I am moving out of a million+ dollar mansion on the Intercoastal in Fort Lauderdale into this place and couldn't be happier. I know people tend to bounce from one extreme to the opposite before they settle somewhere in the middle, and my new place is ON A DIRT ROAD! I have moved and set up my two fish tanks in my new living room. The TV tank goes into the entertainment center, and the 29 gallon planted tank goes between the bedroom and bathroom doors. There is a lot of other stuff in the room as the bedroom is getting a new tile floor put in. This is the first load of stuff I hauled up in my new truck. It's amazing what can be crammed into a truck. This is the same corner after the second load. Only about half the stuff got dropped here.
Katie and I dropped off my second load of stuff today. This was the truckload that Bill was so kind enough to let me store in his garage for a year and a half. The only thing broken out of all the glass was a chipped mug that could have come from the store that way. I haven't decided how to do the living room but I have awesome ideas for the kitchen. Matt and Jessica left a rolling dishwasher for me, so I have a dishwasher now. It isn't built in so I am going to make a small cutting boad surfaced island to put against one wall to wheel it into. I will get another folding barstool and I can use it as a breakfast table too. I am going to make it nice and tall so it will be a great prep area for me. The coolest idea is for the computer in the kitchen. I will put each of my 19 inch monitors into the two corners of the kitchen on those wall TV shelves even with the top of the cabinets. They will both show the same screen, and each end of the kitchen will have a wireless keyboard and mouse in a tray under the cabinets. I will use my current Media Center PC so I can watch the food network or have a recepe on the screen. I am thinking it will be cool. I am also going to build a storage shelf that is strong enough to put the fridge and a chest freezer ontop of so I don't need to squat down to look into the fridge.
I am going to make another trip this weekend for my junk. I will be moving my fish tanks. That will be a chore. I am thinking all the fish will end up in the planted tank for the time being. I want to put the tv tank into my entertinment center. I think I want a stand for my planted tank and put that between the doors to the bedroom and bathroom. I may break down and buy that instead of building it.g it.
I won't be working on my boat for a few weeks. I am going to haul the pieces up to my new place this weekend when I pick up my keys for my new apartment. I am hoping that I can move in 2 weekends, but I am prepared to take 3 weekends to do it. The fish tanks and computer are the last to go up. Home is where the Hard Drive is...
I bound up all the loose pieces together that are too long to fit into the truck. I then wrapped the ends in plastic so a loose board or aluminum peice doesn't work itself loose. I will rope and bungie this bundle to the roof rack on the truck. It ought stay.
When I walked to Target to get the string and bungies, I wandered through the frozen food section and saw Pizza. YUM! Where I am staying was having a party tonight, so I felt awkward using the microwave, so I broke out my little camp oven. I preheated it up to nearly 400 degrees, but it could only cook the pizza and bread at 300 degrees.
YUM. It is good as I am writing this. The Pizza got a little bit toasty on the bottom, being so close to the heat.
When Katie came and picked up Gecko (my old car), her brother and sister in law came down too. We went to the beach friday night and, well, my truck got full of sand! I wandered through target today looking for Mink Oil for my shoes and stopped at the vacumn cleaner section. There was a stray box for a Durabuilt 12 volt twin-motor auto vacuum cleaner. I wandered over to the automotive department, and saw it was $14.99. I bought it. I need to get the new-truck toys to go with my new truck, right? I even bought a $10 pack of assorted new-truck cleaning rags.
The goofy thing works pretty well. I am glad it has the detachable motorized rotary brush attachment, as the plain vac part wasn't sucking up any of the sand. The little crevice tool is JUST long enough to get between the seat and the side of the truck. I banned Todd and Sarah from the truck for today because they tracked so much sand into it. Doesn't really matter, they are back home, attending a wedding today.
After vacuuming the truck out, I decided to try the leather & vinyl conditioner stuff that the dealership gave me. So I did the dash and so forth. It's amazing all the little dark marks on the oddest spots.
