Controls staffed and food -- he and Alain at the start; both again at Control 2; Dan Wallace and another fellow at number 3; Alain and another at 4; Tim at the end.

All the usual suspects were present -- Keith drove down that morning; Judith was there, taking the day off from a 7-day-a-week painting job at Disney (Fantasyland), Jim Solanick, Hamid, Paul Rozelle (before I knew his last name, I called him Paul Fixie because he rides a bike with no gears), etc. etc. There were many riders, I assume, who don't do anything longer than a 200k. That's ok.

I ended up in a paceline with Hamid & Paul for most of the day. There were another 6-8 in the group, including 3 girls (well, women), all of whom took their turn. The wind was blowing pretty strong from the south by the time we turned around to head into it so company was good. In fact it was so good that we finished at 3:32, a new personal record for a 200k (actually 128.something miles) at 7:32.

At one point on the northbound trek I took my turn pulling and then faded to the back. I had pulled a steady 20 mph. Hamid, who was right behind me, then took off at 23 with the group following ... I tagged along for a bit and then dropped back. I continued to ride my pace gradually picking up a group who liked my pace and I pulled that crowd for 10 miles, which brought us to the 30 mile Control. Hamid and Paul were there ... we went through the "what happened to you" routine (Paul knew), and then headed out together.

Hamid pulls very strong early in these rides and then as he gets tired, continues to be strong but his pace becomes more irregular. We were more disciplined after that Control, running 20-21 going north and then 17-18 heading south (into a 15mph headwind). We were heading south and I was following Hamid in the group; the person in front of him finished his pull and Hamid took off ... I asked him to "dial it back" to 17 or so, which he did. For the next miles, however, I was still absorbing his speed fluctuations, trying to maintain a steady 17-18 while Hamid's speed varied from 16-20. I know what it's like at the back of the paceline if we're varying our speed like that. I must confess that at one point I dropped the entire group as I stood and cranked up a rise, causing Hamid to come up behind me and ask me to slow down -- none of us is immune ! It would be easier with a mirror :).

Hamid has made amazing progress in the now-4-years that I've been riding with him. The first time I met him was on Tim's 300k in 2009. It wasn't long after his triple bypass and I pulled him for the second half of the ride. His weight is now in the low 170's (started at 235) and he rides strong, stronger than me. Of course I have a few years on him, which is my excuse ! He's great company on the rides, always chatting, compared to the mostly taciturn nature of most riders as the miles accumulate.

Sunny and warm, I started out with my wind vest but shed that pretty quickly. It might have hit 80F along the way; the car said 78F when I was leaving.

I pushed myself harder than usual and was basically cooked by the end -- cooked and ready to bonk. However, as we got into the last quarter of the ride I found that my legs had more acceleration in them than earlier on in the day. Even though they were aching (had done for 100k), they were actually gaining strength as the day went on.

2.5 hours down and then back, the driving was easy. After the ride I stopped to get gas and a drink and snack but didn't even feel drowsy on the drive back. I also stopped at one of the rest stops along I95 to use the restroom and pick up another 20oz diet pepsi.

Home by 6:30, we were planning on having pizza for dinner but I'd had pizza for lunch -- so we went to the Peking Buffet along SR44. It wasn't very good. That will be our one and only visit to that restaurant, unless alzheimers really sets in.

Sandy spent the day cooking for Linda and Alec -- appetizers and elements of the main course for Monday. There were wonderful smells but we had yucchy Chinese food ... rats. As I said to her at dinner -- trying these restaurants only makes me appreciate how much better our home cooking really is !.

... and the day was done, for me.

Today ... Mass ... some cleanup. Linda and Alec will arrive sometime. I should probably shoot them a note in case they are email-accessible so that they can give us a general idea as to their expected timing.

Onward !

Jan 20 - Harbor Freight

2012-01-21T04:18:00.002-05:00

My trip to Harbor Freight was the highlight of the day. I'd never been there before -- they are almost identical to Princess Auto -- loads of tools, cheap tools. I picked up some 1/2" socket tools in preparation for the work on the car as well as a ball joint remover. I'm not sure that I'll need the latter, but once the work is underway it's difficult to stop and do a half-day errand. I should probably use it instead of the pickle fork for the one control arm.

The parts did arrive and although I was tempted, I did not do anything other than look. That's a project for next week after Alec and Linda leave. As expected, they weigh a ton -- who needs weights when you've got car parts lying around !

I also fixed a couple of sprinklers that were leaking. I'm going to make the rounds of all of them at some point, this is silly. I'll replace them all and be done with it.

For dinner we had tuna and it was wonderful. It's been a long time. Sandy also did couscous, which is quite bland, and beans.

... and now I'm off to Jupiter about 2:20 south of here. I got all packed last night, I've had my cereal and just have to make coffee for the road.

Onward ... first brevet of 2012 !

Jan 19 - overkill but hey !

2012-01-19T08:54:00.007-05:00

As I wrote to Jason, the definition of overkill.

The galvanized pipe sticking into the PVC drain is simply to keep it plugged until I screw in the brass nipple + bushing and attach the drain hose. The water flows from right to left, the existing hot water in the copper pipe behind and higher than the cold water pipe. The lowest valve is the bypass, in place now. The water supply for the tank can either come from the cold on the left or the hot on the right. The hot water tank inlet will connect to the upper copper pipe screw connection and the outlet to the one in the middle.

The picture doesn't show all the wiring that I did ... which took less time but by then I was getting a bit frantic from working in the small space all day.

Whew.

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It's morning again. Friday morning to be exact. Tomorrow I've got a 200k Brevet on the agenda, from Jupiter FL where the temperature is supposed to hit 80F, the last I checked.

Yesterday, however, it did not even hit 70F. I'm not sure that it hit 60F ! It was in the mid 50's when I left on my bike and about the same when I returned. It was warm enough in the sun, but I certainly needed my long sleeved jersey and wind vest to stay warm.

I took the Hummer, with a jacket in the back, thinking that I'd probably want to shed the wind vest at the turnaround point and if was too cold, put on the jacket ... but as it turned out I did neither. I was cool on the way up and comfortable on the way back.

I had a headwind going north and it was calm going south. In fact, it was so calm that when I got home and looked out at the Intracoastal Waterway, it was like glass. The dolphins were having a blast ... cruising along with their dorsal fins out of the water -- just like Jaws ! I could see a baby doing side flips !

I spent a goodly time yesterday doing some garage organizing. That was sparked by the mess on my workbench, which was adorned with every tool that I'd used to do the plumbing and electrical, piled up.

The hw heater has been shipped from Home Depot in MD, due to arrive on Monday. Now we wait. I'm also expecting Control Arms etc. for the car to arrive shortly. I think that I'll finish up the plumbing first, since it's closer to fruition.

That's about it ... oh yes, we had chicken breasts on the grill and sauteed zucchini and rice.

Onward !

Jan 18 - a day in the closet

2012-01-19T06:03:00.003-05:00

Well, it wasn't really in the closet ... worse ... it was in the kitchen cupboard !

There's an open area behind the corner lazy susan under the counter in the kitchen cupboard that is our target for installing a point-of-use water heater for the kitchen. We run tons of water to get a little in the kitchen -- for the faucet and for the dishwasher. The installation of the on-demand hot water heater last year added another 20' to the run, so it's even worse now.

Here's the problem ...

1) I need power. There are three kitchen counter receptacles around the sink, all on the same circuit. The food disposer (garburetor in Canuck) is also on that circuit. Obviously the latter isn't used much.

It's a 20 amp circuit, wired with #12. That's good. The receptacles are all 15 amp receptacles. That's bad. We don't actually use those receptacles very much and nothing of any significant amperage, so that became my target for the power for the new heater.

The new heater is (will be, because it's on order) 1500 watts. I shouldn't have a problem. Beside that spot is the dishwasher, on its own 20 amp circuit, which was also a possibility, but I could easily see those running together and didn't want to have breakers flipping.

A side note -- another 20 amp breaker covers the microwave and another receptacle on the right hand side of the stove and yet another 20 amp feeds the refrigerator and a receptacle to its right. The bar area has its own breaker. At some point, when we re-do the kitchen, we'll also supply power to the island ... which doesn't have power now (major pain) and I might run another circuit for that purpose.

Of course all of these are setup with 15 amp receptacles ... hmmm.

The wire from one receptacle to the other runs right through that small space, so I cut into it, adding three boxes -- one simply a junction box, one a receptacle and another a switch, so that I can easily turn off the heater.

The wiring was the easy part. It did that last while the glue was setting.

The plumbing is in two parts -- plumbing the over pressure drain as well as the supply side which includes hooking the water heater or bypass outlet into the inlet for the faucet and dishwasher.

For the drain, I got a 1.5" PVC fitting that had a 3/4" inlet as well and with Sandy's help, we got that inserted. She was in the one cupboard attaching the drain after I, in the other cupboard, had painted the glue. Messy but short work, that was beat.

Most of the day was spent on the supply side. Even though we'll eventually re-do the kitchen, I wanted to do this "right", which in my mind means:

a) having a bypass (operational now, since there's no hot water heater yet)
b) being able to choose the supply -- hot or cold.

Up north, when I plumbed one of these, I used the hot water as the supply. I may very well change that at some point, because in reality we're heating little bits of water with the gas fired water heater that cool off before ever getting to the point-of-use heater. Using the cold water as the supply is probably much more efficient. I'm thinking the same thing here and will initially open the valve using cold water but if that becomes problematic, I can switch that and use hot water.

Plumbing both the bypass as well as the water supply swap involves many additional T's and valves ... it's a thing of beauty ! a thing of over-engineering ? We'll see. If the heater fails between installation and kitchen re-do, I'll be very happy that I've gone to the extra trouble.

Also, I setup the drain and supply sides to be attached with flexible braided hoses, so when the heater arrives, it should simply be a matter of again removing the lazy susan and attaching three hoses, plugging it in ...

That heater, btw, is an "online only" item from Home Depot. Other people sell it, but at significantly higher prices.

What a mess of PVC, CPVC etc. I used sharkbites to attach to the existing copper -- in and out -- so I didn't have to do any soldering.

I guarantee you that most plumbers would have refused to do this work or at least refused to do it the way that I wanted it done. It's such a small space -- I fit in there but most of them wouldn't !!

By the end of the day -- and this took me from pre 9am until 5pm -- I was wasted. Perhaps that was from breathing the glue ! I turned the water back on at 5:30 ... gently ... and there were no leaks. At that point the CPVC glue had had about 2 hours to cure.

Of course only part of the plumbing has been tested at this point -- up to and including the bypass. If I really wanted to test the rest, I could attach caps over the brass male pipe connectors where the water heater will attach ... but I'll leave that for now. At this point the cupboard has been put back together ... lazy susan and its contents back in place.

Sandy had taken a pork loin out for dinner but we went over to the SYC instead. The kitchen was a mess and I didn't clean that up until this a.m.

Today ... hopefully a bike ride.

Onward !

Jan 17 - what a treat

2012-01-18T04:45:00.003-05:00

I consider a January ride in mid 70's temperature a real treat. That was the third ride of the year, heading south this time -- into the wind, naturally. I took the Lynskey, unburdened by extra clothes. When I got to Titusville I was questioning that decision as it had clouded over, the wind off the water was cool and I could see rain showers in the distance. As I headed north from there, however, it warmed up again.

Sandy had a dermatologist appointment and planned on doing some shopping in that area, so she left the house around 8:15. I'm not sure how long she was out because when I got home the M5 was back and the X5 was out -- she'd gone to pick up dinner.

Flounder, rice and Kim's grilled brussels sprouts were the fare for the day. Sandy doesn't like boiled brussels sprouts, but has latched onto these so I'm not complaining -- I like them either way.

Today ... I might be tackling a point-of-use water heater for the kitchen sink.

I'm seeing Christie at 5:30 (yes, a.m.). Christie told us that she's moving to the Tampa area at the end of March. She's looking for a replacement person to take over her clients ... I'm thinking that I should become independent by then ... we'll see.

Onward !

Jan 16 - under pressure or leaking ?

2012-01-17T06:56:00.002-05:00

Hopefully the former rather than the latter ... I spent a good part of yesterday doing the final work on the pressure washer pump, getting it completely disassembled and replacing many of the o-rings. Unfortunately, I won't know whether it works or not until I get back up north and re-install on the pressure washer.

I got an email early in the from partsgeek.com that "a part was out of stock" on my order. Well, which part - I ordered three parts ! I tried calling them but this try was reminiscent of my last dealing with them, i.e. no answer, leave a customer service ticket on their website. Well, I did that and lo and behold, heard back from them a couple of hours later that all three parts were out of stock. Huh ? This is a commonly replaced part on these BMW's ... no matter. I had my answer.

I went to the pelicanparts.com website and ordered there. I think that they do a better job of tracking whether the parts are actually in-stock or not (partsgeek website said that they were in-stock). I decided to order the ball joints for those forward control arms as well because I cannot tell if they are worn and won't be able to until the arm is removed. It's alternately called "control arm", "thrust arm", "torsion arm" on various websites.

Removing these arms could be problematic. There's very little clearance to get a wrench in there but I managed to get one of the bolts and turn it slightly ... don't know whether both ends were turning or not. I'll have to get a combination wrench on the other end, since I only have one 21mm socket (and can't get a socket in there anyway !

I may end up going to a shop to get these control arms installed. The rear arm is the same as the one I replaced at the cottage -- that should be ok, using the pickle fork to remove the ball joint. The front arms, however, might be problematic without the car up on a hoist. We'll see.

Interestingly enough, the aftermarket parts that I ordered were $250. If I count the part that I installed in the fall, that would come to $325. On one of the websites / blogs a Canadian owner was complaining that his dealer wanted $2400 to replace these arms. Let's see -- $325 ... add 50% for the OEM version = $500, double that to put the OEM version in a BMW box = $1000 (this is true !) ... add 7 hours labor @ $200 per hour and you have $2400 ! There are economies of scale here but BMW would charge one hour per item installed @ 6 items, an extra hour to be in a BMW facility and wash your car ... yes, that accounts for it ! One mechanic told me that BMW = Break My Wallet.

I did go out yesterday, making the rounds of Advance Auto Parts (to check tool stocks in case I need something), Home Depot (needed to replace a 1/2" x 6" riser for the sprinkler system), the bank (deposit dental reimbursement), the UPS store (dropoff), the post office ... rats, closed for MLK day ! Later on I went over to ACE Hardware and picked up all those o-rings.

We had pork chops, zucchini and potatoes for dinner, all from the grill, after watching another X-Files episode on Netflix. Later on I fell asleep in front of a Torchwood episode ...

The weather is warming, expecting to hit mid 70's today. I'll be biking !

I also got online and reviewed the cue sheet for Saturday's ride, setting it up in bikeroutetoaster for my GPS. It follows some of the same route that Tim used for the 1000k in 2010.

Onward !

Jan 15 - on the road, again already

2012-01-16T05:01:00.003-05:00

I dawdled but finally got out riding. It gets harder all the time to keep warm as I get older, or so it seems. It used to be that temps in the mid 50's and up were fine for short sleeves or at least a thin long sleeved jersey by itself. Now I'm riding with two jerseys and a wind vest and full fingered gloves. I swapped gloves and stowed the vest at the turnaround point where I had some of the wind with me.

I also find that my cadence has increased over time and I stand less often. I roll along at 90+ for long stretches. I remember when I first started using the compact crankset that I'd run out of gears, but no more. Even when rolling along at 20+ mph yesterday, I was only mid-way through my 12-27 cassette.

These last two rides have been with the Hummer, since it provides stow space with the rack and pack. I'm using the Mavic Heliums, complete with Grand Bois tires, 28 in the rear and 25 on the front, if I recall correctly.

Before going for my ride, I went to Mass and then puttered around the house. After getting back, we walked over to the SYC and had a drink but no food. With the cold, the Tiki is pretty deserted. We thought that Rose and Jessica deserved some company :).

Sandy had picked up wild steelhead salmon for dinner which was ok, but relatively flavorless. Perhaps it was too fresh ? No, but salmon, especially the darker varieties, are drier and have a stronger flavor -- not a fishy flavor -- hard to explain. Now that I think about it, we had the same experience with the beef fillet steaks at the cottage.

... and that was it for another day.

Today ... over with Christie very shortly and then who knows. It's warmer this a.m. -- says 57 out the back -- make that MUCH WARMER.

Onward !

Jan 14 - go figure !

2012-01-14T15:01:00.003-05:00

Sandy brought down two of the "hugger" fixtures that she picked up in Sudbury for $15 apiece. There's another closet where I'd probably replace an ugly fixture but the best price online is $28. Amazon has it for $30. None of those prices include shipping. I think that I'll just bring down another one, or two, next trip !

We have a million of these fixtures up north !

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I checked out the X5 front end and sure enough, the left front lower rear control arm needs replacing -- that's the one with the ball joint that I did on the front right last year. Since the right front lower front needs replacing, I'm going to do both sides this time. Replacement of those looks fairly easy.

I had to chuckle when I was doing some research on these control arms -- one person's comment was that "these cars eat control arms on rough roads". Well, in our case sheer miles that we drive plus the rough roads up north create that appetite !

Other items on the agenda for today -- replace a furnace vent on the now-not mirrored wall and install Sandy's Christmas gift -- the backguard for the stove. That, of course, wasn't as easy as expected. There's always something to make a simple thing "a project". In this case, it wasn't getting the existing granite out on the right side, nor was it moving the stove, rather it was getting the granite backspash piece back in. Of course it was too big by about 1/16" so I had to use the angle grinder to do a trim, as I did last year on the piece of counter. At least this time I knew what I had to do and had the tool handy.

I just got back from picking up some wine at Peter's Wine Shop that he'd advertised in a blast over Christmas. I had asked him (actually Sandy in this case) to set aside a case for me, which they did.

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27F this morning. Will the banana plant survive or will I be cutting it down and hauling it out to the curb again ? For that matter, will I have frozen pipes and a frozen fountain ? The internet says that it's 36F ... it lies !

Shrimp for dinner last night along with rice and lima beans. Frozen lima beans is one of our quick veggies, like frozen peas, when food shopping has lagged.

Today -- Mass then hopefully a bike ride. I have the luxury of waiting until it warms up.

Onward !

Jan 13 - need my gloves

2012-01-14T06:46:00.003-05:00

My hands are getting really sensitive to the cold -- arthritis. For the first part of my ride yesterday my hands really ached and then my legs took all my attention :).

It's always tough getting out for that first ride. I've learned from experience, however, that building up to that first 70-miler doesn't make it any easier. Just do it !

The ride did start out cold, temps in the mid 50's, ending up warmer in the low 60's. I should have arrived one day earlier and enjoyed the 70's ... but that will come later. This morning, it's 35F ... brrr ... but warmer than what I see up north, i.e. -11F ! Winter has returned with a vengeance up there.

While I was out, Sandy played with the location of the 9x12 carpet in the living room and furniture positioning. Once home, showered and changed, we finished that up and installed the rubber underlay. It now looks more like home. Abby was all over the carpet sniffing ... "hey, I remember this carpet".

We had panko-encrusted mahi-mahi for dinner, the encrustation being a favorite of Sandy's, the mahi-mahi not so much. With asparagus and rice, it was a typical meal. Sandy also cooked some chicken breasts for her lunches. I had broken out the previously cooked ham from the freezer, so I was set.

I brought in the Christmas lights but have not packed them away yet. I need to tie the three bundles of lights and label them so I don't forget which is which, for ease of installation next year.

I've been doing some research on that lower front control arm for the X5 -- called a tension strut. It's the rubber bushing that wears and while some people have tried to replace the bushing, that's more difficult than simply replacing the arm. Besides, the arm is only worth about $55. I'll have to jack up the front left to see if that one needs replacing too, do the pair at the same time.

Unlike the control arm that I replaced last summer, this one is separate from the ball joint so it's cheaper and easier to replace. Two bolts and it's off ... but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Sometimes bolts are not easy to undo !

As for the coolant, there was no loss in the 1500 mile trip. It seems that in the extreme cold that connection drips a little. At this point, since it ain't broke ... don't fix it. However, since Jim Matthews figures that I should get 500,000 miles out of the car and I'm not quite half-way there yet, I'll have to replace it at some point since the hose will get stiffer over time.

The other part that I'll have to consider replacing is the thermostat on the M5, but that can wait. On a morning like this the engine wouldn't warm up properly ... so I won't drive it ! That's an easy solution ! Today is the lowest temperature prediction for the next 10 days ... I don't think that it's going to be a problem.

Sandy called Christi yesterday and we're set for re-connecting on Tuesday a.m.

Upcoming week -- more riding, perhaps boating mid-week, 200k Brevet next Saturday in Jupiter FL, some work around the house ...

Linda Wilder has clarified her travel plans, arriving next Sunday and leaving on Tuesday.

That's it, I think ...

Onward !

Jan 11-12 - no snow on the dish !

2012-01-13T07:39:00.003-05:00

Yes, there's no snow on the dish. I can actually access the internet in the early a.m. ... we must be in Florida ! Yes !

We arrived at 11:40 a.m. yesterday with the thermometer at 72F. It didn't take me very long to shed my jeans and change into shorts. Open-up was easier than when we arrived in the Fall, since we'd only been gone a month. There were no hurricane shutters to remove, the plants hadn't gone crazy in the meantime -- nor had they frozen, which they had last Christmas before we moved in !

Move-in is still a work in progress. At least this time our furniture is here, albeit a couple of rugs rolled up etc. I went over to Publix and picked up a couple of essentials, fired up the computer, put away all the junk unloaded from the car, that kind of stuff. Sandy had a short snooze -- these early mornings don't agree with her normal sleep patterns. We had pizza for dinner, easy.

The three day's drive went well. The first day was full of errands, of course, and a somewhat late arrival in Erie, as planned. The second day was just over 10 hours, getting us to Orangeburg in daylight. That was a treat for this time of year. I suppose that we could have gone further but it's half-way along I26 and a 5 hour shot to home so it works well.

The second day started out at 36F, actually warmer than when we'd pulled into Erie, by a few degrees. Once we headed south though, and climbed the hills taking us away from the Great Lakes, the temperature dropped into the mid 20's but the roads were ok the entire way. We saw some lingering snow in the woods along the road but no accumulation anywhere. By the time the rain started -- it did rain a lot of the day -- the temperature was over freezing, thank goodness. The sky cleared as we were getting close to our destination.

Boston's on Tuesday, right beside the hotel; Ruby Tuesday on Wednesday, right beside the hotel; pizza ... well, a couple of blocks away on Thursday. We had both grabbed lunch at the St. Lawrence Market on Tuesday, saving our pre-made sandwiches for the next day. Sandy ate her egg salad (she only eats those when traveling), and I had my ham in seedy home-made bread. I made two of those and opted to save one for the next day. I was feeling a little peckish later so I had a hunk of banana bread. Yes, it was a hunk, because I had not sliced it ! Yesterday, just prior to arriving at home, I had the second sandwich. Sandy had a cheese sandwich after we arrived.

Aren't these food details interesting ? It just goes to show you how boring our life is. Abby, on the other hand, gets a small piece of whatever I'm eating as we're driving, so she gets more treats on the road than at home. When I open a sandwich she gets a small piece, another piece as I start the second half and then a piece at the end. These are 3/4" square pieces, nothing big. I simply tear off a small piece, reach backwards and she gently, without even touching my fingers, removes the offering. It's so funny.

So we're here. What's next, well the start of my cycling season of course ! Sandy is going to wash the living room floor so that we can lay the carpet.

I left the Christmas lights on for one more night but will turn them off later today. I may or may not actually remove them today but will in the next couple.

Onward.

Jan 10 - a long day

2012-01-11T05:29:00.001-05:00

But a good one. All errands were run, including Oakville Place to drop off Jeffrey's Roots shirt to be exchanged. They will now mail the replacement to Stef who will remail it to Jeffrey. Unfortunately they won't mail it directly to the U.S.

We got to Erie PA at 8 and had dinner at Boston's within walking distance. At the time, the temp was 31F but it's now up to 36, That's the last frost we'll see in a while, I hope !

Onward to Orangeburg SC !
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Jan 9 - a day on the stair climber

2012-01-10T12:48:00.002-05:00

Whew. Between yesterday and today, I must have climbed the stairs a hundred times. We got away, however, in spite of all the climbing, wet snow, freezing crusty snow, etc. etc.

I'm in Starbucks by the St. Lawrence Market now, waiting for Sandy who is getting her hair done. The question is, will I recognize her ? Hope so !

Other than packing, there wasn't really anything of note on the 9th. I changed the tires without problem, the impact wrench sped up the process. I still use the breaker bar to give that final light crank, that way I know that they're tight. I could use the torque wrench, but don't.

I can tell from removing the front wheels that I'm going to be replacing the two lower front control arms. The rubber is going on them. It's not a safety issue, but will get annoying at some point. I brought my "pickle" and large sockets etc. to do the deed when we're in NSB. Routine Maintenance is me !

We had steak for supper, some of the filet that I'd bought for the fondue. It was "ok" -- tender but not really very tasty. Without fat, a filet can be pretty boring, flavour-wise. Perhaps that's why they wrap them in bacon.

My car is easy to spot in the parking lot. It's filthy. Everyone else seems to have a clean car. I don't think that I'm going to have enough time to do a quick spray wash on the way to Stef's and the dentist, but if there's an extra 10 minutes, I'll be there at Cawthra & The Queensway.

We stopped at David's on the way down and dropped off a couple of food items. We've got some more for Stef. It seemed that the cooler had more of other people's stuff in it than ours. Such is life. Definitely a "first world" problem !

Tonight -- Erie Pa. Tomorrow -- Orangeburg SC. Thursday -- NSB.

Onward !

Jan 9 - rats

2012-01-09T12:11:00.000-05:00

Arlene just pointed out that my last few posts were dated Dec instead of Jan ... rats ! ... fixed that !

Jan 8 - the countdown

2012-01-09T11:57:00.002-05:00

We're at that stage of our stay where we're doing "the last of". Whether that's food or a trip to town, we're doing the last of things as we prep for our departure.

The pike have been biting like crazy today. I learned something -- use Shiners. While the Dace minnows might last for days alive on a hook, the Shiners don't have to ! I've got two rigs in play and the Dace on the one has been there for two days while I went through six Shiners on the other, bringing in five fish. The rigs aren't far apart, so it's not "location, location, location" :).

One went back, a size that I would normally keep but since I'm doing so well, we'll save him/her for next year. All but one of the fish that I've caught were females ... do the males rest and relax somewhere this time of year ? Is it warm and sunny ? As I said to David, I don't feel bad catching my limit at this time of year because basically I don't fish for pike the rest of the year.

We'll be having our third feed of pike tonight and the rest are in the freezer for our return in May.

I've had internet service all day today albeit marginal this morning -- hey, marginal is better than none ! Even though the cloud cover is heavy right now, the signal is at 45. We've got light snow coming down, but from the looks of the forecast that won't be "the last of" ! We'll see more tomorrow, but no accumulation.

Jim and Bonnie are supposed to be coming over in a little while; likely our last visit for the season.

Sandy has dinner for tonight and tomorrow night all planned with leftovers of this and that in the fridge going with us, to Kim and to Stef. There isn't much. The fridge upstairs is pretty well prepped for defrosting ... another "last of". The tire swap takes place tomorrow, hopefully that's quick. It will be quicker if I use the impact wrench !

That's about it ...

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Morning again -

16/30 ... signal strength is down. Internet is down. I'm not sure what's magical about those numbers. I never see signal strength in the 20's ... I wonder why ? At any rate, I know how to fix it now but it won't be done before we leave tomorrow, that's for sure.

Bonnie brought her laptop and I updated her virus database, fixed an option on Firefox and added a link to my blog on her browser bookmarks bar. If she starts reading these blogs she'll truly learn the meaning of boredom.

