The Front is Finally Done!

In May of 2008 I started the long process of painting the house. I decided to tackle the front first, because it is of course the most interesting side of the house, but also the porch was new construction and really needed to get some paint on it.

Lori and I chose a color scheme that included the four colors on the barn, with some more added to the mix. In the end I applied 9 colors plus some gold leaf on the gables.

Because of the amount of prep and restoration needed to the gables and bays, plus the short painting season and being out of town so much for Lori’s cochlear implant surgery, it took me until today to finally finish the work on the front.

It feels really good to get that accomplished, but the scaffolding is already set up on the south side to start the work there. My plan was to finish the front and then enjoy the rest of the summer, but it’s starting to look like I might not get much painting done next year so I figure I better make use of some of the late summer and early fall where we typically get some of our best painting weather.

At least now when I get depressed with our yard, I can go sit in front of the house and pretend it all looks that nice.

Windy Ridge

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Ferndale, so location scouting was as much of an excuse as I needed to get the KLR650 out of the garage and load it up with camera gear. Last month on our hike to Punta Gorda, I was regretting that I had left my polarizers in one of my other camera bags, so I thought I’d make a return trip out there. I also wanted to explore Prosper Ridge Road and Windy Point Road a bit to see how close they would get one to the light house.

Prosper Ridge Road is a fairly smooth gravel road, the kind of road I ride the KLR on a lot. But turning off onto the unmarked Windy Point Road I wasn’t sure if it was the road or a private ranch road. Shortly after turning off I passed a sign saying 4 wheel drive only. The good news was that it was a public road. The bad news was that my ride was about to get more difficult. The road became a deeply rutted two track with lots of loose rocks, and then I could see that it dropped sharply down the hill.

I debated trying this while riding by myself, but it’s always easier to proceed down than try to turn around in such situations, so I slowly picked my way down. I figured this was why I traveled with a SPOT. I finally arrived at the parking area at the bottom of the hill and peeled out of my now sweat soaked jacket.

First let me say there is a reason they call this area Windy Point. It truly lived up to its billing, and each time I parked the KLR I had to make sure it wasn’t going to get toppled in the wind. I think that alone rules out this area for photoshoots. Been out in this area twice and both times the wind has made it hard to stand at times. That doesn’t make for successful photoshoots. So as pretty as this area is, I’m crossing it off the list.

But there are other reasons to come out here. The views are just stupendous. Even on an evening with no clouds and an offshore fog bank ruining the sunset, it was still gorgeous as the land shows little effect from man’s settlement. It was also interesting to see how much the rocky shoreline had changed in the few weeks from my last visit.

My first visit I noticed several of the tidal rocks covered with a bright green mossy looking growth. But this trip I realized that the growth was the beginning of the summer crop of algae, and it had turned to a much less photogenic shade of brown. The areas of the rocks that weren’t covered with aglae, were densely packed with mussels. It was hard to find areas to walk through the tide pools without crunching them.

Since the sunset wasn’t much I packed up a bit early and headed back up the beach to where the KLR was parked. By the time I left the parking lot it was getting dark and I rode through a violent bug storm, the likes I haven’t seen since my last visit to Teluride. Taking advantage of this wealth of flying food, birds were swooping in from left and right, not realizing that the reason they could so easily spot the bugs was that they were being illuminated by a fast approaching dual sport motorcycle. The first hit came from the front on the helmet. A minute later I felt the second strike on the side of the helmet even though I tried desperately to dodge the incoming. Another minute went by and a third bird got more than it bargained for, bouncing off of my Kilimanjaro jacket.

Once I got back to Mattole Road the bombardment halted. But that wasn’t the end of the animal threats for the night. Just as I got back to the coastline section, the feeble KLR headlight (on high beam even) gave me a split second warning that two cows were out for their nightly jog down the middle of the road. Just after I got my breath back from that one a rabbit darted out from the left but wisely decided to retreat before he became less three dimensional. After I started the climb back up I had a raccoon pull the same stunt. Shortly after that the wind started really picking up and it was a race to see if I could beat the fog rolling in.

