Category Archives: Culture & Entertainment

2015/06/11 (R) Absent 34

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Ron and Mary had a long drive yesterday, and an exhausting 10 days prior to that, so they went to bed tired.  Consequently they did not get up early and I did not make coffee right away.  I was up at 7:30 AM and went to my office instead.  Chris at KF7P Metalwerks accepted my change to the cable entrance box late last night and sent me a PayPal invoice.  I paid that this morning and e-mailed him back to clarify and confirm a couple points about the box.  Once everyone was up we had coffee (us) and tea (them) on the back deck and enjoyed a beautiful early summer morning.  We eventually went back inside and had the granola for breakfast that Linda made yesterday.  So good.

After breakfast we gave them a tour of our partially disassembled motorcoach and explained what we are trying to do.  I mentioned that the motorized windshield roller shades were not winding up straight and that the driver side was binding part way up.  One of the MCD vendors at the rally last week told me to put a piece of tape on one end (lengthwise) to force the shade to not run (in that direction).  Ron, who is a retired mechanical engineer, suggested that I create a tapered roller by putting tape around the roller tube at 5 to 7 places.  The tape cannot go all the way around the roller tube because of the shade but it can go most of the way around.  Ron’s suggestion was one layer towards the outside, two layers next, then three layers and finally four layers in the center.  These tapered rollers are commonly used in industry to keep conveyor belts centered.

We had just exited the bus when a minivan that I did not recognize pulled in our driveway.  It was the electric power company meter reader.  We chatted briefly, and she was very nice but was obviously on a tight schedule.

Ron and Mary needed a duffle bag and some batteries so we drove to the Dick’s sporting goods store at US-23 and Lee Road.  They found a nice duffle bag but not the batteries so we stopped at Meijer’s on the way back to the house and they found what the needed there.  We also picked up a card for our daughter, Meghan, whose 34th birthday was today.

Back at the house we called Meghan and wished her a happy birthday via voice message.  We got a text message later saying thank you.  We also had a voice message on our home phone from Pat Davidson at Apex Roofing indicating that the shingles for our new roof would be delivered on Monday.  For lunch we had pretzels and pita chips with hummus and some grapes.  I slipped off into the small bedroom and opened the box from Cellular Solutions to make sure everything was there.  It was.

Although Ron and Mary slept well last night they were still tired and decided to take naps.  That left Linda free to go for a walk and me to work in my office.  I transferred rough drafts of blog posts from my e-mail to MS Word and then started editing them but did not have time to upload them to WordPress before we had to leave to go to dinner.

We left around 5:15 PM for La Marsa.  They were in the second of two days of their 4th year celebration for the Brighton location and everything was 34% off.  They were backed up 90 minutes for carry out orders but we got a table after only a short wait.  We had Koshary and they had kabobs.  After dinner we went for a walk around the Brighton Mill Pond where we saw two gigantic snapping turtles in the pond.  One of them almost caught a muskrat and they eventually bumped into one another and seemed to be fighting.  It was quite the show.  Snapping turtles are nothing to mess around with and the shells on these two were about 2 feet long, front to back.  Gigantic.

When we got back to the house we played 13 rounds of Mexican Train.  By the time we finished it was midnight and we all got to bed around 12:15 AM.

 

2015/05/30 (S) Chuck and Barbara

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There were thunderstorms west of Lansing just before midnight last night but they did not reach our house during the overnight hours and we slept OK.  We were up at 7 AM and off to our weekly SLAARC breakfast.  Linda had a phone message yesterday from Nancy at FirstMerit Bank indicating that there was still a problem with the SLAARC bank account so we stopped there after breakfast but Nancy wasn’t in.  They have frozen the account while we sort out the paperwork, causing our annual insurance check to not clear.  Linda has been in touch with the insurance company, so they are aware of what is going on.  When we got back to the house she wrote a personal check for the insurance premium and put it in the mail.

