The Door...

 

No, not the group that did Light My Fire.  An actual door.  This actual door...

 There is a door in there, if you can see through the light pattern from the sun coming through the pergola.  If you ask, "Isn't that the door you had so much trouble with when you first moved in?"  Yes, it is.  The builder replaced the door... and all the trim and stucco work around it.

The new door developed a gap in the seal.  Truly, this door is unusual: when you pull up on the handle, it latches in 3 places; very secure deadbolts; dual thermopane glass, nicely insulated.  Today was the day that the guy who works on these doors for the builder was supposed to be here... between 8:00 and noon.

He got here around 10:00, saw the problem, and said, "I think I can take care of that - no promises."  That didn't sound reassuring.  He obviously knows to "under-promise and over-deliver."  He put a couple small shims inside the door (after removing some exterior trim), and it was a perfect seal.  He then checked the alignment and deadbolt latches... he thought the locking handle was a bit stiff.  And then he fixed all that stuff.  He was here about an hour, visiting (with a heavy accent) while he worked.

When he was done, he said, "You try it."  Works and fits better than new.  He told us that all these doors need some "adjusting" after they've been in a while.

"Why does the company use this door?" I asked.

"It is very secure.  This door cannot be pried open."  Good to know.  He gave us a tip on keeping the door latched at all times... not for the security part, but because it keeps everything fitting properly with the daily changes in temperature here in the desert.

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While rolling the garbage cans out to the street, several of the pavers dropped a couple inches.  I assumed the base layer hadn't been compacted enough, and called the landscaper... Robert said he'd get a crew on it right away.

They were here this afternoon and went right after it.  Once they had taken out a section of the pavers, it was clear that the ground underneath that area had settled.  One of the workers pushed a shovel handle into the dirt in that area, and it went down about 2 1/2 feet.  Soft!  I called the builder's rep and he came over right away.  He knew what the problem was: they dig down about 4 feet to set the utilities.  They compact the dirt they put over it, but it was dry here for months.  With the rain we had, it was enough to settle that dirt to the point where the pavers dropped a couple inches when I stepped on them.

Robert had 5 guys from his crew out to do this work; same workers who did the work originally.  They put more dirt in there, compacted that, filled it more, wet it, and compacted it again, before putting one more layer of dirt in and leveling it.  Then, they went after re-setting the pavers...

These guys are fast and efficient.  And now, we'll keep an eye on that area.

Splurge...

 

No, I didn't buy another guitar or motorcycle.

We were running an errand that took us east, and Joan said, "How would you like to go to Oregano's for lunch?"

"Don't toy with me, woman."  Oregano's is my favorite pizza place here in the Valley (Mod and Marco's are right up there, too).

 The place wasn't packed (it usually is), the service was good (it usually is), and the pizza was outstanding (it always is).  Joan had their Big Meatball Sandwich; it was big.  There is leftovers that will take care of us for another meal (or two).

The real splurge: Joan said, "How about we split a pizza cookie?"

"Yes, please."  I've been doing good with my blood sugar, and the doctor did say, "Splurge once in a while when you're out for a special meal."  Today was that day.

Best lunch out in a long time!  I may need a nap.

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"Yeah, yeah - lunch, blah, blah... what about Murphy?"

Thanks for asking.  The boy is doing fine.  With the rain we had the last 3 days, he didn't get out for walks as much.  It was mostly gray today, but no rain - he got out for several walks.  And, discovered these cacti along the walkway...

"Hey, buddy - it would be a good idea to not get your nose too close to those."  He has seen these before, but didn't pay much attention to them until this afternoon.

A short video...

 

Play time...

 

Not a cat play date this time.  I got together with Mark, Ron, Danny, and Gil today at Mark's house.  Mark wanted to do it with everyone plugged in and the 3 singers using mics.  I brought my Bose T4 mixer and ran it to Mark's Yamaha 6 channel mixer.  It works fine like that... a lot of cords, though.  Nice to have the mixers to blend/adjust the microphones.

We were missing one guy today: Tom, who comes to Phoenix for the winter (from Iowa) had to make an unscheduled trip to the hospital for gallbladder surgery.  Not sure how long he will be out of action, but I'm guessing he won't feel like taking a deep breath to sing for a while.

It is always a good time when we get together.

A different kind of play date...

 

I was the one doing the playing.  Murphy sat by me on the arm of the chair...

Unlike his two predecessors, he doesn't come running when I get out a guitar... he has to "warm up" to the idea of it.  But, he doesn't run off.  ;-)

When Steph got off work today, she brought Tango over for another play date.  The two boys did fine once again.  I think each of them would like to rough-house a bit, but they are both somewhat reluctant to start things.  That's probably good at this point.

Murphy did snuggle with me this morning before I got out of bed.  Well, it was a bit... forced.  He hopped up beside me and I wrestled him onto my chest.  Then held him there, petting him until he purred.  I think he wants to snuggle, he just doesn't know that, yet.  ;-)  We'll keep working on him.

Play Date!

 

Murphy has now been with us for 4 weeks.  He seems secure in his surroundings.  On our walks in the yard, I will often take him around to Steph and Dan's patio, where he has seen one of more of their cats through the patio door.  Their smallest, Tango (the orange boy) is bigger than Murphy, but closer to his size than their two big cats.

We have all agreed that Murphy and Tango should get the opportunity for a "play date."  Today is that day.

