Bogieblog

First ride for Spring 2019

The shop delivered my bike yesterday afternoon so today I took her out for a shake-down ride. The skies spit on my a little, but no real rain. New gloves that I got over the winter felt good, as did the bike.

Extremely rare selfy. I couldn't even see the phone, so guessed :)

Bike cooling off after ride.

Weird Box

A couple of days ago I removed the bowl of water I keep on the P43 to help release humidity into the dry winter air. In the last week, spring has brought a lot of natural humidity to the air, so additional help isn't needed. I washed the bowl out and then set it on a counter as a visual reminder for me to take it downstairs for storage until next heating season.

Well, the Destructo Duo have taken over it like it was a weird box. First it was Spot (Friday pictures)

Then yesterday it was Rainey

Yes, the kittens moved in and started running the house - they are the first cats I've NOT been insistent that they stay off the counters (unless I am actually preparing food). If they had joined this household the first year or two that I was here, when I did more food preparation, I would have been more insistent. But since food prep has dropped to almost nil, and only takes a minute or two in 99% of situations, I really can't be bothered to care that much.

Rita has never shown an inclination to jump on the counter, so obviously her previous owners trained her better :)

Happy Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday to Cop Car! Hope you have a great day and get to do whatever you darn well please.

Hawkish

I almost ran over a hawk on the way home from the grocery store this afternoon. He/she was sitting in the middle of my lane and not moving. I stopped and put my flashers on, motioning the traffic behind me to go around. I finally got out of the truck and got within a couple of feet before he moved and painfully made his way into a tree. The wings looked okay, I thought maybe a leg was injured and he had a bunch of loose feathers hanging along his belly. I went home and put away the cold stuff and went to see if he was still there or just stunned (it was literally around the corner from my house so I walked).

 

Yep, so called the local PD, who transferred me to fish & game. I no more than got off the phone with their dispatch and the hawk drifted off the tree and landed at the edge of a side road with a thump.

I sat on the other side of the (thankfully quiet) street and watched the hawk sitting there on the ground for over an hour. He then got up and flew away, barely skimming over the top of a house. Called F&G and told them to cancel the officer. We have few wardens and I'm sure whomever was on duty was on a more important mission than checking on an injured bird. Hopefully it lives to hunt mice, chipies and other rodents another day

Repotting

Yesterday I repotted an Angel Wing Begonia that has been in the bedroom bay window for about a year. Its old pot was 7" tall by 8 inch diameter and I could tell it was very root bound since I had to water it every couple of days (even with all the clouds and cool temps we've had). I've been cleaning out the garage and I found a glazed pot that is 10" tall x 14" diameter. I think it will be much happier.

Course it was hard to tell it was unhappy since it is blooming :)

Cute Kitty & Bird Photos

It was National Pet Day some time last week, so here are some photos.

Rainey Chilling on 4/10/19

Next pics were taken 4/12

Birdie

Ziva

Yesterdeay was in the 70's so I had some windows and doors open. While I was out on the back porch repotting a house plant, Rita was meowing thru the storm door, so I let her out for a bit. First time this season.

Today it is back in the 40's and more rain (at least it isn't snow / sleet that we had 3 days last week), so it will be a while before Rita gets to go outside again..

FHW Problems that One Doesn't Think Of During Demolition

I have started getting some stuff done in the house that is way overdue. Seriously, this is something that has waited since fall of 2014 and I just got around to it. Well, truthfully, I just found a satisfying solution to the issue a couple of months ago.

See, when I deconstructed all the exterior walls, I had to remove all the hardware for the FHW fins (backplates, supports, front faces and dust covers. That was fine, they are made of a metal alloy and were all rusty so I sanded them down and painted them. Then stuck them in the basement until I finished mudding and painting the new sheet rock. When I went to install the backplates, an issue made itself apparent.

The sheet rock that I had removed was 1/4". I had 1/2" installed. That caused a problem with fitment - heck, just trying to get the backplates, uh, in back, was a major deal, but I finally got it done. However, the supports no longer had room to get hooked up to the backplates (I  had a heck of a time getting them out of the original configuration in the first place). So, I couldn't hang the front faces or install dust covers. For years I have ignored the fact that I just have copper pipes and fins running along the base of most of the exterior walls that look like cr*p.