Today -- last trip to the dump, swap tires, pack car, call Xplornet and Bell to cancel service (Bell to cancel long distance package).

I'll make a million trips up the stairs today, inside and outside, as I pack the car with dry goods. A number of things will have to wait until tomorrow a.m. -- our one bag each of luggage, two cases of wine, groceries, cooler, etc.

The worst part about packing the car is that I'll probably leave it up in the barn, not taking a chance on coming down to garage level with only all-season tires on it.

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I suddenly remembered that I had to turn off the fridge this morning. I just made a dozen trips up and downstairs bringing the last of the food from the upstairs fridge to the downstairs fridge. You can only appreciate how large the fridge-only unit is downstairs when the entire contents of a full fridge disappears into it, not even disturbing the existing contents. There's no question but if you had a large enough kitchen it would be great to have a side-by-side setup -- i.e. two units. Our Florida kitchen is large enough but we don't really need the space there.

By the time we leave tomorrow morning the woodbox close to the house will be empty, or only have a couple of pieces of wood left. I've hauled a fair amount of wood down from the woodshed as well, so I'm guessing that we've gone through about 3 cords in the last month, give or take. Some of that was fast burning stuff that I cut but much was heavy maple from Halle Brooks. If we stayed for the season, we'd probably burn 15+ cords, maybe more. Of course if we lived here year-round, a tank of propane would last several years !

I've half a mind to setup the stepladder and blow warm air at the satellite dish head. Come to think of it, the inch of snow that we got overnight might also be impacting the signal ... hmmm ...

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Nope, I traipsed up there in my housecoat and snow boots, luckily no-one there to take my picture, just touched the dish with the broom and it all slid off ... the signal strength is still down cycling back and forth between 17 & 30. Extension cord, ladder, heat gun would do the trick. I'll only do that if this persists after the sun is up.

Speaking of the sun -- the sky is clear, a big moon shining through the trees out back, about to set. The day will start out bright, I think.

In my research on the dish-head problem, I ran across dish warmers. Now these aren't plate warmers for a chef, these are dish warmers for satellite dishes. They can either be powered by 110v with an extension cord or 24v and a spare coax cable. If I ever wanted to leave the service on and monitor the place via cameras etc. that would be the trick.

That's it. I'll have to finish up anything internet-wise that I want to do this evening in case I don't have a signal tomorrow morning.

Onward !

Jan 7 - should I or shouldn't I

2012-01-08T06:43:00.001-05:00

post tonight or tomorrow ... what will happen ?

I fussed with the hair dryer and got the signal from 16 to 33 ... but still no cigar. As I played with the aiming, not loosening any screws, just pushing at the LNB, Sandy was calling out the numbers and it connected and started sending and receiving email.

Ok, I need a closer look at this thing. I removed the outer plastic cover (two screws) and found ... bat poop !!! ... all over the inside. Collected in the bottom of the plastic and all over the metal parts ... grrr. It could be that the acidic nature of poop got to the seals. So ... what do I do next ... hmmm.

Well, I decided to have a go at separating the horn part of the unit from the guts, as it were. That was a bit tedious because I could only turn the allen screws about 1/8 of a turn in the space allowed. Eventually, however, I did get it apart and brought the horn inside to try and remove moisture. It's not as easy as it sounds because you're poking cloth / paper towel etc. into the narrow part of the horn and trying to work it into the wider part. Eventually, however, I did get most of the moisture removed. That does nothing for moisture in the guts of the unit but at least it's a start. I did blow at the "guts" with the hair dryer (actually heat gun) to try and help. I reassembled and the signal was a few points stronger -- 38 I think, which produces a solid connection, -- running at 45 now -- and did some research, now that I had internet service.

When you don't have internet service, how do you do research on how to fix your unit ? Right.

It seems to be somewhat of a common problem. Recommendations range from using alcohol to air-in-a-can ... which I would have done except that I was all out. I hadn't thought of alcohol for drying.

If we were staying here for longer, I'd bring the unit into the house and do a thorough drying and re-sealing. Time will tell as to whether this will help tomorrow a.m.

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I went into town for the last run before going south. I picked up another dozen minnows and by the way, pulled in another good sized pike. I've also lost another couple of minnows today. At the General Store, I got flour and skim milk powder (for making yogurt) and headed back home with the temperature dropping. It started the day at 35F and is supposed to hit 5F overnight.

Sandy has been doing laundry all day, sheets, sheets and more sheets. Because she can only get one king-sized sheet at a time in this silly washer, it takes time.

What else ?

I used the JB Weld on that wheel weight. It takes a long time to set. I'll bring the wheel up to the barn tomorrow but won't be swapping wheels until Monday. I suppose that I could do the swap tomorrow after I get back from Mass ... whatever.

--------

I have service ! It's marginal, but it's there. 1000% improvement, although technically something over zero is infinite. I'd definitely have another go at this if we were staying for much longer than two more days.

Sandy continued to work the washing machine yesterday up into the evening. When I asked her how many more sheets she had to wash, I got an "I don't know". She must be making progress because I saw the clothesline full of sheets at one point, before it started snowing ...

There was no more action at the fishing rigs, that seems to fall off as dusk approaches.

We had stuffed rainbow trout for dinner -- one of my specialties -- along with coleslaw and leftover turnip. We're gradually cleaning out the fridge.

Speaking of cleaning out the fridge -- today we're going to move everything to the fridge downstairs and I'll shut-off the upstairs one first thing tomorrow morning and let it defrost. I'm still nervous about this fridge frosting up while we're away. It has mostly behaved itself although I did detect a buildup of ice one time. We have to defrost it during the day in case there is any build-up that would overflow the evaporator tray.

Today ... Mass in Britt; Jim and Bonnie are supposed to come over for a drink this afternoon.

Tomorrow ... swap tires and pack.

Onward !

Jan 6 - talking to myself

2012-01-07T09:03:00.001-05:00

Yes, here I am again, talking to myself. Somehow, when the blog is going to "pend" for hours before posting, it seems like I'm talking to myself. Of course all blogging is talking to yourself, but this is even worse !

Last night when we got home, the signal strength was 44; now it's 16. I'm fed up with this ! Luckily we're leaving in three days !

If we were staying here and I couldn't do anything about this, I'd change my entire schedule -- stay up late and get up late !

We left here at 8am yesterday and got back home at 6:30 p.m. As planned, we drove straight to Stef's, straight there, didn't even stop for gas. We dawdled a little, leaving there shortly after noon and heading to Oakville Place. Sandy was expecting to exchange Jeffrey's Roots t-shirt but found that the promised set-aside didn't happen. Of course we also found out that it wasn't the correct store ... there was another in Oakville ... but the correct store didn't have it either. So ... Kylie, who came with us to the Mall, kept the shirt with her and Stef will return it on Monday, inventory day, and they'll find an up-size.

The four of us went to the food court and had a Mr.. Sub -- Canadian version of Subway that's been around longer but missed the mark when Subway took off -- and then we said farewell to Kylie who was going to do some shopping and then take a bus home.

Off to Barrie, our first stop was Home Depot for cut-off wheels for the grinder; Princess Auto where I didn't buy anything, Cadet Cleaners to drop the grinder with David and say "hello", Toys R Us where Megan chose her birthday gift a few days early, David's to drop off Megan, Barrie Glass (Kim's work) to say "hello" since we were driving right by ... and then home. We stopped in Parry Sound for gas.

The temperature was up to 45 in Toronto yesterday, back down to 35 here. It's still 35 and is supposed to drop, but I cannot check the weather. I thought about it last night, but forgot.

We have no plans for the next three days. I'll get into Loring one more time for mail and flour to take south; go to Mass in Britt; swap the tires on Monday; load up the woodbox a few more times; do some ice fishing ...

We also hope to get together with Jim and Bonnie before we leave. They were supposed to come over before Christmas but Jim wasn't feeling well. Pam was supposed to come north with the kids but that was when Barrie got dumped with snow. I'm assuming that they're here although Jim's vehicle wasn't there on Thursday.

For "dinner" last night we simply snacked. We should have taken out something before we left but didn't, and neither of us had the energy to do any defrosting. It was too early for dinner when we passed by Parry Sound, so a glass of wine, crackers and cheese, a sandwich, a hunk of banana bread ...

Knock on wood, but the car is behaving itself. I've lost a few tablespoons of coolant but nothing serious. I'll have to see if it leaks when we're in Florida -- I suspect that it's simply the result of the cold. The coolant hoses attach to the thermostat and radiator with clips, no clamps, so could age make the material less pliable, the cold make it stiff ? If it doesn't leak, I'll probably simply leave it ... but might drain, uncouple and re-attach ... we'll see.

We passed 222,000 miles on the odometer yesterday.

------

I hauled wood. I drilled holes in the ice. I set the ice fishing rigs. I brought my front left summer wheel into the workshop. I chopped the ice & snow off the concrete stairs, since it's warm.

As usual, before a north/south or south/north trip, I'm at loose ends a couple of days before. Ideally I could simply load the car and we'd leave, surprise myself, as it were. It won't happen though, we've got hair (well, Sandy) and dentist appointments on Tuesday.

I brought the wheel into the basement to warm up and then I'm going to re-stick the 3/4 oz wheel weight that came off when I pulled the wheel off the car to put on the snows. I'll use a touch of JBWeld. I wouldn't do that right to the wheel but this weight was a stick-on piggyback on another weight, so I'll simply replace that. I need the wheel to warm up, dry off, then I'll clean that spot and the weight and do the deed. It's going to be more of a pain getting that wheel back up to the barn than it was rolling it downhill ! I'll probably use the 4-wheeler.

-------

Onward ? Who knows ! The signal is still at 16.

Jan 6 - as usual

2012-01-06T11:09:00.000-05:00

The internet is down. It was up when I got up at 1am and put wood on the fire, lights blinking away. I didn't have my glasses so I did not check the signal strength at that point.

Now I've got 16. Expect this to post around noon.

We expect to leave around 8am with our first stop, other than bio and gas, in Oakville. Sandy's already finished her food shopping so when we get back to Barrie with Megan we'll have to make the following stops:

-- her house

-- Home Depot for a cut-off wheel for my grinder for David

-- Princess Auto for a few metric sockets

-- David's store

-- Toys R Us -- Sandy and Megan shopping for Megan's birthday present.

Somewhere along the way we'll eat lunch and dinner, unless we get away soon enough to have dinner in Parry Sound, which is a possibility. I've packed a ziploc sandwich bag with Abby's dinner.

We'll be crowded in the car. Three girls, luggage, Abby, hockey stick ... space will be tight.

Oh -- orange sherbet was much better last night. I didn't have whole milk so I used skim with some 35% cream added, probably coming to the same % cream. What I did differently, however, was use half the milk and no sugar. As a result it was tart like sherbet with a strong orange flavour. Ah yes, that's sherbet !

Onward ?!?!

Jan 5 - fishing

2012-01-05T17:02:00.001-05:00

Fishing has been on and off. I got that fish yesterday without the flag being up. Three times more the flag popped ... and nothing. Some line went out but nothing attached.

We had the pike for dinner; it was excellent, beyond compare. Great texture and taste, no "fishiness". When you get right down to it we like fish that doesn't taste fishy. Anyone who doesn't like fish because of the taste probably remembers having fishy fish. For the most part, if you buy fish from the grocery store, it smells and then tastes, fishy. When you eat it within a few hours of being caught ... wow.

I've actually had better luck with these dace minnows ice fishing than I've ever had before, and they're small to boot. One of the fish that I caught and cleaned had a bunch of minnows inside -- very small ones -- so it must have found a school. One of these years I should probably try catching minnows in the winter, but that would likely mean bringing the auger to a pond ... or perhaps if there's not much ice ... an axe ... but would I want to walk on the ice in those conditions ? With four pike either inside us or in the freezer, the $10 that I spent on minnows was well worth it.

Today, as I think that I mentioned, Sandy is going to Sudbury. She's taking Michael home as well. I'm betting that Kylie will go with them. I'll have Megan and Lauren to amuse -- but actually they do a pretty good job of amusing themselves.

I'm typing this into an email because, as usual, the internet is down. We have a heavy black cloud in the direction that the dish is pointing, so that's likely the problem. I went out before light and put pipe wrap around the dish "head" and plugged that in, to see if that might help. Nope, the signal is still hovering in the 30-32 range.

Speak of the devil, I just got a green. With the signal strength at 31, however, that won't last. Whoops, back to red. C'est la vie in the Great White North.

I can see our forlorn tree out on the lake. The rink is clear, no snow overnight. The driveway was clear as well.

Sailors take warning -- yes, red sky in morning. I won't be doing any sailing though !

More later ...

---------

Sherbet. I finally got around to using the ice cream maker that Stef gave me one year for Christmas. It gets used very occasionally, not as much as it should. I either don't think of it or don't have the ingredients handy. Whole milk, for instance, is an ingredient in most milk-based recipes. We usually only have skim. I guess that 2% might work, but not skim.

Last night for desert we had orange sherbet and lime sherbet, both very good. It's time consuming though -- about 25 minutes per -- but we waited. The orange isn't orange enough, using half of a can of frozen orange juice. The lime, on the other hand, also calls for a half can but I used a full can. I used a little less milk and less sugar ... definitely mouth puckering ! I also didn't bother with the green food colouring !

---------

I brought in more wood, using the hand truck. If I hadn't been taking advantage of the scanty snow and using the hand truck, I'd be hauling it from the woodshed somehow, would have emptied the nearby woodpile long ago.

There's been no action at the fishing rigs. Sigh.

---------

I spent most of the morning p'ing around with the satellite connection. The clear plastic sealed cover at the head has (had) frost inside. It's not an area that should ever be wet. I ran extension cords and used the hair dryer (actually the heat gun) for a while and warmed it up enough to cause the droplets to disappear. What a difference that made to the signal strength. Zero. Yes, nothing. I then got on the phone with Xplornet for 1.5 hours and got no satisfaction from them either. Basically they were saying that I had an aiming problem and they'd have to send a tech. Well, I know how that works. I also know that I'm leaving shortly and there's no point. Hopefully it will be ok when we return and/or we'll get the upgrade installed quickly thereafter.

I have service now. As before, the signal strength gets higher as the day wears on, regardless of the cloud cover, regardless of the precipitation ... I'm pretty fed up with this particular service, would upgrade to the other modem if Xplornet wasn't leaving Hughes anyway.

---------

The girls are getting weary of sledding or the sledding is getting weary of them. Megan banged her leg in the morning, insisted that she couldn't walk but after lunch wanted to go out again. That time out Lauren ran over her thumb or twisted it, not sure, she's icing it now. She may have sprained it a little. Earlier in the week she scraped her chin on the snow when Chase was driving the GT Snowracer out on the lake. He drove way off to the side and leaned it up on one rail and they rolled off.

Oh, the latest on the thumb is that the ice doesn't make any difference. It might be one of those things that only hurts when she remembers it, we'll see.

The ice rink looks good but it's empty.

Sandy and Kylie just got back, laden with food that's mostly for Florida -- flatbread, canned salmon that I like, cereal etc. She also picked up a couple of "hugger" light fixtures for the Florida house to replace some yucky old fashioned globe style fixtures. We have these huggers all over the cottage.

--------

4:40 p.m. Signal strength is now up to 42. I'm having a hard time believing that I have a hardware or aiming problem that manifests itself this way ... but who knows.

I took Lauren and Megan out behind the 4-wheeler and then they went sledding. Lauren's thumb problem seems to be waning. "Faster Papa, Faster" was what I was getting from behind :). They took turns steering and then we put the snowracers away. They continued to play on the plastic magic carpets.

---------

Tonight -- the girls want perch. Sandy wants pike. We're having perch and pike. The girls want sherbet. We're having sherbet.

What do I want ? I already have it. A wonderful Christmas time with my family. No, I partly take that back -- if I had all that I wanted Alexander would have been here too.

Onward.

Jan 4 - an early blog ?

2012-01-04T18:28:00.001-05:00

It seems that most days I don't have service in the a.m. This morning was even worse than usual, the blog that I "posted' at 5:30 a.m. not getting sent via email until after noon. Needless to say I couldn't access the internet during that time either ... so ... I had to find something else to do ...

Down came the tree -- but I had lots of help. Sandy, Kylie and Michael joined in and we made short work of it. Most of the pack-up and clean-up falls to me, however, since I've got the extension ladder out, the shop vac doing it's thing, the snippers cutting branches off the tree, and finally, finally, out the front door and over the railing !

The tree is now stuck in the ice, frozen into an ice fishing hole. It will last until the first thaw, perhaps falling down on Friday at this rate. It does look pretty sad since most of the lower branches were removed.

Speaking of ice fishing, I went out to pull in the rigs, replace the dead minnows, chopped the rigs free and behold, one of the rigs had a fish attached ! The flag had not been tripped; the biggest-so-far pike was lethargic enough that I could chop the hole big enough for it to come through without it getting excited.

Speaking of fishing, who would show up late in the day but Donnie. He and Isaac were in for the night, no fishing this time. He wasn't sure how much ice we had and wondered about us romping out there, thought that I was very brave. Not me, says I, having drilled my way across the lake ! I know how thick this ice is ! I'm not guessing !

I succumbed and ran the snow blower, getting rid of the 2" that was already there plus the 1" that came down this morning. Settled it was still only 1" in spots; 3" in spots; short work for a snow blower. Luckily I had topped up the tank when I last ran the machine, because I'd given all my spare gas to Jeffrey to get him to Parry Sound.

The 4-wheeler did it's thing, pulling the girls on the GT Snowracer. It was warm and easy going. I could have started the 3-wheeler as well, but the 4-wheel-drive ATC is easier to get up the hill, slick from all the sledding.

We had pork loin last night and are having fresh-caught pike this evening, along with brussels sprouts (Kim's recipe) and mashed sweet potato. We're not going hungry !

That's about it. Sandy might go into Sudbury tomorrow; we'll be heading to Oakville & Barrie on Friday. Our winter interlude is just about over.

Onward !

Jan 3 - down again

2012-01-04T12:03:00.001-05:00

I could have come up with other titles, but the most pressing is that the internet is down again. With a signal strength of 17, this blog isn't going anywhere ! I'm coming to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with the equipment, perhaps moisture getting into the receive/transmit head or something. At any rate, I'll be happy to upgrade asap in the Spring.

However, rolling the clock back to yesterday, the 4th, which is what this blog is supposed to cover ...

It was cold. -11F is cold. I've certainly experienced colder but at some point it's hard to notice the difference.

The car notices the difference. It wouldn't be happy starting in -11F weather. It, the X5, was in the barn and the car thermometer read 10F when I started it up. It quickly dropped to -11F as I was driving along Osprey Road. That was the first trip, following Jeffrey. I knew that I was at least 5 minutes behind them but wanted to make sure that they made it the entire way and weren't stuck somewhere looking for help. The road was clear.

About an hour later I made another trip, this time with Megan and Lauren, going into Loring. We needed a number of grocery items and the girls picked out a snack. They were on a mission.

A little after lunch, Kylie's friend Michael arrived from Sudbury. We never saw his Mom, who waited at the top of the driveway for him to come back up to tell her that he was at the correct house. She'll pick him up today. I'd relayed a message via Kylie that unless they had four wheel drive and snow tires, don't come down the drive. They did have snows and I'm sure that they'd have been ok, but it really wasn't worth finding out. Kylie met Michael at a friend's cottage in the area and they've kept in touch. He's a boy ... friend ... not a boyfriend :) ... but then again, I'm not sure.

The kids played outside -- Kylie and Michael on the ice rink, Lauren and Megan with the sleds. It was too cold to pull them with the 4-wheeler. At that temperature they could get frostbite cruising along. They were outside for a long time though since it was sunny and pleasant enough if you kept busy.

Later Kylie and Michael went for a walk along the bush trail where Jeffrey and Sara had been on the 4-wheeler.

I kept busy as well, clearing the rink after Kylie and Michael were finished, then flooding it. Unfortunately there's this big ridge across the middle where Jeffrey drove the 4-wheeler ... but that's not the only uneven spot. We really need a Zamboni !

Kylie and Michael helped and I used the leaf blower to get most of the fine stuff off the surface. It flooded much easier, much smoother, that way. I'll see what it's like this a.m.

The kids have today and tomorrow to play then we'll leave Friday morning for Oakville and Barrie, in that order. We'll be back here that evening.

Jason called yesterday and they might come up, which would be fun. We'll be leaving on Tuesday morning for Toronto, Oakville and parts south, but we don't have much to do or pack before then. It will only take me a couple of hours to swap tires and load the few things that we're bringing with us.

Our plan is as follows -- leave early Tuesday; Sandy's hair appointment at noon; dentist appointments in Oakville at 4pm; night in Erie PA; next night in Orangeburg SC along I26; then home to NSB. We'll arrive in NSB early afternoon on Thursday, if all goes well.

The signal strength is still 17. I'm going to go and throw a bucket of hot water on the dish, in case it has a build-up of ice, but I don't think that's the problem.

Onward ?

Jan 2 - the temperature drops

2012-01-03T09:11:00.002-05:00

Being a stat holiday in most places, no one went anywhere. The only car movement was Jeffrey's car backup to the garage. I had intended to also attach the battery minder but that didn't prove to be necessary.

It took a while to scrape / melt / shove the snow and ice accumulation off the vehicle. I also drained half of the windshield washer fluid and refilled with -40 stuff, given the expected overnight low of -11F. By the way, it did hit -11F ... that's what my car thermometer said as I followed them out the next morning.

Jeffrey did have some trouble getting out of the driveway -- oh the joys of "all season radials". I spread some gravel that I had in a bucket and he'd make it a couple more feet but I didn't have enough gravel to completely coat the driveway. I suggested that he try in reverse and that proved to be the trick. Gearing is lower in reverse and with front wheel drive, there was less weight on the back wheels. Unbeknownst to them I then followed them out to 522 with the X5, just to make sure that they'd made it that far.

The kids played and played and played outside but the temperature was dropping. Late afternoon Jeffrey on the 4-wheeler and I on the 3-wheeler pulled the kids on the GT Snow Racers. That actually didn't last very long because they were getting cold.

Before dinner Jeffrey and Sara had a ride on the 4-wheeler heading down one of the bush trails. I have no idea how long they were out but not too long, I suspect.

Sandy made meatloaf for dinner; add sauteed zucchini and leftover mashed potatoes and no one went hungry. Oh yes, add fresh bread. I've been making one or two loaves of bread per day.

After dinner I brought out some small toys that I'd purchased in the U.S. -- Fireflys (sp?), which have led lights and string and you spin them around. Proving again that you need not spend a lot of money to amuse kids, they had fun with them. We also had a pair of flashing light necklaces. They romped around in the dark downstairs.

Desert -- pie, ice cream, date squares -- I need to get on my bike !!!!!

Onward !

Jan 1 - smart parents evacuate

2012-01-01T17:24:00.003-05:00

... not really, but we're down to 4 adults, 5 children and 1 dog. We're outnumbered !

Stef and Aaron left first, getting ahead of the rainy weather moving in, leaving Kylie and Lauren with us. I left shortly thereafter, heading to Mass in Britt, but of course I came back. David and Kim left after I got back, leaving Megan with us. Sara and Jeffrey are still here ... Sara joked "now's our chance, let's leave" ... but of course that would never happen.

Sara, Jeffrey, Emma and Chase will head out on the 4th (Wed); we'll take Megan, Kylie and Lauren home on either the 5th or 6th. I'm shooting for the 6th day trip; Sandy's shooting for the 5th, overnight at David's. We have one car, since Sandy's has not been out in the snow and salt, so we'll have to compromise somewhere !

Today was a wet day, but that didn't stop the kids from having a great time outside. When I got home, they were outside making a snow family -- 4 snow people -- in the area at the end of the driveway. Later they were sledding. Still later I took out the 3-wheeler and pulled them on the lake. After doing my good deed, I ran across the lake with the machine, hitting some slush of course -- Aaron and I found that yesterday -- and returning along the bay shoreline, avoiding the slush.

Late in the day as I looked out of the basement door one of my flags popped, so I ran out and pulled in a good-sized pike. It's big enough for a meal all by itself plus we have the two from yesterday, three meals all together. So far so good !

We had wet snow on and off all day but there's actually no accumulation. Tonight it's supposed to dip to -7C and tomorrow night -22C, so we'll be back in the deep freeze soon.

522 was a bit of a mess driving to & from Britt but 69 was bare and wet. 522 was actually better before they salted and tomorrow, with the freeze, will be even worse. I'm not sure that there's enough salt to contend with a deep freeze.

Internet service has been so-so, but it's ok now. 5:36 p.m. at the moment, I'll complete this blog tomorrow a.m.

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I was up at midnight and the temperature had barely dipped. Now it's around 20F and they are forecasting an even deeper freeze for tonight, would you believe -24C / -11F with "feels like" at -29F. Now that's cold !

We had veal stew for dinner, "Sandy's Famous" ... if George was writing this blog. It would only be famous, however, if she made it more often :). It's very good. Lauren didn't want to eat the onions even though they were water chestnuts ... ha.

Sleeping arrangements somewhat over the place. Emma has been sleeping in Stef & Aaron's room except for the night that they were here, when she slept on the soft foam single (courtesy the Davies) on the floor of Jeffrey & Sara's room. The other four kids slept downstairs. Last night, however, that changed with Lauren and Megan sleeping upstairs in David & Kim's room; Kylie and Chase sleeping in the basement bedroom. At least that was the plan ... I was in bed before they were.

At dinner, I commented that the "kids" now outnumbered the adults and Kylie objected. I set the definition as "3rd generation" and she was ok with that. Had Jason and Lorraine been around, the "kids" definition would have been 2nd generation ... but hey, you go with the flow. The 2nd generation is now the adults and we're just older.

The tree is still up. I broke with tradition and didn't spend New Years Day de-ornamenting the tree. Today or tomorrow ... we'll see. Today will be a good day for outside activities; tomorrow could be brutal out there.

Oh yes, I did do some fooling around with a 500gb disk drive that I've got here. It's a full size Seagate disk, was in an external Rosewill eSata case. Trying it in two machines w/o the external case, couldn't get it to be recognized even though I could feel it spin up. I checked the Seagate website and found that it's still under warranty, so here we go again.

Onward ... system status green; signal strength 33/34 ... marginal. Perhaps this will post ...

Dec 31 - ringing in the new year

2012-01-01T06:56:00.000-05:00

Yes, I actually watched the ball drop in Times Square. Yes, I cheated, having a snooze from 10:30 to 11:45.

It was a great day, albeit a gray day. Stef arrived around 2pm so the family was complete. Within a very short while they were all outside, taking advantage of the light to use the skating rink.

Jeffrey and David were out for a couple of hours on the ATC's, stopping at the dump and riding on the skidoo trails on the other side of the lake. They returned by the same route, although I found that they could have crossed the lake, had they known, as we have 8" of ice most of the way across and some areas with 4" in the bay across from us where the skidoo bush trail joins the lake trail.

Once everyone was inside, I took advantage of the opportunity and took a family picture. It's been a while since the last one, having missed the opportunity in 2010 when we were together for Jeffrey & Sara's wedding. After the picture, we opened the remaining presents under the tree plus the ones from Stef. People then spread out to the games downstairs and a video upstairs while preparations for dinner were underway.

We had fondue -- beef and pork; bread from the bread maker; salad. Fireworks came next and then chocolate fondue. I'm fondued out at this point !

I lost many minnows down my ice fishing holes but also cleaned two pike for dinner for another day. I threw one back, being a little guy -- "come back next year".

I have no idea what the weather has in store for us today since I have a very low signal strength at this point and no internet service. I have no idea when this blog will actually post ...

Onward !

