January 28 - February 6, 2026 - Golf Carts - Rock Polishing - Drawer Painting - Fan - Bloodwork - Dehumidifier - Lunch - Edging - Potluck

My Blog Reflection

Liberty is not doing whatever you want - it's being free to choose what is right.

John Locke

January 28, 2026:

It is too cold to do much outside. You know it's a little boring when I post something about Walmart, but here it is anyway. There is a dedicated concrete walking/golf cart path, from our park and the one next door, to Walmart. When you reach Walmart there is a designated area for golf cart parking. Yesterday I went to pick up some juice and found that I occupied the last golf cart parking space available. I had never run into that before and found it interesting that so many people had driven their golf carts to Walmart on a Wednesday afternoon. Usually there are no more than a half dozen carts parked. It's hard to see "Buster" because he's down on the end. 

In the afternoon Kelly broke out the rock polishing machine I bought her for her birthday and selected some rocks to polish. Here is a picture of the rocks before polishing. Due to their shapes, the ones on the left will be tumbled through more grit. Since the ones on the right are rounded they will need less tumbling to be polished. I think the process takes about two weeks.

After the rocks and grit were loaded we found a shelf in the shop for the machine to sit. We want it out there because it makes a considerable noise 24/7 as it tumbles the rocks. When we were first married we lived in a three-room shotgun apartment. I bought Kelly a rock polisher for Christmas and we ended up putting it in the bedroom closet so we could close the door to cut down on the noise it made for weeks on end. No such problem this time. We don't hear it at all inside.

January 31, 2026:

Most of the furniture came with the house. The bedroom set is a rattan dresser, a chest, and two end tables. The previous owner put mothballs in all of the drawers and after three years the smell still has not gone away. It permeated the wooden drawers. Kelly hates the mothball smell on her clothes so she decided to paint all of the drawers with KILZ to get rid of the odor. It was either that or purchase a new bedroom set. I gladly agreed to the KILZ treatment.

We went to Home Depot and purchased a quart of KILZ. We picked out a latex version of KILZ and luckily Kelly asked the attendant about it. He said that to eliminate smells she must use the oil based, original version. Glad she asked. 

Here is the dresser with the drawers removed for painting and clothes piled on top. The dresser itself does not smell. To be safe Kelly sprayed the inside wood with vinegar, which she read online will help get rid of mothball odor.

I removed all of the hardware and Kelly painted all of the drawers out in the Florida Room. She painted them out there to contain the smell from the KILZ. Here is a picture of the painted drawers lined up to dry.

While Kelly was painting I worked on removing the bathroom fan cover so I could clean the squirrel cage fan. The prior owner had painted the cover to the wall. I carefully cut along the edge of the cover before trying to pry it loose. The cover is held on by a spring clip top and bottom. You pry the cover from the wall and then reach in and squeeze the spring clips to release the cover. In theory this works. I found that it would not come out enough for me to get a hand in there to release the spring clips. 

There was no squeezing the clips with my hand nor with a needle nose pliers. On my second attempt the bottom spring clip broke. Once I got the bottom off I was able to get the top spring clip off. With a broken bottom clip the cover was never going to stay tight again. I decided to purchase two screws to attach the cover to the fan frame. 

Even with carefully cutting along the cover's edge, the cover did not come off without tearing a little paint and drywall paper away. So while at Home Depot I purchased some spackling to make a repair. 

Here is a picture of the fan squirrel cage. It certainly needed a good cleaning. I'm sure it hadn't been cleaned since installed, whenever that was. Two different sized brushes and a straw taped on the end of the small shop vac cleaned everything up satisfactorily. I forgot to take an "after" picture.

I purchased a product called "spackling" at Home Depot but it is really dry wall mud in a small container. Spackling is for plaster and is much harder. This product is really better for a project like this. It is pink going on and dries white. Luckily I have some matching paint.

February 1, 2026:

Last night the wind picked up and the temperature dropped significantly. This morning it was 35 degrees and felt like 25 degrees. The high is only going to be 45 degrees today. Not the Florida weather we like. I brought in the flag and laid the front porch rocking chairs on their side due to the wind.

The drawers were dry so they were reinstalled. Kelly then painted the two drawers in her end table. While she did that I sanded the patch around the fan cover and then painted the area. The paint matched well. I then installed the fan cover. The cover will be easier to take off in the future for cleaning.

