Today I joined the CFL league!

Those of you from my generation are picturing me playing football in Canada.

As humorous a mental picture as that might generate, I spent the morning installing some Compact Flourescent Light bulbs (+ accessories).

It started so simply. We have a torchiere lamp in our living room which provides all the man made light. It takes a 3 way (100,200,300 watt) mogul base bulb. These are getting expensive, and this one did not last very long. Typically one filament burns out and we are stuck with either 100 or 200 watts. Sometimes the one that fails, takes out the other, leaving us in the dark. When this happens it also often trips the breaker, meaning a trip outside and the resetting of the clock on our DVD/VCR player. This is no small task.

Off to the hardware store. Option 1 is another mogul base 3 way bulb.

2- a 100 watt (26watt) CFL which would need an adaptor. The price adds up to about the same, but the adaptor is "forever" and the bulb should last several lifetimes, but only 1 light level.

3- a 150 watt (46 watt) CFL and adaptor. Bulb quite a bit more expensive.

Yesterday bought the "100" watt as a trial. Better half was not satisfied with the amount of light. So today went back to buy the bigger bulb. It was gone.

Off to another store, they didn't have the large bulb either, but they DID have a "dimable" 100 w CFL at a comparatively reasonable price. This might go well on our bedroom ceiling. So I bought that and went off to another hardware store to buy the 150 watt CFL.

Came home, removed the small CFL from the lamp, screwed in the big bulb, no work! Reinstalled small bulb, it works. After a lot of putzing around, the base of the large bulb does not allow it to make contact with the adaptor....hmmm

Onto the bedroom. Dimmable bulb installed. Already have a dimmer switch, but it only goes from off to on, nothing in between with the CFL. When all else fails read the package. "May not work with all dimmer switches". Off to the hardware store... "THE" dimmer switch that "works" with CFL is $24, but WTH. Come home, actually read instructions, note that there is an internal switch to flip for CFL use. Install after putzing around (actually turned off circuit for part of the procedure!)

The dimming is minimal :(  But at least the light works.

Investigated options for living room lamp. Looks like maybe I should replace the lamp base (if I can) They make a 3 way small base CFL  which has 125 w as a max. Meanwhile, took a mogul base 3 way bulb from our back room and put it in the living room lamp.

What to do with the large 150w CFL? Well there are some clampable lamps in the garage that could take it. But one of those has a broken switch/base, so back to the hardware store for a replacement.

I'm done for today, but the story will be continued when the mogul base bulb blows.

I would like to think there might be a resemblance to my great great great grandfather Thomas Wilkinson, a slave owning :( Quaker from North Carolina 1805-1871.

But there are no pictures to know for sure

Beach bounty NYE 2013

Happy whatever it is you're celebrating.
No whining!
We all have it a LOT better than a lot of other people.
Enjoy this time, this moment is all you're guaranteed.
Recall the best, forget the rest.
I can still deliver a lump (of coal) when necessary.
Don't make me come over there.
-Sanity Clause-

For my seemingly missing knitting readers

Check this out.

It's been awhile since I've posted anything... This morning the odometer on my '06 Prius looked like this

And for a laugh and a reminder to drink decaf there's this...

For my hopefully forgiving horse enthusiasts

Home at last!

Tonight will be our first night in our house since the redo began. A few things left to be done, but it's livable. Art to be rehung, new window "treatments", and a lot of stuff to put away.

Before

The TV cabinet came back from storage with a damaged panel, bottom left door, so the door is at the wood doctor getting fixed

 After

1 room down, 3.5 to go

The bathroom remodel has been substantially finished for some time, just awaiting an over the toilet cabinet. After some hassle, we had one made, patterned after a no longer available model from Lowes. At least this is real wood/plywood, but at substantially higher cost, but made locally.

New floor, paint, granite counter top, painted the oak vanity, added a beadboard wainscotting.

Next we move out for about a month while the wallpaper in the living room, hall, dining room and kitchen is removed, then the walls painted. After that, the oak floors get redone. A moving and storage Co will be here at the end of the month to put most of the stuff from these rooms in storage for the duration.

