It's Really Hot Here

 
Saturday: (06/29) Granola and bananas for breakfast.While we had a cooler morning we enjoyed tea under the arbor and I did a little arbor pruning of the wisteria which really gets out of hand if allowed.

 
We also plucked a bunch of apricots and delivered bags to the neighbors as well as keeping some for a cobbler. The garden is getting bigger.

A neighbor set out a nice dining room table which we collected and delivered to Courtney's apartment. Our hot weather made us not want to do much today. While we are only getting up to the mid 90's today, elsewhere it's getting really hot.

Lunch was a ham and cheese sandwich. Lou made Pad Thai with broccoli for dinner.

Sunday: (06/30) Granola for breakfast. I tinkered with various tasks in the morning. We tried setting up Ernie's awning for the trailer but it's too tight to work . It did need drying out though. That led to cleaning off the leaves from the trailer. A few other tasks brought me to lunch time and the hot time of day. Lunch was a ham pepper and tomato salad. Lou made an apricot cobbler which we had for an afternoon snack. The afternoon was spent inside. For dinner we had some roast beef cooked with sauerkraut and French fried potatoes. After dinner I packed up my stuff and headed down to San Jose so i can start work early in the morning.

Monday: (07/01) I started my day with a roast beef, cheese and egg sandwich for breakfast.Then I was out early to apply some paint stripper. While I waited for the stripper to work  I scheduled the hike I'll lead this Friday for my hiking group. I finished up the little 10 foot wide section I've been working on. Unfortunately I'm not happy with the job. The 96 year old base paint coat doesn't come off completely and or at all with the stripper so I started thinking of other methods. i don't like the chemical method anyway. I found a tool that shaves off the paint bringing it down to bare wood that can then be primed and painted to look just like original, or so the reviews and Purdue University say. Lunch was leftover roast beef and sauerkraut. After cleaning up and having lunch I visited Sears and Harbor Freight. I need a part for the router from Sears and a few other things for Harbor Freight, the Men's toy store. For dinner I got some KFC chicken.

Tuesday: (07/02) I started the morning by ordering a tool to help strip the paint, the PaintShaver Pro. Now I have to wait for it to arrive.Of course with out heat spell high temperatures, that isn't a bad idea. After that, I tinkered with thinks other than stripping paint. I cleaned up around the house, removed some fencing and downspouts, removed some old plumbing that used to take the rain water to the sewer and pulled nails and other stuff attached to the walls. I then loaded up a bunch of junk to return to home for disposal and recycling. On the way home, after lunch. I stopped at our local excellent lumber store to pick up some redwood beveled siding to replace damaged siding. Unfortunately the 4" version isn't available so I'll have to mill some myself.  Granola for breakfast. Leftover KFC chicken for lunch. We went to  Sweet Tomatoes salad buffet for dinner.

Wednesday: (07/03) Tea in the back yard to start the day. Very little work and a lot of relaxing today. Apricot cobbler for breakfast. A visit to our LUU Noodle House for lunch of Pad Thai, chow fun noodles and egg rolls. Leftovers for dinner. I had more roast beef and sauerkraut.

Thursday: (07/04) I got up a little earlier than planned due to a noise on the sunroom roof. We had a little heavy rain to start the day. Kind of weird  when I stepped outside and there were no clouds overhead, just one a ways to the North that leaked for about 30 minutes on us.  After the usual tea in the back yard, I did a little work on a sprinkler leak by the arbor. Previously I had found a punctures flex pipe to one of the sprinklers and fixed it but it still remained wet in the area. It right beside the sprinkler valves so there are a lot of pipes in the area. I exposed some of the pipes and vacuumed the water out and looked for water flow. Turns out one of the valves was leaking. I capped it off and will see it that is all the leaks then, if so, will repair the valve. Snacks for lunch. Our neighbor Meili and friend Courtney joined us for dinner. Ernie manned the fire. Dinner was wieners roasted over a fire in the back yard served with corn on the cob, fresh salsa, potato salad and chips. Desert was fresh strawberries. Granola for breakfast.

Coal Mine Ridge Hike

Friday: (06/28) I fixed the usual pre-hike breakfast, a ham egg and cheese sandwich. Lou and Dawn had theirs with the bread.


I met 13 of my fellow hikers for a hike on Coal Mine Ridge in Portola Valley. We had a rather hot hike with the temperatures rising into the mid 90's today.


The swing above along the Toyon Trail is always fun. Along the way we stopped by a creek and three ponds. A nice hike and also nice for it to be over. I had leftover pizza for lunch when I got home. Lou and Dawn got out of the heat and drove up to Half Moon Bay for the day. When I spoke to Lou she said it was cold there. OK, rub it in!

