Monday Musings - August 10, 2015

Any Questions?

1. Thanks Chris, for putting up with me for 40 years!

2. Wouldn't it be great if signage was as clear as what we saw yesterday while visiting a winery in Western Maryland. Doesn't leave much doubt about which way to go. Frankly, it was hard to actually go the right way, the wrong way looked so inviting.

3. I want to go on another vacation where someone needs to poke me to assess that I am just relaxed.

4. Chaos--now that can be a lot of fun! Just add kids and dogs for the complete package.

Chris receiving a surprise Anniversary gift

5. I still have it! I was able to surprise Chris with a special anniversary gift last evening. And, I caught the response on camera!

6. I saw the new Misson Impossible movie over the weekend. It was good, but not great. Nice plot twists, but that is what I have come to expect.

7. Do you know what is better than spending Friday evening with friends drinking wine? Not much!

8. August seems determined to set the stage for another winter. The temperatures have already begun to cool. 

9. Shopping for new lights is hard work. There are too many choices and none are exactly right. 

10. Who wants to trust their lives to a self-driving car, especially in D.C. rush-hour traffic?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Weekend Repairs

Looking into the Garage Door Opener
Broken parts--the gears should be covered

When Chris and I returned from our vacation, one of the major mechanical devices which had suffered a catastrophic failure during our time away was the garage door opener.

Over the course of the week, we came to realize just how much we depend upon the garage door opener, partly because when I had the new garage door installed two years ago, I did not provide a mechanism for manually opening it from outside!

Broken gear cover part

That may have been a mistake. It is easy enough to open and lock from the inside, but from outside it is not possible. That meant that once the car was driven from the garage we had secure the garage door from inside and walk back through the house to return to the car and drive away.

It wasn't fun. 

I was able to repair, not replace, but repair, the garage door opener yesterday. I had ordered the parts and they arrived. Parts were a concern because the Stanley model 6500 garage door opener is not made any more and I was on the secondary market for them. Many of the potentially required repair parts are "no longer stocked." Fortunately, the one that I thought I needed was available!

Completed and repaired

It was not a simple repair. The biggest problem was that no instructions were provided and there was one part that caused me to perform one aspect of the repair three times before I was satisfied that I had it correctly. 

I knew it was going to be a multi-hour project. And it was.

But it works!

Once I applied the power and adjusted the travel of the garage door, it actually worked!

I was pleased. Chris later told me that she gave the project only about a 50 percent chance of success. I was a bit higher thinking I had a 70 percent chance of success. It really depended upon whether any critical collateral damage had occurred as the gear cover was chattering and flinging itself around the enclosed space.

Weekends are great times to get repairs accomplished. It is just too hard to attempt a multi-hour project after working all day.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Remodeling Surprise

View of the Old-looking Bath

Looking in from the Door

It happens every few years when we head out on vacation. We return to find that Patrick and Tina have surprised us by updating or remodeling a room in our house.

This year it was the master bath! 

Our master bath was somewhat dated. Yes, Chris and I had added ceramic tile some years ago and removed the even more dated vinyl flooring, but the room just screamed "old!" 

New Bath View

The cabinet over the toilet (yes, the very same toilet that I repaired a leak in earlier this week) and the colors give the appearance of dated. I believe that too many of my family have been watching HGTV! I am constantly besieged with updating and remodeling ideas.

Looking in from the Door

But I have to admit, the new and improved room really "pops!" The crown moulding was a really nice touch and the removal of the cabinet over to toilet opens up the room. The swap out of the lights for daylight brightens the room and the new color scheme is one that is currently in vogue! 

New Bath and the Color Scheme

We can't forget the new mirror. The old one, which apparently had already been removed before the pictures were taken, was big and just hung there on the wall with no style. The new mirror has style and class. Even the cabinet supporting the sink was painted.

The removal of the window shelf and rebuilding the frame was a very nice touch.

It was a nice surprise to return home and have such a great anniversary gift waiting. Thanks to all who participated in the project.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Weird Animal Activities

Yesterday was an incredibly busy day. Too busy in many regards. 

Monarch Butterfly at Picnic

But, during the course of the day I observed two very different animals doing funny things.

The first animal encounter occurred during my office's picnic. The person cooking the burgers and dogs was visited by a very persistent monarch butterfly. The butterfly fluttered around for quite a few minutes before deciding that he was not the milkweed plant for which it was looking. 

Riordin Tries on a New Box

During its time at the picnic the monarch butterfly even posed for a picture perched on the cook's hand which was holding a paper plate.

