February 1 - 6, 2025 - Estate Sale - Flag Holder - Pool Time - Porch Railing - Heat Tents - Workbench - Ron Repair

My Blog Reflection

To me, understanding people and their lives is what travel is about, no matter where you go.

RICK STEVES

February 1, 2025

This morning we went to a clubhouse sale at Lincolnshire Estates several miles away. There wasn't much of interest to us. I bought a stainless steel coffee mug for a quarter. I needed one to replace my old one. It was ruined when I used it to dig rock on the driveway project. Kelly bought a little framed picture for fifty cents. 

We then drove to an estate sale nearby. When we arrived we learned that it didn't start for another hour. To kill time we went to a place nearby for breakfast. 

As we looked at the menu the waitress advised us of a sign on the table that said "Due to the increase in the cost of eggs any dish with two eggs would have a $1.99 surcharge." Interestingly, there was nothing on the menu with just one egg so you were stuck paying the $1.99 if you wanted eggs for breakfast. What B.S. I can buy a dozen eggs for around $5.00 and I'm sure their wholesale price is less. In any event, it was a matter of pay it, order something without eggs, or leave. I wanted bacon and eggs so I paid it. My bacon, eggs, and toast were fine but the fried potatoes that came with them were deep fried, overcooked, dried out, and totally inedible. We definitely won't go back. Getting a good breakfast out is getting harder and harder. I miss the great breakfasts at Park-Et in Perryville!

Upon arriving home I removed the easel from the picture Kelly purchased and added a hanger to the frame. Kelly then had me hang it up in the hallway.

Next I installed the new flag holder I purchased. This one is METAL and will surely outlast me. We like our "Friendship Flag".

The weather has finally warmed up!  We headed to the pool. I have never been in this pool and never got in the pool at Roberts RV Park, even though we were there for six seasons. The pool is heated and, while the outside air is warm, it isn't warm enough yet for Kelly to get in. Here I am slowly entering to adjust to the water temperature. It was very comfortable.

 

Here I am asking Kelly to throw me the pool noodle so I could just float around. I was told others weren't in the pool because it was overcast. When the sun comes out they flock there. It was relaxing to be by myself.

Three people were in the hot tub when we arrived. When they got out, I got in. I was alone in the hot tub for a while and didn't know how to turn on the jets. A fellow arrived to get in and asked if it was "okay" to turn on the jets. I said sure and watched him to learn where the switch for the jets was located - over on a pole. The hot tub was quite refreshing and warmed me up nicely for the golf cart ride back to the house.

For supper Kelly made a delicious turkey soup using part of the frozen turkey breast she bought a few days ago. With the soup we had Italian bread from Costco. We think the Costco Italian bread tastes better than what we bought at the Italian supermarket a few weeks ago. I just love butter on good Italian bread!

February 2, 2025

A project I started on today was to make new runners for the drawers under the workbench. The drawers would almost fall out when you pulled on them. I want to do this project on the cheap. My first idea was to reposition the existing runners. This idea didn't work so we headed to Home Depot. They had exactly what I wanted - an L-shaped 1 in x 1 in pine moulding. It was $2.48 per foot for a pine board. I need twenty-seven feet and wasn't spending almost $70.00 on this project. I think I'll be able to scrounge up some wood pieces here in the park to make what I need. I have pieces of wood but no table saw to rip them to the size I need. Not having many of my power tools down here makes some projects more challenging.  

Another reason for going to Home Depot was to find a new door holder for the kitchen door. This is how the door on to the Florida Room has been held open to date. Functional, but tacky.

We purchased a nice magnetic door stop. It will stop the door and more importantly hold it open if you want. Love it! I couldn't take the bungee cord off quickly enough!

In the afternoon, when Kelly headed to the clubhouse to help with the Ice Cream Social, I began work on the front railing. The two center posts are quite loose. Here is a video of the movement. It appeared to be unsafe if anyone would lean or fall against it.

The railing posts are aluminum. The posts fit into a cast metal bracket which is bolted to the concrete porch. I don't know how the post and bracket are attached to each other on the inside. Apparently whatever the connection was has broken or worn out. I thought about using shims and consulted my friend, Bob, about the issue. He suggested shims and had the additional great idea to then cover the entire area with epoxy to firm it up. There are two post like this. Here are a couple of pictures of the posts with the shims driven in.

