Category Archives: BCSC

20240820_Can-you-hear-me-now

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NOTE:  This is a longer post with one (1) photo, with caption, taken by me using a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

 

TUESDAY 20 August 2024 — An audiology appointment (Bruce); An RV inspector; flooring, furniture & railing decisions; another UPS; garage doors; a ZOOM call; and the DNC on PBS

The RV inspector arrived before I left for my 10:30 AM audiology appointment at the UofM Health Brighton Center for Specialty Care.  The audiologist (Sheri) was great, and it was a pleasant/interesting experience.  I’ve had my hearing tested before, but it’s been quite a while, so I no longer recall when or where it was done, or what the results were.  Today’s testing included examining the movement of both eardrums before testing my detection thresholds (faintest sound I could detect at various frequencies).  It also included a test of bone conduction and my ability to correctly identify spoken words from a recorded male voice.  The bone conduction test was interesting to me because Linda had a BAHA (bone anchored hearing apparatus) before she got her Cochlear implant, and I have recently seen ads on Youtube for headsets that rest on the bone in front of the ear rather than in the ear canal.

My hearing in both ears was in the “normal” range up to about  5 or 6 KHz (5,000 to 6,000 cycles per second), and about the same for each ear.  I do not know, however, if “normal” was an age-adjusted metric.  From 6 KHz – 8 KHz, my threshold increased in volume for both ears, with one of them slightly more affected than the other.  A graph of the data was displayed on a monitor in the soundproof booth and Sheri explained what it meant.  The upper end of the frequency scale was 12 KHz, but my hearing was only tested up to about 10 KHz.  I am not a strong candidate for hearing aids (frequency selective amplification devices) at this point, but might benefit from them in certain circumstances, and might need them all the time in the future.

I was aware that “normal” age-related hearing loss affects the highest frequencies first, so the results were not surprising.  When I was a teenager, and probably into my 20’s and 30’s, I was able to hear sounds as high as 20 KHz.  This was important for the full enjoyment of music, which was the major focus of my life from ages 10 to 21.  Music still sounds fine to me (which is not the case for Linda), but that is no longer a major concern.  My hearing is still good in the frequency range for human speech, although the roll-off in higher frequencies would affect my ability to understand females more than males.

Sheri suggested I return in one year and have my hearing tested again.  Not that she expects my hearing to change much in just one year (barring an accident or illness), but today’s measurements will only provide a baseline for future data.  Two measurements will identify if my hearing is changing and. If so, by how much.  When I was doing data analysis work as part of my last employment, conventional wisdom was that it takes a minimum of three data points to establish a trend, and more points are better, so I might go back again in two years, or perhaps skip a couple of years before testing again after next year.  But that will also depend on what the audiologist recommends after each visit.

On the way home, it occurred to me that we might want to go ahead and donate our dining room table and (4) chairs, along with the buffet cabinet, to the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore sooner rather than later.  We have been discussing this for a while and had already started looking at possible replacement furniture, but the new insight was that donating it now would mean we did not have to find someplace in the house to store it while the oak floor was being refinished (in October).  Linda was onboard with the idea, so I called the local HfH office when I got home and left a message.  They called back and indicated they were approximately two weeks out for donation pickups, and that someone would call next week to set up a date.  I was reminded that all items needed to be in the front of a garage or outside; their employees will not come in the house to collect items.

Keith arrived to mow the property while I was at my appointment.  It was a nice day for mowing and, as usual, he did a great job.

Some wonderful fungi growing on the north side of the base of the large oak tree by our first driveway entrance.  I’m not sure exactly what they are, so I do not know if they are technically mushrooms.

The new Tripp-lite UPS & surge protector arrived today, several days after Amazon originally said it would be delivered.  To be fair, they provided updates on the delivery date.  I unboxed it and plugged it in to let the battery fully charge.  It is NOT a LFP unit, using an SLA (sealed lead-acid) battery instead.  The instructions said it could be mounted vertically on a wall, however, which was our use case.  The battery is easy to replace, and are available from EATON, which owns Tripp-lite.