Who's that knocking on my....skylight?

So last night, left alone with the cats, the buzzer on the dryer indicates it is done. Shortly after that I hear a frantic scratching. I dash to the dryer and fortunately find nothing out of place, and the scratching has stopped. I looked around the house, nothing. Then I hear it again. Eventually I find this.

We're in the middle of updating our bathroom. Step 1 is removing the wallpaper. Step 2, after looking for interesting patterns in the glue, is it's removal.

Step 2.5, it turns out, is repairing the damage from removing the wallpaper.

My coronation-next a delicate extrication

   After numerous delays & miscommunications ad nauseum, my crown was installed this morning. All that's left is to visit my future dentists office and make an appointment,and fill out forms, including a release to get my records transferred from now former dentist to new guy.

  (Change of subject)  At the memorial yesterday I learned that the deceased had worked with horses on a ranch as a young man. I commented to several people that this explained his ability to spot and call out a horses' ass when he met one.

   Everyone have a nice weekend.

Dental saga drags on

   I had my "final" appt Wednesday (23rd) for my coronation (Installation of my crown). I arrived a bit early and the front desk person looked surprised to see me. "Oh I called and left a message that the doctor woke up this morning with a fever, so he didn't come in"
   I had looked at the message machine before I left home and there was no message, but maybe I just missed it. So we rescheduled for Friday. I got home, no message.
   Thursday I was out videoing a train and I got a call from my lovely bride who relayed a message from the dentist office, the crown actually had not come in yet and wouldn't be there until the 30th. This meant I had to cancel an appt for the 31st for a final check with the truly wonderful periodontist who just wants to check the final outcome.
   The good news I suppose is that the temporary put in 2 weeks ago (#4) when they did the impression, is still in one piece in my mouth.
   And if you're wondering, yes, I am SO changing dentists after this.
 
   On an unrelated note. Thursday morning on my walk I found an open pocketbook on the street during my morning walk. It had a checkbook in it, and it was slightly singed as though someone had tried to burn it. I got an address, which was about 6 houses away, off the checks, so I dropped it off. I then found a wad of paper, recpts, business cards etc in a pile next door, so I added that to the pile. I knocked, but no one answered and it WAS early, so I went home typed up a note explaining things with my phone # and dropped it off. Later I got a VERY appreciative message from the owner.

   And to put it all in perspective, a former co worker, who had just recently gone into hospice, died, so I have a funeral to go to next week. He was a bit of a curmudgeon type. You knew he liked you if he didn't tell you how much he disliked you. He also coordinated our monthly FOG breakfast for retirees. What others call ROMEO's. (F...g Old Guys=Retired Old Men Eating Out)

How I spent my weekend (not on a bike)

We become patrons of the arts

We are fortunate to have a talented neighbor out at the coast. The larger of the two paintings is our most recent purchase. I advised him that if we bought a few more, we might have to kill him to increase the value of our estate.

Cholesterol Festival!

Or as we call it here abouts, the annual Butter and Eggs day Parade. My latest 15 minute Utube opus. 
Traditionally followed by loud drunken brawling in the streets, a period we are just now entering.

Tomorrow is the huge antiques street fair.

A criticism makes my day

I'm probably oversensitive to criticism in general. I recently got a comment on a utube video I did which was so out there (the comment) that I just had to laugh and share with all (both) of you.

"The United States is the only country with the archaic dating system of month/day/year. Everywhere else in the world it it day/month/year. So, your dates should read 17/04/12; or, to keep everyone happy, April 17 2012."


(The date was in the title of the video)  I feel any response would just spoil it.

Last big missing piece

     In what may be another sign of the apocalypse, Tim Lincecum getting shelled, Barry Zito pitching shutout ball being another two, the long gone cupola for our 1899 caboose has returned after being "rebuilt" by a master craftsman over the last 4 years. Darn few original pieces left, but he didn't have a lot to work with.

