Sunday, March 22, 2015

Vernal Cometh...and Siteth Awhilst

It is Spring!

That means it is time to change the water in the Hot Tub. I haven't paid the hot tub much attention in the last few weeks so replacing the water seems even more urgent than it might otherwise.

I hauled out my hoses from the winter storage bunkers and connected up to the hot tub drain. Then I ran the hose out to the curb and got the flow started. After a few minutes, I checked the water flow. It was fine but it was still coming out cold. Surely by now enough time had elapsed to warm up the hose. I went to the tub and it was 50 degrees. Icy cold! In fact, the power had been cut off.

I flipped the breaker next to the tub and got nothing. I ran down to the main breaker and got nothing. I finally remembered that there is an internal breaker and I flipped that on. Ker-Chunk! I got power. I also discovered a rather sizable leak in one of the jet pumps.
I had a little trouble getting this shot because the leak sealed itself shortly after the pump started up. In fact, now it seems to be okay.

I have refilled the tub and the water has come up to temperature. There may be a small leak when I first turn on the pump, but it seems to seal itself.

I'll keep an eye on it. I want to find out why the internal breaker tripped. That's the most troubling part of this.

We are coming to the time of year when the tub doesn't get much use. So I have time to try and figure this issue out.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

The Ides of a Leaky Balcony

Greetings to all on this Ides of March.

We have discovered an issue that I think we need to deal with concerning the house. 

It is a wet and rainy day today. I've heard that over an inch of rain fell today. When I retrieved the morning newspaper it was damp. At first I thought it had just arrived and maybe had been exposed to some rain. But then I noticed water on the porch and a little stream heading for the front steps.

It seems that water is leaking through the balcony area and then dripping through that upper porch ceiling and onto the porch. I could easily see a couple of spots where the water was dripping. There is a whole section of paint I removed that wasn't even sticking to the wood. The water had built up a little reservoir between the wood and the paint and then looked for or created cracks in the paint to run out. 
Water goes where it wants to go.
One idea is to tear into the tongue and groove ceiling and try to see where the water is coming from. Another less invasive option might be to just reseal the whole balcony area and see what happens next.

That idea appeals to me much more.

Saturday, March 07, 2015

The Birthday!

This is the scene that greeted us high atop Lookout Pass at 4,700 feet. It was a great big giant sunny day at 50 degrees and more the whole time we were there. The snow looks good in this picture, and for the most part it was. But we also saw a lot of this.
This was shot at the very bottom of Chair Two, on the Montana side of Lookout.

Susan and I slept in a bit an then went to breakfast at our favorite breakfast place in Wallace. We got up to the mountain right about 10:30.

When we got to the top, we ran into a co-worker of mine, Don. He was skiing the morning at Lookout on his way to visit his Mom in Hamilton, Mt for the weekend.

I would say it was an excellent day of skiing. It was Spring skiing at its best and you had to keep an eye out, especially towards the bottom. It was made even better considering my health issues of late. I did fine. I had to pause walking from the car to the lodge and when the day was over and we had 7 runs in the bag, I was tired.

Then it was back down the mountain for a nap, followed by a nice dinner at the Fainting Goat Wine Bar and then a couple of beers at the 1313 club to watch the Bulldogs of Gonzaga defeat the University of San Francisco GayBoyz in the WCC Tourney.

An excellent day!

I almost forgot to mention my last birthday gift. Again, something I mentioned ages ago and Susan took note of.

I wanted a water pick that I could use in the shower. I had been told by my Dentist or one of his Hygienists that there was one you could take into the shower.

Susan looked a round but was only able to find this.
I have not installed it yet so I cannot give it a review. However, it looks like it should work. The trick is going to be adding an extension to a shower that already has an extension.

Friday, March 06, 2015

The Sexth Day of my Birthday Week

I had mentioned a while back that I wish I had a St Patrick's tie. I bought a bowtie a few years ago but I would like to have a nice shamrockin' tie.
Once again, Susan paid attention and went out a purchased one. Except she didn't. She bought material and made one.

So now I have a kick ass St Paddy's Tie custom made by Corbin Park Designer Su-San.

Thursday, March 05, 2015

Fifth Day of my Birthday Week

Now that I have a really high quality mortar and a matching pestle (at no extra charge), I wish I had a kit wine so I could pulverize some camden crush tablets into a fine powdery dust to purify it.
Oh wait! I DO have a kit wine...a Petit Verdot, which is one of the smaller verdots.

We haven't made a kit wine in a while...probably a few years. I can tell you Susan spent some money on this gift. I should take her to a movie or something.

Wednesday, March 04, 2015

Day Four of my Birthday Week

How often do you wish you had a good Mortar and Pestle with which to pulverize something into a fine dust? Well I have wondered that wish many times. But no more!
I have received a damn fine mortar and it actually came with a lovely pestle. This is actually something I mentioned a while back when we were making wine. Susan took note and now I've got one.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I have a really good wife. I married much better than she did.

Tuesday, March 03, 2015

Day Three of my Birthday Week

A dirty car says that I just don't care about myself very much. Well, that problem will be no more with this unlimited pass to Mister Car Wash. I can go every day. I can go in the morning and again at night.
Okay, an update on that. I can go until I use up 20 bucks worth of car washes.

Yea!

Monday, March 02, 2015

Second Day of my Birthday Week

For Day Two I got a pair of movie passes. This is a great gift because Susan and I do not attend enough movies and we would like to fix that.
The only question now is what movie to see and who am I going to take?

Sunday, March 01, 2015

First Day of my Birthday Week

Susan and I have developed this odd little tradition where we celebrate the whole week before one of our birthdays. Every day for the week leading up to our birthday, we get a gift. Here was my first one.
Just in case the picture is not quite clear enough, those are Susan made Chocolate Dipped Strawberries. Yum!