Catching up

When you live in snow country summer is a time to get certain things done. You really don’t want to do outside construction projects in the winter. Some things, like painting, really can’t be done in the cold. 

The last two summers I was dealing with bad leg infections. The pain and other issues made projects nearly impossible to do. Just to make it worse the antibiotics I was on made me sun sensitive. It was very easy to burn so covering up was essential. All those coverings caused overheating. 

So now my legs are no longer infected. All the wounds are healed up and there’s almost no pain anymore. My big issue right now is to not overdue things. The last thing I need is to reinjure myself and start the infection circus all over again. 

Pacing myself is not easy as I’m looking at a two summer backlog of projects. It’s not all going to get done. I’m also going to accept help with things that I used to do by myself. One of the big things is the number of massive cedar trees that I lost over the last couple of winters. They are perilously leaning all over each other in a series of widow makers. I’ve a cousin who does tree removal professionally and he offered to help. I’m taking him up on it. 

Of course, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Summer is also the time for outdoor fun, so that’s important too. 

-Sixbears

Smoke Detector

Just before heading to bed my smoke detector gave out a couple of loud bleeps. Whatever it had detected wasn’t putting out all that much smoke. In fact, I couldn’t really smell anything myself. 

The thing about smoke detectors is that you have to trust them. This one had a new battery only days old so I was pretty sure it wasn’t a problem with the detector. One thing for sure, I wasn’t going to go to bed until I found out what the problem was.

It took a while but eventually I found the culprit. A table lamp was malfunctioning. The bulb was still putting out the normal amount of light but the base of the lamp was too hot to touch. That ain’t normal, especially with energy efficient lights. 

The lamp was shut down and unplugged. Windows were opened to air out the house. Only after an hour or so did I truly feel it was safe to go to bed. 

Smoke detectors and especially carbon monoxide detectors are things you have to take seriously. For me they are in the same category as a compass. You have to trust the tool -not your hunches. 

-Sixbears

Scooter in the mountains

Saturday was a good day for a ride though the White Mountains. I thought I might have made a mistake looking for a coffee in North Conway. It’s such a tourist town. Fortunately there’s some motorcycle only parking. That saved me a good mile walk to the coffee shop. 

The line in the coffee shop was long but moved briskly. The front of the shop was absolutely packed with people -standing room only. However, just down a short hallway there was a back room that apparently nobody knew about. I had it to myself at first and enjoyed my coffee in quiet air conditioned comfort. Eventually a nice couple from Rhode Island joined me and we had a pleasant conversation. 

My little 150 cc scooter had no difficulty keeping up with traffic. The only issue was in the steepest mountain passes. Fortunately there were good passing lanes so I didn’t hold anyone up. I was traveling with a pretty decent load on the bike. The saddle bags were on and pretty full of stuff. The idea is get some idea how mountain travel in next year’s Scooter Cannonball is going to be. 

With that in mind I also practiced filling up the scooter from the spare 2.5 gallon tank. That’s carried in the milk crate on the back rack. Filling up the tank and taking a good swig of water takes less than five minutes. I figure that with the spare tank I’ll only have to make one gas station stop during the timed event. That’s assuming I start each day with a full fuel load. The 2013 Honda PCX only has a 1.5 gallon gas tank. The newer models have a 2.5 gallon tank, but I’m not going to spend that kind of money just for the bigger gas tank. My older scooter is in excellent shape. 

Under ideal conditions I’ve been able to get around 100 mpg. In more real world driving that drops to about 80. With my big self, a full load on the bike, and wide open throttle all day my real world mileage drops to about 70 mpg. Those numbers all necessary to know before the Cannonball. 

In my travels I able to meet up with a friend for a beer. He’s got a seasonal site at a campground south of the mountains. 

Just before dark I pulled into my driveway -another excellent day on the scooter. 

-Sixbears

Another Darn Funeral

My lovely wife and I went to another friend’s funeral Friday. It was just a few months ago we sent her husband off to his final rest. I guess we are at that age where we go to more funerals than weddings. Yeah, it sucks. 

Friday evening we gathered with a few friends by a campfire and decompressed. I’m grateful to live in a place where campfires are normal and expected. Sitting around a fire sure beats looking at a computer screen. 

During the time of the virus a few of us gathered together every week around a campfire. It was a special time. It’s easy to find excuses not to meet with friends. I’m so glad we made the time. There’s no telling what the future may bring. 

Today I’m going on a long scooter ride just to visit with an old high school buddy. He just got a clean bill of health after cancer surgery. You can’t take your friends for granted. 

-Sixbears

Tent Skills

Recently my lovely wife and I loaned our six person L. L. Bean tent to a church group. There were several tents needed. They had to be set up ahead of the group’s arrival. So far so good. 

