Summer in Baltimore - 2017

Aug 7 thru Aug 12

--Blogpost written by Bob

Today (Monday, August 7) was a rainy day--the kind I really like.  It rained lightly all day (and into the night).  Consequently, it was a relaxing day.  I spent most of the day in Annapolis doing various errands (liquor store, grocery store, hardware store, Italian Market for lunch, and a gas station, to name a few of my stops).

During my travels today I discovered the runaway eggplant that got loose in the car and rolled under the passenger seat about a week ago.  In one of my stops today it must have rolled back out, revealing itself.  This eggplant was the subject of several discussions between Maggie and I, with her claims that she put it in the fridge and my claims that it was nowhere to be found in the fridge.  The eggplant blended in with the color of the interior of our car and was perfectly silent the entire time.

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The rain cleared up today (Tuesday, August 8) but it remained cool and will remain cool for the next five days!  This is quite a break from the typical 95-degree/90% humidity Baltimore summer weather!

We have a great weather forecast for the next several days.  This
image was taken from my Weather Underground app.

Rather than rigidly mount my new HF receiver I decided to simply put a soft rubber pad under it to keep it from moving around.  The 12" x 12" x 1/4" thick rubber pad arrived yesterday--so I cut it down to 10" x 10" today and placed it under the radio.  It seems to work pretty nice.

Rather than rigidly mount the new HF receiver, I'm using a soft
rubber pad beneath it to keep it from sliding around.

Another small project I started today was painting a couple small picture frames using a high-gloss "hunter green" enamel--if it works out and looks nice, I may paint the other frames used in the grouping on our port bulkhead in the main salon.  (Right now, there are 5 frames with 4 different colors, none of them matching very well.)

I am painting two small picture frames "hunter green" and if
they look good I will paint the three others.

I picked up Maggie at BWI airport this evening.  She was glad to be home after 5 days in Galveston, Texas.

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Today (Wednesday, August 9) is another beautiful day with lots of sunshine and low humidity.   Among other things, we performed our weekly cleaning of all the raw water strainers.  (Our air conditioner cooling water and the supplemental water cooling for the fridge each have their own raw water strainer.)  We collected some small pieces of plastic bag, parts of a small jellyfish, and the normal thick marine growth on the strainer baskets.  I have spare (plastic) baskets for each raw water strainer and keep swapping them out, with the spare stored in a jar of bleach while not in use.  I also put a chlorine tablet in each strainer (when it first goes into service) which slows the marine growth a little.  We have found that if we let this cleaning task go undone for two weeks, the air conditioner usually cuts out with a high-pressure fault (HPF) due to insufficient cooling water.

Maggie made a low-carb blueberry pie this afternoon, using
almond flour, fresh blueberries, and SPLENDA--it only
has 6 grams of carbohydrates, mostly
due to the blueberries.

This is a photo of a ship in Baltimore Harbor that I snapped last year
on our way out of the harbor.  I still really like this photo.

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On Thursday, August 10, we spent the day in Annapolis dong all kinds of errands.

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Friday, August 11, was pretty uneventful overall.  I continued to paint the remainder of the small picture frames hunter green--they look pretty nice!  We walked to Kooper's Tavern for lunch and had cheeseburgers without the bun (remember, we are both on on low-carb diets) and side salads.

We had a brief rain shower pass through during the middle of the afternoon.  For the most part, the day was overcast and relatively cool (low 80's).

Lizzie was enjoying being outdoors this afternoon.

It was my turn to cook dinner tonight.  We had blackened salmon,
brussels sprouts, and a tomato slice.

I am slowly getting familiar with my new HF receiver and have learned how to use memory channels and to use the descriptive comments for each channel.  I have tuned into international broadcasts from Turkey, China, Cuba, Romania, and others, all with English language programs.  China Radio International out of Beijing is particularly interesting.  It has English learning programs as well as Chinese learning programs.  Their announcers speak excellent American English.  (I am disheartened by the fact that most of the U.S. stations on shortwave are old fashioned "bible thumpers" on religious stations.  Is this how the rest of the world sees us?)

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Saturday was overcast and lightly rained most of the day.  We got caught up on inside projects.  I had to touch up some varnish on parts of the interior bulkhead and hang the little pictures in the newly painted picture frames.  It was a peaceful and relaxing day...


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