Wednesday, February 21, 2007

So I'm watching Iowa crush Purdue in basketball. At the end of the game Iowa will be 8-6 in the Big 10 and Pete will officially have won our bet. Oh well.
So Betsy has committed me to a 'blog entry on their visit last weekend, here it is.
They came in on the train, scheduled to arrive at 10:30pm but the train was an hour late. I left the house at 11:30 to pick them up. The temperature was about 6°f.
After I had driven about 3 miles on the highway my car conked out. Fortunately I had a flashlight with me. I could see that there was a bunch of air in the fuel line which is transparent (clever German engineering) after a few minutes of messing around I managed to get it going again and decided to see if I could get to the train station.
I could not. Another 3-4 miles was all I could manage. I got it started again and pulled off at the first exit hoping to find a gas station. The car died again so I got out and walked until I found a pay phone. I called Sandy (sleeping) and didn't get an answer, then called Betsy. They hadn't arrived yet so I had a little time. I ran back to the car and tried to push it to the gas station, that proved to be especially difficult so I tried to start it again and got it to go long enough to get me to the gas station.
I filled it up hoping that I either was out of fuel or that the cold had jelled what little fuel I had and that warmer fuel from the pump would help. Not the case.
I pushed the car into a parking spot and called Betsy back. They were at the station now and waiting. I called Sandy again and asked her to come pick us all up which she did.
Betsy, Pete and Henry were about to be evicted from the train station when we arrived. I think it was about 1:30 or so when we finally got back to the house. Henry was quite cheerful for such a late night.
We all went straight to bed but I lay awake for quite a while thinking about what might be wrong with my car. I decided it was probably a crapped up fuel filter.
The next morning Pete and I drove Sandy to work and then went to work on my car. I put in a new fuel filter which I carry in case all the biodiesel gunks it up (which may be what happened even though I don't use it in the winter). But then the battery died before we could get all the air purged out of the fuel system. So we had to drive home to get the jumper cables. Eventually we got the thing going and drove it back to the house. By this time it was 11am so we showered and went to the 50's grill for some lunch. Henry and I both had hot turkey sandwiches. His was off the kid's menu but appeared to be the same quantity of food as mine and it included a glass of milk all for a dollar less than mine cost. I may order off the kid's menu next time I go there.
We went back home and played trains for a little bit.

That afternoon Pete and I went and got stuff to make beer and Betsy and I went to the grocery store and picked up Sandy from work. We had chicken for dinner and pretty much went straight to bed because we were all so tired.
The next morning Pete and I made beer and then watched the Iowa MSU game. Sandy and Betsy went to the Yarn Cafe and knitted. We had delusions of watching a movie that night but again we were tired and Henry wouldn't go to bed without Pete or Betsy.
Sunday morning Betsy, Pete and Henry had to go back to the train station for the trip home.

We took several pictures outside the station with the train in the background and for some reason in every one Henry has his tongue sticking out. In this particular picture it looks like he's sticking it out at me, but really it was just out all the time and he happened to be pointed at me when I clicked this shot.
Here's the last picture before they boarded the train:

After they got on the train I drove East a couple of miles and staked out a spot along the tracks and waited for them to come by. I thought Henry would like a picture in which you can actually see the train they were on.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

So two weeks ago we skied into the cabin for the weekend. It ended up being kind of an adventure.
We drove up Thursday night and spent the night at Obie and Kathleen's new house, it was the first time we had been there and it made us envious. It's an actual house (reasonably sized) on Deeryard lake with electricity and heat and running water.

Friday morning we got up and drove up to a snowmobilier parking lot near our lake. It was cold, I think about -10°f but we were expecting that so we were well dressed including Lucy with her new boots.
We packed up a bunch of food and gear on a sled and then realized that one of my skis was messed up.

The leading edge of one ski (for about 16") was delaminating, the bottom layer of it was completly detached. I managed to tie it in place with a piece of rope around the tip of the ski. After that we set off toward the cabin.
It's about 2 miles to ski in there which isn't too bad but it was a lot of work pulling that sled. It was a little difficult for Lucy too, it seemed like she was having some joint pain probably from arthritis combined with the weird stride because of the snow and boots. But we all made it ok.
We spent the rest of the day Friday hanging out in the cabin because it kept getting colder. Sandy kept rearranging things trying to create more room and I read a book.
Saturday morning it was -24°f but we wanted to get something done so we went out and burned one of the brush piles we had accumulated in the Fall. I also pulled down a bunch of insulation in the upstairs of the house some of which we melted in the fire. It's remarkable how such a big piece of insulation can melt down into such a small glob. The high for the day was -17°f.
Sunday morning we had to get up and get home so we could see all the Superbowl commercials. I was interested in the game as well. It was -32°f which I guarantee will make any trip to the outhouse as short as possible. It was also windy, but it was out of the North so would be at our backs for all the sking. We gave Lucy an Aleve so the arthritis wouldn't be such a bother. I also made her a little jacket out of some duct tape and a plastic bag, I used the duct tape to better repair my ski as well.
The trip out took almost exactly an hour which was a lot shorter than the trip in. Unfortunately when we got to the car it wouldn't start. The battery was just too cold to get the thing going. I messed around for about an hour trying to start it while Sandy and Lucy stayed in the car out of the wind. We debated our options for a while and eventually decided to ski down the road toward Grand Marais to find someone who would drive us back and jump the car. We left Lucy in the car which was actually not too bad in the bright sunlight. After about 5 miles of sking we came to a house with smoke coming out of the chimney. A nice retired guy answered the door and after hearing our story agreed to drive us back up there. It took a little effort but we eventually got the car going and he followed us back down the road to make sure we didn't have any other problems.
The fan for the heater was apparently frozen up because we drove about 40 miles before it started working which made for kind of a cold ride since we were all sweaty. But in the end it came on and we warmed up/dried out, and eventually made it home in time for the football game.