This is a smaller, less powerful, unit than the big ones we have, but will be more than sufficient for running the small network switch that is mounted on the wall by Linda’s desk.  That switch is currently powered by the large Tripp-lite UPS that also powers her laptop computer, calculator, and the small canon ink-jet printer that she keeps on her desk.  The reason for the new UPS is that we are going to temporarily move her desk into our bedroom while the hardwood floor is being refinished, and the large UPS has to move with it.  The small switch will remain by her normal desk location, and needs UPS protection to avoid network interruptions from a loss of utility power.  Indeed, all network-related components in our house are plugged into UPS units, as are all computers, monitors, printers, the Synology NAS unit, and most of the media equipment.  We also have a whole-house generator, but it takes a few seconds to start and come online once it detects a loss of utility power, so the UPS units fill the gap, and provide power for some amount of time in the event the generator fails to start.

I had the garage doors open for much of the day to air out the space and let it cool off.  The high temperature today never reached 70 deg F, and we have a string of 3 to 4 nights coming up with lows in the 40’s.  That’s early fall weather for our part of the country, but we’ll take it.  We will be well up into the 80’s again by the weekend, so summer is not over yet.

When I closed the small garage door it stopped and went back up.  I pushed the button again and it went almost all the way down and then came back up.  I tried a 3rd time to close it and it went most of the way down, stopped, and jammed.  Whaaat?  I examined it and discovered that the vertical track on one side (opposite the motor operator side) had come loose from the wall and twisted.  I also noticed that the lift cable on the end by the motor operator had come out of its pulley wheel and started to wrap around the spring shaft.  Nothing for me to do at that point other than text Dan (Everlast Doors) and let him know.  He texted me back quickly and said he could be here around 7:30 PM.  While I thought it would wait until tomorrow, he was concerned that the garage was not secure as the bottom edge of the door was not touching the floor.

Linda set up a 5:30 PM ZOOM call with Paul & Nancy.  We had a good chat, and it was fun, as usual.  After dinner we watched the PBS coverage of the Democratic National Convention.

Dan showed up when he said he would.  He disconnected the door from the motor operator (there’s a pull cord for this), got the door unjammed,  got the lift cable back on its pulley wheel, and got the door all the way up.  I then moved Linda’s car outside.  He lowered the door onto the floor manually, I set the deadbolt latch manually, and the garage was secure for the night.  He offered to return tomorrow to fix everything correctly, but Thursday was better for us, and turned out to be better for him as well.  Until then, Linda’s car would live outside, which has for most of the time we’ve owned it.

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20240817_Lots-of-balls-in-the-air

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NOTE:  This is a longish post with no photos.

 

SATURDAY 17 August 2024 — BdW guests leave & arrive, overseas travel planning, wood floor refinishing, DR furniture donation (HfH), ACI CPP via HH/BW, e-waste recycling and UofM Health.

Mike & Sheila came to front door to thank us for hosting them and say “farewell until next time” before pulling out.  Not long after they left I got a call from our Ontario, CA friend and fellow bus nut, Bill G.  I had commented to Linda several times over the last week or so that I needed to call Bill (and Marty, and Ed), but he beat me too it.  This happens a lot.  We had a nice/long chat, mostly about house/shop projects and cruising.  He and Karen have been going on at least an annual (January) cruise for years and are much more experienced cruisers than we are.  They have mostly sailed on Royal Caribbean, so they have a lot of loyalty points, but they are doing a Princess Cruise Lines repositioning cruise in the spring of 2026 from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Southampton, England because Royal Caribbean does not offer a similar cruise.  We will have to check the PCL website, but it sounds like the same cruise we are doing in the spring of 2025, with perhaps slightly different ports-of-call on the European continent.

After the phone call, Linda helped me load the electronics we were recycling into the back of the F-150 and drove to the county e-Waste recycling location.  The line was short, and I was in and out in very reasonable amount of time.  On the drive out of the facility, the line of vehicles coming in was backed up all the way to road, a considerable distance.  Timing is everything, and good luck helps a lot.

When I got back home, Linda and I had a long conversation about the floor refinishing project and its implications for the house and our ability to use it while the work was ongoing.  She has wanted to replace the dining room table and buffet/sideboard for a while now.  They are matching pieces to the living room and recreation room furniture that we have already donated to the local Habitat for Humanity (HfH) ReStore.  Most of our bedroom furniture is also from this same Bassett Mission-style product line.  We bought all of it the J.C. Penny store in NOVI, Michigan many, many years ago.  We still like it, but we have gotten our use out of it and are ready to pass it on to some who can use it, and getting something different for our house.

