“When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I’m beginning to believe it.” – Clarence Darrow
Sunday, March 09, 2014
T@Bventures
In case you missed it, we've added a new blog to our site. Our T@Bventures blog will chronicle our experiences with a new T@B travel trailer we've just ordered. Take a look!
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • Travel • Site Announcements • by Rick on 03/09/2014 at 11:29 AM
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Friday, September 06, 2013
Decadence Defined
Tonight it was in the low 60s. We swam. The heater had maintained a pool temperature of about 83° and it felt like a bathtub. Not too may lengths, but enough to get exercise. I built a fire in the fire pit and it created a nice warm fire while we did laps. The water was so warm it had a layer of steam above it and occasional steam cloud funnels that looked like miniature tornados. No cicadas. I think they may be done for the year.But, we did have a nice tumbler of whiskey. It is supposed to get warmer for the next week and that will be nice--a final week of "summer" before we end up moving into "fall". Renn Faire tomorrow.
Posted under: New Jersey • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 09/06/2013 at 07:15 PM
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Monday, August 12, 2013
Robbie the Robot
As you probably know, we have a pool. And, pools require maintenance. Opening and closing. Chemicals. Cleaning.
When we first moved into the house in NJ, we bought a pool cleaning robot from AquaBot, and nicknamed it "Robbie". Each weekend we throw Robbie in the pool to clean up grunge from the bottom. It is amazing how many leaves and worms, along with sand, dirt and bugs can accumulate on the pool bottom in a week. Robbie does a "random walk" around the pool diligently vacuuming up this stuff. He occasionally gets stuck on the ladder (he really loves the ladder), or on pool-bottom drain. And, he seems to spend more time cleaning the sides of the pool than the bottom. He ingests his own power cord sometimes. But, mostly he works unsupervised for six or seven hours and produces a clean, sparkling pool.
I decided to use the time-lapse camera that Lynne gave me for Christmas last year, and make a movie of Robbie cleaning the pool last Saturday. This movie filled the memory in the camera, but Robbie was about done by then anyway. Enjoy!
(PS: The pool heater should get installed next week!)
Posted under: New Jersey • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 08/12/2013 at 07:18 AM
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Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Great Swim Tonight
Water temperature is about 86 degrees. Wonderful. Swam 40 lengths tonight, will go for 50 tomorrow. I know that is not much, but the best of the season. Swimming is my favorite way to get exercise.
We have committed to a pool heater. Should get it installed this summer. Going with propane, so need tanks, etc. Will set it at about 82 to 84 degrees and extend the early Spring and late Summer seasone by a few weeks as well as keep the mid-Summer temperatures very comfortable. We'll see!
Posted under: New Jersey • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 07/17/2013 at 07:26 PM
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Monday, July 15, 2013
Sleep Number 0
We have a Sleep Number bed. Have had it since we moved to New Jersey in April, 2006. A Sleep Number bed is nothing more than a glorified, permanently installed air mattress. Still, since I like a firmer mattress than Lynne does, it has allowed us each to select our own level of comfort.
Recently, I noticed my side would deflate some overnight and throughout the day. Each night I'd need to adjust my side from a number of 45 to my comfort level of 60.
So, yesterday I decided to follow some troubleshooting procedures to attempt to isolate the leak. I was not successful, but in the process did something that caused my side of the bed to completely deflate overnight. I tried pumping it back up a couple of times, but within minutes would be back to an empty air bladder. So, I had an uncomfortable night on a mattress with a Sleep Number of 0 -- not fun.
This morning I took it apart enough to refit all the plumbing and inflated it back up to 60. We'll see what it is tonight, but I can't spend another night tossing and turning in the equivalent of a hammock.
I hate mattress shopping, so am not sure of the next steps if I can't fix the mattress we have.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 07/15/2013 at 08:58 AM
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