A Garden Report

I just finished making a trestle for the watermelon, cucumber and squash plants to grow on and I thought I would report on the state of the garden.

I’ve let the sage plant blossom because it is pretty.

Anybody want some basil—the plants are beautiful .

The first cherry tomatoes have formed.

There are lots of blossoms on the cherry tomato plants.



The Japanese eggplant is forming fruit.


The regular eggplant is forming a fruit.

Green peppers are beginning to form fruit.



The 6 tomato plants are just beginning to form flowers.

The 3 vine plants haven’t had any flowers yet but they are close.

All the herbs are doing great. We cut back the cilantro and it is growing back in nicely. That’s the most difficult plant for me to grow.


Marmalade kept an eye on me today.


I’ll provide periodic garden updates like I do with the kitties.

The DVR Works

Those of you who don’t care about the details of the DVR repair can skip this blog.

Yesterday I found that our DVR had 2 bad capacitors. I removed them and bought replacements.

The ones that are cracked with yellow stuff are the bad boys.

Today I soldered the new ones in and put the unit back together.

..................2 new capacitors are blue

I plugged the thing in and it fired up like it used to. It has 58 hours of open space and 140 programs recorded on the hard drive the last 2 being “Criminal Minds” and the season finale of “Burn Notice” from their first season.

Our plan is to set this unit up in our bedroom because it is by far the easiest to use and has more useful features.

An Afternoon With Pam and Other Things

A good part of the day today was spent with me being a good husband and going along to lunch with Penny. It was Pam’s birthday lunch and Penny’s birthday lunch and in accordance with Pam’s wishes we went Dutch. The reason I say I was being a good husband is that any visit with Pam is stressful. Penny is a good friend and although Pam stresses her Penny is always there for her. I knew lunch would be interesting. I went for Penny and because Pam wanted me to.

We ate at Tommy Bahamas. The food was good but over-priced. I had fish tacos. They came with a side of plantains in a pineapple coconut dip. We also all shared an order of sweet potato fries.

One other thing I did today was to open up the broken DVR. Lo and behold the 2 suspect capacitors were in fact bad. Hope lives that the DVR can be repaired. I desoldered and removed the 2 parts, went to Radio Shack and got new parts—and that’s as far as I got on this task today.

My job used to be preventing this type of systemic failure in equipment. You can imagine the consequences of a single part failing in a couple thousand missiles. We have had good luck with Panasonic electronics but they obviously slipped up in the design, testing or quality control on this DVR.

Today I finally took a walk. I went for a sunset beach walk. It wasn’t a gorgeous sunset day but I enjoyed my 2 hour walk. When I arrived at the beach the shore was lined with people fishing—more than I’ve ever seen here at one time. I think the Pompano are running. Maybe I should try my hand at it. You know, bring a book , toss out the line and just relax and enjoy.

It may also be Cobia season because boats were cruising the shoreline fishing.

The sun was in and out of the clouds and it made for interesting lighting.

I walked to the jetties and there I found another group of a different type of fishers.

I took a bunch of bird pictures.

When I got back to the beach access there was a family there with a photographer taking pictures. It wasn’t a pretty day to do that. As I headed for the car a small party arrived—a couple with what must have been a pastor, a photographer and a violinist. I think they were getting married.

The sun did poke out as it set and I got this picture of the red ball before it disappeared behind the dunes.

Kitty Update--Everyone except Meredith is back.

K&T

I took these pictures of K&T over the weekend and forgot to leave a copy with them. So I figured I'd share them with everyone and K&T can get them this way. Aren't they a good looking couple?

Tuesday the 28th

Keeping with my current thrust to do those things I have put off to do until “later” I finally fixed the leak I had in my car’s windshield washer fluid line. I had to open up the wheel well to get at the leak. I found an illustration on line showing where the washer line went—that saved me from opening up the wrong area. Once I got at the leak I just cut out the section that was split and joined the tube back together with a connector I bought at Ace Hardware. Now I’ve got my washer system back again.

I also washed off all the bugs that spattered on the car on the drive back. Lots of bugs come out after dark. Fortunately they wash off easily.

