Category: My Photos
Caveat: Tree #1307
This tree was behind a bright red flower that finally realized it could bloom.
Arthur saw his follow-up with the cardiologist, today. Frankly, it was a bit anticlimactic – basically, the message boiled down to: “more data required, meanwhile just monitor things closely.”
The doctor placed a lot of emphasis on introspection – Arthur needs to pay close attention to how his pulse correlates with his general level of energy, his capacity for exertion, etc. Like that’s gonna happen – Arthur isn’t at all introspective (at least, to external appearances). I’m not sure Arthur even understood what the doctor meant in using the word “introspection”. Keep a diary? (The doctor actually suggested that). I had to suppress a snort of cynicism.
Well, to quote a common Arthurism: it will be what it will be.
Caveat: Tree #1306
Caveat: Tree #1304
Caveat: Tree #1303
This tree was there as I began work on my new storage shed – let’s call it “studio 2.0”, since the original “studio” was crushed by a giant snowball last winter.
Caveat: Tree #1302
This tree hangs out at the cosmopolitan Frank Peratrovich Airport, just north of Klawock.
We took my other uncle, Alan, to the airport for his return to his home in Colorado, this morning. The skies had cleared remarkably.
Caveat: Tree #1301
This tree saw the moon through heavy fog at 4:45 AM. It was quite dark, so I got a low-quality photo, but with today’s cameras, it still works out fine.
Caveat: Tree #1300
This tree is a guest tree from my past. I took this picture of a sunset looking west on Teheran-no, a major thoroughfare in the trendy Gangnam district in Seoul, in December, 2008.
Caveat: Tree #1298
Caveat: Tree #1297
Caveat: Tree #1296
Caveat: Tree #1295
This tree was experiencing great illumination.
[daily log: walking, 5.5km; retailing, 8.5hr; c100054063084s]
Caveat: Tree #1294
Caveat: Tree #1293
Caveat: Tree #1292 “It cannot contain our joy”
Caveat: Tree #1291
This tree has white bark.
The sun was out (what omen is this?). I spent the morning repairing the electrical connection problem on the right-hand downrigger on the boat. I had been waiting for a sunny day because I didn’t want to mess with electrical wiring while it was damp and drizzly. The repair was fairly straightforward – I just replaced the connector end on the boat-side cable, which was badly corroded.
[daily log: walking, 5.5km; dogwalking, 3km; c101065062084s]
Caveat: Tree #1290
This tree (small, in the foreground) is my redwood tree – mentioned before. I decided it was looking healthy enough to plant it in the ground. I put it along the path to my treehouse.
[daily log: walking, 4.5km; dogwalking, 3km; c093057063084s]
Caveat: Tree #1289
Caveat: Tree #1288
This tree has twice as much fun as your average tree.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; dogwalking, 3km; c101059055084s]
Caveat: Tree #1287
This tree oversaw a boat that wasn’t afloat.
Chet the boat mechanic made short work of repairing Arthur’s boat. It was finished today. Because of high turnover at his shop, he wanted us to fetch it as soon as possible.
Arthur basically bullied me into letting him drive the boat home alone. I wasn’t happy, but I need to just let go. It’s his boat. If he wants to go out and have adventures in it and wander around the sea, I need to refuse to stand in his way. He thinks I’m overly controlling and excessively cautious. But of course, he doesn’t remember all the stuff that’s gone wrong in the past. He just has these quite stale, vague mental images of everything going smoothly. So Arthur drove the boat home, and I took the boat trailer home with the car. I’m pretty angry, but mostly because he is so dismissive of my efforts to communicate. He ignores or willfully misunderstands my concerns until finally I give up on trying to explain them, and let him have his way. Bear in mind that this is not specific to his cognitive issues related to the stroke and head injury – he has always been like this. I think in some weird, subconscious way, he exploits his new memory and comprehension issues to ensure he can be this way “more and better than ever.”
The problem with the boat was an “Idle control valve.” Chet wrote on his summary of work done:
Alarms going off, hook motor to CDS fault idle control valve, replace bad IAC valve, service both motors, oil change, lower lubes, test run both motors on hose no faults on main, replace trim bracket anode on main
Which is to say, it was easy to fix – for him. There is no way I could have done it. These modern engines with their electronics and such, you need the “CDS” (computer diagnostic system) to be able to figure anything out.
Below is the offending removed and replaced valve.
[daily log: walking, 3.5km; dogwalking, 4km; c149080063084s]
Caveat: Tree #1286
Caveat: Tree #1285
This tree was in the background as a raven cavorted along at dock-edge.
We got the boat to town successfully. It took about 95 minutes on the kicker (small) engine only, at about 5 knots speed but with a good tailwind outside of Port Saint Nick that got us up to around 7 knots. It’s parked at the boat-doctor’s place. Here is a view of Craig harbor as we entered. It was a rainy morning.