Dec 30 - winter travel

2011-12-31T06:05:00.001-05:00

Winter travel is only for the determined & foolish at times. Yesterday Stef & Aaron took the discretion approach with icy fog and roads and many accidents in the Toronto area. The turkey wouldn't wait another day ... nor would the kids ! I don't know if they'll try again today. Neither of them are keen drivers in these kinds of conditions.

Chase is now an honorary Canuck. He ran the snowblower, helped me shovel the skating rink and brought in wood for the fire. He played and played and played outside. Emma was out as much as possible as was Megan. David and Jeffrey ran the ATC's; Jeffrey gave everyone a turn driving with him as backup of course. I do have pictures to post at some point.

The pool table and air hockey got a workout as well.

I went into town and picked up some groceries, coffee that had been delivered by Purolator and minnows. I set out four ice fishing rigs but there was no action. I'm sure that all the noise above -- kids playing and machines roaring -- didn't attract any fish. I'll re-set those rigs this morning and see what today brings.

Before the turkey, we opened presents but of course many are still left under the tree for Stef, Aaron, Kylie, Lauren and Mya. I also prepped the beef fondue for tonight in its red wine / soya sauce / oil marinade.

It looks like, from the signal strength, we have heavy cloud again. There's no precipitation in the area although there are flurries south of us. I expect today's weather to be much like yesterday's -- below freezing temperatures without sun. Tomorrow is supposed to nudge above freezing for a bit and then plunge into a deep freeze again.

Onward ... I'll now for sure what the weather has been once the day is over :).

Dec 29 - having a blast !

2011-12-30T06:05:00.004-05:00

I made a run into Loring, picking up some food items at the General Store. By the time I got back, David had arrived and was unloading.

It's a good thing that we have a big house. People can spread out and it's not bedlam ! Before long "the kids" -- Megan, Chase and Emma -- were downstairs playing pool. I went down at one point and Emma told me to go back upstairs :).

The pool game didn't last long though. It was lunch time and then everyone, ladies excluded, piled outside. Sandy, Sara and Kim had some peace inside while David, Jeffrey and Chase played hockey on the rink and Megan and Emma played on the ice.

With the lake level falling, ice piles up along the shore. The pieces are huge and thick. Chase and I had stood up a triangular piece of the ice two days before; Jeffrey completed the picture with another couple of pieces -- our ice Inuksuk was complete !

From hockey they went to sledding, going on and on and on. Late in the day I did some more flooding on the "rink" and Chase was outside sledding some more. He can't get enough of the outdoors. We were joking at the dinner table that he wants to be adopted by David and Kim !

Dinner was another Sandy affair, a very large peameal cooked in the oven. In this weather that's a very efficient exercise because no heat is wasted ! We ate the entire thing, save a couple of small pieces that wouldn't even make half a sandwich.

My white bread is a hit and I have to keep making it for lunches and dinners. We had date squares for desert .... I'll probably have to make more. The rice krispy cookies are dwindling.

Stef's plan is to come up today, which will be Christmas at the Thompson's. That also means turkey, so Sandy will be busy in the kitchen.

It's 18F / -7C outside, quite a bit warmer than it's been. That warm trend will be with us for a couple of days and then we have another plunge into the cold. It looks like we got a cm or so of snow overnight, light fluffy stuff that I could use the leaf blower to clear, if I could get that started in the cold, and perhaps another cm on the way. The Doppler is clear at this point, the overnight flurry having moved through.

I'll be running into town again, picking up coffee that's been delivered as well as another couple of grocery items, minnows if they're open and gas for the machines. Actually, before I pick up gas I should check in the boathouse and see what's in the Whaler, use that first.

I'll have to start my fondue meat marinade today too, because I always like to give that 24 hours. We are going to fondue tomorrow night, New Years Eve.

Onward ...

Dec 28 - a warming trend

2011-12-29T06:29:00.003-05:00

I see that it's -6F right now, better than the -8F that I saw overnight ! Actually it does get warmer from here on in ...

However, despite the cold, everyone had a blast outside yesterday. Everyone, that is, except for Sandy whose "closest encounter of the cold kind" was looking out the window. Typical ! It was sunny and basically without wind, quite pleasant, in spite of the fact that it never really warmed up over 0F. Heck, I remember all of us skiing at Mt. Tremblant in -40 weather. The Celsius and Fahrenheit scales come together at -40.

Chase and I went into town, which was not without excitement ... the car doors had frozen open at first, the latches not engaging and then closed. If necessary I could have tried the back doors, the windows, the panorama roof ... we weren't exactly trapped. I thought at first about simply sitting in the sun after I backed out of the barn but decided that the car would warm up more quickly driving, so we headed into Loring. The freezing occurred because Sandy and I had been driving in the very wet weather the day before. Although the car was in the barn, the temperature was still 15F.

Sure enough, the doors were fine at the General Store where we picked up the mail and a couple of other items. We then went to Home Hardware and got two sump pump hoses which I joined together when we got home and used a small sump pump to do some rink flooding. It's not exactly perfect but will have to do. I may do some more this a.m.; we'll see.

Prior to that, I had cleared the driveway with the snow blower. The plow was overdue end of day so if he came overnight I'll have to clear the end of the driveway. The snow settled during the day, however, and I don't expect much there.

I also got the 4-wheeler out on the lake for a bit, circling the rink. I'd checked the ice thickness and it's fine. I was burying the 6" drill bit. The top part of that is crusty stuff so we have waited until today for large scale romping on the lake with the machines. I did give Chase some excitement pulling him on the road, however, and he quickly learned the trick of steering onto the fresh snow to make "fresh tracks" -- the skiers dream.

I made rice crispy cookies and ... get this ... date squares. I haven't tried those yet. It seemed to me when I was making it that there wasn't as much date filling as Sheryl's but I'll reserve judgement.

The air hockey table got some exercise as did the pool table. Jeffrey had taught Chase five card poker and later on, I taught him Blackjack.

Alexander has a place of honour on one of the shelves in the living room with a picture and the urn. Sara and Jeffrey didn't want to leave him behind. Even though this would have been his first visit, his absence is felt.

The latest schedule has David arriving this morning and Stef tomorrow. We're going with the flow :).

Onward ? ... yes ...

Dec 27 - Eureka !

2011-12-28T05:13:00.003-05:00

I now know why it takes Sandy so long when she goes to Sudbury. It isn't the time spent driving between the various "ports of call", it's the time in the stores themselves.

Take yesterday as an example. I decided to go with her because there were things that I wanted to shop for, not trusting her and vice versa. She didn't trust me to shop for vegetables etc. and I didn't trust her to pick up an inexpensive DVD player for the basement (the one down there is dead). I also wanted to pick out the meat for New Years Eve fondue.

We only hit three places -- Canadian Tire (hockey sticks etc. & DVD player), Costco (food), YIG -- Your Independent Grocer -- food.

Canadian Tire was relatively quick -- turkey baster, two hockey sticks, balls, puck, DVD player.

Costco was similarly quick, but traffic was building -- fondue meat + a variety of other foodstuffs. It turned out that per pound the beef tenderloin was cheaper than the rib steaks, so BT it will be. I forget all that we had in our cart but it turned out to be an expensive stop.

YIG (that's how it shows up in my Quicken credit card bill), took the longest. This is where Sandy, as a foodie, spent most of her time. It was like browsing in a museum except that she probably covered the store four times.

I think that her comment in Canadian Tire was most telling -- "I love this store". Many women would go crazy in an outlet mall but for Sandy it's Crappy Tire and YIG !

It was lightly raining when we left and snowing upon our return. Osprey Road was very sloppy, only about 2 inches of snow, if that, but mooshy. The temperature was still over freezing and stayed that way all day. By dinnertime it was still the same as all day -- 34F -- and then afterwards dropped to 33F ... whoo hooo. Within a half-hour or so it dropped to 23F and the freeze was on ! Right now it's 7F with still a light dusting coming down. The internet says 3F. We have a 2"-3" of snow on the ground at this point and of course satellite service is so-so.

We were back from Sudbury for a late lunch and a while later I went out with Chase and we wandered around the property, onto the ice, cleared the deck of 5mm of snow, took the 4-wheeler down to the end of the road and back ... just to get Chase outside mostly. When we came in, Chase went out again with Jeffrey, Sara and Emma. Emma got to use the swing, with Jeffrey's help of course. Snowballs flew.

This morning I'll have some snow blowing to do. I need to go into Loring to check the mail and pick up a couple of items. I expect to drill a largish hole in the ice at some point and flood the skating rink ... but before we do that we'll have to clear the snow, I think. I don't know because it was quite windy overnight and it might be mostly clear.

We had lasagne for dinner, eating well as usual. There was enough leftover for Sandy and I to have a meal once everyone is gone. That's called planning ahead. George and Geri are quite good at that with their travels in the coach, preparing ahead of time for on-the-road meals. Of course their kitchen travels with them :). I think if we ever did extensive touring like them, I'd have to have an automatically-deployable grill !

Onward ? I hope so !

Dec 26 - an early arrival

2011-12-27T05:31:00.003-05:00

We heard from Jeffrey mid-day that they were making good progress and their NAV was showing an 8pm arrival. He figured more like 10, and they arrived just before. They had taken the more direct route north from Chesapeake Beach MD to Buffalo, which cuts off many miles. Often those direct routes are jammed with traffic as you go through little towns but Dec 26 traffic was light.

They had originally expected to stop at Stef's, thinking that they had 15 hours of driving / 19 hours of travel, but since they could make it same evening, it was much more straightforward to go through. I have to agree, since I helped them unload the car. It was overflowing with stuff ! With Jeffrey, Chase and I bringing everything down to the cottage it did not take too long, but that was still a 20 minute exercise.

The day stayed warm, the temperature just over freezing. Today we have more of the same but getting colder as the day goes on, dipping to -6C by nightfall and -16C overnight. The house is warm inside, but I promised Sara that won't last ! The high tomorrow is predicted to be -14C.

The lake ice looks more and more wet, but there's lots of it. I measured 5" yesterday. I took the 3-wheeler out for a spin, going on the ice. That surface snow will continue to melt today and then freeze. I cleared most of the residual snow off my "skating rink" out front and that will freeze nicely as the temperature plunges.

We didn't do much else yesterday, or at least I didn't do much else. I did use the trainer and the elliptical and lift some weights. One of those weights is me, using the chin-up bar in my work room. Sandy cooked all day. I did my part, making white bread (not everyone likes my seedy bread) and banana bread. Ok, so I cheated and used the bread maker for both :).

The 3-wheeler started right up but of course by the time David gets here it will be much colder and it will complain. The 4-wheeler did too, but there's never a question about that one.

Sandy is going into Sudbury today; not sure if I'll go or not. The original plan was "yes", but with Jeffrey here, I may not. I was hoping to go into Loring yesterday to pick up a couple of things at the General Store, but called first and didn't get an answer, clearly closed for Christmas. They are normally closed on Sunday so it being Christmas, they took the extra day.

Sandy also squared away the bedrooms yesterday. Jeffrey and Sara are in the room that faces the driveway; Emma in the end room facing the lake -- where Stef will be the one night; Chase downstairs. I've got heaters strewn through the basement and had the temperature up to 68F down there but of course that will be harder to maintain as the outside temperature drops from 34F to 0F.

That's about it. Another day begins.

Onward !

Dec 25 - addendum.

2011-12-26T05:20:00.003-05:00

Snowmen, then and now.

February 1993. Mississauga. Jeffrey, Nathan, Vicki and me. The best snowman ever !

December 1993, the only year that Mom and Dad spent Christmas at the cottage because Dad had a kidney stone.

December 2011.

Dec 25 - indoor and outdoor

2011-12-25T12:21:00.005-05:00

I had more success outdoor than indoor today.

Outdoor, I shoveled the driveway, which had about 2 inches of snow. We have some more drifting down now, some sticky stuff, so perhaps I'll go out and make a snowman before it freezes hard.

I did give the snow blower some use on the wider parts mostly to move the piles of snow that I'd created with the snow shovel. Last year at this time I never even started the machine ! We do have a white Christmas at this point, very pretty.

After my shoveling exercise, I took out the 4-wheeler, following the trail from where it starts by Jason's driveway to where it comes back out to the road at Reddicks. It takes a while to follow that path so I was probably out there for an hour. Last year, if I remember correctly, there was already too much snow on the ground to take the machine into the bush. This year, so far, that's not a problem. In fact, since we've had cold weather to date, all the puddles are frozen over so it's easier going with the ATC.

Inside, before going outside, I was working at setting up a backup machine. I have an old machine here that has oodles of disk space and is "fast enough" for a backup. It has two small but fast SCSI disks as well as 600gb of space split among a 120, 200 and 300. I decided to install Linux on the 120, which went well as I had brought a 32bit install disk with me, and then expected to install VMware Player. That required a large download, so I had to wait until off-hours, did so this morning but found that it wouldn't install. Although it's the 32 bit version, it requires 64 bit architecture to support virtualization. Rats ! I don't think that VMware Server that dependent on the hardware, but then again it had a host of other problems.

So ... the machine works either as a native Windows XP machine or Linux but I cannot run Windows on VMware on Linux ... so there's no portability between the two machines. Oh well.

-------

Back outdoors, I decided to clear an area of ice with the snow blower so that I could flood it once the temperature drops again. That was a lot of work, because the snow was sticky and heavy and my little machine wasn't really up to the task. I was exhausted afterwards, not sure that I really accomplished anything.

The temperature stayed above freezing most of the day and down where there had been open water on the lake you could see the darker colour of the slush. It's below freezing again now, heading above later and then down again. It's hard to say what we'll have by the time everyone is here, but at the very least we'll have the area out front for play. Daytime temps are supposed to be above freezing today and tomorrow and then plunge, with -8 tomorrow night and -17 the night after.

I think that everyone's plans are set. Jeffrey travels to Oakville today and then to the cottage tomorrow morning (27th). David will come up the morning of the 29th, as will Stef. We're going to have Christmas turkey on the 29th and then Stef plans on leaving the 30th. David stays to the 1st; Jeffrey stays to the 4th; Megan stays after that, until we bring her back to Barrie, probably the 6th. We'll likely leave here on the 10th for hair appointment (Sandy) and dentist appointments (both of us) and then hit the road southwards. Some of this is pretty fluid ... but that's normal.

We'll probably open Christmas gifts on the 29th; I'm not sure when we'll do fireworks - the 31st ?

We had a wonderful dinner last night -- leftover lasagne. Don't get me wrong, I love leftover lasagne, in fact more than fresh ! Sandy's task today is to make more, as we'll have that for dinner tomorrow with Jeffrey, Sara and Emma.

and on ...

Oh yes, I did make a snowman, which lasted until it fell over. The ball underneath wasn't stable and the middle ball too heavy. He did last quite a while but was gradually falling over as I was clearing the ice. I tried to fix "him" but ended up making a mess. With warm temps again today, perhaps I'll make another !

Onward ...

Dec 24 - a white (dusting) Christmas

2011-12-25T07:25:00.003-05:00

In this case "dusting" wasn't referring to cleaning, although Sandy was doing that. We got some snow, albeit a dusting, starting late in the day. I can't see the lake yet, but I don't expect any accumulation out there because it was quite windy.

There's enough ice now in every direction that I could not see open water by the end of the day. Continued cold and lack of snow is hugely helping ice production. That's good. I was measuring 3.5"-4" early in the day so we should be around 4" now, at least, which means that we can walk anywhere and use the 3-wheeler out front. Another day or so and I'll feel comfortable with the 4-wheeler as well, a much heavier machine.

Glare ice out front will make for lots of fun for the machines as well as anyone being pulled behind.

Otherwise it was a quiet day, as we expected. I went into town for 2pm Mass, stopping at the General Store on the way home for some frozen veggies and the newspaper. It was actually in; I guess that the delivery guy was in a rush on Christmas Eve to get his papers delivered and get home. I wish he had that incentive every day !

I think that I'll take a run into the bush with the 4-wheeler today, and perhaps the 3-wheeler as well to give both machines a run.

I continued my worm-ice-fishing but to no avail. I expect that it's too early for them to be hungry. We need some time with ice on the lake for their cruising patterns to change, bringing them close to shore, close to us. We'll see. We will be here for another 18 days or so.

That's it ... I think ...

Merry Christmas to all !

Onward !

Dec 23 - the plot thickens

2011-12-24T05:17:00.005-05:00

... or is that the ice that's thickening ?

We have about 3" of ice out front, as of my last check which was mid-day on the 23rd. The temperature is showing 0F outside again this morning on the internet, however my trusty indoor-outdoor thermometer is showing a balmy 6F. I expect that the ice will be creeping towards 4" thick as of this morning, perhaps not. With no snow, there's nothing to insulate and the ice accumulates quickly.

3" of ice is enough for walking. 4" is enough for the ATC's. Several years ago, in fact it was more than several, Sandy and I walked to the Lodge with 3-4" of ice on the lake. That was Sandy's first trip to the cottage, before Jeffrey was born. David and Stef were in Montreal and we came up for a couple of days.

The ice thickness out front is only part of the story, however. From the ice out front you can see open water in both directions -- towards Smiths Bay and towards the ESS Narrows. I've never seen it frozen over at the Narrows, too much current. There's been enough wind, however, that both areas have stayed open. No matter, we'll do our playing out front.

I got out the ice auger and drilled a couple of holes, putting out the ice fishing rigs. I knew that it was probably a waste of time but oh well. With all that open water, are the fish going to be cruising here under the ice ? Do fish eat worms at this time of year ? I had worms so it was worth trying. I'll get them out there again this a.m.

I've got a satellite signal strength of 44 right now. Sandy helped me do some tweaking, sitting here at the computer reading off the signal using the walkie-talkie while I was up there making minor adjustments. We got the then-38 up to 47 but of course the signal strength at any given point of time is hugely dependent on the weather and the quality of the air. Yesterday at this time I had a 45 but it's a waste of time comparing two different days or even two different hours.

Did I do anything else significant yesterday ? No, not that I can think of. Oh, one minor thing -- Sandy's been using the elliptical trainer (yay!) and I tried it myself the other day. I increased the resistance and used the arm pieces too and it started squeaking. I did some dismantling, found the source of the squeak, tightened those bolts.

As in other days, I got on the bike trainer for a while -- 20 minutes; the elliptical for 10 minutes; lifted weights on the bench and did some chin-ups in the workroom from the bar that I suspended in there. I've never had much upper body strength but I'm working on it ! I didn't like the elliptical at first but I've developed a run-on-the-spot approach to using it so it's not too bad.

The only thing that I find is that it's like running with my legs spread. I measured the distance from center-to-pedal on the bicycle and the distance from center to extreme inside of the elliptical foot pad and it's about the same. Of course I cannot keep my foot jammed against the side of the foot pad so I'm probably jogging with my legs spread an extra inch apart on each side. It's low impact though and good cross training.

Sandy was busy wrapping up the wrapping. I've still got one present to wrap -- hers. She also started food prep, making pastry for pie.

Mariadela called yesterday as well as Angelika.

Angelika had news -- she won a Mediterranean cruise leaving from Lisbon ! She's going in the spring, bringing a friend of hers. They have to pay their own airfare but apparently the cruise has a retail value of 13k -- she even has her own butler !

I think that's about it ... oh, since today is Christmas Eve, I've got Mass in town at 2pm.

Jeffrey, Sara and Emma leave this morning for Chesapeake Beach MD to celebrate with Sara's Mom and Sister. They leave there on the 26th, heading here via an overnight at Stef's, I believe. David, Kim and Megan will be coming here late on the 28th -- based on my last conversation with David -- or on the 29th -- based on Sandy's conversation with Kim :). We haven't heard from Stef but assume that they are getting together with Aaron's Dad etc. on Christmas Day.

We are having a very quiet Christmas by ourselves. At this point, with Jim and Bonnie down south, we're the last cottage with people, on the road. I think that the Ysseldyk's are also in southern Ontario at this point, so the nearest people would be Bain's, assuming that they're in. The Stillars, cottage #1, would be the only other possibility for people on the road.

Heck, when we used to come up for weekends when David and Stef were small (and once when Sandy was 7 months pregnant !), we were the only ones on the road because it wasn't plowed. No one lived here permanently then. I think when Sandy was pregnant we were able to drive to the top of our driveway. Before that, we had to park at 522 and walk in, 2 miles in the dark, following a Skidoo track pulling our food on a toboggan. What's worse ... the cottage was COLD. I had to cut a hole in the ice to get water ! No telephone, no internet ... how did we ever survive ?

Dinner, yes, we had dinner. Sandy made a chicken recipe with and Indian sauce and rice. I didn't even have to warm up the grill.

Onward ...

Dec 22 - the tree

2011-12-23T04:24:00.007-05:00

The tree -- that's what we did all day. The final product :

Given the height, decorating the tree was much like painting the outside of the cottage, much only accessible from a ladder:

The day before, I'd brought the tree along Highway 522 and Osprey Road. Thank heavens there was no other traffic !! Originally 19 feet high, I cut it back to 14 feet to bring in the house. With the base and the star, it's probably 15 feet high.

Part of decorating is stringing lights from the loft railings ...

When organizing these pictures, I found this one from my birthday. When you get old you light your own candles ... and get pumpkin pie (my favorite) instead of cake ! The reason that I got pumpkin pie is that it's hard to stick candles into date squares :).

Jim and Bonnie were supposed to come over for a drink but Jim seemed to be coming down with a cold so they begged off. They are heading down to Barrie or thereabouts today, to be with their daughter Pam's family for Christmas.

Steak for dinner, with potatoes, naturally, grilled Japanese eggplant and beans. Everything was cooked on the barbie except for the beans. I love that natural gas jetted grill. It heats up to 600 degrees in about 3 minutes even in the winter ! Of course its BTU rating is probably higher than my furnace ...

Today ... nothing planned. Sandy has done most of her wrapping, perhaps I'll do mine.

Onward !

Dec 21 - addendum

2011-12-22T07:15:00.001-05:00

Oh yes, how could I forget !

I made use of some of my Excellerate HRO business cards (EDS) that were never used. I cut holes in them and hung them from wine bottles in the wine cellar so that I now have year/lot# for each wine -- not every bottle, but each lot. That will make it much easier to find a wine after consulting my handy-dandy chart of wines & maturity. Before I had to start pulling bottles to look at the label.

If anyone cares to look at the back of said wine label they can see that I was a VP ... ha !

Dec 21 - the satellite soap opera

2011-12-22T07:11:00.001-05:00

Well, try as we might, we couldn't get any improvement in the signal. The weather was cloudy/foggy/drizzly and I suspect that it was much the same at the other end, what with snow storms hitting the midwest.

I had expected Tom and Susan to show up with some fancy equipment but instead they showed up with two wrenches. I could have done what they did, i.e. moving from side-to-side and up and down trying to maximize the signal. I paid them the agreed-upon amount, because they'd made their "house call" (my words, not theirs), but quite frankly if I had been called to someone's house and couldn't do anything, I'd have cut my price / only gotten paid for gas etc.

I guess it's like the appliance repair man, not always able to fix your problem but you pay for their time just the same. I'm not sure why this should be any different -- perhaps because I'd specifically asked Tom whether he had any special equipment to help aim the dish. As it was, Tom stood around smoking while Susan was the wench with the wrench :).

I stood up there with my laptop reading off the signal strength.

Right now I'm up and down again. I'd hit 45/46 last night but am now in the low 30's. It was better an hour ago, must be the a.m. blues. Perhaps the dish needs a cup of coffee to get going ?

I did pickup the tree. Sandy did go to Parry Sound. I'll post a picture of the tree "on" the ATC trailer at some point. With the trailer less than 4' long and the tree 18'+ long, it made quite a sight.

That was pretty much it for the day; no other special projects. I did get on the trainer for a while and after that, on the elliptical. I found a way to use the machine that works for me, basically jogging on it. As usual I made a couple of trips down with firewood, again tapping into the woodshed as opposed to the wood box.

I need a clear sky and I'll get up there and do some satellite aiming myself, charge myself out to myself for a pretty penny !

Onward.

oh -- and I'm typing this into an email-to-blog because I am not getting any response from blogger because my internet connection is the pits.

Dec 20 - What's next for Otto ?

2011-12-21T11:45:00.000-05:00

It's a German car, right ? It must be named Otto ...

The other day, backing out of the barn, I'd noticed a rubbing/scraping sound. I checked all around and didn't see any ice in the wheel-well -- the usual culprit for such sounds when the wheels are turned in the winter. More concerned with the antifreeze, I didn't do any more investigation on the rubbing sound. Sandy mentioned it, however, from her trip to Sudbury so I decided to look into it further.

I went into town yesterday, needing cash from the ATM as well as bananas for banana bread. The bananas, already mostly brown, were given to me as a "Christmas Gift" by the girl in the General Store. I stopped at the ATM only to find that it was permanently closed ... oh oh. The ATM in town, or at least the only one that I'd ever visited, was in someone's driveway in a heated outhouse-like affair. Going into Home Hardware, I got the screw extractor set that I was looking for (more on that later) and asked Steve about ATMs in town. He said that there was one at the Credit Union ... hmmm ... I didn't even know where the CU is ! Well, it's a small brick building with its side to the road so it's unnoticeable, just before you get to the LCBO. I stopped there and in the parking lot, turned extreme left and right, driving forward and backward, to try and find the source of the scraping. I was convinced that the snow tire was rubbing on plastic in the wheel well, but it wasn't. Still a mystery, I headed home.

Getting to Osprey Road, I decided to turn around and go to the ESS Narrows parking lot and do some more investigation. Well, what I found was that it's the non-BMW rims rubbing against the non-BMW Bilstein struts when turned at the extreme. It's not a good thing so we'll avoid max crank. It doesn't happen with the BMW rims which must be narrower, obviously, nor did it happen with the BMW struts with these snow rims.

While checking out the sound at the Credit Union, I noticed an antifreeze drip. I'm guessing that with the antifreeze completely topped up, in the extreme cold (14F yesterday), with the thermostat closed, the pressure is forcing a little bit out of that one connection. I'll check the level again this morning and see if there's any discernable drop in volume. Since the antifreeze doesn't evaporate as you drive, it only takes a tiny bit to show up under there. When I stopped again at the ESS Narrows parking lot there were no drips on the ground.

My major project of the day was coming up -- getting a bolt removed from the pressure washer.

Years ago, in Radnor, my pressure washer had stopped working properly and I'd tried to remove the pump, which is attached by 5 bolts. Those bolts have recessed hex heads, accessible with an Allen Wrench. Four of the bolts have the outer part of the head exposed, so if they are stubborn, you can grip them with vice grips. The fifth is recessed. Of course it's the fifth that gave me a problem at the time and the hex Allen was stripped. I'd completely forgotten that when I went to remove the pump a couple of days ago. I'd taken the entire washer into a repair shop and they returned it fixed.

Why was I trying to remove the pump ? Well, I'd consulted with the Parry Sound repair shop that is also a Honda ATC dealer and he said that to fix the pressure washer, bring in the pump so that he can send it to the shop in Toronto which will do a rebuild. Don't bring in the entire pressure washer, gas motor and all. It had stopped producing water under pressure and was leaking from one of the seals so it's definitely in need of repair or replacement. It's an expensive unit, so repair is probably the way to go.

I did some reading and found that the recommended way of removing such a bolt is with a screw extractor, which I'd never used before. You drill a hole into the screw/bolt and insert the extractor which turns into the hole as you back out the screw. I drilled the recommended hole but perhaps not deep enough, because when I then tried to use the extractor, it broke off in the hole. Rats. I even tried heat, using my blow torch.