I was going to see if I could get the outboard running consistently today but when I looked at the motor I found that the fuel tank had cracked and leaked again. A new tank is not available so I either have to give the repair another shot or make or buy something that I can fit on the motor. I may have a fuel tank from an old lawnmower that will work but I think in my clean-up throw-out process I’ve been going through I tossed it. I’ll check that tomorrow.

The good news today is that my back is all beter--in less than a week. The cold is still hanging on a little.

Meredith and Buzz are still missing.

Monday at Home

We drove back from Jacksonville last night. We had our final session with our FOCCUS couple at 10 AM so we didn’t do our usual wait until Monday to drive back leisurely.

The drive back was surprisingly easy. I thought everyone would be on the road returning home. There was only light traffic all the way. The gas stations weren’t mobbed and the weather was good so we covered the 330 miles in about 5 hours. We also are listening to a Dean Koontz book. That made the trip even better.

This couple we saw today is one that actually changed their relationship during the time we’ve talked with them. Many of the couples we see are mature in their relationship and we come away wondering if the sessions made any impression with them. For this couple Penny and I believe we did some good and maybe helped them to have a happier life together.

After the couple left Penny wanted to go to Slick Mick’s for a Philly cheese steak sandwich. When Penny gets a craving we know we have to satisfy it sooner or later so we did it sooner.

Finding myself still tired from the drive on Sunday I took a nap after lunch and then did some outside stuff. I looked over the garden and found it to be growing nicely. There are blossoms on the bush tomato plants and some little green tomatoes have formed. The Japanese eggplant has a beautiful violet flower on it. All the herbs including the Cilantro are doing well. The bell pepper has blossoms and all the vine plants are getting ready to flower.

Only Velcro was here last night. Today Marmalade showed up and followed me around the backyard meowing at me. Tonight those two were there for chow. I haven’t seen Meredith or Buzz yet.

I spent some time on Google Earth looking at the area around San Francisco. It’s so easy to scope out a trip now. I looked at our hotel location and how to get there. I searched the seashore for neat places to visit. Penny and I haven’t been out there in 20 years—the days of AAA maps and making reservations by phone. It is so much easier now.

Happy Saturday

We awoke this morning to the aroma of raisin bread French toast, bacon and coffee that early riser Karen had prepared for us. Then it was off to Sam’s and Babies R Us to run some errands. Tim made individual margarita pizzas for lunch. We ran off to a close-by park to play with Sophie. There is a slide there that is just right for Sophie and she had a ball. For dinner Tim grilled Herb-garlic chicken. We all went to Dreamette and had ice cream for desert. I got a soft-serve chocolate cone dipped in chocolate-peanut butter topping. Back home again Sophie got a bubble bath and told her mother, “Sophie’s tired”. Karen read to her and put her in the crib. She went to sleep nicely.

It was an enjoyable Saturday and we were well fed!

An Evening With Sophie

We drove to Jacksonville today to baby-sit for K&T’s date night. We also will be going to Annie’s birthday party while we are here.

The drive over was relatively easy. The weather was great and traffic was light. My back hurts but it didn't make the drive too bad.

We were here a couple of weeks ago but Sophie has changed noticeably in that time. She is putting longer strings of words together, throwing more tantrums and starting to play make-believe with her dolls. We played with chalk on the driveway and blew the seed-parachutes off of dandelions. Later Sophie tried to walk around in Penny’s shoes while singing “if you’re happy and you know it stomp your feet”.

At bedtime she wanted me to read to her and put her to sleep. We read “Good Night Moon” and when we finished I tried to put her in the crib but she let me know that she wanted to read another book to me. I told her that we would do that one book and then it would be bedtime. She said “OK”. She then proceeded to open the book point at the pictures and make sounds as if she were reading. I’m sure the ewok-talk meant something to her but I had no clue.

When we finished that book she closed it and reached for me to pick her up and said “night-night”. I picked her up and laid her in the crib and she settled into her rump up sleeping position. I rubbed her back and sang Annie’s Song to her like I used to do with Karen and Christy. It took 15 minutes but she finally closed her eyes and drifted off without any problem. It felt nice singing a lullaby to the next generation. I got a little misty thinking about it.