There are quite a few things we have to do before the floor refinishing work commences, and a few things we have to do after it is completed.  It was time to make a list.  The decision to donate the furniture, for instance, was a result of thinking about this task list.  By donating it we won’t have to find a place to store it.  And, we won’t need to replace it until after the floor project is done.  Genius.  This decision, of course, led us into an online search for a new dining table and buffet/sideboard.  More to come on that in future blog posts.

We have been in this house for just over 11 years, and plan to still be here for more years than that.  The recent flurry  of projects is motivated by wanting to refresh and improve things now, so we can enjoy them for many years, but still have the house and appliances in nice condition if/when we decide we want/need to sell.

While we were working on task list, BdW guest RamTam19 (Randy and Tammy B.) showed up.  They were our first visitors this year (April 16), so they just pulled in and parked in our guest RV site.  Normally I have people stop in the street but they new just what to do and just went ahead and did it.  No problem, in this case.  I went out to help get them into final position.  It was starting to rain, so we only chatted briefly and I left them to make camp.  They will be here for 5 nights, so I hope we have some good weather and get a chance to chat.

I got a reply from Kathy G. regarding the ACI/HH CPP system.  She was on vacation, but replied promptly.  While not necessary, it was appreciated.  She indicated that she was meeting with the ACI Executive Director and the HH software team on Wednesday, and would share my e-mail with them.  I replied to her e-mail, and reiterated the details of an unresolved concern regarding the logic of the BdW stay request system.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on blog posts, and e-mail.  I received an e-mail a few days ago about the passing of a long-time member of the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC), Larry G.   Larry (K8UT/SK) was a technical superstar, especially with computer networking, a highly skilled operator, and an important contributor to the Ham radio hobby in SE lower Michigan.  I received an e-mail today with the visitation information (tomorrow) and funeral Mass details (Monday).

Earlier in the day I got a message from UofM Health reminding me to check in for my upcoming audiology appointment on Tuesday.  I don’t think I have any serious hearing issues, but my new primary care physician in the UofM-H geriatric clinic sort of indicated that he would like a baseline measurement.  It’s been a long time since I have had my hearing tested, so this seemed like a good idea, even though insurance won’t cover it.  While logged in to do the check-in, I also checked for any new invoices or outstanding balances.  I did not have any.  Linda does a great job keeping our bills paid, as long as she knows about them.

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20240719-21_3-days_lots-of-stuff

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NOTE:  This is a longer post that contains one (1) photo with caption, taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

 

FRIDAY 19 thru SUNDAY 21 July 2024 — Vision, cruises, SW licenses, yard work, Boondockers, and a Buck Moon

 

Friday 19 … More vision, a cruise dream, and a software license

Yesterday was a hard day so today was an easier day, by comparison.  Linda had a 1 PM follow-up visit with Dr. V, her ophthalmologist at the KEC-BCSC.  She got an excellent report; both of her eyes are healing well.  Dr. V tested her vision and gave her a prescription for bi-focal glass lenses.  Linda can actually see fairly well now without glasses, both for reading and distance.  She is far-sighted in one eye and near-sighted in the other, and Dr. V inserted lenses that work with that difference.  But she still does not see quite well enough for extended work at her desk, staring at her laptop computer and working with our personal financial and travel records, or reams of accounting printouts from the bakery.  And while her distance vision is okay, the glasses will make it better, especially in her near-sighted eye.  This will allow here to see better while in a vehicle, whether driving or as a passenger helping to read road signs.

We got a brochure in the mail today from Oceania Cruise Line (OCL).  Oceania is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCL-H).  Having sailed twice on NCL, they know who we are and they know where we live.  OCL is a luxury cruise line featuring smaller ships than the ones we have been on (so far).  Their cruises are commensurately pricey, so not something we have seriously considered.  But just like the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs at Christmas (when we were kids), we went through the brochure to see what was on offer.  They offer a lot of cruises in the Far East, including Australia and New Zealand, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean.  But the one that caught our eye departed from Buenos Aires (Argentina) and ended in Santiago de Chile (Chile) with a 2-day stop in Antarctica and a trip around Cape Horn through the Drake Passage.  The sailing dates were northern hemisphere winter, so southern hemisphere summer, when the Southern Ocean is not quite as fierce as it is in the southern winter.  And it was on sale for what seemed to be a relatively good price.  Setting foot on Antarctic continent is a true bucket list item for me, but it won’t happen in 2025 (we already have two big trips planned) and probably not in 2026 (when we plan to RV to Alaska).  The 2025 trips are set in stone (as much as any trip can be) but 2026 is still just an unplanned intent.