Ok, I decided it was time for drastic action. I got out the drill and drilled a slot into the head. I figured that either I would get it open using a slot screwdriver or would end up drilling out the entire head and replacing the bolt. It's a fairly large bolt, about 3/8" across or slightly larger at the head. It's also hard metal. Drilling took some time. Ideally I'd be using a Dremel cutoff for this job, but my Dremel is in Florida. I guess that I need another Dremel. Anyway, after a long time I'd drilled out what seemed to be an adequate slot and got my big screwdriver with vice-grips attached, trying to budge the bolt, but no luck. The bolt head was wider than the screwdriver so I wasn't getting maximum leverage. I used the drill again and squared off the slot so that there would be no slippage, tried again but still no luck. Heading up to the garage, I looked for whatever my Dad had lying around that would provide a larger slot end and found two small pry bars about 12" long each. I figured that I'd use the grinder if necessary to shape one to the right size for the slot. As it turned out, the smaller of the two fit so with the vice-grips again I gave it a go ... and it turned. Yippee !! It sounds easy, but it took a lot of torque to move this bolt.

Removing the five bolts and pulling the pump end, into which three pistons insert, I could better see how the pressure washer actually works. I could also see the source of my problem -- at least one, perhaps two, disintegrated o-rings. I could probably do this Mr.. Fixit myself. I'll consider that but at the very least I can take it into the shop in Parry Sound -- along with two of the 4-wheeler wheels, by the way, for them to work on while we're gone for the winter. I need at least two new tires for the 4-wheeler, the nubs of which are pretty worn (rear wheels).

Late in the afternoon Sandy and I drove out to 522 in search of a Christmas tree. We mentally marked one and physically marked two, choosing one off a little bush road slightly past the dump. I'm going to go there today with the 4-wheeler and trailer to cut it down and haul it back. It's too big to put into the car although I suppose that it could hang out the back. Abby had a good time exploring during our jaunt and I'll have to figure out a way to bring her along if I take the ATC.

I was out walking on the lake yesterday, well at least in the shallow water of the cove. The ice appears to be about 1"-1.5" thick. It stayed cold yesterday so more would be accumulated, but is only 29F now and is supposed to go above freezing for the day so we won't get any more today. After this it's supposed to stay cold, so more and more ice will accumulate. There's no significant snow in the prediction, which will help with ice development. I fear that when everyone is here there won't be much if any snow, but if there is a lot of glassy ice, that will make up for it. The bush trails will also be quite accessible, with all the ponds frozen over. On the lake, we will essentially have a multi-acre ice rink for everyone to play on, which should be good fun. I can also do some flooding by dropping a sump pump in a hole and pumping water over the ice.

How large could that skating rink be ? Do you want to skate over to the Lodge ? 2 miles ? 3 miles ? I probably won't trust the ice that far but we'll see.

My signal strength is now 16 ... great. This will eventually post ...

Sara had her D&C&E yesterday and we saw some Facebook posts from her but don't have any other news.

Onward !

Dec 19 - misc additional

2011-12-20T07:57:00.000-05:00

My internet is down. When it was up, I had a signal strength ranging from 33 to 36 and the download "speed" test produced 61k, 42k & 83k. Of course that's much better than 0k ... my current speed ! This email-to-blog will connect some day, I'm sure. Now the real issue could be at the other end, but that's hoping for too much. I've sent an email, which might get there sometime, to Susan asking her to run the same test to see what she gets.

Abby is getting stiffer by the day. This morning she slid part-way down the stairs to the basement. They are slippery, but she's never had problems before. We need to get her out walking more, delay the inevitable.

Speaking of slippery, I was walking on the ice this morning. Mind you, that was where it's less than a foot deep -- I didn't want to go through and do a full body test !

I also checked the X5 antifreeze level -- full. I guess that when I said "poured all over", it was probably only a tablespoon or two in Parry Sound, just seemed like more.

Dec 19 - no FAP, just down

2011-12-19T16:17:00.005-05:00

Why can't I get FAPPED just before my satellite connection goes down ? My signal strength is so low that it doesn't take much cloud to mess me up. That's what happened this morning.

I talked to Tom Allen, Sue's husband, who is going to come over on Wednesday a.m. and re-ain the dish. He was amazed that we've not had to do that in 10 years. It can only be out a degree or two in any direction but that's enough to make the signal marginal. The last time that I had to use the system software to do a re-point I was up at the dish leaning on it ...

Tom is actually an authorized installer for Hughes, not Xplornet, but it's the same satellite owned by Hughes and licensed to resellers. He has the equipment to make the miniscule adjustments at the dish to fine-tune the signal.

It's 4:20 p.m. I just heard from Sandy who is about to head home from Sudbury. That will put her here around 6. She's been doing some last minute Christmas shopping as well as grocery shopping. She'll go back in on the 27th for last minute stuff before people arrive.

Jeffrey is still intending on coming up the 27th; David on the 28th; not sure whether Stef will make it.

The temperature was above freezing all day and the lake ice shiny. It's now glazed over as the temperature is now below freezing, heading down to -14C overnight.

I took advantage of the warm weather to get the 3-wheeler going. That took the better part of an hour. The battery had been in the basement, the machine not run in a year. It wouldn't start for the longest time, although I had good spark and could smell gas. There was likely some moisture in the tank as well, creating the problem.

I found my "quick start" which is ether, sprayed it into the mouth of the carb and it fired. Over and over I did this without keeping it running. Finally I re-installed the air filter and soaked it with ether and got it running. I took it for a spin down the road and it was running quite well ... it's now ready for David, or as ready as it ever will be. When out together, David tends to use the 3-wheeler and Jeffrey uses the 4-wheeler.

I brought a bunch of wood down to the house, using the hand truck to move wood from the woodshed by the barn. While there, I started the generator and let it run for a while; better to do that when it's warm and I'm not in dire need !

Abby spent a lot of time outside as I was doing my things; it's good for her.

I also got in a bicycle ride, albeit inside. I hate using a stationary bike !!!!

Sara and Jeffrey kept their OB appointment this morning that had been pre-scheduled for an ultrasound. She's going in for a D&C&E (I still haven't figured out what the "E" is) tomorrow and apparently they'll do some genetic tests, I guess, on the baby.

Emma is heartbroken, feeling that perhaps she'll never get to be a big sister. Who knows at this point ?

Last night we had the rest of the perch that we'd opened the prior night as well as leftover rice and peas. There are never leftover peas. I'll eat as many as are cooked !

Tonight ... don't know. Sandy might not feel like doing anything, surprise surprise.

--------

Sandy made it home before 6pm and several trips up the stairs later, the car was unloaded. I then moved the car up to the barn. It behaved well all day; I'll check the antifreeze out of curiosity and to add some more, if necessary, after my spillage due to checking it hot in Parry Sound.

We had turkey soup for dinner, out of the freezer, made by Sandy from our Thanksgiving turkey back in October. I'll have to let Susan know ! Paired with a nice Bordeaux ... but of course I pair everything with red wine :) ... it was very good.

The temperature is 14F right now so we'll have had some thickness added to the ice. With a little luck the ice will be walkable soon and driveable by the time Jeffrey and David are here, but there's no guarantee. The best that I can do is cross my fingers ! We are supposed to get some cold nights with most days below freezing and a couple hovering just above. There's no significant snow in the forecast but that could always change. No snow means better ice, better driving in the bush with the ATC's ... in fact any real snow and the ATC's cannot go into the bush, so perhaps it balances out ? We'll see.

Onward ... I'll go into town today to send and receive mail. That's it !

Dec 18 - a day in the life

2011-12-19T10:34:00.001-05:00

I don't want to look at Facebook. I know what I'm going to see even if I don't know the words. Sara isn't pregnant any more. Jeffrey called last night -- Sara had had some spot bleeding in the past (which we knew about) and Jeffrey took her to the hospital last night because she was bleeding. They did an ultrasound and there was no heartbeat -- the baby had not grown at all since the last ultrasound at six weeks so it had passed away some time shortly thereafter.

I'm just numb at this point. I'm not sure what to say to Sara, words that can provide comfort. How do you explain all this to Emma, who has experienced two miscarriages and a baby brother passing away ?

That's how my day ended.

--------

My day began on a better note. I decided to take the X5 up to the barn and swap tires, putting on the snow tires since they'd provide better traction for going, stopping and turning even though the all-season's were doing ok for now. That's always time consuming since each quadrant has to be jacked up separately; some wheels get stuck and take some pounding to remove; I was lazy and didn't get out the impact wrench (ok George, don't say anything); and of course in between the jack has to be warmed with the heat gun since the hydralic fluid doesn't even flow at 20F.

The left front wheel was the slowest because it didn't want to come off. The others were easier, a kick getting them free. My long breaker bar makes it easy to get the bolts started. After doing the left side, I moved to the right and noticed some water on the floor. Thinking it was simply ice melt, I dipped my finger in it and no, it had the slipperyness of anti-freeze. Oh oh. What have we here ?

I checked the radiator antifreeze level and it was down a little. Getting out my trouble light and spreading some plastic on the floor I checked under the front passenger side and found that there was some dripping from where the hose connects to the radiator at the bottom, not anything that I'd touched before. I wiped it and put a bucket underneath to catch any drips and continued with my wheel change project, dreading where I might end up.

Finishing up, I started the car and got an error code ... what now ! I got out my code reader and did the translation -- "thermostat stuck wide open" -- Double Rats !!!! Well, that explains why the car hadn't warmed up when I'd left it running; I'd thought that since it was just idling perhaps I hadn't left it long enough and dismissed that without thinking twice.

I reset the error code (love the Peake code reader) and started the car. I ran it for a while and no new error code popped up and indeed it came up to operating temperature quickly. All this was after I'd topped up the radiator anti freeze of course. It didn't need very much.

Coming back a little later, because I had to leave for Mass in Britt, I checked the pail and there was perhaps a teaspoon of antifreeze in the bucket. Of course with the motor not running, I didn't expect much.

My plan was to attend Mass in Britt and then because I was already half-way to Parry Sound, go there to pickup wine that had languished for months awaiting me. I told Sandy that she'd have to come and rescue me if I had a problem, unhooking her car from the battery minder. I took a gallon and a half of antifreeze with me, well prepared to deal with a slow minor leak but of course if the hose or rad broke at that connection point, I'd be stuck.

Once on 522 my Tire Defect light came on. That was fully expected because I'd likely rotated the tires in swapping snow tires for all-season's and the car would detect a difference in rotation. I stopped at Lost Channel road to do a visual and all was ok. I'd planned on checking and balancing the air pressure in Parry Sound, too lazy to do it at the cottage in the cold. Besides, I'd run out of time fussing about the antifreeze.

Coming out of Mass at Britt, I did not detect any drip on the ground under the car. Nor had the low coolant light come on in that half-hour trip. Getting to Parry Sound and dealing with the tire pressure I also did not see any drips. So far so good. I went to the LCBO and picked up the wine, opting to open the top of the antifreeze overflow container slowly ... and antifreeze poured out, clearly at the top ! It expands with heating, which is why it would show full even if I'd lost a little. Back home a couple of hours later it was still showing full, but the coolant was at what I would call Florida room temperature, still warm but not hot. I'll check it this morning and top it up and monitor.

All I can think of is that the cold somehow squeezed a little ice into that hose-to-rad connection and/or the hose was so stiff that any engine revving had pulled at it. The hoses are probably due for a change although they were ok when checked in Florida. It appears that my car, like Abby, has adapted to being a warm weather inhabitant ! I'll leave it in the barn overnight from now on.

A stiff hose doesn't account for the temporarily stuck thermostat. If I didn't know better, it's almost as if the antifreeze was partly frozen, even though I had used more than called for ratio of antifreeze to distilled water that should keep it from freezing to -40C / -40F. It's a mystery.

Back home and wine unloaded, I also brought in wood, topping up the inside wood box. That's a daily event this time of year. By then it was after 4pm, day almost done.

------

Today ... don't know. Sandy was supposed to go into Sudbury to shop. I don't know whether she'll want to hear from Jeffrey first as to whether their travel plans will stay intact.

Also, my internet, while not FAPPED at this point, is down. It's been up and down over and over while I've been typing this into an email. I'm not sure when it will post.

Onward ? I don't know.

Dec 17 - FAPPED again

2011-12-18T06:27:00.004-05:00

I hate satellite internet. We've been FAPPED (Fair Access Policy) again, restricted speed for 24 hours. Two things seem to be an issue here -- first off, they're not tracking usage correctly by hour because some Netflix usage didn't show up in the "free time" as it should have and secondly Microsoft Outlook (blame Bill Gates) is trying to synchronize with an IMAP account (Hotmail) and creating a ton of download.

I've turned that off this morning. We were reactivated last night and then FAPPED again at 1am so we'll be slow all day, I expect. RATS !!!

In other news ... but there really isn't any other news ... we had a partial freeze yesterday and hopefully the lake is basically frozen this morning. Any amount of wind, however, could blow that ice away. It was calm yesterday and I'm hoping that continues until we have the entire lake frozen at which point the wind won't cause waves to break up the ice.

It was cold yesterday, with a high under 10F, but it's a little warmer today, still well below freezing however.

I hooked up a new thermostat in the wine cellar, providing heat so that when the house is set for 50F when we're not here, the wine cellar will remain at 60F. During the summer, 60F is maintained by the cooling unit but during the winter I have to heat that little room.

In other "electrical" news, I attached a timer to the heat-line so that it only runs 1/3 of the time, which should save us $.

What else ... we went over to visit Jim & Bonnie late yesterday, having a drink or two with some snacks. We then had perch for dinner, courtesy Alister and Carol.

From inside it looks like we have three barbecues. The cover from the one used for dinner last night is standing up by itself. I'll have to bring that in to soften it up. I used the natural gas jetted grill last night -- that's great in the winter because it was up to 600F in no time. I then did my cooking with the middle burner on low :).

There must be more but I forget. Oh yes, I did the per-registration for the Rocky Mountain 1200 next summer. I did that this morning because I had to wait for the "free time" when our service is faster than it will be in 20 minutes when we drop back into restricted speed.

Onward ...

Dec 16 - and the good news is ...

2011-12-17T04:55:00.002-05:00

Of course, when you read something like that, you know that there's going to be bad news, right ? Well, yes. We had a sewage problem and I didn't even have (name withheld) to blame it on !

Remember that flipped breaker ? Well, I did some testing with the water supply heat line and found that it was drawing 400+ watts. For a line that's 60 feet long, at 3-5 watts per foot, that seems high. I figured that it was just over the line with the effluent pump and sewage heat line and tripping the breaker. Besides, 400 watts continuous ? Wouldn't that boil the water in the pipe after enough time ?

I called the heat-line people and they said that it's within spec, it won't boil the water, but I'll get a callback on Monday from a tech. Regardless, I think that I've got a conservation plan in mind, i.e. putting the heat-line on a timer so that it's on a half-hour at a time vs full time. Perhaps 50% would do it ... perhaps I could put the entire line on a rheostat ? I'll talk to the tech on Monday and explore options. 400 watts continuous for 6 months is a lot of power wastage.

However, I was still chasing down things. I disconnected the switch to the other heat line, which is quite short, like 5 feet, and jury-rigged a test for that line and it only drew a few watts. I don't think it's an issue but I've got one more test to run on that line now that it's been off for a while, to see how many watts it draws with the line cooled down since it's self-regulating.

Lastly, I took the kill-a-watt device out to the receptacle outside for the effluent pump and plugged it in ... 1300 watts ... ok, it's a pump, that makes some sense. Wait, I can't hear it running ... huh ? Oh oh.

I pulled off the top of the effluent tank -- good thing that we're not buried in snow and good thing that it's been warm so that the concrete top isn't frozen to the ground, and found steam coming out. Oh oh. Well, it seems that the float has untied itself from the pump, run it dry, burned it out but of course it still draws power. Rats !!!

The balance of my day was spent in that hole, so to speak. I had to get in there, ladder down since it's 6 feet deep, in my boots of course, since I'm standing in yucch ... also called "gray water" ... remove pump, go into town and buy a new pump, fabricate a "bushing" with ABS pipe to convert the new 1.5" connection to 1.25", install the new pump ... you get the idea.

It wasn't any near as bad as New Years Eve a few years ago when we had to work in the sewage sump, but close enough. These things never happen when it's convenient and of course the entire water supply through waste are single points of failure. I'm not sure that there's anything that can be done in that regard.

I suppose that I could install a backup pump in the effluent tank but if it never runs, it wouldn't work when I need it anyway. I could have a backup sewage pump in case I have to work in that sump, but that would still be an install-upon-failure situation. As for the water supply, I don't even want to think about that one. The only solution there would be for Jason and I to get together and install a pipe and valve between our wells so that we could back each other up. Since I installed both pumps, that's something that I should have considered at time of installation, not now !

We had ham for dinner. I'd bought a ham on the way north and cooked it for hours so that I'd have the ham for sandwiches. I made the mistake of buying one of those spiral cut hams ... that doesn't work well for my long cooking scenario or perhaps it was just a crummy ham. Anyway, I'll use it for sandwiches but I was very disappointed in the quality of the product.

According to the internet, it's 7F out there now. Still dark, I'm not sure whether the lake is freezing over yet -- probably is down at the end of Smith's Bay but I'm betting not here. While I was tempted to get out the boat yesterday, I got hung up with my CRAPPY work and the day went by.

So what's the good news ? That it had been warm enough so that I could get at the effluent pump; that Steve had one in stock; that I had the correct ABS fittings and glue so that I didn't have to make a second trip into twon; that I got the job done.

The existing pump had been supplied by Dale Brooks, a plastic job. I asked Steve whether the pump would have come from them (Home Hardware Building Centre) ... and he said "no, I don't stock plastic pumps". Ha. Well, it wasn't the pump that failed; it was the float or rather the small clippy that held the float to the pump. In actual fact, the failed effluent pump is exactly the same pump, but with a different float, as my sump pump. I could have used my sump pump, since it doesn't run anyway and has an automatic overflow into the ground before it would ever fill up and come into the basement ... and I could have then replaced that pump at my leisure. However, I didn't want to put an old pump into the effluent tank and have to do this particular operation more than once every few years !

Onward ... no idea what today will bring but life in the north is never dull.

Dec 15 - the ides of Dec

2011-12-16T09:40:00.003-05:00

It's the middle of December and we were heading to the cottage, outside temperature warmer, yes warmer, than it was when we headed south in the middle of October !

The day got off to a slow start. Things go very slowly when your watch stops and you don't know it !

In and out -- I took Sandy to the Go Train for her 7:58 departure for downtown and her hair appointment. I headed towards the Metro store, expecting to do some grocery shopping but realized before I got there that I didn't have my wallet with me ... Back at Stef's, she asked me to take Kylie to school because Kylie had a cold and Stef didn't want her walking in the miserable weather. Ok ... so we left at the same time as Lauren and her friends.

Back at Stef's, she and I sat and chatted forever it seemed ... yikes ... that's because my watch had stopped. I had intended to leave around 9:15 and it was already 10:20 ! Sandy was supposed to be through her hair appointment around 10:30 ! Out the door, not stopping at the Metro store, crawling in traffic towards downtown. I expected to hear from Sandy any second and would tell her that she should do the grocery shopping at the St. Lawrence Market without me and I'd pick her up outside. That was not to be, however, since she didn't get out of the hair appointment until after 11, so I parked and met her over there.

Loaded down with a large peameal and veggies, we headed back to the car and then westward. We stopped at Sherway Gardens and I got my watch battery replaced, but not pressure tested. Sandy picked up a could of tops at Eddie Bauer's. We had lunch in the food court.

Next, northward. We had to stop at a parts place for an impeller for David's dishwasher, did that by the airport and then off to Barrie. I heard from David later that it didn't fit ... oh well ... so that will be returned by mail, I guess. After dropping off the Bailey's, impeller and a couple of papayas at David's and stopping at the Zehers grocery store for milk and a ham and frozen spinach, we again headed north. We made one more stop south of Parry Sound for gas and just after 5pm we were at our northern abode.

I had hoped to get here before dark but we missed that. We still had some light as we drove along 522 so we were close.

All was ship-shape, almost. A breaker had tripped -- the heater cable / effluent pump breaker. I reset that, seemed ok, tripped again later. It appears that something is drawing more power than usual or expected and it's tripping. I'm analyzing each of the components to see what the total wattage is -- perhaps I'm just at or a little over 15 amps and the breaker has gotten more sensitive. The solution to these is complicated.

The sewage heater cable is underground and I'd have to do some digging, which wouldn't happen until the Spring. That pipe can be cleared using the snifter valve, so a failure there can be dealt with in the Spring.

The effluent pump is another matter. I'd have to take off the concrete top, go down into the yuck with a ladder and replace the pump. It seems to be ok, but I'll do some more checking on that later.

The water supply heater cable would be the worst problem to fix. It's internal to the pipe and is a special order. I can insert it from the basement, if it comes to that. I don't have an easy way of draining the pipe because I never got around to installing the drain valve that we put on Jason's line. Perhaps that would be a good idea although my pipe isn't without low spots and I don't think that the same approach would work ... don't know for sure.

As you can tell, I'm hoping that I've simply been pushing the circuit limits. A quick test on the water supply cable this morning showed close to 500 watts. It's quite possible that the cable heat along with the pump running would trip the breaker. The other cable is short and shouldn't draw much power. Right now I've split them between two breakers and am not having any trouble.

Otherwise, everything was great. The house heated up quickly since it wasn't very cold outside. It was 68F in here before we went to bed. Right now the fire has the house up to 72F, positively cozy. The outside temperature was 40F when we got here, 28F when I got up, 23F at last check and it's heading below 10F (-14C) tonight.

Perhaps I'll launch the boat just to have a personal record for boating December 16th. By tomorrow we might have ice ...

Onward !

Dec 14 - leg two, 220,000

2011-12-15T04:35:00.004-05:00

Drizzle and rain but no snow, was the order of the day. I passed 220,000 miles on the odometer a couple of hundred miles short of our destination. I even took a picture albeit a crappy one. Seven months ago, mid-May, I hit 200,000. Rollin' rollin' rollin', keep those wagons rollin' ... Rawhide !

Traffic seemed better the second day. On the trip up 19 from Beckley to I79, I think that I only had to stop at one traffic light. The police were busy the entire way, sitting at their spots and picking off speeding drivers. As usual I set my cruise control at 7mph over the speed limit and they didn't bother me. I love having the NAV to give me an accurate reading !

We stopped at a Subway for lunch, filling the tank, and again just shy of the border for our last cheaper gas. I paid $3.69 and $3.89 vs close to $5.00 in Canada for the next month. The cheapest "regular" gas that we saw on the trip was $3.05. The gas stations rip you off, however, when you buy the higher octane gas, charging about 60 cents more.

We also stopped at the duty free store at the border, picking up Kim's order of Baileys. There were three varieties so I chose "Original". At the border itself, the Canadian officer asked how long we'd been in the U.S., when I handed him our Canadian Passports. I told him that we lived in Florida, he was momentarily confused, asked our status in the U.S., where we were going and never what we were bringing. No questions about firearms (none), alcohol & tobacco (within our limit of alcohol, no tobacco), or gifts/items to be left. I had my list handy, was prepared to pay HST on gifts worth more than $60, but we weren't bringing anything over of ours to be left up north other than a couple of $20 items.

We had Swiss Chalet chicken for dinner, but takeout. That was easier than going to a restaurant, other than the cleanup of course !

Today -- Sandy is going to take the train into town then I'll pick her up. She wants to stop at Sherway Gardens on the way north for the Eddie Bauer store and Parry Sound. We'll pick up some basic groceries along the way somewhere, perhaps I'll pick up milk here before heading downtown. We'll stop at David's house to drop off the Baileys. I'd like to get there before dark but we could be pushing it. There won't be any snow or ice to plow through, so entry will be easy but the driveway could be mucky.

Stef made me some date squares as a present ... great ! It's an interesting recipe, more like a date topping than filling, very good.

I need some exercise !

Oh yes, Arlene sent me an email saying that I shouldn't sound like a martyr about driving all the way to/from Florida. My response to her was that anyone reading my blog knows that I prefer to drive, so it's my choice ! Let it be known that I'm a terrible rider !

Onward ... northward.

Dec 12/13 - ok, so I'm cheap

2011-12-12T10:54:00.005-05:00

That's nothing new.

I went to the grocery store yesterday to pick up a couple of items, including some luncheon meat. I buy those little rolled hams or turkey hunks. Well, I noticed that they were $4.45 per pound while the whole ham was $1.50 per pound. So, the little rolled ham cost just over $10, as did the entire ham ! So ... I bought the entire ham.

What I did next was seal the ham in a couple of layers of foil and put it on the grill for 4 hours on low (yes, occasionally I cook on low !). In fact, I put the ham in the center of the grill while the side burners were on low, so there wasn't much direct heat.

I lost about 1/3 of the weight cooking off the fat and water but it's still a great deal. Besides -- the cooked ham tastes better than the rolled ham !

----

Packed on the 12th, rolled on the 13th. We're now in Beckley WV.

It rained all day on the 12th. We both went to the gym, which was about the extent of our outings for the day. I did all my usual backups, synchronizing files on three disk drives -- one that stays and two that travel with me.

I talked to Riley, who called Dolly (I didn't have her number) and she stopped by after work to pick up papayas. I'd boxed up what we were taking with us, hopefully they are cool enough in the car right now to not get too mushy.

We head ham for dinner so it's doing double duty. I'm going to do another when we get up north.

It was an easy drive to Beckley, arriving around 6:45. We had packed sandwiches, ham for me and egg for Sandy. That's about the only time that she has egg sandwiches. Today we'll likely stop at a Subway.

Abby is feeling under the weather. The phrase "dragging her tail" is apt, for that's the way that she's been walking. It's odd to not see her tail up and wagging. Sandy took her to the vet and she gave a yip when he tried to check out her hindquarters, so he thinks that somehow she's had some soft tissue damage, vs bone. He said that he could xray but it likely wouldn't show anything. He gave her a steroid shot and provided some steroid pills that should help with healing. It wouldn't be a good time for her to have a drug test ! WADA wouldn't approve !

She was doing better yesterday, our travel day, so hopefully she's on the mend.

Truck traffic was really heavy on I77. I don't remember ever seeing it this bad. Is that a sign that the economy is improving ? Is Tuesday a big travel day ? I'm sure that we've travelled on a Tuesday before.

As I was getting to Beckley I was reminded of my first trip through here with Arlene. We'd been to Florida for Christmas, the cost of the flight being the gift from my parents. Everyone else flew. Arlene and I opted to drive and use the money for other things.

We had driven south on I75, which was the only way that I knew how to get to Florida other than I95. From Toronto we drove to Detroit and then south all the way on I75. It's a long trip because I75 adds 200 miles to our current route and going to South Florida adds another 250 miles. When we were in Florida talking about the return trip, however, Jack and Dolores Robinson told us about the I95/I26/I77/I79 route. I77 wasn't completed though and we had to take 21 in SC between Rock Hill and Columbia and I77 through WV, the fledgling WV Turnpike, was a mess of construction.

The other memorable thing about the trip was my front wheel bearing which we could hear growling. I knew that there was a problem and had repacked the bearing in Florida and it rolled happily until we were on I90 between Erie PA And Buffalo. It was pouring rain and even though the Honda Civic wasn't all that well soundproofed, we could hear the bearing over the rain. I remember driving along well under the speed limit hoping that it wouldn't give way. Sure enough, we got home -- Arlene to her apartment in Mississauga and me to Toronto's east end. A couple of days later I installed new bearings, which was quite easy, much like changing the bearings in a trailer.

There are two more things that I remember about that trip. We drove straight through; I did all the driving, keeping myself awake eating pretzels. I ate so many salty pretzels that my mouth was full of cankers for a few days afterwards. The other thing was that I picked up Arlene after she finished work at Hazelton Lanes, downtown Toronto, for the trip south. While waiting for her I checked my oil and there wasn't any on the dipstick. Duh. I bought a couple of quarts and topped it up. Why I remember that, I don't know. Some things just stick with you.

