Wednesday 11-29-23 Dance Day, Project, Puzzle & Games

Just having fun

We had an awesome day. The high today was 60 degrees.

Today was National Square Dancing Day. National Square Dancing Day is celebrated in the United States to honor the square dance form of folk dancing. It is celebrated November 29th.

Celebrating National Square Dancing Day

I kept busy all day attending four virtual square dances. First was Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly Plus at 10:00 for an hour. They took turns calling five tips. I stayed for four of the tips. They called to 12 participants. I had a fun hour of dancing to Di and Terry and with friends.

Second was Dayle Hodge's Weekly A1/A2 at 11:00 for an hour. He called two tips of two couple A1, two tips of two couple A2 and one tip of four couple A2 to 11 participants. Larry danced with me. We had a super time dancing with friends.

Third was Ett McAtee's Weekly C1 at 1:00 for an hour. She called five tips to 17 participants. She did a lot of four couple moves and called very challenging. I made some mistakes but overall I had fun. I think sometimes she forgets that a lot of us are dancing by ourselves. 

Fourth was Dave Eno's Weekly C1/A2 at 6:00 for one hour and a half. Karin Rabe and Greg Moore helped Dave call the dance. The format was three tips of C1 to 10 participants and three tips of A2 to 11 participants. Greg and Karin called one tip of C1 and A2 together, Dave called one tip of C1 and A2 and the third tip of C1 and A2 all three callers called together. I had a great time dancing with friends.

Get a partner and dance

Larry continues to work on the jukebox. Today he did a lot of cleaning. After decades of being used in greasy diners where smoking was allowed plus sitting in storage for years it was terribly filthy both inside and outside. The machine has now been stripped of everything and is just a shell so Larry began the cleaning process. He worked on it for hours and is still not done. He has a couple of pieces soaking hoping to finish them tomorrow. The chrome shined up really nice, of course after all those years there are scratches and some pitting but it looks great. 

The progress on the jukebox is going to slow down a bit. Larry has some things ordered from Amazon but due to Black Friday and Cyber Monday they are running behind. Things that he could normally get in a day or two are now suppose to take 6-7 days. There are still a few things he can do without the parts.

In between the dances I played the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: World Tour Mini of 10 games. It took me 1 hour, 23 minutes and 24 seconds, which put me in 14th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

Angry Birds characters

I worked on assembling Times Square, Happy News Year. I played a few games of Tales From the Crypt and a couple of games of Theatre of Magic.

Tales From the Crypt

Theatre of Magic

After the last dance we started to watch the second season of Royal Flying Doctor Service on PBS. When Larry went to bed I watched Iron Man 3 from our movies collection. Then I started watching the 8th season of Shetland on Acorn. I ended up doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.

 

Tuesday 11-28-23 Dancing with Di and Terry & Having Fun

 

Laid back day

We had another laid back day.

We attended Di Green and Terry McCann's Weekly A2 dance at 10:00 for an hour. We hadn't danced to Di and Terry for three weeks and it was nice to see them back from their traveling. They took turns calling five tips to 18 participants. After the first tip one of the dancers told Di they weren't aloud to call in Germany any more because she was calling harder than usual. She was joking but most people say dancing in Germany is more difficult and faster than other countries. Larry danced with me. We had a super time.

Get a partner and dance with friends

Larry continued working on his jukebox project. He spent most of the day working on the buttons. He thinks he will be able to use all the original buttons. Two of the rows (11 buttons) will work without any modification, the other two rows (20 buttons) will not work as they were designed but he thinks he can make them work. He could replace all the buttons with new ones but the new ones are a bit larger, he would have fewer buttons and they would look a bit different. He is having a great time figuring out how to convert and make the jukebox work.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Medium Mayhem of 27 games. It took me 1 hour, 43 minutes and 40 seconds, which put me in 14th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds.

I played the weekly challenge pinball game Tales From the Crypt and five other games. The games were Red & Ted' Road Show, Rock 'n' Roll Diner, The Matrix, Who Dunnit and Playboy. 

