February 12, 2024 - February 15, 2024 - New Patio Table and Chairs; Trash Can Repair; Valentines Day Dance

Monday: 

This is the set of patio furniture that came with the place. Last winter we found the plastic rollers falling apart so I purchased new, steel rollers for all the chairs. I installed the new rollers. While the rollers worked great, the chairs are too high for Kelly to sit in comfortably. We decided to replace them.

On Facebook Market Place I found a set of four swivel rocking chairs and patio table at a good price. The table is much larger than we would like but it is in perfect shape. The table and chairs sat outside for some time. As a result each of the chairs had several rust spots on them which needed to be addressed.

I ground off the rust the best I could but had to wait to paint them until the windy weather conditions ceased. Bringing them home twenty miles made me a little anxious because the wind was rocking the truck even when just sitting at a stoplight. Due to the gusting wind I decided to stop halfway home to double check all the straps to make sure they were tight. 

I put the PVC table and chairs for sale on our community Facebook page and sold them the first day for what I spent on the new wheels.   

Tuesday:

The city collects trash twice a week, Tuesday and Friday. They do not supply a trash can. Last March I purchased a new plastic trash can with a hinged lid because the one left here had holes in the bottom. I wanted a can with a good lid because I keep the can in the shed and don't want any smells in there. The can has only been in use for five months and the plastic hinged lid is already showing signs of failure. (Did I mention I hate plastic?). In fairness to plastic, the trash collectors aren't exactly kind to the cans. Plastic doesn't stand up to a lot of abuse. Over the last several weeks after trash collection I found the lid popped out of its plastic "hinge locks" and hanging off the side of the can. I decided to improve the lid hinge system before it totally broke off. I drilled holes through each hinged side, ground off some of the plastic in the handle, and put a threaded rod through from one side to the other. I put double locking nuts on each side to be sure the rod never comes out. It works like a champ. I had the threaded rod and nuts from the "axle" project I did on the grill last winter. Here is a picture of the finished project. It should last quite a while now.😁

While the city does not provide a trash can, it does provide a blue plastic can for recyclables, which are picked up on Wednesday. We always have more recyclables than trash. I hardly ever need to put the trash out more than once per week.

In the afternoon I played Cornhole once again. Like the week before it was windy and quite chilly. Fewer people were playing so we played four games instead of three. My partner and I managed to loose all four games. (I need practice.) It is a fun way to meet people. My partner, Don, was from Bangor, Maine and had just bought a place here. 

Wednesday:

The wind died down so I was able to paint the chair frames. They turned out well. The chairs won't rust hereafter because they will be inside. Here they are on the lanai ready for a party. Now all we have to do is make four friends we can invite over. LOL 

Here is the new table with the two chairs which were brought down last summer to use on the lanai. These two swivel chairs were also part of the contents we bought from Ron's condo here in Florida. They are back home as well. I may paint their brown frames black to match the other chairs.

We have decided the table is too large for the lanai. We will take it home to use on our deck and replace it with something smaller next winter.

In the evening we attended a Valentine's Day Dance in the clubhouse.  It was certainly a dancing crowd.

The band was "At Large Band", a husband and wife team. He was a great Saxophone player. They played music everyone liked.

A friend took our picture in front of the Valentine wall. The lights were rapidly  flashing different colors so the pictures turned out a little weird.

Kelly won an attendance prize of two tickets to any future dance. I won one of the 50/50 drawings and received $30.00. We should have gone out and bought a lottery ticket that night. LOL. We had a great time and met several new people, two of which were Mike and Carol, who reside on our street.

Thursday:

We did last minute laundry and packed for our trip to Panama this weekend. We will drive five hours to Miami and catch a flight to Panama. No more blogs until after the Panama trip. We are looking forward to this inland tour, it is not a cruise as most assume. Pictures and report to follow.