Then Art got a ride home with Penny and I worked all day. I made some frames and messed with spreadsheets. I realized I had done something quite new in life: I commuted to work by boat this morning.
[daily log: walking, 6km; retailing, 8.5hr; boating, 2hr; c103061055084s]
Caveat: Tree #1284
This tree is by the pond.
I worked a half-day, today, because tomorrow bright and early Art and I are driving the boat to town – on just the kicker engine (the small one used for trolling – maxes out at about 6mph speed for the boat). We got squeezed in by the boat service guy, after I told him our sad story. My boss/friend Chad drove the trailer into town this evening, so that way the trailer is already there for us.
Meanwhile, I got the washing machine working this morning (see the other day’s blog post for how it stopped working after our plumbing misadventures). Really I just shook it around and banged on it, with the intention to take it apart. It apparently got worried and started working. It seemed to have needed the “Arthur treatment”, I guess: a bit of aggressive handling?
Also, too, my greenhouse had greenthings in it.
Caveat: Tree #1283
This tree is from my past. I took the picture in August, 2018. It’s along the road from Arcata to Mad River Beach – the beach closest to the home where I grew up.
I didn’t mess with the washing machine today. The laundry can wait. I took a break, and did geofiction.
Caveat: Tree #1282
This tree saw a dumptruck up on a pile of rocks. Maybe it was full of caveats.
It never rains but it pours, some more.
I installed a bypass for the filter system. It was a lot of work – I was a full-time plumber today.
I turned it on. It doesn’t leak. The filters shown here are not functioning – they’re missing internal pieces that we ordered. The pipes encircling the filter system are my day’s assault on plumbing and engineering standards. I should have taken a “before” photo but I didn’t.
This all works, so I disconnected the temporary hose bypass mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, and decided celebrate by re-hooking up the washing machine and doing some laundry. Unfortunately, the door latch mechanism on the washing machine is broken. This has happened before: see blog from 2 1/2 years ago. I’m exhausted and beginning to feel burned out on home- and boat-repair issues. And the end is not in sight. I guess I’ll mess with the washing machine tomorrow.
Caveat: Tree #1281
This tree is awaiting more rain.
It never rains but it pours. On top of the boat problem, this morning it turned out the UV water filter system had managed to stop working during a brief power outage yesterday. it turned out the florescent UV bulb inside it was burned out. Art did have a replacement on hand, but unfortunately there’s a glass protective sleeve that goes around, that somehow broke on trying to reinstall things – I suspect I was doing something wrong. But in all the cardboard tubes which I thought had spare, additional glass protective sleeves, there was nothing but air – Arthur was saving them for some reason, but the result was that I thought we had more backup inventory than in fact we had. So now we have to await a re-order of protective sleeves from Amazon. Meanwhile, it turns out that when Arthur built this filter system, he didn’t take into account the possibility that it might need to be bypassed temporarily. There’s no bypass route or valves. So… I had to construct a bypass using a garden hose from an upstream spigot to a downstream spigot – the latter being the water source for the washing machine. Here is the hose, coming up the stairs…
… and connecting behind the washing machine.
This more-or-less works for water supply, though our laundry facility is disabled. But now we wait 10 days while Amazon delivers the part we need. I will work on re-engineering the filter installation area so that it has an actual, workable bypass system for events like this in the future.
Caveat: Tree #1280
This tree saw a fog-bank attacking the midsection of Sunnahae Mountain.
Except for our trip to town for Thursday shopping, I spent almost the entire day trying to troubleshoot or fix the boat’s engine – problem was described two weeks ago on our abortive fishing trip. I made very little progress. I changed spark plugs, fuel filters – not super easy, given the boat was in the water and my own lack of experience with marine engines, but I’m good at reading a manual. I added stabilizer to the fuel system. I ran the motor for several hours, messing with the throttle and trying to get the idle to stick. No luck. And taking the boat in for service is not in the cards: the guy in town who does boat service is booked until October. Seriously.
[daily log: walking, 7.5km; dogwalking, 3km; c120070067084s]
Caveat: Tree #1279
This tree is down a hill, with another tree.
[daily log: walking, 5.5km; retailing, 8.5hr; c101068066084s]
Caveat: Tree #1278
Caveat: Tree #1277
This tree stood in the background while I exploited a moment of non-rain to begin trying to diagnose our boat’s engine’s problem. Something is causing it not to idle. I took out and inspected the spark plugs. Turns out Art doesn’t have a spare set – so I’ll shop for them tomorrow.
Caveat: Tree #1276
Caveat: Tree #1275
This tree was beside a dog. Or was it vice versa?
[daily log: walking, 4.5km; dogwalking, 3km; c098065060084s]