Gonzaga vs Northern Alabama

I got a call yesterday from my friend Ron. He had access to two tickets to the Gonzaga basketball game at 2:00 and wanted to know if I wanted them.

Not just yes, but HELL YES!

Tickets to Zags games are a hot commodity these days and it turns out that these tickets are great seats.

I recorded the game so we could see if you can see us.

And you can. Obviously, you can't tell it's us. But I assure you it is.

We had a great time. It was a great way to spend a chilly afternoon.   

After Christmas Monday

 We are heading into a cold spell for the next week. It's 20° right now and that is going to be the high for the week. They are projecting a low of zero on Wednesday.

It snowed enough last night for me to break out the snow blower this morning and hit the neighborhood. It's been threatening to snow more, but so far it hasn't happened.

I'm using my time today to set up an office space for me. I have kept this laptop computer down on the kitchen table and I gather too much crap too quickly there and soon, the table doesn't have a bare spot on it. 

So I'm setting up in the upstairs back bedroom. We have a good long counter space there which will be good for me to work on the computer away from the TV and give me some drawing space as well.

There is a shit load of clutter on the counter right now and I'm trying to de-clutterize. (Is that a word?)

My other main goal for today is to fix our EdenPure heater that we use in the kitchen. A couple of years ago, the power switch on it stopped working. The heat and electricity going through it finally cooked it. I managed to find some replacement switches through Granger.com but they are not sturdy enough to last very long. I got six last year and I have used them up. 

Needless to say, I am now quite adept at replacing the switch. I ordered some new ones directly from EdenPure so they should be built to take the amps and heat that the heater produces.

We shall see.

Later: Well, that didn't go well. I got the new switch in and it has power. However, there must be something else going on because the heater never came on. Now I'm going to have to really dig into and check the heating elements.

Merry Christmas

 It’s Christmas Day and I’m writing this on my iPad. I have resisted blogging on the iPad because it is a little difficult. However, we’ve cleaned off the table in preparation of tonight’s Christmas dinner. My son Scott is coming over with his boss and girlfriend. (They are two different people.)

Anyway, we’ve cleaned off the table and put my computer away. Hence the iPad.

Susan and I had a nice Christmas morning. We opened our presents and enjoyed Peppermint Patty’s. Now we are just hanging out, prepping dinner and watching “A Christmas Story” on TV.

I got a set of heated seat pads for my truck and a membership to Triple A. 

Susan got a new robe and slippers and a heated steering wheel cover.

There is a little snow on the ground and we are getting ready for a really cold week.

Merry Christmas!

Jolly Holiday Lights

We had a nice snowfall over night...about 4 inches. Then it warmed up and rained. We still have snow but I think it's supposed to rain off and on through the night.

It's snowing on Mt Spokane and they are open.

Last night, we went to see the Holiday Lights at Manito Park. This is the second year they have done this. Last year, we took Mom and drove through. The congestion was massive and it took about 45 minutes to get to the start.

This year, they had the drive thru option until last night when it turned into a walk thru event. There was a good turn out but we got through it much faster. The hardest part was walking to and from where we parked the car.  But I consider it my mile walk for the day.   

Spokane Icon

I took the following picture back on May 24th, shortly after the White Elephant closed its doors forever.

I have been chronicling the demolition of the building, which started Monday. Here are the results so far.

Another part of my childhood is gone.   

Snow Talk

 I am presently on line with the Mt Spokane webcams and I'm waiting for an update on the snow stake.

Shown above is the snow stake at just about 4PM when they supposedly come out and wipe off the snow that fell the previous day.

It is now 4:15 and nobody has cleaned it off yet. I have some other stuff to do on the computer so I'm going to continue to monitor until 4:30.

I'm not yet sure about the current conditions but the hill in front of the lodge looks pretty inviting. I don't think they are up to two feet yet.

Upon perusing the other ski resorts in the area, I found that Schweitzer and Lookout Pass are open.

Okay, it's 4:30 and I'm giving up.

DAMN! I missed it! Someone came out between 4:30 and 4:42. I'm going to catch them one of these days.

snowsnowsnow

It looks like Mt Spokane got between 2 and three inches of snow last night. They are still a long way off before they can open.

Here is how it looked last night at about 8:30PM.

And here is how that same camera looks today.

There is snow in the forecast for tonight so hopefully they will get a good dumping.  

Gas & Liquor

 I had an appointment with my accountant today to discuss some stuff involving Mom's estate. Her office is out at Liberty Lake so I took the opportunity to gas up the truck at State Line, Idaho ($3.24 per gallon) and buy some booze. It doesn't make financial sense to drive to Idaho just to get gas but when you combine it with a booze run, the savings are substantial.