February 2, 2026:

Kelly's turn for doctors. She saw her Florida cardiologist today and has to go back for a follow-up in a couple of weeks. It is still relatively cold here. It is down in the 30s at night and only up into the 50s during day. We are watching a lot of TV. The furnace is getting a good workout. I'm going to hate to see the electric bill.

February 3, 2026:

I had to go to Quest to get my blood drawn for two different doctors. Luckily the orders were both there so I only had to be stuck once.

Yesterday the dehumidifier that came with the house crapped out. I have no idea of its age. The fan blew air but the compressor wouldn't kick on so it was doing nothing. I banged on it a few times and the compressor started. Unfortunately, once it stopped the compressor would not come back on. I put it out in the trash this morning. 

We really don't need the dehumidifier right now because of the cold temperature but hopefully that won't last much longer. We purchased a replacement from Amazon after trying for an hour to order one online from Costco. Costco's online ordering leaves a lot to be desired plus they add shipping costs to the store where you then have to go to pick it up. We got a lower price and free shipping to our door from Amazon. It will be here by the 10th.

February 4, 2026:

It remains "cold" here but hopefully up to 70 degrees this afternoon. With warmer temperatures I need to wash the green mold off the back of the house which never gets sun.  I also need to squirt off the front porch and the car which both have layer of black dust that permeates everything down here. 

I talked a few days ago about the freezer needing to be colder in order for the icemaker to work properly. I never would have thought of that as a problem with low ice production until I read it on the internet as a fix. Turning the temperature down in the freezer did the trick. Here is the icemaker today. Since it is cooler we haven't been using much ice so I turned it off until we use it down. Totally cool!

There is a "Valentine's Day Dance" on the 11th. I went up this morning and purchased tickets. We always enjoy the dances here even though we don't dance much anymore. For "Valentine's Day" Kelly purchased tickets for a candlelight classical music concert at a church in St. Petersburg. It will be nice evening I'm sure.

A Florida activity Kelly started last year was been to seek out a different cultural cuisine restaurant for lunch on Wednesdays. Today we went to "bb.q chicken", a Korean BBQ chicken restaurant about a half mile away. The entire menu is fried chicken wings. Most Korean BBQ is spicy hot. I got the original wings, Kelly got the "medium" spicy ones. I tasted one of her medium spicy wings and it was too hot for me. I can't imagine what the "hot spicy" wings would be like. The wait staff were two Korean gentlemen who were very friendly and great at explaining everything on the menu to us. We greatly enjoyed the meal, which was our late lunch and early supper.   

Edging:

Last year brother-in-law, Jim, and I installed some 12 x 12 inch pavers in back of the house for a convenient spot for the grill to sit. I didn't like it in the grass. While doing so we found that to the right of where we were working there were two rows of pavers which were completely covered by viney weeds and dirt. We had absolutely no idea they were there when we started. We uncovered them and I painted the entire area with some leftover paint from the shed.  

This year I returned to find that the viney weeds had once again grown over the pavers, along with a coating of sandy mud. The mud washes on to the pavers from the grass because the grass is about two inches higher. The viney weeds are what we have for "grass" here in the park. The only way to correct this problem is to install some type of edging. 

We went to Lowes and purchased metal edging which comes in eight foot lengths. Here are pictures of the area after I cleared off the weeds and most of the mud. The arrows point to where the grass and dirt gravitate on to the pavers. The metal edging we purchased is laying there waiting to be installed tomorrow.

February 5, 2026:

  

Rain and strong winds moved into the area. At 10:30 a.m. the rain stopped. It is 51 degrees but feels like 45 degrees with the wind. The strong wind actually makes it feel much colder than that to me. Despite the weather I installed the edging. I am having trouble getting it deep enough into the ground due to the dry weather conditions. I have found that when sand is dry and packed it is as hard as the clay we have back in Missouri. I soaked the area, which helped, but I will still need to work on it a little. Future weeds and dirt should be limited.

February 6, 2026:

The colder weather continues with a high of 59 degrees today. 

Today we participated in our first "event" here in the park. There was a potluck upper with rolled pork loin as the provided meat. Everyone brings a side dish to feed about six people. I made candied sweet potatoes which have been a hit. All were consumed. The potluck suppers are an easy way to interact and meet others here in the park while getting plenty to eat.