Back Attack

All I can say is crap! I’m falling apart bit by bit this week. My thumbs have been hurting and the cold is hanging on and now my back has gone out. I think the cold has contributed because I’ve had several strong coughing periods and some very strong sneezes which put stress on my poor vertebrae. Then I lifted something improperly and bang—there goes doing much productive today.

I did very little physical work today.

I did go to the dentist and finally my new crown is in place properly. My dentist is falling apart too. I told her about my thumbs and she actually gave me a short thumb massage to show me the technique her massage therapist uses on her. She has elbow problems and it makes it hard for her to do her work—especially when she has to pull a tooth. It took her an hour to get the crown fitted properly. We chatted about all sorts of things—well I mostly listened because my mouth was being worked on. I asked her if she ever had to use her dental records to identify a body (that actually worked itself into our conversation naturally) and she said yes. She was involved in identifying some of the marines that died in the blast at the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing.

We are planning a 9 day trip to California to revisit San Francisco and the area around it. SF has been our favorite destination. We decided, now that we have seen what this administration is doing about the economy, that they are planning to pay for their spending with a period of hyper-inflation. That will likely make our monthly income, which has some surplus now if we manage it well, inadequate. It also makes saving useless and we all know the market is not going to rapidly bounce back. Therefore it is time to use some money while it has value to us. There are some very reasonable vacation packages available right now, too. Part of our spending involves buying a new GPS unit to replace our 2.5 year old bottom-of-the-line Garmin. We will finally have one that has a touch screen, color and announces street names. The idea is to make travelling around California easier.

Brie has taken to lying right in front of me as I type. Her long hair hangs over the keyboard and she twitches when my typing on the top line of keys pulls her hair. She used to lie off to one side. That didn’t get in my face sufficiently so now she is as close as possible—actually causing the keyboard to try to slide off the desk into my lap.

Isn’t it a comfort the way the critters follow you around and just want to be with you?

If my back reacts as it has in the past I’ll be bent over and sore for a week or 2. That’s just more fun to look forward to. It’s doing something that my Dad would understand. The pain in my back is taking my mind off the pain in my thumbs. Dad would always offer to squeeze our hand and roll the bones around. The pain caused would take your mind off whatever hurt you were complaining about.

Now I can’t wait to see what breaks on me tomorrow.

April 22 – Earth Day

We did nothing special for Earth day—just our normal Earth-destroying existence. Bad humans!

I haven’t done anything too interesting for the past couple days but I thought I’d record what I’ve been up to since my day of the gas engines.

When we got back from Jacksonville last time the fluorescent light in the laundry room had quit. It’s been one of those tricky lights that wouldn’t always turn on when you flipped the switch. Playing with the switch and good timing would finally turn it on. I just left it on all the time. It burned 40 watts and kept the bugs that like darkness away. Rather than have to put up with a finicky light we decided to replace it. So we have a new fixture there now that only uses 17 watts/ The circuit also controls a fixture in the center of the garage that I haven’t used in 30 years. I had a flush mount ceiling light that we got at Lowe’s ages ago and never used so as part of this task I put that in and put a 7 watt fluorescent bulb in it (we got the bulb for $1 on a Lowe’s visit probably 3 years ago).

My gas engine saga continues. I sealed the leak in the outboard motor fuel tank, put the motor together, gassed it up and tried starting it. The good news is it fires up. The bad, it quits running after a short run. That actually is good news , too. I know the engine is OK and will run. I either have a plugged jet or some crud in the fuel line. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get it running good with a little more work.

I’m getting into the phase in retirement where I’m looking at all the things I’ve stored away to get to sometime and either doing them or getting rid of the thing altogether. The outboard was #1 because it will provide a decent range for tooling around the bayous—fishing or just relaxing. Next on the list is trying to fix the old Panasonic DVR. I found a couple of people on-line that had the same problem and were able to fix it by replacing 2 capacitors. One guy even had pictures with a description of the job to fix it. Apparently the capacitors were defective in a bunch of the units. They all failed about the same calendar time. If this is our units problem it will be easy to tell. The capacitors actually swell and split and ooze yellow stuff.

The cold still has a hold on me. I did some yard work this morning and after about 45 minutes I had to quit. I got winded and woozy. I changed to plan B—light duty stuff for the rest of the day.