Coal Mine Ridge Trails


EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in the Bay Area, California

Warm Summer Daze

Saturday: (06/22) I mostly relaxed today. I did locate and order a window sash rail and stile router bit for use in making the replacement window sash for San Jose. Lou, Dawn and Meili were off to the garage sales in the morning. Lou also washed and vacuumed the car in the afternoon because it goes in for service Monday and they aren't allowed to see how we really treat it. Donuts for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, and  spaghetti squash, green salad and roast chicken for dinner.

Sunday: (06/23) Breakfast and tea on the patio by the green-house. We spent some time watching the grass grow that was planted a couple of days ago. We picked some apricots for dinner. Lou gave me a haircut. Ernie suggest Lou teach me how to do my own as he does but I pointed out the difficulty in accomplishing that training. Some things just can't be taught and or don't need to be. Lou and Dawn were off to the San Jose Flea Market and garage sales in San Jose. I relaxed all day because it was stormy today. For lunch I stopped by the LUU Noodle house for some egg rolls and an avocado smoothie. Lou made apricot blintzes for dinner with some rather hot sausages.

Monday: (06/24) Cereal for breakfast. It was a drizzly day all day except for  morning rain. Lou took the car in for it's service. I dug out one of our scaffold sets to use in San Jose. I also had my big tool box loaded in the Jeep. When I finally got the scaffold pieces adequately tied down on the roof of the Jeep I headed off to meet Lou in San Jose for lunch at the Chinese buffet near the car dealer where the car is serviced. She used her electric scooter to get there from the dealer. Evidently she fascinated the service reps at the dealer when she had them help her get the scooter out of the trunk. I don't think they thought a scooter would fit. After lunch I stopped at Harbor Freight to look at their routers. I need one that will accept a 1/2 bit while my present one only has a 1/4 collette. I didn't like any of theirs so I also stopped at OSH, a former affiliate of Sears and they have a nice Craftsman router that will do fine, if I don't find a better one before my bit arrives to do the window sash. When I got to the apartment in San Jose I unloaded the scaffold and tool box and then installed my new TV antenna in the apartment. It's much like the one we use in the RV having a good 100 mile range. I stuffed it in the attic and it works pretty good there getting 85 channels about a half dozen of which are worth watching. We needed the antenna because of the digital switch by the local cable company. Until a little over a year ago, they didn't require a set top box except for their premium channels. Dawn was able to get all the free channels from a splitter on the cable to the main house. She hasn't had TV there for a while but since I'm staying there while I'm painting the house I decided to do something about the missing TV antenna. I didn't do much else today since I had a good excuse, the rain. My dinner was Spanish rice with some pastrami. I think Dawn worked at the Palo Alto Friends of the Library sorting books today.

Tuesday: (06/25) I walked over to La Victoria Taqueria for a chorizo Breakfast burrito to start my day. After my return I drove over to a nearby Fry' Electronics store and bought some wiremold to route the TV antenna to the TV more neatly. The off to a Sears store to look at their routers and prices. No better than the OSH store. That figures since they are both owned by Sears, but not much longer. I also stopped by Walmart for a couple of things then stopped at the King Eggroll shop and picked up a few eggrolls and a shrimp ball for lunch. Unfortunately that eggroll shop is close enough for me to drop by too often. When i got home I ordered the Sears router online since they offered it for $10 less online and there was no shipping charge. I also looked up and bought some replacement parts for my table saw online. That was easier than I thought it would be. In installed the wire mold as well. In the afternoon I stopped by a good lumber store, Souther Lumber to check on siding to replace some broken siding on the house. The house uses an alternating 8"/4" beveled siding. They had the 8' but have to order the 4". Nice to know there is a source. Last time I replaced some boards when I changed some windows I had to make my own 4" siding. I had BBQ ribs and a baked potato for dinner.

Wednesday: (0626) I fixed eggs and pastrami for breakfast. My first task was to erect a mast for the TV antenna. and complete the antenna installation.


I removed a bush from the front yard that I was uncertain whether it needed to be removed but decided it must be removed (above left). I then performed a test with the citrus paint remover on the wall behind where the bush was. The test went better than anticipated so I did a larger section of the wall. Chili beans for lunch. Its turning out to be a warm day and a bit muggy as well today. I managed to complete stripping about 100 sf of the wall. Dinner was more BBQ rids and a baked potato.

Thursday: (06/27) Granola for breakfast. I started with a quick visit to Lowe's to get a canvas drop cloth. I setup my scaffold and started stripping some of the eves above yesterdays work. It was a warm day. I had an early light lunch of some fruit and cottage cheese. I don't like to eat too heavy when I worn and it's hot. That plan didn't work because the tenants brought me a big lunch of BBQ chicken and vegetables. I had to be polite and eat it. Very good, of course. For dinner I had a pizza from Papa John's. Lou and Dawn were out to dinner in Sunnyvale and then to a book reading in Menlo Park at Kepler's bookstore.