We ate at Ruby Tuesday here in Beckley within walking distance of our hotel, but we didn't walk because Sandy didn't like walking along the busy road. Actually we didn't realize how close it was -- 100 yards of shoulder and across a gas station would have gotten us there. Sandy had barbecue chicken and the salad bar; I had salmon and the salad bar. The salmon was ok but unremarkable. The veggies, however, were interesting. Sandy had mashed cauliflower -- ever tried that ? -- with some cheese mashed into it. Interesting. I guess that you could mash any number of vegetables if you cook them long enough ! I had spaghetti squash. We both had grilled zucchini.

Today, once Sandy wakes up, we'll roll on to Stef's. That's a shorter drive than the one just completed. The car, knock on wood, is purring along contentedly, quiet (no wheel bearing sounds), responsive (engine temperature mid range where it's supposed to be(. I think that the outside temp is in the 40's and had the thermostat been stuck open, we might not have had any heat.

I was outside this a.m. getting the laptop and it's like a SUV car lot. Every shape, size and make that you can imagine is out there. In this context, ours is small. The real roadies travel BIG. The Suburban is still a large vehicle but it's not the largest or at least there are others the same size. The Escalade seems popular, for instance, making ours seem like one of those little Kia jobs. I've got more research to do. I'm not all that convinced that we need to go German, but all of these vehicles are pricey. The big difference, I think, is that maintenance of these North American vehicles is cheaper and more accessible on the road ... although I've clearly done ok with the X5.

Anyhoo ... it's time to finish my coffee ... rustle a little bit so that Sandy awakens ...

Onward !

Dec 11 - delays, delays

2011-12-11T15:02:00.005-05:00

The advantage of having a secretary is that you never get annoyed when plans change because you don't know that plans change -- you just move onto the next thing on your calendar. I, however, don't have a secretary. Arlene and Margaret are long gone from me ... before Arlene, in memorable terms, there were Diane and Rosemarie ... before that, at TA Associates, Stella ... I never had a male secretary. No, I take that back. In later years I had a male secretary -- myself !

Plans have changed. We're leaving on Tuesday now. We'll stay somewhere in between Tuesday night; at Stef's Wednesday night; Sandy's hair Thursday a.m. ... and then onward.

I should have gone biking. We haven't had a drop here, but there has been rain all around, so no doubt I'd have been caught out there. Without biking, I cleaned the kind of "balcony" area in the living room, on which a huge number of hanging plants had roosted when we bought the house. I put down a coat of primer, to clean it up and put up the lighted masks that we got in Mexico. Actually they had candle holders that I converted "to the new electric light" to quote Phantom of the Opera referring to the chandelier.

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We haven't had a drop ... no, shortly after I wrote that bit of blog, the dam broke and it's been raining ever since. BIG RAIN, roads awash ... what was the line from Ghostbusters ? don't remember; it will come to me.

This morning it's still raining and there's big rain between us and our eventual destination. It's just as well that we're leaving tomorrow !

I'm back from the gym, it will be a month before we're back. I'll have to use the equipment at the cottage and likely the stationary bike; can't go for 5 weeks without getting on the saddle !

The house is mostly put together or at least as much as it's going to be put together before we leave. I expect that Sandy will do some cleaning today; she went Christmas shopping yesterday. We have a parcel to mail to Arlene's kids today. We ordered one of the things on Lauren's list from the only supplier that we could find ... in Hong Kong. It was mailed yesterday (Sunday ?) and the delivery estimate is 10-21 days. It's going to the cottage so who knows whether we'll see it before we exchange gifts with Stef.

There's no snow up north at this point and no ice. It's getting quite cold at the end of the week -- welcome ! -- so perhaps we'll soon have ice. No ice means no ice fishing ... but then again I could always put the Whaler in the water, good thing that it's in the boathouse vs the barn !

Today ... the rain is supposed to continue. If clears, I'll go for a bike ride but that doesn't look promising. I do have to pack the car, which won't take too long. I drained the fountain yesterday. There are a few other close-up activities but nothing too strenuous or time consuming.

----

David has been trying to fix a problem with his dishwasher. The impeller broke on his circulation pump and he's trying to replace that separately, vs buying the entire unit. He'll save a bundle if he can. He and I went back and forth a few times yesterday as I helped him troubleshoot and then do a parts search. He thinks that he's located the impeller from a site in Mississauga and if that works out, I might be bringing it up to Barrie on our way north.

Onward ...

Dec 10 - good enough ?

2011-12-10T11:44:00.004-05:00

I hate that phrase. The only time that I ever use it is when someone else is doing something for me because it's hard to use on your own project ... nothing is ever good enough !

I've now painted that bedroom wall 5 times. Primer, base coat, finish coat ... whoops not enough paint and color too light anyway ... second finish coat ... lots of paint, too dark; third finish coat ... not quite match with adjoining wall, so paint adjoining wall !

Sigh. Some of this was because there was leftover paint that we were using that was mis-labeled, very close but no cigar. As it is I have to stop now because I'm not happy with the corner drywall where the mirror was removed and the other adjoining wall that was supposedly the same color but wasn't ... quite ... but much closer ... good enough ? running out of time ???

-------

Ok, what's better -- watching paint dry or simply painting the adjoining wall ? I painted. It looks "ok". Is it good enough or am I just out of time ?

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Not much else happened yesterday. I got over to Advance Auto Parts to pickup a couple of quarts of motor oil. For the entire time that we've had the X5 it's gone through about 1 quart of oil every 1500-2000 miles. I asked a mechanic once about "burning oil" and he said that I wasn't actually burning oil in the sense of it getting by the piston rings, that it's a gasket that needs replacing or something like that -- regardless, the oil gets used !

For the last year, with the thermostat not working and the engine running cooler, oil consumption has been way down. I could drive from the cottage to Florida, 1500 miles, and not need to add oil. Now, with the temperature back up, I'm consuming oil again. I need to keep a quart handy for the trip north and then back south. We'll put on about 4,000+ miles over the next month.

We went to the SYC Christmas Ball last night, had a good time. As last year, Patti and Norm organized a table. As last year, it was the same crowd. Patti & Norm, Chick and ???, Bill and Susan, one other couple -- all interesting people. Chick is a fisherman, but he and his wife sat across the table from us so we couldn't talk. Sandy was to my right, then Bill then Susan, so we were in conversation with them. The lady to my left and her husband (I'm drawing a blank on names), were also "within reach" from a conversation standpoint. He had run marathons and cycles, but not huge distances.

Bill, to Sandy's right, owns an airplane and a motorcycle. Their house backs onto the New Smyrna airport. He parks his airplane in his garage ! There's a local flying group and they go out and fly in formation, up to 30 of them, for events. He flies at least once a week. I was asking him about filing a flight plan etc. -- only necessary if you are going to be flying in the clouds or at night. He used to fly a twin engine affair, now a single.

I asked him if his engine had ever failed him and he said yes, when flying in Indiana once his engine didn't actually stop but wouldn't allow him to maintain altitude. He was going to land in a corn field, corn being about 3 inches high, when he spotted a completely empty highway and landed there. He taxied to a pull off -- someone's house -- and fixed the engine, whatever was sticking (he's also his own mechanic). A state trooper held traffic and he took off again. He said that had he been in such-and-such State, they'd have made him truck the plane away, not allowing him to take off from the highway.

I'm guessing that Bill is 75 ... you're only as old and you think you are.

The band wound up at 10pm -- this is an old crowd after all -- and we left close to 10:30. I know, that's late for me. As usual we said that we had to get together in the new year ... but will we ? We're all pretty busy.

We did dance a bit -- yes me. I was getting tired of sitting, don't do that very well ! The last time that we'd danced was last year's Christmas Ball. Time flies. Last year we were introduced to Gene and Judy (next door) because we'd just purchased the Keely house but hadn't closed yet.

Today ... not sure. I don't know whether we'll be leaving tomorrow or Tuesday but not likely leaving at 6am. We have too much to do and a 6am start really makes it tough. Perhaps we'll leave mid-day tomorrow, stop there and then in the Erie area and then go through. I don't know.

In any event ... Onward !

Dec 8/9 - Painting / Painting

2011-12-08T06:52:00.004-05:00

That just about sums it up -- painting on the 8th and more painting on the 9th. The first day was primer -- two walls in the living room, two walls in the dining room, one wall in the upstairs bedroom. The second day was final coat, 4 dining room walls, two living room walls and upstairs bedroom wall ... well, not quite. The upstairs bedroom wall has had an initial coat of a flat paint that Riley had leftover and tomorrow we're putting the final coat on. Sandy did the boundary cutting upstairs and I've done the cutting downstairs and all the rolling.

So what else ... not much that I can remember -- oh yes, we did go to the BMW and Mercedes dealerships to look at cars. We were supposed to do a test drive at the BMW dealer but that got messed up due to a miscommunication between me and the sales person. We were going back and forth discussing pricing etc. on the new X5's and I'd been referring to it as the X5 335d. Well, it's actually the X5 35d. So when we went to the dealer and she walked us out to a 335d (3-series) we naturally weren't interested in test driving that and they didn't have an X5 35d available for test drive.

Now, I can blame myself for this one, I guess. The entire content of our email discussion was around X5's, pricing, options etc. so when we go back and forth talking about a test drive of such, she obviously took the 335d out of the context of our entire email discussion as she planned for the test drive. Well ... I guess.

Anyway, we did get to look at the new X5, use our tape measure and compare luggage space etc. which is slightly different with the new version. The rear seats won't go vertical, which would be uncomfortable for someone sitting back there but Abby doesn't care. We usually travel with those seats vertical because that provides enough space for much more luggage as well as my bike ... hmmm.

I think that we should get a Suburban or Tahoe.

Next we went to the Mercedes dealer; the new ML350 is priced better than the X5 and similar in many other respects. The guy did say that it has a softer ride. We didn't plan for a test drive; told the guy that if we want to do that, we'll do so once we're back in January. He was trying to convince us to "go ahead and place an order now" that it "wouldn't matter" if we didn't take the car when it was delivered ... no money down required ... hmmm ... I'm not so sure that I even want this car and won't want/need it unless the X5 dies ... so I'm not placing any orders, thank you.

I'm also not focused on getting a new car and paying the drive-off-the-lot premium. In fact, BMW has a number of X5's CPO (Certified Pre-Owned) available on their website with 10-20,000 miles and better pricing than the 2012 X5.

The Mercedes guy obviously wanted to make his December numbers and hey, if in February upon delivery we didn't want the car, that was another year !

Right.

--------

On another subject entirely, I bought a couple of CD's by Eric Woolfson, who was the other key player in the Alan Parsons Project. The first, Freudiana, sounds like Parsons and indeed, he did a lot of the engineering. Freudiana was never released in North America, so it was a 20-something dollar CD mailed from the U.K. The second, "Sings the Alan Parsons that Never Was" is a collection songs by Woolfson that never made it onto the AP albums. Easy listening but not particularly complex, lacking the benefit of Parsons' engineering, was my first impression. Sprinkled among the AP albums they'd have been ok. All together, I'm not sure. I'll listen to both albums some more during our travels.

Our original plan was to leave on Monday. With the painting etc. I'm not sure if we'll make Monday. We want to leave the place ship-shape.

... and that's all for now ...

Onward !

Dec 7 - a late birthday present

2011-12-07T10:29:00.006-05:00

Prostate biopsy # 2 - clean. There was not even any PIN (prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia). There was less discomfort this time and besides, having been through it before and not feeling that anything had changed, I had less trepidation as I waited for the results.

The last go-around was March 2010, so this was almost 2 years. I think that he actually wanted to do it sooner because of the adverse finding last time (PIN) but time slipped by. Patients with PIN have been thought to have a higher chance of either having cancer that has been missed or the PIN developing into cancer, but the latest studies are showing a decreased risk -- mostly because the number of samples now taken as a standard is large, 12 in all.

So that was my morning ... getting the results, that is. He is talking about another biopsy in 3 years as long as the PSA stays low and the digital rectal exam doesn't show anything. All this because of a benign little nodule.

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Tim Troy and his helper were working at the plaster when I got home; Sandy was about to go tot he gym.

Checking the weather forecast, I realized that this might be my last chance to bike in 80+ weather until March, since it was about to get both cool and rainy and I know what biking here in January and February is like -- high 60's / low 70's is more like it. So ... once Sandy was back, away I went.

Before I went, Tim gave his opinion that they work that they'd done on the polka dots, filling them in and going with the swirls on the existing textured finish, would do the job. He said to call him in the morning and if I wasn't happy with the results, he'd be back to do the entire wall but that this would save me money ... and yes and yes. It looks fine at this point. I'll prime the walls today but I'm pretty convinced that the spots have disappeared. I suppose that I could have done this ...

The wind was a very strong WSW, so naturally I headed south. I suppose that West might have been an option, but since my route had 7 miles due west from Merritt Island to the mainland, I'm quite happy that I didn't head straight west from home.

On that westward section of Merritt Island I spotted a good sized alligator, 8-10 feet long, sitting at the side of the road. Of course "sitting" doesn't quite capture it, but you know what I mean. Perhaps I was feeling a bit invincible after my biopsy results, who knows, but I stopped and teased the alligator. It was reminiscent of Mike and Gavin Davies except that no-one had a camera to capture what I was doing.

I grabbed large handfuls of grass and such, throwing them on the alligator. Of course his tail was towards me, not his head :). He did lift his head, giving me "the eye", as the crap landed on him, but he must have decided that I was neither threat nor dinner, because he ignored me.

My fun over, I finished up the 7 mile into-the-wind stretch and then mostly cruised home, although the wind was so much from the west that it wasn't always as much help as I'd like.

Once home, I watched the plaster dry ... well not quite, I looked at the plaster and Sandy and I agreed that it would do the job.

As I was cooking flounder on the grill, it was starting to drizzle. It's 43F out there now; I'm quite happy that I rode yesterday. I'll go to the gym shortly and then be back in time for breakfast for me and Abby. I'll take the X5.

Speaking of the X5, I don't want to jinx anything, but I used that to get to Orlando yesterday. Without bearing noise, I could listen to the radio. The tires felt good -- this was the first time that I'd driven it in a 70 mph zone -- and the thermostat has done its job. It's as ready as it will ever be for the trip north.

Also not to jinx anything, we're going to do a test drive of a new X5 diesel today. Sandy has an appointment for a facial in Ormond Beach and I'll meet her afterwards at the BMW dealer which is quite close. I think that we'll swing by the Mercedes dealer on the way home although from looking at the online inventory, they don't have anything that I'd care to test drive -- no diesel in stock. We'd have to go to the Orlando dealer for that. They do have a couple of ML350's (SUV), however, which will allow us to check out the car sitting still.

From Susan's Facebook, the lake is frozen at the end of Smiths Bay, but not by us. The temperature is 19F now and if it stays that way, and it's supposed to, we might have ice by the time we get to the cottage.

Onward !

Dec 6 - no Marda, no plaster

2011-12-07T05:55:00.004-05:00

Marda and Sandy left for Orlando around 10 a.m. In the meantime I'd called Tim who said that he'd be here around 1pm. Ok, when we initially set this up no time had been specified. Later he called back and said that he'd be here tomorrow (today) 9-9:30.

That's strike one for Tim.

I told him that I needed to be able to paint before leaving for Christmas, and I was leaving on Monday. He said that I'd be able to paint on Friday. Ok, I'll plan on that.

Had we realized that Tim wasn't coming on Tuesday, I'd have done my 200k on Tuesday. We would probably have gone boating on Monday. Yeah right ... who knows :).

It was a beautiful day. After I finished "hanging around" and watching a couple of Torchwood episodes, I went for a Harley ride. Beachside and then out Turnbull Bay Road and Pioneer Trail is a nice cruise. Once home, I took Abby out in the little Whaler. It started right up and purred. I still haven't gone fishing and probably won't until we get back in January. Time is flying by.

By the time I got back with the Harley, Sandy was home. She had planned to shop for a top to wear on Saturday but didn't find anything, did buy shoes. She's had a headache for the past couple of days, cold/flu trying to get through, presumably, so she had a snooze while I went out with Abby.

We heard from Marda around dinnertime that her flight hadn't taken off on time, in fact had a 2 hour delay. We don't know yet when she actually arrived in PA. Hopefully it wasn't too late.

Speaking of dinner, we had leftovers. Turkey, dressing, turnip, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (Sandy), gravy (Sandy) ... almost a complete repeat of Thanksgiving dinner but without the heavy-duty cleanup ! I've been having turkey sandwiches, as have Sandy and Marda. I have enough dark meat for one more sandwich (today). The rest of the white meat, not much left there either, is going into the turkey soup that Sandy has been brewing.

So ... today is Wednesday. Tim's supposed to be here today and tomorrow. Friday will be painting day. Saturday we have the Christmas Ball at the SYC. Sunday ... packing. Monday ... leaving.

At this point we're planning on stopping at Linda & Alec's in Lexington VA on the way north, that would be Monday night. On Tuesday night we'll likely stop at Stef's. All this depends on the weather, although at this point it looks clear.

I got on the phone yesterday with Verizon again, getting one app to work -- My Verizon. It hadn't worked for a long time. I just needed to do an update. That was easy.

Late breaking news -- message on the BBerry -- Marda home at 9:30 p.m.

Onward !

Dec 5 - happy birthday !

2011-12-06T05:26:00.003-05:00

What a day ! Unbelievable !

I set a personal record for a 200k, finishing in 7:35. The wind, which was supposed to be ESE, was probably more SE which helped a great deal. I also opted to simply ride US 1, no scenic route at all, so the 200k was exactly that. The actual rolling time was about 1/2 hour less, including the mid-point Control stop, McD's for a diet coke in Titusville and a couple of 2-minute stops by the side of the road. By the way, those weren't call of nature stops, they were take-a-deep-breath, guzzle-lots-of-water stops.

Before leaving on the ride, I'd been looking at my Verizon bill which is always a mess of taxes and surcharges and more taxes. The extra line, which I'd had since getting the Blackberry, costing way more than the extra $10 per month. I had it in my head that it was costing double that as I made a note to myself to call Verizon once I got home.

So ... since I was home in record time, ride over at 2:35, after cleaning up and eating/drinking, I got on the phone. I thought that this was going to be a quick call.

THREE HOURS LATER, I got satisfaction, of a sort. I wish that there was some system whereby the half-dozen people that I'd spoken to in getting there could know that yes, there is a way of doing this.

So here's the story ...

When I got the smartphone, I could either cancel the existing contract and pay a penalty or, as I was convinced by the agent in the Verizon store, carry the existing phone for "a few months" (I should have made a record of that conversation !) at $10 per month until the contract was over. Strictly speaking, that was true. Had I put the new telephone number on the Blackberry, the existing LG phone could have been cancelled 3 months later without penalty. However, they swapped numbers on the phones, so the new number was on the LG phone and the Smartphone carried my old number.

Going into this conversation, I knew that both the Blackberry and Sandy's LG phone were out of contract. The only contract still running was on my old LG phone. I hadn't really thought of it that way, but that turned out to be a BIG DEAL.

Escalation after escalation assured me that there was nothing that they could do. The contract on the old LG phone could not be broken. They could not swap numbers. Yes, I could cancel the two phones out of contract but they were not able to move numbers around in the in-force contract. No way.

WAIT, I said over and over and over as this went on ... you are telling me that I could walk into an AT&T store, move Sandy's number to a phone there, then walk back into Verizon and move the Sandy's number back onto her phone, replacing the number in the in-force contract, but you can't just do it without me going to AT&T ????

The first level escalation assured me that once a number was transferred out of Verizon that it couldn't be transferred back. Well, I was sure that couldn't be true. The next level escalation admitted that I could do it -- perhaps it might take longer than "5 minutes" but it can be done. However, they couldn't do it without porting the number back and forth.

Wait, says I ... the number port is a techie thing, the number switch in the contract is administrative, why can't you just "pretend" that I've gone to AT&T. Can't be done, said three levels. Well, since I can just move my business to AT&T at this point, just "forgive" the $190 cancellation fee then ... we won't do that, said two levels.

I was told over and over and over that I signed a contract that couldn't be broken, that I wasn't "listening", that I'd already been told all the options available to me. They told me that I could "upgrade" that line to a home phone (the nerve, trying to sell me something !!!), that they would happily cancel Sandy's line but she'd get a new phone number (the already running contract). Grrrrr.

While I was waiting a supervisor callback, I got into a live chat with AT&T. It seems that they now have a plan that covers calls made to as well as from, Canada. It was because they didn't have a plan, that we were grandfathered into an old plan, that we left AT&T in October of 2009. Anyway, their prices are the same as Verizon, in fact I could get a cheaper data plan with them than what I'm paying Verizon. If Rogers ever does build that cell tower at Lost Channel, guess where I'm going ...

So on the phone with the supervisor in the "loyalty" department, having been told over and over again that this was impossible without visiting AT&T (or perhaps Vonage, as I was checking online), I asked for yet another escalation. I am the escalation he said. Give me a supervisor. I am the supervisor, he said. Give me your supervisor, I countered ... and was then put on hold ... for a half hour. I was about to give up, we were all sitting around waiting to go to dinner.

He came back on the phone; I was expecting him to either say that no one was available or that he was about to hand me off. Instead he said that he found out that the Business Dept does this, and it had been done. In the meantime, I'd found out that I was paying $18.34 for that $10 line, not $13.something as I'd been assured by one level escalation, etc. etc. etc. No matter.

As we found out when we were at dinner, neither LG phone worked at that point. When we got back, I was on the phone again with Verizon and customer service happily fixed that problem. From their "new" point of view, I only had two lines, the two 610 area codes. The 386 area code line had disappeared. The "business department" had seen to that.

Will all these people fight so hard the next time ? Probably. Even the last guy will probably fight, since that's what he's been told to do. The earlier ones will fight because they still don't think that it can be done. I should have taken all their names so that I could call back, ask for them and point out that it had been done. No, they would all think that it was something special, not authorized, not Standard Operating Procedure. Sigh. I'll bet that the case notes don't even reflect that this was SOP. Sigh.

Logic does not prevail when dealing with these people. Even when I offered to put both phones under contract so that I could cancel the one, it didn't matter. I was locked into that telephone number, unless some other number was ported over from another carrier. Anyway, I guess that I won that battle, but it was so time and energy consuming that it doesn't even feel like a win.

Sandy and Marda were in and out during the day, just heading out when I got home. We went back to the same restaurant that we'd visited with Patti and Norm and I had my lamb shank again. It was wonderful but with more fat this time. This time it was typical lamb shank. Last time there was no fat, which is not typical. Sandy had shrimp; Marda had Lane Snapper. Both were happy with their dinners.

Today ... Marda heads home. Tim Troy, the plaster guy, is supposed to show up this morning to do his thing on our polka dot walls. I believe that's supposed to take him two days, and then I have painting to do before we leave for the great white north.

Onward !

Dec 4 - about the house

2011-12-05T05:54:00.003-05:00

Often I look back and wonder where the day went. Yesterday was one of those days. I did go to Mass ... I did go to Home Depot ... I did do some staining ... I did do some electrical work. That's it !

I used up the inch of stain in the can on some of the trim, washed the brush and then put staining out of my mind ... done for this year. The big project, of course, was the cottage outside. The deck around here has been more puttering.

Intent on cleaning up the electrical connections at the dock, I headed to Home Depot to pick up a couple of "in use" outdoor receptacle covers. I installed a receptacle in a box that was simply used as a junction for an "on at night" light sensor, put the receptacle cover on it and voila, the Christmas lights are now plugged into that instead of having their own light sensor. I put the existing plug-in light sensor up on the balcony with another string of lights. I discovered that there's no receptacle up there so I ran an extension cord down to the box beside the grill. I will put a receptacle up there at some point, for convenience, but will need conduit etc. for that work.

The plug for the boat lift is one of those huge GFCI plugs and I discovered that they won't fit into the in-use cover, so I got stalled on that score. Another day I'll replace the receptacle itself with a GFCI, the cord from the boat lift with a normal plug and install the in-use cover. At least that's my thinking although the GFCI receptacle might not survive long in the salt water environment.

I did get out on the Harley yesterday -- to the gym and to Mass -- but my trip to HD was with the X5.

Sandy and Marda made a few trips around the area, looking at houses for sale and rent. Marda has in mind that eventually it would be good to come south for a couple/few months each winter and they were just browsing around, not seriously though. They also went out after dinner to see the lights on Canal and Flagler Streets. I see Canal when I go to the gym in the a.m. but haven't seen the Christmas lights on Flagler.

Since we went to the SYC for dinner Saturday, naturally we had shrimp for dinner on Sunday. Sandy always picks up fresh shrimp at the market on Saturday.

Yesterday when I checked the forecast the wind was going to be from the East, now they've changed that to ESE so I'll head south for my final 200k of the year. Somehow that's fitting. I'm just hoping that there will be enough of a "S" component that I'm not fighting the wind all the way back, but I suspect that it will be a steady cross.

The countdown begins. We head north in a week.

Onward !

Dec 3 - and to top it off ...

2011-12-04T06:06:00.003-05:00

... there was the boat parade. Quite good this year, we watched from the SYC Tiki with a huge crowd. We got rained upon for a few seconds but that blew over before the boats started coming. Burgers and fries, beer and wine, lighted boats ...

Harris and Debbie were there from our street, invited over by friends. We were reminded of last year sitting in virtually the same spot but without the crowds, seeing the first boats go by and then rushing over to 106 Keely to join Riley and Dolly. They still owned the house at that point; we had a deal but hadn't closed yet. They invited us over to see the boat parade.

Riley's realtor was at the Tiki as well and we chatted with her for a while. There may have been others that we knew or met but we hung onto our seats, good ones at the dock railing. Sandy had been watching the Tiki with binoculars (cheating) to see when crowds were building so that we would get a seat. We did, but it was the last ones.

Sandy and Marda went to the market and did some touring. I went for a bike ride, fighting the wind both ways. Before my ride I finished staining the deck. I've got a little bit of stain left that I'll use for touch-up. In reality I could probably use an entire gallon for touch-up, not on the deck per se but all the surrounding wood.

That was pretty much our day.

Today ... nothing much planned. Tomorrow, I'll probably do my December 200k. I just got back from the gym, a surprising number of people there at 5:15 a.m. on a Sunday. I'd expected to be alone.

At any rate ...

Onward !

Dec 2 - it's Thanksgiving somewhere

2011-12-03T06:23:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a puttering day.

After hitting the gym -- which I did again this a.m. -- I got organized and power washed and stained the deck outside the kitchen and the step-up area leading to the dining room deck. The dining room deck I left for another day, figuring that Sandy and Marda might want to sit out there. As it turned out, I should have completed the job because although they did sit outside later, they took advantage of the sun at the dock and sat in the lee of the mangroves. That same wind helped what I did stain to dry quickly.

I finally got around to some Harley cleaning, taking soap and water to the bug stained windshield and generally giving it a rub down. It was dusty more than anything else.

I watched the episode of Torchwood that I'd fallen asleep in front of the night before. Interestingly enough, Torchwood is a joint production between BBC Wales (it's set in Cardiff) and the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company, for the non-Canadian readers :).

Over to K-Mart, I picked up some 2-cycle oil and made up some pre-mix for the little Whaler. Abby and I went for a ride, stopping at a small beach so that she could check out the minnow situation. The motor is running well.

-------

One of these days the X5 is going to die. Of course that could be a couple of years from now or it could be the next trip, who knows. I'm fully prepared for that eventuality, for if there is a major repair necessary (that dollar level TBD) we'll simply rent a truck or van and continue along our way. One of the sales people at the local BMW dealership is shadowing us at this point knowing that eventually, eventually, she'll get a sale out of us. That remains to be seen, however.