I have been using the QCAD software package for a few years now.  I made extensive use of it to design the barn, but I use it for other things as well.  The basic version is open source and free to download and use, but the professional version unlocks some important features and provides access to updated versions as they become available.  For $39 a year, having the professional version is a no-brainer for me.  My current license expires this coming Sunday, so I went ahead and renewed it tonight.  I always use PayPal for things like this, and it will be interesting to see how this hits my credit card.  I selected $USD on the website/store but the invoice came up in $EUR.  I don’t know if this was related to the worldwide CloudStrike/Windows outage, but the transaction completed successfully using PayPal.  While processing this transaction, I discovered that my password app on my phone would not allow me to log in with my fingerprint.  Humm; that was strange and annoying as this is how I usually open the app.  I got the password from one of our other devices and logged in that way.  In the app settings on my phone, the ability to biometrically authenticate (face scan or fingerprint) was turned OFF.  I did not turn it off, so it probably got reset as part of an update.  I really hate it when that happens.

Last, but not least, UPS delivered most of the Rockler Rock-Steady work stand components and kits.  I knew these weighed quit a bit as all the pieces are steel and the driver confirmed this immediately upon arrival.  I asked if would deliver them to the barn, and he was more than willing to do so.  I helped him unload everything and get it into the barn.  The delivery included two (2) Corner Stand kits (complete), and the following components for the five (5) 56” x 20” x32” Work Stands:  5 x 4-packs of 56” Stretchers, 5 x 4-packs of 20” Stretchers, 5 x 2-packs of 32” Center Supports, 5 x 4-packs of Stand Connectors, 10 x 2-packs of Drawer/Shelf Brackets, and 1 x 4-packs of 32” legs.  Missing from the delivery were 4 x 4-packs of 32” leg sets for the five (5) 56” x 20” x 32” Work Stands.  We checked the order on Rockler’s website and verified that they were still on backorder.  Also, that we had only been charged for the pieces that actually shipped.

 

Saturday 20 … More yard work

I knew the refill date on my blood pressure medication was coming up soon, so I logged into my online pharmacy to check.  I quickly discovered that they were going to automatically refill it, so nothing for me to do except wait for it to show up.

After coffee and breakfast, we got dressed to work in the yard.  I had previously added enough material to our firepit to justify lighting a fire, and we knew there were enough tree limbs on the ground in the west yard to keep us busy for a few hours.  Linda eventually turned her attention to weeding under the large stand of pine, and fir trees just NW of the house, which included cutting out saplings.  We worked from 10:00 to 13:00 and put our tools away.

A shower and some lunch and we were good as new.  I then settled in to work on blog posts and launder the bed linens while Linda made a new batch of her amazing granola.  Our middle grand-daughter was due back today from a two-week stint at the YMCA camp, but we did not get a chance to Facetime with her.  Dinner was the second go-around of the Mexican corn salad, and it was just as good as the first time.  After dinner we settled in to watch our usual Saturday evening TV programs on our local PBS station.

The “Buck Moon” about 8 hours before it’s precise occurrence.  This photo was taken a 10:20 PM, about 20 minutes after moonrise.  The view is southeast from the end of our first driveway, the only place on our property that afforded an unobstructed view of the orb, and I had to wait for the disk to be above the tree line of the properties southeast of us.  This is a long/night-mode handheld exposure that received more than my usual post-processing.  In particular, I tried to make the details on the surface of the moon at least a little bit visible, while also bringing out some details in the surrounding clouds and the trees along the bottom of the image.

I had noticed for the past week that the moon was near full.  A news headline popped up this morning about tonight being the “BUCK MOON,” the name given to the full moon in July.  Online research indicated that in North America the name is ancient and spiritual, and refers to the time of year that male deer start to grow their antlers.  The actual time of the Buck Moon was tomorrow morning, but we had an excellent view of the moon this evening, low in the southeast sky but above the trees.  The weather was clear and the moon appeared very large and very bright.

 

Sunday 21 … Another BdW guest arrives

The exact time for the “Buck Moon” was 6:17 AM EDT, but we did not see it this morning; I was up, but the weather was cloudy.  We also have trees in our yard, as do adjacent properties to the east and southeast, that obscure the eastern horizon, so we often cannot see a moonrise.