Then, one day as I was wandering around a BBS, I saw the answer; plastic slip on covers with legs for the side covers!!!

I bought one 4' section, and the matching left/right side legs to try out in the bathroom and the assembly slipped over the backplate like a charm (picture from 3/2/19)

Now these are expensive so I decided to wait until I got a 10% off coupon before buying more (the BBS sends me coupons after I've used its card). Upon getting the coupon, I proceeded to buy enough to do the bedroom, craftroom and office. And that is where I ran into a snag, the backplates for those rooms were a full 2" taller than the bathroom backplate so the slip ons and legs were just hanging in midair.

Cutting the backplates was not an option as they are made from a thick metal that tin snips barely dent. Plus, trhying to cut 8' of backplate would be difficult at best, so I was stymied for a bit as I looked around for an answer. For the shorter rooms, the office and bedroom, I was able to come up with using corner brackets to hold the covers in place. This was not satisfying as there was no backplate at all. Plus, trying to align them so that the 4' & 6' sections matched height was difficult. But still, it works as long as they aren't bumped (pictures taken 3/31/19)

The longer bedroom heater had to wait until I found another answer. Cleaning out the garage yesterday helped. Actually, I was just moving the rest of the pellets into the basement and had to move a box I have moved many times when adding/subtracting pellets from the garage. The box is 10' long and contains a couple of pieces left over from when I had the roof done. This time, I figured I would just take the metal to the dump so I opened the box, took a look and said, "self, hmm, this looks like it could work." There were several short sections of drip edge sitting there, plus one that is about 6' long. I took a short section, fitted it up, and sure enough my hoarding had once again provided a solution :)

Although not quite tall enough, the drip edge still provides a nice backplate that can be screwed to the wall. It even has a little shelf that my level can just perch on, but it is still small enough to fit under the cover.  The back lip of the slip on cover slides just behind the top edge for a nice snug fit and there are no worries about bumping it. So, as of today the craft room is sporting its new heater cover.

I'm going to be watching CL for standing seam roof leftovers so I can do the living room too (which is still looking as the top pictures show). I may have to put an "in search of (ISO)" ad, but eventually I will find some more drip edge. Hopefully I can find enough to improve the office and bedroom installs too. Meantime, I just got another 10% off coupon from the BBS, so soon I will be buying the parts needed for the living room.

Of Trucks and Cars

Unbelievably I have already put over 11,000 miles on the Explorer - and I have not yet owned it a year. I bought it with around 99k on it and it is up to 111,048. I remember that number because I had an appointment to have it inspected and the summer tires put on it . The tires got changed, but it needs the rear control arm and bushings replaced so I will take it in two weeks from now for that work (It is a time consuming job so it needs to be scheduled in advance).

The car is just about ready to start pulling the heavy load mileage wise. I bought it just before Christmas, on 2/6/19 it had 1,121 miles on it, and yesterday when I got home it had 3,434 miles. The picture below shows some of the cool things that make my heart got pitty-pat :)

• See at the bottom right, underneath the visual for the car, that green "A" with the arrow going around it? That means that the engine has turned itself off because it is at a stop and saving gas.
• The visual of the car shows me what lights are active - in this case, just the marker lights in the front (which is cool because I like to drive with my car lights on, for visibility, even during the daytime). The marker lights automatically come on if the headlights aren't activated, so I don't have to do anything. The picture changes when it gets dark enough to activate the headlamps and rear lights.
• It is also showing that at that point I was getting 38.2 mpg - and that is a calculation after doing nearly 309 miles since the last gas stop. When I stopped for gas this afternoon, it had 361 miles and I put 9.45 gallons in it - which calculates out to 38.2 mpg. So, the car is pretty accurate when it computes mileage (my truck is not quite so accurate - varying by about 1 mpg either way).

I know, I'm a simple person that delights in simple stuff :) But I do love this car so am happy I am getting to drive it more and more as the winter season is coming to a close.