I've had quite a bit of back and forth with her lately as she's been pushing 2011 models at us; they're trying to clear those out since the 2012's are coming in. I've looked at the "on the lot" models before and always felt that it would be better to order directly, since the pre-built ones always have a lot of expensive options that I don't need or want, nice-to-have's that I don't want to pay for.

BMW NA, in its wisdom (or lack thereof) has changed their packaging strategy for the X5. There is no "base" 2012 model per se. They all come with lots of packages. As a result, the base price has jumped almost 30%. I guess that they've looked at their buyers and decided that no-one was choosing models without all those options. They don't even have a stick shift X5 any more ! BMW has clearly defined the X5 marketplace as different from the X3, which is not big enough for what we haul on a regular basis. Heck, I can't even get my bike in the trunk area of the X3.

Quite frankly this p's me off. Does Abby need leather seats ? Does fancy carpeting in the trunk area matter to us when I've got a greasy bike in there ? Does Abby need heated rear seats ? 4 way climate control ? an entertainment system ?

With the amount of driving that we do, a new car is worth nothing, from a practical standpoint, after five to six years. We've had the current X5 six years now, bought it with 20+k on the odometer and it now has 219k. All those options depreciate as fast or faster than the physical car.

We're going for a test drive next week. Sandy wants to see what it's like driving the 335d -- the diesel model -- but as much as that, the automatic transmission. We don't have many options in terms of full sized SUV's, however. I've found that even if we look at North American cars, by the time you add 4-wheel drive and must-have options like heated seats (good for the back on long drives, not for the heat), the price is in the same range.

The other thing is, once the option of a stick shift has been removed, our brand loyalty might die. I've been looking on paper at the base Mercedes SUV and it's quite attractively priced, compared to the BMW. It also has an excellent towing capacity -- 7200 lbs -- so that we'd be able to move our Hydra Sport around Florida. The BMW, at 6000 pounds capacity, is sufficient, but more is better.

I think that we might do a test-drive of the ML350 diesel at the same time as we do the X5. We were quite happy with the A180 in Europe ... now let's see what their larger vehicle is like.

--------

It's Thanksgiving somewhere -- in this case, here. Sandy, Marda and I tackled the bird, Sandy having worked most of the day on dinner. We have lots of leftovers ! Turkey, mashed potatoes, peas, cranberry sauce (Sandy makes her own), turnip, coleslaw, dressing/stuffing of course ... but shucks, no pumpkin pie. I had my PP on Canadian Thanksgiving, so I cannot complain.

Cheese anyone ? Marda ordered cheese for us which arrived yesterday. I met the postlady at the end of the driveway as she had a parcel. Well, that parcel was insulated with Styrofoam and had freezer bags in it, still cold. We now have a wonderful selection of cheeses. We'll have to bring some of those north with us because there is no way that we can finish all that we have and it won't keep forever.

It promises to be a lovely day. I've decided to leave my 200k until Monday, however, and I hope that wasn't a bad decision. I'll go for a "normal" ride today.

Onward !

Dec 1 - a busy cycling year

2011-12-02T08:11:00.002-05:00

It's not quite over. This award is sent to riders who do two 1200's in the U.S. in one year.

Texas 1200. Shenandoah 1200. Paris-Brest-Paris 1200. Toronto-Ottawa-Toronto 1000. 3x 200/300/400/600 series. 11,200 miles so far and two weeks to go before we head north for Christmas.

I'll do a 200k Permanent in the next few days and 4-5 more 70's. I won't quite hit 12,000 miles. I don't care ...

Dec 1 - time to adjust my watch

2011-12-02T05:05:00.005-05:00

... which says Nov 31. Well, it doesn't actually say Nov, just 31.

I went for a ride in some of the strongest winds that I've ever experienced. Time and time again, on the trip south, I had to fight to hold the road as the buildings' wind tunnel effect changed the direction that I had to lean. A heavy rain that I'd seen east of me crossed my path before I got there, thank goodness, leaving the roads wet and potentially slippery as well.

Before the ride Christie gave me a workout. Sandy had her turn as well and then headed for Orlando to shop and pickup Marda. Shortly after I got home so did they.

For dinner we had Panko encrusted Mahi Mahi. This is now one of Sandy's favorites. We also tried roasted green papaya, which is almost like acorn squash. It's actually kind of bland. I'll try it again, but spice up the insides some more with tomato sauce perhaps, barbecue sauce maybe ... hmmm. Green beans and rice completed the picture.

... and that was basically our day. Abby's was more boring because she was home alone. She did get a treat later though as I gave her an empty peanut butter container to clean out.

Today ... don't know ... I'll go to the gym now to start mine.

Onward !

Nov 30 - another one down

2011-12-01T06:19:00.003-05:00

11/30/11. Yes, 11/11 is over. Rats, I liked having two 11's in my dates. Next year I'll be able to go for two 12's, for a little while, and will then be done for my lifetime !

I did some filing yesterday, actually I didn't do any filing rather I went through piles of current paper that had accumulated beside my desk and put some in the trash and some through the shredder. I also did some peel and stick -- license plate stickers -- two cars, the Harley and the little Whaler. I still have stickers for the other car, the other boat and three trailers. I pay a lot of money to Florida for licenses !

What else -- oh yes -- late in the day I made a trip over to the paint store, which is within walking distance, and did some more deck work, finishing off the side deck as well as the dock. I still have the two upper decks to do, which are by far in the best shape and therefore won't soak up much stain.

I also went to the gym first thing, not riding the Harley, too chilly. It's even colder this a.m., 41F is what I saw on the thermometer and 45F is what the internet is telling me. It's supposed to get warmer over the next few days, which should be good for Marda's visit as well as my planned 200k on Saturday.

Sandy did some organizing upstairs so that Marda would have a bed to sleep on. It had been pulled apart so that the mirrors could be removed. She'll have a polka dot wall because Tim Troy, the plasterer, won't be coming until the day that she leaves.

I sorted through old cans of paint, since I had a half-dozen of those. Three were empty which leaves three to go to the hazardous waste disposal site about 15 miles away to which I've never been.

Biking ? Yes, probably today. Christie ? Yes, today also. Too cold for the Harley, I'll drive. Vacuum ? Yes, time to pass that device upstairs.

Onward !

Nov 29 - what is the world coming to ?

2011-11-30T05:14:00.003-05:00

I almost always have my cell phone with me when I go biking. I bring it for emergencies. I have gone without, but that's only because I forgot.

The only time that I turn it on during a ride, however, is when I'm doing multi-day brevets so that I can call Sandy to say that I made it through the day. If it's really late, I'll send her a text. I get hell if I don't !

Yesterday was a first. On a routine ride I stopped half-way, turned on the phone and called Sandy. No, I did not need support. What I did need was to hear how Sara's ultrasound went.

We, the big collective we, have a heartbeat. Whew. Life has changed. I now worry about things that never crossed my mind before.

Before the ride, I went to the gym for a session with Christie. After the ride, Sandy gave me a hand and we stripped the remainder of the papayas from the branches lying in the side yard. Putting most of them in a large storage bin, I went over to give them to Dolly. She makes relish with green papaya and also told me that they can be cooked like squash -- something we'll definitely try, since we've got a ton of them ourselves.

I've started to save the seeds from the ripe papayas that I'm eating. I'm going to plant them and start anew. I'm hooked on these things.

After dropping the papayas off with Dolly and Riley, I went to Food Lion and Publix to pick up a few things. My day was finished, other than dinner.

Sandy made a trip over to Daytona to do some Christmas shopping, hitting a few stores over there. All the big box stores are on International Speedway Blvd fairly close to the Speedway. The Volusia Mall is also there, with Macy's etc.

For dinner, we had Snapper, green beans and potatoes, the first and last done on the grill.

Today ? -- more deck work, perhaps, not sure what else. Check back tomorrow.

Onward !

Nov 28 - winding down

2011-11-29T05:16:00.003-05:00

Yes, November is winding down. Another 200k Permanent approacheth. Please, please stay, good weather ... but it's not to be, I fear. Already a cold front has moved in !

Cold, however, is relative. It's 57F here this morning, 10F cooler than yesterday. The daytime temperature will be cooler as well ... but it's not too bad ... from the high 70's to the high 60's.

Yesterday, with rain all around, I puttered around the house. I did some deck work, power washing the side deck and then later putting on a coat of stain. Of course it got rained on, but I'm hopeful that it was dry enough to take.

We had an unexpected mid-day project ... the papaya tree fell over, weighed down by all that fruit. Try as we might we couldn't right it, even after cutting off most branches. We got it propped up within perhaps 10 degrees for vertical but it was turned, several major roots had been broken; it wasn't worth trying to save it. We now have a huge pile of partly ripe and completely green papayas. I have no idea whether they'll ripen or not but we'll give it a go.

Sandy wants to plant some hibiscus at the front of the house. The papaya was a bad idea; too large a tree too close to the house and with fruit hanging one sided, obviously not a good long-term plan. I had thought that the one heavy branch hanging out was going to break off by itself, never imagining that the entire tree would fall.

Rats. I should have propped it up but I was going to have to cut the tree back to the stump later anyway ...

I should have taken a picture of the tree on the ground but I was too distressed !

---------

I got an automated call from FedEx saying that there would be a package delivered tomorrow (today) requiring signature. I looked up the tracking number and saw that a) it had already been delivered; b) it had been delivered to Wayne PA; c) it had been signed-for by Melissa Stoddard (they bought our house). Double Rats. I thought that one of us had ordered something and it had been delivered to an old address.

I still had Chris Stoddard's number so I called him. He said that he would call me back. While I was waiting, I called FedEx who insisted that the sender had supplied the phone number, a sender that I'd never used. They then told me that the addressee was Chris Stoddard, so, ok, it's not our package. They then admitted that perhaps, perhaps, FedEx had associated the address with the phone number and the fellow apologized.

There are some drawbacks to hanging onto your landline number when you move. FedEx isn't the only one that has our number tied to 101 Woods Lane -- we get calls from the township about floods, from "purple heart", the police association looking for donations, candidates looking for our vote ... sometimes it's a chuckle but sometimes it's annoying (the candidates).

Other than go to the gym, I didn't leave the house yesterday. Sandy made a couple of trips -- gym and groceries.

We had an Indian-style chicken recipe for dinner last night. It was excellent. My wife is a good cook !

In other news ... Sara will be going in shortly for another ultrasound where they will be looking for a heartbeat. How many fingers can YOU keep crossed at the same time ?

Today ... gym ... bike ... ???

Onward !

Nov 27 - postscript

2011-11-28T06:26:00.001-05:00

Just got back from the gym. No difference; that water leak is still running.

Nov 27 - making a difference ?

2011-11-28T05:04:00.003-05:00

As I sat down to write this blog I realized that I never even checked to see if they'd fixed that water main leak. Did I make a difference ? As usual, we'll never know.

Did I make a difference at home ? Time will tell. I did some dabbing (corners etc.) on the elevator lobby walls, prepping for the roller but the space is so small that it would have been a waste of paint to soak a roller. I've got to call the plaster guy this a.m. and find out when he'll be here.

Outside, I did more deck staining, hitting missed areas of the rough wood on the dock as well as the walkway to dry (or is it damp ?) land. I then dabbed bare areas on the deck at the house and will do a full coat before we head north. I still have the ground level deck at wrapping around the side of the house that needs to be power washed and then stained. It's smoother than the dock wood but in rough shape from a stain standpoint, with lots of bare areas. All in all, I'll probably go through four gallons of stain, I'm guessing, perhaps five.

What else -- oh, I rode the same Titusville loop with the Harley as I'd done with the bicycle the day before. It was faster with the Harley of course but no less tiring ! There were lots of bikers on the road and at the various bars, large groups out enjoying the weather and/or heading home after the Thanksgiving weekend.

I watched the last Netflix Warehouse 13 episode, the end of season 2. Interestingly enough, the first episode of season 3 was then on SciFi so I recorded that and watched it. We did watch an episode of The X-Files together.

Sandy did shrimp, which were excellent, rice and shredded green beans. Produce quality at the local stores is at an all-time low it seems, so the beans were a frozen product, sauteed -- quite good. Of course she corrected me and said that they were haricots verts ... those things that George and Geri always eat :).

Jeffrey let us know their planned holiday travels -- leaving Chesapeake Beach MD on the 26th and likely arriving at the cottage on the 27th, leaving the cottage on January 4th. That's great, just over a week. We thought that they might have to leave on the 1st. We're hoping that we have ice and snow for Chase, Sara's sister's son.

Is there anything else ? Hmmm ... don't think so ... oh yes, Abby and I took a spin in the little Whaler which started immediately and ran perfectly. It's time for me to pick up some more 2-cycle oil and gas as well as bait and do some fishing !

Onward !

Nov 26 - civic duty

2011-11-27T08:33:00.003-05:00

No, I don't have jury duty. I did call the county 800 number this morning, Sunday, when I got home after observing that waster was running presumably from a water main into a storm drain nearby. It took some digging to find a number that would be answered at 8am Sunday morning !

However, this blog is about yesterday ... and yesterday was a busy day. A few hours were taken up doing a bike ride, south into the ESE wind. Other hours were taken up fussing with sprinklers, replacing one high volume head that was bathing the pavers in lots of water. I have three other heads that need replacing, 180 degree heads that should really be 90 degree so that they don't water the sidewalk.

Back home after my ride, I relaxed for a bit and then we went to the Tiki for dinner. For once Sandy did not order the burger, opting instead for the beef wrap special.

That was pretty well it, I think. Hmmm. That doesn't sound like much ?!

Our internet was down for a while yesterday, quite a while as a matter of fact. I was outside and asked Jean about his TV and it turned out that TV was out of service as well. I'd called Brighthouse when I lost service and, as is typical, he had me turning off the power to the modem, disconnecting the coax cable, but while I was doing that (I'd already done the power off thing before calling), he said "oh, I see that there's an outage in your area. It should be back up in a couple of hours".

Sandy picked up some more deck stain, so if it doesn't rain today (cloudy now), I'll do some work there. I'll also probably put primer in the elevator lobby ... maybe ... it's a small area and not sure that it's worth doing any painting before I tackle the few walls after Tim Troy does his thing.

I'm coming up dry, staring at the screen. Enough for now ...

Onward !

Nov 25 - where to start ?

2011-11-26T06:15:00.004-05:00

I have a long list. Yes, a long list. There's a long list of things that I didn't do, perhaps should have done, yesterday.

I didn't do any more deck staining, nor did I do any painting inside. I did not go for a bike ride, or a boat ride. I didn't play golf -- oh wait, I'm not a golfer :).

What did I do ? Well, I got out the Christmas lights and for most of the day they were strung back and forth on the deck by the house and down the decking to the dock. I went to Home Depot to get some screw-eyes and for mini sprinkler parts and started working on the garden sprinkler, opting to do that instead of finishing the project that I'd started with the lights.

The sprinklers took a while. Once I figured out the spacing that I wanted I ran into the deck running between the two gardens. That's a ground-level deck ... so I removed a board ... found that it's on a concrete walkway ... rats. I had to burrow under the concrete with the sprinkler line -- running water helps that -- and then was able to continue. All in all I probably spent 3-4 hours working on the silly sprinklers.

I'm not finished. I think that I'm going to either eliminate or replace a large head that runs off the same circuit and sprays half of its water on the deck and pavers. It doesn't appear to be adjustable. The heads are only a couple of $ each ... the bigger problem is just digging around them to do the swap.

I then got the Christmas lights up, running up and down the deck-to-dock handrails and around the boat-covering roof. They are pretty. We have not gone over to the SYC Tiki yet to see them from that perspective ... perhaps tonight.

Next up, go over to visit Riley, with Sandy in attendance this time. Riley gave her the full tour and we sat and chatted for a while. Their house is really looking good.

We are so lucky that when we were first buying down here we couldn't afford, or didn't want to spend that kind of money, on a place right on the ocean. The effects of the salt are terrible. Everything is constantly bathed in salt. Riley put in a new A/C unit, on the back-side / road-side of the house, out of the direct salty wind. It's already rusting. His truck is covered even though it's parked at the back. Dolly cannot grow anything -- and she's a gardener. She used to spend a couple of hours per day tending gardens here at Keely. Yes, the roar of the ocean is great ... but perhaps you'd get tired of the constant wind, the constant roar, the constant dampness ?

The maintenance costs would wear out me and my bank account !

Speaking of salt, I stopped at the Saxon house and dumped a bag of salt in the water softener. I'd planned on doing that before we turned it over and since they had given me permission to go in for the dryer, I did this deed. The new occupants are still in Louisiana for Thanksgiving.

Tuna looked good at the fish store, looked good on the counter and tasted excellent along with sauteed zucchini and rice. I see that George had steak for dinner too, just that his was off the hoof and mine was off the ... fin ?

I did some Christmas shopping yesterday, online of course. I had to do my part on Black Friday to help the economy. I did not use PayPal, even though that was an option. I did exchange emails with PayPal, in fact two emails, with their customer service people over a recent e-blast from them.

It seems that they're going to hold PayPal deposited funds from eBay buyers for 21 days on my account (and probably thousands of others) due to (I'm guessing) limited selling activity. Of course their real reason is that they can hold those funds and no pay interest. My feedback has always been 100% but my selling activity has been sporadic. They have this laundry list of reasons that they keep quoting in cut-and-paste responses but it's BS. They keep saying that their actions will increase my revenue ?!?! not bothering to read my emails that I'm not a business. One rep actually phoned here and left a message. I'm glad that I missed the call; I might have blown a gasket !

Speaking of gaskets, the X5 has been behaving itself, coolant staying at "full". That's very good news. The next time that I go into Orlando I'll take the X5, making sure that the tires (i.e. balancing), wheel bearing (i.e. noise), and temp (i.e. coolant level) are all ready for prime time, 4000 miles of to/from cottage and sundry trips in between.

I watched another episode of Warehouse 13; we watched another episode of The X-Files as well as Season 1, Episode 1 of Law and Order. All 14 years of L&O are on Netflix. Can we possibly see them all before they take it down ? I'm not sure !

Today ? Well, there will again be a long list of things that I won't be doing ... but high on my to-do list is going for a bike ride. I've had enough of a break !

Onward !

Nov 24 - more around the house

2011-11-25T05:34:00.003-05:00

I puttered around, took down the oars and wheel over the front door, filled some holes with drywall mud and a few other yawners. The oars were attached with one wood screw each, the wheel with a lag screw through the center ... whoops, the wheel weighs a ton ! It's white, painted like the oars, and I assumed that it was wooden. Nope, it's brass. I'm going to strip the paint off and see what it looks like.

My major project of the day was to do some deck work. I used the little electric power washer on the deck at the dock and part-way up the walkway. The paint, and I use that term loosely, has instructions that if the surface is too hot, wet it and then paint. That's a new one !

It's a semi-solid stain that is in water suspension, not water based per se. Odd stuff, it actually painted the rough deck better where it hadn't dried because the particles would flow into the cracks. Using partly a roller and partly a brush, I blew through the gallon pretty quickly and probably hit 1/4 or less of what needs to be done. I'm betting that the oil based Cabot product that we used on the cottage would have worked better and would last longer. I want to think about this some more before continuing to put this product down.

Before the deck work, Abby and I went for a boat ride. This was basically another test ride. Does it start ? Does it run ? Does it accelerate ? Does it run after slowing down ? The answer was "yes" to all of these questions ... yay !

The boat trip did not have an auspicious beginning. Abby already in the boat, turn the key ... whrrrr ... oh darn, this battery is really shot ! Even though it had been on the Battery Minder, it didn't have enough power to run the starter. Wait ... double-check the connections at the battery / tighten the wing-nuts ... rrrruummm ! It was the connections all along ! I'll get some more time out of this battery after all !

I watched another couple of Warehouse 13 episodes, I'll be through the 2 seasons on Netflix pretty soon. Sandy and I watched another X-files episode before dinner.

Speaking of dinner -- chicken on the grill with leftover acorn squash from the night before, potatoes on the grill and peas. The two chicken breasts weighed two pounds so we didn't even touch the second one. That will be Sandy's lunch for the next couple of days.

I washed the car. The X5. Once a year whether it needs it or not. I used the shop vac on the floor ... wonder of wonders. The little panel where the passenger side mirror attaches to the car has paint bubbling. Perhaps I should take it to BMW and inquire about the rust warranty ? It's only a 2004; surely I shouldn't have any rust in 7 years. I don't think that it's worth the effort !

Onward ? Plans for today ? More deck work ? Not sure. I'd planned on a few days off the bike and I'll probably "break that fast" tomorrow rather than today.

Nov 23 - quiet day

2011-11-24T06:35:00.003-05:00

I watched a Warehouse 13 episode on Netflix, discovered that X-files is there and watched the pilot with Sandy, went to HD and picked up some water softener salt. There were two other items on my list but the first was out of stock (gallon can of WD40) and they didn't have a ready solution to the other in plumbing. I looked at, but didn't do anything about, adding sprinklers for the flower garden. I'm still pondering that project.

Why on earth would I want a gallon can of WD40 ? Well, as I mentioned to Aaron in an email, I'm using that for chain cleaning (bicycle). I'm finding that flooding the chain repeatedly with that product and wiping down the bike vs washing with cleaner has vastly improved chain and bottom bracket life. The BB, by the way, is the spindle + bearings to which cranks (pedals) are attached. It's not really a bracket ... but that's what it's called. WD40 by the gallon is a lot cheaper than in aerosol cans.

Sandy picked out paint for the living room and dining room (same) that will be necessary once Tim gets here and finishes the wall. I'm going to do some patch work today in areas that I'm not having him look at. We're trying to minimize the amount of painting so she picked a white that goes with the existing paint on the trim.

She also picked up a gallon of deck paint, matching what Riley already had down. It's peeling / bare spots developing all over. I expect that will be a regular job with the beating that it takes from the sun. I think that I'll just roll it on, the wood is in rough shape anyway and I'm just prolonging its life.

Traffic was busy, everyone doing their pre-Thanksgiving travel and/or grocery shopping. A lot of Orlando people have "beach houses" or condos in NSB so for those getting together with families here, that was their travel day. The main grocery store in this area, Publix, is closed today, Thanksgiving. From last year I remember that Food Lion is open, but I think they have short hours. I don't know about Winn Dixie nor do I know about the big box stores like Home Depot, WalMart etc.

The WalMart on SR44 closest to us closed a couple of days ago. It was one of the old style small stores. They stayed closed for one day and then re-opened at the new Supercenter at SR44 and I95. It's not quite as convenient but then again, I hated that little WalMart because parking was problematic, the store was crowded etc. etc. Perhaps I should visit the new store tomorrow ? Not on your life, I'm not going anywhere near any place that might have Black Friday specials, other than online shopping !

Today, depending on the weather, I might do some of that deck work and/or inside work. I'm taking a couple of days off biking, probably go out tomorrow. We'll see.

Onward !

Nov 23 - the better half ?

2011-11-23T05:53:00.003-05:00

With some playing around, I finally got the Merc 25 humming. Waiting for the tide to be high enough, it started up fine but then, consistent with its symptoms of the prior day, would stall as I increased the throttle whether under load or not. With the choke part-way out, it would run. Playing with the mixture at the dock, I got it running well. We -- Abby and I -- headed out and I did some high speed running, slowed down, whoops, didn't want to accelerate again. Making the mixture even richer, away we went and in this case, second time was golden. Up and down the waterway, up and down in speed, it ran like a top.

I'll do some more boating within paddling distance before I trust it completely, however. Back at the dock I raised the boat on the lift and then went to start the motor ... whrrrr. Oh rats, the starter wasn't engaging. Luckily this motor has a pull-start and it went with the first pull. Getting out my battery charger, I hooked that up, stopped the motor and re-started it -- sure enough, all the starting and re-starting over the last couple of days had drained the battery and it hadn't had enough running to charge up. That's not surprising; it's an old battery anyway. I put it on the big charger for a while and then switched to the BatteryMinder overnight. From here in the house I can see it flashing on the dock, so it's now in de-sulphate mode.

The other big news of the day was the Saxon dryer. With some rain in the area, actually with some rain overhead and falling on us, it didn't look like a good biking day so I decided to go over to Saxon and do that deed. It would have only taken 15 minutes had it not taken me a little fussing time pulling all the little lights etc. off the old board and moving them to the new board. I didn't want to break anything and did not. Fire it up ... works great ! It was $175 for the part, including shipping. Had I used a repair person, it would have probably cost me $500 what with paying MSRP for the part and a couple hours labor when you count two visits, diagnostics etc.

That was pretty much it for the day, nothing else of note. We had pompano for dinner, along with rice and acorn squash. The latter two were done on the grill, of course. The pompano was excellent !

Another day done ...

Onward !

Nov 21 - a half solution ?

2011-11-22T06:03:00.003-05:00

Ralph, of Ralph's Mobile Marine showed up early at 8:45. He was here until 11:15 rebuilding the carburetor and "playing" with the Merc 25. It ran like a champ while he was here ... that was the good news.

He quickly diagnosed the problem, putting his hand partly over the carburetor intake as I advanced the throttle and it didn't stall. Sure enough, when he tore the carburetor apart there were parts about to fail and others clogged with crud. In his estimation it was all original parts, i.e. had never been stripped down and cleaned before.

The carburetor rebuild kit is basically a bunch of gaskets, membranes and a couple of small parts. It's hard to believe that it's worth very much but since they are all specialty parts, they soak you. His price for the kit was basically MSRP -- more than I'd pay ordering online (about double) but that and his hourly rate is where he makes money. He charged a fair price and knew what he was doing so I was satisfied. It cost about the same as I paid Doug at the marina a couple of years ago to do the same thing with the 40 Merc on the Whaler up north.

It was still hesitating a little so after we did a test ride and got back to my dock, Ralph played with the mixture a little more. I think that's where I've run into problems. Late in the day I took Abby out for a spin and we drove up and down out front at high speed and it ran well. On the way back home, however, once at lower speed, it wouldn't keep running without being partly choked. I'll have to adjust the mixture to make it "richer" -- he showed me how -- and try again. I think that once the engine is thoroughly hot it probably needed that richer mixture ? Hard to say. If that fails I'll call him back in. We're almost there but not quite ...

When Ralph left the tide was very low. We were just able to get back to the dock. Any lower and I'd have been out of the boat pushing it along :). I vacillated a little and then decided to go for a bike ride, being noon before I got out. Showers were predicted later in the afternoon but I couldn't see anything on the radar other than quite south and west of me so I figured that I was safe.

I was, never got a drop. Sandy, however, in Orlando clothes shopping, went through downpours. During the first such one, the M5 windshield wiper rubber came partly detached and the outer edge of the wiper has scratched the windshield on the passenger side. She stopped and tried to fix it but to no avail in the pouring rain. She found a gas station and the guy there got it back into place. The scratch isn't really noticeable from the driver's side but I might check and see if it can be buffed out.

She didn't have much success shopping either, picking up one sweater. She ended up at the wrong outlet mall, trying to find it on the NAV. I had the same trouble last year as they both show up. I ended up calling the Pearl Azumi store directly to find out their address so that I could distinguish between the malls. Actually I think that I was headed for the Polo Ralph Lauren store at the time.

Sandy got home about an hour after me having stopped at Publix on the way to pick up a pork loin. I erred a little on the undercooked side this time but that was readily fixed by the nuker.

Another day mostly finished, I watched episode two of Stargate Universe and then after dinner, another episode of Warehouse 13. I can't say that I'm hooked on either. Sandy busied herself with some online Christmas shopping, a first for her !

Onward !

Nov 20 - routine

2011-11-21T06:16:00.003-05:00

Yes, routine, but a good routine.

With a nice day ahead of us, we headed to the marina at 10 a.m. I installed the second battery in the boat as we were put-putting out towards the inlet -- I take the two batteries out of the boat when we're away, leaving them on a charger in the garage. For our last trip out I got lazy and only brought one battery. I really don't even need two, but they came with the boat so what the heck. The second battery is really in case you're using devices without the motor running while you are fishing.

