November 16th - November 18th, 2024 - Trip to Florida - The Projects Begin

My Blog Reflection

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.

Oprah Winfrey

November 16, 2024

We left home at 6:00 a.m. and checked into a hotel south of Atlanta at 5:30 p.m. We gained an hour when crossing the Georgia line. The HHR (Bart) made it all the way to Birmingham on the first tank of gas. For the entire trip, at 70-72 mph, he averaged 30.5 mpg. I was thrilled with that. I chided Kelly that Bart's gas mileage was better than her fancy Acura. We took an entirely new route which bypassed Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta. It was about a half hour longer but no traffic jams. Nice.

November 17, 2024

We both were up very early, well before the 6:00 p.m. breakfast time. We decided to skip the breakfast and head down the road. We were on the road around 5:00 a.m. We pulled up at the house at 1:00 p.m. Celina invited us over for supper so this gave us lots of time to unpack and access any damages. My neighbor, Doug, came over and showed us two small items he noticed. He said if they had been any worse he would have called me. The first is a piece of roofing over the shed which pulled loose. Here is a picture.

This should be a quick fix in the next day or two depending upon the weather. We are scheduled to get rain and high winds from hurricane Sara which is now in the gulf.

The second issue was the skirting on the back of the house which had been blown in. Here is a picture of that as well.

I was told last year by my "bug guy" that this skirting was installed incorrectly to begin with. He said it should have been set on top of the stones, not behind them. I will make that repair and improvement in due time.

Doug then showed me what had been deposited on the side the house from the hurricane. He had no idea where it came from and it did not do any damage to the house. I am hoping the trash guys will pick it up if I bend it into a small shape. If not I will take it to the dump. The lady behind us lost her carport so it could have come from there. A nice chunk for aluminum to be recycled I hope.

I am leaving the hurricane awnings down because I need to paint them at some point this season.

Everything inside the house was fine. It was a little musty inside but that is normal. It was a hot summer and so I think the AC ran enough to keep any mold or mildew from forming. I also put out about ten Damp Rid containers and they did a wonderful job. 

We were so pleased with all this that after unpacking the car we sat on the front porch for a little "Happy Hour". In the first picture I look like I have no hair. That is because I just got out of the shower and it was wet. In the second picture I am enjoying my drink and the warm weather.

While sitting on the porch Kelly and I noticed another little area of hurricane damage. Part of the lot number came off our mailbox.

I just put those numbers on last year so I'm hoping I have some extras tucked away somewhere. If not I'll leave it as it is. This damage was interesting because Doug said the only damage he received from the hurricane was the wind blew the paint off the top half of his carport posts and off his porch railing. Weird.

November 18, 2024

The first item on the agenda today was to go to Spectrum and get internet and TV. They opened at 10:00 a.m. and, although several folks were in front of us, we were out of there by 10:30 a.m. Unusual. Naturally the online installation did not go as planned and it took two phone calls to tech support to get everything up and running. All is well now. I even got Netflix working.

After eating lunch and doing a load of laundry I got to work fixing the grill I hauled home last Spring. It had been set out on the curb down the street for the trash pickup. It is identical to an old one I bought, two years ago which is a major rust bucket. I hooked up my LP tank to this grill and it fired right up, even the electronic sparker works! The only thing I could find wrong with it is that one of the mounts for one of the swivel wheels had been bent. This caused the nut that it screwed into to come loose. I don't have a welder here so the only solution was to use "JB Weld" to make a repair. Here are a couple of pictures. It will be ready to use tomorrow.

Last Spring the fiberglass springs on one of the two padded chairs on the lanai broke while a friend was sitting in it. Luckily he didn't fall back and hit his head. Here are two pictures. 

I got online today and ordered four new springs. These chairs are fifteen years old so it's time to replace all four springs which are only fiberglass. They were about $10.00 each plus shipping. They should be here next week.

I also got online and ordered all new solenoids for the golf cart. The cart is really touchy to drive and a guy who works on carts here in the park told me that the solenoids were the problem. He also told me to just order them online from Amazon. They will be here tomorrow. Getting the old solenoids out worries me because the bolts have not been touched since 1984. Yes, Buster is an OLD golf cart. A report to follow.