June 2012

Happenings in late-May to late-June:

May 19 - Day trip to Tahoe with Hanna and Aunt Christine, the latter of which had not seen Lake Tahoe since she and Dad grew up there 30 years ago.  We went up via Hwy 50 to Stateline to show her the new condos and Heavenly's gondola--certainly South Lake looked nothing like this when she lived in the area.  Had a nice picnic lunch at the beach and proceeded up the west side of Lake Tahoe stopping at the Emerald Bay overlook and checking out all of the cool houses on the water. 

We drove through Tahoe City and Truckee and back to Highway 80 with a quick diversion past Donner Lake and over the historic Donner Lake bridge.

May 20 - the landscape uplights I purchased to illuminate my front yard trees were repeatedly filling with water and shorting out.  Home Depot handed me new ones three times in a row but after those failed they were good enough to give me my money back.  This time around I bought some really nice professional grade lights--they are solid brass and weigh several pounds each.  This time I used one 3-LED spotlight to illuminate the base of the front yard tree and two "well lights" that are recessed into the ground to light up the canopy.

May 25 - welcome the new furry creature to the household--Aston.  He's cute, furry, loves to play, and hey--he actually plays fetch!  Throw his ball and he will retrieve it and bring it right back to you.  Two thumbs up.

 June 2-4 - Went camping at Big Reservoir with some of Hanna's friends.  We did the 50+ mile loop down Mosquito Ridge Road past French Meadows and Hell Hole reservoirs...lots of exploring to do in this area.  Took the 4Runner on some ATV trails to a trailhead where we hiked 3 miles down a *steep* canyon to the North Fork American River.  This is a beautiful canyon.  Returned home via Iowa Hill Road--a really nice canyon drive.

June 9 - Bike ride with co-workers.  Lake Natoma Inn to CSUS and back.
June 16 - Day trip to Sonora to see grandparents
June 21 - River Cat's game & Joe's crab shack with friends
June 22 - Eagle Lakes and Signal Peak 4x4 trail with Mike.  The trail was more difficult than I expected.  We will be back.

 

View of I-80, Lake Spaulding and historic RR lookout:

June 23 - Day trip to Tahoe with Mom & Hanna.  Rode the Heavenly gondola to overlook and Tamarack Lodge.

 
June 24 - The Volvo commuter car is officially dead.  Coolant hose blew, it lost all of its coolant on the freeway and the temperature gauge never indicated a problem.  It at least blew the headgasket and likely did far more damage than that.  With a low 133,154 miles too; luckily I only paid $1,000 for it.  I bought this car because Hanna's 940 turbo has been a good car, however a quick glance at the forums reveals that 1993 is basically the last good Volvo, just like 2009 was the tragic end of the good Toyota 4Runners.  I threw it on craigslist for $750 and had to delete my ad after receiving 38 emails; seems as though there a bunch of Volvo folks interested in the car.  I have no interest in fixing it.

 

 June 29-July 1 - Returned to Big Reservoir with Mike, Marin, Maggie and Max, as well as Rose and Stuart.  We had two water-front sites and all of our equipment was REI brand...looks like an advertisement to me.

We took the really long way home and headed up Foresthill Road toward Tahoe.  Foresthill Road eventually turns into Soda Springs Road and the last 25 miles is dirt road until it reaches Soda Springs off Highway 80.  The scenery up there is really nice.

There's a vacation on the horizon, check back for more frequent updates.