We made it out to the ocean but not without taking a few inches of water over the bow. Sandy and Abby got soaked. The nice thing about this boat is that the water runs right out the scuppers. I'd warned Sandy about sitting in the front; she wanted to turn around, worried about Abby sliding around on the floor. On the way back, Abby stayed at my feet, safe there because she cannot slide around in any chop.

Once through the inlet it was rough but not too bad. The tide moving through the inlet almost creates standing waves so it's always worse there. Had Sandy not been soaked, we might have stayed around and bounced for a while ... but we headed back to the island.

This time we parked on the south side of the island. It seems that tides between now and our last time there have really dredged out that channel because it was 8' deep even at low tide. We cruised through and parked with the bow at the sand, the stern in 4' of water -- perfect ! Sandy placed the bow anchor and I threw the other anchor out the stern to counter the tide that was rising, creating a westward flow.

We stayed there for a good hour plus, walking with Abby and then just sitting eating our lunch. It was moderately busy, people-wise and very busy, dog-wise. All the dogs got along and Abby had a good time. It's the most exercise that she's had in a while. There were 6-8 dogs constantly roaming of a variety of sizes and breeds.

After that, we headed home. Home, in this case was to Keely ... I wanted to see if the tide was high enough that we could bring the boat into our place. Not quite, we would have to wait another couple of hours and I didn't feel like that. We did stop at the SYC, however, and have a glass of wine / corona -- our standard order with Rose.

Rose, who runs the Tiki, had a car accident a few weeks ago, rear-ended as she was going home from work. She's wearing one of those neck spongy support braces. She told us the night before when we were there with Kirby and Sharon that she's had an MRI and is waiting for results. She says that it's quite painful, even now weeks later. That's not good.

I rinsed the boat as usual up on the forklift. Al was back -- it was his day off the last time we were in. He told us that the marina will be closed for Thanksgiving -- Thursday and Friday -- so we are forewarned.

After getting home and cleaning up, I went over to Publix beachside, the one close to our Saxon house. I'd been to the Publix on SR44 after Mass in the morning but they don't have an olive bar there and I was planning on refreshing my now-finished tapenade. I just looked up that word, not knowing whether it was tapEnade or tapAnade and it does have an E. I see that it comes from the word for capers, which we don't even put in our versions. Whatever ... I refer to "versions" because Sandy's is different from mine. We both use olives, of course, but I use a spicy mix along with some habanero peppers and feta cheese.

We started watching a couple of dumb, really dumb, Netflix movies and stopped them both. We then watched the opening episode of Stargate Universe ... hard to say if we'll get into that one but we'll try.

Dinner -- our weekly shrimp feed along with rice and pole beans. The beans were kind of tough, the rice was predictable, the shrimp good. The only trouble with the shrimp this time is that they had heads ... Sandy bought them that way. I looked up and found a recipe for tempura shrimp heads, because I'd had them before, but Sandy didn't really take me seriously and threw them out (the heads). Perhaps next time ...

Today ... perhaps ... I'll get out for a bike ride. It's looking promising. 81F -- I can take that !

Onward !

Nov 19 - another one flies by

2011-11-20T04:23:00.005-05:00

Whew. The real trouble with growing old is that the days go by more quickly.

Yesterday, for instance, I did nothing in particular for a couple of hours, went for a bike ride, had dinner at the club with Sharon (realtor) and her hubby (Kirby) ... and the day was done.

I MUST have done something else ... but I don't remember. It wasn't notable.

I did take some pictures with the Blackberry ...

Bananas, making progress --

Abby, in the glorious sunshine --

The peach tree, after a brutal pruning --

Today ? Who knows ...

Onward !

Nov 18 - the good, the bad and the ugly

2011-11-19T06:13:00.004-05:00

Where should I start ? Well, let's take it in order ...

The good --

I can't believe it. Two, maybe three years ago I took the time to go through about 10 years worth of Amex transactions because there was a class action suit going against Amex for charging a premium over the exchange rate for foreign transactions and not telling anyone. I had it all on Quicken, but the number of payees was huge and I had to separate it all, since I'd used my U.S. Amex card heavily in Canada. I've got the submission in my files at the cottage, saw that 1/2" thick wad of paper again this past summer when I was looking for something.

Bingo -- I received a check yesterday (since it was in USD it's a check, not a cheque) for about $250. Naturally, or so the letter said, the claims outstripped the award and I'll bet that there were inflated claims in there too. I had all the documentation for mine but you didn't actually have to send any in, so I'm bettin' ... and naturally the lawyers likely took half of the settlement. Anyway, $250 out of nowhere is better than the bad and the ugly ...

The bad --

We left here about 8:15 yesterday, driving the M5, and I noticed that the temperature gauge hadn't hit half-way yet as we got to the causeway. I was thinking that the X5 comes up to temperature quicker with the new thermostat ... well guess what, it never came up to temperature while we were on the highway. It was warm out -- 72F -- so it wasn't much below the mid-mark, about half-way between 1/3 and 1/2 (5/12 ?) but definitely below proper op temp. Rats ! What's with thermostats these days ! The M5 only has 78k miles on it.

I did some research using my Blackberry while I was waiting for the doctor and the part isn't expensive -- $56 -- since it's just the thermostat, not the housing + thermostat on the M5, but I was betting that it's not an easy job. That's a very crowded engine compartment. Well, later on I looked on the M5board website and it's actually a lot easier to get at than the X5. Further research tells me that if the engine isn't getting over some threshold operating temperature, it starts sending flags and the "service engine soon" code reader will tell me that the thermostat needs replacing. In that case, since I'm not planning on taking the M5 out of Florida any time soon, I'll leave it.

These thermostats are designed so that when they fail or start to fail, they fail open, rather than closed. That's a good thing since it's much better for the engine to run cool than to overheat. I may tackle this at some point just because ...

The ugly --

I was doing that research on M5 thermostat replacement, staring at the monitor, reading instructions when all of a sudden I got a blank screen. What ? Well, my NEW Seagate hard drive had failed !!!???!!! Well, a while later I had it spinning up and was running the Linux equivalent of chkdsk on it, self-repairing some errors, but I hadn't expected this. I had plenty of backups and I took some more, but we're hitting new reliability lows !

In other news ...

My day started early, heading over to the Saxon house to replace the curtain rod that had been stolen. We'd left it on the floor of the house for the new people to fix but I didn't think that was fair. I'd decided to get over there and do the deed before they started moving in that morning. Well, Jason was already at the house unloading his trailer at 6:15 a.m. I slowed, saw that he was there, went on, decided that was silly and came back. He was fine with me going inside and putting up the curtain rod, which I did.

We had three appointments in Orlando -- first I dropped Sandy off at the hairdresser and then went to my doctor's appointment. He was running late so I had still not seen the doctor by the time Sandy called to say she was ready. The doctor (urologist) showed up shortly afterwards and said that he was running early, the nurse was running late :). Actually that was the case. It's been mandated (Obama) that all these medical records be automated so they're busy inputting medical history info for every appointment. It was just a routine checkup and I was out of there ten minutes later.

Gundian gets a little more chatty each time that I see him. He asked if we'd tried the new restaurant in New Smyrna Beach and amazingly enough I was able to say "yes". That's where we went with Patti and Norm. Everybody in Orlando loves NSB, apparently.

From the doctor I went back to pickup Sandy and then we went to St. James Cathedral and met Dan Wallace for the 12:10 Mass being offered for Alexander. After Mass we crossed the street and had lunch. This is the only time that I've seen Dan other than when he's manning Controls on brevets, so it was nice to have the time to sit and chat.

From there we headed home. Sandy was wiped from her workout with Christie the day before and had a snooze; I sprayed the plants outside because we have some sort of scale on some, then went over to Oceanbreeze to pick up the first rent check + the dog deposit. We'll setup direct deposit before the next go-around.

Sandy didn't feel like grocery shopping so we had pasta with a bottled sauce + chicken. It was fairly plain, but then most of our at-home food is fairly plain. I haven't had pasta since we were in Italy ! I yearned for fresh tomatoes, fresh porcini mushrooms ... mmmm.

Today, depending on the Doppler, I'll go for a bike ride. There are supposed to be scattered showers so I'll play that by ear. I could always do some hill-climbing practice at the south causeway if I don't want to risk getting dumped-upon.

Onward ...

Nov 17 - a really small town

2011-11-18T05:40:00.002-05:00

That's the thing about New Smyrna Beach -- it is a small town. Sometimes I think that it's as small as Port Loring !

Yesterday the mirrors came down. It didn't take them long. I contacted Riley about the drywall guy and the papayas and he'd already heard from Judy, our next door neighbor "Riley, they're taking away your mirrors !".

An hour later the drywall guy came over, checked out what he'd have to do and called me back later in the day with his quote. It's costing more to fix the walls, naturally, than take down the mirrors. Not much more -- I think that he wants to take it easy on me because he knows that I'm going to be doing more work !

Even later, I called Ralph's Mobile Marine who is going to come over on Monday and look at the Merc 25. He's bringing a carburetor rebuild kit, figuring that's the problem. I told him what I'd done, about the mud wasps in the engine etc.

Dolly came over at 4:30pm and picked up her 14 papayas and got a look at the house, marks on the wall and all, new appliances which she hadn't seen yet, Sandy's garden work which is really looking good, etc. etc. She's constantly stressed by what's going on at their "beach house" as Riley calls it. Living under construction is one thing but she's gone from basically living in a one-floor house to three. She really never had to come upstairs at Keely except to clean whereas in their new house, laundry and entrance are at ground level; living room/kitchen is up one level and bedroom is the next level up.

At 5pm we met Katie and Jason, along with Marcia from Oceanbreeze -- for the walk-through at Saxon. I gave Jason my list and went through that. Trimming, filters, etc. etc. They are going to be away all next week so I'll go over during that time and fix the dryer ... hopefully.

We stopped at the fish store on the way back from Saxon, picking up hog snapper for dinner. They call it hog snapper here but it's not really a snapper; it's a member of the wrasse family.

Mid afternoon the parts for the faucet arrived and I installed them, but not without incident. I hadn't realized that the hose below was twisting as I undid the top nut but luckily I didn't break the hose. I thought that the hose was broken, it's hard to tell with these braided hoses, so I went over to Ace Hardware and picked up another one ... but it didn't fit. It had the right-sized connectors but they weren't deep enough. I may replace it at some point but it's not leaking ... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

So that was it, a busy day in many respects.

Today we're off to Orlando ...

Onward !

Nov 16 - lamb, finally

2011-11-17T05:34:00.002-05:00

A few days ago we had dinner at the club and the lamb on the specials menu caught my eye. Before I could order, we were told that they were out of lamb. I was heartbroken. Last night at a little restaurant at the corner of the North Causeway and Flagler, with Norm and Patti Himes, lamb shank caught my eye ... and this time I was not disappointed.

Nor was I disappointed with the prep or presentation, it was wonderful. Norm had the lamb as well; Patti had the fish tacos; Sandy had the tuna special.

So that was the end of our day.

For me it was an exercise day. I started off with Christie, who gave me a great workout and then shortly after getting home, I was out on my bike. It was hot -- 80+ -- and windy from the SE, but that wind stuck around for the trip back, providing a quick return.

I thought that I was finished at Saxon but Sandy reported bad news. She had tried to fluff the curtains in the dryer and ... E68. Rats. I went over and found that indeed we were getting an error code after a few seconds of operation and it wasn't going away with power resets. I checked online to see what the code meant, having forgotten from when we had this briefly a couple of years ago. It means "stuck switch" or some such thing.

With a little button-pressing troubleshooting, I determined that the "dryness" switch was sticking -- not the mechanical part, but the on the circuit board itself. Double rats. I'd checked into this issue two years ago and had sent myself an email with the model number / part information. Since the switch was well and truly stuck now and since the "repair clinic" place where I'd ordered before has a return-for-any-reason policy, I went ahead and ordered the part.

Our lease specifies that the washer and dryer are there "for convenience only" and we're not responsible for maintenance on those items or rather it's at our option. However, I imagine that our tenants would be pretty disappointed finding that they had no dryer. I went ahead and ordered the part and I'll have to tell them that I'll be there in a few days to install it.

So there goes half of the half-November rent ... sigh. I hope that this isn't a sign of things to come.

While I was biking the people from New Smyrna Glass showed up, early because they weren't supposed to be here until today, and started to work on removing the mirrors. They removed the full wall mirror in the bedroom upstairs and then moved to the dining room. One of the fellows felt ill so they bagged it for the day. They'll be back this a.m.

That was the good news. The bad news is that the bedroom wall is a mess. I can patch a small area of the textured surface without it being too noticeable but cannot do a geometric pattern in the same fashion. The entire wall needs to be fixed. The same will hold true in the dining room and living room. So ... I contacted Riley who has given me the name of the guy that he used here and at his new beachside house.

I had expected some wall repair work but assumed that it was work for me, not a contractor. I'll have to decide on whether I want it textured or smooth. I know that Jason would recommend smooth.

Today there's supposed to be a walk-through at Saxon. I had told Marcia (Oceanbreeze) that I would attend as well and asked her to let me know the time. She never got back to me so I'll call her first thing.

Tomorrow I'm going into Orlando for a routine doctor's checkup and following that, meeting Dan Wallace at St. James Cathedral for the noon Mass. He had arranged a Mass offering for Alexander.

Oh -- I told Riley in my email vis-a-vis drywall that Dolly could come and collect some papayas and he told us to expect her around 4:30 p.m. after she finishes work. I have about a dozen of them in the fridge now of various sizes :).

Onward !

Nov 15 - here and there

2011-11-15T15:14:00.004-05:00

I was thinking of biking but the morning raced by and the air was so heavy and I had other things to do ... excuses excuses ...

I went over to Saxon and put in the dimmer and track lighting that sits on the "roof" of the guest bath (with the vaulted ceilings, the guest bath forms somewhat of a box at the side of the room, hard to visualize). When I originally put power up there and a switch down below, I intended to site lights there but we ended up putting the glass faces from Mexico with candelabra bulbs behind them. I've hung onto that piece of track lighting, thinking at various times that a) I should have taken it back and b) I should have thrown it ... but now it has a place. It matches the track lighting that I had installed on the opposite side of the room so it's balanced :).

I also de-installed the clothesline rather than buy a new one. Truth be told I couldn't find out where Sandy had bought it originally (she insists that I bought it) and she didn't want one of those square ones. So we are recycling.

We took the boat trailer over to Sharon's so it's now out of the way. We are just about finished with Saxon chores.

Back home, I installed the clothesline. That sounds easy but we got into a "debate" (sounds better than argument) about where it should be and how big. She wanted 12' to hang king sized sheets. I couldn't imagine needing 12'. It turns out that the Saxon setup worked fine, so we went with that (10.5'). I'd have liked it even shorter (non-existent) but Sandy loves her clothesline.

We then did some trimming of the bushes along side so that the clothes wouldn't hit them and while we were at it, we gave the peach tree out front a heavy duty pruning.

Speaking of fruit trees, as of this morning there was a second purple shoot so we're soon going to be in the banana business. Here are some pictures:

Papaya tree(s) at the front of the house:

Green papayas on one stem (there are more than a hundred of these and it's still flowering!):

Banana tree (mat) in the backyard:

A purple shoot:

After that, the day as pretty well done other than for me, some vacuuming and for Sandy, a trip to Lowes to buy some more plants for the back garden. She's gradually populating it and we're hoping that we don't get the heavy frost in December/January that will kill it all !

At 5:30 p.m. I sat down to catch up on email and saw that I had a ton, since I'm dealing with insurance issues for the Saxon house and of course the rental. We now have a signed lease !! that runs through November 30 next year. Wonder of wonders. Pretty soon they'll send us some money for 1.5 month's rent, but not before I have to pay property taxes on both properties and only about a small fraction of what I have to pay at that. Oh well.

Dinner was easy with leftover chicken, leftover roasted potatoes and non-leftover beans. The night before we had leftover steak in a stir-fry. When you're cooking for two some things are just bound to create leftovers. There's still chicken left but Sandy will have that in her lunch-time sandwich today and perhaps tomorrow.

Today ... I'm going to the gym and Christie is going to give me a workover. She pushes me harder than I push myself except that I'm still sore from going the other day. I did exercises that didn't hurt last Spring, but of course by then I was used to them.

If I had a biking companion who pushed me like Christie pushes me at the gym I'd be a much, much stronger rider. Hmmm. What does that tell me ? I should probably start going out to the club rides that run Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. I'll think about that. Variety like that would also help me ... but do I want help ? That's a good question !

After the Christie workout I need to go biking. That will be a first.

Onward !

Nov 14 - ok, scrap that

2011-11-15T06:46:00.004-05:00

I just got back from Labcorp totally frustrated. It took almost a week to get the labwork prescription out of my doctor then another week to get into Labcorp then whoops,I need an appointment, then more than a week to get an early morning (this is fasting, after all) appointment, and they didn't have my doctor's requisition.

I give up. I feel fine and this is just a waste of time and my and the insurance co's money. My heart rate is fine, blood pressure is fine, and I don't need another session sitting with my doctor talking about my vitamin D levels.

---

Changing the subject ...

Everything seems to be ok with the thermostat work but with it raining this morning I wasn't able to check that there had been no drop in coolant level. Everything was dry under the hood late yesterday, looking down and lying on the ground looking up, so I'm hoping that this is a done deal.

It's strange having a temperature gauge pointing vertical ... it's strange having heat before I even get a mile and a half from here. I'm not used to this !

Changing the subject ...

Now that I've had breakfast and my coffee is taking hold my mood is improving. It's lucky that it was too early to call the doctor's nurse or I would have. This is so inefficient doing this by voicemail messages. I never talk to this lady since she's got a camera over the front door and knows when there's no-one home so that she can leave a message. ... just kidding of course ...

Changing the subject again ...

I was over to Saxon twice yesterday. The first time was on the Harley, since Sandy brought over the bulky stuff and the second time was with the X5 to handle a couple of small things that were raised the first time.

On my list:

-- take down Starchoice (now Shaw) Canadian satellite dish ... changed my mind on that one and left it there, will wait to talk to tenants about what they are doing for TV

-- fasten piece of baseboard with finish nailer that was behind the buffet/hutch and never fastened.

-- blow out leaves at back

-- fix irrigation drip pipe, plugging a couple of holes and replacing the chewed off ?? end cap.

-- still on my list -- install the piece of track lighting that I'd bought for over the dining room area but never used

-- put license plate on boat trailer prepping to move it

For the latter, I had to pickup license plate screws, since it didn't come with them, which I did on the way to Labcorp to pick up the urine sample container ... which turned out to be a paper cup with a lid -- could have gotten that at McDonald's !! It wasn't even sterile !!

Oh yes, I also got to the post office with Stef's shoes which she had delivered here. Can you believe that the postage for the shoes in a largish box was only $12.72 ? That might seem high to an American only used to dealing with USPS, but when I had a cycling jersey sent to me in an envelope from Mississauga to Loring, all within Ontario, that cost $12 at Canada Post. The jersey was a fraction of the size and a fraction of the weight, a distance of 250 miles vs 1200 miles and international ... what more can I say. Canada Post is a rip-off ! Now I can understand why, covering the area that they do with only a fraction of the volume compared to USPS but perhaps they should outsource themselves ! Of course then Canadians would have to go to India to mail anything :).

We have babies on the way !! Yes, one of the banana stalks has sprouted its purple shoot. I've learned a lot about bananas ... the entire plant is called a "mat" which encompasses the above ground and below ground system. Each stalk will produce 25-35 leaves/shoots before sending up the purple one that produces bananas. After that stalk has produced bananas it dies, kind of a self-defeating pregnancy don't you think ?

The peach tree out front is in flower but we're probably going to cut it down. It doesn't do well in the heat of the summer, loosing most of its leaves. It grew a lot, too much, and is now mostly bare. The papaya, on the other hand, is now huge and the big papayas are now starting to ripen. I've been eating small ones about the size of softballs but now the larger ones getting up to the size of a small football are starting to go yellow. It died back to two small stalks last winter with the frost and I'll have to cut it back if it doesn't die back this winter.

Our realtor has offered to park our boat trailer in their yard. They have 13 acres and it will be behind an outbuilding. I'm going to take her up on that right now but it's not a long-term solution. We'll have to buy them dinner ... perhaps at the club. I'm hoping to take the trailer over there today.

Sandy has done more work in the garden, finishing the clean-up and buying some plants for the empty areas. She just left for the gym, two days in a row ... the jockette is back !

Onward ? I guess ...

Nov 13 - so far so good

2011-11-14T06:30:00.004-05:00

Vis-a-vis the thermostat work -- I did some driving around, church, Home Depot, a dozen miles on I95 and then back home. Late in the day I checked the coolant level (have to wait until it's cool) and it hadn't gone down as far as I could tell. I have to do more extensive driving to come to any real conclusions though. I'll keep my fingers crossed for now !

Vis-a-vis the leaky faucet -- I did find out that it's a Pegasus, model not currently available, and have an 877 number to call for parts/service. Riley had left a bunch of installation booklets here for anything that he'd done. I asked a plumbing guy at HD and he said that Pegasus is HD-owned and being phased out. Yes, I gathered that from the dearth of models available on the website. I described the issue to him -- removing that huge Allen-nut to replace the o-ring -- but he had no solutions other than call the number and they'd probably just send me a new spout or a whole new faucet.

Vis-a-vis nice day -- yes, I went for a bike ride. The wind was from the ESE or perhaps that was EEEESE but in any event it was nice to go south for a change. I only saw one gator, but I wasn't paying close attention to the ditches at the side of the road. I took the Lynskey; I've mostly been riding the Hummer (Litespeed) since it was handy. It behaved itself ... more on that ...

A couple of days ago, not mentioned in the blog, I spent a couple of hours doing routine and non-routine maintenance on both bikes. I removed the front lights from the Litespeed, since I won't be riding in the dark for a while, and took off the rando wheels (Peter White wheels, front one with generator) and put on the Mavic Heliums. In doing so I discarded the rear tire from the PW wheels, very worn, and installed that on the Mavic front. That's a 26mm tire. I installed a new 28mm tire that I had from last year on the rear wheel.

If/when I ever buy/build up another bike for randonneuring, it will accommodate wider tires. The 28's barely clear the front fork and any bit of dirt that gets stuck on the tires ends up wedged at the top for a few moments squealing against the tire. There's a little more clearance at the rear, but ideally I'd have cantilever brakes vs caliper and be able to mount/dismount wide tires easily and not have the clearance issues front or back.

28's, from my experience, are more comfortable for riding on rough roads (much) but don't compare to riding something like 32's. One of these days ...

Back to the Lynskey -- the other maintenance that I did on that bike was checking the derailleur hanger. From day one that bike has had some shifting issues with big chainring / big cog. Sure enough, the hanger was out of line. I bought the checker/adjuster during the summer and used it for the first time ... shifting is now perfect ! Wonderful ! It may have come from the manufacturer that way or been bent in shipping to me. The bike has never been dropped or otherwise abused.

The way my riding goes, I'd be best to sell the Lynskey and build up a new rando bike. The Litespeed could be relegated to backup position for those really long rides as well as a lighter setup for short rides. I'd love to have a light weight setup for the 200/300 rides with a battery powered head-light and tail-light, no rack etc. etc. Oh well. It's nice to dream. When I win the lottery. Of course that won't happen since I don't buy tickets !

It continues to stay warm up north; hopefully that will change soon and we'll have ice on the lake at Christmas. It's still early but as the internet shows me -- 48F there and 55F here, 1500 miles doesn't make very much difference.

Jeffrey pretty well has his plans nailed down for Christmas, planning on leaving Chesapeake Beach MD on the 26th, heading north to the cottage. It's a full 15 hours driving from there so he may end up stopping along the way at Stef's or David's or not, depending on how they feel. Chase will be coming with them; they've got lots of room now that they have a van.

Of course Sara being pregnant means that most likely they will NOT be coming up next summer. Arlene had given some thought to coming to the cottage at Christmas but I haven't heard any more on that score; Philip's girls are going to Thunder Bay for Christmas so I'm campaigning for them to stop at the cottage on the way. We'll see.

Our first banana-shoot has appeared ! Yes, the purple shoot that we've heard about has appeared on one of the banana plants ! It will take many more shoots, however, before they catch up to the papayas that I've been eating every day. I need to get in there and take a picture ... hmmm.

Today ... I have a couple of things to do at Saxon ... I have to pickup a pee container for tomorrow a.m.'s annual labwork ... there must be more, I'm sure that the day will go by.

I've been watching Warehouse 13 on Netflix, now into episode 5 or 6. It's not pulling me in yet. It may never.

We had rotisserie chicken last night. It was perfectly cooked. This grill has four burners, left to right, so I can leave the sides on with the center burners off and the broiler burner, for want of a better name, on as well. The 4.3 pound chicken cooked in about 1:15. I actually used a meat thermometer !

Oh yes, I went to the gym this morning before breakfast ... I need to get back into that routine.

Onward !

Nov 12 - is it fixed ?

2011-11-13T05:53:00.003-05:00

I knew why I didn't like changing the car's thermostat -- it's plumbing !

Well, I couldn't get the fan clutch off. I was reluctant to hit the wrench hard enough, always nervous about breaking something. I did the next-best thing -- I used my 5mm Allen wrench (actually my 5mm hex 3/8 socket wrench) and removed the fan from the clutch, then lifting the fan and cowling out together. It was very difficult to get back into place, but I managed.

Once the fan and cowling were out, I opened a couple of the coolant drains and let them drip into a bucket and then removed the thermostat itself. There is an electrical connection to the housing and four bolts that attach it to the engine block. The thermostat part of the housing inserts into the block and there's a gasket that mates with the block to seal the entire thing.

Two hoses also have to be removed from the thermostat housing and I fiddled a bit with those, again not wanting to break anything.

I read the cautionary notes about the bleed and drain screws so many times that I was hesitant to tighten them too much -- plastic/nylon construction. Of course that means that I had leaks and a couple of times I got "check coolant level" later in the day. As a result I'm still not sure that I have everything sealed. Time will tell. With the drains tight, there are basically three points where there could be leaks -- each of the two hoses and where the thermostat housing mates with the block. I can't really see in there without removing the fan and cowling again, so I'm just going to give it some time and see if the coolant level stays up.

With all of the cowling and underside parts to modern engines, a) you can't see down or up to check things and b) a small leak or the result of a former leak has a lot of places for liquid to collect and drip over time. I don't have any drips now but that's no guarantee.

The other possibility, although unlikely, is that by draining/refilling the coolant I've sprung a tiny leak in the rad itself. That kind of leak usually sprays coolant and drips. The underside of the entire area was wet from the earlier leaks, especially from the not-tight-enough bleed screw at the top of the rad, so it's hard to tell at this point.

IF the job is finished, I saved myself a chunk of change. I'm keeping my fingers crossed ! ps -- the engine now comes up to proper operating temperature, so the thermostat works anyway.

The thermostat was my morning project. My afternoon project was trimming mangroves at Saxon. That took two trips, because it was too wet the first time to get as far back into the mangroves as I wanted.

We had our "typical" Saturday dinner -- shrimp from the market, rice and peas. Shrimp is the typical part, the accompaniments are variable :).

That's about it. I may go for a bike ride today; the forecast looks good.

Oh -- and there is big news -- Sara is pregnant. We've known for a few days but I held back saying anything here until she went public on her Facebook page.

This happened without drugs, i.e. no fertility treatments to encourage follicles to drop eggs. That's good, because I worry about multiple births with those treatments. We are nervous though, with the pre-eclampsia of the last time increasing her risk of being in that boat again.

Onward !