     I propose to name it "Francis Ford"

Here it's sitting on a dolly on a trailer

The whites of someone's eyes

How often do you REALLY see the whites of someone's eyes? Late this morning I got an excellent, all to close, view of someone's eyes when the driver in front of me, slowed slightly, pulled to the shoulder, then abruptly turned left (as part of a U turn) right in front of me. I can now say that I KNOW that my Prius has antilock brakes. I can say they saved this person's life, that, and the fact that at least he didn't stop when he looked out his side window and saw me coming for the first time. I would guess he was about 10 feet away when I passed the spot he had just vacated. The screeching tires would have been a nice effect, but probably would have meant my hitting him, likely quite hard. And side impacts have a high mortality rate.

The bright side I suppose is that some previous bad driving on his part meant I was watching him like a hawk, or a salt marsh harvest mouse looking for a hawk. About a mile previous, he was second in a 3 car line of cars, I was #3. I don't know our speed, it wasn't fast enough to notice or slow enough to notice, when he suddenly pulls out across a double yellow line with an blind intersection approaching, and passed the #1 car. The #1 car made a left at the intersection, and as I came around the corner, #2 didn't seem as far away as I would have expected.

This is an area where I usually set my cruise control at 57, still watching #2. I realize I'm catching up to him which seemed odd. Now his brake lights flash a couple of times, and as I get closer he pulls to the right at a paved driveway that just goes into a field, and while I'm pondering this, he does the abrupt left turn in front of me.

I hope he has smelly shorts

Oral update

Things are moving quickly here at the future house of pain.

I had a consult with the periodontist this am who described in excruciating detail the tortures she intends on inflicting on me, and all the pre op and post op instructions. The first available appt was 2 weeks away, then I made an appt for the final crown, 3 weeks after that.

Just got a call, they have an opening tomorrow early. I'm "happy" to get that, less anticipatory anxiousness and all that. Rescheduled the crown appt, fortunate that they had another opening. The only down side, is I had a cleaning appt a week BEFORE the surgery that will probably have to be postponed.

But in a month I should be mo bettah.

And the sprained wrist I acquired Saturday, which feels a lot better anyway, I surely won't notice after tomorrow.

I was offered a prescription for Vicodin, but I had a bad experience with that before, so we're going to try some version of codeine I think.

Another Genealogical tsunami

I just looked, and it was just short of a year ago that I last got a lead that led to a flood of new ancestors that had to eventually be capped off.

I had spotted a new lead for my 3X grandfather, my paternal great grandmother's paternal grandfather, the Cleary line. (Originally Clary) It goes back to England/Ireland in the 1750's.

Once again it leads back to South and North Carolina via Arkansas. Once again there's a will talking about disposition of slaves. At least the Wilkinson's (my male lineage) were Quakers. sigh

There's a lot going on in the genealogical world these days as the 1940's census comes on line. And Ancestry.com is having a lot of free access to 1940's era info. I signed up for a month before this and found a whole lot of interesting info. Pretty sure I found the year my paternal grandmother died ('63) and where she's buried. Found where she lived and that she worked in a garment factory and may have been widowed (2nd marriage) in the mid 1930's.

I was about to sign up for some research into a missing uncle when my root canal issue reared it's head, so that's put off until that's paid for. The Ancestry.com research system seems to have become much more formal and business like. I paid once before and they just connected me with someone in South Carolina who did a great job. This time as I started down the road it seemed less personal and more commercial. I'll still do it when I can.

Also just today I may have found someone who might be my missing uncle. He was adopted (as was my father) but hasn't shown up in the census with the people who adopted him.

Meanwhile I've been doing a lot of video taping of the reestablished rail freight service in our area. My videos are on utube as "nwppzler". I'm enjoying learning skills in getting shots, editing videos w/audio etc. And there is also an element of "the hunt", many times waiting hours for nothing, other days constant action, having to make quick decisions what to shoot and where.

And the reconstruction of the old railcars goes on. There are videos of that also.

I'm not sure anyone is actually visiting here anymore since I haven't posted in such a long time....