Winterizing Day

Just like the morning before, I slept until Mindy got up and started making all sorts of racket. I headed downstairs and started my calisthenics. It was still dark and the sky was filled with stars yet again. It promised to be another gorgeous autumn day. I walked Ykraps without any worry of the time. The only thing I had planned besides my run was the boat’s winterization, which wasn’t scheduled until 10:20am. While enjoying coffee time at the PC I read a story about Wednesday’s Orionid meteor shower. Should be able to see 12-15 meteors per hour with the peak happening around 6am EDT. Perfect timing relative to my morning routine. Mindy & the kids readied for school like any other morning. I participated with a casual, passive attitude. I absolutely love being off work on nice days. Ykraps and I took the kids to the bus stop at 7:55am. Soon it was just he and I. At the house, I checked the hot water tank connections to make sure there were no leaks. I was disappointed to find a very slow drip on the cold water input. I wrenched the compression fitting even tighter than before. That seemed to stem the drip. I set out for my run at 830am. It was almost 50 degrees and sunny. It was a lovely morning for a run. I was a little worried that the stiffness I experienced Monday afternoon/evening might inhibit my run, but that wasn’t the case. The 600mg of ibuprofen and 20 minutes in the hot tub did the trick. I ran comfortably. After my run I headed up for my first shower since replacing the water tank. All went well save for a noticeable difference in the water temp with the shower dial in a given spot. I set the water tank temperature to low when I fired it up and hadn’t adjusted it since. I figured I would crank it up a notch or two later in the day. Our old tanks were cranked to their maximum for the last 8 or 9 years. I thought through the boat winterization process carefully before leaving the house. I didn’t want to forget anything. They left a VM reminding me to bring the keys, have a charged battery, and enough gas to run for at least 20 minutes. In addition, I remembered to grab the new license plate sticker. I was ready to head out by 915am. Over the years, it has been pouring rain, snowing, but rarely sunny and nice the day I take the boat in for winterization. Today was a banner day. Getting to the storage and attaching up went without incident. I was happy to be getting this annual chore out of the way. The folks at Paul’s marine in Powell were quick to point out the lovely weather, too, but saying it as though I might regret not being out on the lake one more day. But that was like the furthest thing from my mind. Like that all season, really. Just wasn’t that into it this year. We’ll see how the next couple boating seasons go. If the desire wanes, I may sell it. The drive-thru winterization process takes no more than 25 minutes. I was on my way home before 11am. After dropping the boat at storage and saying goodbye until next May, I headed to Lowe’s in Mill Run. There I picked up some large wood screws to better anchor/hold our front storm door shock in the jam. It came loose last summer requiring some rework. The current screws are starting to work themselves loose once more. Looking at them, there’s little wonder why. They’re really metal screws. I also picked up a can of high-temperature flat black spray paint marketed for gas grills to try painting our fireplace tools to match the new black firescreen. I figured it worth a shot. I paid about $20 for the tools a couple years ago on close-out. If it ruins them, no biggie. I arrived home around 1pm. The first thing I did was make a big ham and cheese sandwich. I was starving. Meanwhile, the afternoon was shaping up nicely. It was about 72 degrees and sunny – by far the nicest weather we’ve had thus far this October. I cleaned then carried my fireplace tools out behind the shed where I’ve done some spray painting past. The paint adhered nicely and left a beautiful black finish on the tools. I was very happy. I planned to let them dry for about an hour then spray a second coat. While the paint dried, I replaced a couple of those door jam screws with the longer wood screws. That worked OK. While thinking about it. I checked the hot water tank again. And again found the cold water input to have a very minor drip. But even the smallest of drips is not good enough for me. I wrenched it as tight as I could get it without risking breaking it. I’ll bet it didn’t turn but another 1/8-1/4inch. I’d check it again later. I headed out back to apply the second coat of paint to the fireplace tools. That went well. Next, I opened the shed and put away Mindy’s fountain and the chaise lounger frame. I was going to throw away the cushion after just two seasons since the top surface already appeared to be dry rotting. But being creative and having nothing to lose, I successfully tried cutting two tiny slivers in the material and pulled the Velcro loops thru so we can reverse it, using the backside and likely get one more year out of it. Hey, you save where you can. I then stowed the cushion in a large hefty bag I reuse every year just for that purpose. While outside, I rechecked the hot tub and added more PH-up to further balance the PH and alkalinity. Worked perfectly. It was already after 3pm. Where had the day gone? I rechecked the hot water tank. No drip!!!! Wahoo! Still not done, I logged onto the City’s refuge website to schedule bulk pick-up for our two old hot water tanks. They promised to send a follow-up confirming email with the date. I hoped it would be this coming Friday, our normal pick-up day. About that same time, my auto insurance company stopped by as planned to check out the damage on my Trooper and to take pictures. He was a really nice guy. Said he’d been by once before on a hail damage claim a few years back. He seemed to know the blame was being contended and encouraged me to get it fixed, especially if it was in fact found to be the other driver’s fault. I thought he wanted pictures of the vehicle but as it turned out, he wanted pictures of he and I posing by our pretty flowers. J kidding, of course. I tried getting a little rest before the kids arrived home at 4pm. But it was already 345pm. It was a short nap. The kids were home right at 4pm. Mindy wasn’t far behind either. She arrived home around 410pm. We did homework with the kids and then Jacob & I played paper football at the kitchen table. He’s just now learning how to play. Mindy made tacos and Mexican rice for dinner despite not feeling that well. I had a couple tacos and a big helping of the rice. After dinner I fell asleep on the family room floor for a while. That felt terrific. I was a little sad about returning to work on Wednesday but also felt very relaxed and satisfied with all I had accomplished on my five days off. I spent time with my grandchildren, got firewood, replaced my hot water tank, winterized the boat, and even got some yard winterization completed. Not bad.