I soon lost that contest and found that a curvy bumpy road at night in the fog with a terrible headlight will decrease your fun and speed. Especially when you encounter a large owl trying to take off in your path but the wind is preventing an efficient departure. A lucky duck from me saved an otherwise unlucky owl. Of course the ride couldn’t have been complete without an appearance from Bambi, but at least she had her self preservation in mind and she quickly scurried off in the right direction.

By the time I started down the Wildcat into Ferndale it was so drippy I had to have my visor open to be able to see anything. But I did make it home safely despite everything that nature tossed in front of me.

Punta Gorda Lighthouse

After getting back from the rodeo on Saturday we started planning what we were going to do to entertain Derek and Lauren on Sunday. We suggested Fern Canyon, but Derek said Lauren liked long hikes, and after our snowshoe trip last January, I knew she was up to it.

Reviewing a best Humboldt hikes article we had saved from the paper a while ago I remembered about Punta Gorda Lighthouse, a hike I’ve wanted to do since hearing about it. So Sunday around noon we left for the drive along the Lost Coast Loop and made the detour on Lighthouse Road to Mattole Campground. Derek was a bit bewildered that the road stopped at this point. I pointed out that’s what happens when you keep traveling west, eventually the Pacific Ocean proves to be a major hurdle for road building.

The hike from the campground to the lighthouse is about 3.5 miles. We had a nice 3 mile hike out, enjoying the tidepools and collecting shells along the beach. By the end of the trip Lauren had all her pockets and most of ours filled with her collection. At the 3 mile mark major exhaustion seemed to set in and as the wind was picking up we huddled behind a rock for a rest. I went down the beach to the look around the next point figuring that if I didnt’ see the lighthouse we’d turn back. Well the lighthouse came in to view, so we decided to push on.

Before we got to the lighthouse we came across two cabins. I don’t know who owns them, but I sure wish I did. They would be a great place to spend a weekend.

We finally got to the lighthouse and spent some time exploring what’s left, which isn’t much. But the most interesting thing is the stairway, and more specifically, the opening to the light room itself. There must have been a requirement that you had to be a skinny person to be the lighthouse keeper. In order to gain access I had to push my camera bag and tripod on ahead of me.

By the time we turned around and started heading back, the wind was really howling, at times almost knocking us down. On the trip south we walked the beach all the way, going back north we found a trail further up the beach that in some parts was more packed and made the hiking a lot easier. 7 miles of flat walking sounded easy, but throw in that most of it you’re walking across sand, and then add in the 40 mile winds on the way back and we were all pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the car.

We continued on the loop through Honeydew and the Avenue of the Giants, but we were all too pooped and we were running out of daylight so we didn’t do any more hiking.

We got back to Grizzly Bluff just as the sun was making a beautiful departure, and then picked up a pizza before heading home. A great ending for a nice day away from the house and yard.

Repairing an Antique Rim Lock

Since we’re going to be hosting some out of town guests this weekend for the Bionic Woman Variety Show, Lori’s been hard at work cleaning the guest bathroom. Calling it the guest bathroom is a bit of a misnomer. It’s mostly seen duty as the Knowlesville Recycling Transfer Station, where we keep our plastic, metal and glass until we take it to the dump. 

This room, like just about every other room in our house, has a door that does not latch. We don’t throw deadbolts for security, we throw them so our doors don’t blow open in the wind. This is part of what you deal with when you decide to live in a house that is 120 years old. We’re used to it, but I got to thinking it might be a bit too rustic for our guests so I thought I’d investigate this lock and see what the problem was.

One of the great things I look back fondly about my dad was that he was a great Mr. Fixit. I remember him doing all kinds of repairs around the house, and more often than not dad was able to get things operating again without having to call the repairman. Probably because like most men his age, growing up during the depression stressed the importance of repairing rather than replacing.