We started out with each of the kitties in Momma's arms...

 That progressed to letting them down and getting the chance to check each other out...

Then some time on and around Murphy's tower...

It went well.  Steph, Dan, and Tango were here for about 45 minutes - the two cats were very curious about each other.  They will need to get more familiar before there is some true playing, but this was a great first meeting.  Nobody got pissy or defensive - and the cats got along nicely, too.  ;-)

Riding...

 

Gotta get it in, because the weather change is coming: it is supposed to be rainy Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  I geared up and as I opened the garage door... it started sprinkling.  Not pouring down rain, but the scoot is fresh and clean - I didn't really want to grub it up with road grime.  I waited a few minutes and it let up.  A few minutes more and the street was dry.  But, just in case, I put the raingear that I always carry in the CTX into the under-seat storage on the new scoot.  And headed out.

 It was chilly, in the low 60s.  That high-viz jacket in the photo above has a nice thermo-liner in it.  I was comfortable.  I had a camera mounted on my helmet and another one on the scoot...

I didn't have a destination in mind, which means... I'm probably heading to South Mountain...

I discovered the thumb was torn out of the leather on my nice Klim gloves...

Heading into the park, I saw a sign for a bicycle trail race today - I thought it might not mean that the Summit Road was closed.  I was wrong...

There are some other decent roads that aren't closed, but not as many great curves...

Heading out of the park, I rode to the street where I thought the nearby private airstrip is located...

 

 

That's as close as I could get.  Any access to the private airstrip is from properties located on either side of the runway, with no public access.  I rode around town a bit, just getting comfortable with the scoot.  Then stopped to top off the gas tank.  I don't know how full the saleman got the bike before he handed it over to me, but my best guess is between 80 and 90 mpg.  I'll know better when I do my next fill up.

Then, headed back home.

Another fun time on the new scoot.  That will have to hold me for a while - rain predicted for the next 3 days.

Slo-mo...

 

"Shooting some video, Jim?" 

Well, I did, but that's not what the title is about.  Ever have one of those days where everything takes more time than it should?  This was one of those days.  A nice sunrise to start the day, though...

The plan for the day: get the motorhome out of storage, take it to Discount Tire, have them replace the front wheel trim piece that they pulverized.  Heading west on I-10, Joan could see on the Maps app that there was an accident and stopped traffic ahead.  We bailed off the Interstate just in the nick of time, and wound up taking surface streets to the storage unit.  Plenty of stoplights and traffic.

When we got to the storage unit, we got the coach ready to roll.  I expected it to take maybe 10 minutes at Discount Tire... I was wrong.  The guy who called us to let us know they had the trip piece in said we didn't need an appointment.  He was wrong.  The place was busy.  We had to park off to the side because there were no regular parking sites open.

Once they started on it, the guy didn't have an impact drill with a big enough bit, so I pulled the coach up closer to their building so he could use an air drive to take it off.  The trim piece did not go on easy.  After a half hour of lightly tapping at it with a hammer, the guy pulled the trim piece back off and hit the opening in the wheel with a high power wire brush.  Another 20 minutes and he got it in place... with only a small dent in it.  When he put the wheel back on, he gave it a spin test and it thunked to a stop.  The brake caliper was touching the inside of the wheel.  Wheel back off, bring out the manager who went after the inside of the wheel with that same powered wire brush.  Back on, spin test, then they had to hunt for "Big Bertha," the huge ass torque wrench.  All in, it was just over an hour and a half.

Joan asked me to take her to Texas Roadhouse for lunch.  A quick stop at the Post Office, then up the road and... this Texas Roadhouse isn't open for lunch on Fridays - only Saturday and Sunday.  New plan: we're going to BJ's.  After all, who doesn't like BJ's?  Yes, I am an adolescent in an old man's body.  We waited about 15 minutes for a server to come to our table.  On the bright side, the food was ready in less time than the wait to get our order taken.  Then, it took another 10 minutes for the server to give us our check when we were done and she said, "I'll be right back with your check."

Back home, Joan wanted to print out the insurance info on the new bike before I headed out for a ride.  The printer wanted to do a firmware update before it would print.  I took a photo of the info on her iPad screen, geared up.  Just as I was pulling the scoot out of the garage, Amazon pulled up with 8 packages.  I took them inside, attached a camera to my helmet ('cause I don't have any mounts to put a camera on the scoot - but I think they're in one of those packages), and I headed out.

It was after 3:00 at this point, so I chose to make it a ride up South Mountain - it would be a good opportunity to see how the Burgman pulls up hills (quite nicely, as it turns out)...

I was giggling to myself as I rode: this is a fun little scoot.  Enough power to keep it interesting and so easy to flick it through the curves.

These are stills from the video.  The perspective is all the same due to the camera being mounted on the chin of my helmet.  I stopped at the top and did a walk around to get some views of the bike...

Then, back down the mountain.  When I got home, there were a bunch of things we had ordered through vine: a camera mount, a battery charging case, a RAM-type clamp, and other stuff we paid for - two of which were mounts for the scoot to attach my phone and a camera.  Joan had other stuff to keep her busy while I got the mounts attached.

It was just after sunset by the time I was done, and Murphy wanted to go for a walk.  So, out to the yard... just like Rufus, he seems to really like being out this time of day.

I'm tired.