We continued our work on the property again today.  Linda pulled weeds while I cut down one of the four (4) “bushes” that grow in the northeast portion of our yard.  They are not attractive, consisting of a tangled mix of samplings, vines, and wild raspberries with plenty of thorns.  Even mowing the grass near them requires some care.

When we had a sufficient pile of material in the burn bit I started the fire.  I then switched my attention to the stand of large pine trees in the northeast corner of the property.  I removed limbs and branches that were already on the ground, and then cleared a path around the east side of the stand.  I then pruned a few of the lower/dead branches from the trunk of one of the trees.  I hadn’t planned on pruning today, but we needed more/larger wood for the fire, and these were easy to get to and relatively close to the fire pit (compared to material from the western portion of the property.)  We worked for about 3 hours and then called it quits.

BdW members Patrick & Ruth W. notified me around 17:30 that they would arrive at 20:30.  Our preferred arrival window is between 13:00 and 17:00, but later times are okay as long as we know.  Knowing they would not arrive for a while, we opened our BdW Hosting Profile in the HH-BW app and reviewed our information.  We confirmed that our profile does state a preferred arrival window of 1 – 5 PM.  As long as we were logged in, we made some minor edits to our information.  I tend to error on the side of TMI, the error being that the more words you use the less likely most people are to actually read and retain all of them.  Still, there are things guests need to know about our site and expectations.  Linda then prepared a dinner meal of mushroom root steak, corn, baked sweet potato, and a small green salad with plant-based “blue cheese” dressing.  Yum.

After dinner, we watched an episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot on PBS at 19:00 and then the latest episode of Martijn Doolard on Youtube at 19:50, which filled the time until 20:30 rather nicely.  That meant we missed this week’s episode of Professor T (PBS) but we can stream that sometime this coming week.  Our guests arrived on our street right at their ETA and phoned me.  Linda came out with me and after I got them parked we had a brief welcoming chat before leaving them to make camp.  We returned to our Sunday evening PBS TV programs and watched Grantchester at 21:00 and DI Ray at 22:00, both of which appeared to be the concluding episodes for this season.  That might also be true of Professor T, but we won’t know until we watch it.

 

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20240715-21_Vision_&_Hearing

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NOTE:  This shorter post contains one (1) photo with caption, taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

 

MONDAY 15 and TUESDAY 16 July 2024 — Vision and Hearing

 

Monday 15 … Optical

By today, Linda was well on her way to recovery from her cold.  I was also a lot better, but definitely not fully recovered yet.  We had another fairly easy day, but I did test my new tri-focal glasses as well as my previous pair (from at least 8 years ago).  I was only interested in the distance portion of the lenses, as the reading and arm’s length prescriptions in my new glasses were fine.

My test setup consisted of a box of cat litter as a target; a white box with a solid blue panel, with white letters.  The large letters were ~ 3/4” high and the small letters were ~ 1/4” high.  I set the box on our patio table facing east so it was illuminated by the morning sun.  Beyond the box were bushes and trees at various distances, all well-illuminated.  I estimated the farthest trees to be about 130 feet beyond the target.  I secured the free end of my 100-foot tape measure at the front edge of the target and un-reeled it along the deck to the far east end, which turned out to be 70 feet.

The front panel of a box of Dr. Elsey’s Cat Litter served as the target for testing my new tri-focal glasses and comparing them to my old ones.  It was well lit with sunlight, and had both larger and smaller letters with good contrast, so it made a good target.

With Linda’s assistance, we noted how clearly I could see the letters on the target at increasing distances in 5-foot increments, starting at 5 feet from the target.  (Somewhere around 40 feet, we went to 10-foot increments up to 70 feet.)  We also noted how sharp things appeared beyond the target.  We did this first with my un-aided vision.  We then repeated this procedure with my new glasses, and then again with my old glasses.  What we found was that I could see the target fairly well without glasses out to about 45 feet, and that things farther away were less sharp, but not too blurry.  With my new glasses, everything was less sharp at every distance, getting worse with increasing distance.  With my old glasses, however, the target and everything beyond was sharper at every distance compared to my un-aided vision.

I had a return visit at 16:00 with our new optometrist at the Kellogg Eye Center (KEC) at the UofMH-BCSC.  I shared the results of my testing with the technician, and again with the optometrist.  The technician did not really seem interested in my test, re-checked my eyes, and then checked my new tri-focal glasses as well as my previous pair.  She basically told me my new glasses were fine.  Uh, no, they are not.

