Just Pretend It's November 1

You might remember that I wanted to share something that I did on November 1, but I didn't have the pictures yet. I got them today.

That morning, I gave my program about the big hike to some classes at the O.J. DeJonge Middle School in Ludington. These are 6-8th graders. They were pretty interested.

The teacher apologized for them, but I have a pretty good idea of what to expect from young teens. They asked some good questions after the program, and I even got to talk with a few of them individually.

All in all, I think it went well. The teacher is trying to get them to focus on finding some kind of outdoor activity that they might enjoy for their entire life. Looking for that healthy lifestyle choice. She was very sad to report that most of them are very unfit physically.

A couple of them were outdoorsy. The boy I'm talking with above is a Scout, and another boy was a hunter. He asked me about hunting or fishing to feed myself while hiking.

The biggest headache was the technology. They had to transform my PowerPoint into a Mac format to use it on their system. Even though they had it for a week ahead of time, there was a fair amount of technological angst, but it mostly worked right.

Today I did client work, another load of laundry (during which the washing machine developed a problem- sigh), puttered in the trailer a little more, and did some planning for my January trip. Vacation from DMS is now at 13,137 words.

See That Other November

That Other November

Mostly because you know I can't let go of a thought until I get it all sorted out, I looked up the year I did that November porch rebuild on the old house. It was 1978. We did have both boys. I suppose I mostly worked while they were at school. Steve would have been in Headstart so that gave me a half day to concentrate.

The bottom sill had rotted out and the wall was slipping off the concrete pad. I discovered it had never even been secured to the pad!

Mostly I just replaced the bad wood, used lag bolts to fasten it to the concrete, put in the same windows and door, and repainted. I'm sure that even buying some new wood to replace the rotted stuff was a real strain on our budget back then.

And I guess showing off my workmanship wasn't a high priority. I can't even find a good picture of the wall after it was completed. The best I can do is to show the tops of the windows. I think I was picturing early snow on the roof the year I took this picture.

Today, I worked for a client, I puttered in the trailer (finishing little jobs and finding one more I need to do), I did put away the rest of the stuff that was on the current porch, and did a few small tasks. And I got back to writing. Total words now in Vacation from DMS is 12121.

See Trailer Repairs

Trailer Repairs - 1D, 2B, 3A - Several Things

The upper kitchen cupboard should now stay where it belongs, and have adequate support. The trim strip that is above the window is now doubled up so that the back edge of the cupboard rests on it. The only issues with this fix were finding the same kind of molding (not stored with all the others at the store, and it took me two trips to find it), and buying some additional screws because the extra layer then added 1/4 inch to the distance to reach wood.

Cathy came over and we got the last piece of foam insulation in place. That was definitely a two-person job just because of the size of the flappy thing.

Then I was able to replace the vent trim.

And I worked on getting the new, dimmable light installed. The wiring diagram that came with it was wonky, so I had an electrician friend tell me what I should actually do. Of course the wires on the fixture were too short, so I had to extend all of those by a few inches to have enough to work with. It took forever to find several of the items I needed to make this happen. OK, not forever, but it seems like I spend more time walking back and forth to the house than it takes to actually fix the item.

You can see that it is lit up, and the dimmer switch does work properly. However, by then it was nearly 5 pm, and my neck was stiff from working at the funky angle. The wires were being a pill to get stuffed back up out of the way, so I decided to finish this another day.

And, I had clothes on the line. It was warm and windy, so I got one more outside drying day, and I had to get those taken in.

The other trailer project that is now finished was to replace the electric port on the back. I don't know why I didn't do this as part of the initial project. The plastic was old and brittle, and the door broke off sometime during this last year. Here's the hole with the old port removed.

The new one fits the hole just fine, but the flange is larger, so I had to drill new holes. Actually, I'm glad it's larger because that way you can't tell that I didn't remove this before I painted. Funny story about putting in the pop rivets. A number of years ago, I bought a nice pop rivet tool because our old one was a piece of crap. However, the new one seems to be made for someone with monster hands. I was unable to get my hand to span the two handles and squeeze them to install the new rivets. Cathy and I did it together and were able to squeeze them enough until the rivets popped. I had exactly three rivets of the size I needed. So I dodged yet another trip to the store, for now.

