Kicking butterfly

I woke up! Late! 8:30 a.m.! I'm so lazy and so unashamed!
To the the pool I went, and without coffee,  that wonderful legal performance enhancing drug, with the intent of just swimming meekly. After pretending to swim some freestyle 100's, I got a dose of optimism.  I wasted it on some poorly executed butterfly 25's--I'm sure I looked to the life guard like I needed saving. I sought help from the basic kick drills, doing 8-10 25s.  Doing drills like that helps put the pieces more into automatic execution. That immensely improved the stroke.  Future butterfly sessions demand kicking drills for a good stroke not to be simply accidental.

FYI, pouring a solution of sodium thiosulfate on my hair & skin after swimming effectively takes out the chlorine.

Fixing more stuff

December 1, I flew Vegas to Portland, drove home and slept. Dec 2, I checked the pump in my basement, for which I'd bought a seal bearing assembly and a coupler from zoro.com--some clicking meant I needed to go to work.  I turned the pump motor off. December 3, I drained the heating system, removed the pump and replaced the seal bearing assembly and the coupler.  Performing the repair was strangely therapeutic. Heat's on!

No thanks to Dan at Sunset Air, who still hadn't gotten back to me with an estimate for this repair.  If ever he does call back, will I tell him I just closed off that part of the house?

End of days in Vegas

November 30.

No, Armageddon isn't upon us.

I am just winding up a 10 day visit to Vegas, where Brother, Sis and Mom live.  The amount of daylight here in the Southwest astounds me anew with each visit.

I drove Mom where she needed to go for groceries and where ever else (Brother) Tom would drive her when I was home in Washington.  She's still walking an hour a day--all in the house, doing laps through kitchen, dining room, living room and front hallway, with occasional side trips to the back yard. She used to walk outside in her gated community, but her fear of workmen (gardeners, contractors, etc) and drivers of cars that looked like they belonged in crummy neighborhoods drove her inside.  

Mom demonstrated the exquisite art of exaggeration as she estimated the cost of a repair I performed, replacing a hot water re-circulation pump.  The cost of labor will rise to equal or exceed the cost of the parts, no exception.  She estimated the cost of that repair to exceed $500.  After receiving the pump, I accepted Tom's offer to "help", but when he said he wanted to work on it late in the afternoon two days later, I chose to work on my own. I sprayed the old fittings with WD-40 to loosen them, waited, removed the pump, sweated some copper fittings and installed the pump.   The installation took an astonishingly short time (under 30 minutes).  Instant hot water again!

Too much time on facebook

 Tortoise!

Like · Reply · 1 · 9 mins

Jojo Macatiag Goldilocks! How are things? Are you still in Seattle area?

Like · Reply · 8 mins

Jeffrey Wong Still under my roof near the Washington coast, which takes the million inches of rainfall predicted with aplomb. I'm hosting wet and not-so-wet cyclists riding down to the sun--am I a road angel? Some cycling some walking, some swimming (hoping to be the oldest guy in the county swimming butterfly). Great to see you and your people smiling. Don't stop.

Another exchange:

Mark Hodgkins added 2 new photos.

Yesterday at 9:29am · 

Went to a reading by Davis Sadaris last night. This was our fifth time seeing him and finally got a chance to get a book signed and chat him up a little. We discussed his recent root canal (3 days ago), OxyContin, Advil, and his kidney stones. He also spoke about being called a racist by an Asian woman because he told her he thought he recognized her from someplace. Lastly, he couldn't explain why he drew a hangman's noose in our book-he said he was curious what it would look like. Hopefully we weren't the ones pushing him over the edge.

   

Diane Hodgkins Because he was dyin' over there, listening to you?

Mark Hodgkins I so hope not b

Hildreth Cooper He was in Durango two nights ago, but it was sold out for months. Maybe he just assumed you were into lynching?

Jeffrey Wong S l o w . D.OW.N. w.h.e.n y.o.u. post. Check the spelling of the author's name against what's printed on the book cover--most likely the publisher got it. . . right.