With years of tenting practice under our belts we set up our tent in about 15 minutes. We weren’t in a hurry. After that we helped a second group sort out the mess they made with their tent. That took much longer. 

Normally when camping we have the whole camp ready in about a half hour -right down to the bedding, kitchen area, comfy chairs and solar electricity. Plenty of people with RVs take longer than that. 

Actually, one of our fun activities in a campground is to watch the new RV owner try to park and set up their rigs. We’ve seen tree collisions, picnic tables run over, power and water poles smooshed and sewer lines crushed. Could we help them? Maybe, but I’m not going to take the chance. Emotions run high and spouses speak nasty words to each other. One couple made such a spectacle of themselvesb they later went around apologizing to other campers. 

Typically most people upgrade from a tent to some sort of trailer or motorhome. We enjoyed the heck out of camping out of a converted ambulance. When that was no longer reliable we sold it and went back to tents. Why didn’t we upgrade to something else?

Time and money were big reasons. A tow behind trailer needs a vehicle capable of safely pulling it down the highway. Few people are smart enough to get a small trailer that can be pulled by a normal vehicle. Instead they get a heavier trailer with more bells and whistles. That requires a sizable tow vehicle with the added initial cost plus on-going expenses. Motorhomes are horrible on fuel, are high maintenance and costly to insure. 

We don’t want to sell our house to live in an RV full time.

Here’s the thing about tents. Get a good one. While they can be pricey there are often sales. We bought our L. L. Bean tent off season from one of their discount outlets for half price. 

So what do you do if it rains for days on end? Go to a hotel for a few days. With the money saved by tenting a hotel room now and then won’t break the budget. 

-Sixbears

Well that’s going to be fun

Looks like our election is going to be very interesting this fall. Here’s a thought: just like Joe won’t be running it’s entirely possible Donald won’t be either. At his age anything can happen -just like what we saw with Joe. 

But enough of politics for now. I think I stirred up the hornet’s nest enough. 

Speaking of a hornet’s nest, a good friend was mowing her lawn on a riding mower and hit a ground hornet’s nest. She was stung repeatedly then fell off her mower and broke her arm. That’s what messing with a hornet’s nest will get you. In her case I wish it was only a metaphor. 

Weather here has been very wet with intense storms. A trip to VT right now involves some long detours to avoid damaged bridges and blocked roads. I’m very careful on my scooter these days. Where there once road shoulders there are three or four foot ditches. There are parts of the road to my place that are crumbling into the river. It’s like we now have spring floods several times during the summer. 

I’ve ordered a backup battery pack for my cpap. Right now I run it off my solar electric system. That’s good backup for the grid but lately I feel I need backups for my backups. While it’s still possible to turn money into useful things I might as well take advantage. Money always felt kinda make believe to me. 

Not a bad time to round out your preps. There may be some civil unrest in our future and I know there will be nasty weather issues. 

-Sixbears

Experiment

In my last post I made of point of pushing some people’s buttons. It was very educational. Traffic to the site jumped 40 – 50%. 

If that sort of thing was important to me I’d be hitting those emotional buttons all the time. News and  pretend news sites are aware of what drives traffic. They know upsetting people is good for business. Never forget that news is a business and their main focus is to make money. 

The “pay” from this site is insignificant and that’s not a problem. I certainly don’t do this to make money. That frees me to say whatever I want to say. 

-Sixbears

Like it or not

This is going to tick off a lot of people but this is how I see the election going down. 

It almost doesn’t matter who the Democrats run against Trump. The Democrat is going to win it. 

If you are in the Trump bubble you won’t see it. He has a solid core group of people who’ll vote for him no matter what. They are also very vocal. They make so much noise that the Trump crowd seems bigger than it is. 

There are more people who will not vote for Trump no matter what. That ranges from never Trumper Republicans to Bernie Sanders liberals. Heck, some folks just won’t vote for a convicted felon. 

Expect a lot of right wing election denial in November, but there will be a Democrat President come January. 

Do what you want with this info, but be aware this is not an invite for a debate. If you really want to live in a country run by an authoritarian I hear Russia has a labor shortage. 

-Sixbears

Good Timing

Yesterday I serviced my solar electric system. One of the things I do after topping off the distilled water in the batteries is to charge them up from the grid. Because of that I went to bed with a fully charged battery bank.

So I get up in the morning and do my regular routine. It took about an hour to notice that the grid was down. It just happened that everything electrical I used the first hour was powered by my solar electric system. 

We had a storm during the night that took down a lot of trees. One of them, just a few hundred feet down the road, took out the power lines. The resulting fire also fried the Internet cables. The road was closed for a good part of the morning. 

I had a nice talk with one of the firefighters who was on the scene. He told me that most of the roads that had been repaired got washed out again during the night. Such is life here in the New England rain forest.