I also had a gift card to use up at a bar in Liberty Lake so I had a nice lunch. Well...not a nice lunch. This bar does not prepare food to my liking. Last time in, I had a BLT sandwich. They used weird bread and it didn't hold together very well.

Today I had an Italian sandwich and it was served open face. I don't care for that. But I used up the card and I won't be going back.

Monday Snow

I came down to get the paper this morning and opened the front door to snow. It's nothing to get excited about yet. It is a light snowfall and it is not supposed to last long. But the good news is, if it's snowing here, it's snowing on Mt. Spokane. And that is indeed the case.

We still have a long way to go. Mt Spokane said they need a good two feet of snow in order to open. At this point, they have about eight inches.

 But it is snowing and there is more in the forecast for the week.

Let it SNOW!

A Christmassy Day

Today was the first day that our church moved from 9:30 to 10:00AM. We got to sleep in an extra half hour. 

After church we went downtown, dressed in our church finery, and met Randy and Karen for Bloody Mary's. After a nice B.M., we went to examine this years version of Christmas Tree Elegance at the Davenport Hotel. It's a fund raising event for the Spokane Symphony where you buy a bunch of tickets (25 for $25) and place your ticket stub in your favorite trees ticket bin. They will have a drawing and somebody (usually not us) will win the tree and all the stuff that goes with it. I believe there were 16 trees this year. We put tickets in most of them and some extras in the ones with big cash payouts.

We got home about 2:00 in time to watch the Seattle Seahawks. This is not their year. They were 3-8 going into todays game against San Francisco. They were three points down in the second period when we left the house to go over the river and through the woods to get a tree.

That baby cost us $65.00. We'll bring it in and decorate it tomorrow.

Upon our successful return we were pleased to discover Seattle was up by se7en. They managed to maintain that lead and win the game.

Now we are settled in for the evening and Susan is erecting Mantleville, our mantle based Christmas Village.

Here are some pictures of the erection.

 

The First Day of Skiing is When?

 My tasks for today included fixing the rain gutter at the back door (Completed), raking up the leaves in the front flower garden (Completed) and getting everything out of the storage unit so we don't have to pay for another monthly rental fee of $140.00. COM-Pleted!

Now I'm going to get the truck washed.

Okay. The truck is clean.

I was able to work in the yard quite comfortably as it was 57°. It's been warm for the last couple of days. Which is very depressing.

That is what Mt. Spokane looks like right now. Two days ago, it was white with several inches of snow. Yesterday, It rained for a good part of the day.

Opening Day is getting farther away.

After Thanksgiving

We have made it past Thanksgiving and boy, do we have a lot to be thankful for.

First of all, I only gained a pound. On top of the other 15 pounds I've gained since summer, it's not so great. So I guess I'm not thankful for that. 

Back on November 9th, we had a chimney sweep come to clean out our fireplace flue. I chronicled the event in my other blog (Adventures in Phatness) and you can read about it there. www.porkymccorpulent.blogspot.com

The upshot of the visit was that our Fireplace flue is gorgeous and nice and clean now. However, our furnace flue had a blockage in it and we shouldn't be using the furnace. You know, our main source of heat. He had another appointment to get to and was unable to clear the blockage.

His suggestion was to buy a new boiler and remove the archaic wrapped in asbestos dinosaur that vents to the bad chimney flue. I checked into a new boiler and we are looking at about 20 grand.

It's a great time to be a chimney sweep. I called five other sweeps and they are all booked out through December.

I managed to find one who had an opening for us last Tuesday, Nov. 23rd. The guy finally showed up around 4pm and was able to clear the flue. He cleaned out a bunch of leaves and a couple of bricks. That means the flue is not in great condition.

But we have our furnace back. Not that we stopped using it after the first chimney guy told us not to. I bought a couple of Carbon Monoxide detectors as a safeguard. We are still alive.

We are now enjoying a peaceful Friday at home after the big turkey feast last night. We slept in, went on a walk, and are now preparing to go to the Hub for the annual  Apple Cup Football competition (WSU Cougars vs U of W Huskies) followed by a visit to another bar called Pints to watch a little college basketball - Number One Gonzaga play Number Five Duke.

Epilogue: The Cougars whipped the Huskies handily and the Zags lost by three.

First Snow of the Season

We got our first snow of the season yesterday. The forecast was for one to three inches. I think we barely got a dusting. And then it turned to rain. All the sidewalks, driveways and streets are bare and wet.