And then , there was Riordin! The cat likes boxes of all shapes and sizes. The parts arrived to repair the broken garage door opener and Riordin just had to try the box they came in on for size--even though clearly it was too small for him. 

He arranged himself in the box and sat there for a few minutes in the most undignified pose trying to decide whether this was the box for him. It wasn't and I was finally able to add it to the recycling pile.

Animals do the strangest things and sometimes the encounters add spice to my days.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Tales of the Toilet

It seems that my house is revolting against me for being gone almost two weeks.

Every evening this week I have been in the "fix and repair" mode to  get everything back into working order.

Yesterday it was a toilet. Not your usual problem of a clogged toilet, or one that won fill or flush properly. No, my toilet decided it needed to leak around the bolts that secure the tank to the bowl!

I had never considered that toilets could leak in that place. It was ugly. I am glad that at least the toilet waited to revolt until I had returned--it could have been catastrophic had it sprung a leak while we were away. I can imagine water soaking through everything! Ugh. Maybe I should start closing the water supply valves to the toilets when we go away.

Toilet repairs are not particularly difficult, but they are also not a lot of fun. And, as it turned out my toilet required the use of the "alternate" instructions for the kit. Of course it did! And I didn't recognize it until it was all back together and leaking worse than before.


I did not enjoy taking the toilet all apart, again, to reconfigure the parts. I also did not enjoy driving to Lowe's during rush hour traffic to obtain the parts which cost a whopping $4.95. I probably spent more on gas than the parts cost.

But, the toilet is fixed!

So the repair was a stunning success!

I wonder why there are so many different types of toilets?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Are You Cold?

Temperature challenged people are everywhere.

I am possibly becoming a temperature challenged person, although after reading Chilly at Work? Office Formula Was Devised for Men, I should be in the group that is comfortable since I am a guy.

I have noted that Chris gets colder, faster, and in more places than I seem to be.

Despite that, during our recent vacation, I found places that were cold, even for me.

The Fort Lauderdale airport Southwest Terminal area is one of those places--it is just cold. We knew that it was going to be cold because that terminal is always cold and we were not disappointed. I remember arriving there from Baltimore, walking off the cool but comfortable Boeing 737 through the sweltering jetway into the terminal to be greeted by the sensation of walking out the front door of the house during the coldest days of winter.

Even I was chilled.

It goes further. Chris and I are always discussing the temperature in the areas where we spend time. We never could get the temperature in our stateroom on the ship just right--we were constantly adjusting it and never fully satisfied.

At home, we often have the same discussions, with the exception that Chris is often too hot while I am comfortable.

And then I learn the algorithm to determine optimal work place temperatures is inherently biased towards men.

Temperature challenged! I wonder what it would be like to live somewhere that air conditioning is not widely employed--like Europe? Perhaps we have taken a good invention too far? 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

What did I do on my first day back after vacation?

I remember going back to school after summer vacation when I was in elementary school. It seemed that the first ice breaker of the year was something about what did I do during my summer vacation? 

Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge
Willemstad, Curacao

The corollary is, What did I do on my first day back at work after my vacation?

With the vacation rapidly passing from reality to memory, I returned to the daily grind. I was enthused to see my work-mates and regale them with tales from my cruise adventure. But there was a lot of work that needed to be accomplished as well. I worked a full day, plus a bit. 

As a reward for my exertions at work, I treated myself to a much needed massage to shake off the stress of returning from the cruise--but then it was home and into the breech to get the house back into shape after being gone for almost two weeks.

First up was the yard! It was mowed and looks really good. Then the pool was brought back into shape by replenishing the chemicals that keep it clean and sparkling. This morning's thunderstorm rendered the cleaning that I did pointless, but the pool was pristine last evening when I went to bed. 

But wait, there's more! 

Most Awesome Piece of Cheesecake
Ever!

A door handle needed to be tightened, I ordered parts for the broken garage door opener, got gas for the leaf blower, purchased spray to kill the tent webworms that appeared in a couple of trees while I was gone, and also bought and installed a new shower head for one of the bathrooms because the old one had become clogged and really needed to be replaced.

Somewhere in there I took a timeout for dinner. By the time I was done it was 9 PM.

Wow, what a day. Of course as I reflected on the week gone by, I knew that one the cruise 9 PM was in the middle of our dinner hour. Alas, now it was shortly before bedtime. 

And just like that, the day was gone. 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - August 3, 2015

Sunrise August 2, 2015
Aboard the Carnival Conquest in Port Everglades, Florida

1. It is the first Monday in August--I bet that almost slipped in unnoticed.

2. Wow, what a change. Yesterday I woke up on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida and today I am back in my everyday life heading off to work. Ugh! 