Nov 11 - postscript

2011-11-12T06:35:00.003-05:00

I'd been sitting on the request for feedback from the ebay seller of the fan clutch removal tool for a couple of days and decided to look further into it. The expected delivery date for the transaction was not until next week, so I had not worried about it very much.

Checking my emails, I found that I had indeed gotten a shipping notice and filed it, but of course when you receive these, especially on the weekend, you cannot really see what is happening until sometime Monday. I hadn't bothered at the time.

Ah ha -- I did have a tracking number, and clicking on that I found that the package had been delivered ... huh ? furthermore, the logo was the eagle, i.e. USPS. It had been delivered, according to them, on Wednesday. Today is Saturday ...

I was sure that I'd seen all incoming packages, but checked around again. This one would be relatively small, probably an envelope vs a box. Nothing. Back to the website, I then saw that it had the Saxon address ! How it got that, I don't know -- I'd paid with Paypal and they've had the Keely address for a long, long time.

What's going on ? USPS is forwarding mail to Keely, so even if the address is wrong, it should have gotten here. 6:05 a.m. and off I went to Saxon. Sure enough, it was in the mailbox. A priority mail / tracking number type of envelope was awaiting me. I'd thought of checking the mailbox yesterday and forgotten. Sandy was there the day before. It's been so long since we've had mail delivered there that we don't even check any more.

Back home, I went onto the Paypal website to check addresses. Sure enough they have Keely as the confirmed address but also have Saxon as an alternate. I don't remember even being prompted for choice of address. It's lucky that it didn't get delivered to the other alternative address -- Sara ! I deleted Saxon, went to ebay and posted positive feedback for the seller. It wasn't their fault !

I know, this took a lot of writing, but it is a way to vent ...

Nov 11 - 11/11/11

2011-11-12T05:05:00.003-05:00

We have one more year where the year, month and day will be the same and then not again in my lifetime for sure !

For me, yesterday was work-on-Saxon and do-errands day. I was mostly successful.

First off, I went over to visit Riley with a half-dozen papayas for Dolly. I've been eating one per day but cannot keep up. They're quite tasty and really packed with good stuff, based on the nutritional value chart that I've seen.

Riley and Dolly (former owners of our house) have done a great job with their house on the ocean. "Have done" is not quite right because the work goes on. To say that they gutted it might be a small exaggeration, but not much. Gutted would imply that they didn't do anything outside, but that's underway too !

From there I went to Saxon and cleared the roof of branches and leaves and then cleaned the gutters. I had the blower with me so I then cleared the sidewalk of everything that I'd thrown down.

Next I removed the hose in front and the sprinkler attached to that, re-attaching the drip hose. Playing with the automatic watering control, I got that working but found that the drip hose out the side was squirting etc. so I left the system off. I'll go back over the repair/replace that hose and the drip heads. I have the spare parts here.

Next I attacked the palm trees out back. They've been doing quite well and needed some thinning. I could probably do more, and very well might, before our tenants move in. I do need to go back and trim the mangroves. I just might do that today. That will take a step-ladder and pruner vs the hand-snipper that I was using for the palms.

Having spent a couple of hours working at Saxon, I headed to the post office with a parcel for Stef. That turned out to be a dud ... or a duh ? ... it was Veterans Day and the post office was closed. I think that it's open this morning so I'll try again or maybe Sandy will do that one.

From there I went to Home Depot, picking up terry rags for bike and whatever maintenance and a couple of other small things. I also dropped off a UPS lead-acid battery into their cell phone and electronics recycling bin.

My last stop was more recycling, dumping 4x5 quart containers of used motor oil into the used oil tank at Advance Auto Parts. I had changed the oil in both cars before leaving in the Spring ... or perhaps that was during the summer ... anyway, they both take 8 quarts so it adds up quickly. AA doesn't take the containers, so they'll end up in our garbage on Monday.

I started watching Warehouse 13 on Netflix ... not sure if I'm going to really get into this one but one reviewer that I read said that after about episode 4 it does get better.

Sandy had a busy day too, going to the dermatologist in Ormond Beach for micro-derm abrasion, the BMW dealer in Holly Hill for coolant for my upcoming thermostat replacement in the SUV, Bed Bath & Beyond in Daytona etc. These are back-to-back communities so it's not as onerous as it sounds !

Every blog that I read said use the BMW stuff since there's not much difference in price. It mixes 50-50 with distilled water to protect to -37F, which should be good enough. If we lived up north, however, I'd mix 60/40 per their instructions to protect to lower temps.

Which brings me to -- I still don't have the darned fan clutch removal tool !

Oh yes, and while the 25hp Merc runs smoother on the Whaler with the replacement spark plug wires, it still shudders and stalls after a few seconds when the throttle is advanced under load. I'm not sure where I'm going with this one. First off I'll do some more research online.

I think that was it. Oh yes, we had meatloaf last night for dinner. Sandy had a craving. It was good but I didn't over-indulge. Leftovers will make good sandwiches :).

Onward !

Nov 10 - should have been on the water !

2011-11-11T04:55:00.003-05:00

As it turned out, the day before and after our day (couple of hours) on the water were the nicest days. The cloudy day would have been fine for cycling, but oh well.

However, it was a wonderful cycling day. 78F, sunny, moderate winds form the NW and then NE, the only thing that I could have asked for was a more northerly component on the return trip. The day turned out so hot that the E component overwhelmed the N.

In fact, that E component blowing from the relatively cool (70F) ocean to the warm land in the face of a W wind created an interesting effect. Riding south along A1A north of Ormond Beach, there's a bluff/dunes created by the waves and the road is about 6' lower than the dunes with the dunes about 20' higher than the water. The land-bound air sweeps up the dune, creating an updraft, and two people with para-sails were having a blast. For a while they were simply hovering over the dune, like birds, 50'-100' up and then sailed up and over, gaining even more altitude. As I approached them, first seeing them about a half-mile off, I wasn't sure whether they were being towed by a boat with a long leash, a car on the beach or large kites or ultra-lights.

I find that more and more suppliers are using USPS these days or maybe it's just what I'm buying. I had two deliveries yesterday, a long HDMI cable for connecting my laptop to the TV for Netflix-type use and the ignition wire parts for the little Whaler. They both came by snail mail. I also have the X5 thermostat that was delivered two days ago but I'm still awaiting the tools to remove the fan clutch. Sandy has a dermatology appointment this morning (actually a facial) and she's going to pickup a gallon of BMW coolant on the way back. I already have my gallon of distilled water so I'm just waiting for the tools.

I'll try out the ignition wires this morning. I was tempted to do so yesterday but opted to not find out that this does not solve the problem. I don't have high hopes on this one but it was cheap and worth a try.

We had Red Snapper for dinner last night accompanied by rice and beans. The night before we celebrated, going over to SYC for dinner. We were celebrating renting the Saxon house, which hopefully will come to pass on November 18th. The agent has pro-rated Nov rent, December rent and 1 month rent security deposit in hand along with the dog fee of $250, so it's pretty clear that they want our house !

I guess that's about it ...

... except that I have to mention Alexander. He's constantly on my mind. The other day I was entering all the transactions into Quicken for my Canadian Visa card, having not done so for the past three months and with a ton of said transactions having occurred in France and Italy, and got to a transaction from 9/22 from the Port Loring HBC (used to be Timbr Mart). It brought back memories, because I was in there buying more cement for the work on that rock wall, and I immediately flushed, broke out into a sweat, because that was the last thing that I was doing when the world changed.

I cannot escape the feeling that had we done something differently, i.e. gone down to Reading PA after getting back from France, that we somehow would have changed the flow of events that culminated in the random act of SIDS. Deep down I know that it's silly. Deep down I know that we're probably more likely to be involved in a car accident than to have SIDS strike one of our grandchildren, but there you have it, the irrational overcomes the rational. I know that it's a lot worse for Sara and Jeffrey. Medical assurances to the contrary, they will always wonder whether there was something that they could have done to prevent this from happening to their Alexander.

As I type this I have a headache from the thoughts chasing themselves through my mind.

We will move onward, but never really move on.

Nov 9 - on the water, briefly

2011-11-10T05:34:00.003-05:00

We did go for a boat ride but it was windy and cool. The NE wind was pushing large waves over the Ponce Inlet breakwater creating a good show, but not one that we would venture into. We gave Abby a short romp on the island but the tide was running out and I didn't want to get stuck on the sand at the back-side.

When we got back to the marina, Doug was out to lunch so we waited almost an hour for him to come back to get the boat out of the water and rinsed. In retrospect, it would have been better to go home and wait for their call ... but we'd been told that he was having a "short lunch" ... not so short :).

The big news, however, is that we have renters for the Saxon house. There was a message on the phone when we got back and later we headed over to Ocean Breeze and signed a property management contract. A landscaper, pregnant teacher and older Dalmation will move into the house on November 18th for a one year lease which presumably will run until next Nov or Dec 1. We have a few chores to do before then and we'll meet with the people at some point to give them the run-down on some routine housekeeping items.

I also realized this morning that I'll have to call the utility co's to have them take a reading and shut-down my utilities. I should send Marcia at Ocean Breeze an email on that ... they'll need to contact Florida Public Utilities (gas) and Utilities Commission New Smyrna Beach (water and power).

I also have to contact my insurance agent with the change, including having Ocean Breeze also named on the liability policy. Last but not least, I have to get my boat trailer out of there. Sharon Carpenter, our agent, has offered to have it stored on her property, but that's obviously not a forever-term situation.

Stuff ... stuff ... but it's moving forward stuff ... all good.

After visiting Ocean Breeze, we went down town NSB to visit Total Vision since we're contemplating using my former employer's vision care policy. I think that we'll move forward on that. We were impressed with their selection of frames and their knowledge. That's one more service that we won't be getting out of Toronto.

Then we crossed the street and renewed our gym membership for the next four months. One more thing has been checked-off the list !

Onward indeed !

Nov 8 - no stalling allowed

2011-11-09T05:29:00.003-05:00

I found the solution to getting stalled on projects -- don't start / continue any projects !

It was yet another sunny, windy day, so I went for a ride of course. With temperatures in the 70's, it's easy rolling in shorts and short-sleeves. I know that will change soon !

Sandy worked all day in the garden, working up the soil and pulling grass. It looks better all ready.

I talked to Theresa at Ocean Breeze in the a.m. to find out what she's doing vis-a-vis the potential renters. She was in the process of checking them out -- references, credit history, background check -- even a drive-by their current place to see how they have kept up the property. I also got a better understanding of the "deposit" that our agent had mentioned -- all they've put down at this point is the $35 processing fee for the check-out process. I also wanted to understand how she would prioritize the potential renters, all else being equal and she simply said that we get to choose. Hmmm ... I guess that if we're one landlord choosing one tenant then we cannot be sued for a pattern of discrimination by anyone !

So that was basically our day. Sandy picked up tuna which we had for dinner, along with rice and peas. It sounds boring but it ain't !

My new waterpic arrived by mail; a new top-tube bag for the bike arrived by UPS. The latter is a stupid thing, looked big in the picture and even the measurements in the write-up sounded ok, but it's small, useless ... I guess that what I should expect for $6 but not what I expected from Louis Garneau ! Now I have to order something that actually works and throw this one out. It's not worth sending back.

George Perrin, the lawn guy, was here with his eldest son when I got back from biking, doing the lawn of course. I chatted with him and told him that the Saxon house may get rented and I may not need his services there. I also told him that he can keep doing this through January and then I'll probably take over for February through May. It's embarrassing to see the neighbors out mowing their lawns while I have a lawn guy. It's ok when we're not here ...

He does other related things if I need him as well, like trim trees with one of those gas-powered cutters on the end of a pole. I've got one tree in particular that needs clean-up. I should look into what they are worth because it is an ongoing issue.

Today ... boating ?

Onward !

Nov 7 - stalled, over and over

2011-11-08T07:32:00.004-05:00

Well, it was the day that I resolved to get that Whaler running or else ... luckily there was no or else !

I picked up a fuel line with what I thought were the correct ends on it, but it turned out that they were too small. So I had wasted $3 ... because I simply cut off the ends and used the ones on the old hose which were attached with hose clamps. The same hose, sans ends, was $3 cheaper :).

I gave the carb a spray of "quick start" (which is ether, by the way) and it fired ... great ! Ok, I guess that if I'm going to really start the engine I should get it into the water or at least attach the muffs to the water intake ! So I did ... and it started right up ! Wow !

But you know that the story doesn't end there. No, the story took most of the rest of the day. Into the water went the boat and Abby and I set out on a short journey. We got past the yacht club and I gave it more gas and it slowed down. Rats. Over and over again I tried that with the same result. It ran well at slow but not any faster.

I won't bore you with the number of times that I started that engine in and out of the water, sprayed carb cleaner into it, picked up and installed a new set of plugs, etc. etc. It ran well without load, revving up, but as soon as there's load, it falters as I increase the throttle. It not only falters, but with more throttle, it stalls.

There's a lot of misfiring and I got quite a shock when I touched the spark plug cable, leading me to believe that might be the problem. You see the one plug was completely encased in a mud-wasp nest, which might, perhaps, lead to it shorting under load ? as the spark advances ? Based on my online research, it could be one (or more) of three things -- carburetor (don't think so, because it starts like a champ), ignition wires (I've ordered a new set, hoping against hope that this is the solution because it's relatively inexpensive), or stator (learning something new everyday is my motto) which is an expensive part.

Before I go any further, if the new ignition wires don't solve the problem, I'll get someone to look at the motor ... someone who knows what they're doing. I don't want to spend a lot of money on this motor but it's nice for putting around this area. From my investigation, I learned that it's not very old -- 2000 -- which is young for outboard motors. When I go onto the forums people have motors that are 40+ years old and still running well without a major overhaul. Perhaps they don't have salt water and mud wasps ?

I did some Harley riding yesterday, first to pickup up the fuel line and then for the spark plugs, heading into West Marine in Daytona. The Harley was happy to get some use, purring contentedly and getting some fresh fuel as a reward.

I thought that I was going over to Labcorp this a.m. to do my blood tests but then found that they need an appointment ! I went to their website to see what time they opened in the morning and ran into that issue. That's definitely less convenient than Bert Fish hospital ! The first early a.m. appointment isn't until next week. I'll have to grab one of those and go ahead and setup my check-up appointments assuming that I'll have results in hand.

We did Facetime with Jeffrey, Sara and Emma again last night. I could see this happening regularly, just another thing that Emma adds to her list of things to do rather than go to bed :). Emma had just come back from her first Karate lesson ... oh great ... that's all we need is for this rambunctious kid to know Karate ! I think that I'll just give her a 2x4 for Christmas !

The weather has turned nice, with the rain in the forecast for the next few days gone and nothing for the next ten. That could always change, but I'll take that for now.

On the rental front, we now have (or the agent now has) two applications in hand to rent the Saxon house. Perhaps we should have charged more ! Anyway, references etc. need to be checked, criminal record, Interpol :). If they've accepted two applications (and deposits ?), I am not sure how they prioritize -- first come first served is my expectation. One family (the landscaper) has an older Dalmation and their first baby on the way (two months pregnant). The other has no dog, but twin 3-year olds and a very young one. Sandy thinks that the kids would do more damage than the dog, but I'm not sure that we can legally turn people away who have kids.

Another item turned up, or didn't in this case, as being stolen. Two hand towels are missing. Our sets are not complete that were moved over from Saxon. Sigh. I have some maintenance to do over there in the next while with roof and gutter cleaning, palm and mangrove trimming ... I'll get to that eventually.

Today I'm planning on a bike ride. Perhaps Thursday I'll do November's 200k to get that behind me. Perhaps. I should probably check with Keith and Judith, to see if they are interested. I exchanged emails with Keith early October but I have no idea whether Judith is in the area or still down in south Florida painting movie sets.

I exchanged emails with Dan Wallace yesterday, who is in the Syracuse area on family business. He gave us a Mass Offering for Alexander, to be held on Friday November 18th at the cathedral in Orlando. If he's back in time we'll attend together. It's a mid-day Mass so I may try and organize some other Orlando-based activities around that ... doctor's appointment ? shopping ? I hate shopping !

Speaking of shopping though, I've been doing a lot of the online sort -- car parts, car tools, a new water pick because mine died (hose brittle and broken in several places), a long HDMI cable so that the laptop doesn't have to sit practically on the TV to watch a Netflix movie, and several other small items.

We had guys over from New Smyrna glass yesterday who are going to quote on removing some of the mirrors that we have, in particular the four on the living room wall and the entire wall covered with mirror in the upstairs bedroom and the dining room. With help I could manage the living room mirrors, perhaps, but not the dining room or bedroom. I had told Sandy that we were not going to do anything about the mirrors until we sold Saxon but I'm going to have to relent on that one.

Onward ? who knows ... time marches onward but we go around in circles !

Nov 6 - a happy day; a sad day

2011-11-07T06:31:00.004-05:00

Five months ago was a very happy day. Another grandchild was born, our first grandson. Born premature, the doctors had held him back as long as possible. Any longer would risk his life, and Sara's, due to pre-eclampsia.

From birth he was a fighter. Not wanting or needing respiration assistance, not wanting or needing the feeding tube, all this happened very quickly and three weeks later the proud parents took William Alexander Thompson home. He would be known as Alexander.

There were trials and tribulations, as with any baby, perhaps more with a preemie, but he thrived. He slept less than many babies, having some digestive problems, but kept growing, first out of preemie clothes and then out of newborn. We saw him shortly after birth and then when he was a little more than a month old. We looked forward to seeing him in October, knowing that he'd be twice the size that he was in mid July.

Instead I saw him in September; Sandy couldn't bear to go to the viewing. Our fighter had passed away. He'd passed away without a fight. He just stopped breathing during his morning nap. An autopsy showed nothing, not smothered, no other cause of death ... the very definition of SIDS.

I've done a lot of reading. The number of SIDS deaths has gone down over time ... why ? Largely because other causes of death have been eliminated, medical science getting better at identifying the cause and fewer deaths left categorized as SIDS. SIDS basically means "we don't know why". My reading even found that at one point SIDS was thought to run in families, until they realized that those deaths were not SIDS, they were due to abuse.

Everything happens for a reason ... no, I don't believe that. To my way of thinking, if everything happens for a reason then it leads you down the track to believing that everything is basically pre-ordained, and if so, we don't really have free will and praying to God is a waste of time. I do believe in God but I also believe that He lets things happen on their own, interfering, providing a "nudge" as it were, when He chooses.

I find it easier, personally, to believe in that randomness. With randomness there is no answer to "why". There is no reason for anger, for anger must be directed at some thinking being who made a choice, whether Man or God. There is, however, sorrow and there is joy.

I do believe in life after death but it's clearly not the same. I do believe that God sits in judgement, examining the choices that we made. Alexander was too young to make any choices. In that case I do believe that he is with God. Whether as a soul with God he has any knowledge or influence over us still on earth, I don't know how that would work. My church tells me that he does and that he can intercede on our behalf with God. Just like us he can pray. I've asked him to pray for us, ask God to help us move forward, ask God to help us overcome our sorrow.

At the church that Sara and Jeffrey attended yesterday, Alexander was remembered. Sara had to rush out of church, overcome with emotion. Sandy sat on the deck at our house here in Florida, tears running down her face. I thought about him constantly, both the joy of his birth and the blinding panic when Jeffrey called me to say that he'd stopped breathing; that he was gone. I had a hard time holding the road on that second call.

After Mass I did my solitary thing, heading out on my bike. It was fitting that I got rained on, but I didn't care.

Sara posted something on Facebook the other day --

Onward ... with sorrow. Our children and grandchildren give us much joy, so we must compartmentalize that sorrow, not letting it overcome us.

Nov 5 - thanks for joining netflix

2011-11-06T06:05:00.003-05:00

Yes, we've started a one-month free trial. We watched a movie. I have an adapter that connects to the mini-dvi port on my Macbook, then a DVI cable, then a DVI to HDMO adapter. I've had this for some time ... it does work.

There are several problems with netflix for us, not the least of which is the fact that it doesn't work up north. Having said that, I don't know how many bytes per hour we'd be streaming watching a video, so I don't know what it would cost for the appropriate level of satellite internet service to support that, nor do I know for sure whether our current service or upgraded service would even do it ... I'll have to try watching a video for a few minutes at Christmas, time that and see what volume it creates as well as whether it actually works.

So what did we watch ? -- "The Accidental Husband" was pretty silly. When I think of Uma Thurman, I think of "Kill Bill", not a comedy.

I did not go for a bike ride. The wind was wild and we had occasional showers so I bagged that idea, doing some things around the house (no, not netflix!). I'm going for a ride today.

I hung a mirror; I passed the vacuum ... which I've done every other day. The tiles accumulate little bits of grass etc. from our traffic in and out.

I also tackled two outdoor projects -- the X5 and the Whaler.

I'm trying to figure out whether I can replace the X5 thermostat on my own and I've come to the conclusion that I can. I have had to buy a pair of tools though -- a special wrench that holds the water pump static and a very narrow 32mm wrench that is used for removing the viscous fan clutch and fan. That fan clutch is what had failed when we did our trip out west.

There are two parts to the fan cowling that must be removed. The first is easy; it's also the intake for the air filter for the engine. It is removed with three (should be four) of those plastic rivets. Then there is the fan cowling itself. It cannot be removed without the fan and vice versa. I'm still chasing web sites to see if there is a way of removing them separately but I don't think so. There just isn't enough space between the engine and the radiator.

On the front of the radiator, by the way, is an electric fan that comes on with higher engine heat and/or the A/C. It's between the radiator and the grill. It stays in place.

So up and down, up and down, I've undone both parts of the cowling, gotten my hands in there and figured out how to do things but cannot take that fan off without the special tools. That's not completely true since the fan can be removed from the fan clutch by removing three allen screws ... but you're working between the radiator and the now-loose cowling and not recommended by the websites. So ... for $35 + $10 shipping, I bought a package of the two tools.

I also bought the thermostat itself. I expect all this to arrive in the next few days so then I'll have a project on my hands. I also researched coolant and by all that I've read, the recommendation is to simply get the BMW supplied coolant. I expect that they charge more than Prestone, but oh well.

Project two, once I stopped researching project one, was to get the Whaler into the water and running. I got stalled on that one too. Well, that's not completely fair, I didn't expect to finish the X5 project, that was just the investigation phase.

Having cleaned out the Whaler the day before, I brought down the battery, got it installed and then tried to move the motor ... the steering was completely frozen. Rats. Double Rats. Thinking that it was the cable but wanting to see if I could eliminate that, I disconnected it from the motor ... still frozen. Rats.

Still wanting to eliminate possibilities, I unscrewed the caps on where the cable passes through the motor and voila, the steering turned. It was the end of the piston that was rusted frozen inside the tube. It wouldn't move in or out, it wouldn't turn. Playing with it a while, I got a hammer and gave it a whack. Whack, whack, whack ... it finally moved in a little and would turn ... progress !

I got Sandy to help me by turning the steering wheel or at least putting pressure on the steering and while I rotated the piston back and forth, she turned the steering wheel in and out. All this time I was applying Liquid Wrench and grease, cleaning the piston each time in and out. Over and over and over we did this, probably spending a half-hour and finally it was working well enough to turn the motor from the steering wheel. It needs some more work, grease and cleaning but it's usable.

Next, try and start the engine. It's still out of the water but I figured that if I could get it to fire, I'd put it into the water and then have to deal with rinsing it. Well, the gas line leaks at the bulb. I played around some more but quickly gave up. My next step would have been to pop the cover and use some quick-start, but I didn't bother. I'll need to stop at K-Mart and pickup a gas line.

The sun and the salt does wonders for everything here. It gives you cancer; it rots your possessions.

Whoops. It's 6:40. I was thinking that it was 7:30 Mass but just remembered that it's 7:00. Time to change my shirt and go !

Dinner -- shrimp from the market good as always.

Oh -- Sandy spent most of yesterday working in the house, unpacking, cleaning and placing all the glasses and dishes etc. in the buffet / hutch in the dining room.

Onward !

Nov 4 - the sounds of silence

2011-11-05T06:36:00.004-05:00

Whew. What a relief. I can listen to music again !

We took the car to Tire Kingdom first thing and they did their thing with the wheel bearing. I picked the car up around noon and voila, silence. Or is that lack of voila ? Anyway, what a treat.

Too bad it wasn't a rear bearing. The rear bearing is only about $10 more expensive than the front bearing but it's already mounted in the hub that comes with it, necessitating a little more than one hour shop labor vs almost three hours for the front. Oh well. I guess that's like saying too bad it wasn't a tire valve cap that needed replacing, largely irrelevant :).

Next on the list is the thermostat and I'm still studying online instructions and diagrams thinking that I can do that one. If it wasn't for removing the fan and bleeding the coolant, it would be trivial ! My real struggle with this one is whether or not to do the water pump at the same time. Once the fan is off and the coolant is drained, the water pump replacement is almost a breeze. The thermostat is $65 and the water pump is $59. It's 2.8 hours of shop labor to replace either one or both ... plus the parts, of course, plus coolant. The web sites seem to recommend BMW coolant mixed half and half with distilled water, but I'll do some more reading on that.

The house rental has sparked interest, but I won't count my chickens until they hatch. Both people who saw it yesterday want it ... one doesn't quite have the deposit money yet but the other is bringing in the deposit money on Monday.

The latter, apparently, called the agent yesterday morning with "don't tell me it's rented already !" ... and apparently her husband has a landscaping company. To me, the house that's perfect inside married to a landscaper is a perfect combo ! Had the outside been as perfect as the inside it would have sold eons ago. All I have to do is put a series of mirrors in front and back of the house to make the property look bigger.

The property is a pushed over rectangle, with the width being the longer side. Part of the depth is taken up by mangroves, further accentuating the lack of depth. None of that bothered us, since we weren't looking at resale value or attractiveness of the outside, rather the inside. If someone told me we had to move back to that house, I wouldn't mind a bit ... but I would miss watching the dolphins play !

Sandy did some work in the garden, cleaning out dead stuff and doing some planting. I staked the small tree that had fallen over and was leaning against the house at the screened-in area. I also did some mangrove trimming and more trimming of the bananas. I picked and ate some more papaya. Yummy !

Sandy was over to Saxon a couple of times, once before and once after the showings. I also got over to the UPS Store after picking up the X5, dropping off the two disk drives for their return. The new WD drive works ok in the external housing formatted as NTFS -- not a permanent setup, but good for backups.

We cheaped-out for dinner last night and had steak. That sounds kind of funny but it's cheaper or as cheap as anything else. Two t-bones at a pound each left more than half of that for a stir-fry another day.

Today ... going on a bike ride.

Tomorrow, with a little luck, I won't get to Mass an hour early ... :).

Onward !

Nov 4 - the final list

2011-11-04T05:54:00.004-05:00

I never posted the entire list of what was stolen from our Saxon house. There might have been more taken from the garage, but it started out empty so we don't think so !

lamp security timer - $15
small pictures (8x8) -- priceless, made by a friend for us
closet organizer unit -- $40
3 hooks from wall in closet -- $6
Curtain Rod and curtain -- $90
Stepstool from garage -- $15
Screw driver and perhaps a couple of other small items from garage
Wall mounted rechargeable "dust buster" Black & Decker vacuum -- $60

Everyone agrees that this is very strange.

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Now here's an interesting thing -- I was updating my credit card info on Shaw Direct (TV) and Xplornet (satellite internet) due to the replaced Visa card. The Shaw site came back 'couldn't process your request, please try again', which I did to no avail. I went to Xplornet, which would take Amex, so I changed it to Amex, since I prefer to keep most of these types of transactions on Amex. Going back to Shaw, it still didn't work so I called the 800 number and followed the prompts and changed the card online, but get this -- while the web site would only take Visa or Master Card, the telephone system took Amex, so I changed it to Amex ... huh ?