What did you do today? - 2022 version

[Music Lover]

We hosted a big party last night, partially to celebrate my 60th birthday last week, and partially just because. Both of my bands played. We fed the bands and our families in the afternoon, then in the evening more people came. Total head count was around 80 people. Potential rain was in the forecast but the weather was perfect. Today it rained and rain is forecast for the next 3 days.

Maybe this could have gone in the BTD thread. Porta potty rental, food, beer, pop, ice, etc. came out to about $500.

 

[Gumby]

Went to church in the morning. Then put in the window air conditioners at home, transplanted my potted zucchini out to our community garden plot, harvested some broccoli and came back home to mow my lawn and my neighbor's lawn. I think my neighbor gets back home from Oregon tonight, so that should be the end of my double mowing duties. He will tend our garden plot for two weeks while we are in Maine.

 

[skyking1]

mostly vegetated and medicated for yesterday's excesses, and then unloaded the glass with my friend's help, and unloaded the trailer.

 

[Surewhitey]

You guys inspired me to patch up the ole garage holes & do a little touch-up... I'll do the bottom board another day...adding the gutter should help from future wear and tear.

 

[braumeister]

Interesting little tech glitch. DW's iPhone quit sending and receiving messages.
When I tried to send her one to test, it showed as going the SMS route instead of the iMessage route, and she didn't receive it. So I asked her to send me one, and I received it but not from her phone number (her default address) but rather from one of her iCloud addresses.

Head scratching time.

Looking at her phone, it was immediately obvious that it was only on our wifi network with no cellular capability. "Oh yeah", she said. "I meant to tell you that I got this strange "Missing SIM Card" notification yesterday."

I removed her SIM card, reinserted it, and everything went back to normal. Turns out that she had dropped it yesterday and that jarred the card enough that it no longer made good contact inside the phone. Reinserting it fixed it.

My phone, which is newer, uses an eSIM instead of a physical card, and I can now see why that's a good thing.

 

[skyking1]

I got out some sapele wood to trim DW's sewing cabinet, and diced it down in the saw and ran it through the planer to ~0.25" thickness. It is already dark enough to trim the wild cherry laminate MDF board without stain. I'm not a fan of staining.

 

[Walt34]

Loaded up the pickup truck with several R/C airplanes and associated gear and went flying. I arrived too late in the day really (11:00) because it was already getting hot and despite drinking several bottles of water I was done in two hours and had to leave, drenched in sweat and glad my truck has a great A/C. Next time I'll get there earlier. The good news is that it is clear that summer is here.

On one flight I put two cameras on the airplane, top facing forward and bottom facing rearward, and am playing around in Adobe Premiere Elements trying to find the best way to show that.

 

[Surewhitey]

I got out some sapele wood to trim DW's sewing cabinet, and diced it down in the saw and ran it through the planer to ~0.25" thickness. It is already dark enough to trim the wild cherry laminate MDF board without stain. I'm not a fan of staining.

Could be why I like walnut so much...

 

[RobbieB]

Went out to the boat and changed the oil and filters on one engine. I guessed low on the oil. Sucked out 4 and a half gallons. Need to buy more oil before I go back tomorrow and do the other one. The oil sucker worked good, just takes longer to drain and you need to suck twice and then pump in twice.

Not like changing oil in the driveway -

 

[caninelover]

Have some errands this morning and then spending the afternoon going through and uploading some GoPro videos from our last vacation.

 

[Gumby]

Well, that was weird. I was just stepping out of the shower about 30 minutes ago when I heard the sirens of two firetrucks and the rescue squad pulling up in front of my house. Then I saw that the car parked across the street was ablaze. The firefighters quickly put it out, no one was injured and there was no damage to anything else, but someone is having the start of a very bad day. I believe it belongs to a home health aid who was attending someone on the street.

 

[skyking1]

Could be why I like walnut so much...

Yes I like walnut too. I like cherry but I leave it natural and I just have to be sure and keep it out of the sun because that stuff sure darkens over time.
I'm pretty much always leaving wood natural and just putting it protective finish on it. The next cabinets are going to be alder I think. It's good to work with and it will provide the light tones in the kitchen. Unlike cherry does not darken down so dramatically.
I'll have a cabinet shop build the doors for me and then I'll do all my own face frames in the traditional style. I'm so glad I discovered kreg jigs.

 

[braumeister]

Two hours in the chair this morning to get a replacement for a deteriorating crown.
Modern dentistry never ceases to amaze me -- having a mouth full of functional teeth at my age would have been an impossible luxury for most of our history.

 

[street]

Redone a double mailbox post which a neighbor and we share together. He came out and sat in the chair and helped what he could. The old post was not stable anymore.