Jeffrey Wong And yes, we do all look alike to you white folks. :+)

Jeffrey Wong Oh, and I'm still waiting for the post of the group selfie with your tongue in his ear! Lol

Like · Reply · 13 hrs · Edited

Diane Hodgkins Spell checking a FB post? Highly unusual....

Jeffrey Wong Mindfulness may be unusual. Nothing is worth doing if it's not worth doing well.

Jeffrey Wong Never mind spell checking FB posts. If you can't spell the name of an author that you've targeted for an autograph FIVE times, what does that say about you? LOL! I can see from the image with the original post that the correct spelling is NOT Davis Sadaris, Of course, I can't rule out my having missed a deliberate misspelling of the name, as revenge for his having drawn a noose, of which I'd say you may have just gotten something quite rare.....

Jeffrey Wong ...which means that you should definitely continue the practice of whatever it takes to get an unusual response such as David's. I applaud you for not just sneaking your book up to the author, uttering a meek "thanks, I have all your books" and running away dumb, numb and happy. Still LOL.

Oops, I hope I didn't offend anyone. I probably did.  Oh, well.  All in a day's writing. But where is my own material? I hiked 2000 miles and I have naught to say?

More time on that Brooks leather bicycle saddle. More time in the swimming pool.  

Breaking in the Brooks. Furnace parts

The Ray Way quilt was way too warm last p.m.

The Brooks saddle seemed a bit more accommodating today.  I've pedaled 30 minutes daily for the last three mornings and even thumped it a few times with my fish whacker.  It'll happen.

The swimming pool.  Butterfly drills mostly with some back stroke and breast stroke and a tiny bit of freestyle.  Dunno what my fly looked like, but the motion felt good for a few strokes.  I know I have to work on the kick to make .
*****
A box of parts for my heating system arrived, days after Dan of Sunset Air quoted me $800 to replace a pump. Despite the clarity of the invoice from my recent service that indicated which part needed replacement, (the seal bearing assembly), he got it completely wrong and didn't call back when he said he would. To think "loser"would fix nothing.  I have no idea why Dan didn't call back. Wait, someone called earlier today from a Washington area code.

I'll just fix it myself.  Hm. Read instructions that came with parts.  Turn off power to the pumps, turn off power to the boiler. Turn off water to the system and drain the water from the system. remove motor, remove coupler, remove seal bearing assembly,  Install new seal bearing assembly, with gasket, install new coupler, replace motor. lubricate seal bearing assembly.  I might save $200. Or I might end up with a really expensive repair if I screw up.
*****
Yoga.  Again, wearing the jammer swim suit and the bike tights, because I'm not going to buy $70 yoga pants and look like a poseur. Marc and Suzanne Tomlinson appeared.

Speaking of people from the past, Kathy Jamsgard hailed me while I was shopping cheeses in Top Foods. Not much change. Too many cats, still riding a motorcycle and squinting a lot.

And 6 weeks ago before I walked the Oregon PCT, I saw Bill and Pam Hofmann at the UPX store, sending gifts to a nephew.  Not much going on.  Nothing to talk about, I guess.  Well, I did say I was sending food to myself for the Oregon PCT--oh, I didn't mean to rub salt in the wound of her leg amputation event (old news now).  They told me what they were sending and I told them what I was sending, that's all.  Anybody who wants to read more into it than that can walk into the ocean.
******
And the no knead bread was so damned good, I checked my weight and I'm back up to 156-7 lb.

Top Foods is closing and having a "sale" on everything, but the prices on some items (water chestnuts) weren't that good to begin with.

Red Cross Blood Drive, Ann Brown, Oldest butterfly swimmer in the county?

Cycling:  I applied the dimple makers in my shorts (the butt bones) to my Brooks leather seat for 30 minutes today riding the rollers while baking bread for John Forrester. I detected faint impressions in the saddle. 