3. If vacations didn't end, I wouldn't appreciate them so much.

My Towel Dog Made on the cruise

4. Chris was so relaxed during our cruise that I had to nudge her a couple of times to make sure she was still alive.

5. No good vacation goes unpunished! My garage door opener suffered a catastrophic failure while I was away. Ugh!

6. With the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba, it is time to end the economic embargo. I was amazed, but 72 percent of Americans support ending the embargo.

Swimming with the Fish
Grand Turk

7. I am going to miss the towel animals on my bed every night. Wait, I took a course on the ship about making towel animals!

8. Swimming with the fishes took on a new meaning last week.

9. My heart goes out the parents of the 14-year old sailors lost at sea during a fishing trip off the coast of South Florida. The Coast Guard suspended the search, but they haven to lost hope.

-- Bob Doan, writing from home in Elkridge, MD

The Cruise is Over

There are some words that fully express how I am feeling right now as the Carnival Conquest ties up at the quay and the cruise is completed. 

Carlin Park, Jupiter, Florida

It is over. Our entire vacation from Jupiter to the Caribbean is over.



Wow. It is hard to believe that eight days ago Chris and I departed on a journey that took us across the Caribbean to Grand Turk, Curacao, and Aruba only now to return us to the spot from which we departed.

It is sad. Not only is the cruise over, but the entire vacation is ending.

Carnival Conquest
Grand Turk
July 27, 2015

By this time tomorrow I will be wither on my way to work or trying to work off the extra cruise-induced weight on the racquetball court.

It was fun. But it was all too short. I'm glad we never considered that it was ending until last evening. The whole ship was abuzz and I  could see it in the other passengers, and especially the teenagers, that we were sad that the journey was coming to a conclusion.

Everything has a beginning and and ending and we have just arrived at the final chapter and pages of the book.

Speaking of which,  I read two books during the cruise. 

There is a long day of departure and travel ahead on Chris and I as we prepare to return to our day-to-day lives.

We have awesome memories and made a couple of new friends too.

After all, isn't that what vacations are about?

-- Bob Doan, aboard the Carnival Conquest in Port Everglades

My Take: Reality is Real

Cecil the Lion

It is August, and despite still being on vacation, I read a thought provoking OpEd piece in the New York Times this morning. 

The article by Roxane Gay titled, Of Lions and Men: Mourning Samuel DuBose and Cecil the Lion, reminded me that reality is not absolute. What is real may be absolute, but reality is based upon perception, emotion, and belief. If I believe something, then for me it is real and it affects the lens through which I view the world. 

I have been following both stories, Cecil the Lion who was illegally poached by the Minnesota dentist and the shooting/murder of Samuel DuBose. 

Samuel DuBose

The released video in the Samuel DuBose case appears to materially contradict the reports of the police officers. The video recorded what was real. It recorded what happened without regard to the interactions between the people involved. 

I know, from my own experiences, that what I remember about a situation varies from what is real because I am influenced by my own reality. My reality precludes me from being an inanimate recording device because I feel emotion and my memories are clouded by my biases. I remember how I was feeling and I see the situation through my own lens--and it is often a cloudy lens.

In her piece this morning, Ms. Gay writes:

When you hear, “black lives matter,” don’t instinctively respond that all lives matter, as if one statement negates the other. Instead, try to understand why people of color might be compelled to remind the world that their lives have value.

When others share their reality, don’t immediately dismiss them because their reality is dissimilar to yours, or because their reality makes you uncomfortable and forces you to see things you prefer to ignore.

I highlighted the line that really resonated with me, because I know that it happens all of the time. I see it, I do it, and I have my own personal reality negated.

I agree with Ms. Gay that it is interesting that our society seems intent on rectifying, if it could, the slaughter of Cecil the Lion, but not stopping the violence that is happening all around us. In closing her OpEd piece this morning she writes:

I am thinking about how and when people choose to show empathy publicly. Cecil the lion was a majestic creature and a great many people mourn his death, the brutality of it, the senselessness of it. Some people also mourn the deaths, most recently, of Sandra Bland and Samuel DuBose, but this mourning doesn’t seem to carry the same emotional tenor. A late-night television host did not cry on camera this week for human lives that have been lost. He certainly doesn’t have to. He did, however, cry for a lion and that’s worth thinking about. Human beings are majestic creatures, too. May we learn to see this majesty in all of us.

I believe she is onto something we all need to take a moment to think about.

-- Bob Doan, writing aboard the Carnival Conquest