The garden seems to be growing properly this year. Last year I got all plant and no vegetable. This year the plants are beginning to blossom. Hopefully produce will form.

I’m still not getting any walking in. My experience with the yard work shows that my not feeling up to it is not just mental. Karen’s cold turned into a sinus infection. Christy is still battling her weeks old cold. This is one nasty bug. I actually felt better yesterday than I do today. What will tomorrow bring?

Gas Engines

That’s what filled my day—apart from picking up our bathtub-future-pond and running Penny to Jo-Anns. I did some clean up and maintenance on the generator to make sure it will run if we need it. I’ve been able to keep the thing working for a few years now by cranking it up about once a month and fixing anything that broke. I’ve replaced the starter rope twice now. We’ve actually used the generator a few times and it’s good to know we have the capability.

Next I moved on to my outboard motor. I removed the carburetor and opened it up. As I suspected, since it’s not been used in a decade or so, the float was stuck to the bowl. This carburetor is a beautifully simple device. I’ve cleaned up a sufficient number of these things now in lawn mowers to appreciate the simplicity of the one on this motor. Apart from freeing the float and making sure all the ports are clean I didn’t see anything that would prevent it from working properly. I cleaned the fuel filter and figured I flush out the plastic fuel tank. That’s when I got a surprise. The tank leaked! The seam on the tank had cracked somewhere along the way as I shuffled the thing from one storage location to another. I think I can fix it with a product called JB Weld. It’s an epoxy that should do the job. I quit at this point.

It was cloudy and windy all day but rain never came. I was surprised that I actually spent the whole day playing with motors.

Blanket, Bathtub and Birthday

We did our normal Waffle House breakfast and stop at Lowe’s this morning. Both were fun. Penny gave Melissa the quilt for her baby. At Lowe’s we got a half-priced 3 drawer tool cabinet and a cracked bath tub. The tub only cost $16 and will likely become a small fishpond in our back yard. The dogs will love it when it’s in right. I probably wont even start on that for a while. We also got another bush tomato plant and bell pepper and 2 eggplants. (we got 1 for free).

I spent the rest of the day until we went to Mal’s birthday party planting those plants and putting the garden in its final configuration. Now all I need is for the stuff to grow correctly this year. It’s not rocket science but last year the garden was a disaster. The difference this year is that I am putting the necessary time into keeping up with it.

Mal’s party was nice. His son-in-law put together a picture video of Mal’s life. It included the world as it was in 1924; Mal’s career in the Navy and Air Force; the planes he flew; his cars; his 2 girls growing up; some silly photos; some recent shots and a promise that the story will continue.

The guy looks great at 85.

We went to church after the party and Father Path presided. He gave a good talk about faith and how “doubting Thomas” was actually anything but doubting.

Tomorrow I will put the trailer on the CRV and pick up our new bathtub. Then it’s back to hurricane prep, making sure the generator is working fine and beginning to refresh the gas supply for it. Rain may change my plans.

The cold is hanging on as expected. It’s put a drag on everything I do because I still feel worn out all the time. I didn’t get in a walk today but the day was full.

Are There Bears at the Zoo?

That’s a line we use to change the subject in a conversation that is heading in a bad direction. We actually saw a bear today while riding at the end of Green Acres Road where the West Florida campus is. As I drove by I saw what looked like one of the bear statues that were scattered around Wilmington VT—until it stood up an leaned on a telephone pole. Our usual manner of pointing out animals on the roadside to other passengers is to point at it and say what it is at least 3 times. We have found this to be the quickest method for assuring others have at least a chance of seeing them. So, I pointed and said, “bear, bear, bear!” Usually Penny misses the animal but she saw this one. The bear was at the side exit to the school and we could go up to the center entrance and loop back to get another look. I asked Penny if she wanted to and she said yes and started to dig out her camera. We looped back and found the bear walking out into the woods. We stopped and took pictures from the car and another car did the same from the other direction. When we stopped the bear actually turned and walked towards us a little. He wasn’t afraid of us but a little wary. He turned and left and so did we. Isn’t it strange that we are so disconnected from nature that seeing something like this is exciting and unusual?

My cold is beginning to fade. I feel good, I feel bad. I even sometimes see little spots before my eyes. This cough and runny nose will probably drag on for a while until it finally gives up.

