Thursday November 21st 2024

The lead phrase in the TV weather talker script today was “The coldest temperatures since February”. The high temperature for the day was just over seventy, but the real cool temperature came after sunset. It was below sixty by 7PM and it continues to drop.

The dropping temperature got in the way of my enjoyment of Disney Springs this evening. I went in search of dinner and some evening entertainment. The ambiance set by the Christmas decorations and various roving entertainment was top notch. Wandering around was easy as the crowd was down probably because of the temperature. Unfortunately, wandering or shopping inside was about all you could do. It you stopped moving or sat down outside, the wind added a chill that was hard to take.

I did a complete circuit around the shopping and entertainment district. There were lots of Christmas flair around the area. In the main shopping area “snoap” was falling. The soap flakes make very realistic snow as they are blown off the roofs of the shops. Around the area brightly decorated Christmas trees lite the pathways and roving entertainers add to the overall atmosphere.

It was a brief but fun experience. Finding food that I could eat inside without a long wait proved impossible. It was just too cold to eat outside. Similarly, it was too cold to sit and watch the entertainment. My visit to Disney Springs became a lot shorter than I planned. I am going to try and get back again during the Holiday season, but it gets very crowded as Christmas approaches.

On the home furnishing front, I finished staining and applying polyurethane to the unfinished table and chairs I bought through Amazon. I am getting a little better at applying the poly, but I am still not an expert. The finish still shows a few blemishes that probably relate back to an incomplete sanding job. Over time I’ll stop seeing the issues and I’m not sure if anyone else will anyway. In addition to the two chairs I bought and finished I have two high end folding chairs that will bring the number of chairs up to four if I ever need to seat more than one or two which is highly unlikely. Better to be prepared.

Sunday November 17th 2024

The last coat of polyurethane went on my headboard yesterday. One of today’s tasks was attaching it to the bed frame. There was one hiccup in that task. The bed frame I built with mattress in place was too heavy to move. On the carpeted bedroom floor it also wouldn’t slide. I made a run to Lowes for something thin and hard to go under the bed legs. My plan was to get a four foot section of Masonite, but found a better solution in a piece of hardboard intended to be used to make a white board. When cut into four strips about six inches wide and slide under the bed legs, I was able to move the bed frame away from the wall and attach the headboard. My bed is now finished and doesn’t look too bad.

Today’s other task was finishing the two dinning room chairs I bought from Amazon. Each chair came in eight pieces in need of stain and polyurethane. By the end of the day I had all sixteen pieces stained. Trying to stay out of the direct sunlight is a challenge. The stain drys fast in the direct sun and it is hard to see the areas that haven’t been hit with the stain. I need to stop staining or applying polyurethane by mid afternoon. The sun is too intense in the late afternoon.

The unfinished table gets the stain and poly treatment next. Rain is in the forecast for Wednesday, so I need to get stuff inside by then. The furnishing of my base camp is coming along slowly. I got a framed canvas of one of my Rambling Road Trip pictures via UPS on Friday. It was a test of the printing service. I hung it on my bedroom wall. It looks pretty good. I am going to have a couple of landscape photographs printed on canvas next and maybe a bird picture or two.

I keep waiting to see Christmas decorations around the resort, but so far the only decorations are the Thanksgiving style decorations that have been added to the front gate. It is basically a garland of fall leaves. My guess is most of the Christmas type decorations will arrive right after Thanksgiving.

Thursday November 14th 2024

The big event of the last few days was a trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom on Wednesday. The park is decked out for Christmas and the Merry Menagerie has returned. The Merry Menagerie are a set of big puppets that interact with each other and the park guests. Accompanied by a fiddler playing Christmas music the puppets of animals from the earth’s poles along with their marionettes greet people in front of the Tree of Life. They are fun to watch. Unfortunately, still pictures don’t do the interaction justice.

The park was busy for a mid week day. There were crowds along all the walkways, but the wait times for the various rides weren’t too bad. I only waited about thirty minutes for my favorite ride in the park, the Kilimanjaro Safari. The park’s most in demand ride, Avatar Flight of Passage, had a wait time of seventy minutes which is about average.

