January 20 - 28, 2025 - New Ice Maker Quits - Blackstone Griddle Project - Mailbox Numbers

My Blog Reflection

(On Martin Luther King Day)

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 20, 2025

A busy morning. I get up much earlier than Kelly so that is when I do the laundry. I had a lot of dirty clothes piled up from work on the driveway project.  

The other day I turned off the new icemaker by lifting the bale. I wanted to use up the ice it had made so it didn't pick up any freezer smells. Now the darn thing won't work. I waited a couple of days for it to recycle, or rest, but this morning still no ice. I pulled it out this morning and checked the movement of the bale which triggers the unit to turn on and off. Everything seemed to be working properly - the bale wire was locked in properly and turning the On-Off switch when moved up and down. I checked my receipt and I was within 30 days of purchase on Amazon so I got online and got a return label.  Who would have thought?

After pulling the icemaker out I decided to make a batch of oatmeal-raisin cookies using our new mixer. I just followed the recipe on the oatmeal container. I was going to put parchment paper on the cookie sheets but the directions said to put them on ungreased cookie sheets, so I did as I was instructed. It also said to bake them for eight to ten minutes at 350 degrees. They weren't nearly done after eight minutes. They actually took about twelve minutes and they all stuck like crazy to the cookie sheets. Parchment paper or a greased cookie sheet from now on for this guy.

Once the cookies were done I boxed up the icemaker. Luckily I still had the box it came in. We then drove to the UPS Store and dropped it off. A replacement is on the way. I hope we have better luck with it.

On the way home we stopped at Publix and bought a few grocery items. I can not believe how the price of groceries continues to climb. I really feel sorry for families with limited income and children to feed. 

Once home and the groceries were put away, I did a little digging around the driveway edge to smooth out the dirt. Next I trimmed the landscape weed barrier material that was sticking up in various places.  I returned the shovel and rake to neighbor Doug across the street. No more digging for me for a while.

All of the above was finished by 12:00 noon. I have a Theater Club Meeting at 2:00 p.m. They were having trouble getting acts but at the meeting I learned that they now have seventeen acts of one sort or other. Don't worry. I'm not a performer, I'm a music technician.

January 21, 2025

A new project begins, day one:

Before the pouring rain started this morning I went out and took the lid off the Blackstone griddle. I brought it into the shed to start working on it. Here is a picture of the lid when I started.

Here is a picture after much sanding with my palm sander. 

I needed more sandpaper so we made a quick trip to Harbor Freight for sandpaper and spray paint. I want to use primer and the Rustoleum rust encapsulating paint. I will then spray the entire lid with a nice black finish coat. 

I will have to wait a couple of days until the weather cooperates to spray paint outside. There is a little sanding and painting to do on the frame but not much.

While we were out and about we picked up some items at Aldi's. Tomorrow I want to can make a big batch of my "famous" chili to eat during this cold weather. We also dropped off several items for donation at the Salvation Army Store. 

January 22, 2025

It has been raining a lot along with the cold air. We went to a rummage sale at the Pinellas Park Seniors Center. Nothing but old peoples junk. A complete bust. From there we headed to "Buttermilk" a new breakfast place in the shopping mall nearby. The place is all automated. There is a screen at each table with the menu. You order using that, put in your table number, and pay your bill. The food is then delivered by robot carts. Here is a picture of two robot carts patiently waiting for orders to deliver. An employee does come by and unload your food on to the table.

The food was good but not warm enough to suit me. I would suggest the trays on the robots be fitted with warmers. I'm probably a little spoiled since I usually cook my own breakfast so it always hot.

January 23, 2025

It is downright cold this morning. We are south of Tampa and it was 37 degrees with a "feels like" of 34 degrees this morning when I got up. The high today will only be 50 degrees. There is a misty rain so no outside work today. 

We went to Home Depot to get two cement pavers to place at the end of the downspouts. These keep the water from washing out the gravel. I also needed two downspout straps for one downspout. Both straps were broken. All that is holding it on is the screws at the gutter. Home Depot had the straps in brown but white ones were nowhere to be found. The guy looked all over and said they had a box of them but he didn't know where they were. Since they show up as "in stock" they won't be ordering any. We headed to Lowes, which is much further away. I bought an extra strap in case I find another broken one somewhere. The hurricanes may have caused them to break. They are pretty flimsy.