Yesterday I baked another loaf of crusty bread with good results. Since Penny made soup we had it with chicken noodle soup yesterday and pasta fagioli today.

Our Target run today was productive. They’ve got LED flashlights, bunji cords and straps and tools and tool cases at 50% off. We cherry picked the best deals and the most useful items for us. Penny found herself a classy computer case. It looks like a big purse.

In between that trip and helping Penny square her quilt and the trip where we saw the bear I got some yard work done. I’m cleaning out the yard and getting ready for hurricane season. I’m still moving slow from the cold. I’m hoping to get in a walk of some kind tomorrow.

I’ve Got a Cold

I was going to hit the ground running once I got home from Jacksonville—Get my walking and exercising in and do whatever else I could do without overstressing the thumbs. But I had this scratchy throat thing going on. Monday night it moved into my sinuses and so I didn’t feel like doing a lot. Tuesday night It moved into the lungs and my nose was running all day today and my cough got worse as the day went on. I did get some stuff done today but I’m still not feeling good.

We had thought about taking advantage of the beautiful weather and going for a bike ride today. I didn’t feel well enough for that so we turned it into a cooking day. We are going back to our soup-for-lunch mode so Penny cooked all day and we are getting the fridge and freezer restocked. The weather is supposed to be great again tomorrow so we may run off. I made sure the bikes were ready to go—mainly just inflating the tires (we haven’t ridden in a while) so we can just put them on the car and go if I feel better tomorrow.

Penny has a lot of quilting to do and she actually feels OK. I’m a little concerned that I’m going to put her in a time crunch if we take the day off tomorrow.

The cold still hasn’t peaked so I have no idea how I will feel tomorrow. I started taking some cold medicine this evening to dry up my nose and maybe let me sleep.

Kitty Update—all 4 cats were here tonight. Marmalade and Meredith have been hanging around the yard (sleeping) all week. They like this beautiful weather.

Nice Easter

We are back home after spending Easter Weekend in Jacksonville with K&T&S and C&C.

Penny gave a good rundown of activities in her blog so I’ll do a picture story.

One reason for our visit was to watch Sophie while K&T went to Orlando with the drum line. Penny took the opportunity to decorate cupcakes with Sophie—something they both thoroughly enjoyed.

Saturday we all went to the Riverside Arts Market. It’s a clever arrangement of farmers market/arts fair set up in the shelter provided by the Fuller Warren Bridge. http://www.riversideartsmarket.com/

We relaxed in the evening with home-made fajitas. The food must have gone to Sophie’s head because she starting acting a little wild.

Easter had it all---church, breakfast out, pictures, a big Easter meal, coloring eggs, an Easter egg hunt, too much to eat and lots of family time.

We drove back on this rainy Monday with no problems. 3 kitties showed up for dinner.

Take it Easy

That’s what the doctor said to do with my thumbs. He’s also referring me back to the neurologist for treatment which may include some physical therapy. He said my problem sounds like tendonitis and the reason it doesn’t go away is because the tendons don’t get a lot of blood and therefore heal slowly. Doing just about anything will set back healing. So I’m back on Prednisone and maybe some other topical meds with physical therapy.

My blood work was good except for a high sugar reading. I’ll be taking a glucose tolerance test next week. I’m hoping the reading was an anomaly. More on this next week.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to keep up with what has to be done without stressing my thumbs. I had planned on repairing and painting the wood siding and trim on the house next week but I’m going to have to hold off on that. The biggest stressers I have are laundry and other housework and that has to get done. I’ll just do them carefully and hang things up in small batches.

The good news is that my foot pain is almost completely gone. I can get some walking in without stressing my thumbs and that will be good for me.

Tomorrow Penny and I are going to check out the new Kohl’s in town.

Monday Rambles

It’s not a rainy day and Monday but it is a Monday.

I had forgotten to have my lab work done for my tomorrow’s doctor’s appointment so I had to have that done today. That meant fasting until the blood was drawn. That’s OK but I also had a dental appointment at 8AM to have my replacement crown put in. That meant no food until at least 9:30 or 10 AM. Surprisingly that didn’t prove to be a problem. My tummy gurgled a couple times at the dentist but no one noticed and I wasn’t really feeling hungry.

