December 17, 2010
I came to Salt Lake on Thanksgiving and have been staying at my daughters place. I own it, but she rents it from me. Sort of an odd feeling to be a guest in your own house eh? But she and Julio are very gracious hosts and make me feel very welcome.
I thought the projects on the boat were busy. Boy It has been non stop work on the house since I got here. First there was a ton of fresh snow to shovel, several times. After the snow was off I had to un-drill all the screws that I used to put Kenzie’s dance floor down on the deck and pull that all up and get stored
I had not gotten the house winterized before this big storm and cold snap so there was a bit of a mess to deal with. The wicker sun shades on the deck were all collapsed from the storm and had to be pulled down before the beams collapse with them. The rain gutters had not got cleaned so they were full of ice and had to be chipped out piece by piece. Then I had to nail the fascia back on, as it was pulled away by the ice buildup and near to falling down. Of course all being done at the top of the ladder in the snow in the cold. Boy that was fun! I am now researching leaf guard ideas for next season. There is a new type of leaf guard that is a sort of loose foam mesh block (very long and skinny) that you place in the gutter and it lets the water through but keeps the leaves out. I may try that one. Odd that I don’t even have any trees that tall that can clog my gutters, these leaves that cause me so much grief are all from my neighbors trees! Insult to injury they are on my east side so I get no afternoon shade from them! But I take solace that Steve and Vicki have the most shady yard in the neighborhood and I helped!
Then I had to re-plumb the humidifier, as it was leaking into the basement kitchen which in turn caused some of the floor tiles to come loose (spent a day gluing them all back down) which in turn showed the need for a whole new drainage system that I am still working on. I am now installing a condensate pump and running the flow tube over the ceiling to the laundry room to avoid the tube running across the floor and leaking.
Then we had noticed that the gas water heater was on its last legs and barely putting out enough water for about half a shower so we have just replaced that. (At least it was not leaking!) Fortunately it was the same size and type as the old one so it went in easy in 3 hours. Julio was heroic in helping me get it down the stairs in one piece. (Now it is time to pull the old one out! ARGH will this never end?
My son Porter has been finishing his basement and he has a guy working on the sheetrock mudding phase and I am helping sand the joints between coats. It only takes a few hours a day and we have this really cool little sanding block loaned from my friend Geoff that attaches to the shop vac and sucks up the dust as it goes so there is very little mess. Almost done and then paint.
Projects projects! Argh. There have been days when for a nickel I would give the house to some poor soul and head back to the boat!
But it is not all work here. I went to visit my folks in Logan, very nice. I have been skiing up the Mill creek trail a few times with Geoff just like we always have on a Monday evening. (My foot still aches from that sprain last summer so I am still taking it easy/lazy) I soak in the hot tub and have a beer after working on Porters place each day. Nice to sit and watch the birds and the clouds. The kids installed cable TV and after being TV deprived all these months on the boat I am relieved to learn that even with all 493 station, there is still nothing on worth watching. But it took some time to figure that out! I read a lot and have been doing research on ways to get weather forecasts on the boat in remote places without internet or cell phone. Standby for an update on that!
PS I plan to head back to the boat sometime after the holidays.
Posted by kyle williams.
December 7, 2010
I am here in Salt Lake visiting for the holidays, and my dad gave me the following account of his visit to Dana a few weeks ago.He is 85 and I am impressed that he noticed and remembered so many details, including the diagrams of the boat and the harbor, all from memory! I could not do so well!
MY TRIP TO VISIT KYLE ON NO BAD DAYS
By Frayne Williams
I made all of the travel arrangements myself through Nancy Hansen, a lady I home teach, who is a travel agent. A neighbor, Vernon Parent, to... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
November 27, 2010
My daughter and her husband Julio were headed to Sacramento the weekend before thanksgiving for her to compete in an Irish dance competition, so I drove up there on the Friday to meet them. Long drive, about 7 hours, but it was a nice time seeing them again and watching her dance. She danced well against a very big and experienced field, and she was very pleased with her work. A big storm came through and pounded the town with cold rain, flooding the streets. We walked 4 blocks back and for... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
November 18, 2010
I had a wonderful time hosting my dad here on No Bad Days this week. He has been so excited to come visit ever since I embarked on this mad scheme. Quite some time ago he researched the shuttle details from Logan to the Salt Lake airport, and which flight would be best to get here to So Cal to avoid driving in rush hour traffic. He even figured out that the John Wayne OC airport was closest to Dana. Finally after all the trees in his yard were cut down and the crops were in, (ever the farme... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
November 11, 2010
Nov 2: Catalina island at last! (sorry this is so long. I have had no internet for over a week, and a lot has happened!)
The faux electric tiki torches flicker on shore tonight at the boy scout camp at Whites cove on Catalina island. I am anchored off shore in No Bad Days, glad it is Wednesday and not Thursday. Thursdays are the day they bestow the Order of the Arrow award, when an honorable member of the Order, clad in loin cloth (a wash cloth tucked in his swim trunks) and war paint (to... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
November 3, 2010
My friend Anja has left after a few days visit here, she is visiting So Cal from London and is off to visit other friends and places. She is from Germany, lived 20 years in the UK, and is now looking to move to the states. She is a very interesting person and we had a good time talking about everything under the sun. Bummer she seemed to have caught a bug on the 12 hour plane ride here and was not feeling too well but was a real trouper and hung in there cheerfully.
After many months of pu... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
October 28, 2010
Well, this weather has me all befuddled. The big storm never did hit Long Beach, after all those warnings and me chickening out and staying in the marina there another night because of it! I sailed on back to Newport yesterday in easy calm conditions. After a quiet night I was launched today for Dana, with warnings of santa ana winds coming today. These are strong winds coming in off the desert and are stronger inland, but can still hit the water with some force, but I was ready for them. N... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
October 26, 2010
It has been a quiet week, nobody here visiting! So of course I worked on a few projects in between day sailing around dana. It has been very rainy and chilly. I rewired the navigation station with fresh wires big enough to power the instruments properly, and completed pulling out the old fuel tank and exhaust pipes left over from the old inboard engines. There is a ton of more storage space in the cockpit locker and under the cockpit itself now. I am trying to get everything I need to keep ... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
October 22, 2010
It never rains in California, so the song goes. Well, they lied. It has been raining here for the last several days with more to come, at least until the weekend. I have been doing home study on weather and clouds and storm fronts and barometric pressure and I wish I could better understand what is going on! After several months of exactly the same sunny days and West winds, I wish I had an expert to help me calibrate what I have been studying to what is going on around me right now. The ra... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
October 19, 2010
My friend Chriss just jetted off today after a week here. We had a great time this last week in San Diego as classic tourists. Chriss was a great sport hanging out reading her book as I had to handle a recurrence of my engine problem from 2 weeks ago. After replacing that magneto, The engine again started running rough and when I took the cover off I could again see sparks jumping across the spark plug which made the second cylinder go numb. I tried a number of things, replacing the magn... Continue reading...
Posted by kyle williams.
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