The animals were out and about today. The giraffes and zebras were in particularly high numbers on the safari, the only animals I missed seeing were the lions. They weren’t on their rocks as usual. It was a very windy day and many animals were enjoying the sun in sheltered locations. The gorillas were taking the sun against the rocks on the far side of their enclosure. The adults were catching up on their sleep while the young ones were getting into trouble.

On my way home from Animal Kingdom I stopped at Lowes for more base camp improvement project supplies. I am currently working on the headboard for the bed frame I completed a week or so ago. I have all the parts cut and stained with some assembly completed. I still have to trim the vertical pieces and add a cap board. A little stain touch up followed by two or three coats of polyurethane will finish the job.

The next project will be my kitchen/dinning room table and chairs. I decided not to build the table from scratch. Amazon had an unfinished round drop leaf table at a reasonable price as well as a couple of unfinished dinning room type chairs. I went with unfinished for two reasons. First, it is next it impossible to really know the color and look from the online pictures. The computer desk I bought finished from Amazon turned out alright, but it didn’t look much like its pictures. Second, if I finish them with the same stain I use on other projects there is a better chance the things will match.

Thursday November 7th 2024

In last Sunday’s blog entry I wrote about my intent to visit furniture stores to shop for a sofa and a recliner. That activity didn’t go completely to plan. The furniture store I went to was a disappointment. All they had on display were big sectional sofas. If I got one of those, there would be no room for people in my living room. When I inquired about smaller, simple sofas, they showed me to a kiosk area with a terminal and web browser. In other words “shop on line”. Their focus on the big sectionals was consistent with what I’d seen at Big Lots, so based on my small sample size I went back to online shopping for my sofa.

Shopping online for a sofa was productive. I found the same products on multiple websites. I depended on the specifications to get the size, and the pictures to get an idea about the overall look and color. More important, the reviews gave me an idea about issues and how easy it was to assemble. I finally found a sofa that struck my fancy on Amazon. It was the same model I saw on another website, but for almost one hundred dollars less.

I also bought an area rug from Amazon to offset all the gray that I was putting the room. From the pictures, I was expecting to receive a rolled up carpet 5×7 feet in size. I was surprised to receive the rug in a small box about a foot by fifteen inches and four inches deep. The rug was thinner than I expected, but seems to work fine over the carpet in the living room.

The sofa arrived today via UPS. I was prepared to bring the sofa in piece by piece, but the driver helped me get the large one hundred plus pound box into the living room. The next half hour or so was spent putting the ten pieces together. I had to prop a couple of pieces up to get them connected, but I didn’t need any help. The Amazon assembly service wasn’t necessary.

I still intend to buy a recliner to sit in facing the TV. A local store with delivery service continues to be the plan. The logistics of getting the recliner into the room and assembled are likely to be more complicated than the sofa. It doesn’t seem like a good solo job. Most recliners seem to be heavier and perhaps wider than the sofa.

The living room also needs an end table or two as well as some wall art. The sofa is centered under a set of picture hooks. I’m reviewing some of the pictures I have from the Rambling Road Trip for something suitable for framing. I also intend to build an end table and possibly the lamp to go on it. Slowly the furnishing of my base camp is coming together.

While the furniture arrival today was the big event of the week, I did make a visit to Disney’s EPCOT for a Fish and Chips dinner on Tuesday night. The park seemed so different after the return to Standard Time. Even though I’ve been there at night many times, the first arrival near dark this year took a little getting acclimated. In addition to supper, I got in some exercise walking around the World Showcase and road a couple of rides. They are getting the Living with the Land ride ready for the holidays. Many of the trees and plants had Christmas lights installed. They haven’t been turned on yet. The Festival of the Holidays at EPCOT begins the day after Thanksgiving. Christmas celebrations at the other three theme parks are already underway. Friday night is the first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom. I may visit Magic Kingdom during the afternoon and early evening to see the decorations, but won’t be staying for the separate admission after hours party.

Sunday November 3rd 2024

With the return to Standard Time today was confusing to the senses. It was bright outside when I woke up this morning. For the last couple of weeks it has been the dull daylight that occurs before the sun clears the eastern horizon. My base camp is located on the western side of a hill delaying the sunlight from reaching my windows even more. Tonight’s early sunset didn’t help cure the disorientation either. From experience I know it will be a few days before I get synced with the changes.