I like to think that not only did I inherit his desire to fix things, but maybe also the toys I played with at an early age like Legos and my Erector Set taught me how to problem solve mechanical devices. So before any broken device gets tossed in the dumper, I feel it’s my responsibility to do a thorough post mortem to see if the patient can be revived. Sometimes it’s just an artery that clogged, like Lori’s sewing machine the other day that was filled with so much lint parts were refusing to move. Other times I need to resort to transplant surgery, ordering new parts and installing them. Then there are times where the parts have gone missing, and I have to create artificial replacement parts. This ended up being the case with the bathroom door lock.

I like the way old things are put together. Back in the good old days they used screws. This allows you to disassemble them without breaking them, and to be able to put them back together again. Nothing stops Mr. Fixit quicker than modern cases that have either been snapped together with one way snaps, or worse with glue. So very quickly I got the lock apart and looked inside. Ah, here we go, there’s a broken spring. I just need to replace that and we’ll be done.

Thing was, I couldn’t figure out where the broken end would have been attached. So I figured out there on the Internet surely I could find the answer. First I had to figure out what this type of lock was called as it was escaping me. So I went to one of my favorite old house hardware sites Crown City, and looked at their lock section. Rim lock was what I was looking for. So I did various searches for repairing rim locks but came up empty.

I figured springs were cheap so I went down to Nielsen’s and bought a couple of springs that were close to what I found in the lock. I then tried to make these springs work but something just didn’t seem right because there wasn’t anything to attach the spring to on one side, and the other side provided a dubious connection at best. I kludged it the best I could and assembled everything and tried it out. It worked! The first time. Then I could tell that something came loose inside.

So I tried it again, this time with a bit of oil, and it worked a bit better, but after about three turns it stopped working again. So I opened it up once again and just stared at it.

That’s when I realized that the broken spring had been a red herring all along. It wasn’t supposed to be coil spring that made the bolt extend, it was supposed to have a leaf spring, just like the spring on the bottom for the dead bolt. I doubted that I could just go back to Nielsen’s and find the appropriate leaf spring so I hunted around to find something that was straight and strong but springy. Thankfully we had a pile of coat hangers waiting to be thrown away and the brass wire proved to be just the right ticket.

Coat hanger fix

Cut to the right length it fit perfectly, and the lock is back in order. So a small scrap of wire coat hanger saved me from having to replace the lock, which of course Crown City would have been happy to sell me a new one at $70. So thanks dad, you taught me well.

Bothe Napa State Park

So here it is, 7:52 in the morning at our campsite, and I’m logged on to the Internet. Trying to get this posted before my laptop runs out of juice because we used it to watch Long Way Down last night.

This is day one of our Memorial Day trip and I’m using this as a test of being able to play and work. Not that I’m doing any work but the concept will be liberating in the future.

Last night we heard a tom turkey gobbling his head off. Fortunately he went to sleep about the same time we did.

I really need to make a checklist for camping. Between Blake and I myself we forgot a few things that would have been helpful. As soon as I got to the camp I was reminded that bug spray is a good thing to have while camping. Fortunately when Blake arrived an hour later, he had some. Between us we have most of what we need, and we can pick up the rest along the way.

2 Week Update

It’s now been two weeks since Lori’s activation date and it’s been two of the most interesting weeks in my life. Trying to describe how I’ve felt has been hard. I can only imagine that it must be close to the excitement that parents go through when their child begins to crawl, then walks, and then talks for the first time.

Some definite highlights:

Lori and I were walking to some friends house for breakfast. Up on the telephone wires some birds were declaring their happiness in living in such a beautiful town as Ferndale, especially on such a fine morning as it was. Lori was able to hear the birds and I rejoiced. This had a lot of meaning for me because on her gradual trip to deafness, one day that stands out among the others was another walk. This time we were walking alone up Williams Creek Road. I had brought a note pad along because this was before she got her hearing aids. I realized that if she couldn’t hear me, then she couldn’t hear the birds, and it hit me hard how much pleasure had gone out of her life. But now the birds are singing again, as they should be.

Another thrill was the moment Ricky climbed up on the back of the futon right by her head and she recognized that Ricky was purring. That’s one sound I know Lori really missed. But now the cats are purring again, as they should be.

