Precise mulching, Make it up as I go, Ira

Friday evening I grabbed groceries shortly after getting home but I felt motivated to get out on a ride too. I grabbed my Patton and zipped over to the Cabana where I enjoyed a couple beers as I talked to a few people about the wheel. I didn’t stay all that long because I had not had dinner yet. By the time I got home it was after 8 but there was still frozen pizza to be made which I enjoyed, despite the late hour of the day.

Saturday I had a fun pickleball session in beautiful weather conditions. The woman I am friends with that has me on her permanent guest list there so I can play is moving soon so I am not sure if these weekend sessions will still be a thing or not once that happens. A lot of the residents there know me and enjoy playing with me so we will see.

Saturday afternoon I got into one of those get things done sort of moods. You may recall a couple weeks ago I bought 25 bags of mulch to freshen up the landscaped areas around the house. I wound up being short and had a good portion of unrefreshed mulch remaining. I made a rough estimate in my head that another 25 bags should get the job done. I was surprisingly accurate in that guess as the last bag just covered the remaining square in the backyard garden area. Miller Lite helped power the project.

So while I was at Home Depot I also was looking for ideas on how I was going to mount the new softer LED panel I bought for the guest bathroom. When Dawn was here she correctly identified that the light I had in there over the sink was too bright and too harsh. When I moved in the light that was there was weak and shitty, so I overcompensated, evidently.

The smaller LED panel I bought had adjustable brightness and color. It’s a surface mount fixture, the problem was the existing space had no surface as the light was up behind a piece of diffuser plastic, which looked shitty. I took some measurements of the spot above the sink and started wandering around Home Depot.

I have this weird ability/defect (depending on your point of view) to ad lib projects where they twist, turn and mutate in my head which is the only place the plan resides, I rarely make any formal plans. So as I was walking down the lumber aisle I spot some white shelf boarding that is 2′ x 4′, almost exactly the size I need for that space. It’s thick enough to be able attach the light panel too as well, I think I can make this work.

When I got home I cut about 6 inches off the 4 foot side to make the piece fit snugly. I then dropped a 2 inch wood screw in each corner to secure it. I drilled a hole in the center of the board to fish the wires through and then attached the mounting plate. I made the electrical connections and tried the different light brightness/color options until I found one that seemed warm but not too bright. After sliding the panel onto it’s base I flipped the power back on and smiled as the final lighting was just about perfect, in my book at least.

I will need to put some sort of trim piece around the edge of the board I installed to clean up the appearance but that should not be a huge problem. I took pride in yet another improvised project that had a positive outcome. I have had countless examples of this over the years.

I took care of a couple little annoying things that have lingered for awhile as well like sanding the corner of the front door where a small amount of rust was and painted it. It took in total maybe 5 minutes yet I had not got around to doing it for the year that I have lived here already, baffling.

Sunday morning I had another good pickleball session playing a full two hours. During the afternoon I met up with Ira who I met when I rode on the east coast with Dawn a month or so ago. He lives on the east coast so he had close to a two hour drive to get over to Naples. I took him on a long and winding ride through various parts of Naples. I stopped at two places, one of them being DD to hopefully grab some refreshments. They were both closed due to Easter. We did luck out and was able to grab something at Starbucks.

For part of the ride Ira and I switched wheels. I never rode a Begode Extreme and he never rode a Veteran Patton so it was interesting to be able to contrast the two. The Extreme had good power but the suspension felt like shit compared to the Patton. I also preferred the tire on the Patton. We rode enough that the Extreme started giving off low battery beeps.

When we got back to my house we hooked up Ira’s wheel to the new fast charger I bought a couple weeks prior. It was able to bring his wheel back up to full charge in roughly an hour and a half, impressive. We hung around and talked for awhile before Ira pushed back east. Hopefully the next time he comes he will bring his girlfriend who also rides.

I finished off the rest of my weekend finishing up the video that I shot from the day. Sure, it was a unconventional Easter weekend for me that was devoid of any formal celebration with family or significant others. I however enjoyed it all the same, which is all that really matters in my book.