Tom's Eightieth Birthday Celebration...4 Months Early

After my big surprise birthday party, I began thinking about Tom's next birthday.  It will be his eightieth and he will again be as old as I am.  

Since he was born in January and we live in Ohio, we didn't think it would be easy to have a big party like he had for mine.  My sisters told us not to expect them to come.  Nobody who lives in Florida is likely to chose to come to Ohio in January.

Finally, Tom said, "I'd like to go to a Reds baseball game."  

Now that is something he can't do in January.  But he can do it now.  I told him to order the tickets and I would pay for the day's expenses.   

Years ago we would go to a game or two every year. but the games are expensive now.  We haven't gone to a game for eight years or more. I paid for the expenses out of my savings account.  That way he could forget about the cost and enjoy the day.

Tom was able to get tickets for his favorite seats, the handicapped accessible seats on the street level so we were close to food, the restrooms, and under a roof to protect us from the sun.

We got to see one of our favorite Reds, Joey Votto.

Billy Hamilton made one of his astounding catches out in right field.

By and by it became clear that the Reds were not going to win.  That was disappointing but the day was beautiful...sunny, a light breeze, sweater weather.  We even saw a Monarch butterfly flitting over the heads of the fans seated in front of us.

We watch the Reds regularly on TV but it was fun to actually be part of the crowd and see things not usually seen on TV like this truck with a revolving shooter on the back end that shot favors into the crowd.

This man had an air gun that shot off  favors.

In the last few innings, by the magic of computers, catcher's masks covered fan's faces caught by the Great American Stadium's cameras.  The "K"s (for Kroger) were turned to celebrate strikeouts by the Reds' pitchers.  If only the batters had hit in a few more runs!

Afterward, Tom said wistfully, "Do you think you have enough money to eat at the Hofbrauhaus in Newport?"  He is a lover of German food.

I decided that I did.

Part of the brewing system is on display behind the bar and the entire process is pictured on this diagram between the men's and women's restrooms.

It took Tom a while to decide on his meal.

Saurbrauten with spatzle and red cabbage. (I chose Salmon.)

Happy birthday, Tom (four months early)

House Guests

Eric was with us for about four months.  He was between apartment leases. He worked at a job about ten minutes away.  Since he had to be at work at 6 AM, this worked out well.

Henry was with us for about three months while Sonja was looking for the perfect house. He helped keep all of us on schedule.  He had regular walk times, regular eating times and regular spots for taking naps.

Both Eric and Henry were good house guests.  We miss them.

Eric helped us get the house winterized.  Henry helped me keep up on my walking regime.  Both of them entertained us.  If it weren't for them, we would be really in the dark about life.  As it is, we're somewhere in the twilight zone.

Now it is 2018.  Eric and Katie are in their new apartment.  Henry is back with Sonja in a roomy new house.  Tom and I are back in our slow, retired mode in the house that we have lived in for almost fifty years.

The Saga of the Power Chair Lift

Some of you may remember that I mentioned that it was unusual for us to be at Magee Marsh late enough to see a sunset.

There was a reason we saw this sunset.  We were all set to head back to our motel after finding Kentucky Fried Chicken to bring back with us.  Tom was in the van.  I put the chair on the lift, pushed the button,  and then this happened.

Nothing!  For some reason, at the time I was more interested in the situation than in taking photos so I took the them yesterday.  You will have to imagine...an enormous parking lot, filled with vehicles from all over the United States, gravelly outer edges (like where we were parked).  We are facing the woods that the boardwalk is built through.  On the other side of the parking lot is a wild grassy sandy area that was once a sunbathing beach and beyond that is Lake Erie.  The sun is low in the sky and little black flies are beginning to bite.

The first step is to take the power chair off the lift.  Next...try the toggle switch again...jiggle the lift left and right...not much movement...  I try pushing the manual restart buttons. (The problem has happened before so I have learned about the buttons.) No reaction.