We watched a couple of episodes of Fawlty Towers the other night. Since we were streaming them from Netflix, there weren’t subtitles, but Lori was able to get most of the dialogue. Which given that the actors all speak with English accents (or in one case Spanish), that’s pretty good. But now John Cleese is funny again, as he should be.

Best of all, we were watching a movie a couple of nights ago, and it did have subtitles so we turned them on. But what was so wonderful was that I could talk to Lori and make comments about the movie. Aside from not having your feet glued to the floor in a theater, isn’t being able to talk during a movie one of the things that makes home theater so great? I really missed being able to make witty remarks and enjoy Lori’s laughter. But now hopefully I’m funny again, and I guess that’s as it should be too.

In the last two weeks Lori and I have been explaining this amazing technology to lots of friends. So I decided to do a bit of show and tell today. If anyone has kids in school that would like to bring in the real bionic woman, I’m sure Lori would be cool with that now.

Lori wearing her cochlear implants

Initially, when I showed Lori the info on cochlear implants, she was pretty disgusted with the idea of wearing something stuck to her head. I tried to explain to her that these days people are going around with all kinds of bluetooth devices stuck to their heads, and that people would barely even notice it. Then we went to a picnic for people considering getting the devices and they put pink dots on the nametags of those that already had them, because most of the women were able to hide them. With the way she normally wears her hair, the coil and the processor are barely seen.

Med-El Speech Processor

If Lori wears her hair back, then you can see them, and this is what you’d see. The circular disc is the coil. This has a magnet in it, surrounded by a coil. The magnet sticks to the implant. The implant sits under her skin, and it has a probe with electrodes that was inserted into her cochlea. The electrodes directly stimulate the auditory nerves. The coil transmits both the power and signal to the implant through radio waves. The implant has no battery power of its own.

The part that rests on her ear is the processor. It has microphone and takes the sound input, does a bunch of processing depending on the program and maps loaded into it, and then sends the resulting digital signal to the coil. Lori can choose from 4 different programs. When she visits Stanford, they load the programs by connecting the processor to a PC. Yep, Lori’s hearing is being controlled by a Windows program. Let’s hope she doesn’t pick up a virus. (True to form, during her last visit, the computer had to be rebooted.)

Ears to go

As I mentioned earlier, each implant comes with a complete backup and some nifty accessories. Here’s the James Bond case they ship everything in. Since she got two implants she got two cases, but I was able to consolidate it enough to get everything into one, which will make traveling a lot less conspicuous.

Accessories

Open the case and here’s some on what you’ll see. On the left is the remote control. The remote can be used to chang the volume, sensitivity, and the program for the left and/or right ear. There’s also a few other buttons that will perform something in the future but the audiologist didn’t mention what that was yet. Very James Bondish. The cool thing is that since Lori got two kits, one for each ear, there’s an extra remote. I’m envisioning all kinds of practical jokes based on this spare remote. I’m also thinking that most men would love to have a remote that silenced their wives from time to time, but that’s a different subject.

To the right of the implant are the accessory covers, in six different fashionable hues so that when Lori gets tired of sienna, she can change to blue or red, or to match the sky in Ferndale, grey.

The cable plugs into the bottom of the processor and can then be plugged into a battery powered sound source like an iPod, iPhone, or an FM transceiver, such as movie theaters use for the hearing impaired. Med-El currently has two cables available, this one doesn’t cut out the ambient sound so she can listen to her music on her iPhone at work and still hear people talking to her. In one of the books we read, the author felt very funny carrying around a Walkman (written before the iPod obviously) and not wearing a pair of headphones to go with it. 

The good news is that Lori is already finding some music that she enjoys. Not that it sounds anything close to hi-fi, and it never will, but the fact that she’s even finding it tolerable is great at this early stage of the re-learning process. So music is making her happy again, and that’s the way it should be.

Honey Do List From Hell

This weekend Lori and I didn’t have to go anywhere, and the weather was really nice. I was very tempted to take one of the motorcycles out for a spin, especially since this is one of my favorite times to ride around here with the poppies and lupine in bloom.

