Catching up
As expected this weekend was filled with mostly chores and work, even with Cindy and I both working diligently at it. On Saturday morning after weeding we headed out to get a few things I needed like filling the gas cans and some AC recharge refrigerant. The refrigerant was for my mom’s Rav4, it’s AC was blowing hot.
My mom had some odd theories at times, one of those had to do with the AC on her Rav 4. She was absolutely convinced that if she ran her air conditioning it caused her brakes to randomly not work. Multiple times I tried to logically explain to my mom that the AC and brake system do not share any components and that there is no way running the AC would cause brake problems. I even swapped vehicles with her for a couple days and ran the AC the entire time. Despite my telling her I had absolutely no problems she still refused to run her air conditioner, insisting on using open windows to regulate temperature. So anyway, when I drove the Rav4 back from the tow lot I noticed the AC no longer worked at all, probably from nearly 10 years of non-use.
The vehicle has never had anything done to the AC so I hoped that the system was just low on R134A. I hooked up a can of coolant/sealant and filled the system until the pressure gauge was safely in the green area. I stuck my hand inside and once again felt cold air coming out of the vents, nice. I plan to drive the Rav4 once in awhile to make sure it stays in good running condition until I have the legal right to sell it.
I also wanted to give the AC in the Tacoma a little shot of refrigerant, I figured it can’t hurt with the temps averaging in the high 90’s the past week or so. When I popped the hood I was amazed at what I saw, no oil cap on the valve cover. The cap was still sitting on top of the intake manifold, just where I left it after the last oil change around 2000 miles ago. Geezus cripes, what a fckin idiot I am. I surveyed the engine compartment. Surprisingly the oil residue was confined to a small area, mostly on the casing for the battery wires. I felt fortunate that oil did not spray everywhere. Of course driving the truck for 2000 miles with a big open hole in the valve cover can’t be a good thing but I have not noticed any short term problems as a result. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
While Cindy worked on giving the interior of the Rav 4 and the Tacoma a thorough cleaning I attended to lawn maintenance. We have not had any significant rain out at the house in well over a week so all of the wet areas were now dry. The front trench which has been underwater for weeks had two foot high grass poking up from it. It was nice to finally knock that area down so it didn’t look so shitty. After I mowed it all I followed up with the weed whacker.
We had the chickens outside for a good portion of the morning, they love milling about. At one point they were in the garden with Cindy snooping around amid the huge sweet potato vine. Speaking of sweet potatoes, Cindy harvested 6 or 7 of them, the first time I have ever grown them, another feather in our gardening cap.
Saturday afternoon I dropped off some of mom’s plants at Ali’s place that she said she would take care of. Ali’s new place has a nice lanai and interior space to house a lot of plants. I’m sure my mom would be happy to have some of them there where Nicki and Sadie can look over them on a daily basis.
On Saturday night Cindy and I got out to see Expendables 3 which I saw had a very disappointing opening weekend. I didn’t understand why it would have done poorly since the first two films seemed to be building momentum. As soon as we stepped foot in the theater we both commented how it felt warmer than normal. Well by the time we were halfway through the film it was downright hot, hot enough that I went out in the lobby and asked them if they had some sort of AC problem. I was surprised when they said they actually did have a problem and someone was up on the roof trying to fix it. Thankfully some cooler air started to blow down a short while later.
The theater had more people in it than we were accustomed to. Unfortunately more people means more opportunities to be seated near morons. About 5 or six seats to our right was what I assume was a hispanic father with two young boys. The two kids were talking almost the entire movie while the father stood at his seat. Well he leaned against the seat bottom which was flipped into the up position. It was very odd. Since the movie was filled with tons of loud action, it drowned out the children for the most part however I questioned the father’s judgement for first not telling the kids to be quiet and second for taking them to this sort of movie. Despite it’s PG-13 rating, it is filled with non-stop graphic violence that I certainly would not want my young children sitting through.
So as far as the movie itself, it was good but in my opinion the worst of the three films. They went too far, trying to appeal to everyone, awkwardly inserting younger actors in the film in addition to the action stars of the last 30 years. It just seemed unnecessary and contradictory of what the Expendables movie series is all about, a bunch of big name, older action stars raising hell. Despite this flaw, overall I found the film fun and enjoyable, especially once the AC kicked back on. I’d give it a B+.
Sunday morning the van was fully loaded. In the back of it I had Cindy’s 55″ tv that we were giving to her daughter along with a few other things. Behind the front seats we had both of our road bikes jammed in. We were doing our first training brick in a long time. They had been on hiatus since Cindy injured her foot. It felt odd as I was preparing the bikes since it was just before I was leaving for a ride two weeks ago that I got the initial call from the hospital about mom. I couldn’t help but think about that phone conversation and how it was just the first step in what was and will continue to be a long, painful journey.
The 12.25 mile Livingston ride went well. We intentionally did not push it too hard, averaging 17.3 mph. Cindy was riding with her bad foot in a sneaker instead of a bike cleat so that made it challenging already. During the last segment of the ride, after we turned around at Vanderbilt Beach Road I exhausted whatever energy reserves I had, pedaling my ass off back to the water park entrance, averaging 23 mph the entire way.
Despite not swimming for awhile either, I opted to do 1600 yards in the water. Lately when I feel reservations about pushing myself in some manner all I need to do is think that it is dedicated to my mom in some way and that will be all it takes to make me hang in there longer.
I did have a bit of humbling experience while I was cranking out my laps. A young kid, no older than 12 I imagine hopped in the pool and absolutely smoked me. Obviously the kid has done a lot of swimming but still to get passed like you are standing still by a kid doesn’t make my chest expand with pride. The only saving grace was the kid only did 5 or 6 laps while I was in the midst of logging 32 of them, so I imagined this was simply a tortoise versus the hare situation.
After grabbing some lunch we headed down to Katie’s apartment to deliver her tv. Despite it’s size and weight I stubbornly carried the big tv up to her second floor apartment solo. It fit the space on her wall well. Cindy invited Katie to come out to the house later along with Tank, her high energy french bull dog. We figured he would love being able to run around the back yard unrestrained.
I was out in the back yard doing more mowing, this time the very jungle like rear of the yard when Katie and Tank arrived. When I poked my head into the slider door I had to laugh, there were literally 20 dog toys strewn across the floor, Tank evidently wanted to try out nearly every one of them. He did have fun in the backyard as well, unfortunately part of that fun was running around the chicken coop. The hens did not feel safe, despite being securely inside the coop. Tank’s excitement made the chickens run around frantically, we had to grab him a couple times after he ran over to harass them.
It was so hot yesterday that we didn’t want to have Tank outside too long. He wasn’t used to running around in the first place, to do it in 95 degree heat with blazing sunshine could be dangerous. Even with his limited time outside he was panting like mad for awhile inside as he laid on the tile to cool off. I played with Tank quite a bit while Katie and Cindy were doing some other stuff. He is a lot of fun.
After Katie left Cindy and I ate dinner while watching my latest Netflix rental, Red 2. Despite my drowsiness, I thought the movie was good stuff, on par if not slightly better than the original. B+