The dentist did have a problem. When she tried to fit the crown on my tooth it didn’t seat correctly. It wobbled. She said that in this case her telling me “you rock” was not a good thing. She tried a few minor adjustments to my tooth but it didn’t work. They had to make another impression and redo the gold crown. That meant a shot of novacane (or whatever they use) and some trimming on my gums, then biting down on the gooky stuff that forms the impression until my jaw hurt. Now I go back late this month to get the new crown. Maybe they will be successful then.

Last night I boxed up the books-on-CD we are sending to Jody. It turned out to be 48 books and a total of 422 CDs. She has a long commute and goes through books quickly.

I finished up most of the necessary yard and garden work today. I tested the garden irrigation system for the first time and everything worked as advertised. I didn’t leave any open lines and every plant had its line working. Out in the front yard I laid a few new squares of turf so I also set the sprinklers to water them twice a day. The garden only gets refilled once a day.

At Christmas time we bought a set of 6 little LED flashlights that are just the right size and illumination for most jobs. (Christy saw the add for these) I usually lose track of flashlights such that when I really need one I have to look for it. I’m proud to say that after almost 4 months I can account for all 6 of the lights and have remembered to return them to their proper locations after I use them. Will I make 5 months?

I don’t pull an all-nighter (sleeping through the night) often. Usually I wake up twice. Once about an hour and a half after I fall asleep and then again about 4 hours later. Too much liquid before bed will increase the wake-ups to 3 or 4. My dreams are usually interesting but rarely are set in the present. I’m either with the friends I grew up with in Connecticut or back at work or in college. Sometimes I dream about our kids when they were small. I have no idea what this means.

Now that the garden is in, the weather has turned cold. It’s supposed to go down to 34 tonight, close to freezing. I’ve covered the basil that’s my least cold-tolerant plant. This should be the last time it gets this cold.

It’s time to go feed some kitties.

Ouch

I hurt all over. I spent the day working in the yard and now I’m paying for it. Tonight in church , being Palm Sunday weekend, we had to stand while the Passion was read. Standing like that usually is no problem but today I had to keep shifting my weight. First a knee would hurt, then a hip, then the back and sometimes all three. On top of that the old thumbs are telling me they are there 100 % of the time. What a drag it is growing old!

We’ve had 2 nice days in a row and I made full use of them. The garden is in and the front yard is about half done. Tomorrow the weather is iffy. The clouds today didn’t indicate rain was imminent but the forecast is for scattered storms with a 50% chance of rain. If the weather holds I’ll finish the yard and move on to the next task.

I’m going to relax for the rest of the evening and put some ice on my thumbs

Finally, a dry day—not a cloud in the sky.

After our Target run I hooked up the trailer to the CRV and headed to Lowe’s to get garden and yard stuff. I spent the rest of the day mixing soil and setting up this year’s garden.

This year I am trying to set the garden up completely from the start- containers, irrigation and trestle to support the tomatoes and the bird netting when needed. I’ve got it all done now except for actually planting. Tomorrow the plants go in and I move on to finish the front yard. I bought some sod today and have a few spots on the front lawn to touch up this year. It’s actually supposed to be a nice day tomorrow, too.

There Will Be Rain IV— “Everybody Hurts”

The weather was bad enough today that we shut down our electronics and planned where we would go in the house if we had a tornado. When the main part of the storm hit, (2:30) it got so dark outside that my house floodlights came on. It literally was as dark as night.

We lost power a couple of times but it was restored in a reasonable timeframe.

The downside for Penny and me is that we hurt, her head and my thumbs and back. I’ve never noticed my pain being affected by the weather but it is the best explanation I have.

It’s hard to accomplish anything in this environment, no computer, no TV, no appliances, no outside stuff, no driving—and hurting.

Now the worst of it has passed and we are back to a normal evening. Before this storm we had about 1.5 inches of rain in the past few days. I wouldn’t be surprised if this storm doubles that. The area immediately around us can handle heavy rain with no flooding. There are many streets flooded and flash flood warnings as you move to the north in this county. We are still under a tornado watch until 10 PM but the weather radar makes it look like we are done with the threat of severe weather.

The sun will be out tomorrow…!