-Sixbears

House battery maintenance

My solar electric system is old school in a lot of ways. There have been upgrades. I updated the charge controller and the inverter. Some parts, like the panels themselves, have been in service for over 20 years. 

While I’ve changed out the battery bank a couple of times I keep going back to lead acid. I would have thought by now that I would have something better. Lithium batteries are an upgrade but the price is prohibitive. 

Besides price lead acid has some other advantages. They can take a fair amount of abuse. I made a lot of mistakes with my first battery bank and still got 10 years out of them. The big thing to remember with lead acid is to keep the cells topped off with distilled water. Never let them get to the point where the plates are exposed to the air. That one simple item is critical for years of service.

Another big battery saver is to never let them sit in an uncharged condition. Ideally, never let the charge get below 50%. If it gets to that level but it’s early morning I’ll let the panels charge them up. If it’s dark or very cloudy I’ll top off the battery bank from the grid. Should the grid be down I’ll go into serious conservation mode. Eventually the panels will bring the batteries out of the danger zone. 

I’ve just topped off the distilled water so the batteries won’t have to be checked for three or four months.

-Sixbears

Scooter Cannonball Training

With all the weirdness going on lately it felt good to get out on the scooter. Only part of the afternoon was free but I did knock out 150 miles. That included a couple of rest stops to cool down from the heat. 

The previous owner had purchased a nice top box for the back of the scoot. That looked great and all, but it had some downsides. One big issue was that the darn thing would pop open without warning, scattering my stuff all over the road. A bungee cord over the top usually stopped that from happening . . . usually. 

While it doesn’t look as slick I replaced the top box with a milk crate. That actually worked out great on my trip. One big advantage is that the crate easily holds a 2.5 gallon gas can, plus a whole lot of other stuff. The top box only really fit a 1.25 gallon can. 

My route took me all over the back roads of ME. Almost every time I use the motorcycle GPS I discover something new. Also, it’s one thing to mess around with the settings from the comfort of home. Making adjustments on the fly when hot and uncomfortable is something else. Watching videos from previous events really brought home the fact that I have to know all the ins and outs of my GPS. 

It looks like I can count on a ride to the start of the event. My daughter should be available to load the scoot on her truck and drive me across the country from NH to OR. That’s plan A. With the nature of these things it’s prudent to have a plan B and C. 

-Sixbears

What we know

Trump was grazed by a bullet at a rally. The 20 year old shooter was killed by his security detail. A bystander was also killed and others wounded. 

That’s pretty much what’s actually known at this point. 

However, there’s been a whole lot of speculation and theory presented with the assumed authority of proven fact. 

I’m not going to add to that.

-Sixbears

Flooded Out

. . . but not for long. The rain came down hard enough Thursday night to flood every road that would allow me to leave the house. Fortunately I didn’t need to go anywhere. My lovely wife and I went into town Friday afternoon as the waters had dropped enough. Driving on flooded roads is a recipe for disaster so waiting it out was the wise thing to do. 

There were an awful lot of washouts but they mostly chewed up the dirt shoulders. There were a few places that could eat a car so caution was required. 

I was pleased to hear that my daughter’s place in Montpelier VT was high and dry. While the capital didn’t get it too bad this time around nearby towns got clobbered. Whole houses were washed away and RT 2 was closed. 

I’m glad my house is at a high enough elevation not to worry about being flooded. 

-Sixbears

Family in Texas

My wife’s parents and her sister live in Texas. We were able to get hold of them after the hurricane passed through. 

Her parents have some serious health issues. They live about 60 miles north of Beaumont. Fortunately they’ve weathered the storm in fairly good shape. No doubt part of that was due to my father-in-law’s diligence in removing hazardous trees over the years. 

My sister-in-law and her family are in a Houston suburb. They are fine but are some of the millions of people who’ve lost power. Hopefully they’ll get power back soon. Summer in Texas with no AC is no fun at all. 

-Sixbears

Polls are Crap

Political pundits are pretty much the same. 

Case in point: the current French elections. The “news” people got it exactly wrong. It was predicted that the far Right would probably win the majority. Nope. It was the far Left that did really well followed by the Center. The Right came in far behind. 

As it turns out far Right policies have limited appeal these days. Too bad the pundits missed it. It’s likely they got caught up in their own little echo chamber. 

While my knowledge of French politics is limited I see some of the same forces at work here. “News” organizations have drifted far from just covering the facts. Almost all of them have their own agenda. 

In the US polls have been proven inaccurate election after election. Does anyone know how to do real reporting anymore?

At any rate, it’s going to be interesting. 

-Sixbears

A Crappier Version

While in Massachusetts the other day I happened to be sitting in on a conversation about homelessness. I certainly hadn’t planned on that. However the conversation happened around me at a cookout and I kept my mouth shut. 