But since we’ve been out of town so much lately there’s lots of catching up to do, and I feel real guilty when I don’t make use of the rare good painting days that we get in Ferndale.

So I attacked the chore list with gusto.

Saturday it was mostly just the stuff that has to be done, like mowing the lawn. Sunday though was a little more interesting as I juggled several projects at once. 

Fence Slats

For several months now I’ve been working on making the slats for the arbor in front. I bought the wood for this project during our Thanksgiving trip to Melody’s so you can see it’s taking awhile. 75 slats had to be cut with the tail design on both ends, sanded, primed and painted with two coats of latex. I’ve felt like I’ve been working on an assembly line the last few months. This is what happens when you pick a house so you can’t hear your neighbors.  I am so looking forward to making the 350 or so pickets.

In between coats drying I also put a couple of more colors up on the gable. Now it just needs the blue half balls attached and the gold leaf center. The balls are in the garage getting coated in epoxy before they get painted. The gold leaf will wait for a day without too much wind.

Front Gate

I also finally got our front gate hung. It was made with leftover parts from our front porch restoration. I would like to thank Steve Courtemanche for building it. I designed it, and bought the most expensive piece of wood I’ve ever bought for the frame, an $80 piece of old growth redwood. But I just couldn’t seem to get around to actually assembling it with the amount of other projects I have going on. So thanks Steve!

After I finished with the gate hanging, I noticed that our boxwood hedges were long overdue for a haircut. They were all halfway into that 70s afro look. So I decided to tackle one more project. When I got the wheelbarrow out to pick up the clippings, I picked a few nearby weeds. I’m not sure why, but picking weeds is like eating potato chips. You can’t just pick one. So I kept at it until three wheelbarrow loads later my back was sending me urgent warning signals that unless I wanted to spend the next few days lying on the floor, I should stop. Right now!

At 7:30pm I finally gave up and went inside to have dinner. After dinner I called mom since it was Mother’s Day after all. I missed that she was too far away to visit. She’s been very good to Lori and I this year, and it would have been nice to thank her in person. Plus, even though she always has a Sonny Do list for me when we visit, it’s never as long as my own list.

Welcome Back to the Real World

Today was like the best Christmas ever.

Today was Lori’s activation day. After spending the last 19 days in total silence, the big day finally came and she got to see how the new implants worked. 

We got to Stanford at 11:00 and Lori’s sister met us there a few minutes later. About 11:30 we finally met with Dr. Blevin, the wonderfully talented surgeon who implanted the two devices at her last visit. He took a look at both ears and said everything was healing as expected and cleared her for the next step, the audiologist.

We had time for lunch in between appointments so we headed to the cafeteria. Who said hospital food sucked? I had a great cardiac burger (bacon cheeseburger) with curly fries, but I figured with all the doctors in the house I’d be safe should the worst happen.

After lunch we went to meet the audiologist. She first showed us the four boxes of equipment that was Lori’s new ears. Two of these boxes looked like they could have held well packed laptops. I was thinking either the processors were a lot bigger than they let on, or Med-El seriously over packed the devices. Fortunately, it turned out to be the latter.

Inside each of the two big boxes was a kit for each ear. Everything in the kit was packed in a very slick looking aluminum briefcase that had us all thinking it looked very James Bondish. Inside the briefcase they packed two of everything you need, so that you have a backup for anything that fails. That’s very comforting as redundancy is a good thing to have for mission critical components in any system. As we found out in the last few weeks, hearing definitely is on the mission critical list.

Once Dr. Loy got everything unpacked she started on Lori’s left ear. First she programmed the 12 channels for the quietest sound Lori could hear, then the loudest that was comfortable for her. Then came the big moment, Dr. Loy loaded the map into her processor, and turned it on and spoke to Lori. Lori was surprised that she was instantly able to understand Dr. Loy. Paula was surprised too, which left me wondering why I was the only optimist of the group. After all, I’m an official member of the Grump & Gripe Club.