Tales From the Crypt

Red & Ted's Road Show

Rock 'n' Roll Diner

The Matrix

Who Dunnit

Afterwards I moved onto the arcade cabinet, where I played three pinball games (Fun House, Killer Klowns and Cirqus Voltaire) and four arcade games (Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man, Pengo and Pac Mania). I hadn't played on the arcade cabinet for a long time and had a super time.

Fun House

Killer Klowns

 

 

 

 

Pac-Man

Ms Pac-Man

Pengo

Pac Mania

Cirqus Voltaire

In the evening we watched another James Bond movie called Goldeneye. Then I watched Iron Man 2 and the last episode of the X-Files. I ended up doing 17,500 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.

 

Monday 12-27-23 New Project, Games and Having Fun

 

Awesome Day

As you may recall Larry has been working on some ideas to build a jukebox. Originally he planned to build a case for it via wood, aluminum and plexiglass, however, he also thought if he could find an old wall mounted jukeboxes maybe he could convert it. For the past month he has been watching Ebay, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, he had not been successful, he found a few that were either in terrible shape or far too expensive. These things are really heavy and shipping is quite spendy. Last week he found a guy in Ennis, Texas that had about 30 of them. 

This morning we drove to Ennis. For breakfast we stopped at the 317 Donut Shop. 

A couple of guys started a vehicle restoration business in a rural area just outside of Ennis, they have a huge shop filled with cars, equipment and parts mostly from the 60's, Larry loved it. One of the owners showed us the jukeboxes, he left us alone to go through them and pick what we wanted. Really nice guy. Larry picked out two.

On our way home we stopped in Hillsboro at Braum's for lunch. We shared a Pimento/Bacon Cheese burger combo. It was a very long time since we had visited a Braum's and the food was very good. 

The entire journey took over six hours and we missed a dance but we had a great time.

When we got home Larry started tearing one of the machines apart. He is basically gutting the machine and will be using the case. These machines are about 60 years old so they are not perfect but they were complete, they even came with an original key. One is chrome and the other is painted. They weigh about 35 lbs. Larry spent the rest of the day removing parts and trying to figure out what he wants to do with them. This project will take him some time and some money. He already has some parts for the conversion but he'll need more.

Some folks may remember the wall mounted jukeboxes, there were quite a few different models from multiple manufacturers. They were mainly installed in diners and restaurants back in the 50's, 60's and even into the 70's. They would be mounted in the booth where you ate. The interesting thing is these machines contained no music, they were simply large remote controls. You used the wallbox to pay and make your selections then the machine in the backroom loaded the record and sent the music back out to the wallbox or sometimes to the entire diner. How many folks do you think knew this? 

Larry said he had never thought about it and just assumed the music was stored inside the wallbox. When you think about it all the music in those days was on records, there was no physical way you could fit that many records in those small wallboxes. Of course the large console jukeboxes that were normally in places like bars and clubs had all the records inside of them, that is one of the reasons they were so large.

 

Two Jukeboxes 

 

Gutting one jukebox

Starting to take the jukebox apart

While Larry worked on the jukebox project I played games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong before I went to bed. This afternoon I did the event, which was Event: Easy Street Mini of 5 games. It took me 6 minutes and 41 seconds, which put me in 15th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds.

Afterwards I played some pinball. I did the weekly challenge of Tales From The Crypt and got a new high score, which was 128,450,090. Then I played five other games, X-Men, Cirqus Voltaire, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man and Johnny Mnemonic.

Tales From the Crypt

X-Men

Cirqus Voltaire

Guardians of the Galaxy

Iron Man

Johnny Mnemonic

I also worked on my jigsaw puzzle.

In the evening we watched a James Bond movie on Amazon called The World Is Not Enough. Then I watched Iron Man and a couple of episodes of The X-Files. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.

 

      

Sunday 11-26-23 New Challenge, Games and Having Fun

 

Just having fun

The rain went away early in the morning. It only got up to 50 degrees with a strong wind. We spent the day hanging around the house.

