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.

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.

Experimenting with Olympus Tough TG-850 at Charleston Falls

Yesterday about noon, I walked at the falls.  Today we are getting snow and low temperatures ranging from about 10 degrees Fahrenheit to 25 degrees Fahrenheit but yesterday the temperature was 42 degrees Fahrenheit.  Not many people were walking since it was a workday for most people.

The above photo was taken on the Automatic setting...what we once called snapshot mode.

Then I went to the Programable setting and played with the special effect settings, leaving the Exposure set at 0.  Another time I'll play with changing the Exposure as well as the Programable settings.

Here are a few of the 14 settings.

Vivid Setting

Pale and Light Setting

Grainy Film Setting

Pinhole Setting

The setting that fascinated me the most was the Reflection Setting.  I can imagine starting with the photos below and transforming them into abstract paintings.

Rocks to Agitators to No Agitators, Washing Machines

We bought this automatic washer a couple years ago when the last automatic washer died.  If I had known the old one was  an outdated antique, I would have opened the lid and taken a photo of the agitator inside.  The new washers don't have agitators.  They have a rotating tub.  The washer gets the clothes clean so I haven't bothered to figure out why.

As long as I can remember agitators were a part of top-loading washing machines.  They were a bit like a screw.  They rotated left, then right as the clothes were being washed.

I can remember that until I was four or five we had a washing machine  like the one below which I photographed at the Madison County Historical Museum in London, Ohio.  I don't remember all the details of operating it.  I do remember the soapy water was squeezed out of the clothes with the wringer.  The clothes were rinsed and then squeezed through the wringer again.

                      Madison County Historical Museum

There was a tub arrangement associated with the washer.  Someone reading this blog probably could tell me more about the whole system.

                        Madison County Historical Museum

When I was four, my twin sisters were born and shortly afterward, Dad bought an automatic washing machine, a great new invention.  It was a Bendix, with two inserts for the tub.  One was used if the machine was being used to wash clothes, the other if the machine was being used to wash dishes.

Tom's family didn't have indoor plumbing when he was four or five so his mother used an old way to wash clothes.  In the summer, this rack with a wringer in the middle  was placed outside close to the clothesline where the clothes were hung.  Tubs were placed on either side and filled with water, one tub with soapy water, one tub with rinse water.

We didn't see this in a museum but at the barber shop the last time Tom went to get his hair cut.  One of the barbers collects, buys and sells antiques. Here is a view of the wringer with the side benches folded up front and back.

                                                   Front view.

                                                           Side View

The patent on this model was given in 18?6.  I cannot read the third number.

Clothes were scrubbed on washboards.

                       Madison County Historical Museum

Washing clothes is much easier these days and I am thankful.

Tom's Garden

If Tom can't do something one way, he does it another.  He decided he would like a vegetable garden but since he travels around via electric scooter, it is difficult for him to get "down to earth".  He decided to bring the earth up to him.

Here is the entire raised bed.

He bought cedar boards and treated lumber from Lowes.  He used treated wood for the "L" shaped legs.  They do not touch the soil that the vegetables are planted in.  The box, 10 inches (25.4 cm.) deep, is made from the cedar boards.  He drilled holes in the bottom of the box for drainage. The legs are set on paving blocks so they won't sink into the ground.  The soil  is well- rotted horse manure from Cinda's horses, brought in a red pickup truck by Tim.

He ripped the lumber with his 10 inch contractor's table saw, and cut the boards to length with his compound miter saw.  The top of the box is 36 inches (91.44 cm.) up from the ground, the height of kitchen counters.  The stabilizing crossbars are 24 inches (60.96 cm.) above the ground.

Here is the way his garden looked this morning...pole beans at the back, radishes and beets in the middle row,  spinach leaves at the bottom edge.  We should be able to harvest the spinach soon.

Thirty-three Years Old...Too Old, Too Old, Too Old

Our generator is a small one but large enough to power the pump that brings up our water, the refrigerator and our freezer, a few lights, and one element on the range. On the evening of July 2, our generator sputtered to a stop. 

We had been without electricity for nearly twenty-six hours. There were estimates of several days more before we would have it back. Tom and I were both tired and hot. Eric had just brought over frozen food from my daughter's  house since their freezer was losing its ability to hold anything cold. Their electricity had gone off a couple hours before ours had.

The situation was grim...for fifteen minutes.

Then our lights flickered, then came on and stayed on. Bless those out-of-state workers who worked long hours in close to one hundred degree temperatures to help out us Ohioans.

We didn't look forward to replacing the generator.  They are not cheap.  But the one that sputtered to a stop was thirty-three years old.

Tom hates to dump anything that might possibly  have useful life left in it. He got out the generator manual. Can you believe we still had it?

Half way down the third page, was the note..."Worn brushes should be replaced after one hundred hours of use. They should not be less than 1/4 inch thick."  

We wondered how many hours past one hundred this generator had been used.

Tom had never  looked at  the brushes.

Tom called a local motor repair shop.  He had three questions.  "Can you repair a 33 year old generator?" "Do you have replacement parts available?"  "Can you use the part number and order the part?"

The young woman on the other end of the phone line had the same two word answer for all three questions.  "Too old."  "Too old."  "Too old".

But Tom is not one to give up easily.

When Eric came over, he gave him directions on how to find and check the brushes.  Tom intended to buy some similar brushes.  That would be cheaper than buying a generator.

But low and behold! The brushes were just fine, not worn down to 1/4 inch.  In fact, they  were still about 1/2 inch thick. Eric drained the oil and gasoline reservoirs and refilled them with new oil and gasoline. He replaced all the parts and when Tom started the generator... the generator ran just fine.

"Well," said Eric, "you're set for another 33years."

Technology is Wonderful...Lifts

It is snowing this morning, a light steady snow, the kind that may last all day and bring us a couple inches on the ground before it tapers off.

The public transit bus makes it easy and safe for Tom to go to Pulmonary Rehab.  He rides his scooter onto the bus and when he gets to the hospital, he rides his scooter into the hospital.  He never has to stand on the slippery snow. If I were taking him, he would stand up beside our van and risk falling before he sat in his scooter.