What did you do today? - 2020 version

[1242Vintage]

Met up with the kids near Mammoth Mtn CA. Went on a nice 5 mile hike with them to Rainbow Falls and Devils Post Pile.

Kids are doing an epic three week backpacking trip on the John Muir Trail and this is a mid-trek resupply. Sending them off tomorrow with full stomachs and supplies to hike into Yosemite Valley.

Oh and for the first time and in honor of my son who is moving to Madison Wisconsin, making “Hot Dish” to go along with the tri Tip, salad and French bread on the menu.

Wish me luck. Us west coast people don’t know anything about hot dish casserole so am hoping it comes out good.

 

[Gumby]

We once had our back yard plagued by moles, but we had a wonderful cat. The cat would stand on the lawn staring at a nondescript spot in the grass, and I would go out with a pitchfork. When the cat twitched its whiskers, I plunged the pitchfork into the ground. After half a dozen encounters like that, we had no more moles. Time consuming, but very, very effective.

Our first cat was the angel of death for the local rodent population. He had been sleeping rough for several years before he moved in with us and he was particularly good at hunting his own food. Every single day, he would come back to the patio with a chipmunk, ground squirrel, mouse, mole, etc in his mouth. He would show it to us so that we would praise him for being such a fearsome hunter. Then he would proceed to eat the entire thing - fur, bones and all, except a small packet of viscera. Heaven help the person who tried to take his catch away from him. The one and only time I ever saw him back down was with a marmot who was as big as he was. They both just laid on the grass facing each other.

 

[O2Bfree]

I trimmed back the ceanothus since it's not blooming right now. Noticed that spotted spurge is appearing in the back yard. Debating on whether to hit it with chemicals or try solarization. Or perhaps both.

Went to the local Asian store and picked up ingredients for tosa dipping sauce, then changed the oil in my Subaru. Time for a cold one!

 

[Walt34]

Also yesterday I had an AM appointment with the dermatologist, follow-up for the melanoma stuff. He froze off three different spots on my face/neck, and driving home I was thinking about what a difference having health insurance makes. I never gave a thought to what the cost of that procedure might be because between Medicare and the insurance I won't see a bill. And what the Dr. did yesterday may well have prevented a cancer that would have killed me. In and out of the office in 20-30 minutes.

I think we can declare success with the voles. Filled in the holes this morning and they remain undisturbed. RIP.

A few days ago idly perusing videos on youtube I watched a review of the small Honda tiller that I have although mine is an earlier model. The guy mentioned greasing the gear case and I was thinking "gear case?" "Greasing?" "I'm suppose to grease it?" Yup, turns out it was there in the manual all along, grease it every 25 hours.

Well, that tiller might actually have 25 hours on it by now even though it's probably 25 years old. You can tell it doesn't get a lot of use. So I ordered the little rubber-tip grease gun fitting and finally greased the gear case today. It sure did take a lot of grease. Everything came apart relatively easily thanks to my habit of using either grease or 90-weight gear oil on the shafts to keep them from rusting. They're hardened steel and I knew that if I didn't I'd sure be sorry.

 

[Gumby]

We went out to our garden plot today to discover that someone had come in late yesterday evening or early this morning and helped themselves to some of our tomatoes. I don't mind the tomatoes, because we have many plants and we're happy to share. I do mind that they stepped in my freshly planted bed of fall peas to get to the tomatoes. There is a path on the other side of the plants that they easily could have used instead.

 

[Souschef]

As a gift, one of our sons gave us a signpost with the names of the 4 sons and their spouses and the distance each was from us.
They are always hard pressed to come up with Christmas gifts for us, so this was great.
Well, one of our sons just moved 500 miles away, so I ordered a new sign with their names and the new distance.
Needless to say, the new mounting holes did not match I thought the pipe they were mounted to was copper, but it was copper plated steel. Needless to say, it took a while to get the new holes drilled.

 

[Ronstar]

Xfinity tv/internet/phone went out around 7 this morning. Big storm in the Midwest caused a lot of downed trees a couple of days ago and utilities have been on and off since. Problem is that today is my credit card payment day. Couldn’t pay by computer and I don’t have cell coverage at home to use the cc phone app.

So I went to have blood work done. Then came home to the same internet outage. Drove into town to get cell coverage, called the cc company and made the payment over the phone. What a fiasco. Then took a nap.

 

[1242Vintage]

It was a busy day, and in true retirement style started out with sleeping in.

Got out for a two hour bicycle ride/workout in the heat, cleaned up and put away camping gear from this weeks trip, mowed, and wrenched on the Subaru to fix the broken air conditioning.

One other item. Although I am retired was on the phone for an hour with a manager from my former workplace on a financing strategy to move a very high profile and politically sensitive project forward. Likely a few days of consulting (AKA vacation and new bicycle money) will come my way as a result of today’s gratis consultation.

 

[Gumby]

Picked and canned 8 lbs of tomatoes (3 pints, plus a little left over for a snack).

 

[Bamaman]

Been riding around in our 24' boat and Waverunner with a 12 year old grandson driving.

I looked down today, and we were running 55 mph on the Waverunner.

He's growing up like me--a lake kid.

 

[atmsmshr]

TODAY I DEFENDED THE QUEEN OF THE REALM – when DW asked me to slay the wee beastie of a spider lodging in a corner of our 10 ft ceiling bathroom. The quest gave me purpose, fulfillment, and the unconditional love of my wife after seeing a swift response. It also prompted me to dust the high places in the bath. (To be honest, this will probably be the highlight of my day.)

