Fall Life in Baltimore

Sep 28 thru Oct 4

—Blogpost written by Bob

Friday, September 28

The sun is shining brightly today!!! The early morning’s overcast sky cleared up at about 9:30, ending the week or more of rain we have experienced. A cool breeze blows from the West.  I am so glad for the warm sunshine!

Our Maryland flag flies in the late morning
breeze.  We both still feel an affinity to 
the State of Maryland, even though 
we are now Florida residents.
(Whoops!  Our Maryland
flag is upside down!)

I spent the morning adjusting our new car to our personal needs. I setup the Bluetooth “hands free” cell phone feature for both cell phones. I set the FM radio presets to our favorite local stations—the first one being NPR.  I also Installed our old GPS and fastened our EZPass transponder to the windshield. Now, our new car seems like it’s ours. (On Tuesday morning, we get the rims changed out.)  We are still waiting for an acceptable settlement on our old wrecked car after 24 days!

My afternoon involved troubleshooting the stove burner that recently started burning unevenly (and cutting out sometimes).  I read the instruction manual and then called Force 10, the manufacturer, for their advice.  I was surprised to quickly get someone on the phone who was so knowledgeable.

The right side of the burner had a much
higher flame than the left side. 

Their advice was to remove the burner cap, the burner base, and the orifice. I was advised to clean the orifice (with a Q-tip), replace it, and, then, reassemble the burner, being careful that the burner and burner cap are properly aligned and tight.

After removing the orifice, it should be noted that is was perfectly clean.  However, I noticed that the burner cap was loose.  After reassembling the burner and carefully locking the burner cap in place, it worked perfectly.

Saturday, September 29

Last night was the first night this season that we didn't use the onboard air conditioning.  Today was a typical (pleasantly cool) autumn day--low humidity with the high temperature in the upper 70's.

After a light Saturday morning breakfast at the boater's lounge, I installed six grommets in the sun shade that Maggie completed a couple weeks ago.  We installed it in the cockpit to test it out.

The shade is constructed of a plastic mesh fabric--it
allows air to pass through and some sunlight.

The sun shade is constructed from Phifertex Mesh (70% shade factor) in almond color (available from SAILRITE) while Maggie made the border from Sunbrella marine fabric.  I installed six grommets--one on each corner and one in the middle of the long sides--I probably should have used four or six more (of course, I can always add more).

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I usually spend fall Saturday afternoons watching college football.  This evening, Penn State plays Ohio State at home.  While I was watching Clemson and Syracuse battle it out this afternoon, Lola was napping in her usual spot--the middle section of the dining table.  Maggie even made a little pillow for her that fits in her favorite spot.

Sunday, September 30

We woke to an overcast sky and a cool temperature on this last day of September.  By mid-morning the sky had cleared and the sun came out.  After experiencing the change of seasons all my life I am still amazed at the sudden transformation in outside temperature—it was only two weeks ago that we experienced temperatures in the 90’s.

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I am still recovering from Penn State’s one-point loss to Ohio State last night—it ended at 27-26.  Penn State was ahead most of the game but not when the game ended. 

I’m still very proud of my alma mater’s game performance, one team had to win and the other lose.  We just happen to be the one to lose this year.

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Lately, I have been feeling my age (71).  I have little aches and pains in my joints and my muscles are not as toned and flexible as they used to be.  Occasionally, I get annoying ailments that I haven’t experienced before in my life—like right now I have an annoying rash on my lower left leg. I keep thinking that it may be flesh-eating bacteria from the Potapsco River, caught while I dangled my legs in the water while painting the C&C stars on the hull.   I used to hate it when older people talked about their aches and pains.  Now, I understand it.  At least, I still have my mental capacity (I think?).

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Maggie and I both worked outside this morning--I made new rubber strips for the dock steps and Maggie polished the stainless steel window frames using FLITZ and cleaned the windows using plastic cleaner.

Maggie polishes the stainless steel
window frames on the port side.

The new 1/8-inch thick rubber strips were adhered to
the plastic steps with 3M-brand VHB tape.

We have to take our dock steps with us when we go to Charleston SC for the winter, both to purposes of our dock replacement and because we will need them in Charleston to get on and off the boat--otherwise it is quite a big step down to a floating dock.