Big Basin's Berry Creek Falls Hike

Friday: (06/21) Friday hike day. I was off to Big Basin State Park to meet my hiking group.. 


A nice day for the hike with clear skies, and a little breeze to help cool on the warm day. 


There are three flls along Berry Creek Falls Trail. We stopped at the first, Golden Falls for lunch.


The trail beside Silver Falls is most interesting (Previous right and above left). The trail starts beside the top of the falls and goes down the side of the cliff with the aide of a cable.


Berry Creek Falls, above left, was looking good. We had 13 hikers for the hike that was 10.5 miles with a total 4250 feet total up over 6 hours.

Big Basin Berry Creek Falls Hike

EveryTrail - Find the best Hiking in the Bay Area, California



I fixed ham, egg and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. Lunch was a ham and cheese sandwich at Golden Falls in Big Basin State Park. Lou made weiners with french fried potatoes and corn on the cob for dinner.

A Little Work And A Sick Jeep

Monday: (06/17) We went ot IKEA for breakfast. It's not free anymore but 99 cents provides a good breafast of eggs, home fries and bcon. I added some Swedish pancakes as well. The main reason was a stop at Home Depot nearby for some things.


When we returned home, I installed the wall mount for our new living room TV this morning. I went up fairly easily and looks good.  I didn't leave for San Jose until mid afternoon. i stopped by Home Depot and retunred some things and picked up so citrus paint stripper to try out on the paint job in San Jose. When i arrived in San Jose I had to replace the smoke/fire alarm batteries in the house then stow away all the stuff I'd brought down. For dinner I stopped by KFC for their special chicken and corn dinner.


Tuesday: (06/18) Breakfast was granola and a banana.  I tinkered cleaning out some of the storage in the apartment this morning. I also serviced the water softner, checked the sump pump. It kept the basement dry as it should. Pepe, the tenants dog kept coming by for a visit. While he barks whenever he sees me he kept coming just inside the apartment but never anounced himself. Must want some company even he he doesn't like me. My lunch was a leftover chicken breast from last night's dinner. I needed a pruner so I went over to the local Target store about 8 miles away. The Jeep was making it known that it was sick by squeling. I checked it and it appears to be the idler pully or ? and the belt is being worn. I've heard a little noise for a while but it never did anything whenever I'd raise the hood to check. Not so now, it needs help. I returned to the apartment and finished my work. I pruned the trees and bushes in the front of the house to clear for painting. I may go further and remove some of the bushes since they are over grown. I prepared my dinner of pastrami with a baked potato and then drove back up to Palo Alto after the commute traffic had died. I had made an appointment to get the Jeep looked at up there tomorrow. Kind of ruins my work week.

Wednesday: (06/19) I delivered the Jeep to A1 Foreign Auto in Mountain View. No the jeep isn't foreign but the shop is actually good for anything. Of course it was quiet as a mouse with no squeling today. Thats because the idler pully is frozen and the belt is just slipping by. Wouldn't have gone much further without a tow. Nice of it to have this probelm while we're home. I caught the bus home and then warmed up some leftover corned beef hash and cooked some eggs for breakfast. After breakfast i pulled out my big contractor tool box to take down to San Jose to hold the paint and stuff while i work there. It needed to be cleaned up. I got distracted while pulling it out and cleaned up the side of the house as well as making a bunch of spiders unhappy by brushing off all the house. Dawn made a nice green salad for lunch. Shepherds pie for dinner

Thursday: (06/20) I tinkered in the wood shop this morning. After lunch I picked up the Jeep. It's all better now. Lou and Dawn were busy cleaning out their closets. Dawn also had a hair appointment which I drove her to. Cereal for breakfast. A nice tuna on green salad for lunch. Baked macaroni and cheese with squash for dinner.

Father's Day

Sunday: (06/16) Father's day so I get to "officially" relax as opposed to my normal relaxing. Lou started my day with some corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. After breakfast Lou spread some lawn seed and I spread some compost all over the rear lawn. Ernie has been busy the last few days de-thatching the lawn.

 

A Fair Day

Saturday: (06/15) Lou and Dawn were busy with a few garage sales in the morning. I worked in the office and also rearranged the Jeeps tire sensors to the correct wheels. The tire installation left them all in the wrong positions. There is no such thing as a shop that seems to understand tire sensor needs and tire pressure. Later we all went to the San Mateo County Fair. It's the last real fair anywhere near us in the South Bay. Cereal for breakfast. Ham and cheese sandwich for my lunch and vegetable soup for Lou and Dawn. Dinner at Neil's Cafe in San Mateo. I had my CFS and Lou and Dawn shared a cobb salad.


Lou's new scooter made here visit possible.


There were some very interesting exhibits. There was a 3D printer, a result of the Maker project in the area.


The also had a very interesting robotic surgery system there where you could take a turn at controlling the machine. You don't see that at every fair.


And there was still a trace of a real fair where we visited some of the animals.