Thursday 6-10 New Family Member & Lots of Projects

 

Having Fun

Larry woke up to a pleasant surprise. When he was putting out the birdfeeder he noticed that there was something in the yard. It took him a bit before he figured out it was a young fawn, probably not even a day old. When I woke up he said he had something to show me. It was very small. It laid there until a construction worker showed up, while we were checking it out it jumped up and ran right through our neighbor's fence as if it wasn't there. It disappeared into the trees. The guy and I looked at each other in surprise on how fast it ran.

 

Waiting for mom to return

It was another 90 degree day and it was time to get the boat ready to go to the lake. I helped Larry back the truck into the garage to line it up with the boat trailer. Then we pulled the boat out. Next Larry put all the hoses and the plugs back in their places. Then we put the plunger on the bottom of the boat and I turned the water on. The boat started right up. Larry ran it a bit. After de-winterized the boat we put the platform on and loaded our water sports equipment (wake board, wake surfer and air chair). Once everything was loaded up we put the boat back in the garage.

 

De-winterizing the boat

Making sure everything is running correctly

Water coming out the exhaust 

After the boat project Larry moved on to replacing the lawn mower's rear tires. The last time Larry mowed he noticed that one of the rear tires worn out so he ordered new ones. After he replaced the wheels something was binding so it took him a bit to get things right. Then he added a bit of oil to the transmission. Now the mower is ready to be used.

 

Putting new wheel on

The old wheel

Removing the old wheel

 

After Joachim's dance I mowed the frontyard and half of the backyard. I weedeated and Larry blew off the porch and driveway.

I wrote a few days ago that Larry had to replace the battery in our backup cell phone and the new battery would not charge. The vendor sent us another battery and it also would not charge. The old battery charges fine so he knows it not a problem with the phone. The vendor was terrific about trying to help and he refunded our money without us even asking.

Larry has been thinking about getting a "new" unlocked phone. He decided on a Google Pixel 3a XL, they were discontinued a year or so ago. He found a company on EBay selling refurbished ones inexpensively. The phone arrived today so he spent the evening updating the software and loading it up with the applications he wanted. He will continue playing with it. So far he's happy with it.

 

Our new phone

Another project we worked on was our dining room blind. Every morning Larry opens the living room and dining room blinds. The blind in the dining room has not worked correctly in quite some time and there was no way to fix it. Larry thought if he was going to replace it he might want to replace it with a automated blind, preferably one that would work with Alexa. He found a few but they were prohibitively expensive. He found a few people who had built their own so he bought some pieces to experiment with; pvc from The Home Depot, tubular motor from Amazon and a cheap roller blind from Walmart. The last piece arrived today so he finished modifying and putting everything together. We hung the new blind in place of the old one and Larry programmed the remote control. The blind automatically raises and lowers with the remote, he does not have something he needs to get it to work with Alexa. This is still a work in progress. The blind works but he is not totally satisfied, he wants to make some changes.

 

Playing with the blind using the remote controller

The PVC pipe for the new blind

 

We attended three virtual square dances. First was Dayle Hodge's Weekly C1 at 11:00. We danced 4, two couple tips. Dayle had 20 participants. He did a fantastic job of calling and helping went necessary. He put us in more complex position. We had a great time.

Second was Joachim Ruehenbeck's C1 at 12:30. Joachim had 25 participants. He called 5 tips and did a super job. We had an outstanding time.

Third was Jeremy Butler's Weekly A2/C1. Jeremy called 4 A2 tips with 14 participants and 1 C1 tip with 11 participants. He did a great job of calling. We had fun.

When we weren't dancing and doing projects I did the Daily Challenges and the Event: Two Game Tango of 20 games (10 Klondike and 10 Spider). It took me 1 hour, 53 minutes and 43 second to complete, which put me in 16th place in my group. 

In the evening we watched a movie on Amazon called Out Of The Wild. It was about a cowboy who was down and out with a dark past. He meets a Mustang with a past and they heal each other. It was slow moving movie but had a happy ending. It wasn't that bad of a movie. Then I finished watching the first season of Gortimer Gibbons Live On Normal Street and started the second season. I ended up doing 27,600 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group with 109,254 steps for the week.