Fortunately, the optometrist listened carefully, took my concern seriously, and acknowledged what I needed my tri-focal glasses to do.  She re-tested my eyes and came up with a revised prescription.  She even took me to an outside window with a view of several signs in the parking lot at various and considerable distances.  She held up additional corrective lenses until I could see the signs clearly and then finalized a new prescription.  If my replacement lenses achieve the same clarity, I will be very satisfied.

Rain was in the forecast again for today and overnight, which probably meant our lawn care guy (Keith) would not be able to mow tomorrow.  Such are the vagaries of weather-dependent work.

 

Tuesday 16 … More optical, and an online Cochlear meeting

Well, it did indeed rain overnight, a lot.  We had standing water around the property and mowing the grass did not seem prudent.  Keith texted me around 8 AM to see what the situation was and we agreed that he would skip mowing our property this week.  Unfortunately for his, his makeup day is Monday, so if he cannot mow us on Tuesday (our regular day) it has to wait a week, or I have to do it.

Our Boondockers Welcome guests, Dave and Martha T., left around noon.  Their next stop was the Jellystone Family RV Resort in Frankenmuth, Michigan.  We will be there in early Fall.  When they had left, I headed to the SVS Vision Optical Center in Brighton with my new tri-focal glasses and my revised prescription.  The optician was very helpful and it did not take very long to return the glasses and get the new prescription ordered.  There will not be a charge for the replacement lenses as I was well within the 45 “no questions asked” return/adjust period.

Back home, Linda had a 4 PM online meeting with a representative from Cochlear.  There was another woman (client) in the meeting, and I sat in out of curiosity.  The meeting was conducted using Microsoft Teams, but Linda did not have to install anything on her laptop computer.  (I had to use MS Teams back in June 2022 just after we entered Canada.  I was randomly selected for a CoVID-19 test, and the test had to be monitored by someone online.  I used my iPad Pro, and had to install the MS Teams app.)  The reason for the meeting, was that Medicare covers the cost of replacing a Cochlear device every five (5) years and Linda was now eligible for a replacement.

Cochlear is always working to improve their products, and Linda was excited about getting the newest version of the external processor.  Cochlear handles the entire order and delivery process, coordinating with our BCBS Medicare Plus health insurance and with Linda’s audiologist.  The new processor will be shipped directly to our house, and will be pre-programmed with the current settings as last determined by the audiologist.  Linda had already uploaded a lot of information to Cochlear, and the purpose of the meeting was to finalize the details on what she wanted, including a choice of accessories.  Of no small importance, we learned that Linda does NOT have to return her current processor, but will retain it as a backup.

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20240616-31_the_2nd_half_of_May

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NOTE:  This is a long post which includes nine (9) photo(s) with caption(s).  Photos by me (Bruce) taken with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

 

THURSDAY 16 – FRIDAY 31 May 2024 — The 2nd Half of May

 

In addition to normal household and property chores, the second half of May saw more garage cleaning, barn/workshop organizing, and property maintaining.    It also saw a significant medical event (good), anniversaries, social time with neighbors, and an uptick in Boondockers Welcome (BdW) guests.  Highlights for various days follow:

 

Thursday 16 …

Linda sporting her eye guard on her right eye to protect it while it heals following cataract surgery.  The guard frame is flexible rubber and is taped onto her face.  The central shield is a harder plastic and is perforated, allowing for air to get to the eye and for some limited vision.  She was immediately able to see with that eye.  She’s holding an Edible Arrangements fruit bouquet sent by Nancy and Paul.

Linda had her first of two cataract surgeries today with Dr. Verkade at the Kellogg Eye Center (KEC) within the UofM Health (UofMH) Brighton Center for Specialty Care (BCSC).  First up was her right eye.  She has long been near-sighted in this eye and far-sighted in her left eye, so her brain is used to this difference.  In consultation with Dr. V, they agreed that she would get a near-vision replacement lens.  It took several hours between admission and discharge, but only about 10 – 15 minutes of that time was the actual surgery.  Other than some initial time in the waiting room, the rest of the time was taken up by pre-op and post-op procedures and personnel.

