December 21 - 26 - Weather Change, Drawer Repair, Kelly's Birthday, Christmas

On the 21st the rain finally stopped. We were walking around the park when Kelly spotted some Sand Cranes raiding a bird feeder on an RV lot. I thought they were statues until they moved. I could get within three feet of them and they couldn't care less. They are about four feet tall and obviously have no fear of humans. 

Wednesday it was sunny and warm so before supper we sat out and enjoyed the nice weather with an adult beverage. Unfortunately, we had to brace ourselves for the cold front moving in on Christmas Eve. The forecast was for it to get down to 32 degrees at night. 

 

Wednesday evening, while getting something out of the drawer under the stove, I lost my balance, and fell on it with part of my weight. The fall did a number on the drawer's runner system. I forced the drawer back in but clearly it needed to be repaired. Thursday when I went to repair the drawer, I had a devil of a time getting the drawer out because it went in under a bind. Once I got it out for a repair, I found I did more damage than I suspected. I didn't damage the drawer itself but its mounting framework. 

Looking inside the drawer cavity this is what I found.

There was one screw in the middle of a board which held the drawer slide mounts in place. My weight falling on the drawer caused this piece of wood to snap at its weakest point - where the screw was inserted. My first thought was to put some glue on the broken area then just push the board back into place. Unfortunately, the wooden piece was too far back for me to reach to attempt such a fix. With a screwdriver, and my arm fully extended, I was barely able to reach far enough into the opening to unscrew the board. While the mounting apparatus was out, I took the opportunity to glue the back riser piece that was stapled on and had loosened by the twisting of the drawer. I had a clamp for that repair.

I tried to butt glue the two pieces together but, without a clamp on the pieces from one end to the other, that didn't work. I needed something to reinforce the broken area. I scrounged around in my toolboxes and found a piece of metal I had taken off of something and saved. It was the correct width and was already pre-drilled. It worked perfectly for this repair. Here is a picture of the metal piece added to reinforce the glue joint. I let it sit overnight for the glue to completely set.

Friday morning I reinstalled the wooden frame, the drawer hardware, and the drawer. It worked fine. Mission accomplished.

Thursday evening Kelly prepared spaghetti and meat sauce, a salad, and bread to share with Wayne and Judy. They have a park model so we took everything over there to eat since they have a lot more room for enjoying dinner. It was a nice evening.

Friday was Kelly's birthday so she made dinner reservations at the Jacaranda Hotel in downtown Avon Park. The non-fast-food restaurant choices in this area are very limited. The Jacaranda Hotel is a nice venue but the only menu selection on Friday night is a seafood buffet. The hotel is historic and takes up an entire city block. Here is the hotel brochure:

 

The buffet was average, but the ambiance was great. Here are some pictures with the lobby area decorated for Christmas.  This is the main entrance from the street:

The lobby with people in the back queuing up for supper:

 

Santa and Mrs. Claus in the lobby:

As we walked outside we could immediately tell that the temperature was already dropping. Here is a picture of the Jacaranda Trees in the median of Main Street across from the hotel.

The temperature dropped throughout the night with it becoming the coldest Saturday morning.

This is COLD for this area of the state. It only warmed up to 48 degrees Christmas eve and 46 degrees on Christmas Day with 10-15 mph winds both days. We bundled up and give the furnace and space heater a good workout. 

On Christmas Day we went to Wayne and Judy's for a Christmas Dinner with them and Judy's brother, Gary, and his wife, Lisa. We had a great meal and a nice visit. Christmas evening was spent watching "It's a Wonderful Life", my favorite movie, followed by a little football.

Monday morning I got up at 6:00 a.m. and it was 50 degrees in Marge. During the night one LP tank was depleted so the furnace wouldn't re-light. I went outside and turned the valve over to the other tank and got the furnace to fire up. I will need to find an LP tank filling location soon because the high today is only going to be 56 degrees, which is ten degrees warmer than yesterday. If the sun would come out it would help.

I didn't sign up to play golf on Monday because it is just too cold to make it enjoyable. Kelly will play a little Bunko this afternoon in the clubhouse. The weather will slowly be warming up all week.