Tom helps me get out the tools we have in the van.

Among them is a diagram and instructions.  Not any help to us.

Finally, Tom calls the lift retailer, Cecil, at his home.  He is two and a half hours away.  He tells us to push the button behind the arm but to use a screwdriver so I don't lose a finger when the lift suddenly starts working.

No problem following instructions.  No problem worrying about my finger.  Nothing happened.

Finally Cecil starts searching on his computer and gives us the 800 number of the lift's manufacturer.  Tom starts to work...after phone calls and referrals, he connects with a dealer in the Toledo area which is less than an hour away.

Remember it is late in the day, afterhours for the business.  The on-call technician isn't in Ohio.  He is visiting in Michigan.  He really doesn't want to make a trip.  It is nearly dark and he has never heard of Magee Marsh.  He doesn't know where it is.

He keeps telling us to press the white button.  There is no white button, only a black button.  After a lot of negotiation, he agrees to come but it will cost us two hundred dollars, the afterhour charge...and it will take him about two hours to get to us.

 During the discussion, he learns that Magee Marsh is what was once Crane Creek State Park.  He remembers going there when he was a teenager so he knows where it is.  We learn that he is just over the Ohio-Michigan line so two hours is an exaggeration.

We can't close the back end of the van...the lift is out and not moving.  The biting flies are happy. Then we remember we have insect repellent in the van.

We wait.  More birders leave.

The technician comes a little over an hour after the last phone call.  He was right. The fix took only fifteen minutes.

We find our Kentucky Fried Chicken and our motel room.

The next day the lift operates perfectly.

Our local lift technician replaces the motor.  This photo was taken from inside the van.  The platform the power chair sits on is behind the arrow...the thing with the row of holes.

Hooray!

But the problem is obviously something else we learn  a month later when we have the same problem again.

This time we are only an hour and a half from home and Cecil talks a mechanically savvy friend through the repair process as I watch and help where I can.

Once we are back home, our local technician goes over the lift carefully.  The lift still isn't working so he installs a loaner lift and promises to check everything over and to talk to the manufacturer again.

We come back.  This time the technician  replaces the rollers the lift rolls back on.  He and the manufacturer cannot come up with any other possibility.

The next day we learn the lift is still not fixed BUT I can get the lift in if I jiggle it and give it a little push.

Never one to give up, Tom decides to try a repair shop in Cincinnati.  This technician has worked with lifts for ten years.  After one and a half hours he FINDS THE CULPRIT!  The wire connecting the lift and the motor is corroded under its plastic coating.

Isn't technology wonderful!!

We haven't had any more trouble.  We're feeling confident.  We may start taking longer trips again.

Hot Water Again, Thanks to Five Star Plumbing

July 7. Friday evening, I went down the basement to take clothes out of the dryer.

Oh, dear!  See that water on the floor?

I investigated, found the leak, reported to Tom, found the owner's manual in our box of manuals, noted that the water heater was past its expected lifetime, decided to get a new one.

On Saturday, we went to a local Hardware Big Box Store, found the hotwater heater we wanted and were promised delivery within 72 hours.

Tuesday...more than 72 hours later.  Glad the water heater was in the basement.  Tom called the installer.  Someone would be out on Friday!  Tom called the Big Box Store.  The salesperson told Tom he would contact another installer.  

Good news!  The installer promised to be out on Wednesday.

Happy dance!  

Another happy dance when Five Star Plumbing sent Brandon out on Wednesday.  

Joy reigns!  Brandon is a pleasant, friendly young man and and a good plumber.  

We have a new hot water heater.  We will certainly recommend Five Star Plumbing to our friends and neighbors.

Adventure on the Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary Trail, April 30, 2017

Tom usually drives in front of me when we walk on the boardwalk.  On Sunday, I was soon far behind him.  There were flowers to see and pictures to take.

The boardwalk was damp and slippery because we had had four or five days of rain.  The soggy spots in the sanctuary were soggier than usual.