I was going to work on my folding kayak, but as I was getting all the stuff out, it felt like rain. A quick check of the weather showed that it was indead going to be a nasty little storm cell. South Florida (I think the whole state really) is suffereing from a severe drought, and they have us on a strict water rationing, down to grass watering and vehicle washing 1 day a week. I decided to take advantage of the rain, so I washed my truck in the rain. I got it all cleaned up, but the rain died back to a nice gentle rain, and I went in to check to see what happened to my nice, nasty storm. It had vered south, so the worst of it went west of me. Great, I got a half rinsed truck. So, I put on a dry shirt, and drove to Taco Bell for supper. They are tearing up the road in front of Taco Bell, I can't get there, drive around, I can sneak in through the back ally - which is currently bare dirt due to the road construction. So, my nice, clean, freshly washed and (now thanks to the drive in the rain) rinsed truck is now full of mud.
Gecko (my old 97 Ford Escort) finally left. When I bought my 2007 Ford Escape, I had given it to Katie. She needed a car, as her last one died a horrible death - I can't imagine hemorrhageing fluids out of every orfice, but that is what it suffered. Her prior car had been total when an old man ran a red light at high speeds. The Dealership wasn't going to give me anything for it. The bluebook value of the car is about $1500 or so last I looked for the amount of icky oldness it sufferes - dirty seats, rusty fenders, etc. and it needs about $2k in repairs to be made 'right'. Katie can sink a few hundred bucks into it for new tires, and the front brakes & rotors, and the car is safe to drive. She can then decide if the transmission leak, bad struts, front end alignment, etc. etc. etc. need to be fixed. I checked the brake pads today, and they will be good for another six months by my driving, so they should last a month with the much longer drive she does to get to work.
243109 Can you believe it? And that is LOW as the tires are oversized and the car thinks it went 70 miles when it goes 75. I bought the car at 208k on the odemeter, so that means I put 35k miles by the odemeter, but actually went 37.6k miles. That will put the car just 5k short of a quarter million miles.
I would like to say that I am going to miss the old car, and in a sense I will, I can't stand on the hood of my new Ford Escape as it would hurt a lot more if I fell off. It treated me well, I only ever put a new engine, timing belt and fuel filter into it in the several years I drove it. I hope it holds together through the end of the year for Katie
I can't believe I haven't had a chance to work on my boat in a month already! With the new job, and the commute, and the getting ready to move, I just haven't made time to work on it. Last weekend, I did pick up a new piece of aluminum stock to replace a piece that I incorrectly bent for the coaming. I have been working until after 6 and 7 so I haven't been getting home until dark some nights.
I have been thinking about how I am going to move my stuff that has been in storage in Wisconsin for approaching 3 years now down to Florida now that I have a vehicle that can actually carry stuff. I was thinking about buying/building a flatbed trailer, and then using some of the ideas and techniques from the PakYak to make a collapsing box so I can have a covered trailer. I also have some ideas on how to make the trailer itself fold up so it is easier to store. I have to think through the safety implications of a folding trailer, but I think it is doable in a safe manner.
Well, I haven't blogged in 2 weeks now. I started my new job. I love it. It is very challenging and rewarding!
I went fishing with Eric again this Friday. We didn't catch anything, had a couple of bites, but it's just a fishing story if you can't take pictures.
I scratched my truck. I leaned a couple of fishing poles up against the truck, and when I closed the back, they slid down. I got the paint good. Anybody have any suggestions on how to fix this? I picked up a scuff by the gas cap today when I was at Lowes too. I guess it isn't new anymore. I have over a thousand miles on it already too! Crazy!
The air and sea show was this weekend. This is the bearest piece of beach I could find.
I like the difference in planes as they got more advanced. I think this photo captures the progression quite nicely.
I am moving out of a million+ dollar mansion on the Intercoastal in Fort Lauderdale into this place and couldn't be happier. I know people tend to bounce from one extreme to the opposite before they settle somewhere in the middle, and my new place is ON A DIRT ROAD!
I have moved and set up my two fish tanks in my new living room. The TV tank goes into the entertainment center, and the 29 gallon planted tank goes between the bedroom and bathroom doors. There is a lot of other stuff in the room as the bedroom is getting a new tile floor put in.
This is the first load of stuff I hauled up in my new truck. It's amazing what can be crammed into a truck.
This is the same corner after the second load. Only about half the stuff got dropped here.