I took the last few days off from my furniture building tasks. The bed frame is supporting my new mattress well and I have been getting a good nights sleep. My next projects may need to get delayed a few days. My work space is outdoors under my carport and rain is in the forecast for most days this week. Another tropical system is moving into the Gulf of Mexico. It sounds like this one will die out before the center moves onto land, but plenty of rain may fall before the week is out.

It is time to start some serious shopping for the furniture I can’t build. Specially, I need a couch and a recliner. So far I’ve done some casual looking at furniture at Big Lots and looked online at Wayfair and Amazon. Given the size and weight of these items, I really need to get them delivered in an assembled state. That means I have to shop at a traditional furniture store complete with annoying sales people and long lead times. Not my favorite form of shopping.

Life around my base camp is starting to return. The sleepy summer state is transitioning to an active winter state. There are many indicators of the change. Perhaps the most obvious change is the empty RV sites are almost all occupied now. More subtle changes are the presence of cars in front of more park model homes and the canvas covers removed from the golf carts along side the homes. As a guess, in August there were less than a third of the units occupied. Right now about half to two thirds of the units are occupied. It will be interesting to see how soon the remaining units get occupied.

Thursday October 31st 2024

Happy Halloween

Most of the last few days have been focused on finishing my queen bed project. The bed frame is complete and I will try it out tonight. It has taken much more time than I anticipated and probably should have taken longer. A slower pace would have allowed me to do a better job sanding and been a little more precise with my cuts. The poor sanding shows through the finish in some areas and a couple of the corner joints aren’t as nice as I’d like. It is still a good outcome considering the years it has been since I did something similar.

I had one comical accident that also slowed down the process. Shortly after I started to apply the polyurethane, I knocked over one of the pieces I was working on. It hit the quart can of poly and emptied the contents onto the drop cloth and cement floor of my car port. The entire can was lost except for the one side of the foot board that I had completed. It’s a good thing Lowes is practically next door.

This morning all the parts were complete, stained and coated in three layers of polyurethane. I cleared the blowup bed I’d been using out of the bedroom and carried in each piece of the bed. It took a lot of effort including some extra persuasion to get the pieces assembled. I have created a very heavy bed. Moving it around once it was assembled was a real challenge. The next step was to get the 75 pound Serta Hybird Mattress in a Box onto the bed frame. After I cut the plastic off, it expanded into its mattress shape rather quickly. It is usable now, but it will be 48 hours before it completely expands.

Bed building wasn’t my only activity this week. After the polyurethane spill on Monday, I took a break and went to Walt Disney World. My objective was to view the decorations at the RV sites in the Fort Wilderness Campground. I got there by parking at the Magic Kingdom parking lot and taking the boat to Fort Wilderness. I got there about 6PM and walked several of the loops before it got dark. Once it got dark, the decorations were more vibrant and spooky, but the pictures were harder to take. Overall I walked a little more than half the park. I didn’t walk the loops that were a long way from the settlement area. The walk back to get the boat was still pretty long.

I try to do the Fort Wilderness walk for Halloween every year. It is a little more decorated than the impressive Christmas decorating. I’ll be back in December to see those as well. All of the effort the campers put into these holiday decorations is amazing.

Sunday October 27th 2024

The lower humidity and high temperatures in the low to mid eighties that come with Fall in Florida have aided my bed building activity. My work area is under my car port roof. It is taking longer to build my queen bed than I anticipated. Getting the tools out of the shed in the morning and putting them away later in the day is part of the extra time, but most of it comes from not having the right tools and general rusty skills.

So far I have cut all of the pieces for the bed frame, screwed and bolted them together and then took them apart to stain them. Along the way I have had to deal with imprecise cuts on the legs I made on the first day of the build. I’m going to blame not having the right tools for that one. Bad board selection also caused some issues. The dimensional lumber I am using came from close to the pith of the log resulting in cupping. In general good joints are difficult.

It has been an interesting, but slow process. I’ve learned and relearned many things. The mistakes that are the result of rushing through steps are the worst. I really should have sanded more to a finer grit than I did. Some of the imperfections in the stain job could have been avoided. I have at least two coats of polyurethane to go with a sanding in between coats. After that I’ll assemble the frame in my bedroom, add the slats and mattress to have a usable bed. I plan to add a headboard later. A kitchen/dinning table probably comes next. I am trying to the get the majority of my leaning curve issues worked out on the bed before tackling the more challenging project.