I hurried to catch up with Tom.  Rounding a curve, I saw him talking to a couple from Fletcher, a nearby town.  His tire was off the boardwalk, stuck in the mud.

This was a big problem.  While we were discussing options, another couple walked up.  They had come all the way to Garbry from the town of West Liberty.

Tom sent me back to the parking lot to get his walker so he could stand up.  That took me twenty minutes. But the walker wasn't a help because the boards were so slippery that his feet slipped when he tried to stand.  By then my legs were worn out so I handed our van keys to the man from West Liberty.  He went back to the van again and returned with the two floor mats from the back seat.  He was faster than I would have been.

Tom managed to stand and the two men, Jack and Scott, lifted the power chair high enough to get the wheel back on the boardwalk.  All told, the couples gave up at least an hour of their walking time to rescue us.  We were extremely grateful.

Despite the "adventure" the walk was a good one.  We saw new flowers blooming as well as some of the flowers we saw the last time we walked here.

Throughout the woods were large patches of Wild Hyacinths.

The trilliums were still blooming...Large-flowered Trillium and also Drooping Trillium and Sessile Trillium.

The Wild Blue Phlox were still showy, too.

A very few Blue Cohosh flowers were still hanging on.

 

The Solomon's Seals are blooming but a person has to know to look under the leaves to find them.

The dozens of Mayapples were easier to see.

It took a bit of looking but there were Jack-in-the-Pulpits sprinkled throughout the woods.

The Rattlesnake ferns were easier to see.  The fronds contrasted with the more usual leaves.

What appealed to me most were the blooming Sweet Cecily.

One cluster is not especially showy.  But there were clusters throughout the woods.  They were accents among the wild Hyacinths and Large-flowered Trillium and Wild Phlox.

One of the joys of having a macro lens on my camera is that I can see tiny flowers in great detail.

Change Number Two--A New Door for the Computer Room

This project was more involved than the vanity project.

We went to Menards for the supplies that we needed...a prehung door and lumber for the door frame.

Our friend, Mark, brought the materials home for us in his truck.

We were already in the process of making changes when I took this photo.  Mark had removed the old woodwork and the door and cut the doorway six inches wider.  

Looking into the computer room.

Looking out from the computer room.

I was standing in the doorway to the computer room when I took this photo.  As you can imagine, the three doorways being so close and yet not exactly opposite one another made it difficult to manuveur with a scooter or power chair.

Back to work.

The width of the readymade door jamb was too narrow so Tom cut a piece fill the space. That piece is leaning against the wall.  At the moment he and Mark are checking to be sure the jamb is in plumb (straight up and down).

Tom holds the jamb in place as Mark hammers.

Most hinges hold a door in such a way that the door extends into the opening as this door does.

The hinges which Mark put on the computer room door enable the door to move out of the doorway.  Tom calls these off-set hinges.  The additional width they give the doorway makes life a lot easier for him.

An ordinary door hinge.

An Offset door hinge.

Completed new entrance to the computer room...thirty-six inches wide and much easier to enter from either direction.  We are happy.

Change Number One, Remodeling the Bathroom Vanity

Periodically, Tom makes changes to our house to make it more friendly for his scooter and power chair.

The first change he made this summmer was to his bathroom.

This is the vanity that was in his bathroom at the beginning of the summer.  It is now in our basement just in case we want it again.

He used the same washbasin surface but made a new vanity cabinet.  Now he can clean up facing the vanity.  Before he had to work from a sideways position.

He bought the wood at Menards, the big box hardware a couple blocks away after he had designed what he wanted.  A friend brought the materials to our house in his pickup truck.

Here is Tom cutting boards at the saw set up in our garage.

Here he is blowing off the sawdust after he was finished for the day.

Here is one of the finished boards, sanded and varnished.

His friend helped him install the new vanity.

And I sewed up a pair of curtains.