Monday, October 1

I had to be up and out relatively early this morning to get our new Prius bumper touched up. When we purchased the car it was scratched down to the black plastic (by the previous owner) and our dealer agreed to repair it as part of the sale. Fortunately, the weather (cool and sunny) has been cooperative today since the painting has to be done outdoors. (The new alloy rims are scheduled to arrive today and will be installed tomorrow, completing the personalization of our new car.)

The new white Prius (I’ve decided to call her Sadie) is the first used car I’ve purchased since purchasing a used BMW 528 as a secondary car in 1988, thirty years ago. Since this car will be stored 6 months out of every year (while we are somewhere south), it should last almost as long as I’m able to drive it, barring another severe accident.

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Lately, I have completely abandoned my low-carb (Atkins) diet because I got to the point where I craved carbohydrates (I really missed fresh fruits, in particular).  I’m trying to find some middle ground between the 20 grams of carbs per day I was maintaining on the low-carb diet and the 225-350 grams of carbs of a normal 2,000 daily calorie diet. 

While waiting for right front fender to be painted, I
enjoyed a light breakfast at a
nearby Starbucks.

Seventy-five grams of carbs seems like that desired middle ground.  So, starting tomorrow, I’m going to adopt a 75-gram carb limit. It is a diet that should still allow some weight loss, but at a slower rate and be a little less restrictive. (I might even be able to adjust this limit downward depending on how it works out.)

Tuesday, October 2

We drove to Annapolis in the morning to get our wheel rims changed out. While I waited for the rim changeout, Maggie spent some time organizing our storage locker, with particular emphasis on our winter clothes.

I fully expected to not have functioning tire pressure sensors in the new wheels but Merchant’s Tire (now NTB) were able to remove the sensors from the old wheels and re-use them in the new wheels.  After shelling out nearly $200 for the wheel changeout and spending about an hour in the waiting room, I drove away with nice new alloy rims.

Sadie now has pretty alloy rims!

When I got back to our storage area Maggie had made a lot of progress. We quickly sorted out winter clothes to take with us for the winter. After a shot stop at Goodwill (dropping off some clothes) we stopped at Italian Market for lunch.

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I had a doctor's appointment at 1:30 PM--the appointment was made long before I contracted the rash on my left leg.  My doctor's appraisal of the rash (even though is was pretty much healed already) was that it was most likely shingles.  Even though I had a shingles vaccine within the last 2 years, the old vaccine was only 50% effective--a new one has an effectiveness of 95% but it is not yet available in our area.  The antibiotic I was taking and the application of the Cortizone cream was the most effective treatment for shingles, as it turns out.  (Shingles only appear on one side of the body and they are not contagious unless if in contact with someone who has never had chicken pox.)

Wednesday, October 3

A beautiful sunny day with some significant humidity best represents the weather today. Our primary goal for the day is to wash the winter clothes we’ve taken out of storage and to organize them on the boat.

Maggie made this quilt from Batik squares and
triangles collected during our last two trips
to the Bahamas. The Batik fabric was
made on Andros Island.

I am currently reading a book about the vanishing Tangier Island, called Chesapeake Requiem by Earl Swift.  Tangier Island will probably disappear within 25 years because of rising seal level and erosion of its banks, unless something is done to maintain the little island in the Chesapeake Bay.

The cover of Chesapeake Requiem
by Earl Swift.

Today was a relaxing day full of reading and accomplishing some minor chores.  Tomorrow, we drive to Annapolis again...

Thursday, October 4

While today is VIP Day at the Annapolis Sailboat Show, we are headed to Annapolis for another reason--Maggie has a doctor's appointment.  We had to be in Annapolis by 7:30 AM—so, we left the boat at 6:30 AM. It was still dark outside. It’s been a long time since I was up this early but I have to get used to it again for our trip down the ICW. Oh, but wait, we are supposed to be taking the trip easier, so maybe not.

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We decided to do some provisioning on the way back to Baltimore—items that don’t have to be refrigerated. Even though we will be staying stateside this winter, a good inventory of dry goods will minimize our trips to the grocery store.

We bought a full cart of dry goods today.

It took until 2 PM to get all the dry goods put away in their respective storage spaces.

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By mid-afternoon is got quite warm outside but it was a comfortable low 80's.

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We will be spending tomorrow at the Annapolis Sailboat Show and hopefully we will find a lot of sailing goodies.  Stay tuned...

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