It was a glorious day! The morning started with the "red sky, sailor take warning." The forecast says we may get some rain tonight, but it's hard to believe how lovely it was for mid-November.

I didn't get all the stuff on the porch put away because I spent so much time on the trailer, but I did do the most annoying one- had to take everything out of the car to put the jumper cables away.

Every time I am able to work on projects long into November, I am reminded of the year when I took out the entire wall of our enclosed porch on the old house and rebuilt it in November- some year- maybe around 1980? Maybe earlier. We might not have had the boys yet. Doesn't matter.

I also did work for a client in the morning and the load of laundry. No writing happened, but I needed to take advantage of the nice day to do these jobs.

See Insulation

Searching... Searching...

It was not a day that lent itself to pictures. I spent nearly the whole day looking for something, which spun off into other jobs. I neeeded an old computer file. I was afraid it was part of what I permanently lost two computers ago. And, I think it must have been.

I ended up finally backing up my old back-up drive. That's good. I've been putting that off a LONG time, and there is stuff on that drive I'd hate to lose. Instead of twiddling my thumbs, I did some other jobs while I was waiting for large files to be moved.

Most seriously, I got the porch cleaned off. I'd been puttering at it a bit, but today I finished except to put a few things away. I'll do those tomorrow. This was the repository of all the wood and miscellaneous pieces of the entire trailer project. The pile was a couple of feet high. I know it hasn't been cleared in 2 years, maybe 3.

Meanwhile, since I was moving all those old files, I went looking for something fun to share. Here's a Throwback Wednesday. Maybe I should say Throwback Thanksgiving. This is 2007. Not our kid, but a good friend, Josh S. He also joined us for T-day in 2013. Now, I'm happy to tell you, he is a husband, and a daddy to two wonderful little boys.

OK, so it's now 5 pm, and the hard drive is backed up, and I'm still determined to find that file. There was one other option where I might have the text from it. BINGO!

Perfect... and it's something I needed for the Vacation from DMS book. It probably would have taken me less time to look it up all over again. However, I wouldn't have backed up that drive or finished the porch. So, I guess it was a meaningful search.

See Thanksgiving 2013

A Walk to the Ludington Lighthouse

Before bell choir practice, I took a fast walk out to the Ludington Lighthouse. I've learned that it's actually only a light, not a lightHOUSE, because there is no keepers house associated with it. But I doubt that even I can manage to remember to be that particular when talking about it.

The pier to get out to it is three-tenths of a mile long, so it's a decent little walk. More so when it's windy as it was this afternoon. Not TOO windy, or you can't go on the pier. The waves crash right over it in a storm. Today, there were only some wet places. This picture is taken right into the sun.

Once you get there, you find yourself right under the base which resembles the prow of a ship. It's designed to help break up waves. The waves break and spray higher than the lighthouse fairly regularly.

Just across the channel is a marker light. That is where Cathy and I walked to in the post linked below. Of course it's about a 10-mile drive to get around to the south pier!

There weren't very many people on the pier today, but neither was it deserted. Unless there is a real storm, there are usually locals who like to walk out there. And most years, there is someone who walks there when they really shouldn't. At the best they get a bad dunking and lesson. At worst, they drown. This is looking back at the Stearns Park Beach. Not covered with sunbathers today! The shoreline continues north toward Big Sable point.

The snow/sand fences are up for the winter. The sand is drifting. Already there are piles of it along the drive through the park. Locals complain about how early the fencing goes up. But the city has to trade off the expense of clearing the drifted sand (which is considerable) with good will. The fencing keeps it from blowing all the way into town.

No writing happened today. I did some work for a client, I did some research. I did a couple of things in the trailer. I'll share those when a small collection of them is complete. Then I went to town and walked and went to bell choir, after which I had a meeting. Busy, busy.

See Liquid Air