I gathered up the laundry, sorted it according to color (light/dark) and temperature (cold/warm), and started the first load.  I downloaded and installed updates last night for my ASUS laptop computer so they finished installing when I started it this morning.  I developed the habit a long time ago of checking for additional updates any time I install some and sure enough there were 11 more optional ones available.  I did not install Skype for Windows Desktop 7.3 since I have Windows 8.1 and I did not install the update for a Ricoh printer as we do not have one.

There was an 80% chance of rain starting at 11 AM but the rain did not wait until then to start.  Around 10:45 AM the skies opened up and the rain came down as if poured from buckets.  By noon it was partly sunny, but steamy.  I checked the national radar on my Wundermap iPad app and it looked like we would have more rain as the day went along.

Linda loaded a few things on the bus before the rain started and then busied herself with food preparation.  Larger RV rallies have multiple activities going on every day and evening and Linda does not have the time to prepare meals from scratch.  Being as we will only be gone for a week she prepared enough food to see us through and will only require reheating in the microwave.  It’s a good approach; we still eat well and she has the time to fully participate in the rally.

In spite of the threat of rain I decided to wash the exterior of the bus.  It was already wet anyway and the conditions were otherwise good with a heavy overcast, no direct sun, and moderate temperatures.  I got the outside water turned on, got out some hoses, and connected the pressure washer.  A bucket of McGuire’s Deep Crystal automotive soap (purple bottle) and the long, adjustable handle brush completed my bus cleaning arsenal.  The water softener only had 137 gallons remaining when I started and I ran it down to zero by the time I had cleaned the bus and the Honda Element, so I do not know exactly how much water I used cleaning the vehicles but I’m guessing it was 150 gallons.  That sounds like a lot of water but it is surprising how much water we go through in a typical day, especially if we are doing laundry or running the dishwasher.

I was finishing up washing the bus around 3:30 PM when Linda let me know that around 3:20 PM Chuck Spera had texted me and left a voice message letting us know that he and Barbara were in our general part of town and asking if they could stop by.  Linda replied to the text message and said “sure” and Chuck replied that they would be here around 4:30 PM.  I started the regeneration cycle on the water softener, got all of my equipment put away, and changed clothes.  I uploaded my blog post for May 28th and was sitting in the living room using my iPad when they arrived.

The reason for their visit was to see what we were up to with the remodeling of the interior of our bus.  I had extended an open invitation to Chuck a week ago and today worked for them.  We showed them the bus and explained what we planned to do.  Linda and Barbara went inside to sit and chat while Chuck and I continued the bus conversation in the bus.

Chuck and I finally came in the house and I showed him the ham shack/office which he somehow missed seeing on previous visits including our open house.  By 6:30 PM we were all hungry and Linda suggested La Marsa in Brighton.  It had started raining again and that, combined with the slightly later dinnertime, resulted in available parking spaces and immediate seating.  After studying the menu we suggested the Koshary and salad.  They accepted the recommendation so we each had lentil soup and split an order of Koshary.  The only difference was that we had ours’ spicy and they had theirs’ regular.  They also liked the garlic spread and warm pocket bread.  We finished the meal with coffee and Barbara sweet talked the manager, Gordon, out of complimentary baklava, this being their first visit to a La Marsa restaurant.

We got home around 9:30 PM.  The water softener finished regenerating around 8 PM so I put the next load of clothes in the washing machine.  Driving on our street we noticed that a branch on the south side about 0.2 miles in from the main road was hanging out farther and lower than usual to the point where we would not be able to navigate past it in the morning without scraping (scratching?) the side of the bus.  I located a small saw and Linda drove me back down there to try to cut it off.  At the point where I could reach the branch it was over 2″ in diameter and my little saw was not up to the task of cutting through it.  I did make enough of a cut, however, that I was able to bend it and get it to crack.  That allowed me to pull it down and tuck it into some other low branches and keep it off the road.  Not the nicest pruning job, but it was raining steadily and it was dark and I was standing in a ditch.