The facilities and staff at BCSC-KEI were first-rate, and the entire experience was calm and relatively stress-free.  Dr. V used eye drops rather than injections to do the final preparation for surgery.  Linda reported no pain at any time, and only minor discomfort during the procedure.  She had a perforated eye guard, but reported already being to see.  She was advised to “take it easy” for a week, but her only specific restrictions for the next seven (7) days were:  1) Not bending over, and 2) not lifting anything heavier than a gallon of water (~8.6 lbs.).  Both of those things can increase pressure in the eyes, which the doctor did not want.  She was also told of symptoms that would prompt a phone call to the clinic.  She had to keep the eye guard in place until her follow-up visit tomorrow, and wear it at night for the next week.  Obviously, she did not engage in any property maintenance for a while.  Her final follow-up visit would be approximately 30 days from today, after which she would have the same surgical procedure on her other/left (far-sighted) eye.

 

Friday 17 …

Linda had a (9:15 AM) follow-up visit with her ophthalmologist, Dr. V. at the KEI in the UofMH-BCSC.  Her eye was healing well and her vision tested well-enough for her to be able to read without glasses.  Needless to say, she was excited by this.  While the main reason for the surgery was clearer vision, Linda also hoped that it would result in better vision to the extent that she would not have to wear glasses, something that has been a part of her daily life since she was 7 years old.  Late in the afternoon Boondockers Welcome guest Connie G. arrived for a 4-night stay.

 

Saturday 18 …

Our daughter (Meghan) and her husband (Chris) celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary (2013).  Both of our children (now in their 40’s) made good life-partner matches which is a source of comfort and joy to us.

 

Sunday 19 and Monday 20 …

Nothing of note, apparently.

 

Tuesday 21 …

Today was a double-header:  Linda had brunch mid-morning with Diane and we had dinner with Kate at 6 PM.  We always dine with Kate in the Ypsilanti / Ann Arbor area.  Sometimes we meet her at the venue, but it’s become our standard practice to pick her up and return her home.  Her partner, Brian, sometimes joins us, but not this time.

 

Wednesday 22 …

Today was another property maintenance day for me.  Here are five (5) photos highlighting the work.

I just like this photo of our pink (&white) rhododendrons, framed buy nice conical evergreen tree and a stand of tall grass at the SW corner of the garage.  The grass is blocking a view of our Kohler whole-house generator, and the rhododendrons conceal the exterior compressor/condenser unit for the air-conditioning portion of our library HVAC system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have cut our honeysuckle bush, on the right in front of the window by the chimney, down to a reasonable size.  It was over six (6) feet tall and almost as wide, and completely blocked our view from this window, which is in our living room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The evergreen bushes at the east end of our main deck on the rear of the house eventually grow up above the cap-rail and block our view in the direction.  Every few years I cut them back down to the level of the cap-rail, and this was one of those years.  I also got in behind them and cut them back away from the deck railing, and removed the lowest branches to open up the space below them and make it easy in the future to clean out the bed and the area under the deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another view of the evergreens around the east end of our main house deck.  Also visible is a 4” corrugated drain line.  Not visible is the 10-foot section of 1-1/4” plastic pipe the I attached to the discharge pipe for our sump pump and then slid the corrugated drain line over the end far enough to stay put during a discharge cycle.  For most of the time we have lived in this house, the sump pump discharge has flowed through a 4” corrugated drain line underground down into the valley and along the  (valley floor all the way to the march.  This worked well for many years, but more recently we developed numerous puddles along the valley floor that never dried up, even after a period of no rain.  (The gutters on the house also flow through underground drain lines to and along the valley floor.)  It finally dawned on me that there was probably a problem with the sump drainage, and that re-routing it out into the yard, away from the valley, might result in the valley drying out.  At that is exactly what happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The east end of our main deck, showing the evergreens trimmed down to the cap-rail height.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday 23 …

Linda had her 1-week follow-up phone visit at 4 PM with Dr. V in the KEI at UofMH BCSC.  Her eye continued to heal well and her brain was adjusting to the new lens.

We have a variety of plants, bushes, and trees in front of the east façade of the front of the house.  They were all there when we bought the house, and probably had been for quite a while.  They were planted too close to the wall, and probably too close together, and had now reached a size where it was difficult to clean around their bases and impossible to get behind them.  I worked my way along behind them, removing any dead branches, as well as some live ones, to create better access.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 24 …

BdW guest PhotoGuy1057 arrived for a 5-night stay.  He would be exhibiting/selling photographs at the juried arts fair being held at Kensington Metropark for the next few days.