As for Skiing, it looks like Mt Spokane has a good start. I hope it doesn't turn to rain up there.

Working Monday

 In the span of one little Monday, I did more today than I did all weekend.

With the help of my pal Randy, I got the bed cover installed on the truck. There is still a little tweaking that needs to be done but I have to wait for it to stretch out a little.

I would not have been able to figure this out without Randy. Having an extra set of eyes really is essential.

After Randy left, I got myself a burger and went to the Hub. That was a nice diversion for an hour.

I came home with a really strong hankering for a nap. But I forced my way past the hankering and did some clean up work in the garage. 

I hung the tandem bike up on the wall which created a bunch of room for moving stuff around. That bike is going to be in the yard sale in the spring.

Lackluster Weekend

 We have had a pretty uneventful weekend here at the estate. I cleaned out the garage a little and vacuumed the vehicles. I have a little more work to do with stowing the bicycles for the winter along with a little more organizing of the garage. 

Beyond that, I had a really nice nap yesterday.

I finally got the truck bed cover I ordered for my truck a couple of months ago. I am having difficulty figuring out how to install it and have help coming tomorrow. I hope to have pictures.

Leaf Day

 It's Leaf Day here on the park. I've never gotten to see Leaf Day because I was working. Now I'm retired and able to attend wonderful events like this.

It's a wet, rainy day. I went out and blew the front porch and the leaves were very wet, so very uncooperative. 

One of the sites I am visiting a lot right now is mtspokane.com. I've been checking the webcams for signs of Winter.

I got a sign today. It won't be long now.

Still Finding Clocks to Change

 One of the stupid things we do is change the time by one hour twice a year. In the Spring, we create Daylight Savings Time and move the clocks ahead one hour, effectively losing an hour for that day. In the Fall, we return to standard time and get that hour back. I haven't used my hour yet. I may need it in order to get all the clocks tuned in correctly.

I am hoping that there will come a day (perhaps soon) when we move to Daylight Savings and stay there.

In the meantime, I have a side yard that requires some raking. I'm going to try and do a little raking every day and thereby complete the task without killing the tasker...me.

After some mopping and soup making, I returned to the great outdoors to continue clean up on the side yard. I worked until after five when it just got too dark.

We have a nice looking Crescent Sphere in the sky tonight. I thought I should make note of it.

Fall Back

 While in Prosser last month, we visited a nursery that Susan has always liked and we stop at every time we go to Prosser. We purchased some fertilizer for the Arbor Vitae, which are in serious need of help. 

I just went out and raked up all the leaves and debris under the front line of shrubs in the front yard. Then I distributed a healthy amount of the fertilizer around the base of the shrubs. Finally, I applied a generous amount of water to work the "fert" into the soil.

I also put some fertilizer down on my corner patch of grass. I'm just starting there and using it as a test site. If it responds as I hope it will in the Spring, I will put it on the whole lawn.

Susan is trying to figure out a carpet shampooer we inherited from Mom. The instruction manual we have is not for this machine. She found a manual on-line and is trying to figure it out from there.

Other than that, we are having a lazy Sunday here at the estate. It seems lazy because we gained an hour with the change back to standard time last night. Now the sun will be setting around 4 which I don't really care for.

I wish they would just make a decision and settle on one time setting or the other.

Great Pumpkin Toss 2021

 Here are the photographic results from today's Great Pumpkin Toss.

Suffice it to say that there were more misses than hits.

On A Roll

 I think I'm on a roll here. Today is the sixth day in row that I have posted something.

I forgot to write about a very significant event last Wednesday. A technician from Pool World showed up to work on the hot tub. An internal breaker kept tripping to shut off the heater.

It turns out that the circulation pump had quit working. So the heater would come on, build up a lot of heat because the water wasn't moving, and then trip.

I know it's going to be at least $128.00 for the service call and then however much for the new pump.

The technician told me that one of my two heating elements appeared to not be working. He said it will work fine with the one element. It would just take longer to heat up when changing out the water. However, when the other heating element goes, I might be done. That part is no longer stocked or even made. That's the problem with a 30 year old hot tub.

He mentioned that he remembered seeing three of these elements on a shelf in their warehouse and two of them got used. I told him I would be interested in purchasing the remaining element if they still had it.

They do and it will cost me another $350.00 for it.

Now it is time to get out and finish the leaves from yesterday. It is 10:00.

1:38PM: I have just returned home after a trip to the dump to dispose of my bushels of leaves and a stop at the Hub for some beer.

Nothing of any consequence happened during my trip but I got the pictures shown above.

Suffice it to say that the front yard is clean...for today.