xythian

We got tired of our Black Lives Matter sign being stolen. I suppose now they can vandalize it, but they haven't yet. On the other hand, meantime between thefts is several months.

The sign is glued to a quarter inch thick stainless steel plate where we drilled these holes to put the locks through. Locks are locked to ground anchors which go in over a foot into the ground. We had them left over from when Jocelyn had her aerial rig and we constructed a tent inside it for winter usage (which was not a success and only extended the season a little bit) and needed to be very well anchored to the ground. Then there is an angle bracket (also stainless steel) to keep it upright. It was more expensive than an air tag, but we think it will be more effective as well.

Speaking of which, I check on the one with the air tag periodically, and it has been in the same place since it was stolen. Apparently the battery has not yet run out. I keep thinking I'll drive up there and take a look at the neighborhood myself, but I haven't done that. Presumably the sign itself is in a pile of rubbish somewhere behind somebody's house, so I won't actually be able to see it. It must be on a private road, because there is no street view available.

I took last Wednesday off of work to haul and winterize the power boat, because I was going to be busy the next several weekends, and I'm tired of winterizing it in late November when it's 30° and blowing a howling gale.

I had the usual trouble with everything. Starting with not being able to find the right socket that is needed for installing the hitch. Turned out we had a same size socket from a different set. It said it was an impact wrench socket but it fit on the extra large handle from the main socket set, and so even though it didn't stay on properly, I was able to make it work. Then I couldn't find the waders that I wanted to use. I only found the ones that are too small and the ones that leak. I made do with the ones that are too small. Eventually I got the boat out of the water without any further unexpected trouble (I always expect a little trouble trying to back up the trailer).

Then the winterizing job just takes forever. You have to drain the oil out of the lower unit and the main engine, and this takes a long time, even if you warm up the engine first so the oil is less viscous; the lower unit oil is very viscous. And then you have to try hard not to spill it anywhere. I was especially concerned because this is the first time our brand-new garage floor has been threatened with oil when I was draining it out of the oil pan into containers for taking to toxic waste next spring. I managed not to stain the floor. We have a special gadget for getting oil into the lower unit which is supposed to have less drippage, and I had notes from last time that said that the old one was starting to fail and so I bought a new one, and the new one is much worse and much less useful and I'm sad about that.

I got the neighbor to agree to take the extra gas from the tank and put it in one of his cars, since we no longer have any other gasoline burning vehicles.

Finally it was done and I got help to move to the other trailers out of the way (both of them had flat tires and had to be pumped up) and towed it into its winter home and covered it. The cover is getting kind of shabby, but the previous week I had tried patching some of the larger holes with iron on patches, which surprisingly worked and did not melt the material, mostly nylon I think. Some of my iron on patches were clearly from the 70s, based on the packaging. I did use one of those, and I think it's going to peel off. It proudly said it cost 29 cents!

Then over the weekend there was some beautiful waterskiing weather, and I had no boat. I knew that would happen, though. And I was pretty busy this weekend with No Kings Saturday and a game party Sunday.