May update

This is one of my favorite times of the year. The rain has been pushed aside and replaced with sunlight, the new plants in the yard are blooming nicely and this 80-degree weather has been perfect for working outside and hiking and mountain biking.  This past month has been very busy with a bit of overtime work in the evenings and the occasional portion of a weekend, trips to the gym, Tuesday night (and occasionally Thursday as well) mountain bike rides with friends and fun-packed weekends.  I am starting to feel pretty good about the amount of exercise I am getting and my riding has definitely improved for the better with increased strength and endurance.  And we have Hanna on the bike following her recent purchase—she bought Maria’s really nice Kona full suspension mountain bike.  She has only ridden four times now and on our last ride she cleared *all* of the obstacles on the single track at Granite Bay, including a nasty boulder that requires a hop onto it followed by a careful descent off the ledgy backside.  If she’s this good already, she’s going to be a very good mountain biker.  Bill told me randomly the other day “jesus dude, she’s a really good mountain biker.” 

The house has seen a lot of visitors lately including Hanna’s family, my Aunt from Seattle and a friend who will be staying next weekend from L.A.  And there is a new full-time resident in the house…not surprisingly, Hanna.  We are currently consolidating our belongings, which is finally forcing me to better organize my stuff.  Some stuff has been moved to the attic, one of the utility closets off the hallway has been converted to a multi-use storage area, the top half consisting entirely of camp tents (yay, got a nice new tent!), sleeping bags, camp dishes and the bottom half still serving as a linen closet, with a few random things like a new boxed chandelier I haven’t bothered to hang, suitcase storage, vacuum cleaner, etc.  The matching closet on the other side of the wall is the overflow pantry for canned foods, paper and plastic bags and cleaning supplies.  We are using a portion of the spare bedroom closet for exercise equipment—weights, yoga mats, medicine balls, skis, kayak paddles, camelbacks, etc.  One of the spare bedrooms acts as the guestroom with the standard stuff including a bed, dresser, nightstand, lamp and Hanna’s extra flatscreen TV and the other spare bedroom is a joint office/spare bedroom.  The only home improvement item accomplished lately includes planting two ginkgo biloba trees on the west side of the house.  These will be tall enough to shade the house yet not so full that it will cause problems like the willow tree I removed last month.

Hanna getting lugged around Green Acres in the cart.

We helped Bill celebrate his 40th birthday along with Maria & Ricardo, Beth & Tom, Chris & Loryll, Rose & Stuart, Nehal and Robert.  We rented a cabin in King's Beach, Tahoe within easy walking distance to the beach and the bars and restaurants in town.  We hiked Martis Peak, did a lot of visiting and I did a little skiing on Sunday on our way down the hill.  This was the first time I had been skiing since I was injured and it felt absolutely wonderful to be back at it again.  

Happy Birthday Billy!

View from Martis Peak

That's it for now...thanks for reading!

Spring bloom

I have a couple of pictures of the sideyard to share as it is beginning to bloom nicely now.  The sages are all in bloom, the lavender has started as well as the orange bulbine in the foreground, however the germander, may night sage and penstemon are still working on it. 

Here's a crop of the same photo with more detail. 

I finished this project October 22nd of 2010, so it took a year to establish and at the ripe old age of 1.5 years it is finally beginning to fill in the space.  I can't wait for the front yard Hanna and I planted late last year to do the same.

Unfortunately the weeping willow tree on the corner had to come out.  It looked nice and provided excellent shade, but it was a very poor choice on behalf of whomever planted it--weeping willow trees grow in riparian stream corridors, usually with their roots submerged in a stream or lake.  When you plant them in an arid climate with only lawn irrigation water, the roots go crazy and surface all over the place.  Not only that, the tree was growing too big for where it was placed, it was a gutter-cleaning nightmare and I constantly had to trim it to keep it out of the street sign/light.  So my dad graciously volunteered to strap on his climbing equipment from his PG&E days and cut it down.

And off it goes to the Placer County greenwaste facility:

I will be planting at least two new trees in the sideyard.  This side is west-facing, so any trees planted here will shade the house in the summer.  I want deciduous trees so the house also receives sun in the winter.  They must not have invasive roots, must not grow too full in diameter and also not too excessively tall.  The trees I am targeting are the male ginko biloba near the corner of the lot:

and possibly an eastern or western redbud between it and the existing liquid amber trees.