I showered and drove down to the Red Cross Blood Drive at the Elks Club in South Aberdeen. They billed the drive as the Westport blood drive. Hm. Well, Jan Heikkila won't donate until they bring the bloodmobile back to Westport. At the drive, Deanna (name?) a sub-ginormous woman, reeking of tobacco and breath mint did the donor interview with me. I remembered that she didn't excel with the needle on a prior effort. I said, "I don't mean to offend you, but I'd like to have Mariko do my venipuncture." I got my wish and had a smooth donation.

On to Westport Winery where Jeff and Julie Coburn hosted the send-off of his mom, Ann Brown, who'd passed away from cancer two weeks ago.  Once in the door, three science fair boards with photos of Ann showed where she'd been in her life.  That included professional modeling with a stint advertising Boeing 707's in 1970 at the age of 40. A wonderful spread of oysters, stuffed shrimp, marinated mushrooms, cookies, cake beckoned--I took my plate of goodies to a place next to Vern and Jan, who introduced me to more neighbors, Rick and April.  A slide presentation followed. Ann was a live wire!  Fishing, scuba diving, ukulele playing, a post diagnosis trip to Italy and Paris, volunteering at the Union Gospel Mission and the winery. And stories told of language fit for a sailor's bar. The ukulele group played "Freight train" and "You are my Sunshine" Jeff (Coburn) thanked me for coming.  Feeling good, I drove away from the winery, a brilliant rainbow making a full half circle from North to South.  I knew I couldn't enjoy the 'bow while trying to take a picture of it, so I just drove until I had passed through the narrow band of rain that produced it. I felt almost elated.

I brought the bread to John, who opined that the organic food/anti-GMO movements were like religion with outrageous profits for the large corporations.  Sounded about right.  Maybe the better taste of organic foods is a placebo effect.

To the YMCA, where I'd planned to swim a few laps of butterfly drills.  Keith Lyle said he was adding more butterfly drills to his swims. I said I thought he'd be the oldest butterfly swimmer in the county. He didn't say anything about his shoulder holding him back as in past butterfly discussions.  I privately determined that I'd work a bit more on technique, to push him a bit more.
Jamie came to the pool. I watched her swim a few yards of one arm freestyle--I couldn't clam up and made a remark about how she bobbed up to take a breath.  This impulse control issue is outrageous. I hope she wasn't offended.

For the morning, make a flight reservation to Vegas!

Fight procrastination day

Today is "fight procrastination day." I'm gonna do that by tomorrow at the latest.

Jeffrey Freed You're going to wait till tomorrow to fight?

Jeffrey Wong Tomorrow's pretty safe. It's always at least a few nano seconds away, and just when you think today might actually become tomorrow, tomorrow becomes today and tomorrow retreats almost 24 safe hours away and the countdown resumes.

A recent clam dig

Mr. Moon, Mr. Ralph & Miss Eva

South Sound Solar

I just decided to take the plunge after learning about the incentives, the payback time and seeing favorable reviews for South Sound Solar (SSS).

Salesperson/estimator Bruce Hargrave assessed the roof and produced an estimate days.  He evaluated my electrical panel for code compliance.  SSS installed on another house in Aberdeen last fall on Jeffries Street, three houses south of 6th Street.

Washington law says the Public Utility District will pay me 54 cents per kilowatt hour for what the thirty six 275 watt Washington manufactured panels produce through 2020.  Payback time will be about 6 years.  Normally, customers pay ~12.2 cents per kWh for the first 360 kWh and 8.5 cents per kWh after that.

Installers:  Jesse and Sean.  Jesse married one of Dr. Craig Teveliet's daughters and lives in Aberdeen, 3-4 houses from me.  They don't work on Fridays, which makes for a decent lifestyle for their employees.  Sean seems extremely capable.  Job benefits?  Not known.

Installation process: quick, on-time and courteous.  Work looked clean.  Post-install cleanup?  No nails or screws littering the work site.

Flat roof installation.  Both came inside the house to note the location of junction boxes for light fixtures to avoid installation damage.  Both had shoe covers for use in the house.

