Aerie Report, April 2, 2010

Hey! Those of you who were praying for warmer weather a couple weeks back can stop now. Please. It hit 83.3 degrees here at the Aerie this afternoon. It reached 86 in Elmira, NY and even 90 in some spots amongst the Finger Lakes. (I thought it was supposed to get cooler as you went north?)

What happened to Spring? Good question. But AccuHunch says it will be back. Next week. We'll be getting back to seasonal temperatures by the 8th or 9th of the month.

AccuHunch also pointed out some interesting stuff dealing with the snow fall during the last month. If you were along the I-95 corridor--the same place that got hammered in February and set all sorts of new snowfall records for that month--if you were along I-95 from Boston to Baltimore you didn't saw--at best--a trace of snow during March. Even Rochester, NY on the shores of Lake Ontario saw no snow in March; which is just plain weird.

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We went to bed last night with the windows open and the sound of the wind chimes, spring peepers and toads, and the "whoop, whoop, whoop" of the windmills filling the bedroom. (The overhead fan drowned out some of the noise but not much.) With the wind blowing from the south-south west, we seem to be getting a fair amount of dull "whoop" from each blade of the closest windmill. It's not terribly loud, but when you're going to sleep and all else is (relatively) quiet, it's noticeable. Terry said it, along with the wind chimes, kept waking her up but I didn't notice it until I'd had five or six hours of solid sleep. I imagine that when the trees finally produce some leaves, the rustling of the leaves as well as their muffling properties for sound will mean easier sleeping.

And this morning, just around cat-alarm 6 AM, there was a chorus of turkey gobbles and clucks out in the field. Far enough away that I knew they weren't in the yard, but frequent enough that I thought they might eventually find there way to the spilled bird seed. They didn't. At least they didn't--today. They've got a whole month to play their silly head games on me. Opening day for spring turkey is May 1st this year.

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Terry and I continue to do our part to help the struggling US economy. Today we were up in Elmira, NY and purchased a LEER cap for the Tundra from Curren RV Center. I got the Model 180.

I've been wanting to get a cap for several reasons ever since we bought the Tundra two years ago. I like the idea of having a dry place to store/haul things. The short bed (6'6") of the truck will not allow me to haul long boards or even a sheet of plywood without lowering the tailgate, so late last summer I bought a utility trailer for that purpose. Having that UT, I can pretty much haul the log splitter and brushhog as well as the ATV and any large pieces of furniture without putting them in the bed of the truck. And, with our planned trip to Alaska later this summer, a cap on the truck means even more lockable storage space for foodstuffs, clothing, etc. Add the 2-4 miles per gallon increase you can expect from altering the airflow around the cab, bed of the truck, and towed trailer, the cap on the truck makes sense in the long haul.

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While we were in Elmira, we drove down Pennsylvania Avenue and crossed Route 14 to go to The Maine Catch an excellent fresh seafood store. He doesn't carry a super large selection but what he has is very fresh and priced right. We picked up half a pound of bay scallops, a pound of crab salad and two large, meaty crab cakes. (Oh, we also got four thick cedar planks for when Terry starts doing planked fish on the grill again.) The crab salad was our lunch when we got home, and the scallops and crab cakes (sauteed with butter and garlic) and served with french fries and cole slaw (Wal-Mart's is as good as KFC) were our dinner. MMMMMMMM!

Oh yeah, Terry baked a beautiful Babka for our Easter dinner. If it lasts that long!

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I got a call from Alpin Haus today about the trailer. They had found what they think was wrong with the AC unit and wanted to know if it was OK to order the $24.95 part that it needed. The gal making the courtesy call said they would call back as soon as they had a confirmed price from the warehouse and knew how much labor would be for making the repair so I could give them permission to go ahead. I told her to listen carefully, "You have my permission to make the repair as soon as you have the part in hand." She had no information on the heating system, but I can't imagine they would pass on stuff one piece at a time. At least, I hope that "no news, is good news" in this case and that their diagnostic turned up something stupid like a mouse nest or a chewed wire that they could fix blindfolded.

She did apologize because it was Good Friday and they couldn't get the part shipped earlier than Monday and would I mind terribly if they had to hold on to the trailer for a couple days next week? Again I explained that they could have it as long as it took to make the repairs and if they had been holding out on her and stuff needed to be done to the heating system--well, have fun! I had no plans to travel anywhere until May but wanted the HVAC system working when I did. Seemed to make her day!

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While Terry boiled up some eggs to dye, I went out to the Tundra and installed the CB radio. I had waited until I go her help in placing the mounting bracket because it is on the passenger side of the console and that's her territory. Time-wise, the 12-minutes to hard boil the eggs was probably equal to the time it took me to mount the radio. I had checked the CB out on my way home on Wednesday and it received just fine. Not having anything to say, I was reluctant to "reach out and touch someone," even for a radio check. I've got two hand-held CB radios that Mark had laying around that can be plugged into a car's cigarette lighter so I'll be able to check out both sending and receiving using the Jeep or Terry's little yellow Aveo.