Any other suggestions are gladly taken.

A few things we have done in the past month:
- Hanna bought Maria's full suspension mountain bike, so we're both riding a little now and plan to ride a bunch when it isn't raining every day.
- Hiking at New Bullard's Bar
- Got to see some of the best driver's from all over the world test their new Indy cars at Infineon Raceway.
- Spent a day in Petaluma.
- Visits with friends and family.

We have some fun stuff coming up soon, so stay tuned.

Where has February gone?

Wow, has it been a month already!?!  The past thirty days has pretty much consisted entirely of visiting with friends, something I obviously enjoy very much.  I had yet another birthday this month as did Rose and Michael.  I have also been pretty consistent about making it to the gym three days per week. 

Aside from good times, I finally made time to do the big repair that the Volvo needed to pass smog.  The intake manifold had to come off so I could replace the oil trap, part of the crankcase ventilation system.  The little black box straight down and to the left of the oil filler cap needed to be replaced, along with all of the associated hoses.

In the photo above you will note I was able to swing the intake manifold over to the driver's side with most everything still connected (throttle body, injectors, fuel rail, etc,) which made the job much simpler.

For anyone that knows engines, take a look at the intake valves in the pic below?  I didn't touch them, they were simply spotless!  I got lucky, this engine is in great shape.

Here it is all clean and back together.

Is now smogged and registered--no more ghetto-looking temporary tags for me.  The car is running great and I love squeezing it into the tightest parking spaces and not worrying about door dents or anything else for that matter.

Not much has been accomplished on the house, aside from dropping a couple of plants in the ground next to the entryway:

I added a GFCI outlet to the side of the house for landscape lighting.  Had I not done this I would have had the ugly low voltage transformer and photo eye in my entryway by the front door.  Now it's behind a gate and hidden from view.  The pipe coming from the transformer routes the cable under the walkway and toward the front. I plan to shorten the power cord to make it more presentable.

And finally, here is the front of the house with four LED path lights and two LED spot lights illuminating the front yard trees.  There isn't much to see right now since the Chinese Pistache is deciduous and currently has no leaves, but it should look great the rest of the year, and particularly in the fall when this tree is bright red.

I have received more complements on the lighting than any other aspect of the home improvement I have done, and quite frankly, it was probably the easiest project to-date.

Palm Springs

Hanna and I spent some time in Palm Springs over the holidays--what a neat place!  We hit the Palm Springs Living Desert Museum, which has a good sized zoo, native desert landscaping gardens and an HO-scale railroad with authentic-looking and sounding trains, buildings, tressel bridges and tunnels. 

I am starting to get why they call this place "Palm Springs."

Golden Eagle

With lunch

One very bored Wolf. 

Here kitty kitty

 

I haven't seen one of these in Roseville for a while; you forget how amazing their markings are.

HO-Scale Train

 

The detail was very realistic.  Just like real life, the paint is peeling off this Chevrolet product

Is that a Ford Pinto I see?

Heading south-east on Hwy 111 there isn't much of the town of to see; the really neat part of Palm Springs is on the 3-lane north-west bound side.  After visiting the museum we walked around downtown Palm Springs and had a really great Italian dinner on an outside patio.  The temperature was in the high-70s; gotta love winters in California!

Downtown Palm Springs at night

Holiday happenings

The holidays were a whirlwind...Christmas (a week early) at my house with Mom and my sister and Joe, Christmas Day at my father's in the central valley with my sister and Joe and Grandparents, followed by a trip to Los Angeles to spend time with Hanna's family, then a progressive New Year's party that started at my house with appetizers, followed by dinner at Maria's and then Ricardo's house for dessert.  My favorite is the new year's predictions we do each year.  Everyone makes predictions about what each other will or will not do over the coming year, then we look back what actually happened over the course of the year.  Everyone predicted that I would not fall off another cliff in 2010 (thankfully, that was true), that I secretly wanted Sara's (the roommate I had when I first bought my house) cat to go missing (not true!) and for 2011 they predicted I would still have blue tape on my ceiling marking the recessed lighting I never installed (that may end up true too).  They predicted I would work for the Department of Fish and Game in 2012 (many of the people at the party work there now) and also predicted Hanna and I would get married and have four children in 2012...I think the red sangria I made must have kicked in because that's a tall order for one year.  Anyways, it's great fun. 

