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October 20, 2017
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Last weekend we had Leslie, Jason and Paige (and Chipper-dog) give us a visit. Paige was supposed to have gone to San Francisco to play a soccer game but it was cancelled. There was too much smoke from the fires in Napa Valley for them to play. So, they found themselves with a rare weekend with nothing planned, so they came to see us. Anyway, it was fun to have them down. On Saturday, they took the boat out to go crabbing and came back with five crabs! And they did that with only three crab rings. Dave bought a fourth one, but didn't have it rigged with one of our special day-glo orange buoys yet. So, not only did they bring back more crab than any of the rest of us have this year, they did it with one less ring! Jason and Paige also helped Dave get the boat out of the water for the season. It's a bit more than Dave can do by himself, so the help was welcome! Jason and Dave also spent time getting the new crab hoist ready to mount on the boat. The kids all went together and got it for his birthday and we have been waiting for the boat to be out of the water so we could get it mounted. They made good progress on it, but didn't quite get the job done before Leslie and Jason had to leave to go home. It will be nice when it is in place. When we went crabbing last month, I had to pull the crab rings manually (Dave was running the boat) and it took all my strength just to get the pot full of crabs to the surface. All we're going to have to do with this thing is put the rope in the pulley and hoist the crabs out onto the deck. Sure sounds easier!
The reason for the brightly colored buoys? We have lost three crab rings because people have run over the rope and severed it with the propeller. We did have white floats and they could hardly been seen, so Dave painted them with the brightest color he could find - day-glo orange. He also bought some extra Styrofoam floats that he will also paint in a wild color. He will attach those to the end of the line so that we will have two buoys in "can't miss it" colors. Now, let's see if anyone runs over the crab ring line!
When the Kahrs' offered to let us moor the boat at their dock, we took them up on it. We thought it would only be for a short time, but it turned out to me quite a bit longer than that. When we got the boat out of the water, it was immediately evident that we were going to have to do a major cleaning job on it. We had left the boat in the water for a couple of months and since the hull doesn't have any anti-fouling paint on it, it doesn't take long for the barnacles to accumulate. Well, it was covered with barnacles and had a long "hula skirt" of grassy "fringe" hanging off the hull. Since it was nice on Sunday afternoon, we borrowed a pressure washer and set out to blast the barnacles off the bottom of the boat. Those guys are tough and it was almost more than that machine could handle. But Dave and I took turns and eventually got most of them off of the hull. There's one spot way under the hull at the stern that we can't reach but we're hoping the barnacles will fall off while it's in storage during the winter (I know, I know...wishful thinking). So anyway, we now have a nice coating of barnacles mixed in with the gravel in the driveway, but the boat looks good!.
Sunday evening we had plans to get together with two other couples for an "appetizer" affair. I made some crab puffs and took various varieties of cheeses and some nice plump green grapes. Everyone brought their favorites and we were snacking all evening long! We had plenty of food and drink and also went out on their deck to enjoy what will probably be the last beautiful sunset of the year. The six of us try to get together for dinner or some other social occasion at least once a month, but summer got in the way and we hadn't done anything for quite a while. Four of us do water aerobics together, so it's not like we don't see each other.
Although it has been raining, I have managed to get some things done outside. We were expecting a really big wind storm so we cleaned some space and then got all the trailers, the boat and the tractor in the church for the winter. The weather people were right and we did have quite a storm with a couple of inches of rain and wind gusts up to 30-35 miles an hour. I had spent some time on Monday cleaning all the debris from previous storms off the deck. It looks like it was a waste of time.
We have been busy with the start of our bathroom remodel. Our friend Ray, who is also our contractor on this project, got the new window installed and now he is busy building shelves and drawers for the small closet in there. Dave has been helping with the replacement of the toilet paper / magazine rack that was located under the window. He's moving it to the other side of the toilet but the wall there has to be completely re-framed in order to accommodate it, so that's taking a lot of his time. I think he just about has it done now. I want to put a towel rack under the window. I picked out the paint - which will be a deep yellow - and ordered the vinyl flooring too. No hurry on that, however because the first opportunity the flooring contractor has to install it is around Christmas! We are waiting for some more tiles to come (some of them were defective and had to be exchanged). After Ray has the "closet' finished, he will start on the ceiling. It is covered in wall paper and that would be very difficult to try to strip off. So, he will cover the wall ceiling with another layer of sheetrock. Then, tiling the shower will be the last thing done. I will do all the staining of the wood on the new shelves and drawers and also the painting of the walls. At least it will keep me busy doing indoor things.
We are planning on going into town this weekend. Our oldest daughter, Lara has a birthday today (I won't mention any age) but I can't believe how time has gone by and can still remember her growing up. She is such a dear and we think (along with a lot of other people) that she turned out pretty good.
Birthday celebrations won't be our only thing to do while we are in town - we plan on attending two soccer matches, Paige has one at 9:00 a.m. and Jordyn has one at 2:00 p.m. So we will be standing out in the rain, cheering them on!
So, what else is happening this next week?
Dave's theater group moves to rehearsals four days a week. Open night is in two weeks, and Dave says they have a long way to go before then. Somehow though, they always manage to pull it out at the last minute, so I'm not too worried. I know he's ready.
I continue with my physical therapy treatments. I actually had one relatively pain-free day because of what they did - but it only lasted that one day. Hopefully, they can build on that and maybe next week I can have two comfortable days!
Ray will be here all week working on the bathroom remodel.
Luis finished the siding on the church but still has some jobs that he said he'll finish for us. We hear that he plans to be here on Tuesday. I hope so. It would be nice to get those things complete.
Nothing else out of the ordinary. Have a great week.