The shims alone cut the rail movement in about half. Once the shims were driven in I went to work on prepping the area for epoxy. I used my Dremel tool with a wire brush attachment, a razor knife, and sandpaper to remove all of the paint in the area and to roughen it up for epoxy to adhere. Once this was done I applied "JB Weld", a great, hard, epoxy that I have used many times over the years. I always keep some on hand. The JB Weld I use is their 24 hour curing epoxy. I then filed the high spots off and gave it a second coat for further strength. It is messy stuff to work with. These pictures are after the first layer.

February 3, 2025

The new stainless steel Heat Tents I ordered for the grill arrived. Here is a picture of the worn-out flame arrestors that came with the grill when I rescued it from the trash.

I believe the SS Heat Tents will do a good job distributing the heat and keeping flames from burning the cook.

The weather has definitely changed to the winter "Florida Weather" we come down here for. This was the temperature in the house today before I changed it from "Heat" to "Cool".

Back to the handrails:

The handrail posts sturdied up nicely with the shims and JB Weld. I rough sanded them and put on a third layer of JB Weld to add more strength.

In the afternoon I had a Theater Club committee meeting. I will miss the next meeting because we will be on our cruise. My job is to cue up the music on my laptop for each act. It is the first practice so I forwarded what songs I could to club member, Jim, so he can key up the music for the practice. 

February 4, 2025

I started back on the workbench drawer project. I was able to find several wood pieces to fix the drawer runners. As it turned out I only needed to buy one 1 x 3 eight feet long for $7.00 to complete the project. Here is a picture with the new drawer runners in place - both bottom and side runners.

Here is a picture of everything back in place. It was a much needed improvement.

Our leather seabird, Ron:

One of the items in the contents of Ron’s Florida condo, which we purchased from Ron’s estate ten years ago, was a beautiful leather, handmade seabird bird about two feet tall. We named the bird “Ron” to remind us of our dear friend. He sat in our basement rec room until we bought our place here. We returned him to Florida where he belongs. Ron has two “bird legs” which attach him to a heavy base that holds him up. The other day Kelly noticed a piece of something laying on the carpet near Ron. When we inspected we found that the coating around the wire legs holding Ron up was breaking off. Old age I imagine. Here is a picture. We don't know when this deterioration started to happen.

To sculpt the bare wire leg I cut a piece of plastic straw, filled it with hot glue, and wrapped it around the wire leg. I then used wood filler over that to shape the leg. After a little sanding it looked pretty good. 

February 5, 2025

Upon closely examining Ron’s legs this morning I noticed that the other leg was cracking near the base as well. I decided to apply JB Weld to that area on both legs to strengthen them. Here is a picture. The JB Weld is gray.

I sued a file to shape the JB Weld to look like a seabird leg.

Today we packed for our cruise which leaves on Saturday. Four of us and our luggage must fit in Celina’s sedan. We have a two and a half hour drive to Port Charlotte to catch the bus, which takes us across the state to the docked cruise ship. Small suitcases are the order of the day. 

After packing I gave the porch rail posts two coats of paint. They came out pretty well.

They aren't totally smooth but I didn't want to sand off anymore of the JB Weld since it is giving the posts their rigidity.

This evening I had another Theater Club Meeting. I'm going to way more meetings than I anticipated when I joined the club. LOL. 

I sculpted Ron's legs and painted them. Here is a picture of him as he sits happily on his perch in the living room. He is a beautiful boy all handmade out of leather.

February 6, 2025

No more projects before we leave on our nine-day cruise of the Eastern Caribbean early Saturday morning. We drive 2.5 hours to Port Charlotte where we catch a chartered bus to Fort Lauderdale on the other side of the state. The drive across the state is another 3.5 hour ride. By the time we board the ship I'll be ready to do something other than sitting on my butt. We DO have the drink package!

We've never been to the Eastern Caribbean so we are looking forward to it. Hopefully the the water will be calm and the weather beautiful the whole time. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to share. When docked we booked two excursions - a golf cart tour of the area one day and a catamaran outing on another day. 

I know you all wish us a Bon Voyage!