The process was repeated for the right ear, and just in that short time her hearing improved. It was quickly obvious that her hearing was already back to the level she was at before the surgery when she was relying on her hearing aids. It was very comforting to know that she wasn’t any worse off, and knowing that patients improve dramatically after even just a few days of using the implants we were very encouraged.

It is also obvious that for the next few weeks I will be explaining all these new sounds to Lori. While the implants have returned her hearing, it’s not the hearing that you and I experience, or even the hearing she had with her hearing aids.

When we got back to mom’s house, Paula sang to Lori, and she was able to enjoy it to the point it brought tears to her eyes. That’s the first time Lori has enjoyed music for awhile. She then asked me to sit down at the piano, and that brought tears to her eyes as well. (I wish I were really that good of a piano player.) That she’s enjoying any music this early in the process is amazing, and it’s a good sign that Lori is going to be one of the lucky ones that will get the most out of her implants.

It’s really hard to express just how we both feel right now. I knew this was going to be a momentous day for both of us, but to have the gift of communication restored to us is overwhelming. I thought I was coping ok during the last 19 days, but being able to talk to her again feels like a rebirth. Lori is completely in awe that they are working so well right off and that she’s once again enjoying things that had disappeared from her life. 

I remember as a kid the excitement of opening boxes and boxes of presents on Christmas morning. But none of the presents I received as a kid compare to the present that came to us in all those Med-El boxes today. The gift of communication.

Worlds Worst Spammer

I just received this message in my mailbox:

Hello,
I am Steven, a respectable business man from Canada. I am indeed
interested in your horse posted for sale. I want to buy the horse as a
surprise birthday gift for my daughter. I will like to know if the horse is
still available for sale and will also like to know your final asking price.
I have a shipper who will come over there to pick the horse as soon as
the payment is completely received by you. Please let me know your
asking price if the horse is still available for sale, the reason for selling
and recent picture if available so we can proceed from there. I will be
looking forward to hear from you.

Regards
Steven

Now the only credit I can give this spammer is that his message did get through my rather extensive set of spam filters. Everything else about it just made me laugh.

First off, I don’t have a horse, so that would rule out me having a horse for sale. Seems a weird scam to pull off, as statistically, your average American does not have a horse for sale.

As the rest of the message provides enough clues to the contrary, Steven is not a respectable businessman from Canada. A check of the IP address from where it was sent comes up with the startling news that he’s from Nigeria.

I sure hope his daughter isn’t disappointed that she’s not getting a pony for her birthday.

Painting Season Has Arrived

Growing up with San Jose’s dry weather presented some challenges when it came time to adapt to the humid coastal climate of Ferndale. Many of them emotional, but some practical as well, such as painting one’s house.

Our house in San Jose had been neglected when we purchased it and by doing a thorough job prepping it, that paint job has lasted 16 years. Last time I drove by it it was looking a little tired, but it was still holding together.

Here in Ferndale, a good paint job lasts about 5 years, and if you’re really lucky it might hold together for 10. The combination of humidity and the salt air really does a number on these old houses. It’s a bit daunting to think that I’m going to have to repaint this house every 8 years or so. Especially when the chances to paint in Ferndale are so limited.

Ferndale has two painting seasons. In spring right after the rains stop but before the inland areas warm up. Once the heat of summer arrives Ferndale turns into a foggy mess and you only get occasional days where the drizzle lets up so you can paint. Then in fall we get a few more weeks where the inland heat subsides enough so that Ferndale enjoys the best weather it sees all year.

So given the small window of opportunity to paint in Ferndale, I was only able to get half the front of my house painted last year. While that sounds discouraging, I’m bolstered by the fact that only the front of our house has extensive gingerbreading and the other three sides should go a lot quicker. I use to wish the south side had more gingerbread since it is very visible, but now I’m glad it relatively plain.

Yesterday, with the sun out, I couldn’t stand working indoors at the computer, so I made my way up the scaffolding to start painting the second gable. Even with just the monochromatic coat of primer, it looks fresh and renewed. I can’t wait until the whole front is finished. Then I can stand in front of the house and fool myself for a short time at least.