I fixed a high security fence for a lady I do work for in the summer months. I will mow her lawn this afternoon.

 

[Chuckanut]

It's a sunny warm day with Summer around the corner. I broke out my cafè table, chairs and cushions that I use on a small deck.

 

[RobbieB]

Went out to the boat and changed the oil on the starboard engine. Oil filters on the bad side (between the engine and the wall), but actually went easier as I knew what to do. Always harder learning a task than repeating it.

Still have the fuel filters to change and the Racors, will learn how to bleed air from the fuel system.

 

[skyking1]

I built a couple of crane pads to go under a container trailer's jacks at the loading dock.
Last time they had a contain in there it sunk down and the driver could not get under it without some drama.

 

[caninelover]

Not much on the agenda today. Changing some upcoming travel reservations this morning. Will hop on the spin bike when that is done. This afternoon I will still be plowing through hours of GoPro videos to upload from our Alaska cruise last September.

 

[Walt34]

Flushed out the water heater and changed out the anode rod in it. The water heater was installed in October 2019 and the then $1,400 price tag got my attention. So I decided to look more into water heater maintenance and there really isn't much to it but it can make a huge difference in longevity, depending on local water acidity and dissolved minerals and such.

So since then I've been flushing it every three months or so which is simply attaching a 3/4" garden hose to the drain on the bottom and running that into a bucket which in turn is sitting in the basement utility sink. This traps a lot of the solidified calcium so I can get an idea of how many times to flush it, usually between three and five times. At the time of installation the plumber suggested checking the anode rod every two or three years. (At about $100 each time.) When I checked it today it was about 2/3 to 3/4 gone so I put in the new one that I'd bought several years ago for $10 at the time. They're $16 now at Home Depot so I'll get another one soon to be ready for next time. It's a 42" rod but I do have the clearance there to get it in and out. If one doesn't have the needed overhead clearance they make segmented ones that look sort of like sausage links.

 

[Ronstar]

Sitting outside of a cosmetic dr office 2 hrs from home waiting for DW to get out. Went to a couple of woodworking stores on the way here and am taking home a couple of nice pieces of wood. Otherwise the day is a total loss.

 

[RobbieB]

We had an excellent day on the SF Bay cruising by fishing boats and learned anchoring. Was much easier than I was expecting. Probably because I have a 1200 watt winch.

Got out in the bay, a good 15 mph wind driving 1-2 foot waves. Read the bottom depth added the freeboard, and let out 3X chain, about 75 feet. Wind and current set the anchor and we relaxed for a half hour and bobbed with the waves and watched the sea gulls and the pelicans have fun. A couple guys caught some fish.

The easy part was the 1200 watt winch just pulled the boat up to the anchor until we were on top and you could hear the motor speed up and we waited till the anchor surfaced, made sure it was clear of debris, stowed it and motored on back.

Then I put the boat in the slip and we are really good!

The more time I spend on this boat the better I feel -

 

[skyking1]

great stuff Robbie
My friend Sam and I set catch basins and started trenching in an assisted living addition parking garage. It was a good day.

 

[street]

Spent the day again at the ranch. Always something to do or just take a nap at the cabin or just take in the beautiful day.
A few pictures from today at the ranch. A Tom turkey walked in when I was working with the new planted trees. The Golden eaglet is getting big. It was a windy day but decided to pack in and check on the eagle. When it is windy you can't hear the rattlesnakes so extra careful getting upper there. I also picked a lot of asparagus the deer like it to, but they left me plenty.

 

[corn18]

Spent the day again at the ranch. Always something to do or just take a nap at the cabin or just take in the beautiful day.
A few pictures from today at the ranch. A Tom turkey walked in when I was working with the new planted trees. The Golden eaglet is getting big. It was a windy day but decided to pack in and check on the eagle. When it is windy you can't hear the rattlesnakes so extra careful getting upper there. I also picked a lot of asparagus the deer like it to, but they left me plenty.

I want to go there.

 

[Walt34]

Actually it was yesterday, but we spent a relaxing 3-hour tour of the Chesapeake Bay on the sailboat Liberte out of Annapolis, MD for DW's niece's 40th birthday. The weather was perfect - temperatures in the mid 80's to start, light winds, and the wave heights were measured in inches. So no sudden storms and no crashing on deserted islands. We had a great time with family in a very relaxing environment.

I can see the allure of sailing over power boats, the quiet is very nice and relaxing, and I found the noisy approach of the occasional "smudgepots" (I think that's the correct nautical term) annoying.

On thing troubles me though is how is it that DW's niece can be 40? She was the 6-year-old flower girl at our wedding and that would make us married... no, that can't be right, have to try again... no, it can't have been that long....