Larry continued playing with his Raspberry PI and the music program. We listened to songs from the 50's and 60's most of the day.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Pyramid Adventure of 20 games. It took me 1 hour, 49 minutes and 48 seconds to finish, which put me in 14th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds.

Playing Angry Birds

I worked on my puzzle most of the day. 

We played pinball. Today started a new weekly challenge in pinball, which is Tales From The Crypt. Last weeks challenge of Apollo 13 had 64 participants and I came in 50th. I played the new challenge and got the high score of 113,642,920. Then I played a couple other pinball games, which were Tales of the Arabian Nights and Theatre of Magic.

Tales From the Crypt

Tales of the Arabian Nights

Theatre of Magic

In the evening we watched Top Gun: Maverick from our movie collections. After Larry went to bed I watched another movie from our collection called Hidalgo. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group for the week with the total of 119,220 steps.

 

Saturday 11-25-23 Just Another Day of Having Fun

 

Just having fun

We didn't have anything on the agenda so we just relaxed. In the evening it started to drizzle and continued through the night. The high today was 58 degrees.

A little rain in the evening

Larry continued playing with a music program. He continued working on music from the 50's and 60's. It's nice to sing-a-long with songs you know the lyrics. Larry played the songs through the Alexa device and it showed the lyrics so it was easier to sing-a-long. 

Enjoying music from the 50's & 60's

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event was Event: Tri Peaks Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 35 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. Then I moved onto playing Angry Birds.

I spent most of the day assembling pieces on my jigsaw puzzle, Times Square, New Years Eve.

Larry and I played pinball games. Larry played with the his 3D glasses and a couple of games he put in 3D. He still trying to figure how to improve the 3D. When I wanted to play some games he changed the cabinet back to regular pinball. I played Apollo 13, Johnny Mnemonic, Indiana Jones, Junk Yard and Willy Wonka. When I played Junk Yard I became Grand Champion. I hadn't played Willy Wonka in a long time and did very well and had fun. Tomorrow at noon is the end of the weekly challenge of Apollo 13. So far this week there are 56 participants and I'm in 46th place.

Apollo 13

Johnny Mnemonic

Indiana Jones

Junk Yard

Willy Wonka

In the evening we watched Paddington 2 on Freevee. It was as cute as the first one. Then we watched an episode of Wild Wild West. Afterwards I watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Then I watched an episode of The X-Files. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.

 

Friday 11-24-23 Black Friday, Games, New Jigsaw Puzzle & Having Fun

 

Black Friday shopping

Today was Black Friday. We didn't need anything so we stayed at home. We had a very laid back day.

I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong. The event today was Event: Two Game Tango of 20 games (10 Klondike and 10 Spider). It took me 2 hours, 12 minutes and 17 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. Then I played Angry Birds.

Larry is experimenting with a music program, he has been working on 50's and 60's rock music. For much of the day he streamed the music to our Fire TV, it sounded great.

I don't have any square dances for the next three days. I finished the Fun Candy Table so I decided to do another jigsaw puzzle. It is a Buffalo 2000 pieces puzzle called Times Squares, New Years Eve. I like doing the Buffalo puzzles because they give you a poster of the finished puzzle, which makes it easier to assemble. I think this puzzle will be challenging because of all the different colors.

The puzzle box

The poster

I played some pinball games. I did the weekly challenge of Apollo 13 and five other games. They were Attack From Mars, Creature From the Black Lagoon, Congo and the two Godzilla games. 

Apollo 13

Attack From Mars

Creature From the Black Lagoon

Congo

 

 

Godzilla

 

Godzilla

For dinner we tried a different kind of frozen pizza, a Hawaiian-Style pizza. I cooked it on the grill and came out good. 

In the evening we watched a movie on Amazon, that was recommended by Louise. It was Paddington. It was a very cute movie and I enjoyed it. Then we watched an episode of Wild Wild West. When Larry went to bed I watched the fourth and final Jason Bourne called Jason Bourne. Afterwards I watched a couple of episodes of The X-Files. I ended up doing 17,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group.