Thursday October 24th 2024

One of the things I decided to do when I bought my new base camp was build a lot of the furniture. I have always enjoyed working with wood and it will likely end up costing a little less. Over the last month I have gradually acquired most of the tools I will need. This week I a got started on a Queen Bed frame as the first furniture item.

Last weekend I scouted the area big box stores for the lumber I need. The majority of what I needed was at a Home Depot about fifteen miles away. The Lowes that is practically a neighbor has a very poor wood selection. On Monday I attempted to purchase what I needed at the Home Depot, but they were unable to cut the wood down for me. Traveling fifteen miles in traffic with wood sticking out of my SUV wasn’t going to happen. On Tuesday I returned with my cordless circular saw and made my own cuts in the parking lot so everything was inside the vehicle. By the time I got home the sun was making my outside work area too hot for comfort. It was a good excuse to head north to Disney’s Magic Kingdom for the evening.

On Wednesday I got started cutting the rough cut lumber down to size and forming the open mortises in the legs. I ran into problems with the tools I have available. Ideally I would like a table saw for some of the cuts, but it represents a cost and lack of available space issue that I don’t want to deal with for the limited use it is likely to get. I switched to hand tools to clean up some of my imprecise circular saw cut issues. That sent me on a chisel buying mission. I finally found one at Walmart after striking out at Lowes.

Today I got the leg mortises complete and a first sanding on all the pieces done. Tomorrow I’ll do another sanding and test assemble to pieces. Then I’ll take everything apart for one more sanding followed by a coat of stain. If I get it done early enough in the day for it to dry, I may be able to get a few more steps accomplished. This is taking a lot longer then I thought it would. The fact that the sun heats up my work area around 3PM isn’t helping.

On my Tuesday evening trip to the Magic Kingdom I got a decent theme park meal at Columbia Harbor House. The grilled skewered shrimp are pretty good. I followed up dinner with a few rides and shows waiting for the 8:30 fireworks. After the fireworks, it was back to the rides while I waited for the after fireworks rush to the exits to calm down. It still took about three quarters of an hour to get from the Magic Kingdom exit across the Seven Seas Lagoon to my car in the parking lot when I departed shortly after 9:30.

Sunday October 20th 2024

All of the activity associated with buying my new base camp and getting moved in has taken my focus off of the weather. Hurricanes Helene and Milton got some of my attention, but overall the transition from summer heat and humidity to fall occurred without a lot of notice. It is the end of October and high temperatures are now in the upper seventies to mid eighties. The humidity is also in the comfortable range.

Yesterday I found a wildlife refuge within easy driving distance. It has some nice trails and a few interesting ponds along the way. I got some good exercise in walking a few of the trails, but I was disappointed that there weren’t more wildflower blossoms or animal life along the way. There weren’t any trees down, but I suspect that the high water level was caused by the hurricane. The high water level in turn caused the blossoming bushes to suffer and may have caused the animals to move to higher ground. I’ll be visiting the area a few more times over the next few weeks to see what the area is really like.

Today was a work around the house kind of day. When I bought the base camp, the house was clean and empty. I am starting from a clean slate acquiring furniture and the necessities of a house hold. The shed is the complete opposite. It wasn’t emptied out. The contents range from the very useful like a gas grill to the useless like a broken down bag of fertilizer. The task I set out on today was cleaning out the shed.

I found it very reminiscent of cleaning tasks I’ve undertaken in the past. A previous owner was using the shed as a shop. There were boxes of hand tools, little containers of leftover screws, nails and connectors along with other coffee cans filled with random stuff. I am very familiar with this pack rat behavior. It is the result of the “it might come in handy” mentality. I have that tendency and so did my dad. I brought a lot of stuff from my house and my mothers house on the road with me, because it might come in handy.

So here is the dilemma. Having a similar approach as the guy that collect all this stuff I find it hard to throw it away. After about three hours of effort I only had half a trash bag full of junk. The rest just got moved around. I’m not creating space just moving things around. I need to make room for my “it might come in handy” stuff that I’ve been keeping for years.