Linda transferred the laundry to the dryer and then started the dishwasher.  We finally got to bed at 11 PM where Linda read while I worked on this post and played a few games on my iPad.  We still have quite a bit to do to get ready to leave but should be able to pull out of here tomorrow around noon.

 

2015/05/07 (R) Meshuggah Nuns

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We spent part of last night researching a new refrigerator for the bus.  Possibilities included models from 13.5 cubic feet to 17 cubic feet from various manufacturers.  We found one that was a close match to the dimensions of our current unit, but we are thinking about downsizing to create space for a slide out pantry.

One huge disappointment is that all of the SunFrost models, including their 16 cubic foot unit, are 34.5″ wide.  Our refrigerator cubby is only 33-3/4″ wide and there is no easy/practical way to modify it to make it wider.  Although very expensive, the SunFrost units are super insulated and use 1/5th the energy of comparable capacity energy efficient refrigerators.  They are also available with 12 VDC or 24 VDC compressors, thus avoiding the inefficiencies associated with using the inverter when boondocking.

I spent some time measuring the floor and wall surfaces in the bus that are currently tiled or carpeted but did not calculate the area.  I need to do a drawing and put together an Excel spreadsheet as the bus has a lot of odd shaped spaces.

We drove to ABC Supply Co. in New Hudson to pick up samples of Certainteed Landmark Pro shingles.  We had narrowed down the possibilities to three choices but needed to see them next to our brick, siding, and trim.

On the way home we stopped at Lynch Carpet in Howell to return the Armstrong tile samples and determine delivery time, which was 2-3 weeks worst case.  We did not get a quote since I did not have the square footage figured out yet, but Clint made a note of the tile and vinyl grout we like.

We left the house around 4:15 PM and drove across M-59 to Rochester.  The Rochester Mills Beer Company restaurant was in downtown, about five miles east of the Oakland University campus and the theatre.  It was after 5:30 PM when we got to the parking lot.  We did not expect Kate before 6:30 PM so we ordered a hummus appetizer plate and two beers.  The hummus platter featured three different flavored hummus that were very good.  Linda had a chocolate coffee tasting dark brew and I had a Framboise.  Framboise is a raspberry beer that originated in Holland and tastes more like raspberries than beer.  Perfect!

Kate left work at 5 PM.  The drive from that part of town to this part of town is one of the worst in the Detroit area, and that is a terrible time of day to do it, but that is what she did because she did not have a choice.  She stopped for flowers and a card but made it to the Rochester Mills Beer Company in time to enjoy a pizza and some beer.  We had a no cheese veggie pizza with a whole wheat crust that was pretty good.  Linda had a different but still dark beer for her second serving while Kate and I both had the Wit’s Belgian style beer with orange and coriander.  Although much more beer-like than the Framboise, it was agreeable.  Except for some “guest beers” everything at the Rochester Mills Beer Company is brewed by them.  It is very local, very fresh, and very good as far as beer goes.  They also feature Michigan wines, which we always appreciate seeing in a Michigan restaurant, but we were not having wine this evening.

We made it to the theatre with only a few minutes to spare.  Kate got the tickets from will call as they were under her cousin’s name.  We had great seats in row D just left of center.  Meadow Book is not a large theatre and sitting this close to the stage made for a very intimate experience.  The playbill was the musical “Meshuggah Nuns.”  We were not familiar with this musical but it was delightful.  The 5-member cast were all professionals, including Cindy Williams (Shirley from the Laverne and Shirley TV show) and Eddie Mekka (Carmine Ragusa from the same TV program).  They all gave excellent performances but Jeanne Tinker, who played Sister Amnesia, was our favorite.  When dressed in a habit one really has to act with their face and hers was very expressive.  She also had the “comic” part in the cast and was very funny.

The show ended at 10 PM after which we visited briefly with Kate’s cousin, Mikeala, who is part of the theatre crew working with costuming.  We chatted with Kate a while longer in the parking lot and did not get home until close to midnight.