Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Long day in June

The end of spring certainly has brought interesting winter continuing the trend of the entire year so far. When it hasn't been raining copious amounts there have been sunny days with perfect temperatures and very cool evenings. Once we got the screen room set up it's been a couple of weeks since we've used it as it's been too cool to sit out and enjoy it until recently.

This pass weekend we did begin eating lunch on the deck and cooking supper on the grill though lingering much later after was a little to chilly. Today was quite the opposite, in the 90's this afternoon still pretty sticky by suppertime but we ate outside in spite of it and if had been a weekend eve we'd probably be out there still. And this being the longest day of the year. We may celebrate though around 9:30pm when the International Space Station will be visible for four minutes to our north.

On that note say goodnight E'owyn, say goodnight Patches.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

A little technology goes a long distance?

Who'd have thought that having new siding on the a house would screw up cellphone reception. Well apparently it does when the cellphone signal is a little weak to begin with and there's a thin layer of insulation with a sheet of foil under the new siding. Ever since we've had the new siding there are dead zone spots where we lose reception entirely. A little inconvenient especially considering we do not have a land line phone anymore. Why pay two phone bills. I finally Googled "cellphone signal booster", or something like that and presto, several cellphone carriers had devices that hook up to the broadband internet service to be your own little cell tower. Our carrier, AT&T, has the MicroCell.


I was able to buy a refurbished unit for $50, new they run for $200, quadruple happy. Easy to setup, 4 or 5 bars all through the house. Step outside, beyond 40 ft +/- and the phone picks up the regular signal. No additional costs and one issue resolved - isn't technology wonderful.

Sunday, June 03, 2012

Catch up post - Memorial Day Weekend

Unlike this weekend the Memorial Day weekend had as good as weather I could hope for. Presently we are experiencing our second rain soaked day with a least a couple more to follow. After having the new camper home for a week and a day to prepare it for the holiday weekend we left for Cape Cod to Dunroamin' Trailer Park.

The combination of the new truck and towing a much larger camper than we had was mildly tested when we drove it home from the dealer. The trip to Massachusetts was a bit more of a challenge as the traffic was heavier and of course more intense the closer we got to the Bay State while sharing the highway with freight and other holiday travelers.


We chose to bypass driving through Boston and looped around to the west on Interstate 495. An enjoyable ride and the truck handled the trailer excellently, at times passing slower moving traffic with ease. Once we got to the Bourne Bridge the fun began - traffic was backed up in all three lanes two miles from the bridge and eventually as we got to the final approach we were down to two lanes with more vehicles entering from entrance ramps with drivers looking to nose their way into the steady crawl we were part of. I keep the truck's front bumper close to the car ahead until at my choice I let one car merge in and closed the gap immediately unlike many hesitate drivers intimidated enough where a half dozen or more vehicles would cut in - everyone makes it if we let every other one in. Once over the bridge there was a round-about with much the same going on and I found us with our size hugging the outside lane to exit three quarters the way around using the same strategy as the bridge approach. Once out of there it was pretty much free sailing to the campground - had a bit if a scrape with a slender tree as we made for our assigned camp site but once we negotiated around that we were "home" for the weekend.


Aside from "camper" talk our Friday evening we spent with Lois and Jim over a chicken stir-fry supper and plenty of wine. Saturday, Carol and I took a long bicycle ride along the Cape Cod Railroad Trail, returned to the camp site and I grilled some steaks for supper.

Sunday the four of us visited the Sandwich Glass Museum, then went to the Cape Cod Winery where we made sure to buy a few bottles plus a Merlot jelly. I'm now a fan of Pinot Grigio. Then it was a trip along the southern land portion of the cape where we stopped for Fish and Chips at the Barnacle Snack Bar on Craigville Beach near Hyannis.
A quiet evening ended our stay and following a somewhat uneventful ride home we declared the truck and camper a smashing success.