Some of the people were involved in working on solutions. One person had even been homeless some years ago. 

One solution that was put up was to get everyone in tiny homes. The formerly homeless person was against that. Her argument was that tiny homes were a crappier version of the American Dream. They really are not great to live in for long periods of time. 

I bet they could be but the way tiny homes for the homeless are done would have to change. Often they populate a vacant lot with a bunch of shacks that lack a lot of basics -like plumbing. Bathrooms and dish clean up are run campground style with shared facilities. 

Many years ago, before zoning got too onerous, tiny homes were pretty common. A couple would start out building a very small home. However, it was on a big enough city lot to allow for expansion. They also tied into city utilities. As the family grew rooms would be added on over time. Often nobody had to borrow money to make that happen. A great uncle of mine did that very thing. 

So to make tiny homes work they would need a few things. A big one would be owning the land under your tiny home. Too often tiny homes are just stick built trailers. While that often gets around zoning issues it’s a dead end. There’s always the danger of eviction. 

A tiny home would have to have the same access to public utilities as a regular house. Hauling your water or your wastes around gets old over time. Being able to get grid power and high speed fiber Internet makes it a lot less like camping. 

Zoning would have to allow DIY home expansion. Tiny homes could be designed to allow for modular expansion as funds allow and needs change. 

The big one, of course, is cost. That would have to come down a lot. Maybe factory built units would be one of the answers. However what we have like that today is called a trailer park. That’s not exactly the model to use.

One thing the tiny house movement gets right: to end homelessness people need to be in some sort of home.

-Sixbears

Home and Cyber Truck

My lovely wife and I are back home. We had an excellent visit with family. Holiday traffic is no fun at all. 

In my travels I finally got to see a couple of Cyber Trucks up close. You know how they look kinda dumb in on-line videos? In person they are even more stupid looking. They are pretty scary trying to fit on tight urban roads. 

My grandkid described it as “looking like a dumpster on wheels.” They weren’t wrong. 

-Suxbears

Taking the holiday off

I’ll be taking a few days to celebrate that time we threw out a tyrant. Good times. We had a good run. 

-Sixbears

RV living

I happened to run into an old friend who’ve I’ve know since he was a baby. That’s a pretty weird feeling as the guy’s in his early 50s now. Also, he’s says he’s going to retire in January from the fire department. 

One of his goals was to buy a big RV and see the country. His wife, on the other hand, has a different plan. They get a huge discount from a major hotel chain. Her idea is to forget about the RV and to stay in hotels instead. Actually, with their discount, it’s probably a lot cheaper than the whole RV thing.

Even without the discount it might be cheaper than the RV option. 

In my travels I’ve seen and talked with a lot of RV campers. It used to be a pretty economical way to travel but decent RV parks ain’t cheap. Boondocking is still an option but your rig better be set up for it. That usually involves solar electric and generators for power. Large holding tanks and sizable fresh water tanks are necessary. 

It used to be easy to find a free place to park for the night. There are a lot fewer now. Part of the reason is the number of people who’ve abused the privilege. 

The idea of traveling around the country without an RV is more attractive. Personally, I’m still happy tossing a tent in the car and calling it good. It’s easy and cheap plus a few nights in a hotel now and then doesn’t hurt either. 

This time of year there are a lot of tourists visiting the mountains. I’m horrified when meeting overloaded RVs trying to navigate narrow mountain roads. 

Personally, I’m not interesting in driving a a mobile apartment. I used to get paid for driving trucks. I’m not going to do it for recreation. 

My friend’s wife might be saving him some headaches. 

-Sixbears

Hurricane Beryl

Hurricane Beryl is churning away in the southern Caribbean. It looks nasty. Some of the islands are in for it. We won’t know for days if it’s going to hit Texas or not. Some early models show it making landfall in the Galveston area. Of course, a storm this big doesn’t have to to hit directly to cause widespread problems. 

Just to add insult to injury there’s a chance other weather disturbances could develop in the area. There’s even a chance a second hurricane could follow the same path of Beryl. Imagine getting hit by a hurricane only to have a second one hit a few days later. Fingers crossed that doesn’t happen. 

My own weather in New Hampshire is kinda weird. Not only have we been getting thunderstorm warnings there are also tornado warnings. What was once a very rare event in this state is becoming a regular thing. 

I was doing some shopping a few towns to the south of me and got caught in the rain. It was a near miss by a truly massive black cloud. In my travels through the Midwest and South I’ve encountered tornadoes a few times. That big black cloud looked disturbingly familiar. Of course, not every storm cranks out tornadoes but it sure looked like it had potential.

There are serious weather systems on the move this summer. Keep a wise weather eye on the conditions. 

-Sixbears