 

Saturday 25 …

Our daughter and son-in-law recently closed on a house in a lakeside community—about half way between their current house—and ours and invited us over to see it.  She found that it was already wired for a portable emergency/backup generator and wanted me to look at the setup.  Here’s a photo of what is there:

The lake house emergency/backup connection panel.  I had never seen one like this.  I still need to research this in more detail, but I did quickly find references to this exact GenTran manual transfer switch panel in a Google search.

The connection point for the portable generator is lower right in the photo.  It is clearly a 4-pin twist-lock connector, so a 240/120 VAC single phase w/ ground setup (L1-L2-N-Gnd).  As such, it can power both 120VAC loads (L1-N-G and L2-N-) and 240VAC loads (L1-L2-G).  Because a 120VAC circuit requires a neutral (N) wire, it appears that each single switch also requires a neutral wire in order to return power to the generator, whereas a 240VAC load does not (but both hot wires have to routed through the GenTran box).

The labeling of the two power (Watt) meters at the lower left indicates that the three switches on the left (A, B, & C) are on one hot leg (say L1) and the three switches on the right (C, D, & E) are on the other hot leg (say L2).  These six (6) switches are, in fact, individual transfer switches.  With the switches in the DOWN position, as shown, incoming utility power is simply fed through the switch and back to the main panel and then on to the load.  Circuit protection is provided by the circuit breaker in the main panel which feeds the power to the GenTran.  With a switch in the UP position, however, the return wire to the main panel and load is connected to the portable generator.  As the circuit breaker in the main panel is no longer in the circuit, a separate push-to-reset “pop-out” circuit breaker is located above each switch and takes over the circuit protection function.  These circuit breakers are only active when the load is being powered by the portable generator.  (Obviously, sic, the wire and circuit breaker sizes have to be appropriate for the current rating of the load.)  Note also that the two middle switches (C & D) are tied together, so they are always in the same position.  This means they are powering a 240VAC load, probably the well-pump.  (There is a chart showing what each switch/breaker powers, but I did not photograph it.)  Note that the portable generator connector is NEVER connected to the utility power coming into the main panel.

What I found fascinating about this device is that each load has to be individually switched to the generator, which also means it is possible to provide power to any one or more (or all) of them from the generator even with the house still running on utility power.  Not that I think that would ever be a good idea, but the fundamental design of this box makes that possible.  If it was desired to do this, at a minimum the load would have to be OFF before switching it to the generator.

 

Sunday 26 …

We attended the Kensington Metropark art fair today, or perhaps it was tomorrow, but I did not make a note of which day it was.

 

Monday 27 … Memorial Day

We did not do anything special today.  It is not our family tradition to get-together on holidays such as this, or the 4th of July, or Labor Day.  We do gather on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Christmas Eve, but not on New Year’s Eve,  and the only “Hallmark Holidays” we celebrate are Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

 

Tuesday 28 …

I do not have any notes about what we might have done today, but based on this photo, we apparently had some interesting weather.

I like the clouds and the lighting in this photo of the valley in our backyard as seen from our main deck.  Tuesday was also grass-mowing day, so the lawn looked it’s best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 29 …

Without much fanfare, we celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary (1971) with dinner out at Ciao Amici’s in downtown Brighton.  This was our first visit to this local Italian restaurant.  We have generally heard good things about the place.  We knew that it was not particularly vegan-friendly, but decide to go anyway.  Linda selected something that was reasonably vegan-friendly, while I went a bit off-diet (vegetarian instead of vegan), but we both had meals that we rated as very good in a nice setting.  We dated for four (4) years before we got married, and were acquainted for three (3) years before that.  That means we have known each other for about 60 of our slightly more than 70 trips around the sun.

 

Thursday 30 …

Nothing of note today.

 

Friday 31 …

Linda met Diane at 9:30 AM for their weekly walk.  Boondockers Welcome (BdW) guest Wade S. arrived around 1 PM.  As always, I (Bruce) met him in the street and directed him into our guest site.  Linda prepared some food items for a gathering later in the day.  Just before 18:00, we walked down to Gary and Marta’s house for the get-together with our neighborhood friends (Gary & Marta, Mike & Gail, Rose & Jerry).  We always enjoy the company of these people.  We would welcome getting together more often but, even in retirement, we all continue to have busy lives.

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