The permitting process produced the only hitch.  The city of Aberdeen placed their final inspection sticker without informing SSS.  I came home from a 10 day trip to find the system not turned on.  I probably missed out on >200 kWh of production during those sunny days.  The system produced 85 kWh in 3.5 days (one very overcast day). During that period, I used 78 kWh.

Water timer on Turtle Creek Circle

First things first.  After turning the dial two notches to the left, the clock may take a few moments before it displays the percentage of water it will deliver.  I have it currently set at 70% (February) with three watering times daily.  Only one station waters almost all of the back yard, with a duration of ten minutes.

Figure 1.  Timer in operation mode

 In June July and August, if the plants look a bit dry, I suggest increasing the % of water delivered adjusting as seen in Fig 2.

Figure 2. Timer in seasonal water adjustment mode. with thumb on the increase button.

Turtlehead Peak

Red Rock Canyon Nat'l Recreation Area
February 19, 2015.  65 degrees at 11 a.m.  A challenging 2000' climb up a warm sun soaked ravine, amid century agave, yuccas, mormon tea, sage, cacti, daisies and dozens of other nameless plants.  We're not in Kansas, Toto.

Streaked azure over Turtle Head Peak

A bunch of Rocks

More Rocks

On top of Turtle Head looking north. -ish

Wow?  Wow.

Victory!

This old bike

Coastal cutthroat

Again, our favorite fishing hole, Feb 4, 2015.  Water levels middling, clarity good to maybe 3.5', color green without mud/dirt.

A 12" coastal cutthroat took the hook but didn't show much interest in fighting for its freedom, as it must have read the fishing guide (catch and release).  The small #2 hook seemed big for this sleek fish.  Once unhooked, it grinned and swiftly jetted off.  Nice not to get skunked and to know that beginner's luck can return.

A snagged lure is not always a lost lure anymore.

I just found the solution to snagged lures.

Tip #1.  Interpose a lighter test loop of monofilament between your hook and the wire loop.  If using 8# test in your reel, use 2# test mono.  I use 12# test since I have 30# braided on my reel.

Tip #1.  Or you can tie a single strand between hook and wire loop.  Then you can use 6# test.

Tip #2:  I attach a split ring to the hook, because the mono likes to work itself into the joint of the hook eye.

I tossed my lure into a tree, where it snagged.  I pulled hard and got all but the hook and the split ring.

I am re-configuring all the lures to incorporate a mono strand or loop.

Update Feb 5, 2015:  Latest trip snagged two lures, losing the hooks.

Fourteener Dec 16, 2014

Here 'tis:

14 lb silver salmon landed Tuesday December 16, 2014.  It's head is as big as mine.  Photo taken by Gary R.

Beautiful day on the river.  Notwithstanding someone taking a slide down the bank into the river.

Altering waders--big feet, normal leg length.

People with big feet, normal leg length and medium build have a problem.   I have waders in size 12 boot for my size 11.5 feet, but with legs about 3" longer than I need.  The "stout" size waders offered by some makers better matches normal leg length with big feet, but while also making the torso size about 8 inches greater than needed for a medium built body.

A brief web search shows that no one on the web has a method of altering these.  I thought briefly about cutting and re-gluing the legs, but a small gap in re-gluing would result in a leak.  The next solution:  fold down the neoprene pant leg on itself, and glue it down.

The process:

1. put on waders, stand up and fold down the amount of pant leg that makes them fit as desired.
2. Mark the bottom of the fold and the bottom section where the fold stops.  both lines should go all the way around the pant leg.
3. With a sharp knife, cut the fabric cover of the neoprene on the lines.
4. Carefully pull up on the fabric between the lines, leaving the neoprene exposed.
5. Apply contact cement ($5 at Home Depot) to the neoprene.  Do this is a well ventilated area.
6. Wait 10 minutes for the cement to get tacky.  
7. Press the neoprene together, matching the cut edges of the fabric neoprene cover.
8. Turn the pant leg inside out enough to expose the fold inside.  Cut away the fabric that touches and glue as in 5 and 6 above.

I'll soon know how this works.