It is so humid with all the rain that we have had the last two days, the griddle hood I sanded in the shed is rusting again. I'm hoping by Saturday it is nice enough outside that I can get it all the parts finally prepped nad painted.

January 24, 2025

Finally, this morning the sun came out! Nothing like being in "Sunny Florida" and not having sunshine for well over a week. It is still cold but is to warm up this weekend. 

On the agenda today is a drive to Sarasota to have lunch with our RV friends who winter in various places in southern Florida. It is about an hour long trip and gives us a reason to drive over the "Sunshine Skyway Bridge". The bridge is awesome but not free to cross. I purchased a Sunpass transponder so we save some money on roads down here. When we were here last winter workers were in tents painting those cables. Not a job for me!

The old Sunshine Bridge collapsed in a thunderstorm on May 9, 1980 when a freighter hit a bridge support column. The new bridge wasn't started for two years and it took five years to build, opening in 1987. 

They close the new bridge when there are serious winds like during a hurricane. I wouldn't want to be on it anyway. LOL

We met at Yoder's, an Amish restaurant. Kelly says this Amish food qualifies as one of her international food tastings. Sarasota is a vacation mecca for Amish folks from across the country. Several of the restaurants and hotels are Amish owned and operated. Many Amish come down in buses and bring their bikes along for transportation once they arrive. It is cool to see them pedaling all around and bikes and trikes sitting outside restaurants and businesses. 

Our food was great but the place was small, making it hard to interact with others. Everyone agreed next year to go back to “Der Dutchman” just down the street. We can spread out, sit around and talk after lunch, etc.

January 25, 2025

The weather is still cold but the sun finally came out today. In the morning we went to a park-wide garage sale at Sunset Palms, the adjoining park. Kelly bought two little framed pictures and an ice cream scoop.

As the sun warmed things up I took advantage of the weather and primed and painted the inside of the Blackstone cover. While it was drying I worked on installing the striker. The fellow I bought it from said the striker was new but he couldn't get it installed. After about a half hour it was clear that there was no way to install it without unbolting the front cover. Luckily the bolts came out easily and I was able to get it in place. 

I then did some light sanding on the frame and washed it down. Most of it needs a coat of paint. Here is what it looks like. The lettering on the front will all be painted over, you can't read it anymore anyway.

Spray painting will not make this grill look new but it will look much better and the paint should slow down future rust. I will keep it covered and in the shed when we aren't here.

The shelf and the two fold up shelves are not rusted so I will not repaint them. 

January 26, 2025

Great sunshine today so grill painting was the order of the day. I sprayed two coats of paint. The first was a Rustoleum Rust Encapsulating paint and the second was black Chassis paint from Harbor Freight. Here is a picture.

It is not going to look like new, for that I would have had to sandblast it before painting. Everything will get two coats of paint. It will look presentable. This afternoon some of the paint was still a little tacky so I'm waiting until tomorrow to spray on the last coat.

Before the football playoffs started today I tackled a minor project. When we bought we had to install a mailbox at the curb. We could no longer have a mailbox on the house. (The Post Office is trying to save time and money.) The mailbox had to have our house numbers on both sides of it and the letters had to be a certain size. One of the numbers on one side came partially off over the summer.

I found the leftover numbers and luckily had one more number "3" left. I used it to fix this number on the box. Using a credit card I scraped off what was left of the old number and, after cleaning off the glue, installed a new number "3". All is well with the Post Office again. We have no address numbers on the house and may get some in the future.

 

The rest of the day is for watching the playoffs. GO CHIEFS!

January 28, 2025

The Blackstone griddle restoration is complete and the griddle is seasoned. It turned out well enough. I purchased a cover for it and some accessories so I can do some "griddling".

In the afternoon I went up to play Cornhole. After several cancellations, due to the long spell of cold weather, there was a record crowd anxious to play on a beautiful day. They brought out all six sets for twenty-four people to play. For the first time this season I won a game, in fact partner, Debbie, and I won two games. Improvement is my goal! I enjoy playing because there is absolutely no pressure. The folks are just out there to have fun and it is a great way to meet people.

In the evening we went to the movies and saw "The Brutalist". A long but great movie.