NOTE: This post has one (1) photo w/ caption, taken by me (Bruce ) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.
SUNDAY 18 and Monday 19 August 2024 — Visitation for K8UT/SK, a ZOOM meeting, a flooring decision, BdW activity, and the DNC.
Sunday 18 … Visitation for K8UT/SK
We had a well-deserved relaxing morning. Breakfast was scrambled “Just Egg” served open-faced on top of a slice of a lightly-toasted piece of bread with a slice of lightly-melted non-dairy cheese. We split a grapefruit, but it was not very good. The one’s we have had recently excellent, but smaller than today’s, which was large but dry, tasteless, not sweet, and had a strange texture. That probably meant it was too old, but might also reflect the growing conditions and when it was harvested.
In the afternoon I went to the Keehn-Griffin Funeral Home in Brighton for Larry G.’s (K8UT/SK) visitation. (K8UT was his amateur radio call sign and /SK indicates “silent key,” as in no longer operating a key for sending Morse code. It’s the ham radio community’s way of indicating that some has passed.) I was going to leave around 1400 local time, but it started raining heavily as I was preparing to go. (“Chucking it down” as I often hear in Youtube videos from the British Isles.) I actually left at 14:45. There were quite a few people there, but only a few that I knew from the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC). Display boards were set up highlighting Larry’s interests and accomplishments, which were varied and significant. As is often the case with someone I only knew through a specific hobby interest, he had led a full, rich life that I was largely unaware of, and was well-represented by the other people in attendance.
Back home, I worked at my desk until dinnertime. Linda prepared cauliflower gnocchi with mushrooms, onions, vegan sausage, and arrabbiata sauce. So good. After dinner we reviewed documents from our financial advisors in preparation for a ZOOM meeting tomorrow morning.
Monday 19 … A financial advisor meeting, and floor refinishing decision, BdW guest activity, starting to move things off of the hardwood floors, and the DNC on PBS
During the morning, we had a ZOOM meeting with one of our financial advisors. Our investment objectives are well defined but there’s always something to discuss and decisions to make. In this case, we made a couple of decisions about RMDs from IRA accounts.
With the meeting concluded, I called Christine, the owner of Boardwalk Floors in Milford, to let her know that we wanted to use her company for our hardwood floor refinishing project. She was glad to hear that and comparing our calendars, we agreed on Monday, October 14 (this year) to start the work. It should be done by Friday the 18th, but if it runs over into the following week it will still work for us. We will get a deposit to her a couple of weeks in advance of the start date.
We have moved the dining room table out of the way, taped two pieces of paper to the floor, and marked the outer edge of a 54” diameter table, centered under the existing light fixture. We have positioned four of our existing placements to see how they would work with a round table of this size. Not very well, as it turned out. That led to an online search which quickly revealed the existence of placements with a curved edge and sides that taper in toward the center of the table. We are often surprised at the things that exist, but that have never crossed our minds, because we had no need to know about them until we did.
We took some time in the afternoon to mark out three sizes of round dining room table, 48”, 54”, and 60” diameters, on the dining room floor using paper and painter’s tape. We are considering such a table with an extension feature of up to 2 feet. We quickly agreed that the 48” size, when extended, would be too small to seat eight (8) people. I liked the 60” size, which would easily accommodate a party of 8, but Linda felt that the table, in its round configuration, was too large for the space for everyday use. I ultimately had to agree, and we settled on the 54” diameter as the right size after confirming that it would still seat 8 people in reasonable comfort.
Part of our discussion regarding the size and placement of a round dining room table had to do with the single outlet box that powers the ceiling light fixture for our dining room table. I wanted to avoid having to alter the location of the outlet box, but was concerned about providing good lighting for both the round and extended (oval/race-track) configurations. We did not come up with a definitive solution, but I was satisfied that we could figure out something that worked.
We noticed that our current BdW guests, RAMTAM19, were busy moving things out of their motorhome, but I didn’t want to bother them to ask why. They messaged us at some point to let us know that they had a potential buyer for their motorhome, and ask if it would be okay for an RV inspector to come to our property tomorrow to inspect their rig. We were okay with that, of course, but appreciated being asked first.
After dinner we watched the DNC convention coverage on PBS.
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