 

[Nemo2]

TODAY I DEFENDED THE QUEEN OF THE REALM – when DW asked me to slay the wee beastie of a spider lodging in a corner of our 10 ft ceiling bathroom. The quest gave me purpose, fulfillment, and the unconditional love of my wife after seeing a swift response. It also prompted me to dust the high places in the bath. (To be honest, this will probably be the highlight of my day.)

Reminded me of this:

 

[atmsmshr]

Thanks Nemo - had not seen that before.

Best line: "Don't worry, I have been killing spiders since I was 30."

 

[Nemo2]

Best line: "Don't worry, I have been killing spiders since I was 30."

That was always one of my favorite lines!

(Another one...she parks the car, and he says "That's okay, we can walk to the curb from here".)

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/f6238bcd-2c7b-4ee6-acbe-04f80329697d

 

[NW-Bound]

FedEx delivered another 7 kWh of lithium battery today. Once I install that, will have a total of 36 kWh of energy storage for my solar system. It's not likely that I will be able to have enough solar generation to fill that up, but excess storage capacity will reduce the charge/discharge cycle depth, and make the battery last longer.

The temperature hit 119F (38C) today. Still short of the all-time record high of 122F (40C), but is the hottest day so far this summer. The DIY solar system still keeps the AC going until 8PM last night.

If there's a power outage here, my neighbors will either bail out of town or die of heat stroke. I will still be OK. And that gives me a good warm fuzzy feeling. Oops, shouldn't say "warm" this time of year.

 

[Gumby]

Today, I used 2 lbs. of my Principe Borghese tomatoes to make tomato jam and then canned it. It was my first attempt at tomato jam making, and I was very pleased with the result. It makes a killer appetizer with the jam and some goat cheese on a slice of baguette.

 

[JP.mpls]

My good friend Daryl came over today to help me with my engine repair on my old truck.
I'm a do it yourself, self taught mechanic.
He restores cars, and runs and maintains a drag racing car. (He knows what he is doing, and I'm kind of winging it.)
We got a lot of work done. We installed rebuilt heads, the intake manifold, and the distributor. All the more technical parts of the repair.
We also had some great takeout BBQ, and a few beers out on the patio as part of our day.
A very satisfying fun day for me, and I'm much closer to having my old truck running again.
JP

 

[MichaelB]

Today, I used 2 lbs. of my Principe Borghese tomatoes to make tomato jam and then canned it. It was my first attempt at tomato jam making, and I was very pleased with the result. It makes a killer appetizer with the jam and some goat cheese on a slice of baguette.

That sounds really good.

 

[MichaelB]

Yesterday I update iOS on my iPad. I never do that without first researching the upgrade, but I was distracted and went ahead. Apparently this was a major upgrade and it changed many of my settings. One of the things that most irritates me is when a SW provider does this and is one of the reasons I had been leaning toward Apple and away from MS. At least ‘til now.

One positive aspect is this gives me a good preview of what I will face when I get a new iPad.

 

[steelyman]

Re: Apple upgrades: a recent iOS update (13.6?) has caused Home Sharing to stop working from my iMac to iOS devices. It starts spinning up then dies. Unresolved and my fallback is to use Bose’s software to speakers or Amazon Music to iPhone/iPod to buds. Annoying!

 

[1242Vintage]

Slept in and got a late start on my daily workout on my bicycle. Took plenty of water but I underestimated the heat. Was 90 at the house but got down into the nearby rock-lined canyon and the mid-day sun was overhead and blazing. My Garmin bike computer recorded a high of 117 degrees. Was a slow hot grind back up the asphalt road.

Rest of the day spent inside the air conditioned house.

Headed out to a local brewery for a beer and a snack from a food truck in a little while.

 

[Walt34]

Not much of anything. I was going to do some more dethatching in the yard but yesterday I overdid the bending/stretching and my lower back is killing me. Besides, it's raining so today was a "lie around, read, post online" type of day.

I hate this getting old crap. It's really starting to interfere with my desired lifestyle.

 

[O2Bfree]

Washed a few windows, then went for a bike ride in the pleasant 75 degree afternoon. Tomorrow is supposed to be a scorcher in the 90s, a statement that probably makes some of you out there laugh. Got some things together for kayaking, picnicing, and swimming tomorrow. Hoping that the parking lot near where we want to launch is open.

 

[MBAustin]

Put together a small care package for DS (puzzle pages from the WSJ, some extra spice mixes I got as free samples from Penzeys, and a letter that came here for him). Used "click-n-ship" from USPS.com for the first time. Only options are Priority, but that was only $3 more than first class would have been and it saved me a trip to the PO where the lines have been long and the self-service machines unreliable.

Called Dometic about the long-overdue replacement awning for our RV. It was ordered June 22, was supposed to have been shipped July 8, and last week when the repair shop called they said "maybe 2-3 weeks". I waited on hold 1.5 hours (!) and then the agent put me back on hold for 15 minutes twice to check on things. Bottom line - no idea when we'll get it because they are having trouble getting parts from China due to COVID. Ugh.

Caught up on some NYT articles I'd bookmarked. Now will work on the pile of paper WSJ that I'm behind on. Meetings (ZOOM) for two of my volunteer gigs later. This is getting old.

 

[MRG]

DW had PT for her knee this morning, I watered grass and a couple garden areas. Washed the Y before she got home.

We received a rebate from my ACA policy of almost 4 months premiums and went to the drive-thru and qdeposited it. On the way DW insisted we get a flu shot, we hit Walmart and it was less than 10 minutes to get done.

We were going to walk before it got hot, looks like we missed it. Walked in 86° yuck. The haze from forest fires is pretty bad today. Guess we're going to turn on the AC to stop breathing haze.

Making a pork tenderloin in the sous vide now, have no idea what it's going with but there's plenty of food.