Hold on to your hats, this is going to be a long one…………………….

As always, first the chronology:

5/21/23 – Sunday – Up at the usual time.  Exercises and cleaned up and out to church with Kathy.  Home and had lunch.  Down to do the blog.  Upstairs for a short nap.  Out around 3:30PM to the visitation for a friend’s father that passed away.  Then to Applebee’s for dinner.  Back home and usual evening routine.

5/22/23 – Monday – Up at the usual time this morning.  Did the exercises then out to work on the rose garden.  Got all the mulch out that needs to be dug out.  Got most of the cloth down and started with the stone.  We quit about 3:30PM.  Went inside to cool down and get cleaned up.  Had an early dinner then starting at 6PM sat through 2 one hour zoom meetings.  Then at 9PM checked into the CW traffic net.  Then to bed.

5/23/23 – Tuesday – Up a little early this morning.  Off to PT at 9:30.  Stopped at Lowes for more material for the rock project.  Home and lunch.  Changed clothes and out to work in the rose garden.  Finished up getting the main area covered in ground cloth and got stone around all the bushes and along the perimeter.  Knocked off rather early to cool down and get cleaned up.  Then over to Gary and Loretta’s for dinner and to hear their choir concert.  Home, put the truck away and usual evening routine.

5/24/23 – Wednesday – Up at the usual time.  Got a text from the guy doing the maintenance on the motorcycle that it is done.  Went into town to pick it up.  Home and had an early lunch.  Kathy went shopping after she dropped me off so she wasn’t home yet.  Spent most of the afternoon working on the rose garden.  Got the major section all finished up.  Kathy came home and I took a break to help her with the groceries.  Inside to cool down and get cleaned up. Took a short nap.  Dinner then usual evening routine.

5/25/23 – Thursday – Up a little early and out for a hair cut.  Home and over to the shop to work on some things.  Kathy was up and out early to go to Shelby’s graduation.  I came in for lunch, Kathy came home shortly after.  Took a nap then cleaned up and out for Carter and Chloe’s 8th grade graduation.  Over to the Rice house afterward for ice cream cake.  Home and usual evening routine.

5/26/23 – Friday – Up at the usual time.  Out to do the yard work.  Break for lunch and finished up around 3PM.  Inside to cool down and clean up.  Kathy had an issue with her computer I worked on and fixed.  Dinner then usual evening routine.

5/27/23 – Saturday – Up at the usual time.  Out to work on putting the stones down in the front of the house.  Worked on it most of the day but finished it up.  Went to a new place in town for dinner but they were closed.  Apparently got more business then they anticipated and they ran out of stock.  So we went for Mexican.  Then a little grocery shopping.  Home, put things away and usual evening routine.

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Now the specifics:

The week started on a sad note. The father of one of the good guys at church passed away. He had fallen the previous week and went down hill very fast. So, Kathy and I went to the viewing Sunday afternoon. Not a great started to the week.

Tuesday we were invited over to Gary and Loretta’s. They arranged for us to have dinner with them in their nice dinning room. Then the choir that Loretta sings in did a performance which wasn’t that bad. They live in a senior citizen’s facility and it’s all the folks that live their in the choir. Really a very nice performance.

I decided to join the Long Island CW club. I have not been improving my CW skills much at all and I need some structure to that effort. This club has a lot of training. Most of it is live Zoom meetings. And you get to actually practice on the Zoom meeting. Great group of guys with a lot of information. I spent 2 hours Monday participating in 2 one hour Zoom meetings. Unfortunately the next session has been at time I couldn’t make. I will be looking forward to doing that this week. I have been listening in on the CW traffic net in the evening when I can stay up that late. I checked in on Monday night. I will try to continue those efforts this coming week.

Thursday evening was Carter and Chloe’s 8th grade graduation. Kathy and I went up and joined with Mike, Julie and Shelby. It was in the gym so I spent the better part of two hours sitting on hard bleacher seats. It hurt a lot. Especially with no room to stretch my legs. But I made it. Then we went over to the Rice house and had ice cream cake to celebrate.

Friday we did the yard work. It wasn’t too bad and the weather was great. Not too hot and a nice breeze.

Tuesday I graduated from Physical Therapy. They didn’t fix all the problems but my friend Niki explained that they couldn’t do that. I have to accept I’m 75 and to expect some aches and pains. But she gave me all the tools to deal with it. So far so good. And a great relief to regain 4 hours a week back to my life.

I got my motorcycle back on Wednesday morning. It really rides much better and quieter with the new tires on it. I got it home and parked it in front of the Morton building while I unlocked the door and opened the bay door. When I tried to start it I got nothing. So I came in the house and had lunch and went back out. The display panel lit up this time when I turned the key on but as soon as I engaged the starter, everything died. So I pushed it in next to the workbench and continued with the things I had planned for the day. Thursday morning I got a chance to look at it. I removed the seat to get to the battery and here is what I found.

So, I went to the auto parts store, picked up some battery cleaner and took things apart, cleaned them up and put it all back together. Now it looks like this.

No problem starting now. However, I looked back through the maintenance history and the battery is about 5 years old. So, I’m going to buy a new batter and install it. Now a question for all you intellectuals. According to google, the battery terminal itself is lead. The terminals that go on the battery are copper or are copper plated. So, what type hardware (I.E. bolt, nut, flat washer and lock washer) should I get so that I don’t get any electrolysis between the various types of metal? Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

The project outside with replacing the mulch with stone is complete. Here is what it looks like.

I don’t think it looks half bad. A total of almost 6 cubic yards of stone. And of course an equal amount of old mulch and crap that had to be dug out before we could do anything else. It’s got landscaping cloth under the rock that is suppose to be good for 15 years. I figure by that time I certainly won’t be giving a rat’s ass about the stone. Now I only have tilling the garden and getting the pool open left on my “todo” list. Then I can play radio more and do some motorcycle riding.

Well, that’s it for this week. As always, hope this finds everyone safe and healthy. Stay that way and I’ll blog at you again next week.