Other than prepare for the holidays I have done little else other than tool around the house when free time presents itself.  I learned on YouTube of all places how to service a household heating and air conditioning system (HVAC).  The outside air conditioner condensing unit sucks in leaves, pet hair and dirt, which greatly reduces its efficiency.  I removed the lid, shop vac'd about 6" of leaves out, then rinsed the condensing coils with condenser cleaner and hose water.  The pool of mud that formed afterward was evidence enough that this maintenance was needed.  In the attic I entirely removed the blower wheel and motor for cleaning.  If you replace your return air filter every couple of months, you may not ever have to do this.  The blower is much quieter now and should push more air through the system.  When summer approaches I will do the final service--open up the air conditioning evaporator coil (sits just behind the blower and furnace in the attic--it's the device that gets cold to cool the house) and clean it like I did the blower wheel.  When the evaporator is covered in dust, the air passing over the cold evaporator coil is not effectively cooled, wasting energy.  I really enjoy learning new skills and I feel like I am becoming quite handy these days.  :)

Blower wheel out for cleaning:

I like tinkering with LED lights, so I hand-built some modules for the house to softly illuminate the perimeter at night.  I used metal spice tins with clear lids, mounted aluminum C-channel inside to act as a heatsink, a single 1 watt Cree LED in each housing, then strung wire between each light and connected them to a driver that drops household electrical current down to low voltage/amperage.  This is how each module turned out.  There are 11 in total--a few down each side of the house, two illuminating the driveway out front and one in the entryway.

They really aren't noticeable unless you know what you're looking for.  See what I mean?

And here is how it looks at night:  (front)

Side:

The pictures are slightly overexposed...the light is a very pleasing soft light and are placed on both sides of each backyard sidegate and along the entire length of the sideyards.  This also provides the benefit of acting as security lighting as well.

I have worked a little on the Volvo too, fixing some of the little annoying problems.  Many of the dashboard cluster lights were burned out as well as the lights that illuminate the switches.  Volvo wants $14 per bulb (!!), however thanks to the internet I read how easy it was to buy microbulbs from RadioShack for $1 each and wire them into the Volvo bulb holders.  I partially fixed the portion of the dashboard cover that had delaminated and pulled away from the rest of the dash.  It's much better than it was but still not to my satisfaction.  I will keep my eyes open for a used replacement.  Finally I did some more cleanup...the sunroof drip tray, insides of the door frames/trunk drip rail, etc., were all very dirty; now the car feels 10 years newer.  I installed used trunk struts so the heavy trunk lid stays open on its own and replaced yet more burned out bulbs--corner marker lamp, a license plate bulb, etc.  Volvo spent all of their research and development money on airbags rather than decent bulbs.  That said, I do like how every single switch, no matter how unimportant, is illuminated at night, the overhead lights are actually aimed so any passenger including the rear seat passengers could read at night and even the floorboards, center consoles and storage bins are illuminated.  Or at least they are now that I replaced a million burned out bulbs. 

Car masked off for rubber trim re-glazing:

With the trim now re-glazed black I will use the leftover product to turn the chrome grill pure black.  It would defeat my entire purpose of buying this car if I dumped a bunch of money into it, so I'm only willing to do inexpensive things to improve its appearance.  Here's someone else's car that also did the black-out work...I really like the boxy shape of these cars:

My total investment in this car so far is $45 including some bulbs, black body trim glazing, used trunk struts, adhesive for dash repair, etc.